Writing Journal 8 April 2026: Maybe a new dawn?

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I totally forgot to put out a writing journal for last week (or much of anything else) this past couple of weeks. Call it flaking out over the Easter weekend, call it procrastination with wanting to repost here from my other sites, but it meant there wasn’t a lot on here for what appears to be two weeks. As you might suspect, my writing stats for the past few months has not been the best, but they have been pretty good for the last two weeks.

So, let’s talk about the numbers for the past two weeks and for March overall, :

Writing statistics for the week ending 28 March 2026:
Words: 5.042
Days writing: 6 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

Writing statistics for the week ending 4 April 2026:
Words: 5,391
Days writing: 7 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.

Writing statistics for March 2026:
Words: 16,915
Revise/Plan: 90 minutes
DWGM: 75%

So, looking good for the past two weeks, and as for the month … better than February, but that’s not saying much in all honesty.

The Year so Far

In fact, if I’m really being honest … the numbers … aren’t really the best at the moment.

Since I had reached 225,000 words written last year (both fiction and nonfiction), I decided I would try to at least equal that total and perhaps even bump it up to 230,000. If I was on track to write 225,000 or 230,000 words, I’d have written between 56,000 or 57,000 words in the first three months of 2026.

My current total for 2026 so far, as of the end of March? 50,209 words.

While that is not nothing by any means, it is nowhere near where I want to be at this point. I had one incredible month of writing (January), one horrific month (February) and one month I missed my target by about 2,000 words (March).

Why, then, have I gotten to this point?

In the end, I think it’s pretty simple. I’ve spent too much time staring at screens other than the ones I’m using to write my stories. I’ve allowed myself to get distracted. No, scratch that – I’ve distracted myself with almost anything other than writing. Also, I’m trying to jump start my main long fiction project I’m hoping I will have a completed rough draft by the end of the year.

The only thing I can do right now is start kicking things into high gear. I’m a long ways away from giving up on my goal, both regarding wordcount and also getting my projects completed. If I manage to get moving this month, I’ll let you know what turned it around for me.

This past couple of weeks, I’ve gotten obsessed with a short story turned novella that is an alternative history story: what if the plot to kill Lincoln not only failed worse than it actually did, but if the United States discovered the Confederacy had provided more direct assistance than was thought to be the case in real life.

I was inspired to write the story after a friend of mine who is on Archive of Our Own, one of the biggest fan fiction sites online, who is writing an intriguing alt history piece involving the Byzantine Empire and Persia, among other locations. I wasn’t even aware you could do alt history pieces there. (I have written fan fiction there myself before). So, my thoughts turned to Lincoln, at least slightly inspired by recent questions of constitutional practices.

It will be a four-part series of four short stories, set between 1865 and 1884. The first part of the story will post here this Friday. The other three will be coming in the next couple months as well.

I also want to get back on track with my sci-fi environmental horror project with the working title of The Land, The River, and The Waste, (I am so superstitious about revealing a real title until I am closer to publishing), set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa. I’m in the process of writing the second of three big reveals intended to ratchet up the tension in the story. I’ve got an idea for the third reveal that has Stephen King’s fingerprints all over it. I’m looking forward to kicking that into high gear.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

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Writing Journal 25 March 2026: Downswing…

Back to the slump.

I did all right for the previous week, but I had yet another slump, based on not getting on with the next part of my main story. I had to get some blogging done to actually make up some numbers.

So, let’s talk about the numbers:

Writing statistics for the week ending 7 March 2026:
Words: 3,259
Days writing: 5 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 00 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

My sci-fi environmental horror project with the working title of The Land, The River, and The Waste, (I am so superstitious about revealing a real title until I am closer to publishing), set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa, has been the bane of my existence for the past week.

Finally, I managed to break the slump with just cutting much of the scene and getting straight to the action. It left out one small scene I wanted to get to, but I can always add that later. One small tip – you never have to write a story in exactly the same sequence in which it occurs. Filmmakers do it all the time, and I’m surprised more writers don’t do this, or discuss doing it, with their own stories.

At the very least, I think I might have more written this week. I’ve got a bit to catch up with. I’m just a bit irritated at myself that I didn’t utilize my spring break better than what I did.

I’m starting to worry about where I am on this yearly total. I’m considering not even checking to see how far I’m behind at the end of the month. However, if I end up not checking, it makes it easier for me to avoid it. Better to face what I need to face and get on with things. I’ll let you know what I decide later.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

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Writing Journal 18 March 2026: Upswing…?

This week I’ve actually done … not bad? Maybe even above average?

I’ve been whining (or whinging, as the Brits and Irish so colorfully put it) about doing so horribly at writing productivity for the past month that I don’t know what to do when I actually have some decent notes.

So, let’s talk about the numbers:

Writing statistics for the week ending 7 March 2026:
Words: 4,744
Days writing: 6 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 2 of 7 for 90 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

For once, I have not flopped on my productivity. Yes, I ended up devoting quite a bit of my creative energies to an alternative history speculating on what could have happened if John Wilkes Booth had screwed up Lincoln’s assassination (as he could have easily done). I was inspired to do this by a friend on Archive Of Our Own, one of the best fan fiction web sites on the Internet (of which I am a modest contributor). I was not aware they accepted historical fiction, so I cooked up something new for them and some other people.

Of course, my sci-fi environmental horror project with the working title of The Land, The River, and The Waste, (I am so superstitious about revealing a real title until I am closer to publishing), set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa, is the neglected gem I need to move forward on. There’s a scene I’ve been tarrying on for too long. I need to get to people howling at each other and some chaos, yes I do.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

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March 2026 Newsletter, Liegois Media

Hello, everyone. This is The Writing Life, my monthly newsletter about a writer of many interests (me, Jason Liegois) and what’s been going on with me and my writing.

Let’s get started.

What I’m Writing Right Now

In all honesty, I have not had a good writing month in February. In fact, although I’m not always going to get into numbers every month, I will say I’ve probably written only half as many words as I did in January. I’d much rather write 20,000 words than 10,000, but I’ve got to keep it in perspective. I am going to have a better month in March, however. I’ll have the advantage of Spring Break, for one thing.

[NOTE: For more detailed summaries/synopses of the works in progress I discuss below, go to this link.
Also note, all titles except those of my series are working titles. This is the reason for that.]

The Land, The River, and The Waste

What is it? An environmental sci-fi horror tale set in a quiet Iowa town on the Mississippi River. In a state where agricultural pollution effects people and the environment are a big deal, the new pollution is getting into everyone…

Status:I’ve been working on this more or less continuously since Halloween night of last year. I’m now at about 35,000 words and I plan to have the rough draft done by the end of this year, but next Halloween would be even more poetic.

The Fool 2

What is it? The sequel to my first book, The Holy Fool. It follows the adventures of ex-Chicago newspaper columnist turned independent blogger journalist Sam “Sonny” Turner, as he and his correspondents struggle to get the news out about America during troubled times.

Status:Number two priority after LRW. Not much work recently, although I have been gathering background material so I remember everything that has been going on in America during 2024-2025. Hopefully I make more progress on this soon. I had thought I needed to have a better idea of what the outline of the story was until I found an outline I had written a couple of weeks ago. Oops.

I’m going to mention the next couple of stories below, but currently they’re on inactive status in my writing queue. So, I’ll not mention them for a bit after this edition of the newsletter, although you can always find them on this projects page.

The Yank Striker 3

What is it? This is the third in a series about DJ Ryan, a one-time high school and college football star turned prospective pro soccer player for the underdog Donford FC of London. After facing a setback in his climb to success, he’s relentless in seeking an opportunity to get back on the winning road. (Book one is explained here and Book 2 here.)

Status:Somewhat inactive as of this point. I’m guessing the story won’t be coming out until at least 2027 at this point.

Kayfabe Stories Part 1

What is it? The first in a series of stories featuring Robbie Traynor, a creative writing grad student at the University of Iowa. His thesis project is a novel about a young man seeking to reconnect with his father, a professional wrestler. Robbie himself is from a family of pro wrestlers, but has had little connection with the art – until his research for the novel pulls him closer to a life that horrifies and fascinates him all at once.

Status: Not actively adding to this project, but I am revising it based on the feedback I have been receiving from my writing groups (especially the Midwest Writing Center, shout out to them). With more than 50,000 words into the rough draft, there’s no way I’m abandoning this project, even if I have to self-publish it on Ingram Sparks or whatever.

What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing

I ended up getting a new laptop early this month. (Laptop not shown above). I remember hearing a story about how medieval knights wouldn’t name their horses because they’d just end up getting killed right away. Don’t know if that’s true, but I’ve gone thru a lot of desktops and laptops in my day, so I’ll avoid a name.

I wanted to thank The Corner, Mediapolis’ new indie bookstore right on 703 Main St., for hosting an event for me two weeks back. It’s a great local business in a town I used to teach in for a couple of years, so I was happy to be there. I’m hoping to be back there soon and maybe do some writing workshops there. Can’t wait.

I also want to thank Beaverdale Books for hosting me and several other local authors at their local author’s fair last weekend. It was an honor to be there and Beaverdale were fantastic hosts as always.

I’m looking forward to being part of their DSM Book Fair on Saturday, May 2 as well. So, this is my current schedule of appearances coming up:

I’ll be appearing at the DSM Book Festival between 1 and 2:30 p.m. with a large contingent of area authors. Come see some of the speakers (it’s a shame I’ll miss Art Cullen ‘s presentation) as well as some good books and authors. This one I’m looking forward to.
From about 4:30 to 7 p.m. May 28, I’ll be outside Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington, for an appearance and signing as part of the farmer’s market in downtown Burlington. Chris, the owner at BBTB, has been a longtime supporter of me and other local authors and I’m delighted to be returning there.

Finally, I’ll be at the 11th annual Indie Author Book Expo from 12 to 5 p.m. at the Valley Junction Activity Center. This is one of the bigger book events in Des Moines during the year and I’ll be happy to return there once again.

Hopefully, I might be adding some other appearances before the year is out.

The Home Front

The principal for my school (my boss) recently talked about how March is one of the roughest times of the year for teachers, and Spring Break is a valuable time for them. Spring Break is a week away from now, and I’m looking forward to it.

I think I wrote a poem which compared teaching to running a triathlon with your mind, but that was the one I sent in to the Iowa Poetry Association for their contest, so I’ll have to hold off showing you that one until I figure out whether it won a contest or whatever.

Any of the rest of it I’ll want for until later.

Writing Quote(s) of the Month:

First, some advice from the King about bad writing.

Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do― to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.

― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Also, I saw this bit of advice that still applies to writing from one of the English language’s best writers of the 19th century, who lived for a time in my original hometown of Muscatine, Iowa.

I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English―it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them―then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.

― Mark Twain

When and What I Post

Check this out for when and what I post on a regular basis.

How to support me😊.

As always, go to the links on the side if you are reading this on a desktop/laptop or the links on my profile on mobile. If you follow the links, you will be able to buy both the paperback and ebook versions of my books on Amazon. If you just put “Jason Liegois” in Google. you’ll find them on the first page of search results.

I have quite a few places that now carry at least some of my books, some of the many great and fantastic independent bookstores in Iowa and the Midwest.
These are the bookstores you’ll find at least some of my work¹:

Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St. Fort Madison.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
The Corner and More, 703 Main St., Mediapolis.
Green Point Mercantile, 217 E. 2nd St., Muscatine.
The Brewed Book, 1524 Harrison St., Davenport.
The Black Rose, 116 W. Main St., West Branch
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Atlas Collective, 1801 5th Ave, Moline, Illinois.

I’m always looking for some new places to place my books, so feel free to hit me up in the comments if you have a suggestion.

For those who are budget conscious among all of you, my books are part of the collections of the Fort Madison, Burlington, and eventually at the Musser (Muscatine) public libraries.

My poetry book The Flow and the Journey is available at Bent Oak, Green Point, Burlington By the Book, and The Corner and More, but it is also available online but not on Amazon. See below.

The Flow and the Journey

$6.00

The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.

Category: Chapbook

Tags: Chapbook, Poetry, Poetry Collection

Final Thoughts:

Not much else to say. All you writers keep writing and everyone keep safe.

-30-

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All Iowa locations unless otherwise noted. ↩︎

Writing Journal 11 March 2026: Better but still rubbish

This will be short because I want to get writing on my projects and not how unproductive I’ve been.

Even though my numbers were still rubbish last week, they were my best numbers for at least five weeks. And I can at least partially blame having to get a new laptop set up for part of this slowness.

Here’s the stats:

Writing statistics for the week ending 7 March 2026:
Words: 3,870
Days writing: 6 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.

Not that I’m happy with those stats, but I’d have been happier to have five straight weeks of those numbers rather than the lower ones I actually had.

I’ve tried to get going on a sci-fi environmental horror project with the working title of The Land, The River, and The Waste, (I am so superstitious about revealing a real title until I am closer to publishing), set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa. I need to cut out more dialogue and get to people howling at each other.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

Subscribe to my Substack here.

A Writer’s Biography, Volume III, Part 9: Keeping Procrastination and Distractions at Bay

In recent months, some of these entries have gotten slightly more difficult to write. I’m slightly self-conscious about the fiction projects I’m active on, so I’m not quite sure when to share excerpts from them. That might change in the near future, but not just yet.

This week, I had a conversation with one of my students, one who, at times, would prefer to distract themselves¹ rather than get going on their work. At a certain point at the end of the day, I said to them, “You think you know about procrastination? I could teach you doctorates in procrastination.”

I talked about their position, how they needed to keep on top of their work because time can slip away from them. Of course, when you’re in your mid to late teens, your perspective on wasting time changes from when you’ve passed a half century of life.

This made me think of something I wrote a few years back as part of my A Writer’s Biography series, an intermittent series of articles over the years that might end up becoming the basis of my memoir, if I ever get around to it. I wrote about this issue of procrastination years back, but looking back at the initial article, I was thinking I might have a few more things to say about the issue now. So, let’s talk about it.

How I See Procrastination Now Compared to Before

I distinctly remember a moment when I was fourteen years old when I was visiting my relatives at my Grandpa and Grandma Sumner’s place on the north side of La Crosse, Wisconsin. I remember it being evening and I was hanging out with several of my cousins outside staring at the nighttime stars and declaring to one of them (I believe it was my cousin Kathy, hi there.) that I would write four books by the time I turned eighteen.

I did not quite reach that lofty goal by my eighteenth birthday. Now past my fiftieth birthday, I have three completed novels and one poetry collection to my name.

Obviously, procrastination had some effect on my production. I mean, I’m not like Harper Lee, but I’m sure as heck not as prolific as several of my literary idols such as Stephen King or Elmore Leonard. Then again, in the latter two cases, they have or had the advantage of securing enough publishing support to be able to live off their writing earnings full-time, which is a very late 20th century phenomenon, as I’ve recently started to sense.

I am someone who tries to avoid falling into stereotyping and bias, but I cannot help but think my generation, Generation X, born in or around the 1970’s, came of age in a transitional era in our country when it came to both culture and technology. We came of age at a time, the 1980’s and 1990’s, where America was arguably at our peak. We stood triumphant over the world, and all of the ugliness that it took for us to get there was buried in classic Westerns or revisionist cinema such as the Rambo series, which promised its audience there was a way to win the Vietnam War even though the entire premise was ridiculous.

We also certainly came of age at a time when we were at the junction between the late industrial age and the information age. We had video games, CD’s, and computer graphics when previous generations had none of the above. We were among the very last college students not to regularly use email and worry about the cost of long distance calls. Often, rather than depending on our parents getting us desktop computers, we relied on the computer labs in the basements of our college dorms. We generally had no cell phones and no real encounters with the Internet except for the odd places to find in the exotic nooks and crannies there.

Despite this, I certainly had my own distractions. There were video games from the Atari 2600 up to Sid Meier’s Civilization for my desktop computer. There was even the Playstations and XBoxes my wife and I bought for our children that I ended up piloting more than a few times. Then there were the movies, the shows, the World Wide Web.

There were years when I didn’t write a single thing, where the tall tales and ideas simply burbled up and down in my perpetual stew of ideas in my head which gathered stories in my head for as long as I could remember. In all seriousness, I didn’t have the perseverance in my younger days to put something together like those stories, to put them on the page. I started and then stopped, like the more than a dozen or so hand-written pages of a long-forgotten story my father found in my parents’ home and returned to me.

In those years I was a younger man, I called myself a writer but did little to forward that vision. This does not mean I didn’t utilize my writing talents, however. I first turned to journalism to make a living with the skills I had, using it to inform my community about what they needed to know. Over time, when the work was fewer and farther between, I entered the education profession and utilized my writing (and other) skills that way. In both professions, I felt I had value, that I had purpose. Away from all of that, I helped build a family, a home. It was a good life. (It still is now, too.)

Then, fifteen years ago, I began to wonder if I couldn’t do something more, whether I could become something more than what I had tried to be before.

It didn’t start immediately. As I have told several of my students, if you don’t consistently dedicate yourself to your goals, there’s no way you will be able to switch on. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to write about, and then to see who might be interested in helping me bring it to life. I also wanted to share what I came up with, so I started to meet with and network with these people. Some good friendships and good advice came from that networking and writing groups.

Finally, in 2019, my first book, The Holy Fool came out. I had no idea what I was doing, and I don’t claim to know everything about what I’m doing now. I know a little bit more, now.

I would love to tell you I never let myself distracted anymore, that I’m just a writing machine. That wouldn’t be totally accurate. I’ve written at least 200,000 words a year for the past four years. I’ve only kept track of my word counts with a good amount of accuracy ever since 2018, but I’m guessing when I got started back into writing earlier in the decade, I was only writing around 50,000-120,000 words per year – pretty pitiful compared to my current output. Setting word count and project goals at the beginning of the year has helped me to achieve something more than I ever expected out of myself.

I think my current attitude about how much time I have left is symbolized by me checking out Bowker Publishing Services. They’re the people where you can buy ISBN numbers from, the numbers used to identify books.

I’m beginning to wonder if 10 or 20 ISBN numbers are going to be enough for everything else I’m planning to write. Probably not more than 20. Well, I’ll make them good ones, then.

-30-

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I’m not necessarily trying to be progressive or cute with pronouns here; my intention is to maintain confidentiality. ↩︎

Writing Journal 4 March 2026: …and February wasn’t good lol

Another short one.

All I can say about last week is that it wasn’t as bad as my worst week of the month. And this past month was bad. I mean, bad, nowhere near what I’m expecting of myself.

Here they are:

Writing statistics for the week ending 28 February 2026:
Words: 2,973
Days writing: 5 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 1 of 7 for 120 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

Writing statistics for February 2026:
Words: 12,089
Revise/planning: 270 minutes.
DWGM: 64%

Whelp, nearly 10,000 words less than last month. And I missed my daily goals more than one out of every three days. In short: total absolute rubbish. I have been fighting against my old friend of procrastination, that hangs out and temps me into distraction.

I’m also in a situation where I realize I’m in something of a … I won’t say rut, but I’m feeling like I’m doing a lot of background setting and not enough tension and dread for what should be a sci-fi environmental horror project. This I’ve given the working title of The Land, The River, and The Waste, (I am so superstitious about revealing a real title until I am closer to publishing), set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa. I’m getting the feeling of more sightseeing and not enough horror. I always loved how Stephen King would slowly turn up the temperature of his stories ever so slowly until you found yourself as a reader in the maelstrom of chaos he’d create.

So: more chaos, less sightseeing. Plus, I have Spring Break this month so I should have a bit more time to write this month, I believe. Back to the 20,000-word mark, hopefully.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

Subscribe to my Substack here.

Writing Journal 25 February 2026: February is not going to be good

This will be short.

I’ve had some rough weeks that have been under-productive, to say the least. It’s just been me stubbornly staring at the screen and expecting the words just to fly onto the screen.

The numbers:

Writing statistics for the week ending 21 February 2026:
Words: 3,128
Days writing: 6 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 4 of 7 days.

Too many distractions is all I can say. I need to break the streak I’ve been running nearly this entire month. Somehow I get the feeling the month of February is a slump month for me, and I have to keep this in mind for next year and beyond.

The project I call (for now; I’m so superstitious of working titles) The Land, The River, and The Waste, an environmental horror tale set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa, is my main fiction focus. I need to stop screwing around and get the action going in this story; there seems to be a few too much talk talk and not enough go go to it. If I want to have a rough draft by Halloween 2026… you know.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

Subscribe to my Substack here.

Writing Journal 18 February 2026: Not good, but better than last week so I’ll take it

I’ve only got two weeks to turn around what is turning out to be not so good of a month as January was. Writing a book is an accomplishment, but it’s always easier to have a rough draft in your hands rather than trying to write it.

And cell phones are the devil, kids. Take my word for it.

The numbers:

Writing statistics for the week ending 14 February 2026:
Words: 3,293
Days writing: 7 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 3 of 7 for 90 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

If you want to compare last week to the previous week, I’m ahead by every measurable criteria, which is objectively a good thing.

I often talk about the esoteric reasons why I didn’t write as much as I wanted to, but the past two weeks can be narrowed down to one thing: I get too damn distracted by my cell phone and the things I can see and play on it, if I am to be perfectly honest. Only when I have it plugged in is when I could write a whole bunch and not scroll idly on YouTube, Tubi, Substack, Medium, Facebook, and Universe knows what else. Procrastination and distraction are my devil.

The project I’m calling (for now; I’m so superstitious of working titles) The Land, The River, and The Waste, an environmental horror tale set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa, is my main fiction focus, but I didn’t make a massive amount of progress on it last week. I only increased the rough manuscript from 31,000 to more than 32,000, which is not a lot for a week’s work. If I want to have a rough draft by Halloween 2026, I need to get the bloody show on the road.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

Subscribe to my Substack here.

February Newsletter, Liegois Media

Welcome, everyone. This is my monthly newsletter about a teacher, ex-journalist, and part-time novelist from eastern Iowa (me, Jason Liegois) and what’s been going on with me, especially when it comes to my writing and myself.

Let’s get started.