Hello everyone. Welcome to the new subscribers – it appears I have a few new ones over the past week or so. Appreciate you signing on to read my ramblings.

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And Since We Have New Guests at This Party…

For the benefit of those just joining me here, you are now reading my regular newsletter, which I entitle The Writing Life. I put this out every first and third weekends of the month. The fact I’ve been writing anything regularly (much less on a weekly basis) has been a triumph over a long-standing battle against procrastination and delay.

In these newsletters, I discuss what I’ve been writing, what my progress has been regarding this writing, and any insights I might have gained from the process which might be relevant to readers interested in the craft of writing. At times, I might actually try and present this as explicit writing advice, but not always.

I’ll also talk about what I’ve been doing having to do with writing as well. What this usually involves items like meeting with writing groups, technical stuff with this and other online sites, and some related technology and sundry items.

This also can include where I might be making appearances and events I’ll be at, although I often might list those separately. Usually, a lot of those events will run from roughly spring to fall of each year, and I’ve started filling in my calendar.

Among other things in the regular newsletter, I usually throw in a writing quote of the week from one or two famous writers. I’ve sometimes posted some reading recommendations here for writers on Substack and other sites, although I find myself posting those recommendations or links on Substack Notes nowadays. (On Notes, I’ll also post links to my own Substack posts and the rare pithy comment or two.) Then there’ll be some Final Thoughts, which will always be profound, and the newsletter wraps to a close.

I write about other stuff, so let me take some time to talk about it all.

What DO I Write, Anyway?

I’ve written quite a bit of copy, both fiction and nonfiction, over the past nearly 30 years. For a dozen or so years, I worked as a reporter or correspondent for a few eastern Iowa and western Illinois, so I wrote many different articles about local government and feature stories – pretty much everything regular sports reporting. You might be able to fins some of those articles flying around the interwebs if you decide to go Google searching. While I really enjoy the journalists I find on Substack (and the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative is basically a who’s-who of the best journalists and writers in this state) I don’t think journalism is something I want to return to at the moment.

Increasingly, as I pivoted away from journalism and into teaching, writing fiction has become my focus. In 2019, after several starts and stops, I managed to write my first novel, The Holy Fool: A Journalist’s Revolt. Both a thriller and a celebration of journalism set in 2008 Chicago, at the fictional Chicago Journal, it was a fantastic experience, but a big learning one.

In 2023, I published my next fiction book, a sports drama called The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning, the first in The Yank Striker series. It was inspired by my longtime soccer fandom, and a question I asked myself: “What would an American Lionel Messi look like?” The answer led me to a kid from Texas and his story.

If you are interested in maybe purchasing books like this, you are in luck. They’re available in both paperback and e-book formats from Amazon and in paperback from my publisher for both books, Biblio Publishing. The links to those books are on the “My Works” page of this site, and you can also find them and my social media links on the “Link In Bio” page.

It’s been a long time since I wrote something about both books, and even though I try to stay away from blatant and excessive self-promotion on this page, I think they are due. I’ll likely try and post something (or two somethings, one for each book) sometime this weekend. I’ll do a quick write-up/plug for The Holy Fool this weekend and one for The Yank Striker next weekend, I think.

Poetry had been more of a focus in recent years, as well, even though I have yet to publish any collections or chapbooks of my work. I’ve also put out some short stories. Over the short time I’ve been on here, this has been the place to see some of that work.

On the second weekend of the month, I host Prose Night here at The Writing Life. This will be some fiction or nonfiction, perhaps a short story or an writing-themed (or life-themed) essay. In recent weeks, I’ve been running short excerpts of some longer fiction projects, such as the second book in my The Yank Striker series.

On the fourth weekend of every month, I celebrate Poetry Night here at The Writing Life. Those evenings, I post one or two selections of original poetry here on the site, and usually some explanation of how they came about. It’s had the side effect of adding to my small stash of original poetry, as well.

So, that’s a good summary of what the page is about currently. How about we dive into some of it?

The Home Front

I’m glad I’ve had a chance to actually think about something other than real life this week. Because real life’s been a bit of a roller coaster recently.

My kid’s in the hospital. I wrote about it yesterday. Our family’s just hoping for the best. That’s about all I can say for now.

What I’ve Been Writing

I’ve been writing a lot of odds and ends recently. Things have been quiet on The Yank Striker 2 front and my as yet untitled pro wrestling family drama. I am going to make a concerted effort to make progress

I talked last week about this short fiction collection I collaborated on. It ended up being Part 1 of a two-part story. Still waiting on some technical stuff to get worked out, but I might have some news regarding it in a bit.

Writing productivity has finally picked up, although I won’t bore you with the hard numbers here. Again, I’m a bit surprised I’ve managed to keep up a regular schedule on this site, but I want to apply this consistency to my “non-online” projects as well.

I decided to compete in the Midwest Writing Center’s Iron Pen contest for the second year running. I decided to use this year’s prompt as a springboard to a scene on a larger project I’ve been toying around with regarding a family of professional wrestlers. I was happy with the results, although I felt slightly restricted by the 2,000 word fiction limit. I’ll let everyone take a look at the story on here once I figure out if I earned any awards, or I might expand it slightly and share that with you.

What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing

Much of this has been dedicated to 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. 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. at the Des Moines Marriot Downtown, 700 Grand Ave., Des Moines. It was a fantastic evenbt 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.
• 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’ve still got a pretty open calendar. 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 by emailing me at jasonliegois@liegois.media.

My newest research I’m working on is how to make a chapbook. I’m getting a bit weary of calling myself a poet and yet not having something where I can physically hand to people and say, “Oh, would you like to read some poetry?” Watch this space.

For this site, I’m going to make some of the older pieces on this page open only to paid subscribers. These will only be older pieces that I want to make part of an archive. Some other pieces I will make only visible to current subscribers. However, my writing journals and The Writing Life pieces will always be readable to everyone.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

Two quotes this week, both tackling the importance of writing to authors that goes beyond just trying to communicate to readers. But, it’s important, too, and both fit my own state of mind this week certainly.

If I do not write to empty my mind, I go mad.
― George Gordon Byron

nothing can save
you
except writing.
it keeps the walls
from
failing.
― Charles Bukowski

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

Well, there was a bit to write about today, so I’ll close it for now. Keep an eye on this space for the next Prose Night post next weekend, and some upcoming posts revisiting my existing books this Sunday and next Sunday.

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