October was a difficult month for me due to health problems and being far too busy doing things that had nothing to do with a computer or a Bigfoot! Please accept my apology for not updating this blog more often. I’ve actually heard from several people who cared enough to email me and ask if I was okay. I truly appreciate that… my heart is warmed and I feel surrounded by Bigfooting friends… a good feeling!

November should be an interesting month. I’m not promising daily updates here because I’m going to be busy writing a novel along with the crowd at NaNoWriMo. I have been doing this every November since 2001. Most of my novels have Bigfoot in them!

This year my novel will be special (and different!) because a Bigfoot will be the main character! I’m looking forward to getting this project underway at midnight tonight, when the NaNoWriMo fun starts. I’ve been planning this novel since early September and feel well-prepared for the challenge. In case you want to check on my progress, here’s my NaNoWriMo profile page.

I have another blog I write in about writing topics… and I’m not sure that I’ll write much at all about my novel in this blog during November. After all, don’t people coming to this blog want to hear about a real Sasquatch, not a fictional one?

Does anyone have an idea on what I should have my main character, Oja, call her people? The word Bigfoot is out. Sasquatch is contrived, not something that came out of the wild. I’d love to have an authentic word for Bigfoot – one that they themselves might recognize as pertaining to them. Any suggestions will be welcomed.

Aside from that, I have some columns to post from Linda Newton-Perry, and will probably work on reviews for the last few chapters of Tribal Bigfoot – I left off after the last Northern California chapter was done. I haven’t given up on the project. That was such a good book! I hope others have been able to read it and please, if you do read it in the future feel free to come back here and comment on the postings for the chapters. Many thanks to David Paulides for writing such a thoughtful and unique book! By the way, there’s an excellent interview with Mr. Paulides over on Bigfoot’s Blog which comes from Bigfoot Books in Willow Creek. Steven Streufert has been producing some fascinating interviews this past month. These could become classics!

I’ve also recently received several reports of Bigfoot activity, past and present, from readers. I’ll be posting them soon. Yesterday and today I spent time clearing out my email inbox and reorganizing my folders. It is such a good feeling to have email under control and findable again. It amazes me that we have so much information coming at us all the time, we must struggle to choose what pieces of information have real meaning.

Happy Bigfooting, Squatchers! What a great time of year to get out into the forest. I haven’t been able to go out much lately because I hurt my foot on September 17 and it still hurts… but since I live in the forest I don’t miss it too much!

[Update 10/29/09: The NaNoWriMo experience was successfully finished so there's one more novel about Bigfoot in existence now.]