November 3: November

Here are 10 facts about the month of November.

1. The word November comes from novem, the Latin word for nine, as it was the ninth month in the Roman calendar. Even when a couple more months were added to the year, and November became the eleventh month, it kept the name.
2. The birthstones for people born in November are topaz, citrine, obsidian and onyx.
3. Their birth flower is the Chrysanthemum.
4. Names given to the full Moon in November by various Native American cultures include: The Moon The Rivers Begin to Freeze; Deer Rutting Moon; Moon When The Water is Black With Leaves; Geese-going Moon; Time of Much Poverty; Moon of The Falling Leaves; Moon When All is Gathered in; and Snowy Mountains in The Morning Moon.
5. If you get a clear night sky in November, you might witness the Anromedid, Leonid, Monocerotid, North and South Taurid, Phoenicid or Orionid meteor showers.
6. In weather lore, the folk saying goes If there's ice in November to bear a duck, there'll be nothing after but sludge and muck.
7. November is said to be a lucky month in which to get married. One folk saying declares: "Married in veils of November mist, Fortune your wedding ring has kissed"; and another, "If you wed in bleak November, Only joy will come, remember!"
8. Awareness campaigns which have adopted November as their month include: Alzheimer's Disease, Aviation History, Diabetic Eye Disease, Family Stories, Drumming, Lung Cancer, AIDS, Diabetes, Epilepsy, Adoption, Autobiography wiriting, Bone marrow donation, Neurofibromatosis, Pepper, stamp collecting, Native American Heritage and Veganism.
9. There's also Movember, a portmanteau of "Mo" (short for moustache, and November), during which men grow moustaches to increase awareness of health issues specific to men, in cluding prostate and testicular cancer, and male suicide. Movember started in 1999 when a group of young men in Australia had the idea of growing moustaches for charity. Since 2010, the International Man of Movember is chosen from 21 national winners at the end of the month and is the face of Movember for the coming year. The first winner of the title was Mark Knight from London.
10. Another annual November event is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which enourages writers to produce a 50,000 word manuscript in the course of the month. This, too, began in 1999. A website (www.nanowrimo.org) provides encouragement and the chance for participants to share their work. The focus is on getting the novel written - the editing comes later. People who donate at least $300 to the website (or at least the first 250 of them) get tickets to "The Night of Writing Dangerously" a write-a-thon for charity which includes food, talks, contests, and much writing.

NEW!

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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