Things have been hopping for a bit as I now sit in “voluntary exile” in Des Moines, apartment-sitting for my son as he continues with his recovery. It is a strange situation when I don’t know necessarily where I might be laying my head come next weekend, much less next month. Yet, life and writing goes on. Let’s talk about it.
The Home Front
I’ve gone from being alone in a house in imminent anticipation of being sold, to having that home sold, living in a hotel by myself, and visiting my new home in Fort Madison on the weekends, to living in my kid’s apartment in Des Moines, commuting to south central Iowa for work, and making it back to Fort Madison on the weekends. All of these arrangements, for various reasons, lasted only two to three weeks at most. And now, it appears I’ll be roommates with my son in Des Moines now that he’s back from his rehabilitation facility where he was getting therapy after his fall and concussion on the job way back at the end of February. And I’m only starting my third month of this stuff. To be honest, I’m barely getting my head around everything.
But I am glad about this new development. It means Jake (my son) has made a lot of progress toward getting back on his feet and reaching his goals of getting his heating and air conditioning journeyman’s certification, and I’m delighted at the idea.
What I’ve Been Writing
Short answer, lots of odds and ends, but not a massive amount of progress toward completing something. I don’t want to get into details here, but my word count for last month was lower than the last one, but not as terrible as January.
I got some random fan fiction completed over the course of the past several days, but I am getting way behind on some of my other projects. I could say part of the reason is I’m not sure where I’ll be sleeping on a consistent basis four days or so out, but that would be a cop-out. I just need to stop procrastinating and get done what is overdue to be done, including this newsletter lol.
One idea for a poem I’ve gotten recently is about a river I seem to be encountering a lot in my frequent travels across the state – the Des Moines river. It seems like I cross the thing at least two, three times every time I commute between Polk and Marion counties and even more traveling between Marion and Lee counties. From a distance on a basic Iowa map, it looks like it runs straight southeast from north of Des Moines to the combined Iowa/Missouri/Illinois border straight into the thick Mississippi channel. But if you take a closer look at its path on Google Earth, for example, it’s a skinny sidewinder all throughout Iowa. I’m looking forward to the challenge.
What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing
I’ve been busy with “side activities” quite a bit over this past week. I have been busy with getting some appearances in the area set up (check out the links further down in this post for details.
I’ve made plans to become a member of some writing groups I’m familiar with. First, I’m planning on rejoining the Midwest Writing Center from the Quad Cities, which was a good organization that I needed to make more use of. Now that I live closer to the area, now’s as good a time as any.
For the first time, I’m planning to join the Iowa Poetry Association. I’ve been increasingly trying to develop my poetry and poetry production in recent years, and I want to hear from more experienced hands what I need to do to develop both my poetry skills and how I should present it to the reading public.
Some Writing Advice
For this week, as I typically do, I review some well-known writing advice and analyze whether it appears valid or not. Behold:
Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.
– Isabel Allende
Allende is a famed Chilean-American writer, known for House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts1.
Scale of 1-10 as far as the relevance/usefulness of this advice: 7.
At a certain point, you can’t just call yourself a writer and not put in the work. You have to be consistent with attempting to write and produce something, and if you make a conscientious effort to be productive, the product will come. Now, I think what is left unsaid it you really need to be compelled to tell stories in the first place, and the statement seems to imply you’ll figure out how to write later. However, I think what she means (it’s the implication I get) is that you can have an idea for a story, but not realize exactly how to tell it at first. That’s where brainstorming, and then revising after writing, comes in.
Writing Quote of the Week:
This week’s quote comes from one of the few writers I’m willing to read who were dodgy people in person, from one of his most dodgy novels 😅.
A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.
- Graham Greene, The End of the Affair
Here’s What to Expect on This Page
My current plans for what I write here are the following:
- I produce my newsletter (The Writing Life) every first and third weekend of the month, in a similar format to what you are reading here. It’s basically an update on me and my writing experiences. I will always leave these posts free.
- Every second weekend, I put out Prose Night. This will be original writing, whether fiction, which can be self-contained stories, excerpts from works in progress, essays, or other types of nonfiction. I’ll keep these free for about a couple weeks or so, and then they go behind the paywall.
- Every fourth weekend, I put out Poetry Night, where I post original poetry. Again, I’ll keep those free for about a couple of weeks before putting them in the archives, so to speak.
- Certain other pieces, especially promotional stuff or info about my writing, will also be free for all.
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.
A Few Articles About What I’ve Written and Where I’ll Be
So far, I’ve put out two novels over the past couple of years, The Holy Fool and The Yank Striker. Here and here are some recent articles I’ve written about them. If you’re interested in thrillers and/or sports drama, they might be for you.
Here’s where you can run into me during the next several months.
Where You Can Find My Books
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.
Final Thoughts
That’s caught you up on everything so far. I appreciate more people signing on to read what I have to say, and reaching out to me online. I appreciate all of you.
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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.
- No, I haven’t read them. ↩︎
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