Category: The Writing Life

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Final Thoughts

I’m looking forward to a busy summer, and I hope to see some of you readers during my time out and about.

All you writers keep writing and everyone keep safe.

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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.

Literally today, however, I got the idea for at least one more book set in the Kayfabe Stories world just today. There might be opportunities for others. ↩︎

The Writing Life, 3 May 2025: The Yank Striker’s Journey approaches

Hey, everyone on the interwebs, good to be back. Summer is approaching and there’s a lot of cool things coming up, even though some of the deadlines and due dates are not set it stone.

Let’s talk writing¹.

What I’ve Been Writing

The Yank Striker’s Journey (Previously referred to as The Yank Striker 2): the sequel to my book The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning. The Yank Striker series follows the exploits of a prospective American soccer player who leaves his family behind to try his fortune with an English Premier League team in the East End of London. The Yank Striker’s Journey focuses on what my main character, Daniel John “DJ” Ryan has to face now he is trying to establish himself as a footballer in England, both as an American in a strange land and someone whose sexual orientation brings extra scrutiny.Much has happened since list time. My third revision of the book is wrapped up and I’ve now sent it off to my good friend and fellow writer (and eastern Iowa resident) Misty Urban for a revising/proofreading session. I’m looking forward to working with her on the project. (Also, if you are interested in historical romances (or romances in general), I think Misty can hook you up with some good stories. And if someone’s looking for some writing services, she’ll have you covered, too.
I’m also working with an outside artist on the cover art, and I’m hoping we can have a cover reveal sometime this month. (This will likely be a special post beyond my normal weekend posts – I’ll let everyone know in Substack Notes when it comes.)
We’re hoping to get this work wrapped up by the end of May. If all goes well, I am hoping for a June release, although I do not have an exact date yet. I’m going to start trying to put some appearances together for this as well, hopefully at some upcoming book fairs, indie book stores, and libraries.
The Untitled Pro Wrestling Fiction Project: This is a story about a family of pro wrestlers from Texas and a young man’s determination to understand what it all means. has been at the head of my creative interests for a while, with the exception of The Yank Striker’s Journey. Currently, I’m at more than 47,000 words on the project, which is more than 10,000 words than I was at last month.I put together what will either be a prologue or a new Chapter 1 after I got feedback from two of my writer’s groups the beginning of the story seemed to be dragging and difficult to figure out where the plot was headed. After some brand new feedback on this section today, I’ve been reassured I’m on the right path.
The Heart Project: This is the name of the… let’s call it speculative/fantasy/soft sci-fi story I have in mind informed by our troubled time involving four one-time friends, a high school reunion, and a microcosm of a larger sense of chaos.
With The Yank Striker’s Journey on my radar, this has been put on the back burner, in all honesty. But I haven’t forgotten about it. I might have to start seriously getting some planning and notes on it this summer.
In recent weeks, I’ve begun to wonder what Samuel “Sonny” Turner, the old Chicago-based newspaper columnist turned new era blogger who was the protagonist of my first novel, The Holy Fool, would be saying or doing if he was present during the current circumstances. When we last left him in this book, it was 2009 and Turner was celebrating the beginning of his new news site, The Fool, in Geneva, Switzerland. I’d like to think he was still at work, and he might have a more proactive journalistic mindset than his corporate media counterparts.
I’m not necessarily thinking there might be a sequel to The Holy Fool. But I’m thinking it might be a possibility.
My pure new writing output tanked this month while I was busy with revisions on The Yank Striker’s Journey. I was hoping to write at least 225,000 words for 2025, which would be a new yearly record. This month and this summer will be a great opportunity to pick up the pace.

What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing

There’s only a couple of events coming up for me this next few months, so I am planning on adding to this. But for now:

I will be at the the Badger Public Library book fair between around 8 a.m. until noon on Saturday, 17 May, at the Badger Public Library, 211 1st Ave SE, Badger, Iowa. They were one of the first places ever to participate in a book fair and I absolutely enjoyed the experience.

I will be at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Indie Author Book Expo from 12 to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 21, at the Valley Junction Activity Center, 217 Fifth St., West Des Moines. I did this show a couple of times these past few years and it didn’t run last year, but I’ll be back at it in June.

Writing Quote of the Week:

The King, once again saying it the best:

Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.

Stephen King

When I Post

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

How to support me😊.

If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores in Iowa, you can find my books there:

Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St. Fort Madison.
Green Point Mercantile, 214 Chestnut St., Muscatine.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.

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.

The Flow and the Journey

The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.

$6.00

Final Thoughts

I’m looking forward to a busy summer, and I hope to see some of you readers during my time out and about.

All you writers keep writing and everyone keep safe.

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By the way, I would love to hear about what you, the readers, are writing yourselves. Please feel free to share what you are working on either in the comments or by direct message. ↩︎

The Writing Life, 5 April 2025: The Yank Striker 2 gets its official name

Hello and Some Quick Housekeeping Items

Hello and welcome back to my modest little Substack here on the interwebs but produced in southeast Iowa.

For those just joining me here or those who have been away for a while, my publishing schedule has slightly changed.

What you are reading now, The Writing Life, is my official newsletter, where I talk about my upcoming writing projects, promotional events, some personal news, and some odds and ends. It runs on the first weekend of the month, usually (not always) Saturday.
Second weekend of the month is Prose Night. This is where I post an original piece of prose writing. It could be an excerpt of a larger work in progress, an original essay, such as my A Writer’s Biography posts looking back at my life and path as a writer, or the occasional short story.
Third weekend of the month will be The Writing Lab. This will cover advice about writing to readers, as well as glances at issues I’ve faced myself as a writer. Hopefully, it can be useful to those who want to improve their own work. For the first of those last month, I ran a live Substack Chat for anyone wanting to get advice or feedback on writing. That didn’t get much response, so I might try a Substack Note instead. I’ll let you know what I decide.
Fourth weekend of the month is Poetry Night. You get a couple of fresh new poems from me, and likely some random exposition as to why I might have written them. It’s been a good challenge for me to be more productive with my poems, and I’m surprised at how much I’ve grown as a poetry writer in the process.
If there is a fifth weekend in the month, I either take the weekend off or we do a Hodgepodge Night. It could be anything – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, advice – shoot, maybe even a video or podcast if I get crazy.

Anyway, I’ll try not to repeat this list in my later Writing Life newsletters, or I’ll figure out another way to get the schedule out there without clogging up the newsletter.

What I’ve Been Writing

The Yank Striker’s Journey (Previously referred to as The Yank Striker 2): the sequel to my book The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning. The Yank Striker series follows the exploits of a prospective American soccer player who leaves his family behind to try his fortune with an English Premier League team in the East End of London. The Yank Striker’s Journey focuses on what my main character, Daniel John “DJ” Ryan has to face now he is trying to establish himself as a footballer in England, both as an American in a strange land and someone whose sexual orientation brings extra scrutiny.

I’ve now finished the second draft and have gotten feedback from the majority of my beta readers. I’ve now begun the second of three planned revisions after a first one in February. My plan is to finish this and the third revision by the end of April. In May, I am planning to have a final editing and proofreading session, and this needs to get wrapped up by around Memorial Day. If all goes well, I am hoping for a June release, although I do not have an exact date yet.

The Untitled Pro Wrestling Fiction Project: I’ve been making more progress on this. Over the past year and a half, this story about a family of pro wrestlers from Texas and a young man’s determination to understand what it all means has been at the head of my creative interests for a while, with the exception of The Yank Striker’s Journey. Currently, I’m at more than 36,000 words on the project.
However, over the past few months, I’ve had the great opportunity to share the rough draft with two different writing groups. In getting feedback from members of those groups, I’ve come to the conclusion my rough draft starts off at a leisurely pace and it’s not clear enough what the main conflict of the main character is. In 21st century fiction, you just can’t spend the first several pages of a book wandering around the story rather than getting to it.
I’m going to continue to make progress on the rough draft, even though every instinct in my head is telling me to go back and rewrite the beginning of the book. It will be an experience, I am sure.
The Heart Project: This is the name of the… let’s call it speculative/fantasy/soft sci-fi story I have in mind informed by our troubled times.
This involves four one-time friends, a high school reunion, and a microcosm of a larger sense of chaos.
With The Yank Striker’s Journey on my radar, this has been put on the back burner, in all honesty. But I haven’t forgotten about it.
Poetry: No word on whether I swept the Lyrical Iowa 2025 Contest awards, but I’m glad I entered it. Otherwise, I keep trying to produce some more works.
I didn’t win or place in this year’s Iron Pen Contest sponsored by the Midwest Writing Center, but it was a heck of a ride as always. Looking forward to next year’s contest.

In total, however, my writing output over the past two weeks especially has gone down the toilet as I have been spending much time on reviewing revisions for The Yank Striker’s Journey. I want to pick up the pace, especially if I am hoping to write at least 225,000 words written for 2025, which would be a new yearly record for me if I make it. I just need to refocus myself and realize I have to keep producing stuff. I need to realize the rough draft stuff doesn’t have to be perfect.

What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing

I’ve continued to participate in different writer’s groups in the area. I attend one sponsored by the Fort Madison Area Art Association two Tuesdays a week, and I do a virtual meeting with the Midwest Writing Center’s group usually every first and third Saturday, and a live meeting with the Society of Great River Poets in Burlington the same days. Those days get pretty hectic when I make it to both meetings, but I truly get some great feedback and advice from them. I credit the writing groups I previously belonged to, the active Writers on the Avenue in Muscatine and the defunct Iowa Writers’ Corner in Des Moines, with helping me on the path to publishing my past two books.

I absolutely enjoyed my time at the DSM Book Festival last month in Des Moines, hosted by Beaverdale Books in town. I let them know I would absolutely be interested in making a return trip there next year.

Here’s a couple others:

I will be at the the Badger Public Library book fair between around 8 a.m. until noon on Saturday, 17 May, at the Badger Public Library, 211 1st Ave SE, Badger, Iowa. They were one of the first places ever to participate in a book fair and I absolutely enjoyed the experience.

I will be at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Indie Author Book Expo from 12 to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 21, at the Valley Junction Activity Center, 217 Fifth St., West Des Moines. I did this show a couple of times these past few years and it didn’t run last year, but I’ll be back at it in June.

I know I need to get some appearances and other things going to promote the book, and get in contact with some media as well. I think this is the appropriate time to say if any podcasters or bloggers are interested in new fiction, if you are interested in stories based in the world of soccer, or if you are interested in featuring writers from Iowa or the Midwest, I would absolutely be open for a feature or interview. Get in touch here or at jasonliegois@liegois.media.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

This in particular seems to be good advice for many writers, including my own students.

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

This next quote reminds me I want to put out as much writing and creativity as I can in the time I have left because I spent a lot of time not doing it. I’m trying to make up for lost time, but then again that’s something everyone does when you get down to it.

The second thing you have to do to be a writer is to keep on writing. Don’t listen to people who tell you that very few people get published and you won’t be one of them. Don’t listen to your friend who says you are better that Tolkien and don’t have to try any more. Keep writing, keep faith in the idea that you have unique stories to tell, and tell them. I meet far too many people who are going to be writers ‘someday.’ When they are out of high school, when they’ve finished college, after the wedding, when the kids are older, after I retire . . . That is such a trap You will never have any more free time than you do right now. So, whether you are 12 or 70, you should sit down today and start being a writer if that is what you want to do. You might have to write on a notebook while your kids are playing on the swings or write in your car on your coffee break. That’s okay. I think we’ve all ‘been there, done that.’ It all starts with the writing. ”
― Robin Hobb

How to support me😊.

If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores in Iowa, you can find my books there:

Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St. Fort Madison.
Green Point Mercantile, 214 Chestnut St., Muscatine.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.

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.

The Flow and the Journey

The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.

$6.00

Final Thoughts

It’s going to be a hectic few months for me coming up. All you writers keep writing and everyone keep safe.

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The Writing Life, 1 March 2025: The Yank Striker 2 revisions and a quick format change

Good to welcome you all to my neck of the Internet. It was a bit warmer, but I am not exactly wishing for June temperatures even though I’m starting to think of my summer break increasingly.

Let’s get into some talk about what’s going on with me and with writing. Turns out there’s a bit going on.

What I’ve Been Writing

The Yank Striker 2: the sequel to my book The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning. The Yank Striker series follows the exploits of a prospective American soccer player who leaves his family behind to try his fortune with an English Premier League team in the East End of London. Book two focuses on what my main character, Daniel John “DJ” Ryan has to face now he is trying to establish himself as a footballer in England, both as an American in a strange land and someone whose sexual orientation brings extra scrutiny.

I’ve now finished the second draft (2.0 or 2.1 depending on how you define it). This is my schedule for the rest of the process.

Beta reads – – Now beginning at the start of March and completed by the end of March.
Two more rounds of revisions in April.
Final editing and proofreading in May and concluding by the end of May.

Speaking of Those Beta Readers…

Even though I will be reaching out to friends and family, I am sincerely looking for beta readers for The Yank Striker 2. If anyone out there on the Internets or on Substack is interested in becoming beta readers for this project and completing your work in a timely fashion, I would be willing to reward you for your hard work.

Anyone interested in serving as beta readers for the project will get a complimentary paid subscription for this site lasting at least one year. I will sort it out for you. Depending on your services, I might also throw in another freebee or two.

If you are interested, chirp back to me in the comments of this post or in DMs. Thank you for your service ahead of time.

Now, on with the other projects.

The Untitled Pro Wrestling Fiction Project: I’ve been making more progress on this. Over the past year and a half, this story about a family of pro wrestlers from Texas and a young man’s determination to understand what it all means has been at the head of my creative interests for a while, with the exception of The Yank Striker 2. Currently, I’m at 32,000-plus words on the project and have continued to make progress on it.
Poetry: Just entered the Lyrical Iowa 2025 Contest at the last minute. I’ll be interested to see if anything comes of it. I’m glad I’m starting to do things like this and the poetry slam contest the Iowa Poetry Association sponsored.
The Heart Project: This is the name of the… let’s call it speculative/fantasy/soft sci-fi story I have in mind informed by our troubled times. I’m just starting some initial notes on the project.
I’m going to keep this very vague right now, but it involves four one-time friends, a high school reunion, and a microcosm of a larger sense of chaos.
I think it’s going to take me a while to pull this story together in my head, so I’m going to be coy about the whole thing in the meantime. I might start letting some rough excerpts escape into a Prose Night post one of these nights.
Oh, and I’m trying to participate in this year’s Iron Pen Contest sponsored by the Midwest Writing Center. Trying to get a short story and poem sorted out in 24 hours or less, heh heh. I’ll let you know if anything comes of it.

A Slight Change in Programming (A Revamp of my Posts)

I want to make sure I am trying to provide some value to my readers, both old and new. For the first several months of this format, I was doing a newsletter every week, and it wound up getting pretty repetitive. For those not aware, I went to producing the newsletter (The Writing Life) every first and third weekend of the month rather than every week. That’s why you are seeing this now, on the first Saturday of March.

Now, I’m beginning to think that might be a bit too much. So, I am going to change gears and try and provide some more value for your read. This is going to be my publishing schedule going forward. There’s not a massive amount of change from my previous schedule, but I will point it out as I lay it out here.

First weekend¹ of the month: The newsletter (The Writing Life). This is where I keep everyone updated on what I’ve been writing, what is upcoming for me, just to say hello.
Second weekend of the month: Prose Night. I produce an original piece of prose writing for reading here. Sometimes it will be an excerpt of a larger work in progress. Sometimes it will be an original essay, usually tied in some fashion to writing or myself. For example, I’ve been writing these posts off and on throughout the years entitled A Writer’s Biography, where I look back on my life through a writer’s lens to see how my passion influenced my interests, my path in life, and how it made me into who I am right now. I might even do an occasional short story here, perhaps. It’ll be brand new stuff.
Third weekend of the month: [LOOK OUT, HERE IS WHERE THE PROGRAMMING CHANGE IS.] The Writing Lab. These posts might be slightly shorter than the first two types; we will have to see. I’ve been inconsistent with providing advice and insight into writing for readers. I want to address that with The Writing Lab.
Sometimes the post will be a straight piece of writing advice. (I’m going to make an effort to keep track of all these topics to make sure I’m not repeating myself too often.) Often, I’ll take you into my prime writing spot, my writing nook, as I review or reflect on writing difficulties I have faced or am facing, and how I try to deal with them.

The main writing nook. It’s a bit more crowded now. 🙂

In addition, in conjunction with this new feature, I am going to make more use of the Substack Chat feature. Every weekend I post The Writing Lab, I will post an open chat which will be Ask Me Anything About Writing (AMAAW). The times and exact dates of these chats might vary, but I will post on Substack Notes when I have them set. Any questions you have on writing and fiction, or any feedback you want on your own writing, I will be open for business. I would love to see this take off and be successful.
I’m scheduling the first of these Writing Labs for March 15. Looking forward to it.
Fourth weekend of the month: Poetry Night. You get a couple of fresh new poems from me on Poetry Night, as well as some nonsense exposition as to why I might have written them. Ever since I started this, I have to say I’ve been much more productive with poetry than I’ve ever been in my life. I’ve written six poems this year so far, which is an unheard pace for me, who never really concentrated on putting out a large amount of poems. I may be talking too soon, but I think the quality of what I’ve been producing has grown. At least, I think it’s become easier for me.
If there is a fifth weekend in the month, I either plan to take that weekend off or we do a Hodgepodge Night. That’s means it could be anything – fiction, non-fiction, poetry – shoot, maybe even a video or podcast if I get crazy. We’ll just have to see, won’t we?

Anyway, that’s my schedule for now. Hope it might shake things up a bit.

What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing

This week, I attended my first meeting of a new writer’s group here in Fort Madison sponsored by the Fort Madison Area Art Association. I was really happy to go to a writer’s group meeting locally. While I do have a couple of groups I attend on a regular basis, those are virtual and/or out of town, so it’s nice to have an in-town option. Looking forward to getting and receiving some good feedback on my work.

The Dude in Purple. A bit of a reference to a personage in my hometown. Read up on it if you want.

I have more than a few plans for book fair appearances in the coming months. Recently, I have managed to confirm these, so I will list them here.

From 1-2:30 p.m. Saturday, 22 March, I will be attending the DSM Book Festival at the Franklin Event Center, 4801 Franklin Ave, Des Moines. This will be the first year of this festival co-sponsored by one of my favorite independent bookstores in Des Moines, Beaverdale Books. Can’t wait to be part of this.
I will be at the the Badger Public Library book fair (Time TBD) on Saturday, 17 May, at the Badger Public Library, 211 1st Ave SE, Badger, Iowa. They were one of the first places ever to participate in a book fair and I absolutely enjoyed the experience.

If there are other events coming up, I’ll let you know. I’m hoping for some more events, especially to promote what I hope will be The Yank Striker 2 this summer. I’ll keep you in the loop.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

Charles Bukowski is one of those poets I just seemed to respond to.

the writing of some
men
is like a vast bridge
that carries you
over
the many things
that claw and tear.

The Wine of Forever

― Charles Bukowski, Love Is a Dog from Hell

The following is quite true this spring especially with The Yank Striker 2 in revisions. 🙂

A good book isn’t written, it’s rewritten.

― Phyllis A. Whitney, Guide to Fiction Writing

How to support me😊.

If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores in Iowa, you can find my books there:

Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St. Fort Madison.
Green Point Mercantile, 214 Chestnut St., Muscatine.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.

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.

The Flow and the Journey

The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.

$6.00

Final Thoughts

That’s where I’m at for now. As I often say, all you writers keep writing and everyone keep safe.

-30-

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This (and the other regular posts) will run on Saturdays at about 5 p.m. Central time unless circumstances out of (or in) my control dictate otherwise. ↩︎

The Writing Life, 15 February 2025: Getting going on The Yank Striker 2 revisions

To both regular readers and any random online wanderers coming upon this page, welcome.

It’s honestly wild that we are now in the middle of February. Time is moving fast and I’m all right with that for the moment. Many people I’m around in Iowa are getting tired of the cold (but not much snow), but I’m happy not dealing with 98 degree weather we had to deal with from July to almost October last year.

I’m not going to be happy with 1.5 Celsius temperature rise myself. At this point I might ask my wife if we could retire on the shores of Hudson Bay or Svalbard.

Been working on at least a couple projects in various stages of production. I’ll talk about those things and some updated information about where I’ll be during the next few months. I’ll either keep it interesting or to the point – whichever one works lol.

The Home Front

Since today is my mother’s birthday, I’ll take a moment to wish her happy birthday. We’re not in the same town, but we’re planning on getting together to celebrate sometime in the next couple weeks or so.

My son just passed his certification test to get his heating and air conditioning (HVAC) journeyman’s certification. It’s been a long road for him, especially after recovering from the head injury he got on the job about a year ago in Des Moines. But this is a big step in his career. I’m very proud of the progress he’s made.

And I’m looking forward to the long weekend this weekend. Happy President’s Day and all that.

What I’ve Been Writing

The Yank Striker 2: the sequel to my book The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning. The Yank Striker series follows the exploits of a prospective American soccer player who leaves his family behind to try his fortune with an English Premier League team in the East End of London. Book two focuses on what my main character, Daniel John “DJ” Ryan has to face now he is trying to establish himself as a footballer in England, both as an American in a strange land and someone who identifies as bisexual and the scrutiny it brings.

As of this moment, this will be the schedule for The Yank Striker 2:

Second draft – begun on 8 February and completed by the end of the month at the latest.
Beta reads – these hopefully will begin at the start of March and completed by the end of March.
Two more rounds of revisions in April.
Final editing and proofreading in May and concluding by the end of May.

Speaking of Those Beta Readers…

If you are interested, chirp back to me in the comments of this post or in DMs. Thank you for your service ahead of time.

Now, on with the other projects.

The Untitled Pro Wrestling Fiction Project: While waiting for my plans on The Yank Striker 2, this has been dominating my thoughts more and more. Over the past year and a half, this story about a family of pro wrestlers from Texas and a young man’s determination to understand what it all means has been at the head of my creative interests for a while, with the exception of The Yank Striker 2.
I’ve continued to make progress on the rough draft of this story. I’m within reach of 30,000 words so far, and I think I should add around 50,000 words to make it about right as far as size. I don’t think I’d want to go further than this, because the project will be part of an eventual trilogy I have in mind. The trilogy also has different timelines to deal with, with a “modern” timeline of fall 2017 to spring 2019, and a flashback timeline spanning from 1953 to roughly 2009, I think.
Poetry: I managed to self-publish my own chapbook of poetry at the end of 2024. A second one is not a massive priority now, but I’d 100 percent be open to doing another one in the near future. I am continuing to produce more poetry, some of which shows up here on the fourth weekend (usually Saturday) of every month. Now, I want to try and save some poems up, in the event I want to submit them to places that insist they want to have the right of first publication. Apparently, if I publish them in Substack that means they’re published. Good to know.
Then there’s this third idea I have for a book. It’s one slightly based on the current situation in America but I’m going to play with the setting slightly.
I’m also a bit nervous about releasing a title for the book when it is this early in the writing process. At this point there’s just been notes and speculation in my head, nothing more. To be slightly close to the spirit of the novel I want to create and yet be a bit obscure and non-spoilerish, I’m going to call it the Heart project at the moment.
For now, I want to sketch out a better idea of the story I want to write. I have persons and concepts and angles now, not necessarily on paper, but I need to get names and plot lines moving as well. I’ll mention this again in more detail when I have more detail to give.

What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing

I have more than a few plans for book fair appearances in the coming months. Recently, I have managed to confirm these, so I will list them here.

I will be appearing from 1-4 p.m. Next Saturday, 22 February at the Johnstown Public Library, 6700 Merle Hay Rd, Johnston, IA. I had a great time at this event two years ago and I am honored to be returning there.
From 1-2:30 p.m. Saturday, 22 March, I will be attending the DSM Book Festival at the Franklin Event Center, 4801 Franklin Ave, Des Moines. This will be the first year of this festival co-sponsored by one of my favorite independent bookstores in Des Moines, Beaverdale Books. Can’t wait to be part of this.
Finally, I will be at the the Badger Public Library book fair (Time TBD) on Saturday, 17 May, at the Badger Public Library, 211 1st Ave SE, Badger, Iowa. They were one of the first places ever to participate in a book fair and I absolutely enjoyed the experience.

If there are other events coming up, I’ll let you know. I’m hoping for some more events, especially to promote what I hope will be The Yank Striker 2 this summer. I’ll keep you in the loop.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

This is quite relevant as I start revising The Yank Striker 2.

The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.

Sir Terry Pratchett

Never heard of Robin Hobb before running across this quote. The quote makes me curious about the speculative fiction she writes, because this is some good advice.

The second thing you have to do to be a writer is to keep on writing. Don’t listen to people who tell you that very few people get published and you won’t be one of them. Don’t listen to your friend who says you are better that Tolkien and don’t have to try any more. Keep writing, keep faith in the idea that you have unique stories to tell, and tell them. I meet far too many people who are going to be writers ‘someday.’ When they are out of high school, when they’ve finished college, after the wedding, when the kids are older, after I retire . . . That is such a trap You will never have any more free time than you do right now. So, whether you are 12 or 70, you should sit down today and start being a writer if that is what you want to do. You might have to write on a notebook while your kids are playing on the swings or write in your car on your coffee break. That’s okay. I think we’ve all ‘been there, done that.’ It all starts with the writing.

Robin Hobb

How to support me😊.

If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores in Iowa, you can find my books there:

Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St. Fort Madison.
Green Point Mercantile, 214 Chestnut St., Muscatine.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.

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.

The Flow and the Journey

The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.

$6.00

On the subject of Substack, it’s fantastic if you are signed up for my free subscription, but I would love it if you signed up for a paid one. The monthly rate is the lowest I can put it ($5 per month) but my yearly rate of $35 is a steal at less than three/fifths the monthly rate.

Final Thoughts

That’s where I’m at for now. As I often say, all you writers keep writing and everyone keep safe.

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The Writing Life, 1 February 2025: February’s already here, and I’m keeping busy

Welcome to everyone wandering over to this part of the Internet.

The Home Front

We are done with January, which seemed to last forever last year. Then again, last year was when I was between homes, driving around between homes and hotel rooms and apartments in between the move to Fort Madison and looking out for my kid in Des Moines. In short, January 2024 dragged for me and my family, and I prefer this alternative.

We haven’t had much in the way of massive snow storms around Iowa this year. My own school district has had only one snow day this year (technically a weather day, since it was severe cold rather than snow shutting us down). Many of my co-workers are hoping for sun and warmth, but honestly I am glad it still can get as cold as it has. I thought there was no way Iowa was going to cool down around last October. I will take 28 degree weather rather than 98 degree weather. I’m the freak who prefers the Azores, Shetland, and Faeroe Islands to someplace in the Caribbean.

So far, kids and my wife Laura are doing all right. Not much else to say otherwise.

What I’ve Been Writing

The Yank Striker 2: the sequel to my book The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning. The Yank Striker series follows the exploits of a prospective American soccer player who leaves his family behind to try his fortune with an English Premier League team in the East End of London. Book two starts examining what my main character, Daniel John “DJ” Ryan has to face now he is trying to establish himself as a footballer in England.
I am looking at Saturday of next week as the continuation of the writing process. I wanted to make sure I let the rough draft of the new book sit for at least a few weeks. I set 8 February 2025 as the time to restart my work on the book. As of this moment, this will be the schedule for The Yank Striker 2:
- Second draft – begun by 8 February and completed by the end of the month at the latest.
- Beta reads – begun at the start of March and completed by the end of March.
- Two more rounds of revisions in April.
- Final editing and proofreading in May and concluding by the end of May.
  
  This might be the most ambitious release date for any book I’ve ever done. I’m confident in making this work, however, and I’m starting to put things into motion for all of this to happen. I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going, and I think I’ll have to have some big announcement regarding what the official title of the story will be.
  
  This is the thing, however. Even though I will be reaching out to friends and family about this issue, I am looking for beta readers for The Yank Striker 2. If anyone out there on the Internets or in Substack land will be interested in becoming beta readers for this project and completing your work in a timely fashion, I would be willing to reward you for your hard work.
  
  Anyone interested in serving as beta readers for the project will get a complimentary paid subscription for this site lasting at least one year. I will sort it out for you. If you are interested, chirp back to me in the comments of this post or in DMs. Thank you for your service ahead of time.
The Untitled Pro Wrestling Fiction Project: While waiting for my plans on The Yank Striker 2, this has been dominating my thoughts more and more. Over the past year and a half, this story about a family of pro wrestlers from Texas and a young man’s determination to understand what it all means has been dominating my thoughts for a while. My poor students have had to endure my using wrestling terminology with them regardless of whether they understand it our not. (For example, for those who keep on joking or not taking anything seriously, I occasionally say “I can’t tell if everything you do is a shoot or not.”
For just screwing around with a rough draft with no set schedule, building up a rough draft to more than 26,000 words is a bit of an accomplishment. It’s going to be the first of a trilogy, though. I’ll keep you up to date on what is going on.
Poetry: I managed to self-publish my own chapbook of poetry at the end of 2024. I had a lot of fun with the process, and I can finally call myself a published poet. I don’t have any plans to do a second collection, but I’m not opposed to going forward with it either. Based on the feedback from my poets’ group, I might not even have to choose a theme for it. Or, maybe I will.
I have another idea for a book – one aimed at the strangeness and uncertainty we see in this country now. Call it part sci-fi, part fantasy. It might be classified as either, for sure. It has not evolved into more than an abstract idea for now, but I want it to be more. It will not cover the present players and unpleasantness. In all honesty, they are not interesting subjects for fiction, for they are not unique in history.
In short, the unfairness and oppression many face in my country have tempted me to write something. I have the idea of compassion and empathy spreading among the population. (Enough spoilers there). We’ll see if I make progress with it.

What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing

I have more than a few plans for book fair appearances in the coming months. Recently, I have managed to confirm these, so I will list them here.

I will be appearing from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, 22 February at the Johnstown Public Library, 6700 Merle Hay Rd, Johnston, IA. I had a great time at this event two years ago and I am honored to be returning there.
From 1-2:30 p.m. Saturday, 22 March, I will be attending the DSM Book Festival at the Franklin Event Center, 4801 Franklin Ave, Des Moines. This will be the first year of this festival co-sponsored by one of my favorite independent bookstores in Des Moines, Beaverdale Books. Can’t wait to be part of this.
Finally, I will be at the the Badger Public Library book fair (Time TBD) on Saturday, 17 May, at the Badger Public Library, 211 1st Ave SE, Badger, Iowa. They were one of the first places ever to participate in a book fair and I absolutely enjoyed the experience.

If there are other events coming up, I’ll let you know. Hopefully, I’ll have one or a few launch parties for my new book to come.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

Some things can be both true and not quite true all at once. This statement is one of them.

You can’t blame a writer for what the characters say.

Truman Capote

I think Miles Davis said something similar when it comes to music. And I agree with both of them.

A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.

Mark Twain

How to support me😊.

Go to the links on the side if you are reading this on a desktop/laptop or the links on my profile. There’s where you can find out about my first book, the journalism thriller The Holy Fool: A Journalist’s Revolt, as well as the first book in my The Yank Striker series, The Yank Striker: a Footballer’s Beginning.

If you go follow the links above, you will be able to buy both the paperback and ebook versions of my books on Amazon. Honestly, if you just put “Jason Liegois” in Google you’ll probably find them on the first page of search results.

If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores in Iowa, you can find my books there:

Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St. Fort Madison.
Green Point Mercantile, 214 Chestnut St., Muscatine.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

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.

My poetry book The Flow and the Journey is available at Green Point and Burlington By the Book, but it is also available online but not on Amazon. I’ve set up a new online store for copies of my chapbook on Liegois Media. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click on the button below.

The Flow and the Journey

The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.

$6.00

Go ahead and buy me a cup of coffee, why don’t you? 😊

Now, if you want to support me but can’t quite afford a full subscription, I am now on Venmo. You can just send whatever you can afford. Just click the button below; anything you can provide helps me keep things going.

Final Thoughts

Hope your week went well, and for you writers, I hope you got something down on paper or on screen. And for everyone else – keep safe out there, things are getting weird.

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The Writing Life, 18 January 2025: Reaching the finish line

Hi, everyone. Welcome to my writing nook, so to speak.

There’s some big news having to do with a project I’ve been calling The Yank Striker 2. How about we talk about it? Also, I might discuss a few other things.

The Home Front

Fort Madison, Iowa, Dusk, 17 January 2024. Photo by Laura Liegois.

I got started on the second semester of the school year this week. It’s still amazing to me how fast the second half of last year sped along considering how long the first half of the year dragged along because of all the time spent on the road, out of my old home but not yet in my new one, just waiting for the school year to be over and to finish with all contractual obligations to my old district. It inspired some good poetry, but it was a bit of a slog especially at the end.

When we were having dinner together this past Sunday, my wife pointed out to me by the end of the current school year, I will have worked for five different school districts during the past ten years – an average of two years per district. I hadn’t thought it had been so many in such a short period of time, but the math worked out.

My wife has lived in five different residences in this time (one more than myself because she moved early to Chariton when she got the job of city manager there and I was wrapping up another teaching contract). Then there’s the fact my kids have moved a combined ten times during this time, counting moving them out of or into our homes, dorms in the case of our daughter, and apartments.

That’s a lot of moving in an out, a lot of time on the road. To be honest, both Laura and I would be happy not to be going anywhere different for a while. In another decade, she and even I will be within sight of retirement from our respective professions. Our house is nice, and work is going well. Even with all the uncertainty in the world, I try to appreciate what I do have. All things considered, my life is going well.

What I’ve Been Writing

Hey, remember that book I put out a year and a half ago? You might have heard of it if you’ve been hanging around my blog for a while?

Remember how I’ve kept saying it was going to be the first in a series? Well, this theoretical series is now coming closer to becoming a reality.

Subscribers, passers-by, and humans alike, I am delighted to announce I have completed the rough draft to the second book in The Yank Striker series, which I have referred to as The Yank Striker 2. I have an idea for the final title of this book, but I am not revealing it until later when the time is right.

I had hoped I would have finished the rough draft before the end of 2024, but I only overshot my target by a mere half month. I now have a 80,345-word first draft on my hands. Oopsy.

It is now in my cloud and various hard drives for future use, safe and sound, and ready for what I consider to be the true work of writing, the revising process.

Since I officially finished it mid-week this week, my plan is to let the manuscript sit and simmer in the computer and in my head for three and a half weeks. This would mean I’m going to start tackling the second draft of the book by 8 February 2025.

My ultimate goal would be to release the book with my publisher by 1 June of this year. This would mean:

Second draft – begun by 8 February and completed by the end of the month at the latest.
Beta reads – begun at the start of March and completed by the end of March.
Two more rounds of revisions in April.
Final editing and proofreading in May and concluding by the end of May.

This might be the most ambitious release date for any book I’ve ever done. However, I managed to self-publish my own chapbook of poetry before 2024 ran out, so you never know.

My ultimate goal would be to release the book with my publisher by 1 June of this year. This would mean:

Second draft – begun by 8 February and completed by the end of the month at the latest.
Beta reads – begun at the start of March and completed by the end of March.
Two more rounds of revisions in April.
Final editing and proofreading in May and concluding by the end of May.

This might be the most ambitious release date for any book I’ve ever done. However, I managed to self-publish my own chapbook of poetry before 2024 ran out, so you never know.

What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing

Starting this week, I’m planning on kickstarting my other preparations for getting The Yank Striker 2 to market. This is going to be more of an effort than just the revising and editing process.

Unlike my first two novels, I’m interested in going to an outside source to design the cover art for The Yank Striker 2. I’m also hoping to find some beta readers for my book once I finish the first revision.

And no offense to all of my great readers online, but I’m not soliciting such help here.

After some time online and having to deal with a massive amount of scammers and grifters trying to separate me from my money for different reasons, I am about done with working with any online book business operations, or at least done with people I don’t have recommendations for from my IRL friends, such as my fellow writers in places like Des Moines, Muscatine, Burlington, and points beyond. Online life might be cool, but it’s no replacement for human connection¹.

Also, I’m going to spend this weekend trying to email organizers of Iowa book fairs. I want to get some updates about upcoming dates and whether I can get on the road to be part of those events. When I confirm some of those dates, you’ll be the first to hear from me.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

Not sure if I’ve featured T.S. Eliot in this space, so I decided to go with this one. Seems he had a sense of humor for sure.

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

T.S. Eliot

Here’s another statement I would cosign, although I often get distracted during my writing. 😅

Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.

Gloria Steinem

Finally, here’s the great Margaret Atwood with the wolves theory of storytelling.

All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.

All of them?

Sure, he says. Think about it. There’s escaping from the wolves, fighting the wolves, capturing the wolves, taming the wolves. Being thrown to the wolves, or throwing others to the wolves so the wolves will eat them instead of you. Running with the wolf pack. Turning into a wolf. Best of all, turning into the head wolf. No other decent stories exist².

How to support me😊.

Go to the links on the side if you are reading this on a desktop/laptop or the links on my profile to check out some of my other links. For example, in those places, you can find out about my first book, the journalism thriller The Holy Fool: A Journalist’s Revolt, as well as the first book in my The Yank Striker series, The Yank Striker: a Footballer’s Beginning.

If you go follow the links above, you will be able to buy both the paperback and ebook versions of my books on Amazon. Again, if you just put “Jason Liegois” in Google you’ll probably find them on the first page of search results.

If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores in Iowa, you can find my books there:

[NEWEST LOCATION] Green Point Mercantile, 214 Chestnut St., Muscatine.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St., in my new hometown of Fort Madison.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

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.

My poetry book The Flow and the Journey is available at the first two bookstores above (and hopefully more down the road), but it is also available online but not on Amazon. I’ve set up a new online store for copies of my chapbook on my WordPress site, Liegois Media. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click on the button below.

The Flow and the Journey

The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.

$6.00

Go ahead and buy me a cup of coffee, why don’t you? 😊

Final Thoughts

Wow, a lot happening this week. Hope your week went well, and for you writers, I hope you got something down on paper or on screen.

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Check out Green Point Mercantile, it’s a cool little bookstore.

I am very much tempted to spend the next Prose Night post detailing one of the most elaborate grifts someone tried to pull on me. It’s a cool story, trust me. Might be more interesting than some of my fiction excerpts. 😅 ↩︎
The Yank Striker 2, I believe, would best fit being thrown to the wolves and also running with the wolf pack. ↩︎

The Writing Life, 4 January 2025: Reviewing 2024 (and 2025’s) goals

Well, I hope everyone is getting off on the right foot for the upcoming year 2025. As for me, I decided to use the first newsletter of the year to look back on my old goals for the year just passed.

I had considered maybe doing a separate post about all those goals and the numbers I did (or didn’t reach) this year. However, the whole point – or, at least, one of the main points of this newsletter – is to discuss my writing experiences, projects, and related work. It wouldn’t make sense not to talk about goals here, even though I’ll try not to get to numbers-heavy here.

So, let’s talk writing goals past and present. I’m not a fan of the word “resolutions” when it comes to setting goals for the year, are you?

The Home Front

Not too much to discuss here. I got to see my family over the holidays, in some cases more than once. I think I did have time to relax, even though I’m going to be jumping into the teaching mess once again starting next week. However, depending on the drop in temperatures and the increase in precipitation, exactly when we get back off break might vary.

Writing Goals 2024

During the past few years, I’ve had a good handle on my writing goals for the upcoming year right from the beginning. This year was no different.

For those who didn’t want to bother clicking on the link, here were some of those goals.

I wanted to write a minimum of 200,000 words for 2024. Since I’ve gotten at least that much written three out of the previous four years, I figured that was a good minimum quota, similar to how I want to write either at least 500 words per day or spend at least 30 minutes revising or planning my work. In addition, I wanted to meet my daily minimum writing goals at least 75 percent of the time.
Later in the year, I also decided later I wanted to at least try to exceed my personal best yearly total, which was 215,152.
I wanted to finish the rough draft of The Yank Striker 2 (working title of my second book in The Yank Striker series) this year. I had optimistically thought I might have it done by the summer of 2024, but I more realistically figured it might be more like the end of the year before it was completed. Later in the year, I decided to try and keep it somewhere around 75,000 words in its rough draft form.
Finally, I thought it might be cool to not only write some more poetry, but eventually maybe collect it into a chapbook format or get it published somewhere.

So…, how did I do on them?

Better than I expected, actually.

I reached 200,000 words by Black Friday of November. Shortly before I headed off to holiday break, I got past last year’s total. And by the end of 2024, I had written 224,606 words. It was 9,454 words above last year’s total and less than 400 words short of 225,000.
I also ended up meeting my daily writing quotas 84 percent of the time, only one percent less than last year. Although I ended up spending several hundred minutes less revising and planning than I did before, I still think this was still overall the most productive writing year I ever had.
I was so close to getting the rough draft of The Yank Striker 2, everyone. As of the end of 2024, I have a rough draft of 74,059 words. As far as word count goes, I fell just short. In my heart, I think I have maybe four or so scenes I’ve got to finish up before I feel secure in calling it a complete rough draft.
Considering my first two books took (depending on how I look at the process), 4-5 years to complete, the fact I started last year with a manuscript of about 25,000 words and I’m nearly finished with the rough draft is at least a partial victory – a result, as the announcers call a draw in the English Premier League.
Well, right at the end of 2024, I produced my first ever collection of poetry, The Flow and the Journey, a collection of 19 poems with river and travel themes. Check out my recent post on it for more information (and where you can find it).

Writing Goals 2025

With what has happened in 2024, I have decided to set out my goals for the upcoming year in this space. I recognize I might modify or add to these goals as I did last year, but such is life, so they say.

Write a minimum 200,000 words, but I would love to crack the 225,000 mark this year if at all possible. And with my results during the past two years, I should be able to make my daily minimum writing goals at least 80 percent of the time.
Whether I will manage to do this or not is an interesting question. I imagine I will be spending much more time with revisions this year than the previous year due to finishing revisions for The Yank Striker 2.
I should be able to get the rough draft of The Yank Striker 2 done by the end of the month. However, this means a big turnaround of having a final draft ready for publication. If I was going to have my preference, I would want to have it ready for release either late May or early June, which means I should try and get a rough draft stitched together by mid-January. I’d like to let it sit for about four weeks, and then it would give me a solid three months to finish revisions. It would be a tight turnaround, but I don’t think it would be impossible.
Currently, I have 24,004 words written on The Untitled Pro Wrestling Project, which I’ve mentioned her previously. I would like to make similar progress on this manuscript over the course of this year. It would be fantastic if I had a full rough draft on my hands, but I’m not quite committed to the idea – yet.
As far as my poetry goes, I would like to continue to add to my collection of original work. Whether I want to put together another chapbook this year might be an open question. I would like to get my poems published in an outside publication, whether it be a poetry periodical or something regional. I have no acquaintance with this whole process, so I am sure this will be a full learning experience.

So for right now, I have two hard goals and two soft goals. I’m hoping I make progress on them throughout the year.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

I’ll start off with Toni Morrison explaining something important about writing and identity.

I never asked Tolstoy to write for me, a little colored girl in Lorain, Ohio. I never asked [James] Joyce not to mention Catholicism or the world of Dublin. Never. And I don’t know why I should be asked to explain your life to you. We have splendid writers to do that, but I am not one of them. It is that business of being universal, a word hopelessly stripped of meaning for me. Faulkner wrote what I suppose could be called regional literature and had it published all over the world. That’s what I wish to do. If I tried to write a universal novel, it would be water. Behind this question is the suggestion that to write for black people is somehow to diminish the writing. From my perspective there are only black people. When I say ‘people,’ that’s what I mean.

Toni Morrison

And for the first time ever, I am including a quote about writing suggested by one of my subscribers, Gesene Oaks, which I was happy to see.

Deadliest words to writers of poetry and short fiction: I don’t get it.

Gesene Oaks

What I’m Doing Having to Do With Writing

This week, I stopped by Green Point Mercantile, my old hometown of Muscatine’s newest independent bookstore. It’s located at 214 Chestnut St., right in the old downtown district.

I had the chance to meet with the owner, Candy Fuegen, an old classmate of mine, and we talked books and the new location. She now has copies of my books, including The Holy Fool, The Yank Striker, and my chapbook The Flow and the Journey.

It’s been way too long since Muscatine had an independent bookstore, so I was delighted to hear of Green Point’s opening just this fall. I would highly recommend checking them out if you are ever in Muscatine. Click on the button below to check them out on Instagram.

How to support me😊.

If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores in Iowa, you can find my books there:

[NEWEST LOCATION] Green Point Mercantile, 214 Chestnut St., Muscatine.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St., in my new hometown of Fort Madison.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

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.

My poetry book The Flow and the Journey is going to be available at the first two bookstores above (and hopefully more down the road), but it is also available online but not on Amazon. I’ve set up a new online store for copies of my chapbook here on, Liegois Media. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click on the button below.

The Flow and the Journey

The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.

$6.00

Hey pal, mind buying me a cup of coffee?

On the subject of Substack, I’m grateful if you are signed up for my free subscription, but I would love it if you signed up for a paid one. The monthly rate is the lowest I can put it ($5 per month) but my yearly rate of $35 is a steal at less than three/fifths the monthly rate.

Now, if you are interested in supporting me but can’t quite afford a full subscription, I am now on Venmo. If you are interested in a donation of whatever you can provide, you can just send whatever you can afford. Just click the button below; anything you can provide helps me keep things going.

Final Thoughts

Not much more for this week. Hope the snow doesn’t muck things up for us too much in Iowa. Best wishes to everyone.

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The Writing Life, 7 December 2024: Winter has come

December is finally and truly here. It seemed like at times earlier in 2024 this year would never come to a close, when it stretched ahead of me like the long highways I was constantly on as I probably drove enough miles to make a few complete circles around Iowa. Lot of tough times, some of which I talked about here and other issues (politics, cough cough) I haven’t and won’t touch on¹.

Let’s talk writing again.

The Home Front

Other than the fact snow can still exist in Iowa and my wife has wrapped up our Christmas decorating, there’s not much to talk about on the home front. I got to see both my kids and my parents over the Thanksgiving week, which in both cases are becoming rarer treats especially with my kids having their own personal and professional lives to attend to.

I hope Thanksgiving week worked out for all of you. All of the students (and many of the teachers) are likely counting down to the Christmas break, so we’ll see how that goes.

What I’m Writing

Current progress on my ongoing projects:

The Yank Striker 2, the sequel for The Yank Striker: I’ve continued to make good progress on this rough draft. I’ll talk about this a little more in the next section of the newsletter, trust me.
The Untitled Pro Wrestling Family Drama project: Again, no real progress recently. I might hold off on further pronouncements on this until I actually work on this.
The Untitled Liegois Poetry Chapbook: Um, about that… check out below for a bit of a surprise.

Writing Goals

Way back some time ago, I set some goals for myself for this calendar year.

At the time, just before the start of the new year, I set for myself three goals in particular for 2024. They were the following:

I want to write at least 200,000 words this year and meet my daily quota at least 75 percent of the time. So, these will be my quotas for this year (and I think for the subsequent years to come).
My preference would be to publish The Yank Striker 2 by this summer. However, if I manage to get the rough draft finished by the year’s end, I’ll consider it a win. I prefer to keep positive, however.
I want to write more poetry this year. In fact, it would be great if I managed to get some of my poetry published in some journals, or perhaps in a chapbook format. Hopefully, my Poetry Nights will produce some more material for this project.

So…, how did I do on them?

As of the end of November 2024, I have written 202,212 words for the year 2024, meeting my minimum quota. I had hoped to reach it by Thanksgiving Day, but it actually happened on Black Friday.
As of the beginning of December, I am 12,940 words away from matching my personal best record of last year (215,152). I only have to write about 417 words per day for the rest of the year to match it. Considering I’ve exceeded 12,940 words a month in all but two months this year, another personal best record appears in sight.
As of this writing, I’m now at 70,000-plus words on the rough draft. I will need to only average about 200 words per day on this project from now until the end of the year. This does not seem to be much of a difficulty in itself. Now, I’m wondering whether I will have to add some more to the text later. I’ve shown the last big game of the book, and now I am hoping to wrap up things soon. We’ll have to see whether I have a nice, neat tale by 31 December 2024.
As for the poetry book…

I am delighted to announce I have self-published my first collection of poetry. After months and maybe a couple of years wondering how the heck I should go about doing it, I just went ahead and did it.

The title ties in with the theme of the collection, which is river life and traveling. I grew up around the Mississippi River and had to do a lot of traveling over the past year, so I ended up writing more than a few poems about traveling recently. My decision to set aside every fourth weekend of the month on this blog as Poetry Night ended up motivating me to do a lot of poetry. There are nineteen poems in this collection, spanning from one as early as 2010 and some as recently as this fall.

To be honest, there is a lot I do not know about the poetry world. I recently became a member of the Iowa Poetry Association and am hoping to find more opportunities to publish my work either by the poem or in collections.

I’m planning on announcing an official holiday launch and/or places to obtain my collection soon, maybe on this month’s Poetry Night post. Stay tuned.

Writing Advice that’s Really Just a Saying

I often have a problem with my own first drafts of being too wordy, of using too many unnecessary words to describe something when two-thirds of the amount would do just fine.

I have a new saying describing this phenomenon. Here it is:

The words are managing to tackle the story.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

I don’t feature a lot of poets in this space, but this comment from a past poet of the previous century seemed to harmonize with my thoughts on writing.

I want to write because I have the urge to excel in one medium of translation and expression of life. I can’t be satisfied with the colossal job of merely living. Oh, no, I must order life in sonnets and sestinas and provide a verbal reflector for my 60-watt lighted head.

Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

What I’m Doing Having to Do With Writing: Social media

I’ve gotten onto social media for a bit as a way to reach out and get the word out to more people about what I’ve been working on. Frankly, if you put “Jason Liegois” into any halfway decent search engine, you’ll be able to track down most of them. I can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads at the moment. I was on Twitter for a bit, but I’m not on there now.

And now… I have joined with many other writers and creatives on Bluesky.

You can find me on Bluesky at @jasonliegoisauthor.bsky.social . I try and cross-post all of my blogs there as well as check in and get to know other writers. Maybe I’ll see you there².

Podcasting!

By the way, over the Thanksgiving break, I had a great conversation with a fellow writer in Iowa and friend Amber Rodgers as part of the Saga Studio Podcast. We talked about The Yank Striker quite a bit, as well as The Holy Fool and some of my upcoming projects. Check it out here if you want to give it a watch.

What I’m Doing Having to Do With Writing: Personal appearances

first want to thank the Fort Madison Area Art Association for hosting a book signing for me and several other area writers at their headquarters last Saturday. It was a great event and I’m definitely eager to do another event with them.

I’m still hoping to be part of the DSM Book Festival at the at Franklin Junior High Event Center, 4801 Franklin Ave., Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, 22 March 2025. This is being sponsored by one of my favorite independent book stores in Des Moines, Beaverdale Books.

How to support me😊.

If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores, you can find my books there:

[ABSOLUTELY BRAND NEW LOCATION! 😊] Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St., in my new hometown of Fort Madison, Iowa. They’ve been open for just about a year and just recently opened up a new used book section at their store. I can’t recommend them enough.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

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.

I love it if you are signed up for my free subscription, but I would love it if you signed up for a paid one. The monthly rate is the lowest I can put it ($5 per month) but my yearly rate of $35 is a steal at less than three/fifths the monthly rate.

Now, if you are interested in supporting me but can’t quite afford a full subscription, I am now on Venmo. If you are interested in a donation of whatever you can provide, you can just send whatever you can afford. Just click the button below or scan the QR code below to help out. Anything you can provide helps me keep things going.

Final Thoughts

That’s it for now. All you writers keep writing, and everyone else keep safe.

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This has always been and always will be a writing blog, not a blog about politics, no matter how tempting all those eyeballs interested in politics are. While politics naturally seeps into everything (including fiction and poetry), it does not have to be front and center, and for more than a few reasons I have elected not to keep it front and center. ↩︎
In these newsletters I might post all of my social links in one place at the end for those who can’t find them in the sidebar of the desktop site or in my profile area. ↩︎

The Writing Life, 16 November 2024: Finally settling in to a new year

[AUTHOR’S NOTE]: The featured photo is a glance at the notebook I’ve been using to keep track of my word count.

The end of the year is coming faster than I anticipated. It feels like at times my fingers or mind are weighed down with lead even though I have a clear idea of what I want to write when it comes to fiction for certain.

46 days left in the year. If this was a 5,000 or 10,000 meter race, this would be the time when I’d have to start sprinting. I’m not too much for the actual sprinting nowadays, but I might be able to manage the literary equivalent.

Let’s talk writing again.

The Home Front

We (my wife Laura and myself) are continuing to settle in the new homestead. All of the essential work took place a couple of weeks ago – at least, all of the things needed to live there and be there.

Now, we’re in the process of doing little things for the place, like reinstalling closet doors, having someone else install a garage door opener for us, and beginning to sort through the boxes of belongings that have been transported between four different residences over the past five years. That’s a lot of moving, and I think my wife and I are of the same mind that we want to stay in the same place for a while.

Not too much else to mention about home, except my son has moved into his new home in Des Moines with his girlfriend. He has a lot more to do, but he’s far more talented with home improvements and repairs than I’m ever going to be, but I was glad to help him finish moving in there.

What I’m Writing

Current progress on my ongoing projects:

The Yank Striker 2, the sequel for The Yank Striker: I’m proud to have rushed past the 63,000-word mark for the rough draft. Like I said in the beginning, I know where I’m headed to with the text, I just need to get over my insatiable need to have a perfect first draft rather than what I need to be doing if I am an actual serious writer, which is throw something as fast as possible into a document or onto a page and then wait to make it into something coherent somewhere around the fourth draft.
My mini-goal is to have a completed 75,000 word rough draft by 1 January 2025. With 46 days left in the year, I’d have to average just over 260 words per day on this project alone just to make the quota. I think it is absolutely possible.
The Untitled Pro Wrestling Family Drama project: No real progress recently. In my planning, this is the project I want to work on when I let The Yank Striker 2 rough draft sit for a while, so I want to have something to work on. I just need to figure out where I want to take the storyline from where it now is.
The Untitled Liegois Poetry Chapbook: No recent progress on this, but I am feeling good about the book’s layout and design based on some feedback from my poetry friends. I want to check in with some local printers and see what it would cost me to move forward from here. I want to be a published poet, even if I am publishing myself.
In addition, I toyed around with some fan fiction I’ve left long dormant, and a glance at some of the writings in my “morgue” of old projects might have inspired something. All that I’ve got on a document is the document and a title, but the rest of the story is cooking in my head. We’ll have to see about it.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

I decided on not one, not two, but three quotes this week from a writer I discovered in college and has become one of my authors ever since. Rest in Power Octavia E. Butler (1946-2007).

I don’t write about good and evil with this enormous dichotomy. I write about people.

Octavia E. Butler

Everything is political in one way or another.

1997 interview in Conversations with Octavia Butler

All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
Is Change.

God
Is Change.

Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

Writing Advice

It’s been a while since I’ve done this. Whether I have given this advice in the past or not, I think it is still valuable for those who have not heard it. It might seem simple, but I’ll discuss it here.

The following is a paraphrase of a conversation I had with a high school student about an essay he was writing. Writers sometimes don’t think they have enough to write about. They might not have been curious enough to ask enough questions.

Student: I’m not sure what else to write about. This is what I’ve written so far.

Me: All right. Show me what you’ve written so far.

(The student does so.)

Student: I don’t know what else to put in here.

Me: Okay. You wrote this sentence that told us this, right?

Student: Yeah.

Me: So, why did this happen? If you explain it, there’s another sentence there.

Student: Oh, all right.

Me: What about this next sentence? What happened because of this?

Student: Oh, okay.

Me: You did it with the following sentence here, right? You showed how this happened because of this.

Student: Yeah. Honestly, I just threw everything in there and hoped it was enough.

Me: Yeah, I get it. But you doing that is the same as you writing a whole bunch of information on a whole bunch of 3×5 cards and tossing them at me expecting I’m going to make sense of it. And I’m a good reader, but I’m not that good.

Student: Okay.

Me: See how “because” shows why this happened? See how “then” and “as a result” show what’s coming up? See how “for example” lets the reader know you’re going to give some more explanation for what you just wrote? You need to connect the ideas.

Student: All right. Thanks.

I tell my students: I can do one particular trick. But I do it pretty well.

What I’m Doing Having to Do With Writing

(AKA personal appearances)

I (also sometimes known as The Dude In Purple) have some events coming up this fall and some others I’m tentatively adding to the schedule. All these events will be me appearing live and with my books, The Holy Fool and The Yank Striker.

Here are my current events¹:

I will attend the Fort Madison Area Art Association’s Meet the Author Book Signing event from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, November 30, at the FMAAA’s center at 825 Avenue G, Fort Madison. This would be my first author’s event in my new home of Fort Madison, and I am overjoyed to be part of this gathering.
I’m hoping to be part of the DSM Book Festival at the at Franklin Junior High Event Center, 4801 Franklin Ave., Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, 22 March 2025. This is being sponsored by one of my favorite independent book stores in Des Moines, Beaverdale Books. I’ll provide more information, hopefully, as the event approaches.

I’ll be looking to add some more dates on the appearance calendar, and this weekend I’m hoping to reach out to some other groups as well. Hope to see you at one of those places.

How to support me😊.

If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores, you can find my books there:

Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

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.

Now, if you are interested in supporting me but can’t quite afford a full subscription (although my paid subscription is just five dollars a month or an even better steal at thirty-five dollars a year), I have a new option for you.

I am now on Venmo. If you are interested in a donation of whatever you can provide, you can just send whatever you can afford to there. You can choose to buy me a cup of coffee or whatever you can afford. Just click the button below or scan the QR code below to help out. Anything you can provide helps me keep things going.

Final Thoughts

That’s about it for now. All you writers keep writing, and everyone else keep safe.

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