November! Where has it gone? This month I focused in on my work at Squidoo and made some new lenses after taking a few months off to work on my own sites and develop my time management strategy. That all feels totally under control so I’m back at Squidoo again. FYI, Squidoo is my secondary income source, but a good one that I feel I could do better at. I’m learning more about how to make money there and need to put my ideas into practice.

Meanwhile I’m always looking for new income sources. My content writing site is perfect for keeping my eyes open to new opportunities. After the Panda Update last spring I was less enthusiastic about a lot of article directories and other writing opportunities, but I’m about ready to work on these again too.

One of my friends recently made his first Squidoo lens – on Bigfoot DNA. If you’re a lensmaster, be sure to drop by and say hello to him! He’s somewhat of an expert on that topic.

I’m feeling a need to divide my Squidoo lenses again. I’ve already got four accounts there.

(1) anything political or controversial goes to my American Citizen account.

(2) my strange spiritual beliefs get stashed at my Geniyyah account.

(3) lenses about the Baha’i Faith, a religion I joined at the age of seventeen, are at my Baha’i Light account.

(4) the final, MAIN account has everything else – LindaJM – currently at about 160 lenses.

The most recent is about 1960s folksingers, Richard and Mimi Farina. I love their song, Pack Up Your Sorrows. Their best, I believe. Simpler and easier to remember than most. Sometimes the simple message is the best because more people understand and remember. I also recently made a lens about my dog, Bear, and his need for a new doghouse. See Igloo Doghouses… he’s such a sweet dog, currently spending nights in my hallway.

Thanksgiving was awesome… well, kind of a non-event for me, but maybe I like it better that way. My partner, Bob, didn’t want to celebrate or commemorate at all. My son – the only one of my five children that still lives in this town – was sick. I went to the community Thanksgiving dinner and ate with friends. That’s always fun. There weren’t as many people there as we’re used to having, but still there were some good connections, smiling faces, and good food. Since I’m vegetarian, I didn’t have it all, but I enjoyed the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and coffee.

This month I got a new memoir idea. My daughter doesn’t want me to write about my life as a Baha’i. I may still write this … I’m not writing off the project entirely. I think it is a story that should be told, but with extreme sensitivity to all involved. But my new idea would be helpful as well. I’m going to keep that idea semi-secret for now . . . I already told some close writing friends. That’s plenty. I have a good story to tell, and must do so.

Most of the people in my writing group decided not to do NaNoWriMo this year but we’ve agreed to do it next year. That gives me time to decide all the rest of the details for my historical novel, Perfection. That’s the novel I did research for while I was on my trip to Santa Cruz and the San Francisco Bay Area in October.

Happy October! It is weather-change month around here in far-northern California. We’re getting a four-day storm in starting tonight. The trees that surround my villa cabin will love all this nourishment from the sky.

It has been a long summer and a busy year for me. I was elected to the local Chamber of Commerce board of directors last March. I resigned two days ago. My reason is that I’m not getting my work done! My business is a one-person endeavor. When I’m not here there’s nobody left to take over for me. This year I spent too much time on community projects, and need to instead work on my own projects so my business will prosper.

I love my community and the other members of the board of directors, and didn’t want to disappoint them, but I had to. It is a matter of self-preservation. Now I’ll have time to sit in front of my computer with peace of mind, and get work done.

Primary on my list is my now-faltering Literature For Kids online magazine for children. That’s an important project for me, and I’ve been unable to do the work properly since last March. I’m now in the position of having to send out apologies for my shortcomings. I have learned, “Do not take on more than you can handle.” That phrase will be seen again in my “manifesto” currently being written.

I had planned to get River Girl published by October 15, but that’s to be delayed. The spirit is willing but the pocketbook is stretched. You see, I’m planning a book research trip to San Francisco at the end of the month. I’ll be spending several days in libraries there and in Berkeley to learn more about SF in the 1850s for a novel I started planning way back in 2004. This has to be coordinated with family events so that I can see my family for the first time since 2003. So . . . no publishing this month! Maybe next month, or December.

As part of the renewal of my business, I’ve rescheduled my work . . . moving back to what was working for me before I got off track, and adding in a few important items. Daily blog posts and daily work on Literature For Kids.

I’m currently on day 9 of the Master Cleanse diet. For those not familiar, this is a lemonade juice fast lasting from ten to forty days. At this time I don’t know how long my fast will last. I need this to detox my body and change my eating habits permanently. I’ve been vegetarian for a long time but have managed to eat a lot of foods that aren’t good for me. Primarily wheat. So I’m overweight and lethargic.

I always thought wheat was good for us, didn’t you? I really believed that bread is the “staff of life”. Now, come to find out, wheat is one of the worst things I could be eating. I just finished reading the book, Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health by Dr. William Davis. What an eye-opener! Even though the book contains a lot of medical jargon that went over my head because I’m not a health professional, I got a good intro to the scope of the problem and what I can do about it. When I come off my fast, I’ll be gluten-free and vegan.

This month I’ll be revising the second novel in the Antediluvian Adventures series… it is titled The Seagull Rebellion. In it a young girl living in a very ancient civilization is kidnapped and must find her way back to her father. This book features Maralin, who is also in the first book of the series, The Scribe of Irohila. Scribe should be published within a month or two and I’d like to have The Seagull Rebellion out within a few months after that.

Well, that’s it for now.