It’s another week where I am writing stuff, but it’s nowhere near as much as I need to be doing if I want to catch to the productivity of the past two years.
I was hoping for a week where I got at least 4,500-5,000 words written minimum. That sort of weekly productivity is well within my wheelhouse. Instead, I ended up with this last week:
Writing statistics for the week ending 11 May 2024: 3,252 words written. Days writing: 5 of 7. Days revising/planning: 1 of 7 for 60 total minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.
Well, it’s not nothing, and after a long dry spell, I finally made more progress on my new book The Yank Striker 2 during the last couple weeks, but it’s certainly not 4,500-5,000 words like I hoped.
As anyone who attempts to read these writing journals over the years might guess, I post them with the idea of analyzing what works for me and what doesn’t, and what I can do to improve productivity in particular1. During the past couple of months, I’ve begun questioning what type of effect constant travel has had on me. In my mind, while the actual act of traveling hasn’t had a direct impact on my productivity, the inconsistency of where I have been staying from week to week due to circumstances beyond my control, the sheer amount of time I have been driving across this state from place to place, and the growing amount of time I’ve spent away from home has slowly and surely worn down my mental stamina and ability to focus on writing for extended periods. Thanks to my unwillingness to stop writing and my wish to keep my blogs up and operational with new material, I never totally stopped writing for extended periods back years ago as a younger man, but I am absolutely not satisfied with what I have been doing.
The best news, however, is my last extended stay in a hotel room for some time2 will be the night of May 22, and then after my last day of work at my old school district, I’ll be winging off to Fort Madison permanently. Afterwards, I’ll have a whole two months and a fortnight at least to concentrate on kicking tail on writing and being super-productive. And when autumn rolls around, I’ll have a job 20 minutes away from my place, which means a half-hour less per day of traveling on the road, and no packing and unpacking in hotel rooms.
Thinking about it now, it seems like a vacation ahead of me, although I don’t want to assume anything. Anyway, I’ll look to keep writing as this week goes on.
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
I also want to make what I do public because I want to hold myself publicly accountable for not writing when I claim to be a writer. ↩︎
“Extended” being the operative word. I’ll be headed onto a couple trips during the first couple weekends of June, but those will only be for a day or two at a time. ↩︎
I was a bit stuck on what I was going to write about this week.
I’m not quite at the point where I have some brand new fiction excerpts to reveal to you, and it’s not like I write a boatload of short fiction on the regular. However, I do have an update on where I am with a recent project I’m working on, and writing the scene which is part of the project made me think of a particular issue that cropped up as part of the writing.
So, I’ll split this essay into two different and somewhat related parts. The first part will discuss my recent work with what I currently call The Yank Striker 2, and the second part of the post will discuss the issue that arose from that writing. Call this essay, or random thoughts, a mix of progress report, philosophical exploration, and speculative planning for a new project. We’ll touch on all of it today. Join me?
Progress on the new Project
There actually is progress on this front, with me producing some work on the second book in my The Yank Striker series (working title, The Yank Striker 2)1.
After several months of starting at the screen and thinking of words rather than writing them (or more often finding something else to write), I’ve finally gotten back to work on the story.
Since I resumed work on The Yank Striker 2 back on April 27, I’ve written just more than 2,300 words for my rough draft. It’s a considerable portion of my overall production for the time period. I am just about to wrap up a story sequence covering 24 hours in the life of my main character and his first pro soccer game in England, which I consider to be a key scene in the book.
Afterward, I’m going to have to review the general outline of the story to see what I have to finish up the rough draft. I can’t imagine it to be excessively long, maybe no more than 70,000-75,000 words. I especially don’t want this book to be too long, since it is only covering a timeline of eight months. I’m already at 33,000 words, and there’s a good chance at least 3,000 of those words might be able to get cut. I envy those who manage to get books done in a year or so. Eventually, I might be able to refine this process to start finishing books in less than two years.
Thoughts on Adult Situations and My Evolving Attitudes on the Issue
Whenever I write something on this blog, I want to be absolutely honest and forthright to you, the audience. This is no different.
When I wrote my first two books, The Holy Fool and The Yank Striker, I did not intend for them to be for all ages. Even when I was a kid, I was not the kind of kind of reader who just stuck to young adult fiction, especially the “proper” kind of young adult fiction. I was always the one who would scour the libraries, both public and public school, to find intriguing tales for young adult situations, such as Forever by Judy Blume, and the works of Julian F. Thompson, Ron Koertge, and Harry Crews, among many others2.
When it came to my first two books, I included several scenes of sexual material. I felt as a young man, and I also feel now, that an exploration of the human existence also requires an exploration of sexuality to some extent. Any writer has to talk honestly about this part of human society to be an honest writer.
However, there are other considerations to consider under my current circumstances.
Whenever an artist ever includes sexually explicit material in their writings, the first instinct of viewers is to speculate regarding what the sexual interests of the author are based on what they have written. In the medium of cinema, for example, the works of directors like Quentin Tarantino and Luc Besson, and writers like John Updike, John Irving, Frank Herbert, among many others, are scrutinized and examined for whatever they say about the interests and proclivities of said artists. In many cases, such scrutiny is absolutely warranted, considering the behavior of some of them.
Let us be honest, ladies, gentlemen, and others. I am a 50-year-old-plus white male. People like me have been influencing the cultural zeitgeist for well over 100 years. People of my age and older have been influencing culture, like Vladimir Nabokov with Lolita, Pretty Baby by Louie Malle, and who knows what else by other authors and directors.
I am a Generation X baby, a Watergate baby. I grew up with sexually explicit material, both in written and visual mediums, which were considered “mainstream” at the time. There was no Internet, no vast online locations to find things that would attract our carnal interests. But now, I feel much less comfortable writing blatantly explicit material at my age.
Nowadays, I’m more choosy about how I portray sexual themes in my work. I don’t want to be so explicit in my fiction, especially fiction for a wider audience, that it distracts from the story and starts people wondering what my real interests are. It’s not something driving my storytelling interests anymore. And I feel that is going to be my stance going forward.
So as a Result, I Had a New Idea for a Related Project to the Yank Striker 2
I often get envious of children’s authors at some of the book fairs I attend who have crowds of kids and their parents sweep by their tables and leave with a pile of books. I’d feel comfortable with teens reading what I’ve written so far, but under this age, I’d be somewhat nervous.
At one of the recent book events I was at, I started to think. Could there be something I could give soccer-loving kids rather than the main books in the series? Could I possibly put together a short story collection set in The Yank Striker world which could be a companion piece to the main series?
I think I could likely come up with several stories that could fit into this world where my main character, DJ, would play either a secondary or background role. And I could feel perfectly natural to craft such stories for a younger audience and not have it affect the main series. They could cover other people tied to DJ – teammates, opponents, other family members, even fans. There could be a lot of storytelling opportunities if I were able to expand the world.
It sounds like a great idea, although I might be a bit occupied currently to pull it off. I’ve still got the second book in the series to wrap up, for sure.
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
If you don’t know what The Yank Striker is all about, check out the link later in the post. ↩︎
My message to young readers, who are interested in stories certain people (especially certain people in the state of Iowa) do not want you to read, is this: take the time to scour the public and even public school libraries for such material. Even in 2024, you will be surprised with what you find. ↩︎
Well, I had a writing week that I’d consider good under most circumstances for two reasons in particular. However, it wasn’t as good for another reason, so I’m still feeling under the gun. So, let’s talk about it for a second.
The first good reason was the numbers for this week. They were actually not bad.
Writing Statistics for the week ending 4 May 2024: 4,189 words written. Days writing: 6 of 7. Days revising/planning: 1 of 7 for 60 total minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.
So, compared to a lot of weeks, this is a good performance.
Another good aspect of this week’s work is I finally restarted work on the second volume of my The Yank Striker series. I’m almost through a scene I thought would never get finished, and soon I’ll be looking forward to getting more work done on it. Who knows, I might even get it ready for publication by next year. My first two books were the product of several years of work, and I’m now trying to speed up the process to where I can produce a finished book in a year. I’m not at that level of productivity yet, but I want to get there.
Speaking of productivity… last week’s productivity would be just fine if I just needed to keep pace on my writing quota of at least. I’m a little under that mark by slightly less than 5,000 words. This means I need to avoid the early summer slump I often have over the past couple of years and start pounding out words and chapters when I have the free time.
So, hopefully three months from now I’ll be singing a different tune. Until then, I’ve got some writing to get done. All you writers keep writing and everyone watch out for yourselves.
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
The Des Moines River by downtown Des Moines, right next to the Interstate 235 bridge. This blog has given me the opportunity to do some great photography of my home state and the rivers that inspire me personally and artistically.
I am on the road in Pella, Iowa, this week for professional and personal reasons as I continue to wrap up my teaching contract in Central Iowa. However, the writing and writing activities still continue, in quality if not quantity. We’ll talk about all of it here.
The Home Front
A view of the Mississippi River and the Fort Madison Tool Bridge from the newly opened Turnwater Bar and Grill at the Fort Madison Marina.
As of the publication of this newsletter, I’ll have less than three weeks left at my current teaching job at Twin Cedars Community School District (CSD). As much as I’ve enjoyed my work there, I’m starting to feel antsy about moving on, as I spelled out a couple of weeks ago.
Pella seems a bit crowded this week as the city celebrates its well-known tulip festival, so there’s more than a bit of activity around. I have to say Pella has been an acceptable base camp for my on the road activities. And I even made a few appearances at Pella Books, one of the nicer independent bookstores in Iowa, as part of the festival. I’d highly recommend my readers stop there if they’re ever in Pella, or check them out online.
What I’m Writing
I had thought the previous week I would be writing an epic poem about the differences between the Mississippi River I grew up next to and the Des Moines River which I keep running across in my recent travels.
However, I ended up writing four shorter poems I was proud I managed to whip up in a week’s time. If you want to read them (for free for a little while before they go into the paid archives), you can check them out here.
I do plan to put out that epic poem during May’s Poetry Night. Stay tuned.
Regardless, I also feel quite successful this week because… I finally got more progress done regarding The Yank Striker 2. After weeks and weeks of no progress on the book, all of a sudden I manage to put together more than a thousand new words for the story. I spent so much time mucking around and making excuses for getting on with things, it’s so much of a relief to making progress.
As far as the timetable for when The Yank Striker 2 gets completed, I don’t have a solid date. I do believe I want to get the rough draft done this year and the final draft ready for publication during the first half of next year.
If I stick to this (I hope), it would still be the fastest turnaround for a project I’ve had yet, about two years. I want to try and speed things up to where I’m producing a novel-length project every year. What I will need to line up are some people I need to have in place to make sure I have a solid project. This includes beta readers, a proofreader at the end, and I need to have a cover artist. While I appreciate the work my publishers did on my first two books, I want to see what might happen if I go out on the open market and ask if anyone might be interested in working with me1.
What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing
I’ve had the opportunity to do some site maintenance both on Substack and WordPress. I believe everything is caught up regarding the access to the site, so that’s great news.
At some point, I need to take a closer look at my recommendation list. There are so many great writers on Substack and different places, I need to do a better job of letting people know who’s doing some great writing I’ve come across. It’s not like I have a lot of money around to give people, surely2.
So what I can do is let people know about all the writers here who have something good to say. In fact, I’ll mention a few of those writers below after a long absence of recommendations here in the newsletter.
Also, I am researching how to put together chapbooks for my poems. I have the feeling before the year is out, I will likely be hawking my first chapbook at some of my appearances, making me a dual literary threat, lol.
Writing Quote(s) for the Week
This is absolutely true. You can take advice from critics, but in the end, these are stories and you can like or dislike whatever you prefer.
As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split.
Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage
Also, I am including likely the most well-known quote of Bill Wundram, the longtime reporter and columnist for what became the Quad City Times beginning in 1944 and only wrapping up in 2022, passing away the next year at 98 years old. I had the honor of meeting Wundram a few times during my career as a journalist, but I mostly observed him on the written page. It would be a saying he would repeat in his columns, usually in response to some long-neglected issue or problem in the Quad Cities.
Is anybody there? Does anybody care?
Bill Wundram
Reading Recommendations
It’s been way too long since I’ve recommended a few writers and articles to everyone, so I decided to include a few here. Some I’ve recommended before, while others I’m mentioning here for the first time.
Ed Tibbetts has been writing a lot about the Quad Cities of eastern Iowa and western Illinois just as much as he did when he was a top political reporter for the Quad City Times. While a lot of his coverage has centered on the trials and tribulations of the Davenport City Council and what they don’t want to share with the public, I was interested in this article about what the majority party in Iowa (the Republican Party)’s vision for the teaching of history in the state was.
Kyle Munson, like Ed a member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, put out this article about the new book, What Works in Community News. The new book by Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy is a more complex and nuanced examination of the successes of local news and how there’s no one solution to a problem many good journalists are trying to solve.
Another former Quad City Times writer, Tory Brecht, looks into a long-neglected property in Davenport, Iowa with this article. In the process, he in a sense has a seance to resurrect the spirit of Bill Wundram, a Times reporter and columnist who had an absurdly long 70-year-plus career there and became legend throughout the Midwest, never mind just the Quad Cities.
And for something completely different, I recently ran across OK Doomer, written by Jessica Wildfire, in my Substack recommendations. She does some great articles about public health and climate change, but what first caught my eye was this piece where she described why she’s walking away from her academic career and the reasons behind it. I was impressed by the breadth of her knowledge about what higher education is truly right and the direct efficiency of her language.
It’s collapsing because nobody really cares about it. As a tenured professor, I’m not supposed to say that.
It’s true.
Nobody really wants to admit they don’t care about education. Some people get angry when you point out this simple fact. Everyone wants to talk about how much they care about education. They want to watch movies about great teachers. They want to complain about the bad ones.
Jessica Wildfire
There’s actually quite a few more articles I’ve enjoyed over the past month, but some of those might get a Substack Notes mention.
A Few Links About My Books and Appearances
This is a link to my upcoming appearances, which just got updated.
My first book is a journalism thriller set in Chicago during the turbulent days of the 2008 election and the start of the Great Recession. Check out more about it here.
My second book, the first in the projected The Yank Striker series, is a soccer drama telling the story of the beginning of a young American’s career as a player. There’s more about it here.
Shameless Self-Plugs and Notices
For direct links to purchase my books in paperback and ebook form, including The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning and The Holy Fool, click on the links in the Substack sidebar or the links on my Substack author page. Or, you can go to this page on my WordPress site, Liegois Media.
You can also get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.
All these are great independent bookstores, but I’m always looking for some new places to place my books (especially now in eastern Iowa), so feel free to hit me up in the comments if anyone has a suggestion.
While you’re here, I wanted to add just a quick description of how The Writing Life works. With a free subscription, you always will have access to my newsletters on the first and third weekends of the month, as well as selected articles up to a month after they’ve been published. However, If you have a paid subscription with me (which is pretty inexpensive), you will have access to all of my articles here, all of my archives, and my eternal gratitude. Plus, probably some first-dibs on possible future offers.
Looking forward to hanging out in Fort Madison full time and making it my true home. But wherever you are, that’s home to me.
See all of you later. Writers keep writing and all of you keep safe.
-30-
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
This is the part of the newsletter where if you happen to be an artist and would love to illustrate the covers of a soccer drama series for some cash, feel free to email me at jasonliegois@liegois.media. ↩︎
That’s why I don’t stress out because I don’t have a massive amount of paid subscribers. ↩︎
Happy International Workers’ Day, everyone! Let’s talk writing productivity, both short-term and long-term.
Downtown Des Moines, March 2024. I did enjoy hanging out there for a while.
In looking back at the numbers for last week, it seems apparent the amount of writing I completed last week was not at the volume I was hoping for, either for the previous week, this past month, and for the first third of the year to date. I’ve gone on enough about how I’ve gotten behind my pace to match my goals (which are at least 200,000 words for the calendar year and meeting my daily writing goals (500 words per day or 30 minutes of revisions and planning)), so I don’t want to rehash it. So, I’ll instead go over the pure numbers, grunt at disgust at them, and then discuss why I feel I didn’t do as well last week.
Writing statistics for the week ending 27 April 2024: 3,138 words written. Days writing: 5 of 7. Days revising/planning: 3 of 7 for 120 total minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.
Writing statistics for April 2024: Words: 15,743 Revising/Planning: 300 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met: 93%
And finally, where this puts me on the pace for my yearly goals:
Year to date writing statistics, 2024:
Expected word count total for first third of 2024: 66,667 words. Actual count: 61,9531.
Expected percentage of daily goals met: 75%. Actual percentage: 80%.
As I promised, I will limit my commentary to this week’s productivity.
Part of the reason for the lower productivity this month is because I was concentrating on poetry last week for Poetry Night, which tends to have less words than a typical prose work. (You can check out the poems here.
But the other reason is something a bit exciting. As it turns out, after a couple of months of not so much writer’s block as it is just finding stupid excuses not to move on with it, I’ve finally managed to make more progress on The Yank Striker 2, the sequel to this fine volume of fiction I’d encourage you to check out.
Yeah, it’s just a little over 1,000 or so words I’ve added to the highly rough draft. But it’s progress. It’s actual work, and I feel like I’m moving forward on the project, even if I don’t get it finished by this year as I had optimistically hoped. But, it still might be possible, especially if I kick ass on it. Maybe the end of the year?
Anyway. I needed something positive to cheer me up about the subpar numbers. Better luck next week, etc., etc.
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
As much as I have procrastinated and wasted time in my younger days, I’m surprised it wasn’t as obvious to me recently having less time available for writing might be a factor in why I wasn’t as productive at times.
Then again, as much as I’ve been using data to track my writing productivity, it should have made sense I’d have more time to write this week when I only have to commute 50 minutes round trip to work as opposed to two hours when I was driving all the way from Des Moines, where I was staying with my son in his apartment, to south central Iowa (Marion County) and back again. Who knew, right?
So, even though I did enjoy the experience of living in downtown Des Moines and urban existence, and it turned out my son and I got along relatively well as roommates, I enjoyed having a shorter commute and more time to myself last week. Also, it had a positive effect on my productivity.
Writing statistics for the week ending 20 April 2024: 5,203 words written. Days writing: 6 of 7. Days revising/planning: 2 of 7 for 120 total minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.
Even by my current standards, this was a pretty good week for me. I’ll be interested in seeing what the numbers look like after next week is done because we’ll have one-third of the year wrapped up by then, so I’ll want to know how far behind I am on my writing quota. I was a couple thousand words off my pace to write 200,000 words this year, and just on target to make my other goal of meeting my daily goals 75 percent of the time. Well, we’ll see what the next week brings.
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
Well, there’s a passing in my life this week as I return to the Pella area temporarily as the end of my time in south central Iowa comes closer to an end. Let’s talk a little about the writing I’m doing (or not doing) right now, as well as a few other things.
The Home Front
Winnie at home in Fort Madison, April 2024, courtesy of my wife Laura.
I never grew up with pets, but my wife Laura did. By the time our kids were in elementary school, we had Samantha, a calico kitty and former resident of the Clinton County landfill; Snickers, a white Shih Tzu pup rescued from the Muscatine Humane Society; and Winston, an adoption from one of our friends in Muscatine. For a short while, we had a nice little menagerie at our home.
I enjoyed all of them, but Winnie was the one I had the longest relationship with. In his younger days, he’d clamber up on my chair and we’d catch the soccer games on the weekends. He was more of a chilling dog rather than an excitable, toy-playing dog, but that was all right with me. Of course, he worshiped his mom who would always hook him up with his special dog food.
Time passes and pets cross the rainbow bridge, of course. Samantha joined us in Clinton and left us in Muscatine. Snickers joined us in Muscatine, followed us to Chariton, and there was where he left us. Winnie was the hardiest of them, joining us in Muscatine, then in Chariton, and then finally leaving us in Fort Madison.
I’m down, but Laura’s gutted. She lost many pets as a kid, but she wasn’t there when they had to pass over. Seeing it happen with Snickers was shattering for both of us, and I’ll always be sorry I wasn’t there when Winnie left. Then again, what happened was because of Winnie’s schedule, which in the end is for the best.
This might be it for us and pets, sadly. It is a considerable time commitment for a pet, and you just can’t leave a dog for days on end while trying to travel somewhere. I’m also not sure we’re up for adopting another pet only to go through this process one more time at the end.
He’ll always be part of us, though. This I know. As Sir Terry Pratchett might have written, GNU for him1.
When not missing my dog, I am living the hotel life somewhere in Marion County, Iowa, after a week spent as my son’s roommate in downtown Des Moines. The price was right and living in the biggest city in Iowa was exciting, but it is nice to have a 55-minute round trip commute rather than a two-hour round trip commute every day. And I actually enjoyed having my son as a roommate and hanging out with him on a regular basis, even though it meant sharing a one-bedroom apartment and tucking into a couch every night. You tend to treasure spending time with your kids after they turn 18 and you don’t see them around every day.
Jake trying to look serious after a workout, April 2024.A more relaxed Jake visiting us in Fort Madison, April 2024.
The kid is doing much better and is able to get along and take care of himself, even though I can be over there if he needs something. He is eager to get back to work as a heating and air conditioning (HVAC) tech and continue to work toward his journeyman license. I’m glad his accident in the end has only delayed this process slightly and not altered it.
My daughter. 💛
Speaking of kids, my daughter Madeline is approaching her final weeks of study at the University of Iowa. She is looking forward to beginning her career as a chemical engineer at the hometown firm my father worked at for so many years. I’m super excited as she prepares to begin her professional career and all of the adventures ahead for her.
One of the things I am very happy with is I never attempted to try and persuade them to go toward a particular career or path. I never expected them to do anything like what I have done as a career or passion or like their mother. I was just happy both of them found their passions and have pursued them. I’m absolutely proud of both my kids and looking forward to their future adventures.
As I mentioned before, I am back to hotel living for about another month’s time. It’s been difficult, as it was five years ago, when I went into a school year knowing I would leave for someplace new a year later. I haven’t had to go through an entire year as a lame duck teacher, although I certainly was one for at least half the amount of time and perhaps slightly longer in practical terms. Financially, I’m glad I made the decision I did to stay, but in all honesty I’m not sure I will wish to repeat the process again. After a while, the knowledge you are leaving and it’s only a matter of time before you go begins to wear on you. I have truly enjoyed my time at Twin Cedars, but I can sense my time and purpose there is almost done. A poem I wrote around five years ago, when I was last a lame duck teacher, “Rest Holds,” seems just as pertinent now as it did then.
What I’m Writing
I just finished up a story that will be part of a dark romance short story collection, I think. As soon as it gets published, I’ll get people a link.
Inspired by my recent connection with the Society of Great River Poets out in Burlington, I’m going to uncork a brand new poem for Poetry Night at the Writing Life next week. The subject is going to be a body of water I’ve been running across repeatedly in recent weeks and months, the Des Moines River. It certainly is a different creature than the Mississippi River I used to live next to (I still do, but I used to, as well2).
I feel bad I’m going to miss their next couple of meetings due to book fair commitments, but I definitely want to go back there the next chance I get.
As for my other projects, both announced and unannounced (not counting what I post on this blog), I think it would be best to talk about them whenever I actually get some work done on them. As I have sometimes said around here, you’ll see it when you see it.
What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing
There’s actually a lot going on along these lines. Some of those things are a bit more of a promotional nature, so I’ll hold off on talking about those until a little later below.
I have been updating the site, setting some posts for all subscribers and others for paid subscribers. In short, you get some of my pieces (the regular newsletter, as well as some other random pieces and promotional pieces) for free, while some of the other exclusive items are available only to paid subscribers. As you might see once you check out my site, my paid subscription plan is pretty cheap compared to others, especially if you pay on a yearly basis. I say check it out if you want.
What I also need to do is to go through my list of subscribers and those I subscribe to and do more to recommend them. As with moderating and administrating my site, its something which will take some time, time away from time writing. But it is something necessary. If I want people to take a glance at my own work, I need to do what I can to look at their work and promote their work. There are so many great writers on this platform and I want more people to know about them.
Writing Quote for the Week
A good quote this week about doing your own thing as a writer.
Concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don’t care who’s listening.
Allen Ginsberg
A Few Links About My Books and Appearances
This is a link to my upcoming appearances, which just got updated. The most recent one will be TODAY beginning at 1 p.m. at the Ankeny public library.
My first book is a journalism thriller set in Chicago during the turbulent days of the 2008 election and the start of the Great Recession. Check out more about it here.
My second book, the first in the projected The Yank Striker series, is a soccer drama telling the story of the beginning of a young American’s career as a player. There’s more about it here.
Shameless Plugs and Notices (please forgive)
For direct links to purchase my books in paperback and ebook form, including The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning and The Holy Fool, click on the links in the Substack sidebar or the links on my Substack author page. Or, you can go to this page on my WordPress site, Liegois Media.
You can also get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.
All these are great independent bookstores, but I’m always looking for some new places to place my books (especially now in eastern Iowa), so feel free to hit me up in the comments if anyone has a suggestion.
While you’re here, I wanted to add just a quick description of how The Writing Life works. With a free subscription, you always will have access to my newsletters on the first and third weekends of the month, as well as selected articles up to a month after they’ve been published. However, If you have a paid subscription with me (which is pretty inexpensive), you will have access to all of my articles here, all of my archives, and my eternal gratitude. Plus, probably some first-dibs on possible future offers.
Final Thoughts
It’s been a roller-coaster week. I’m looking forward to later today when I get back home to my wife.. Many times, life is about the things you lose over time than what you accumulate over a lifetime. But, you also value what you have when you have it.
Love to everyone. Writers keep writing and everyone keep safe.
-30-
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
[PHOTO NOTE: I’m still using these pics of my bookcase even though there is a good chance this bookcase is no longer with me. Or, it might be in another location which is not my den/writing area/home library/etc. Anyway.]
There’s no way to sugarcoat the debacle that was last week, even though it’s not like I didn’t write anything. At this point, I’m not happy with anything other than a successful and productive week.
I’ll be honest, however – I felt like I was driving half the week last week. During that time, I was staying at my son’s apartment in Des Moines while commuting an hour away to my work. I was happy with the opportunity to spend time with my son and hang out in the lovely city of Des Moines, but it left not as much time for me to get going and try and write something. And then. I felt like I was spending much of Friday and some of Saturday on the road. At a certain point, it starts to tire you out mentally.
In years past, such a situation might have meant I didn’t write anything during the week, or maybe just posted this journal of a few hundred words and called it good. Nowadays, I have a little more pride in my work and manage a couple thousand words.
Writing statistics for the week ending 13 April 2024: 3,129 words written. Days writing: 5 of 7. Days revising/planning: 2 of 7 for 60 total minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.
Basically, anything under 4,100 words per week is under par, and I’m already trying to play catch up so I can write at least 200,000 words this year. I’m just barely meeting my goal of… meeting my daily goals at least 75 percent of the time.
Whelp, I’m back to the solo life for the next few weeks, living in hotels during the weekday and either resting at my home in Fort Madison or hanging out at book fairs and promoting my books on the weekend. I might manage to be more productive if I’m by myself and not having to travel as much during the time. We’ll have to see, I guess.
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
Liegois Media 