Tag: Personal

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

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

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

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

The Home Front

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

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

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

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

What I’ve Been Writing

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

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

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

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

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

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

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

Writing Advice

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

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

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

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

Writing Quote(s) of the Week:

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

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

  • Aristotle

Concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don’t care who’s listening.

  • Allen Ginsberg

Where I’ll Be Appearing

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

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

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

Where You Can Find my Books

For direct links to purchase my books in paperback and ebook form, including The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning and The Holy Fool, click on the links in the Substack sidebar or the links on my Substack author page. Or, you can go to this page on my WordPress site, Liegois Media.

You can also get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:

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

All these are great independent bookstores, but I’m always looking for some new places to place my books (especially now in eastern Iowa), so feel free to hit me up in the comments if anyone has a suggestion.

Final Thoughts

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

-30-

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

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

Writing on the Holidays Can be Tough: A Christmas Post

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Negatives

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

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

Positives

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Anniversary

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

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

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

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

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

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

When Times Are Not Easy

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

That is not an oversight.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Writing Journal 5.18.2022: Looking forward to the summer break

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Writing Journal 2/2/2022: The end of the month brings better numbers… but not so better numbers for an entire month… thanks to a bit of a miscalculation… but I’m not that far behind my goal

Hi, everyone.

I had a bit of a slowdown the past couple days due to a good-sized cold – not COVID, this is acting exactly like my typical colds this time of the year. A runny nose is turning into a cough after a few days, right on time, and so I’ll likely have to deal with a cough for the next week or two. Thankfully, my mask wearing at work seems to have been paying off to avoid COVID there (and help prevent spreading my cold to anyone else, a plus).

I actually had a good week of writing last week – the best I had last month.

However, I kind of miscalculated my pace to match my goal for this month.

I had calculated that I had to hit about 3,850 per week to hit my goal, but I realized all of a sudden that I calculated for a five-week month rather than a four week month. So, I ended up dropping below my goal… but not terribly.

My stats for the month of January:
Words: 13,954
Revise/Plan: 165 minutes
Daily Writing Goals Met: 68%

So, about 2,000 words behind my intended pace of 16,667 words per month to reach my yearly goal of 200,000 that I set. Not horrific… and definitely something that I can make up with time, especially now that I know which months are “longer” months and what I have to play with. Also, I’m only two percentage points off my goal of meeting my daily goals 70 percent of the time this year (500 words per day minimum or at least 30 minutes per day revising/planning projects).

I’m this close to getting the main fan fiction project that I’ve been tooling around on for the past year or two done and dusted. Even though there are a few side stories in what I’m now calling a series, I’m not going to feel so time sensitive to getting that work done. Once I get that out of the way, I think that I will be able to devote more time with this blog. I actually did some writing on another blog post that I’ve wanted to get out for a while, so I felt good about that even though I still haven’t finished with it.

Anyway, here’s the weekly totals. Hope your week is going well and stay safe.

Weekly statistics for the week ending 1.30.2022:
+4,398 words written.
Days writing: 6 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 1 of 7 for  60 total minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.

[PHOTO NOTE; The featured photo for today came up when I did a search for calculation, heh heh.]

Writing Journal 11.3.2021: Sliding out of October

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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