Two good writing weeks in a row, and this one was better than last week’s. So, it’s looking up.
Last week’s stats:
Writing statistics for the week ending8 November 2025: Words: 5,880 Days writing: 6 of 7. Days revising or planning: 1 of 7 for 30 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.
As of the end of October, I had slightly less than 40,000 words left to reach my goal of 225,000 words for 2025. This means I’ll have to average close to 5,000 words per week to make it work. And now I just have to push myself for the rest of the year.
I’m currently calling the sci-fi horror project in a little river town on the Mississippi River in Iowa The Land, The River, and The Waste. Keep in mind this is just the working title I am using, and that I will usually go with another title before I finally publish a project. I’m superstitious in this regard. After more than a week of writing, I’m already over 5,000 words, so good on me for this. I’m not sure I could write 40,000 words in a month like the old National Novel Writing Month, but I do know I have it in me to do it in two months easily.
Get in, 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.
After two bad months of writing in a row, I felt good about having a decent month and a great last week to October. However, how far behind am I with trying to write 225,000 words this year? Time to find out.
Here’s the stats for last week and for the month of October:
Writing statistics for the week ending1 November 2025: Words: 5,315 Days writing: 6 of 7. Days revising or planning: 2 of 7 for 120 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.
Writing statistics for October 2025: Words: 20,201 Revising and planning: 1,020 minutes. DWGM: 83%
As of the end of October 2025, I have written 185,473 words for this calendar year. If I was keeping on pace, I would have written 187,500, so I am 2,027 words off the pace … which is not good, but not fatal.
I have 39,527 words left to get to my goal, which would mean writing about 19,764 words per month for the next two months. I’ve written more than that amount four out of 10 months out of this year. It is difficult, but not impossible. I’ll have to average close to 5,000 words per week to make it work. Again, difficult, but not impossible.
The sci-fi horror project in a little river town on the Mississippi River in Iowa I talked about last week? I just started the rough draft on Halloween night. I’m hoping it’s going to drive my output. Now, if I treated this month just like the late lamented National Novel Writers Month of old, I could knock out 40,000 or 50,000 words before the month is out. Maybe I can do it with this book. It’s called to me more than anything I’ve had in my head for a while. Like I said last week, at least I’m going to go down trying.
Two more months. Let’s do this.
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.
It’s already November? Last month just flew by, but thank goodness we finally have fall weather in Iowa. I remember a year ago still waking up to 80 degree afternoons and wondering if I’d ever feel cool again. However, it feels lovely outside now.
This month, I’m going to discuss a big change with my writing focus that happened this past weekend, some thank yous go out to some great hosts of author events over the past month or so, as well as all the normal odds and ends.
Personal Items…
Thank goodness it turned into fall in Iowa during the last couple of weeks. Somewhere in October we went from 80 degree highs one day to twenty degrees cooler the next. I’m sorry, but if I wanted to live in Texas or Florida I’d be there. Proper fall weather is the best.
I’m already a fourth of the way through the school year. I like teaching, and I like special education, but I’ve previously made the analogy that teaching is like running a marathon with your brain even in the best years. It is an intense experience, but I’m glad I have a good group of co-workers and administrators.
That’s enough real life; let’s get to the writing.
Writing Projects
My actual mental processes last month lol.
As it turns out, I’ve decided to change the focus of my writing priorities a bit.
I’ve mentioned something I’ve referred to as The Untitled Iowa Series. For at least a few years, I’ve had the idea of setting some fiction in a small Iowa town on the Mississippi River not much different from the ones I’ve lived in for the past few decades. It seemed to call to me, become a setting to explore the current social and political environment from a small community standpoint. And frankly, I want to reach more Iowa and Midwest readers by putting out something they might get into.
The first one I will refer to for now as The Land, The River, and The Waste (LRW)1. It will be a sci-fi/horror novel set in Iowa, leaning on the environmental damage being done to my home state. I decided, “What would it take to really get people’s attention to this issue, enough to do something about it?” In speculating on this question, my mind took some wild twists and turns, and all of them started to head toward the horror/sci-fi route. I went from the beginning of this month mildly considering what this town and some of its residents might be like, to coming up with main characters, to outlining the main story of LRW, to openly asking fellow authors and visitors to the book fairs I attended last month whether they’d be interested in the type of story I was thinking of. (The reactions I got were overwhelmingly positive.) After doing quite a bit of soul-searching, consideration, and this informal market research, I started writing the rough draft beginning Halloween night. If you’re curious, I put out a video commemorating the start of this process. Or just watch it below.
The other book I’ve got an idea for in this series I’m calling The Heart Project. This is a speculative/fantasy/soft sci-fi story I have in mind involving four one-time friends, a high school reunion, and a microcosm of a larger sense of chaos. The vast majority of the story would be focused in Iowa, even though it touches on events occurring nationwide and globally. Until I’ve made further progress on LRW and other projects, I’m going to keep this quiet for a while.
Other projects in various stages of completion are:
The Yank Striker 3 (YS3). The Yank Striker series follows the exploits of DJ Ryan, a fledgling American soccer player who leaves his family behind to try his fortune with an English Premier League team in the East End of London. This has more information about the first book in the series, and this link will brief you in about Book 2, The Yank Striker’s Journey. YS3 continues DJ’s growth as a footballer as he faces both setbacks and opportunities. I’ve actually reached the 20,000-work mark with this rough draft, and it’s been taking up a good portion of my creative bandwidth. I had had a soft deadline of having this book ready to go by 2026 sometime, but I’ve had something of a change of heart on this. I do believe in this story, but it somehow feels unbalanced to have three out of four published novels be about a single series when I have other stories to tell. And they’ve been calling to me. So, I will finish this story, but it will be a slightly lower priority than some others.
The Fool 2: This is the sequel to my debut novel, The Holy Fool. It was a thriller featuring Samuel “Sonny” Turner, a newspaper columnist for the Chicago Journal, tasked by his editor and mentor with protecting his newspaper from sale by its unscrupulous owner during the 2008 presidential election and Great Recession. The sequel revisits Sonny in 2024, sixteen years after he’s left Chicago and founded his news site, The Fool. In addition to the chaotic political situation the US is now in and how he plans to cover it from a distance with the help of his American colleagues, he’s also dealing with life as an emigrant to the unfamiliar land of Switzerland, and raising his family and children there. It’s a timely story worth telling, but something about the story makes me want to wait and see how events play out in real time. I see this story being book-ended by the 2024 and 2026 elections, so I’m thinking perhaps a 2027 release at this point. I’m too much of a believer in journalism to be a force of good in communities not to have a love for the craft, and there are plenty of independent journalists who are trying to do the work properly such as the writers of the Iowa Writers Collaborative Roundup. So, we’ll see how this progresses. I’m now past the 10,000-word mark on this project, and it looks like I’m going to put more work into it, even though I think the feeling of writing historical fiction as the history occurs will me much like building the railroad as the train creeps forward behind me.
I want to thank Tyler Granger, the lead organizer of the Windsor Heights Book Fair, and the Iowa City Book Festival for hosting me at their book fairs earlier last month. I had a great time at both places, and I’m looking forward to returning to both places next year.
I also want to thank the Urbandale Public Library’s for allowing me to participate in their book fair last weekend on short notice. I truly appreciated the opportunity and look forward to being back there soon.
This coming Saturday, 8 November, I’ll be at the Burlington Public Library as part of their Sterling Lord Author’s Showcase. I’ll be at the library beginning at 9 a.m and there through at least noon and perhaps into the afternoon, as well. The library has been a big supporter of both me and area authors, and I’m excited to take part in this annual event for the first time.
This is my obligatory announcement that if any podcasters or bloggers are interested in new fiction, if you are interested in stories based in the worlds of journalism and 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 Month:
This pretty much says it about why I decided to move forward with LRW.
My bursting heart must find vent at my pen. ― Abigail Adams
This is always a good reminder.
The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying. ― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
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 on mobile. If you follow the links, 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 find them on the first page of search results.
I have quite a few places that now carry at least some of my books, some of the many great and fantastic independent bookstores in Iowa and the Midwest. These are the bookstores you’ll find at least some of my work2:
Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St. Fort Madison.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
The Corner and More, 703 Main St., Mediapolis.
Green Point Mercantile, 217 E. 2nd St., Muscatine.
The Brewed Book, 1524 Harrison St., Davenport.
The Black Rose, 116 W. Main St., West Branch
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Atlas Collective, 1801 5th Ave, Moline, Illinois – my first out of Iowa bookstore, very proud of this.
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.
For those who are budget conscious among all of you, my books are part of the collections of the Fort Madison, Burlington, and Musser (Muscatine) public libraries.
My poetry book The Flow and the Journey is available at Bent Oak, Green Point, Burlington By the Book, and The Corner and More, but it is also available online but not on Amazon. I’ve set up a new online store for copies of my chapbook on my WordPress site, Liegois Media. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click on the button below.
The Flow and the Journey
The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.
All you writers keep writing, and all of you keep safe. See you down the road.
-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.
It just feels like I’m having the same stupid week every week for the past three weeks at least.
Here’s the stats for last week:
Writing statistics for the week ending25 October 2025: Words: 3,247 Days writing: 5 of 7. Days revising or planning: 2 of 7 for 120 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.
I think I’ve been coming down to my basement, fiddling around at my desk, and getting distracted. That’s the long and short of it. I’ve been looking forward to finishing books up, but I keep expecting someone to write it for me, it seems. If there was a time where I can understand the temptation to feed an idea into ChatGPT and have them write it for you, now might be that time1.
I’ve had this idea of a sci-fi horror project in a little river town on the Mississippi River in Iowa, much like the ones I’ve lived in most of my life. I feel like it’s calling to me. At this point I want to write it more than anything I’ve got in my head, in my hard drives, or on my bookshelves. I don’t even have a prospective publisher for this, but I have the urge to make this even if I have to self-publish it.
At this point, I’m not sure if I’m going to make the goal of 225,000 words written for 2025. At the end of this week, I’m going to take a look at how much I’ve written and how much I’m off pace. If I miss my goal this year, at least I’m going to go down trying.
Better luck next week for me.
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.
Look up “doldrums” and you’ll get the reason I went with the featured photo with this story. That’s how I feel about how much I’ve been writing recently.
Here’s the stats for last week:
Writing statistics for the week ending18 October 2025: Words: 3,224 Days writing: 5 of 7. Days revising or planning: 2 of 7 for 240 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.
I mentioned last week that I’ve been obsessed with this idea of basing a sci-fi horror project in a little river town on the Mississippi River in Iowa, much like the ones I’ve lived in most of my life. I now have the rough outline done. I’ve gone far enough to set up a file for it, but I haven’t started writing yet.
It’s irritating because I feel like there’s other projects I’m compelled to do, but it’s this one book that calling me to write it. This book seems to be the one which seems to be connecting not just with the issues rattling around in my head, but the home I’ve lived in for so long. It’s like the universe is calling on me to do this, even though I also have other projects to do.
My goal for this year was 225,000 words written for 2025, either fiction or nonfiction. Part of me doesn’t want to check how far off pace I am at the moment, even though I’m sure the numbers would have impressed me three or four years ago. All I can do is to try and bust this rut, one way or another.
That’s it. Take care, everyone.
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.
I thought I would need a big long explanation for why my raw word count was garbage again, but I thought the meme pic I used as the featured photo for this post covered the basics.
Here’s the stats for last week:
Writing statistics for the week ending 11 October 2025: Words: 3,468 Days writing: 5 of 7. Days revising or planning: 3 of 7 for 360 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.
Basically, I got distracted with ideas for this new writing world, a reimagining of the towns I’ve lived in for more than forty years of my life along the Mississippi River. I’ve been talking with people at book shows and pitching them the idea, and they dig it. It’s like the universe is calling on me to do this, but I also have other projects to do.
My goal for this year was 225,000 words written for 2025, either fiction or nonfiction1. Soon, I’m going to have to estimate what pace I’m going to have to hit to make that mark.
Most of the non-blogging writing I’ve been doing has centered on the next book in the The Yank Striker series. I’m close to a rough outline on the sci-fi horror project in the river town I mentioned above.
That’s it. Take care, everyone.
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.
I thought I had a better week this week than the previous week. I did. I hoped I would have a better month than I did after a horrible August, and I managed to beat it by a little more than 3,000 words. But that doesn’t mean I’m not behind the pace and it doesn’t mean I have a lot of work to do to meet my productivity goals for the year.
Here’s the stats for last week and last month as well:
Writing statistics for the week ending 4 October 2025: Words: 4,947 Days writing: 7 of 7. Days revising or planning: 1 of 7 for 180 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.
Writing statistics for September 2025: Words: 15,559 Revising/planning: 71%
Again, these were better numbers than last week and the previous month, but…
My goal for this year was 225,000 words written for 2025, either fiction or nonfiction1. As of the end of September, I have 165,272 words written. Unfortunately, if I was keeping up with the pace I needed to, I should have at least 168,750. So, that’s a little more than 3,000 words.
I might be able to catch up this month. If I keep writing when I don’t want to, if I stick to my guns. It’s not impossible… and October is a bit of a long month. But, I have to keep going.
Most of the non-blogging writing I’ve been doing has centered on the next book in the The Yank Striker series. I’ve continued to outline and plan a sci-fi horror project in a town something like what I grew up in. If I keep it up, I might have a rough outline on my hands soon.
That’s it. Take care of yourselves.
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.
In case you were wondering, I do not count the words of what I write for my daytime job (teaching) and I do not count the words in any social media posts I make. ↩︎
Hi, and welcome to the October edition of my official newsletter. I’ll talk about what is going on with me having to do with my writing projects, my personal appearances if I’m making them, and some other personal items and other odds and ends with some tenuous connection to writing. I try not to take it way too seriously, although writing is life to me, absolutely.
So, let’s talk writing and a couple other things.
The Norbert Becky Bridge, Muscatine, Iowa, 29 September 2025
Those Personal Items…
You can’t tell from the photo immediately above this text, but it is entirely too hot for the end of September/early October around the state of Iowa. On the day of my school’s homecoming last Friday, we hit a high of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. For those who were reading this newsletter around the same time last year, you must have read of how I nearly had a panic attack wondering if I’d ever feel cool again in this state.
Well, based on the most recent weather reports, I’m hopeful we will stay under 80 degrees after this weekend. It would be nice to have an October that feels like actual fall weather I remember experiencing in past falls. Both my daughter and younger niece, in particular, are great fans of fall and the Halloween season, and would appreciate some more appropriate weather.
Otherwise, I don’t have much to say about my my personal circumstances. The school year keeps rolling as always, and I am always trying to learn something new about how to teach. I’m not sure I’ll ever stop learning about teaching for as long as I do it. Then again, the fact people have been paying me in one way or another to write for the past thirty years or so and I have not learned everything there is to learn about it might have been a good hint at the answer.
Writing Projects
Time to take a look at my ongoing projects, in varying steps of production.
Any guesses on the full title?
1The top of my priorities at the moment is The Yank Striker 3 (AKA YS3, AKA Working Title): The Yank Striker series follows the exploits of Daniel John “DJ” Ryan, a fledgling American soccer player who leaves his family behind to try his fortune with an English Premier League team in the East End of London. Check this out if you want more information about the first book in the series, and this link if you want to know more about Book 2, The Yank Striker’s Journey2.
YS3 continues DJ’s story as he tries to grow as a footballer, despite new challenges and an unexpected event that could either be a setback or opportunity.
I spent most of my time this week on this project. I’m currently over 15,000 words on the rough draft. If you’re curious about who DJ’s interacting with in this part of the manuscript, he’s facing a fellow American gridiron coach’s son who has now gone over to the true football3 and meeting someone who might be important to his personal life.
Someone needs to guess what the title of the new book is. Seriously.
Anyone want to guess the full name?
Either number two or three priority, depending on the moment, is the sequel to my debut novel, The Holy Fool. This journalism thriller features Samuel “Sonny” Turner, a newspaper columnist tasked by his editor and mentor with protecting his newspaper, the 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 Great Recession.
The sequel revisits Sonny beginning in 2024, sixteen years after he’s left Chicago and founded his news site, The Fool. In addition to the … let’s say volatile political situation his birth country is now in and how he plans to cover it from a distance, he’s also dealing with the fact he’s a Midwestern boy from Iowa who’s been out of his own country, living in Switzerland, and raising his children in a foreign land speaking foreign languages and growing up in a way he never did in Meskwaki4, Iowa, or in the state capital of Des Moines. He is dealing with many of the typical issues of emigres away from America5.
I haven’t done much writing on this story, but I have been pondering how to handle putting it together. As I’ve started to write this book, it has become apparent for the first time in my fiction experiences, I’ve written myself into a corner. I thought it might be useful to briefly discuss how I think I’m going to get myself out of a jam.
This is where some minor spoilers will pop up, so you may want to speed ahead to the amusing meme photo below (the one with the guy and two girls) if this is an issue for you. It never is for me, but regardless…
The Fool 2 sees Sonny spend the vast majority of his time in Switzerland as he directs the coverage of events in the United States, with one exception which I won’t reveal here. You’d expect this; Sonny is the editor in chief, he’s not the one chasing down stories anymore like he did sixteen years previously in the events of The Holy Fool. He’s the one directing the action, passing on his knowledge and insights to the reporters in the field. It’s the difference between being a lieutenant leading a rifle company into a firefight and a lieutenant colonel or higher directing his men from rear positions. However, I recently heard of (but did not watch, thank the universe), the recent adaptation of The War of the Worlds starring Ice Cube, which was apparently an entire movie featuring characters staring at screens, typing, and doing secret tech stuff.
Like this, I guess…
Naturally, I did not in any way wish to emulate 2025’s War of the Worlds in my book. So, how was I going to avoid this trap? I realized Sonny is going to have to share the spotlight.
All three of my published books have featured limited third-person narration, which means they concentrated on following the actions, more or less, of one character (DJ in The Yank Striker series, and Sonny (for the most part) in The Holy Fool). By contrast, what I’ll call third-person multiple point of view (POV) narration is third-person narration where more than one character serves at the main POV character.
One of the main examples of this narration is the A Song of Ice and Fire book series written by George R.R. Martin6. I first had a chance to try out this technique when I started writing some fan fiction on the side, so I have some familiarity with it.
So, I’ll use some of the existing journalist characters from The Holy Fool who still work with Sonny on his new project as well as some new young recruits7. It will be a good opportunity to explore some characters I didn’t have the chance to explore until now and to bring them into the story. I’m looking forward to it.
Now let’s get on with the other projects taking up my time…
I think this says it all when it comes to my writing priorities (heh heh).
The Untitled Iowa Series: This is a series of novels I’ve started to ponder (maybe three so far) set in a small Iowa town on the Mississippi River not much different from the ones I’ve lived in for the past few decades. Part of the themes of this story fit into the current social and political environment, while showing how smaller communities process larger sociological and historical changes. Also, I want to attract more local readers if I start producing stories set here in local settings. Sue me for wanting to be more popular. These are the stories I have already started to formulate in my head.
The first one I am calling the working title The Land, The River, and The Waste. This was inspired indirectly by a recently completed short story (more on that whenever it gets released). It will be a sci-fi/horror novel set in Iowa, leaning on the environmental damage being done to my home state. After doing quite a bit of
The Heart Project: This is 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. The vast majority of the story would be focused in Iowa, even though it touches on events occurring nationwide and globally. All quiet on this project – This will be Book 2 in the series rather than Book 1.
As it turns out, I have a busy October coming up before all the book festivals and events start to slow down. I hope to see you there at one of these events.
First, let me thank, one more time, the owners and staff of Bent Oak Books in Fort Madison, Burlington By the Book in Burlington, and the Atlas Collective in Moline, Ill., for being such wonderful hosts for me at my events at all three places. These are fantastic independent bookstores and the people behind them are fantastic as well. I am looking forward to returning to all three places in the future.
I will be at the Windsor Heights Book Fair on Sunday, October 5, at the Masonic Lodge at 1141 69th St., in Windsor Heights, Iowa (outside Des Moines). This will be the third time I’ve appeared at the event and I’m very much up for the event. Tyler Granger, the organizer of the festival, is a good acquaintance of mine and a fellow Iowa author himself.
Finally, I will be at the Iowa City Book Festival, which runs from October 5-12 in Iowa City. I will be attending the local author book fair as part of the event, which will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 12 at MERGE, 136 S. Dubuque St. I’ve always had a great time there, and I’ll be looking forward to it.
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:
Somehow, this bit of advice from one of the top writers of the early 20th century makes sense to me.
If you are in difficulties with a book, try the element of surprise: attack it at an hour when it isn’t expecting it. ― H.G. Wells
This seems relatively obvious, but still needs to be said.
A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world. ― Susan Sontag
As much as I’m obsessed with worldbuilding in my writing, this seems especially true.
Writing has nothing to do with meaning. It has to do with land surveying and cartography, including the mapping of countries yet to come.
― Gilles Deleuze
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 on mobile. 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 find them on the first page of search results.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have quite a few places that now carry at least some of my books. Until the Iowa Indie Bookshop Tour got started a few years back, I wasn’t aware of many of these great and fantastic independent bookstores in Iowa and the Midwest. These are the bookstores you’ll find at least some of my books8:
Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St. Fort Madison.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
The Corner and More, 703 Main St., Mediapolis.
Green Point Mercantile, 217 E. 2nd St., Muscatine.
The Brewed Book, 1524 Harrison St., Davenport.
The Black Rose, 116 W. Main St., West Branch
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Atlas Collective, 1801 5th Ave, Moline, Illinois – my first out of Iowa bookstore, very proud of this.
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.
For those who are budget conscious among all of you, my books are part of the collections of the Fort Madison, Burlington, and Musser (Muscatine) public libraries.
My poetry book The Flow and the Journey is available at Bent Oak, Green Point, Burlington By the Book, and The Corner and More, but it is also available online but not on Amazon. I’ve set up a new online store for copies of my chapbook on my WordPress site, Liegois Media. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click on the button below.
The Flow and the Journey
The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.
All you writers keep writing, and all of you keep safe. See you down the road.
-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.
There’s too many breaks in this newsletter to number them off coherently. Sorry if it makes things slightly harder to read. ↩︎
I don’t want to get into a massive amount of detail unless you’re interested. But it is a really cool soccer and family drama, trust me. ↩︎
In the series, I alternate between calling the sport football and soccer. It honestly doesn’t matter to me either way. ↩︎
There is no such place. It is for me what Yoknapatawpha County was for William Faulkner. There is a true Meskwaki tribe in Iowa, but no such place as Meskwaki, Iowa. I will say it is an amalgam of several eastern Iowa communities I have lived in and passed through during the past 40 years or so. I look forward to introducing it to you. It’s a pretty cool town. ↩︎
You are going to dig meeting these kids. They’re pretty cool. ↩︎
This is going to be really short since I’m not really up for trying to justify my unwillingness to type words when I know which words I want to type.
Here’s the stats for last week:
Writing statistics for the week ending 27 September 2025: Words: 2,836 Days writing: 4 of 7. Days revising or planning: 1 of 7 for 210 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 4 of 7 days.
It is what it bloody is. Time to get writing. Time to stop distracting myself. Time to stop making excuses.
When I wasn’t puttering along on blogs, I spent much of the rest week going between my sequel to my debut novel, The Holy Fool (Currently called The Fool 2), and the next book in the The Yank Striker series. I also did some considerable planning on a sci-fi horror project in a town something like what I grew up in and felt like I made good progress there, anyway.
That’s it. Take care, everyone.
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.
Writing statistics for the week ending 13 September 2025: Words: 3,454 Days writing: 6 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.
I think what I have to do is whenever I sit in front of the computer, I have to write something. I have to get out of the habit of thinking I have to write every story I have in a linear manner. And I can’t stress out trying to make things quality or even passable when I write it out for the first time. I get caught up in that trap too often, and it took a few random comments in the world of Bookthreads to wake me up to how I need to be tackling things. This sure isn’t the 5,000 words per week I was shooting for, but all I can do nowadays is adjust what I’m trying to do, try something different, and get back on it.
I spent much of last week going between my sequel to my debut novel, The Holy Fool (Currently called The Fool 2), and the next book in the The Yank Striker series. I might get into those other dormant projects I talked about last week.
That’s it for now. Take care, everyone.
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.
