I’m not going to try and jinx myself, but it appears July might be a pretty productive month for me after two middling months of May and June. It’s giving me a little bit of confidence.
Before we get into the ins and outs of what I’m looking forward to, here’s the stats for last week:
Writing statistics for the week ending 19 July 2025: Words: 6,700 Days writing: 7 of 7. Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.
All in all, this was the best week I’ve had in three weeks, and if the next couple of weeks go as well as they have, I might have one of the best months of the year.
My intentions are to try and get projects continuing on a straight-ahead path on the next year. At this point, I don’t have the excuse that I have nothing to write about.
Unfortunately, some of the events I will be planning to promote my books will likely have to be pushed back into the incoming school year, so a lot of my weekends might be occupied by bopping around the region to various indie bookstores, libraries, and book fairs. Well, such is life, and at least I’ll have a way to keep busy on the weekends.
Now The Yank Striker’s Journeyis now available for purchase, I’ve decided to try and get moving on at least a couple of new books for next year because I want to start building up a good back catalogue. This includes the sequel to The Holy Fool, set in the present day, which I’ve gotten close to 8,000 words written so far. For a particular reason, I decided to hold off finishing the book until July 2026, although explaining the reason for this completion would be a bit spoilery to just reveal it here at this time.
Now that Journey is out, I’m out of excuses regarding getting started on the third book in the series. I need to do some serious outlining on this work. In a perfect world, I would have a rough draft set by the end of this year, start the beta reading and plans for release in May and the promotional stuff happening in June of next year. I just ended up holding things off until the last minute and that bit me in the rear well and good.
I know how I want to finish up what I’m calling The Yank Striker 3 for now. It’s only going to cover a single season in DJ’s career, his first full season in European football. I’m going to have to resolve the cliffhanger I left us at the end of Journey1. I’ve decided also to try a multiple point of view narrative for this next book in the series, although DJ will remain very much the main character of the book. I’ve fallen in love with the multiple POV format from my fan fiction, so I’m interested in turning it loose on my original fiction. I think it will work well.
There’s at least three other ideas I need to get going on, including continuing the Kayfabe Stories series and ideas for at least two other novels. At least some of these I might be looking to self-publish, and all of them have at least some Iowa connection and two of the novels will have a heavy Iowa influence. If Stephen King could make it as a regional writers of New England science fiction, I can do the same with Iowan sci-fi/dystopia/fantasy/speculative fiction.
Did you know you can buy ISBN numbers, which are how books are identified? That’s one way of determining or facing your mortality, trying to think of how many books you have left in you to write before you kick off.
Anyway, all you writers, if your not writing, get off your duffs and start pounding keys. Don’t wait forever like I did. And everyone keep safe.
If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.
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.
Yeah, I’ve kind of spaced out for the past couple of weeks.
I was a bit stressed out about my book The Yank Striker’s Journey getting set for publication, but now that it’s finally happened, one more worry is off the table. And I had been struggling with finishing up a quick short story that took longer than I expected, but I’ve wrapped that up so I am feeling good.
So, did I get any writing done for the past couple of weeks? Actually, I had some decent numbers:
Writing statistics for the week ending 5 July 2025: Words: 4,952 Days writing: 7 of 7. Days revising or planning: 1 of 7 for 120 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.
Writing statistics for the week ending 12 July 2025: Words: 4,272 Days writing: 5 of 7. Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.
Looking back, I had one well above average week and a second one that was less than a hundred words away from the pace I’ve been trying to set. All in all, I can live with it. It always seems like the I’m halfway done with summer by the time I get a handle on having so much time on my hands1.
During the next few days, when I’m not doing chores around the house or doing on treks to new places and locations for bookstores and events2, I’m thinking of what I have to write next.
This includes the sequel to The Holy Fool, set in the present day, which I need to get restarted on. I have planning to work out for the next Yank Striker book which it in my head but not down on paper, which I need to do to properly process it and review it for when I start writing. I know I want it to be short, and since it should only cover a single season that is manageable.
I also want to restart my work on the Kayfabe Stories series. I think I was about to write the scene where the family patriarch steps into the ring for the first time. Heady stuff, and I want to try and think about some self-publishing options. Good readers, any thoughts regarding Ingram Sparks?
Anyway, much to contemplate. All you writers, if your not writing, get off your duffs and start pounding keys. Don’;’t wait forever like I did. And everyone keep safe.
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If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.
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.
Hey, everyone out there in the online and offline worlds, it’s good to talk again. I’ve got more updates on my upcoming book, The Yank Striker’s Journey, my other writing projects, what I’ve been up to, and more.
Let’s talk about writing.
What I’ve Been Writing
Cover art and design by Joe Boardman.
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 Daniel John “DJ” Ryan, 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 DJ 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. Sadly, I was not able to meet my ambitious schedule of having Journey ready to go for June. I am now hoping it becomes available now sometime this month. The minute this is ready for release, I will make an announcement post here as well as a separate post introducing you, the readers, to the story, such as I have done for my other novels and collections.
The next book in The Yank Striker Series (to be referred to for now as The Yank Striker 3). It will cover another season in the life of DJ Ryan as his football journey continues. I plan to begin writing this book the minute Journey is available for sale. It would be crazy if I had this ready by next year, but I want to be ambitious.
Last month, I talked about wondering what the protagonist of my first novel, Samuel “Sonny” Turner, the old Chicago-based newspaper columnist turned new era blogger, might think of the current news scene. In my first novel, the journalistic thriller The Holy Fool, we saw Sonny saving the fictional Chicago Journal from sale by its unscrupulous owner and breaking a major story on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars during the 2008 presidential election and the beginning of the Great Recession. I have now written over 7,000 words on a first draft for the project, which was a bit of a surprise it came that fast. At most, I only want the story to be 70,000 words – a quick, lean bit of storytelling. I was thinking it would be finished by the end of this year, but with everything going on and the ghost of an ending scene already in my head, I’m thinking it will be more second half of next year. Anything else regarding the scene would be a bit of a spoiler, so I’ll keep it to myself for now.
The Heart Project: The speculative/fantasy/soft sci-fi story I have in mind informed by our troubled times involving four one-time friends, a high school reunion, and a microcosm of a larger sense of chaos.
Poetry work (except for the pieces I post here on Substack and the odd unpublished poem or two.
How Much I’ve Been Writing: Mid-year check
I don’t usually get into writing productivity and my ongoing word count, but now that I’m in the middle of the year, I thought it might be cool to take a quick look at what I’ve done over the course of the first part of the year.
Match a goal of 225,000 words this calendar year. I was less than a thousand or so words away from this last year, and I thought it was doable.
Make my daily writing goal or quota (DWGM) at least 80 percent of the time.
Complete The Yank Striker’s Journey by this June.
Make more progress on the Kayfabe Stories project.
So, where am I at with all of these? First, here’s my numbers for the first part of the year.
Writing statistics for the first half of 2025:
Words (total): 113,755. Words (monthly avg.): 18,959. Revise/Plan (Total): 6,825 minutes. Revise/Plan (monthly avg.): 1,365 minutes. DWGM: 89%
Half of 225,000 is 112,500, so I am more than 1,000 words ahead of pace – not a massive amount, but I’m glad I’m at least a little ahead of the game. Also, I’m doing quite well on my daily quotas, so I feel good about that.
As I mentioned above, I didn’t get Journey finished in June, but that is forthcoming, so I don’t feel like a massive failure there. And I’ve doubled the amount of material I’ve written for the Kafabe Stories and have done some considerable planning, so I’m ahead there.
In short, so far so good. But I’m not taking a rest anytime soon.
What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing
Me at the new Page, Print, & Pint independent bookstore in Keokuk, Iowa, this past Saturday.
It was a fantastic afternoon this past Saturday (5 July) when I attended the grand opening of Page, Print, & Pint, located in the heart of downtown Keokuk at 401 Main Street, Suite 1. Co-owners Willow Carrington and Katarina Page were fantastic hosts to me and seven other regional authors there for the event. They are just getting their business set up at the moment, but I’m hoping they’ll be carrying some of my books in the near future.
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 12, I’ll be returning to Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St., Suite 3, Burlington, IA, for an appearance and book signing. Owner Christopher Murphy has been a great supporter in recent years, and I am excited to be returning to one of the best and longest running indie bookstores in southeastern Iowa. This will be going on at the same time as the city’s well-known Snake Ally Film Festival, so maybe I’ll be seeing some film enthusiasts that day.
It’s been tough to get some new events set up, since I am still waiting on the The Yank Striker’s Journey to officially drop so I have some new stuff to offer at these events. I am hoping for quite a few more appearances this year, including the Windsor Heights Book Fair this October 5 and hopefully the Iowa City Book Festival in October of this year. Watch this space for new events. 🙂
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:
It’s funny that I can relate equally to two different quotes with such separate points of view and think they are equally valid.
Writing is something that you don’t know how to do. You sit down and it’s something that happens, or it may not happen. So, how can you teach anybody how to write? It’s beyond me, because you yourself don’t even know if you’re going to be able to. I’m always worried, well, you know, every time I go upstairs with my wine bottle. Sometimes I’ll sit at that typewriter for fifteen minutes, you know. I don’t go up there to write. The typewriter’s up there. If it doesn’t start moving, I say, well this could be the night that I hit the dust. ― Charles Bukowski
Don’t get it right – get it WRITTEN! ― Lee Child
When I Post
Check out this post for when and what I post on a regular basis.
How to support me😊.
As always, go to the links on the side if you are reading this on a desktop/laptop or the links on my profile. 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. 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.
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 Bent Oak, 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 my WordPress site, Liegois Media. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click on the link below.
The Flow and the Journey
The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.
Again, sorry this is slightly late, but better late than never and it’s still on the weekend. Take care, everyone.
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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.
I was relieved when I crunched the numbers a couple of days ago.
I set myself ambitious writing goals for this year. Among other goals, I wanted to write at least 225,000 words of fiction, nonfiction, and/or poetry this year, more than I have ever written in any year to date, and make my daily writing quota (see below for the explanation for “Daily Writing Goals Met”) at least 80 percent of the time.
How well did I manage to do with these goals? I’m by no means well free and clear regarding those goals, especially since only half the year is gone, but I am on pace to meet them.
Before that, lets talk last week’s numbers and the month of June 2025:
Writing statistics for the week ending 28 June 2025: Words: 6,990 Days writing: 7 of 7. Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.
Writing statistics for June 2025: Words: 17,272. Revising/Planning: 1,620 minutes. DWGM: 86%
So, one of the better writing weeks I’ve had (the highest total in the year to date), but only the fourth best out of six months I’ve had during the year. I’m truly surprised at how productive I’ve been this week, especially since I’ve been stressing about when my book The Yank Striker’s Journey is coming out (I’d thought it was going to be ready at the end of June but it’s looking more likely to be after the Fourth of July at this point.)
I needed to have written at least 112,500 words to keep on pace for that 225,000 number. So, drum roll for the numbers1:
Writing statistics for the first half of 2025: Words (total): 113,755. Words (avg.): 18,959. Revise/Plan (Total): 6,825 minutes. Revise/Plan (avg.): 1,365 minutes. DWGM: 89%
Fun fact, since I’ve been keeping solid track of word count back in 2018, this is the third best numbers I’ve had for the first part of a year and my fifth-best six month period overall. However, I can now say my total word count from July 2024 to June 2025 now stands at 232,553 words, my highest ever 12-month period of writing. Amazing.
So, I am about 1,200 words over pace to meet my goals, and I’m above my average for getting my daily writing quotas done. All good news. As for what I am writing2: Thankfully, I have several items I can work on now to get productive. There’s:
The sequel to The Holy Fool, set in the present day. I’m at 7,000 words into the rough draft. I want to keep this no bigger than 70,000 words, I think.
A short story that might wind up in a collection… I’ll let you know about it when something gets published. It’s close to being done, hopefully in the next week.
Some more work on the Kayfabe Stories series, even though I don’t have a solid deadline or or even a hint of a schedule of when I’ll be working on this issue.
The minute Journey gets published, I’ll start planning and writing The Yank Striker 3 . I’m hoping to have it ready to go next year.
Good news, but I’m not getting complacent. Hope everyone is doing all right.
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If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.
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.
If I was going to classify how thing went last week as far as productivity went, I would call it acceptable as far as an individual week goes but barely acceptable given the past six weeks.
Anyway, the good/passable news.
Writing statistics for the week ending 21 June 2025: Words: 4,374 Days writing: 7 of 7. Days revising or planning: 3 of 7 for 5400 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.
All of these numbers, obviously, are better than the past couple of weeks. I did some review of my proof for The Yank Striker’s Journey and that pumped up my revision numbers.
However, this was only the third week out of the past seven where I wrote more than 4,000 words in a week. That’s honestly not good enough, especially when I’m trying to write at least 225,000 words this year and I need to write at a pace of a little over 4,000 words per week to reach the goal.
Thankfully, I have several items I can work on now to get productive. There’s:
The sequel to The Holy Fool, set in the present day. I’m surprised I’m already 7,000 words into the rough draft. I want to keep this hard and fast, no bigger than 70,000 words, I think.
A short story that might wind up in a collection… I’ll let you know about it when something gets published.
Some more work on the Kayfabe Stories series, even though I don’t have a solid deadline or or even a hint of a schedule of when I’ll be working on this issue.
Perhaps some fanfic if I’m really stuck for ideas.
Probably by next month, I’ll start planning out The Yank Striker 3 and beginning to lay down the first draft. I’m hoping to have it ready to go next year. Very ambitious, but if I’m not ambitious about my writing, what’s the point?
I’m a bit nervous about the end of this month to see if I’m keeping on track with my goal. One superb week might turn it all around for me.
That’s it for now. Best wishes for everyone.
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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.
Last week was a disaster as far as writing productivity goes. There are weeks where the whole point of this journal is to publicly flagellate myself to get back on track.
This journal is one of those events. The reason or reasons for this rubbish I’ll get into later here.
For now, let’s just talk numbers.
Writing statistics for the week ending 14 June 2025: Words: 2,238 Days writing: 4 of 7. Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 4 of 7 days.
I could tell you I’ve been waiting for the proof of The Yank Striker’s Journey to arrive from my publisher and that’s been throwing me off. This would be an accurate statement.
I could say I was trying to figure out where to go regarding my sequel to my first book, the journalism thriller The Holy Fool, set in the present day. But, I already have a really good idea what to write next, because I’ve already outlined what I want to do with the story, which I’m keeping short.
I could talk about how I’m not going to get started on the next Yank Striker book, and that would be accurate. But would it really explain why I haven’t written as much as I should have? If I just wanted to juice the numbers, I could get back to some of this fan fiction that’s been sitting dormant for a while.
But in all honesty, I’ve been sitting on the couch, the chair, staring at the big screens or the pocket screens of my phone, trying to distract myself from anything except for the need to write. In all honesty, I’ve been living the life of a functional derelict, bumming around my house and my town while blanking on what I need to do. If there is a way to avoid work and other similar problems, I probably tried it during the past two weeks. 😅
In the end, I just need a good kick in the rear at this point from my disappointments and embarrassments from not getting the job done the way I can do, the way I know I’m capable of. I’ve wasted enough time in my life, even recognizing I’ll waste some more time before I shuffle off the mortal coil.
I was idly thinking of different things recently and it came to mind if I purchased something around the neighborhood of 20 ISBN numbers, I would have enough numbers to cover all of the books I would write for the remainder of my life. Whenever you get to a certain point of your life and calculate you will only do something for a finite number of times is a clear acknowledgement of your mortality, and it’s the honest truth.
That’s it, everyone. Everyone take care of yourselves, and all you writers keep writing and all you creatives keep creating.
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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.
Hey, everyone out there in the online world and other places, it’s good to get in touch with you again. There’s big news and updates regarding my upcoming book, The Yank Striker’s Journey, and some more news about my writing projects, what’s upcoming for me, and a lot more.
Let’s talk writing.
What I’ve Been Writing/ Official Cover Reveal (Drumroll)…
I’ve been waiting so long to reveal the new cover … hope you like it. Cover art and design by Joe Boardman.
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 Daniel John “DJ” Ryan, 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 DJ 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. So, thanks to my editor, good friend, fellow writer (and eastern Iowa resident) Misty Urban, I’ve now sent the revised manuscript of Journey to my publishers, Biblio Publishing. (By the way, 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 hoping to get a publisher’s proof of the book next week and then expedite its publication in mid to late June. Honestly, one of the reasons I decided to release this during Pride Month (as I wound up doing for The Yank Striker) is because I thought it was appropriate given the LGBTQ themes it and the series explores. Although I try not to make this page excessively political, I consider myself to be an LGBTQ ally. They are my family, friends, and sometimes my students.
Also, as you can see above, I’ve shipped the new cover art for Journey to my publishers as well. This was the first time I used an outside artist, Joe Boardman of the Des Moines-based Boardman Group, for one of my books. The results went beyond my expectations, and I’m very interested in working with him again on future projects.
(If you’re interested in his design work, and I highly recommend it to you, go ahead and email him at JoeTheAdGuy@Gmail.com.)
I have already gotten approval from my publishers to move forward on the next book in The Yank Striker Series (to be referred to for now as The Yank Striker 3). I have an excellent idea of where the story will go and how it will develop over the course of another season in the life of DJ Ryan as his football journey continues.
I think I might take a quick break from putting together a rough draft, but I want to get started on this by the start of July. If I had this ready to go for this same time next year, that would be the fastest turnaround for any project I’ve yet done. I didn’t get my last draft for Journey done exactly when I wanted it to, so I’m going to try and temper my expectations. However, if I’m not trying to shoot for the moon, what the heck am I doing with my time?
Last month, I talked about wondering what the protagonist of my first novel, Samuel “Sonny” Turner, the old Chicago-based newspaper columnist turned new era blogger, might think of the current news scene. In my first novel, the journalistic thriller The Holy Fool, we saw Sonny helping the fictional Chicago Journal from being sold by its unscrupulous owner and breaking a major story on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars during the 2008 presidential election and the beginning of the Great Recession. We last saw Turner in 2009, celebrating the founding of his nonprofit news site, The Fool, in Geneva, Switzerland. Well, I now have more than 5,500 words of a rough draft beginning on Election Night, November 2024, so I think we can officially call this The Fool Part 2 no longer just an idea but a new writing project. Right now, I am not anticipating this to be as large of a book as the first one (somewhere under 100,000 words when it was originally around 150,000. I was super wordy when I started writing. My guess is I finish this book sometime next year. Somehow I’m thinking this book is going to be as quick and abrupt as a right cross. If it goes over 75,000 words, I’ll be surprised. I get the feeling I’ll be surprised regardless, lol.
Kayfabe Stories (Previously 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. I’ve been obsessed with the idea of this story for at least a year and a half, and by story I mean this is going to become a trilogy at least1. Currently, I’m at more than 51,000 words on the project, which is more than 14,000 words in two months.I’ve started to think I might want to write all three books before releasing them. At the moment, I’m not sure what format I’m going to release them in, so this might be a way to give me some more time to think about
The Heart Project: This is the name of the speculative/fantasy/soft sci-fi story I have in mind informed by our troubled times involving four one-time friends, a high school reunion, and a microcosm of a larger sense of chaos. No progress on this. I need to start putting together some more notes and planning on this project now my current round of revisions on the Yank Striker’s Journey is finished.
No new poetry except the handful of examples I put out for Poetry Night at the end of the month and one or two unpublished pieces. Right now trying to submit poetry to publications is totally foreign to me, and not a high priority. However, I do want to get back to it.
The Home Front
The Mississippi River at Fort Madison, Iowa, 31 May 2025. (As always, I’m the photographer unless otherwise noted.)
I’ll keep this quick.
This week has been the start of my summer vacation from teaching, and it couldn’t come soon enough. Teaching even during the best times is comparable to running a triathlon with your brain, and in May you are running on fumes.
We managed to get some improvements done to some of the buildings on our property, so that’s a good thing. We have this out building which the previous owner used as a auto-repair garage but which I think we will use as storage and an outdoor hangout. My wife was so desperate to have an outdoor place to hang out in, you all have no idea.
As for me, I’m looking forward to a summer of mental relaxation, writing, and travel around Iowa and nearby areas.
What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing
I’ve just managed to add some new events to my personal appearances schedule, and I’m hoping to add several more before we’re done. Let’s talk about them.
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 this year.
I will be part of the grand opening beginning at 11:30 a.m. and lasting most of the afternoon of July 5, of a lovely new independent book store, Page, Print, & Pint, to be located at 401 Main St., Suite 1, Keokuk, Iowa. I plan to be doing a reading and appearance along with other area authors in celebration of this great new local business. You can check them out on Facebook.
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., I’ll be returning to Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St., Suite 3, Burlington, IA, for an appearance and book signing. Owner Christopher Murphy has been a great supporter in recent years, and I am excited to be returning to one of the best and longest running indie bookstores in southeastern Iowa. This will be going on at the same time as the city’s well-known Snake Ally Film Festival, so maybe I’ll be seeing some film enthusiasts that day.
I am hoping for quite a few more appearances this year, including hopefully the Iowa City Book Festival in October of this year. Watch this space for new events. 🙂
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 of the Week:
George Orwell wrote more than a century before Chat GPT but right in the midst of 20th century totalitarianism. This quote seems applicable to both circumstances.
If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.
George Orwell
When I Post
Check out this post for when and what I post on a regular basis.
How to support me😊.
As always, go to the links on the side if you are reading this on a desktop/laptop or the links on my profile. 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. 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.
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 Bent Oak, 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 my WordPress site, Liegois Media. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click on the link below.
The Flow and the Journey
The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.
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.
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.
-30-
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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. ↩︎
Hi, there, welcome to Prose Night, where I post either original essays, short stories, or excerpts of works in progress (or some equivalent). It’s going to be one of the latter items today, and I’m looking forward to sharing this sneak peek to you.
Those of you who have visited my Substack will know I have been working on something I have entitled, up to this point, The Untitled Pro Wrestling Project or a similar working title (I’m too lazy to look up what I called it before, lol). I have given readers a coupleof glances at this project previously, as I’ve started to examine a new fictional world featuring a family of professional wrestlers.
My previous explorations have been looks into this world, but I’m not quite sure whether they will end up in a book or whether they will remain false starts, so to speak, into this world. However, they have helped me to refine what I am exploring, what the shape of the world will be.
I’ve mentioned previously I’m a bit nervous about giving books an official title until I’m closer to publishing them. However, this project is no longer small. By project, I mean a book series. By no longer small, I mean in excess of 50,000 words written in rough draft format, just screwing around and experimenting. I don’t think I can leave the entire series unnamed, even as early in the creative process as I am.
So, from here on out, I’ll be referring to this series as the Kayfabe Stories series. Kayfabe, for those not familiar, is the portrayal of events in the professional wrestling business as reality when they are, in fact, staged, and has also evolved into becoming a reference to professional wrestling culture at large. I’ve discussed here how this culture has been leaking into/influencing real life before, in a way a longtime fan of the sport like me can recognize.
So, I’ve been trying to refine how I’m going to approach this story, but my main introduction into this world is a young man and aspiring writer, Robbie Traynor, who is on the verge of having one of his professional dreams come true. However, the ghosts of his past seem to be visiting him. Let’s take a look with a short excerpt which might be the way I introduce Robbie to readers. Hope you enjoy.
The letter had been in Robbie’s hands for three hours.
He’d opened it already, the yellow letterhead from the University of Iowa clearly on the front addressed to Robert John Traynor. Robbie had already read what was inside, but he still could visualize the words: Congratulations upon your acceptance to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Program in Creative Writing… better known as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
It had been a small little dream of his, something that flickered into life, a slender candle and a delicate flame kindled in his head at the start of his high school days, cupped hands protecting it from unfriendly gusts of wind and the skeptical eyes of his classmates. Writing had been his refuge from the chaos in his life. He’d long wanted to be a working writer, to learn from those who could do it best. Now, after all the work he’d put in at high school, at the University of Minnesota, where he was due to graduate in May with honors, he was less than a year away from studying one of the oldest and most prestigious graduate creative writing programs in America.
This would have been a day he would have liked to be out on the deck just outside the spare bedroom his mom and her brother, his uncle Jerry, had converted one summer into his writing space. But fresh snow blew from the winds coming in from the west and settled across the deck, so he instead sat behind his writing desk that looked out through the windows onto the open deck, which was above a screened-in porch that overlooked their outdoor pool and hot tub below and Lake Superior in the distance.
His family home was tucked into the woods a couple miles southwest from the tourist town of Grand Marais, where he had attended school. The home was a sprawling two-story, five-bedroom edifice with a four-car garage and furnished basement, clad in white aluminum siding and a black steel roof the winter snow slid away from. His mother had admitted it was too big for the family back when she, Robbie, Robbie’s father, and Robbie’s elder sister lived in the home. His parents were long divorced, his sister moved away to Long Island to further her new career, and he was only a part-time resident. Now the place seemed cavernous, just another example of how his family was privileged above most others.
“Robbie? Can I come in?” he heard behind him.
He nodded. “Sure, Mom.”
Julie Traynor eased past the open door. She was now past her fiftieth birthday, but she kept herself in shape with frequent yoga practice and hikes in the nearby woods. Slim and petite, she had a heart-shaped face and a mouth that rested in a crooked grin. Her typical golden-brown tan was only slightly paler than its summer glory thanks to the conservative use of a tanning bed in the basement. Her straight shoulder-length hair gathered up in a messy ponytail was a lighter maple brown than the darker chestnut of her son. He’d inherited that from his father, as he did the muscular build he kept in tune through weight training and MMA practice, but he’d inherited her amber eyes.
Julie dressed much like her son in University of Minnesota hooded sweatshirt and pants, although one difference was the white gold ladies watch and the variety of gold and platinum rings, none of them a wedding band, she sported on either hand. “You have to keep up appearances,” she’d always say.
Julie came behind Robbie as he sat in his black leather office chair and didn’t quite manage to wrap her arms all the way around his shoulders. “You know I’m so proud of you.”
“I know,” Robbie nodded.
“Did Jordan get in touch with you, send you her congratulations? Sometimes I think she’s scatterbrained…”
“Ma, her flight just landed in Heathrow an hour ago,” Robbie exclaimed. “We talked twenty minutes ago, and she couldn’t have been happier.”
“Me neither.” She turned him to the right so he could face her as she knelt before him, patting him on the leg. “I know how much you wanted this, Robbie, how hard you worked at it. And you got it all on your own, not because of who your father or mother are or where you’re from. This was all you.”
“I know, Ma,” he said, smiling.
She cupped his right cheek with his hand. “I have a baby who is about to go off to grad school,” she said, shaking her head. “Unbelievable.”
“You’re acting like I’m not of legal drinking age or something,” he scoffed. “This has been coming for a while, you know. I suppose you could move to Iowa City with me for the next two years…”
“Not on your life,” she chuckled, getting up. “For better or worse, this is my home now, even if I have to hire a cleaning service to keep things up. But you’d better not replace all your Minnesota swag with Iowa Hawkeye gear, or I’ll never hear the end of it from my friends.”
“Gotta blend in, Ma,” he chuckled.
“Anyway.”
“What’s the plan?”
She glanced out at the blowing winds and snow collecting on the deck. “Thank goodness we got the deep freezes all stocked before today. Weatherman says we’ve got this throughout the weekend. What would you think about stuffed pork chops, green beans, and stuffing?”
“Wouldn’t say no to it at all. Need any help with it?”
“With just us two? Never mind. I imagine you might want to get some writing done before dinner.”
“Yeah, might be a good idea. I’ll do that, eat and take care of dishes for you, then get a workout before checking emails and getting another writing session in.”
“All right,” she said, leaning over to kiss him on the forehead. “Have a good time. Congratulations and love you.”
“Love you too, Mom,” he said as she left.
When he was sure his mother was not only out of his writing space but well on her way down the stairs and to the kitchen on the ground floor, it was only then that he went back to his laptop and started to boot it up again.
As part of his application to the Writer’s Workshop, he’d had to submit something to the selection committee, either a set of poems for those entering the poetry track or either one or two short stories or selections from a larger work for those on the fiction track. He now started searching for the piece he’d submitted to the Writer’s Workshop.
For most of his short time as a writer, he’d considered himself a lover of fantasy fiction. He’d long been a fan of writers like Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, and others, as well as newer traditional fantasy writers like Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson and those classified as “urban” fantasy authors like Jim Butcher and Laurell K. Hamilton. During his years in high school and college, he’d dabbled in short stories along these lines, and had even toyed with two novel-length fantasy projects later when he was at U.M. He’d occasionally shown his mother and sister the results of his efforts, and they’d always approve of them and encourage him.
When he’d first started to plan his application to Iowa, though, he wondered whether those previous efforts would get the program’s attention. Despite its reputation, it was not opposed to genre writing, although it was certainly one of the homes – indeed, one of the crucibles of literary fiction. He knew many successful attendees of the program needed to apply multiple times before acceptance, so he got the feeling he’d have to up his game with his submission.
One evening last year, after he’d admittedly gotten well into a six-pack of nine-percent IPA dark ale brewed in St. Paul, he’d begun a new story far different than any he’d written up until then. He hadn’t shown it to either his mother or sister – “I don’t want to jinx myself,” he’d told Mom, and she and Jordan accepted the explanation – and he was unsure whether he ever would as he opened the file. While he’d previously written about sacred quests, mysterious sea voyages into unknown waters, and warring magical beings in the depths of New York, what he’d come up with for his submission was something completely different.
The older man glowered in the corner of the squared circle, holding himself up off the canvas with the assistance of the top ring ropes. He was a study in a modest layer of fat above hardened gristle and solid bone, guarded as he straightened what remained of his dark pompadour over his head. The man disregarded entirely the boos of the audience and the occasional shower of beer and spit from them. But his eyes widened as he considered not the rabid fans, but the approach of his opponent to the ring.
The young man, broad-shouldered and taller than his adversary, strolled toward the ring, unconcerned with the surrounding crowds or their reaction. He was dressed in jeans, a leather jacket, and battered cowboy boots held together with duct tape. In his right hand, he wielded a baseball bat with a coil of rusty barbed wire wrapped around and nailed to it. In his left hand, he had a steel-linked chain wrapped around his fist.
He glanced at the old man with an invigorating mix of joy and hate. “Hey, Dad,” he shouted loud enough so it carried over the crowd, “glad to see you again.” Resting the bat against his right shoulder, he started to make his way up the steel steps to enter the ring.
Robbie couldn’t figure it out. Most of his fiction had been well constructed worlds where his imagination could run rampant and explore new characters and new situations. This was something different, a timebomb made up of his fears and resentments planted right on the page. He’d never tried to bring his personal life into his fiction, and now it was right there, ready to blow up. He’d typed up the scene before he could stop himself, in part because he never felt like he had to stop himself from writing something before.
Every instinct told him to delete it before it got any bigger. However, Robbie thought he probably should keep it. Every student at the workshop would have a master’s thesis project, either a book-length manuscript or a series of short stories for fiction writers or a series of poems for the poetry members. If this is the reason they chose me, I might need to stick with it.
Idly, he opened the file information for the story, wondering how many words he’d already committed to the idea, trying to talk himself into deleting it instead. Suddenly, his eyes fixed on the “date created” information for the file: 5/1/2016.
He recognized the date immediately. It was his father’s 6oth birthday.
Robbie groaned. He had imagined the ghosts of his family’s past were in the past, where they couldn’t hurt anyone, him especially. But now they were out of his head and on the page, where they had found fans in the program he wanted to join. He’d been on guard against his family’s past, against what it had done to his family.
But, maybe I can control it, on the page, he thought. Maybe I can write about it here, tame it, exorcise it so it doesn’t overwhelm me. I guess I’m going to have to, because even though I wanted to bury my past, it just crawled out of that damn hole I dug.
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.
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.
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.
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 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😊.
As always, 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. 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.
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 Bent Oak, 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 my WordPress site, Liegois Media. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click on the link below.
The Flow and the Journey
The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.
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.
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.
-30-
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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.
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. ↩︎
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😊.
As always, 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. 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.
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 Bent Oak, 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 my WordPress site, Liegois Media. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click on the link below.
The Flow and the Journey
The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.
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.
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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