Tag: My Books

A Week in the Writing Life, 7 October 2023: Fall finally arrives in Iowa

Hi, there.

On The Home Front

Finally, there’s some proper fall weather around southern central Iowa. I attended the homecoming game for my school district and ended up needing not only a coat but knit hat and gloves as well by the end of things. Wearing my full winter parka might have not been a poor decision either. And this weekend is sweatshirt and shorts weather. I’m hoping this past week will be the last time we see 80 degree weather in Iowa for the remainder of 2023.

Not much else is going on for me, but my son Jacob is in the final steps of earning his heating and air conditioning (HVAC) journeyman certification, and my daughter Madeline, currently in her senior year of Chemical Engineering study at University of Iowa, has begun interviewing for jobs for after graduation. I’m looking forward to their further adventures.

What I’ve Been Writing

The situation on the writing front is much the same as it was last week. I have been dabbling with a little fanfiction, but not to the extent I am not working on other items.

In fact, although I haven’t done much of a review of my writing numbers for the past year, I do get the feeling I have been dedicating my writing time more to my fully original projects like The Yank Striker 2 and this page rather than fan fiction. I do think fanfiction, as I have mentioned previously here, is a valid form of artistic expression, but I want to concentrate on getting the sequel done as soon as possible. I am doing well on the writing goals I set for myself this year, but I’ll wait until 2023 is done before talking about totals here.

This may seem counterintuitive, but next year I might consider not even setting a word count goal for the year. In some ways, I want to make sure I’m writing so much and that I’m being productive I worry I’m not dedicating enough time to getting TYS2 project done. Sometimes that doesn’t happen without thought, planning, and pondering, and it is not always a word-intensive process. In considering the situation, it’s very likely I’ll be spending a good portion of 2024, if I am serious about trying for a June 2024 release as I’ve toyed with, in revising mode.

What I’ve Been Writing

The situation on the writing front is much the same as it was last week. I have been dabbling with a little fanfiction, but not to the extent I am not working on other items.

In fact, although I haven’t done much of a review of my writing numbers for the past year, I do get the feeling I have been dedicating my writing time more to my fully original projects like The Yank Striker 2 and this page rather than fan fiction. I do think fanfiction, as I have mentioned previously here, is a valid form of artistic expression, but I want to concentrate on getting the sequel done as soon as possible. I am doing well on the writing goals I set for myself this year, but I’ll wait until 2023 is done before talking about totals here.

This may seem counterintuitive, but next year I might consider not even setting a word count goal for the year. In some ways, I want to make sure I’m writing so much and that I’m being productive I worry I’m not dedicating enough time to getting TYS2 project done. Sometimes that doesn’t happen without thought, planning, and pondering, and it is not always a word-intensive process. In considering the situation, it’s very likely I’ll be spending a good portion of 2024, if I am serious about trying for a June 2024 release as I’ve toyed with, in revising mode.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

I’ll go with two this week that seem to speak to me.

Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.

Ray Bradbury

So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

Now that we’re deep into fall, we are getting into what I understand to be the last phases of the book fair season before it slows down in winter.

So, here we go:

  • From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at MERGE, 136 Dubuque St., Iowa City, as part of the Iowa City Book Festival that week, a week-long festival throughout Iowa City from Oct. 8-15. I’ve always been proud of my former school, the University of Iowa, cultivating a worldwide reputation as a supporter of literature, and the community of Iowa City also plays its part.
  • And from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. It will be the first time I’ve spent any time at the Iowa State Fairgrounds after more than 40 years of living in Iowa.

I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can 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 three are great independent bookstores who deserve your support.

Final Thoughts

As time goes on, I’m hoping this newsletter doesn’t become too repetitive. Please feel free to email me or talk to me in the comments about what’s working and what’s not.

Since I have something of a long weekend this weekend, I’m somewhat hopeful I might be able to get started on some new paid subscriber exclusive posts. Right now, I’m leaning toward some possible excerpts from TYS2. We’ll have to see.

Take care, everyone.

– 30 –

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
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A Week in the Writing Life, 8 July 2023

Well, this might be a bit of a rush to get out my newsletter, but I have been very busy during the past week. And there has been plenty of new ideas popping into my head over the past couple of weeks.

[EDIT: And of course this takes a lot longer than I expected, so it’s coming out in the afternoon rather than right at noon. Not that this is a hard deadline, but I would like to have a consistent posting schedule. I will say I’ve been much better about consistently posting than I have been for years past.]

Home Front Stuff

There’s not too much to report on here. I’ve been basically chilling out at home most of the week and enjoying some much needed rain. Laura and I had a nice quiet Fourth of July at home, and I joined her in one of her favorite traditions – watching the Fourth of July celebrations in Washington, D.C. It was a good time for us.

I will say today we have the windows open in our house for the first time in several weeks. It finally got cool enough and a good enough breeze to make that tolerable, which is a rare occasion in Iowa during the summer months. We’ll likely have to close up the house by tomorrow, but I’ll enjoy things while I can.

What I’ve Been Writing

Well, for one thing, I’ve been writing a lot recently.

All kidding aside, I’ve also been doing a bit of creating as well. “Wait, isn’t any sort of writing creative?” Yes, this is true, but I’ve been creating some new stuff.

First, let’s get onto the (slightly) older stuff. The rough draft of The Yank Striker 2 remains under construction, and some of the workers were on the job site this week. On this subject, I have to say undertaking a side quest has had some benefits toward the project moving forward. A few weeks ago, I went slightly insane and decided to write a whole history of the English soccer club at the heart of The Yank Striker series.

It turned out all right as a piece of writing, but the short story (for lack of a better word) wound up being a valuable resource for putting together the new book. As I mentioned earlier, I now have a fuller understanding of the setting of my series even after writing a book set in that world. It made me aware of characters and situations I was not even aware of, and they added so much texture to the story. I’ve been busy this last week on adding new scenes or revising old scenes using some of the information and characters I discovered throughout creating the history. It’s been exciting.

Also, I’ve come up with a new idea for a series1.

I still have an idea for a fantasy series I’ve been toying with for at least the past couple of years, and it’s still something I want to do. However, over the weekend I was back around my hometown in Muscatine where I did a couple of quick appearances, including one at the book fair at the David R. Collins Writers’ Conference.

It involves not exactly a sport, but something that could be considered an art form and a storytelling medium, involving physical activity and movement. That art form? Professional wrestling.

Photo by Patrick Case on Pexels.com

I want to discuss how this series came about in a separate post, but what I will say is the idea for this story, a multi-generational tale set in the world of professional wrestling, has grown faster than the xenomorphs in the Alien series, it appears. I’m already hearing full conversations in my head, ideas of greater themes and surprising connections to writing. And there’s an actual Iowa component to this series, which is a bit amazing considering I’m writing it2.

I had to chuckle a bit as I continued to consider this subject matter. I started paying attention to wrestling as a fan in the mid-1980’s, just as the WWE hosted its first Wrestlemania shows and the NWA was still active in some of the (slowly dying) territories. My parents were by no means fans of my fandom, and I remember several conversations with my father about the whole silliness of the situation and my obsession tough men and their psychodramas. I was pleasantly surprised when my father did not immediately discount my idea, but you need to realize this is a man willing to drive halfway across Iowa to meet with me at a book fair and have lunch one day, so I’ve always considered him to be a very supportive parent.

I’m not sure they will read this new series, but then again, my mother, bless her, is nervous about reading my fiction because she doesn’t want to be critical of it. On the other hand, my daughter Madeline is fearful of few things and certainly not of taking the piss out of her pops, so she might read some of it. My son Jacob, who also follows wrestling off and on, might give it a look, as well.

Don’t worry, there will be more on this soon.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

I’ve got two events coming up, so I’ll just mention them quickly.

Tomorrow, the Highland Park Historic Business District in Des Moines is hosting the Northside Market from 12-6 p.m. There’s going to be a whole bunch of great local vendors out there and Sixth Street from Euclid to Douglas will be shut down for the event. I’ll be there at the Slowdown Coffee Co., 3613 Sixth Ave., Des Moines, with my books, including The Yank Striker. We can talk writing, soccer, or just about anything, to be honest. I’ll be there for most of the afternoon.

On the last week of this month, I’m truly honored to have my first “Meet the Author” event at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 26, at Beaverdale Books (which happens to be celebrating its 17th anniversary today). Beaverdale is also one of three Iowa bookstores where you can find The Yank Striker in stock. I’m really excited for the event and to talk about this book and the series.

If there is any chance you can come out here and join me at this event, I would absolutely appreciate it. Anyone who wants a copy of my books will be able to get them, autographed, at $10 each – about a 30 percent discount.

Also, that same day, it appears I’ll be having my first ever radio interview with John Busbee and his show The Culture Buzz on KMFG 98.9. If all goes according to plan, the interview should air the day of the event during his regular slot (11 a.m. – 1 p.m.). I’m truly looking forward to it.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

I’ve been finding a lot of good articles on Substack Notes and “restacking” them, so to speak, so keep checking out my feed for some cool reads.

What I’ll briefly mention here is this great article by Write More with Simon K Jones covering different classifications of serialized fiction in the Western World from approximately the 19th century onward. It’s a great read. Made me think about which of these formats best meets my interests at the moment.

Writing Quote of the Week

This was actually one of the better analogies I’ve ever heard on the subject.

A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.

Lorrie Moore

Final Thoughts

Okay, that’s it for now3. Hey, if you’re interested in purchasing any of my books, all you need to do is click on the links on the sidebar, or you’ll also find those links on my bio page as well. See you here next week.

– 30 –

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.

Footnotes

  1. This was the idea in last week’s newsletter I promised I would have a separate story on this idea. I still want to do one, but this might have to wait for a bit. I might be able to put something together later today or on Sunday, but as of right now, it is a work in progress, as is the idea for the series in question.
  2. I am probably one of the most hopeless Iowa writers out there because Iowa has not been a major setting in my books up to this point. My first book, The Holy Fool, was based almost entirely in Chicago. The only connection to Iowa was as the birthplace of my main character, Samuel “Sonny” Turner. The Yank Striker has no Iowa connection whatsoever. A good amount of the poetry I’ve written in recent years has been based in Iowa, especially along the Mississippi River.
  3. I figured out how to do linkable footnotes in WordPress this week! Very cool.

A Week in the Writing Life, 2 July 2023

[PHOTO NOTE: Back in my hometown of Muscatine, Iowa, looking at the Mississippi River. :)]

Man, I’ve been keeping busy this week – and I’ve been out of town for a bit as well. So, this newsletter might be pretty short when I get done with it.

However, there was a lot happening this week, and some of it actually has to do with writing. Let’s talk about it.

Home Front Stuff

As you can see, my wife Laura already has the house all decorated for the Fourth of July. We’ll be just hanging out in town for when the Tuesday itself happens, with no plans at the moment to travel.

I did decide to make it out to a soccer match, however. When I was just scrolling around online, I noticed there were still tickets available for the US Men’s National Team’s CONCACAF[1] Gold Cup Wednesday night match against St. Kitts & Nevis, to my shock. A visit to Seatgeek and Priceline later, I was headed for a five-hour one way trip to St. Louis to watch the USMNT in action. Although this was my second USMNT live match, it was the first one in a competitive match.

Citypark is right in downtown St. Louis and is definitely one of the nicest and well-designed stadiums I’ve visited yet. The boys managed a 6-0 victory, Jesus Ferreira got a hat trick and became the fastest American man to score double digits for the US, and my old Chicago Fire keeper Sean Johnson captained the team for the first time ever and got his seventh clean sheet for his country. It was a long drive up and down, but a fantastic two days.

What I’ve Been Writing

I ended up getting the first chapter of a new fan fiction piece done this week. I’ve talked about my relationship with fan fiction previously, but I’ve enjoyed my time just writing for the sake of writing, especially the little world I’ve build over the course of a couple years. It can also be an excellent way of breaking a writing block, since I don’t feel as much pressure to be as perfectionist with the material than “serious” writing.

I have a feeling this year fan fiction makes up a far smaller percentage of my total overall production than it has in the past couple years. I believe I have been putting out much more material for my blogs and on my original fiction than at any point during that time. Since I have made notes regarding what I wrote at various times, I could possibly work out those percentages if I really wanted to, but I’m not sure it would be an efficient use of my time.

I can’t say I spend time on the second book of The Yank Striker series, but I do have something that came up. An idea for a brand new series I’m formulating as we speak. I’ll do a separate post on the idea this weekend (this coming Saturday). I hope it will be an intriguing surprise.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

I had my book launch party for The Yank Striker last Saturday!

It was great to see my family at Chocolaterie Stam in Des Moines, and thanks to especially to Terri Key, who is a fellow member of the Iowa Writers’ Corner, for helping set everything up.

The IWC’s president, Maggie Rivers, also stopped by to say hi and managed to win the gift basket.

There’s going to be some more events later this month. I’ll post on my Substack Notes feed a full update on events later today at least. I’ll also post announcements on my Instagram and Facebook pages. If you can make it, I’d love to see you there.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

As with last week, I’m going to do one recommendation here and put some of the rest of the stories I’ve read on my Substack Notes.

As what I would call an educated amateur on the subject of the Substack platform, I always like to read the articles on how to better use the platform. This article is about how you can celebrate milestones in a way that can get readers’ attention.

Writing Quote of the Week

Carl Sagan here gets real about where books can take you.

What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Final Thoughts

That’s it for this week. I might have what I was hinting at in this week’s newsletter ready for next weekend, or not. But I’ll try. Take care, everyone.

– 30 –

Footnotes:

  1. The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, the regional governing body of football.

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.
Go check out all my other links here.

A Brief History of Donford FC: A companion story to The Yank Striker series

Subscribe to continue reading

Become a paid subscriber to get access to the rest of this post and other exclusive content.

A Week in the Writing Life, 23 June 2023

[PHOTO NOTE: Back in my hometown of Muscatine, Iowa, looking at the Mississippi River. :)]

I had a pretty busy week this week when I got a lot of writing done, and paid subscribers are going to be able to take a look at what I wrote.

We’ll talk about that and a little more, although not too much more. I’m on the road this weekend.

Home Front Stuff

My wife Laura and I are going to return back to our hometown of Muscatine, Iowa this weekend. She plans to attend her high school reunion and meet some family and friends she hasn’t seen in a while. I’m looking forward to seeing some of them because we went to school together and I was only two classes ahead of my wife.

As for me, I’m planning to meet with my parents once again for the weekend and do some writing tour stuff (I’ll talk about that very briefly down below). Hoping to have a good time.

The CONCACAF[1] Gold Cup is kicking off this weekend. I might need some headphones for my cellphone to listen to the radio call if nothing else. Then again, what would you expect from someone who’s decided to write a whole series about the sport (The Yank Striker).

Swimming’s been working out for me this summer, so I might check in and see what it would cost to have a membership at a pool near my work this fall. I sure as heck have more fun than going to a gym.

What I’ve Been Writing

Everyone, I think I can now clearly understand how a writer can do something like get caught up in a writing side project that takes up all of their attention, like George R.R. Martin deciding to write something like Fire and Blood but everyone’s wailing for (or despairing of receiving) the next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series (The Winds of Winter). I have undergone something similar this week.

I promised everyone last week I would put out a paid subscriber exclusive short fiction piece (call it historical fiction) tied to my series The Yank Striker. In the first book, the title character, DJ Ryan, is tempted from playing for his college football coach father by a tryout offer from Donford FC, a Premier League soccer club in the East End of London. This is a wholly fictional club, created for this series.

Six days, multiple hours of research, and more than 7,000 words later, the short story I promised readers is finished and will be posted at midday this coming Sunday (tomorrow). In addition to be (hopefully) a good and interesting read, I think it gave me far more insight and knowledge of the world I want to write about, and it will be a good resource for me as the series continues. I hope you give it a look.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

The Author’s on the Riverwalk event I went to last weekend was a fantastic experience. I got to meet a lot of great authors, and it was a fine experience on the Des Moines riverfront. I always learn something new at these events, and I’m keen on making it back there next year. Did you know Canva can make business cards, display signs, and other items you design on Canva for your use? Pretty cool.

I have at least two events this weekend and the official book launch of The Yank Striker next weekend in Des Moines, but I’m not going to hash over those here. I’ll post on my Substack Notes feed a full update on events this weekend and the following two weekends. I’ll also post announcements on my Instagram and Facebook pages. If you can make it, I’d love to see you there.

By the way, my hometown newspaper (and former employer) the Muscatine Journal did a very cool article about my new book and doing an appearance in Muscatine tomorrow. You can check it out here.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

I’m going to do one recommendation here and put some of the rest of the stories I’ve read on my Substack Notes. Trust me, you’ll find some good recommendations there.

One I will recommend here is this little article by Andy Kopsa of Noheartland regarding the governor of Iowa. What I will say here is Boss Tweed was right back in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century – to broadly paraphrase him, it’s the images that get people’s attention, and Andy does it amazingly here.

Writing Quote of the Week

I have a feeling this is going to be me during the last part of my life. Honestly, I always was faster and more productive on a deadline.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.

Isaac Asimov

Final Thoughts

That’s it for this week. Keep an eye open for the paid-exclusive content I mentioned for Sunday while I’m on the road back to my home stomping grounds of eastern Iowa. Take care, everyone.

– 30 –

Footnotes:

  1. The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, the regional governing body of football.

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.
Go check out all my other links here.

A Week in the Writing Life, 17 June 2023

[PHOTO NOTE: Des Moines, where I am today. :)]

Another summer week has passed by, and it feels like I was keeping busy without getting a lot of work done. Of course, there were times where I slightly vegged out, but I did get some things done.

Stop in for a while. We’ll talk.

Home Front Stuff

My wife Laura has taken to joking I watch soccer all the time. One of the advantages of being a fan of soccer (football)[1] is there is literally no off-season for the sport in a practical sense. Most of the club leagues in Europe run from August to May (a little longer this year due to the weird World Cup interruption in November), while Major League Soccer here in America runs from about March to November, and some Central and South American leagues run a similar schedule.

Also, the summer is typically the time for big international tournaments involving the national teams of various countries. The CONCACAF[2] Nations League and Gold Cup tournaments just got started this week, and there are various qualifiers and tournaments active in Europe and South America[3].

Basically, this is my way of explaining why I didn’t get any writing done Thursday when the US Men’s National Team (USMNT) played Mexico in the Nations League semifinal and beat them Tres A Cero. It’s also my way of explaining why I’d consider writing a whole fiction series about a burgeoning American soccer star (The Yank Striker) since I’m just that obsessed over the sport[4].

In other news, my daughter’s staying over for the weekend and I’m expecting to meet with both my kids for dinner tonight. So, there’s that.

What I’ve Been Writing

I’ve continued to make some slow progress on Book Two of The Yank Striker series, but not quite as much as I would like. It’s just a matter of sitting down and putting what’s in my head on the page and start to mess around with it (my highly technical term for the revision process).

I’ve ended up writing a lot more on the blog in the past few months. Earlier in the week I heard of the death of Cormac McCarthy and I decided to put something together on it. He’s not one of my childhood idols or anything, but I do think he’s one of the better writers I’ve encountered on the page and I don’t usually say that about “literary” authors.

Although this weekly edition of the newsletter will always be free, I also am interested in putting together more paid-subscriber exclusive material. I want people to get something of value for subscribing to me, even as I make sure to keep it affordable for anyone who wants to upgrade their subscription.

So, next weekend, I am going to put out an exclusive article connected to my new book series The Yank Striker. In my new book, readers are introduced to Donford Football Club, a Premier League team located in the East End of London, which offers the title character, DJ Ryan, a team tryout. Of course, no such club actually exists, except for in my book. The article will be “A History of Donford FC” and will give you some background to this world I’ve built for the series. I hope you give it a look.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

As of this writing, I’m hoping to be in Des Moines for the Author’s on the Riverwalk event. I’ll let you know how it went next week, but I always look forward to getting out, meeting people interested in literature, and talking about what I write.

On separate posts, I’ve been posting an updated list of appearances I’m making this summer and beyond. I’ll also be posting those on Substack Notes, Facebook, and Instagram. If you are not sure where my links are for not only my Facebook and Instagram pages, but my links for The Yank Striker, either go to my author’s page on Substack or the Link in Bio Page on my WordPress. You’ll find it all there.

Trying to promote the site, my book series, and my appearances has been a bit of work as well. I don’t pretend to know everything about marketing and social media, but I might know a little more than I did before.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

I’ll continue adding a couple of these every week, but I’m tempted to restrict the majority of them to Substack Notes posts. Those I don’t get to here I’ll post on here. There’s so much good writing on Substack and WordPress, but there’s no way anybody can read it all and get anything done in a week.

Even my kids were asking me about the recent reports of what the US government knows about UFOs.

Erik Hoeldid a great job of debunking those reports (and the news organizations breathlessly reporting them.

Some of my favorite writers on Substack, the Iowa Writers Collaborative , got together IRL this past weekend in the Amana Colonies (look it up, non-Iowa readers) and talked about how they’ve been doing something new in the world of Iowa journalism this past year. Go check them out.

Laura Jedeed put out a new post on an article she did about what she saw at the recent Turning Point USA convention. Definitely worth a read.

Finally, over at

On Substack , Hamish McKenzie put out an interesting exploration of how other writers are using Substack Notes that might give me some ideas.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

Two quotes for this week. The first quote from Stephen King comes via Veronica Blake, an author I follow on Facebook:

Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.

Stephen King

And the next quote on writing comes from Cormac McCarthy (RIP):

I don’t know why I started writing. I don’t know why anybody does it. Maybe they’re bored, or failures at something else.

Cormac McCarthy

Final Thoughts

That’s it for this week. Keep an eye open for the paid-exclusive content I mentioned for next weekend, which will see me back in my hometown of Muscatine. Writers keep writing and all of you keep safe.

– 30 –

Footnotes:

  1. I use the term soccer here typically since I’m for the most part writing for an American audience, but in other contexts (like my football series The Yank Striker) I use football at the very least interchangeably with soccer.
  2. The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, the regional governing body of football.
  3. This also is not taking into account the start of the transfer season in soccer, of which the whole Lionel Messi move to Inter Miami is just a small portion of that news. Picture a Hot Stove baseball off-season involving dozens of leagues on six continents.
  4. For those readers not particularly interested in the sport of soccer, I also promise this will be the maximum amount of soccer-related material you will likely read in my weekly newsletter. Thank you.

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
Subscribe to my Substack here.
Go check out all my other links here.

Where I (and my books) will be at during the next several weeks…

[PHOTO NOTE: On the road near Des Moines, Iowa, June 2023.]

The book tour (such as it is) for my new book The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning continues later this week. You can also find additional reminders of these upcoming events on my other platforms, including Substack Notes, my Facebook author’s page, and my Instagram author’s page.

On the Calendar:

  • My next appearance will be at the Authors on the River Walk event from 12 to 4 p.m. this Saturday, June 17, at the Hampton Inn & Suites, Downtown Capital Meeting Room, 120 SW Water St., Des Moines. I’ll be part of a wide variety of authors from different genres, so come check us out.
  • From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, June 24, I’ll be appearing at a community book fair at Gävle Hall on the campus of Augustana College, 639 38th St, Rock Island, Illinois. The Midwest Writing Center, of which I was a member when I lived in Muscatine, is hosting the book fair as part of its annual David R. Collins Writers’ Conference.
  • At 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 25, I’ll be back in my hometown of Muscatine, Iowa, for an appearance at Musser Public Library, 408 East 2nd St. Muscatine. It’s not the old library where I spent good portions of my weekends and summers when I was a kid reading away, but it is a very fine facility and a good successor to the other buildings bearing the Musser name. I look forward to seeing you there.
  • My Official Launch Party for The Yank Striker will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 1, at Chocolaterie Stam, 2814 Ingersoll Ave., Des Moines. By the wayyyyy… All those who buy a book at my launch party will be eligible for a gift drawing that evening. I hope everyone can make it there.
  • From 12-6 p.m. Sunday, July 9, it appears that I will be one of the area authors participating in the Northside Market event in the Highland Park business district in Des Moines. I’ll be based at The Slowdown Coffee Co., 3613 6th Ave.
  • I’m very excited to have been invited for a book talk at one of Des Moines’ top independent bookstores, Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 26. This is the first time I’ve had any bookstore invite me in for an event, and I could not be happier. If anyone can make it out to Des Moines that evening, I would absolutely appreciate your support.
  • I’ll be participating in the Iowa/Regional Authors Book Fair sponsored by the Iowa City Book Festival from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 15 at MERGE, 136 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. This will be my first year participating in the event and I’m really excited to do this in Iowa City, where I lived on and off for four years during my time at the University of Iowa.

At all of these locations, I will have advance copies of The Yank Striker for sale, as well as copies of my first book, The Holy Fool.

However, speaking of Beaverdale Books, they are one of three independent book stores here in Iowa where you can actually find my books. They include:

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

All three of them are great places for a day of book shopping.

If you are not sure where my links are for not only my Facebook and Instagram pages, but my links for The Yank Striker, either go to my author’s page on Substack or the Link in Bio Page on my WordPress. You’ll find it all there.

Order The Yank Striker in paperback from Biblio Publishing.
Order The Yank Striker in paperback from Amazon.
Order The Yank Striker on Kindle from Amazon.
Subscribe to my Substack here.

A Week in the Writing Life, 10 June 2023

[PHOTO NOTE: The featured photo is in honor of the UEFA Champions League Final I’ll be watching today. :)]

It’s Saturday and it’s the Superbowl of world soccer upon us – the UEFA Champions League Final. Given I’m insane enough to write a whole book series about an American soccer player, you should know what my priorities are today. I am a degenerate soccer fan, even though neither of the teams in the game (Manchester City or Inter (officially Football Club Internazionale Milano)) are teams I root for[1].

Home Front Stuff

After two whole weeks of essentially hanging out in the house for summer vacation, I finally took the advice of my wife and made it out to the municipal pool. They have adult swim for an hour every day at noon, so I’ve been making an effort to get out there and get some laps in.

I have to admit a water workout is my preferred physical exercise above others. I have been trying to walk more, but it can be a bit of a wear and tear on your joints. With swimming, it doesn’t strain your joints, and you don’t have to worry about sweating all over the place. I have to say that swimming has always been one of my favorite recreational activities, as far back as when I was a little kid in Texas.

So, that’s been fun. I’ve heard there is at least one indoor pool somewhere in the next county north of us, so maybe I can continue this type of exercise even after the summer is done. One of the disadvantages of rural Iowa is a lack of indoor pools.

As I mentioned last week, I decided to plunk down some change and get a new office chair. I have started to get fussy about the type of office chars that I use nowadays. If you are a writer, you want to have where you sit down to write to be as comfortable and supportive as possible. You don’t want to feel worse when you get up from a chair than when you sat down in it, surely. I also want to take into account weight limits, and there are some more sturdy chairs out there than some of the typical ones you would find in Wal-Mart and so forth.

As for the chair pictured… I have to say the jury is still out on it. So far, it’s sturdy and doesn’t put any strain on my spine, no matter how long I sit in it. The fixed armrests are not my favorite, especially since you have to have them to keep the chair together. I tend to like either very wide arm rests that either can be kept wide or removed altogether. However, this was affordable and mostly comfortable, so I think I’m going to keep it and see if it works out. I can always try something else later.

What I’ve Been Writing

For once, I’ve been making some progress on the new book in The Yank Striker series. I ended up writing about an additional 1,000 words to the rough draft (I think I learned the term “puke draft” from Wil Wheaton the other day on Facebook).

So, I’ve actually started to add to the draft rather than just putter around on the sides and see how it’s going to lay out. I know what’s going to be in it in this case, and it’s a big help. This is not going to be a long book by any means. If it exceeds much more than 80,000 words, that will be a significant surprise. One of the advantages I can see with writing a series is that I have, so to speak, a pretty massive pizza I can divide up into however many pieces needed to lay out the story. I can make those parts (the individual books) as large or small as needed.

In addition to this, I have been taking a new writing approach I first used to full effect, coincidentally, with The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning. When I first started to write novels, I always proceeded from the beginning of the story to the end. This always seemed to make the most sense for me, but in practice, it led to many times where I just stalled out on a story. It wasn’t really writer’s block in the traditional sense. I knew where the story was going, and what would be happening. I got to certain points in the story where it was just a slog to write them. I’d literally get bored trying to put it together on the (virtual) page.

It was then I had a thought stuck inside my head:

What if I concentrated on writing the exciting parts of my story first and leaving the rest of it for later?

It seemed like a simple enough concept; it seemed too simple when I first considered it. But really; why should I be writing something I’m not finding interesting or stirring? If I’m finding it a slog to write, how would I expect someone to get into reading that particular scene, much less want to continue reading it?

With this all in mind, after I sketch out the basic outline of my story, I start filling in the exciting parts first, what I consider to be the essential scenes to the story.

I fill those in first, with the exception of the last scene. I save it for last, just like if I have some jelly beans and I want to save the red ones for last. That final scene is my stash of red jelly beans.

Once I get those essential scenes done – not in any particular order, mind – I then decide to add those “fill-in” scenes, the ones connecting the essential scenes. Or, I don’t. Maybe I decide those scenes don’t need to be in there. Maybe, I’ve got enough connecting information in those essential scenes that those fill-in scenes aren’t even needed. It’s a useful way of paring down my story to what it needs to say, not what I think it needs to say.

Hopefully, this process will help speed along the creation of this rough draft. If I do manage to make my goal of getting it released in June 2024, it would be the fastest turnaround for any novel-sized project I’ve ever written. And I do like a challenge.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

Not much to add. I won’t drop my appearances here, but I’ll keep posting the upcoming ones on Substack Notes, Instagram, and other locations, and I’ll have an updated list coming up

I did want to mention something for those who like to go to actual bookstores to find and buy books. You can actually do that in the state of Iowa if you are so inclined. There’s three places carrying them:

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

All three of them are great places for a day of book shopping.

If you are not sure where my links are for not only my Facebook and Instagram pages, but my links for The Yank Striker, either go to my author’s page on Substack or the Link in Bio Page on my WordPress. You’ll find it all there.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

I’ll keep this one brief.

With the passing of the late great Grant Wahl,

Grace Robertson is the best writer on the sport of soccer I’ve yet encountered on Substack. This week she has a great rundown on the very active transfer market of this past week, which includes a certain Argentine headed for Miami that’s getting everyone’s attention and a reminder Florida might be as tricky of a sporting stop as Saudi Arabia nowadays.

Parker Molloy has the type of smart media criticism Howard Kurtz used to do before he went to Fox and went off the rails. This post has a not-so-mournful farewell for Chuck Todd, a prediction that CNN’s head would soon be out the door, (a correct one), and calls out the Washington Post for false equivalency when discussing the whack-job “Democratic” presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

Tim O’Brien was one of the first authors I ever got the chance to interview, back in 1996 or so. This was a great commentary on what fiction can do.

That’s what fiction is for. It’s for getting at the truth when the truth isn’t sufficient for the truth.

  • Tim O’Brien

Final Thoughts

That’s it for this week. Take care, everyone.

– 30 –

Footnotes:

  1. I always get irritated when my Premier League team, Liverpool FC, gets beat out for the league title or the Champions League by Man City. #LFC #YNWA.

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Quick Update on my Book Tour, 4 June 2023

[PHOTO NOTE: On the road near Pella, Iowa, 3 June 2023.]

The modest book tour I’ve set up for my new book The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning that I’ve released this month is continuing as we speak. Although I jokingly called this a summer tour, some of the events I’ve either confirmed or am trying to confirm will extend into this fall.

I’ll also be giving some additional reminders of these upcoming events on my other platforms, including Substack Notes, Substack Chat, my Facebook page, and my Instagram author’s page.

The following is a list of the appearances I have confirmed I will be at as of this writing. One of the biggest changes so far is I have set a confirmed time and location for my official launch party. Even though the paperback version of The Yank Striker is already out, I want to have an official party not only celebrating that release, but the release of the ebook edition of that book in late June.

On the Calendar (AKA Liegois’ Summer 2023 tour):

  1. My next appearance will be at the Authors on the River Walk event from 12 to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 17, at the Hampton Inn & Suites, Downtown Capital Meeting Room, 120 SW Water St., Des Moines. I’ll be part of a wide variety of authors from different genres, so come check us out.
  2. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, June 24, I’ll be appearing at a community book fair at Gävle Hall on the campus of Augustana College, 639 38th St, Rock Island, Illinois. The Midwest Writing Center, of which I was a member when I lived in Muscatine, is hosting the book fair as part of its annual David R. Collins Writers’ Conference.
  3. At 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 25, I’ll be back in my hometown of Muscatine, Iowa, for an appearance at Musser Public Library, 408 East 2nd St. Muscatine. It’s not the old library where I spent good portions of my weekends and summers when I was a kid reading away, but it is a very fine facility and a good successor to the other buildings bearing the Musser name. I look forward to seeing you there.
  4. My Official Launch Party for The Yank Striker will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 1, at Chocolaterie Stam, 2814 Ingersoll Ave., Des Moines. My thanks to Terri Cooper for helping arrange the event. If you can only make it to one of my events, I would love it to be this one.
  5. From 12-6 p.m. Sunday, July 9, it appears that I will be one of the area authors participating in the Northside Market event in the Highland Park business district in Des Moines. I’ll be based at The Slowdown Coffee Co., 3613 6th Ave.
  6. I’ll be participating in the Iowa/Regional Authors Book Fair sponsored by the Iowa City Book Festival from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 15 at MERGE, 136 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. This will be my first year participating in the event and I’m really excited to do this in Iowa City, where I lived on and off for four years during my time at the University of Iowa.

At all of these locations, I will have advance copies of The Yank Striker for sale, as well as copies of my first book, The Holy Fool.

There’ll be at least a few more additions in the days and weeks to come, so keep posted. However, if you want to find my books online, just click on the buttons below. Hopefully, I might see you around, anyway.

Order The Yank Striker in paperback from Biblio Publishing.
Order The Yank Striker in paperback from Amazon.
Order The Yank Striker on Kindle from Amazon.
Subscribe to my Substack here.