Happy Fall!

Right now as I write, my 22 month old is throwing a tantrum because the toy he is playing with isn’t doing what he wants it to do. The 3 1/2 year old is dancing in circles (literally) around him as he stomps, and the 5 month old is napping. A city near my hometown where I grew up is on fire, people are still reeling from last week’s shooting, and Puerto Rico still needs a lot of help. There is a lot of chaos in the world – both adjacent to where I am writing my monthly update from and at large. In fact, a lot of places in the world could use some love right now.

It’s easy to get bogged down in what is going on around us. But, even as I’ve written this first paragraph, the tantrum has calmed (with no intervention from myself), building has resumed, and everyone is happy again. Sometimes intervention is needed, and sometimes it is not. Sometimes the chaos causes me to stop what I’m doing, stand up, and redirect. Sometimes it causes me to look over, sometimes it’s just background noise.

The world is like that too. It’s all-too easy to let another news story go past without paying much attention to it, but sometimes, there’s a lot all at once, and it causes an egregious amount of human suffering, and we pause, regroup, and get back at it. September was like that for me. So much happened, that I had to stop for a minute, get my bearings back, and regroup. It meant I did not progress as far as I’d wanted to on goals I’d had, and I had to step back from a couple of projects I really wanted to work on. But here I am, back at it. Here’s what I’m working on this month:

Consulting Work

I’ve been continuing work for the recovery center. I’m about to write some recovery through the holidays articles for the center.

If you haven’t already seen them, check out my two articles for the EVG Campfire Blog that have come out in the past several weeks:

• Should You Use Stock Images in Your Content Marketing Efforts?
• Evaluating Your Content Marketing Goals with the Change of Seasons

Keep your eyes out, because I’m finishing up another article for the Campfire Blog that should be out soon. Also, my stock images article was highlighted by the Content Management Institute’s newsletter.

I’m also going to be doing some blogging work for Creative Mindscapes starting this month.

Independent Scholar Work

Oh boy, do I have a lot going on in this category. I have some things that I need to put the finishing touches on, but here’s a list of current work in progress:

1. Philosophy and Wikileaks – “They Can’t Handle the Truth: Plato’s Republic and Wikileaks”
2. Encyclopedia of Sexism in American Cinema – Entries on Supergirl (1984) and Tank Girl (1995)
3. Chicana and Chicano Movement – Entries on Chicana/o Poetry and Political Repression and Voter Rights
4. Critical Perspectives on 21st Century Friendship: Representations, Identities, Roles, Work – an essay titled “‘I Mom SO Hard!’ Social Media Mom Groups and Competition, Drama, Education, and Friendship Between Moms”
5. Music Around the World – entries on Acadian Music, Northwestern Coast Music, Inuit Music, Great Basin Music, and Bolero

I’m excited to be getting back into some of the research work I’ve been missing.

Magazine Work

The latest issue of Equanimity Magazine is out, and I have four articles in it. You can access the Fall Special issue here. Here are my article titles:

• “Keep Growing: An Interview with Italian-American Singer and Actress Cristina Lizzul”
• “The Voice’s Youngest Finalist: A Chat with Singer Aliyah Moulden”
• “Rising Out of the Shadows: Philip Bowman’s Transcendence from Mischief to Ministry”
• “Authentically Masiela: An Interview with Masiela Lusha of The Lopez Show and Sharknado 4“

Blogging Work

My blogs have been a bit quiet lately. I’ll be posting more on them soon.
I’m also starting a partnership with a progressive startup. I will be writing about Kansas politics and activism.

Non-Profit Work

Our monthly JB Dondolo board meeting is taking place next week. We’ve had a lot of success recently, and I’m looking on sharing more information about that soon!

I’m sure I have a lot more to share that I haven’t listed here, I can’t wait to share it with you soon!

What are you working on this month?