​In addition to my daily ghostwriting work, I have had to juggle a little more paperwork than normal this month. It was in mid-September when I officially became a Candidate in the upcoming local Municipal Election. I had launched a website at 12:01 AM on January 1, 2018, but the actual Nomination paperwork had to be completed no later than September 14, 2018. That meant I had to find ten people to nominate me before I could hand in the completed forms. It actually was far easier than I had anticipated and my goal was to actually pool together 15 signatures in case one or two were disqualified for some reason. I ended up with 13 and one of my Nominators was DQ’d but I had enough names.
 
My month actually started busy with ghostwriting jobs. In fact, the order list for the month – and I stopped taking order on September 20 – totaled just 32 but several of them were huge projects. I halted the order traffic to allow myself to catch up before Brenda and I took off for a few days to unwind, relax and recharge. In order to do that, I worked many more hours than Bren did in the kitchen canning for her big JamBusters! events and both of us accomplished a great deal as a result.
 
I even vended JamBusters! alone one weekend in the Oliver Indoor Flea Market. Bren was away for a Women’s Retreat so I took the vending gear on the road and got through it okay. As I had writing jobs to finish throughout that weekend, I didn’t really do much goofing off while Bren was away. Then near the end of the month, on September 21, 2018 I was the MC for a short ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the Granite Creek self-guided walking tour. I have been the Chairman of this historic society since its inception so I was pleased to see this project receiving much needed attention.
 
Now that I’m thinking about it, I had two MC jobs during the month. In addition to the one I just mentioned, when Bren was away early in the month I was the MC/Auctioneer at a local golf tournament where the funds being raised were in support of the Terry Fox Cancer Society. I’ve helped this group in the past and suspect I’ll be helping them again in the future. One job I have dropped off my list is the webcasts of the local Junior B hockey team. I just couldn’t see how I could fit them into an already intensely busy schedule.
 
I expect things to continue to be busy as we approach the local election (advanced polls are October 10 with regular voting October 20). I have also already been approached by several of my ghostwriting clients to book work in October so I anticipate I’ll be putting in some more long hours in front of the keyboard once we return from a few days off. Thankfully both Bren and I can keep this pace and also recognize when we need to stop and take a breather. Who knew our lives would get some interesting and involved in such a short amount of time?

​This past month has been busy for me. When I look over my job list I see that in June 2018 I had a total of 54 different ghostwriting orders. In July that increased to 58 and August ended with a total of 59 writing orders. I’m just talking about the actual number of orders. Each order is for between one and 20 different articles with word counts per article ranging from 350 to 1,500.
 
If I were to calculate the actual article numbers and word count for August 2018, I’m sure it would be my busiest month in some time. It isn’t my best month this year but it is one of my better ones. Regardless, I’m pretty happy that there continues to be a steady flow of traffic coming to me for my ghostwriting service. I’ve even picked up some new clients this month.
 
Heritage Week Presentation
 
For the third year in a row I was asked to make a historic presentation in mid-August as part of Heritage Week celebrations in town. The Princeton Museum was the downtown venue used for a nightly series of three presentations. This year I was the one in the middle and I decided I needed to do something different from what I had done in the past regarding ghost town history.
 
It just so happens that a local non-profit group I have been the Chairman of since its inception is hosting a celebration next month. I used that as the point of my presentation and moved backwards from there. So, I told the story of how this group was formed and shared the many accomplishments made along the way in the past five years it has been in existence. It went well.
 
Podcasts/Webcasts
 
I took a break from producing a weekly podcast for my podcast channel “Ninja on the Loose” and have to get back into the routine. Part of the reason why I took a short recess was because of how busy I have been with other interests. Plus, with the new local hockey season upon us late in August I was approached earlier in the month to resume the play-by-play webcasts.
 
Considering my present workload, and my upcoming bid for a seat on Town Council in the October 2018 Municipal Election, I had to step down from that project. In the past ten seasons webcasts have been in play in the Junior B hockey league, I have been the play-by-play guy doing the webcasts. I took a two season break before, so after eight seasons I am a little tired.
 
Vending JamBusters!
 
Brenda’s home-based business, JamBusters! has been as busy as my ghostwriting. This summer was particularly hectic for that part of our lives. With all kinds of fresh fruit reaching harvest at the same time, Brenda has been spending extra hours in the kitchen to keep up with the demand and filling our inventory for big vending events later in the year. It has been a lot of work.
 
It got to the point where I took it upon myself to attend the local Chamber of Commerce outdoor, mid-week markets on my own. I’m sure if they were located more than just a kilometre away from our home that I may not have been so keen. However, I had good sales days the two times during the month I went on my own to vend at the venue located along the local major highway.
 
Things To Come
 
September is going to be another busy month for both my ghostwriting and Bren’s JamBusters! but we anticipate a slowdown in October and November which will make all of this hard work in August worthwhile. It’s hard for me to believe that as I write this, summer is nearly over and schools are reopening for another school season. It has been a busy year for us indeed.

​It is interesting to look back on where we were a few months ago compared to today. My ghostwriting business continues to keep me extremely busy. Brenda’s JamBusters! specialty food home-based business keeps her extremely busy. I think we are at least as busy as we were when we still had our newspaper business. Of course, the main difference here is that what we are doing now are things we get a great deal of enjoyment from.
 
That is not to say we didn’t feel the same way about the weekly grind of a small town community newspaper. It’s just that the busy days we have now are manageable and far more profitable if a measuring method had to be used to determine the actual difference. Plus, when we add on to our workload, it’s now because we can handle the extra and shuffle other priorities around if needed to completely accommodate the additional work.
 
I think that’s sort of the train of thought I had when I encouraged Brenda to participate in a third weekly vending date for JamBusters! What I didn’t expect was how it was going to impact my writing schedule. The additional vending dates are Tuesday afternoons from 3:00 to 7:00 PM. The bonus here is that the venue is the local Chamber of Commerce building grounds which is just about exactly a whole kilometre from the entrance of our driveway at home.
 
From the very first Tuesday I had a plan of attack for JamBusters! I would transport the canopy, tables, chairs and all other related ‘set up’ gear to the site and leave Brenda there to start putting the vending booth together. I would then go back home and load the car with her products for sale. The opposite routine would be followed at the end of a vending date. So far, it has worked out fine and if I forget something, it’s just two minutes away.
 
I also take control of the inventory on Tuesdays selecting around 25 of the over 50 different products currently marketed under the JamBusters! banner. It makes transportation much easier as well as tracking so I am able to pack and move far less than we used to do at other outdoor markets. Naturally, that will change with the handful of large outdoor events we have booked for the balance of the year. Our ‘home base’ remains at the Oliver Indoor Flea Market.
 
When this has bitten into my writing schedule is that typically on a Tuesday now I can’t get into any projects because of the midday vending. I am working on juggling my schedule around so that I don’t lose any more Tuesdays. I guess all I’m saying here is that we had a fairly tight routine that now needs some fine tuning in order to fit in the additional vending date. It’ll work out as each Tuesday since the start I feel I’m getting closer to finding that balance.
 
As for the extra market date…JamBusters! does well anywhere we vend so we never worry about the outcome. The first Tuesday we vended JamBusters! was very encouraging and we see some great potential with the mid-week markets. Besides, with them taking place so close to our home, we can’t NOT be involved in some way. So even if the traffic numbers are less than stellar, we enjoy being able to vend in our home town.
 
It also gives me something different to write about. As funny as that may sound, I’m enjoying working on the promotion and marketing of the markets for JamBusters! I’m also doing some of it to give the Chamber of Commerce a bit of assistance with digital marketing. So, in a way, although I may not be writing as much on Tuesdays as I was, I’m still heavily involved in using the time to support Brenda’s home-based business in the best way I can.