Category: Personal

With Apologies, A Brief Political Manifesto

the interior of a large building with a dome

I have kept this space usually free of political statements. Frankly, my position in my personal life makes it problematic to be outspoken online. And I don’t see the point in arguing with people online. You never convince the people you want to convince and the things that are important to you are too valuable to argue about as if you and your ideas are competing to survive. For those with hardened minds and no empathy, I have nothing to say or discuss.

I also wanted to keep this space dedicated, as it was, to my love of writing and the products of this work. However, if you follow me on my social media (primarily FB, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky), you might get some idea of my politics. If you read any of the three novels I’ve written up to this date, you’ll likely get a better idea of my personal or political philosophy. Otto von Bismark once called politics the art of the possible. I would say (though I would not claim credit for its creation if someone said it previously) that politics is the inevitable by-product of human interaction.

In addition, there are many other great writers and thinkers out there who are doing great work out there in addressing our current situation in America, including current or former journalists such as Dan Rather and Laura Belin1, as well as writers from other walks of life like Heather Cox Richardson and Laura Jedeed . They do great as themselves; I do not need to imitate them, but admire them.

However, I think I can’t remain silent regarding how I feel about the current national circumstances. I want to lay out how I feel about politics – my ideology, that is. I’ve often joked to family and friends the definition of ideology should be how a person or group of people feel the world should be like rather than the way the world actually is. I guess that could be said of mine.

However, I think I can’t remain silent regarding how I feel about the current national circumstances. I want to lay out how I feel about politics – my ideology, that is. I’ve often joked to family and friends the definition of ideology should be how a person or group of people feel the world should be like rather than the way the world actually is. I guess that could be said of mine.

No One Person Should be in Charge

Trust no one, not even yourself2.

  • Joseph Stalin

A man who trusts everyone is a fool and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools if we live long enough.

  • Robert Jordan

If there is a theme to the United States of America, it is the idea that power cannot be concentrated in the hands of the few and certainly not just one person, especially if such people don’t have any constraints on their actions. This is the problem the American colonists had with King George III and his government and how they didn’t seem to have the same rights as their British countrymen. I can see why they’d be upset, because they were arguably the most comprehensive rights given to any nation’s citizens up until that point. The entire middle portion of the Declaration of Independence is one long complaint about how King George3 was screwing things up for the colonies and was ordering them around for no good reason4.

Because of all this, those leading America after they managed to get their independence from Britain decided to build a constitution with the intention of setting up a system of government with the intention of trying to make sure the responsibilities of rule were dispersed among different branches of government, and among the federal, state, and local authorities.

The principles of a free constitution are irrevocably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

  • Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Society in any state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

  • Thomas Paine, Common Sense

I am in absolute agreement this was the right instinct to have in building a democracy (or a republic, if you wanted to stick with Franklin’s definition). However, they didn’t get everything right the first time around. First of all, they didn’t get the whole “slavery” thing right from the get go, which is symbolized by Thomas Jefferson talking about freedom for all while he owned slaves, some of which he had exploitive and predatory sexual relations (not a relationship) with5.

The destiny of the colored American … is the destiny of America.

  • Frederick Douglass

In my opinion, we never got the whole slavery and racism thing resolved, even after the Civil War and the Civil Rights Era of the 1950’s through the 1970’s. A good portion of this country never grappled with the implications of what slavery and bigotry did to our country.

In addition, there were more than a few people before, during, and after the creation of our country and our constitution that never wanted to follow the path people like Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and others laid out for us as away from autocracy, monarchy, oligarchy, and dictatorship. More than a few of these people are now in charge of this country. That is a problem.

Let’s jump to something is a bit closer to my own experiences, not that politics isn’t something relevant to me.

On What Journalism Should Be

We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in an age of confusion – a lot of us have traded in our beliefs for bitterness and cynicism or for a heavy package of despair, or even a quivering portion of hysteria. Opinions can be picked up cheap in the market place while such commodities as courage and fortitude and faith are in alarmingly short supply.

  • Edward R. Murrow

A free and truly independent press – fiercely independent when necessary – is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.

  • Dan Rather

For-profit journalism is a contradiction in terms.

  • Jason Liegois

The more I think about it, the more I feel like my debut novel, The Holy Fool, was looking ahead at the current situation where journalists were, if not extinct, then perhaps a dying breed. The book was published at the start of 2019, it was set in the second half of 2008, but I think its critique of the decline and fall of traditional media fits very well today6.

Journalism is inherently a community service, even though it cannot be provided, like others, by the government for obvious reasons. The need to pursue profits as a stockholding enterprise has been at the very best a necessary evil, but it has started to overwhelm nominally honest newsgathering enterprises in some cases and in other cases be eagerly put ahead of any need to inform the community.

I’ve come to the conclusion true journalism organizations need to be nonprofit and/or community-based to avoid these conflicts and remain sustainable while keeping the public properly and accurately informed about the world around them. There are plenty of great organizations attempting to do this work, from the Guardian in Britain, ProPublica and the Center for Public Integrity in America, and the Iowa Writers Collaborative in Iowa.

Economics

A monopoly granted either to an individual or to a trading company has the same effect as a secret in trade and manufactures.

  • Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

The history of all hitherto existing societyis the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

  • Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen: Poems and Songs

From my understanding and study of capitalism, the process calls for an infinite expansion of markets, customers, goods, resources, and services. However, the only thing in the natural world that continues to grow in an uncontrolled manner is cancer. This is not a coincidence.

I am a student of history, of past civilizations which expanded beyond their means and collapsed as a result. Jared Diamond is famed for his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, but I am just as much of a fan of his follow-up work Collapse, which details why several past civilizations failed because they overextended their resources and capabilities.

The metaphor is so obvious. Easter Island isolated in the Pacific Ocean — once the island got into trouble, there was no way they could get free. There was no other people from whom they could get help. In the same way that we on Planet Earth, if we ruin our own [world], we won’t be able to get help.

  • Jared Diamond

Beyond questions of capitalism and socialism, American and un-American thought, we cannot have an economic system that allows people to starve and go without shelter, no matter how hard they work, and we can’t have an economic system that cannot be sustained in the long term.

If Your System Doesn’t Work, Get a New System

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.

  • Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

…That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

  • Declaration of Independence

Just because because things are the way they’ve been means they have to stay that way. As I mentioned earlier, there are plenty of things we need to change. We need to get money out of politics once and for all. We need to dramatically reduce the power of the presidency and make it much easier to remove him. We need to end this whole lifetime appointments for judges. And all of these are just for starters.

Maybe we could tack on enough amendments to the old girl to improve things, but maybe it might not be a bad idea to hit the reset button on the whole constitution thing. France has been experimenting with democracy for about as long as we have, and they’re already on their fifth constitution, which they passed just less than seventy years ago.

There’s plenty of good ideas out there for how we could fix government, but I’ve already rambled a while here. Plus, it might make more sense to save some of these ideas for one of my upcoming fiction projects. We’ll see.

Oh, and I’m not a fan of MAGA, if that wasn’t apparent.

-30-

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    1. The latter of which is one of the better reporters on political events in my home state of Iowa and a member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative Roundup . ↩︎
    2. There’s going to be a lot of quotes in this piece, so buckle up, brothers, sisters, and all others. ↩︎
    3. By the way, he was a little nuts. Take that for what you will. ↩︎
    4. For those who are curious, below is the part of the Declaration of Independence dealing with the American colonies’ issues with the king. Feel free to look for any modern-day parallels.

      The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
      He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
      He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
      He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
      He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
      He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
      He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
      He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
      He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
      He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
      He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
      He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
      He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
      He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
      For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
      For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
      For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
      For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
      For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
      For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
      For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
      For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
      For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
      He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
      He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
      He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
      He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
      He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
      In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. ↩︎
    5. It reminds me of the story of early 1980’s rapper Mellie Mel, who wrote the song “White Lines (Don’t Do It),” one of the legendary anti-drug anthems of the early rap era, while doing lines of cocaine in the studio. The contradictions of man and all that, one would say. ↩︎
    6. That’s probably one of the reasons why I set the sequel to the book (currently under development) in 2024, right in our current circumstances. ↩︎

    The Writing Life, 16 March 2024: More life on the road and feeling stretched out

    Hello, humanoids, as the great American philosopher and professional manager/announcer/wrestler Bobby “The Brain” Heenan once might have said1. It’s all in the game, yo2.

    Today I talked to one of my work colleagues and said something to the effect of “if I knew what the game plan for me was on a day to day basis, much less a week to week one, I’d be less out of sorts.”

    It’s been one of those weeks (or couple of weeks), but things are perhaps going better than I had hoped for, both on the personal and writing fronts. Anyway, let’s talk about the writing life and the other chaos happening around me at the moment.

    The Home Front

    My kid is now out of the ICU and in a regular hospital bed, but not for long, it appears.

    Jacob (23), who had a fall at work two weeks previously, has been slowly making the road back to recovery. Right now, we are awaiting word on him getting into a rehab facility near his place in Des Moines. While he’s there, I might save some cash by spending some time at his apartment during the week.

    I always thought it would be fun to live in the center of a city like Des Moines as my son has been doing for the past few years, but this was not the way I wanted it to happen. It will require me to have a two-hour round trip to work, which is not ideal, but it’s going to be for a couple months at the absolute most, I’ll save on hotels, and be closer to Jake while he continues to recover. I am thankful, however, we are facing this situation rather than something even more dire affecting his health or even life. We still have our kid.

    Speaking of kids, I’m so excited for my daughter Maddie’s (22 this month) situation. She is two months away from graduating from the University of Iowa with her chemical engineering degree. She has a job waiting for her in our hometown of Muscatine this June with the same engineering firm her grandfather worked at for 40 or so years. She’s going to have plenty of professional adventures coming up, and I’ll be happy to hear all about them.

    What I’ve Been Writing

    It seems like I’ve been writing a lot of short odds and ends, short pieces, poetry, etc. I’m trying to finish a short story I’m contributing to a collection of dark fantasy romance (fantasy I’ve long been interested in, dark romance is new territory for me). Once this project is a bit further along, I’ll post the links for it.

    I found out I didn’t get any honors at this year’s Iron Pen competition sponsored by the Midwest Writing Center. The concept of the short story I submitted for the competition was sound – essentially a fresh excerpt from the pro wrestling project I’ve discussed here previously.

    However, the more I’ve read through it, the more I’m feeling a little uneasy with it. I struggled with the 2,000-word limitation on the short story, because (holding back spoilers), the scene I featured was a major part of the growth of my main character and his journey to understanding both his family and himself. My instinct right now is to let it sit for about a couple weeks and then make a brand new attempt at the scene. I think I can make it happen better the second time around. If I make it work, I’ll post the results here.

    Still struggling to get more progress done on The Yank Striker 2 with all the bopping around the state I’ve been doing. My concern is I’ve started to think of the project as “Work” writing rather than “Fun” writing, and I’ve just got to force myself out of this mindset. This world I’ve built, around one of the most fascinating main characters I’ve yet created – an aspiring American soccer superstar – is just too intriguing to just drop after one book. I’ve got to at least get this most recent scene in the book done this month, at least.

    What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

    I’ve been scouring some different locations to try and find opportunities to meet with writers and workshop some of my stuff ever since my last writing group ceased operations and I moved away from the area. I might try to sit in with the Midwest Writing Center, a group of poets up in Burlington, or maybe I could even consider getting back in touch with my old compatriots with Writers on the Avenue, in my hometown of Muscatine. Some of these I can start right away, while some others may have to wait until things with Jake and Maddie sort themselves out and I’m finished up with my contract at my current school district in South Central Iowa. I’ll have to see, and I’ll at least start putting in their regular meetings into my Google Calendar.

    I’m also trying to update things on this page. I’ve been putting some of the articles I’ve written in years past behind a paywall, for only paid subscribers. Not all of them will be – I’ll make sure to keep my newsletters, writing journals, and some promotional posts open for everyone, always. During the next few months (lies, I got this done tonight), I’ll be updating and revising the status of some of those articles to reflect this. Just remember, if you have a paid subscription to my site, you have access to all of my writings, archived or otherwise.

    Writing Advice

    Again, I decided to take a look at someone else’s writing advice rather than try to come up with a piece of writing advice on my own3. As it turns out, I found something from John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath, etc.) which caught my eye:

    If you’re using dialogue, say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.

    To me, this is one of the few bits of writing advice I would unreservedly endorse in nearly any writing situation. You process information differently by reading words than you do by hearing them. If you are writing dialogue, you want it to be as realistic as possible, which means it needs to sound like naturally flowing conversations actual human beings would use.

    My supplemental piece of writing advice related to this is, read everything written by Elmore Leonard you can get your hands on. He was an author who knew how dialogue truly worked and its storytelling potential.

    Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

    Two quotes on writing this week, one from ancient Greece, and another from 20th century America. Both of them are good advice for, respectively, reaching your audience as a writer and developing your voice.

    To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.

    • Aristotle

    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

    Where I’ll Be Appearing

    In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been checking in with different events and book fairs to see where I might be making some personal appearances and sell some books. So far, some of the dates, times, and locations are tentative, but I want to let you know about them as soon as possible if you want to meet me out there in person. Google Calendar has been my friend in this regard.

    • I possibly might be at the Ankeny Book Fair at the Ankeny public library from 1-4 p.m. April 20. I have applied to be at the event, but the organizers of the event should let us know by March 20 if we’ve made the cut. As soon as I know, you’ll know.
    • I am confirmed to be at the Authors on the Riverwalk event from 12-4 p.m. May 25 at the Des Moines Marriot Downtown, 700 Grand Ave., Des Moines. It was a fantastic event last year, and I’m hoping for an even better experience this year.
    • Things start picking up in June. I’ll be at the Valley West Mall, 1551 Valley West Drive, West Des Moines, for the 9th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. I’ll be there with many other area and regional authors from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, June 7, and at the same time Saturday, June 8.
    • Two weeks later, I’ll be at another IABE event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 22 at the Peoria Civic Center, 201 SW Jefferson Ave, Peoria. This might be the first year for this event, but I do know it will be the first time I’ll be doing an event in Peoria. Sadly, this event has been cancelled due to the venue cancelling on the event organizers (IABE). However, they are hoping to do the event next year, at least.
    • I’m not sure I will be there both days, but I believe I am on the guest list for the Badger Book Fair at the public library in Badger, Iowa, running Saturday and Sunday, 14-15 September. I’ll add more details when I get them.
    • I’ll be there for the Windsor Heights Book Fair in Windsor Heights, Iowa, from 12-6 p.m. Sunday, 6 October. More information when I get it.
    • Finally, I’ll be part of the local author book fair sponsored by the Iowa City Book Festival. Not sure about the exact day or time, but it should occur sometime during this year’s festival, which will be 14-20 October in Iowa City.

    I am actively looking for other events and venues to appear between now and Fall 2024. If you’d like to invite me to a book event, just hit me up in the comments, by direct message (you can find that in Substack Chat or at the button below). You can also email me at jasonliegois@liegois.media, but with the influx of emails I’m getting from my subscriptions to Substack sites, it will be more likely I see the DM’s or comments.

    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’ll be it for now. I’ll have Poetry Night at the Writing Life posted next weekend, and I’m planning to have some brand new material for you. However, the last weekend of March 2024 will also coincide with my birthday, so I’ll be taking it off from writing (for this site, at least). See you around the Interwebs.

    -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.

    Subscribe to my Substack here.
    1. If you follow my page, you’re just going to have to get used to some pro wrestling terms and terminology. ↩︎
    2. All right, that was a reference from The Wire. Better get used to those references, as well. ↩︎
    3. Being creative with writing advice is hard, if you didn’t know. ↩︎

    Returning to the River: A brief announcement

    Hi, everyone.

    I know I promised you some original writing, maybe even fiction, this weekend. Let me assure you it is coming – at 5 p.m. Central Time today. However, I wanted to take a moment now and let everyone know about some personal news.

    It turns out I’m soon to be on the move, and both my wife and I will be returning to more familiar territory and a very familiar river.

    My wife Laura has just accepted a new job as a city manager for Fort Madison, Iowa. It’s two hours away from where I’m living in Chariton, Iowa, right in south central Iowa. It will be much closer to our hometown of Muscatine, Iowa, where my parents, her mother, and eventually my daughter will be living. It’s a great opportunity for her, and I couldn’t be prouder.

    As for me, I’ll be joining her after the school year’s over and seeing what opportunities present themselves. I will miss my school district, as it was a good one (Twin Cedars) and I have been having a good year working with a great group of colleagues. However, Laura’s been my home for 25-plus years, so I go where she does.

    I do plan to keep in touch with those I’ve made friends and acquaintances with in Chariton and the area, especially some of my work colleagues and area writers I’ve had a chance to meet here during the past three years. However, I’m hoping to reconnect with some of my old friends and writing enthusiasts from the Muscatine/Quad Cities area, as well as any new ones from around the Fort Madison/Burlington area.

    My current home.

    Chariton will always be a part of my life, I believe. It will be the place where I finished my second book, started a few other projects, and started writing on Substack. It is likely going to be the last home me, Laura, and our two children ever live in again after a brief period when my son came to stay with us and work in Chariton and my daughter was attending the University of Iowa from her laptop.

    Downtown Chariton, Iowa

    However, I’m going to be closer to more of my family, and closer to the Mississippi River, where I’ve lived next to more than forty years. The older I’ve gotten, the more I have been fascinated by rivers in general and the Mississippi in particular, and visitors to this page might have seen a poem or two inspired by river life. When I had the chance to tour Fort Madison recently and watched the sun dancing off the surface of the waters, the sight felt so much like home to me I could barely shake it.

    The Fort Madison, Iowa riverfront.

    I can’t wait to get started on the new adventure. I’ll probably tell you a bit about it here, too.

    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.

    Subscribe to my Substack here.

    Writing Journal 21 September 2022: Another solid week and a nice trip to Badger, Iowa

    I’d love every week to be something like this week, writing-wise.

    I was nice and solidly productive this week and much of what I wrote ended up on this blog. That’s nice to see after many months where the only thing I produced on here were writing journals.

    As for the exact numbers… they were not record-breaking, but very solid and above what I am trying to shoot for every week. If every week winds up like this, this year’s goals of 200,000 words in 2022 and meeting my daily writing quota at least 70 percent of the time is in the bag.

    I also had the chance to make an appearance at the Badger (Iowa) Public Library when their librarian invited me to come to its book fair of regional authors. I had the chance to meet and network with several writers and the library was quite hospitable to me and the other authors there. It was a bit of a drive for me, but I enjoyed the experience and certainly would return there.

    So, in all, it was a good week. I’ll be looking forward to seeing some falling temperatures at last now that it is officially fall in a day or so. Summer heat can get gone as soon as possible.

    Anyway, here’s the numbers. Keep safe and live your lives, everyone.

    Writing statistics for the week ending 17 September 2022:
    +4,484 words written.|
    Days writing: 6 of 7.
    Days revising/planning: 1 of 7 for 120 total minutes.
    Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.

    Assessing Summer 2022, or Did I Waste My Vacation This Year?

    The question – or usually a statement – I’ve heard people make regarding teaching is “it must be wonderful to have that free time during the summers.”

    I have to admit that it is good to have that vacation time. Even during the best of times, a school year for teachers is the mental equivalent of running a marathon. After it’s over, you need recovery time mentally and to some extent physically.

    However, I also feel (at least, I have felt this way for the past several years teaching) that I have all this time to myself, and there is this internal pressure that I “make good use of it,” so to speak. There were times these past few months where I felt that I was not doing that effectively. For example, May-June of 2021 was a blank time for me, to be honest. But that made sense in retrospect because I was contemplating not even returning to teaching, so I was a bit unsure of my IRL status for a while.

    However, when I look back on what happened this summer, there were a bit more positives than negatives when it came down to it. Let’s review.

    Negatives

    I think that there were a lot of times when I found myself just sitting and either watching television or staring at my phone. As I have chronicled in this space before, entropy and sitting still is my natural level. It takes me a lot longer to get bored with hanging out at home than many other people. Could I have spent more time writing instead of watching soccer, Formula 1, and Australian Rules Football, watching YouTube to catch people’s movie reviews (especially bad movies), and what Jim Cornette thinks about the current world of wrestling, or using Minecraft to build a digital castle? Well, probably I could have.

    I also am a little disappointed in myself that I am not farther along on my route to self-publishing than I wanted to be at this point. (That will be its own post a bit later.) I am further than I was, and I am starting to get a handle on what things I need to take care of before I jump into this. It might take time, but I also want to make sure than I am getting things right.

    Positives

    My overall writing productivity has not been bad during the summer months. So far, I am definitely ahead of where I was at the same time last year, which was definitely a down time for me.

    I believe that I have make at least a little more effort to take care of myself than I have in years past. Even though my weight is not where I would like it to be, I have made the effort to walk nearly every day for the past couple months. That’s something that I didn’t really do on a consistent basis before, but now I am. I was never comfortable with the gym or other stuff, but I have been comfortable going on a walk along some relatively level sidewalks and I feel good after getting them done, especially in the hot summer sun. I definitely will keep up with it during the school year.

    I’ve been able to get out and do things that I have not had the chance to do for a long time. I managed to get away with my wife to Duluth, Minnesota, for a few days and it was a fantastic experience. I got to go down to Kansas City for the day and watch the US men’s soccer team for the first time in my life after more than 20 years of fandom.

    Also, I’ve gotten more active on this site and trying to write more blogs and content here than in the past. I didn’t actually write a new post every weekend, but I did do it on plenty of them – including this one. And after some brainstorming, I have quite a few other ideas for blog posts to come.

    It’s not been a bad summer. Shame it has to come to a close.

    Happy Fifth Anniversary For the Blog, and Some Thoughts About Writing When Times Are Not Easy

    The Anniversary

    In case I didn’t mention it earlier, I just streaked past the fifth anniversary of this blog, Liegois Media. Happy birthday, I will say.

    Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

    The longer that this goes on, the more surprised I am about that fact. I would have to say that this is the longest sustained writing project that I have ever contributed to. I remember times during my youth where I would start ideas for books and then just drop them after 10 or 20 pages. I even remember the time when I started a blog several years back and then gave it up after puttering around on it for a few months.

    I’ll get back to that last thing in a moment.

    Anyway, even if I have not paid much attention to the blog at times (even in recent times) I am glad that I have stuck with the blog. As I get older, I realize that being able to write and express myself goes way beyond becoming famous or wealthy. It is a form of expression for me that I can’t see myself ever doing without.

    For those who have taken the time out to read my work or respond to it, thank you very much.

    When Times Are Not Easy

    Anyone who has read this blog will notice I do not mention politics or current issues on here.

    That is not an oversight.

    Regarding that previous blog, I wrote it anonymously and talked about a lot of things, personal opinions about how the world is going. I realized that wasn’t sustainable for me.

    While I have continued to give my opinions on current events and political philosophies on my own personal social media sites, I find myself censoring what I say because I do not want to bring undue attention on myself. Everyone needs to make that accommodation for themselves as best as they can. They wish to live however they can and under circumstances that are not fully under their control.

    From the beginning, I wanted to have a page focused on something positive and where I didn’t have to think about what my opinions were on something. I wanted it to focus on writing and my writing life. I think that having that focus on this blog has helped me to make this blog work and at least sustain my interest in it.

    However, I know that tough times or rough situations can derail people. I always had to laugh when I would hear of people who claimed to be inspired to write when they went through tough times or depression. When I’m feeling down or if I get in a depressive mood, I feel like turning off my brain for a good long while. Sometimes, that means I stay away from writing. (Like I need any excuse to procrastinate lol.) I’m finding out more, however, that if I can set myself down and try to write something, I get a great sense of relief in accomplishing something rather than just sitting and doing nothing. It doesn’t even have to be good writing, let me assure you. You can always revise stuff, even if you already posted it online. (I can speak from experience on that score.)

    I guess I would send this message out to fellow writers and others alike: It is all right to take care of yourselves. It’s all right to keep your own counsel. I would say that being creative is a way to get yourself through difficult times, whether they are happening for you personally or just the general world around you.

    I’m glad I’ve stuck with this project for this long and I hope that it continues for a long time to come. I hope that anyone reading this is able to find peace with being creative or whatever you do to keep yourself healthy.

    Now as always, writers keep writing and everyone keep safe.

    Writing Journal 5.18.2022: Looking forward to the summer break

    [PHOTO NOTE: I was thinking of the Mississippi River when I was thinking about going on summer break next week. Getting out on the river was always a highlight for me finding some sandbar in the middle of the stream and hanging out there for the afternoon. And now, I’m a 2 1/2 hour-drive from the Mississippi. (Sigh.) I’ve heard some good stuff about Red Rock State Park on the Des Moines River maybe 45 minutes away from where I’m at. I might have to take a look and see what it’s like.]

    I’m at risk of having the photo notes for one of these things run longer than the actual meat of the blog itself, heh heh. Then again, I might write a blog post soon where there might be more footnotes than actual text. (Don’t threaten yourself with a good time, Liegois.)

    You might not be able to tell, but it’s the last week of school for me for the 2021-2022 year. I’ve observed that teaching an entire school year is the mental equivalent of running a marathon. Some years it is better than others. At the end of my last school year, I wasn’t sure that I was going back into teaching. Now, I feel like the school year breezed by in many ways and I’ll be back at my current district next year. Environment and school culture can be everything, just as with any other working environment.

    Anyway, I had to tag and categorize this post as personal. Enough about me, let’s get to the writing.

    I do not want to waste this down time like I frankly did last year. However, there were a lot of reasons behind that, I think. I was unsure of what I would be doing professionally, I had several aimless goals, my head was total mush, and I barely got anything done.

    However, I’m much more confident that I will have a better summer this year. I know what I want to get done, I have a goal for my writing pace, and I’m feeling much more focused.

    Last week’s totals would have been fantastic over the course of last summer, but for me they are not horrific but not nearly good enough. I like the fact that I look at a week that’s a slightly down one and my attitude is to make sure next week is even better. I also appreciate that I have been more consistent with my writing than I’ve been for a long time, and that I’m beginning to merge productivity with consistency.

    Anyway, at this point I think I’m rambling. So, I will simply post last week’s totals and tell you that more will be coming. Take care.

    Writing statistics for the week ending 5.14.2022:
    +3,829 words written.
    Days writing: 5 of 7.
    Days revising/planning: 1 of 7 for 90 total minutes.
    Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 4 of 7 days.

    Why It’s Tough For Me to Write Anything of Value on Sundays During the School Year: A somewhat thought-out analysis

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    I’ve Got My Writing Space (and Laptop) Back Again: a sequel

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    Writing Journal 11.3.2021: Sliding out of October

    Not too much to talk about, so I’ll keep it quick. Well, this turned out to be not exactly what I expected. Let’s carry on, however.

    As I sit here at the beginning of November, I’m wondering if I have enough time to pull together a decent writing year with two months of 2021 left to go. I think there is a chance that I might be able to finish strong this year, but whether I finish comparable to 2019 or 2020 is up in the air. Like I analyzed back in January, I wrote more words in 2020 than 2019 and a lot more than 2018, but the percentage of times that I met my writing goals during the year fell from 78 percent in 2019 to 62 percent in 2018.

    In the end… it’s a little difficult to exactly pinpoint the reason for the drop-off last year and this year as opposed to 2019. I’ve tried to think about it more than a few times.

    There was the move to south central Iowa that disrupted my routines and stalled out any momentum that I’ve tried to build with The Holy Fool coming out in 2019. My connections to my little writing community I had been starting to develop in eastern Iowa and Muscatine over the course of many years got severed, and the COVID-19 outbreak also put a lot of potential public events out of reach for at least a year. It has only been recently that I have been trying to rebuild my writing community out in the Des Moines area because that is the biggest community within driving distance for me to find fellow authors. I think this is leading me to more gradual (and I hope permanent) changes that I am starting to make aimed at growing myself as a writer and as a brand. It would be nice for there to be a good writing community where I am currently living (Lucas County, Iowa), but due to the population out here, I don’t think I can count on that. In addition, I think I am at a different place than I was when I first became involved in writing communities. Before, I was concerned about finding people I could bounce ideas off of, get writing advice, and show me how I could become a better writer. I still want that, but I also really want to try and push myself forward, becoming someone who could turn my writing into something that could at least become a nice little side gig, if not a full-time calling at the moment. The people I have met in Des Moines have been published multiple times. I don’t think I’m going to have that level of experience in little Chariton of Lucas County, as compared to Des Moines.

    Once I moved out here last year to Chariton, my mental state was honestly not the best, not necessarily because of the move but because of the working environment I found myself in. By the end of my time at this particular school district, I was even questioning my dedication to continuing teaching, as so many of my colleagues both at that district and other places have done. However, my wife (Laura) encouraged me to keep my mind open to other teaching opportunities. As of this writing, I’m in the second quarter of the school year with my new school district. While it is by no means a perfect job, I find myself being in a far more positive mind set than I was at all during the last school year. Whether it is the smaller school district environment, positive and supporting administration and staff, or a combination of them and other factors, I am usually quite happy with my job. I never understood writers who said they couldn’t write in a depressive or down condition. I usually find writing when I am emotionally not in the best space to be a very taxing situation, much like weeding a lawn.

    This fan fiction work that I’ve been doing during the past two years has been rewarding emotionally, and I think I’ve learned about my writing during that process. However, I think that the momentum of that work is starting to wind down. What was doing to be just two stories has now branched into an entire series that will run well over the 500,000 word mark when it is done, I believe. That has been great, but I think I also want to develop and support my OC writing material, with the fan fiction work continuing to be an occasional side hobby. However, for the sake of being complete and not able to let go of an idea, that work will continue while I try to get on with things.

    Anyway, here’s the stats. Hope we have a good writing week to come.

    Writing Statistics for the week ending 10.30.2021:
    +2,536 words written.
    Days writing: 5 of 7.
    Days revising/planning: 0 of 7 for 0 total minutes.
    Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 3 of 7 days.