So I am Free. My time at the Isaac Newton Institute is over and my time at the Institute of Metabolic Sciences is shortly to begin. Feel free to make jokes about me being institutionalised and whatnot. I really haven't had time over the past four weeks to panic or fret about the whole new job thing, and I decided to keep myself ultra-busy this weekend in order to avoid last-minute panic and fretting. I went to my parents' yesterday for my dad's birthday and we had a lovely time shopping and eating and upsetting Holly by playing with my mum's Nintendo DS instead of playing with Holly (Holly hates Mario Brothers. It makes her bark and roll around on the newspapers) (Holly is a dog, for those who don't know. I just realised I might be making her sound like some kind of deranged child, which is not entirely off the mark, but she is actually a dog).

Anyway, yeah. My parents bought me some cool new work clothes so I can march into my new job tomorrow feeling all swanky and confident. In the evening I came home to find a full-on manly night in taking place in my house, involving war documentaries, beer, and questions like "how much would you have to be paid to be hit in the face?", so I took a long bath, read some of Laura Bickle's Sparks, and then went to bed so I didn't have to watch any more documentaries about tanks. (Is it worth noting that Kyle came to bed at 7.30 this morning, and that he and Dave are both still asleep? I'm find it quite amusing).

So today I'm just continuing to keep myself busy. I've decided to pay more attention to Goodreads, so I've been updating my profile and bookshelves over there. Friend me if you're on there! I'm naomi_jay, surprise, surprise.

I've been through my slush pile for Serve in Heaven, Reign in Hell, and I've been really delighted with the stories submitted so far (although I did have to reject one, which made me feel bad). There's been a great mix so far - some urban fantasy, some literary, some humorous, some with a touch of the Divine Comedy, and I'm really excited to see what comes next.

I've lowered the price of NIGHT AND CHAOS to $1.99. I think it'll be about a day before it's back up for sale at the new price, and obviously it means taking the lower revenue rate from Amazon, but I don't really care about that. I always planned to offer it at as low a price as reasonable, A) as an introductory thing and B) I really feel $3.44 is excessive for a self-published novella. Hopefully it'll lead to increased interest. Like I said before, I see this whole indie venture as a marathon, not a sprint, and I think I have to be willing to take risks and experiment to make a success of it.

I'm lining up some guest blogs for March and the release of DEMONISED, which I'm really excited about. I'm hoping to finish my Ethan short story, Ungrateful Dead, today and then I'll be deciding how best to use it promo-wise. I still really like the idea of putting together a DEMONISED playlist and offering that as a freebie, maybe with the story attached? I'm running out of time to find bands who'll be happy to take part though, so we'll see.

Anyway, I'm hungry now, so I'm going to forage in the kitchen for food that isn't empty beer bottles.

I have won the holiday battle! The week of 4th - 8th October is all mine, bitches. And I'm going to sit around in my dressing gown watching Come Dine With Me and reading and eating blueberries with cream all freaking week BECAUSE I CAN! Take that, evil co-worker!

Obviously my plea yesterday fell on deaf ears. This means war.

Love,
Nome

Yes. I cleaned my bathroom this weekend. I don't want to give the impression that I never clean my bathroom, because I do, but rarely more than once a month because I'm lazy and believe that moving dust from one part of the room to another is just bad for my asthma. But this weekend, I went to town, because my parents came over and Mum nearly had a fit when she saw the state of the bathroom.

I was promptly whisked into Cambridge and bought new bath towels, mats, bins, pedestal mats and a plethora of cleaning materials, all paid for by Mum and Dad on the provision that I scrubbed my shower from top to bottom. I did. My shower is lemony fresh and my floor is sparkling and my new towels are wine red, which pleases me. The problem is, my lino needs replacing and the chipboard underneath is soaking wet, and are my landlords getting off their arses to fix it? No. They're taking their sweet time as they always do. (Please note, chaostheory, Tucker-Gardner do not see your urgent problems as their urgent problems.)

( Cut for rambling )