I'm still trying to decide what kind of novel to write for our upcoming Blog Your Novel Month in October, but so far, here are a couple of ideas which I've come up with:

1. A mystery novel set in the Philippines circa American era, perhaps 1930's.
2. An autobiographical novel of my childhood.

Right now, because of pragmatic concerns -- e.g. limited time -- I'm leaning more towards the latter. On the other hand, I love to research and perhaps the research would lend the impetus for me to be able to write the mystery novel.

Other thoughts: I can also make the novel really short, and I'm looking to read some short novels to serve as models. First on my list is Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street. The autobiographical novel lends itself well to this type of novel, but we'll see.