Tag: What I'm Reading

A Week in the Writing Life, 28 October 2023: A short one this week lol

The feature photo is from Red Haw State Park outside Chariton, Iowa, taken this week. Here’s a few other pics from there:

Red Haw State Park, 21 October 2023

Finally, it’s starting to feel and look like a proper fall season around here. And I was thinking I’d have to go through another weekend in the 70’s. Definitely not.

Anyway, this edition of the newsletter is going to be short because A., I had parent-teacher conferences three nights in a row this week, B., I was working on another book review to be featured here on this site (and others), and C., I realized around Friday night or so I hadn’t even started working on it until then. So, you’ll get what you get this weekend.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week, I mentioned I was working on a couple of book reviews. The first one of these I am planning on releasing Sunday. The book review will be about Iowa author Tyler Granger and his debut book, Iowa Trouble. I’ve just gotten to know Tyler recently as we’ve run into each other at multiple book fair events around Iowa, and his debut intrigued me as I got to know more about it. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you, as well. Since book reviews are pretty common on the Internet, I’ll make that review available to everyone.

In case you are curious, my Goodreads profile page is here. Go ahead and visit it whenever you can.

Not too much progress on The Yank Striker 2 this week for all the aforementioned reasons, but I am hoping to get some more progress on it this weekend. I’ve also been doing some additional planning and sketching out for that project and the pro wrestling thing I’ve been toying around with. I’m considering doing some short stories connected to (and perhaps becoming part of) the larger series, and quite a few of those might be free posts as well. I’d like everyone to see what’s coming up and what they might want to try to read when it comes out.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

I’ve been considering getting a new logo/profile pic for the site. I’ve settled on a couple of pics I ran through some art processing apps that don’t suck. I was considering putting up a poll to see what you guys thought, but I’m leaning toward showing them to my daughter Maddie and see what she says. She’s usually got good judgement on those things and might be brighter than me when it comes down to it.

Writing Advice for the Week

This week, it’s time to talk about the last of George Orwell’s six rules of writing, which have been a fun activity for me over the past month or so.

Orwell is a literary hero of mine, who laid down this set of rules in an essay called “Politics and the English Language.” The entire essay is worth a read.

So, number six and the last on the list is:

Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.

A few months ago, I decided rather than trying to come up with my own bits of advice (which can be hard to do on a regular basis), I decided to take a look at other bits of writing advice on the Internet and elsewhere and comment on whether they made sense or not, which was an easier lift for me. The point I’ve been trying to make with these commentaries is other than some basic ideas like capitalizing the start of sentences and adding punctuation at the end of them, most writing “rules” should be considered guidelines, things considered but not always followed under every circumstance.

I’d long thought Orwell was of a similar mind as me, and this “rule,” in my opinion, proves it. This is his way of saying do what works and what is right in a given writing situation, and not be bound to do something because a style guide insists you do it in every circumstance. Consider the situation, consider the reader, and then make the best choice for the given moment.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

It is nice to be creative without someone looking over my shoulder.

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.

Roald Dahl

Not sure how having a Lego collection when I was a kid fits into this, but all right:

A writer – and, I believe, generally all persons – must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.

Jorge Luis Borges, Twenty-Four Conversations with Borges: Interviews by Roberto Alifano 1981-1983

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

Currently, I have one book event on my calendar. 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. If something else comes up, I’ll let you know.

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

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and keep an eye out for the book review I talked about up top. 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.

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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.

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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 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.

A Week in the Writing Life, 13 May 2023

[PHOTO NOTE: I gave you a look at my previous hometown last week, so this is a look at someplace near my present home. This is Red Haw State Park just outside Chariton, Iowa. There’s a few more pics below.]

I’m getting the newsletter out a bit later on Saturday than usual (I thought it was going to be 5 p.m., but it’s more like 5:30.

/Insert shrugging emoji here.

I’ve been busy with last-minute school year stuff and other items. We can talk now, though. 🙂

Home Front Stuff

From the photos accompanying this newsletter, you can probably tell that we are well into the transition from spring into summer and the air conditioning is now in operation. Red Haw State Park is one of the lesser-known nature spots in Iowa, but I’ve really come to love it in my few years living in Chariton. It’s even got a little beach, and there’s some camping and boating facilities, as well. It finally fully opened back up recently after cleaning up from a tornado.

I’m also looking forward to summer vacation starting in a week. Although the teaching year was not as bad as I had initially feared, I am increasingly glad that my teaching duties will be almost exclusively special education next year. I think it is the educational work I feel most comfortable with. Even though I might not be teaching writing full-time next year, I’m finding that doing my own writing is more than making up for not being a writing teacher.

My daughter’s visiting us the weekend after my classes are done. I’m quite looking forward to that.

What I’ve Been Writing

I do believe the last round of revisions and edits for The Yank Striker are now in the books. Now, I’m waiting for my publisher to move on their end. They have a lot of other projects they are trying to get finished, but I’m hoping I can get a release date for sometime this summer. That would obviously be an advantage for me, as I would be more available for promotional appearances, etc.

I’ve been doing more work with planning and drafting what I’m going to refer to as The Yank Striker 2. I have a better idea of what that is going to look like and the size of that project. I’m hoping that I can have it done as a rough draft by the end of the year and be ready to publish it during Summer 2024. I used to go years between writing projects in my procrastination days, so this is all new to me. I’ve got 16,000-plus words all set to go and I’d like at least another 70,000 for a modest-sized book. Like Tolkien and other fantasy writers know, why write a massive book when you can have a series?

I submitted that essay for the Writers on the Avenue collection I discussed last week, after a bit of revision on portions of the rough draft I’ve been compiling on a memoir project I accidentally started working on over the course of blogging about my past experiences with writing over my life. Whenever they publish that, I’ll announce it here. The collection is going to feature a lot of great Iowa writers and friends like Mike Bayless, Misty Urban, Mica Rossi, and my former high school classmate Juan Fourneau.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

Reformatting posts on Substack is going slowly. I did do a slight design revamp of the Substack page now that there are more design options available. I decided on a purple and gold color scheme in honor of my old hometown school, Muscatine High School. I’m quite happy with the result. If I’ve got some time later this month, I might look and see if the WordPress site might need a design refresh as well.

Once I have a release date for The Yank Striker, of course, I will have to start firing up my promotional machine (or lack of it) to preview the book. I’ve got some ideas for this, and I might want to begin that promotion even if I don’t have a clear date yet. You might be seeing some excerpts from The Yank Striker on these pages soon.

If you want to check me out when I post Substack Notes, here’s where you can find me.

Writing Advice for the Week

Use active verbs in your sentences as much as possible instead of passive verb sentences.

A passive verb sentence has something happening to the subject of the sentence.

(Example: “The body was dragged by Sam and Dean Winchester into the living room.” The body is the subject of the sentence, and has something done to it, so that makes it a passive sentence.)

An active verb sentence has the subject of the sentence doing something.

(Example: “Sam and Dean Winchester dragged the body into the living room.” Now the brothers Winchester are the subject of the sentence, and they are doing something, so that makes it an active sentence.)

Note the directness of the active verb sentence as opposed to the passive verb sentence. Also note the passive verb sentence takes more words to say the same thing.

You won’t always be able to avoid using passive verb sentences based on the writing circumstances. However, you should always at least see if rewriting a sentence into active voice is a good option.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

Art Cullen has a good look at what’s been going on in the Iowa Legislature and with Gov. Kim Reynolds.

If I’m interested in writing books fully online and on Substack, this might be a way to do it. It seems a bit intimidating to do it all on my own, but it seems to have promise.

I like it when writers, especially those who write about politics, are able to self-reflect when they get it wrong. It is a skill greatly lacking in national news journalists and non-existent among certain opinion writers. Dave Busiek is definitely self-reflective in this piece about the CNN town hall earlier this week. Give it a read.

It goes without saying I’ll be reading and rereading this piece about how to sell a book on Substack. Thank you, On Substack.

Next week, I’ll try to post some WordPress stuff I’ve been reading, as well.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

Here’s two that seem to fit my mood as I begin this new writing project.

There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you.

Beatrix Potter

Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.

Neil Gaiman

Final Thoughts

How about this? My first Substack subscriber over the age of 18 to email me at jason.liegois@liegois.media gets an autographed copy of The Holy Fool. Make sure to include your name, mailing address, and any requests for the inscription. The inbox is open, 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.

Subscribe to my Substack here.

A Week in the Writing Life, 6 May 2023

[PHOTO NOTE: Since part of this newsletter will talk about me participating in a project with my old writing group in Muscatine, I thought I’d include a random picture of Tom Bruner Field, which has hosted amateur, college, and semi-pro baseball in town since 1910. It’s a nice bit of history.]

This week has been a busy week for me when it comes to real life and odd and ends, but not when it comes to writing, perhaps. I have been doing a few things, though[1].

Home Front Stuff

It’s finally beginning to get warmer here in South Central Iowa, although today is a quite comfortable sixtyish degree day. These are still in-between days, like I remember as a kid going to school with my coat on and leaving school with it wrapped around my waist. We didn’t have a massive heat wave last year around here, so I hope we get lucky again. My wife knows that this is absolutely the farthest south that I’d ever want to live[2].

I’ve gotten more solid confirmation that I will be teaching close to 100 percent high school special education next year, and I’m pretty happy with that and the district. I’ve had a chance to meet some of the new incoming teachers for our district, and I’m looking forward to working with them. Although not a lot is going well for education at times, I am glad that I work for a good district with good colleagues.

It’s also the end of the football (AKA soccer) season in Europe. My beloved Liverpool might have a chance at European football after a long hard season, Wrexham got promoted to the Football League after years of struggle, and Napoli won Serie A (the Italian top-league) for the first time in 33 years, the third time in its history, and the only time without the great Diego Armondo Maradona in their lineup[3].

What I’ve Been Writing

I am still in the third round of “final” revisions on The Yank Striker. In my first review of the book and the changes that were made on the second round, I’ve found only a couple errors to note for my publisher. I’m going to undertake a read-through just to look for any remaining proofreading errors. Hopefully, I will not find any others, and this book will begin the final steps of the publishing process and I’ll have a book ready to sell by this summer.

Not to go into word count here in detail, but it has been down for the past two weeks. A big reason is that I have been busy with revising The Yank Striker one more time.

The other reason is that I’ve been putting together an essay for a collection by Writers on the Avenue, the group of writers I belonged to in Muscatine and I really do credit for encouraging me to get back into writing on a regular basis. The essay is an excerpt/refashioning of a memoir project I accidentally started working on over the course of blogging about my past experiences with writing over my life.

When they finally publish the collection my essay should be in, I’ll let you know. WOTA has a lot of very talented, experienced writers that I learned a lot from.

With all of that, I’ve only had a little time for original writing except for a few paragraphs. I’m hoping this next week goes better. I won’t be publishing a paid-subscriber exclusive or another post this weekend, but I am hopeful that I will be getting something ready for next weekend. I have to say that I have been impressed that I have been blogging more consistently than I have since I started my WordPress blog back in 2017.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

All quiet on the Western Front, as they would say. Updating some of the old posts I imported from WordPress to Substack and WordPress itself are at a standstill, but I’m hoping to restart that soon. Part of the problem is that I’m trying to get grading done for the end of the year and more than a few students have late assignments.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

I’ve mentioned them before but the

Iowa Writers Collaborative is a great group of writers here in this state doing a fantastic job of letting their subscribers know what’s going on in Iowa. Their weekly roundups are a must-read.

I might have also mentioned this place somewhere, but The Library will probably be one of my first contacts once my new book is out. I’m always loving to see new resources for writers out there.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

I referred to it last week, so here’s Stevie King’s Rule #1 and #2 of writing.

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.

  • Stephen King

But, there’s this quote to consider if you ever think that you’ve learned everything there is to know about writing.

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

  • W. Somerset Maugham

Final Thoughts

It’s been great to see that I’ve been slowly gaining some subscribers, and I hope you have been getting something from my newsletter. If there is something you want to see more of, or you are liking something that I put out here, please let me know. I’m trying to see how I can be of the best possible benefit for my readers.

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Footnotes:

  1. I really am writing this at the last minute, so I’m hoping I get it out by noon today [EDIT: Nope lol].
  2. South toward the Equator, that is. Moving to New Zealand or southern Argentina doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
  3. Yes, there is a definite reason I decided to write a dramatic book series based in the world 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.

A Week in the Writing Life, 29 April 2023

[PHOTO NOTE: Since I’m on the road this weekend, I decided a picture of a road (Iowa Highway 14) might be appropriate. Ignore the fact it’s a winter picture.]

It’s been another week for me. Let’s talk about it.

Home Front Stuff

Can’t say I have any complaints about the weather this week in Iowa – relatively dry (except for Friday) and temperatures right in the 60’s. It only gets a bit awkward at work when you don’t have good control of the furnace and you have to turn on the AC in the afternoon or else everyone gets sweating to death and nobody wants that while people are trying to teach and learn.

I had a chance to get out of town for a day so I went trekking back to Muscatine for my dad’s birthday. Since it’s even tough for me to get together with my kids, if I can find a time to do that with my parents, I want to try and take it. Nowadays, I treasure every chance I get to see them, because you never know when I’ll get the next chance to see them[1].

In other professional news, it looks like I will be teaching again next year at my current school district. This year was a bit of a strange one for me, because it was the first time in a decade when I was teaching 100 percent language arts to both middle and high schoolers. All indications are that I will likely be doing all or nearly all special education next year. I’m starting to find that I seem to prefer the special education field better than the general education field, so I’m looking forward to what will come next year.

What I’ve Been Writing

I am now in the third round of “final” revisions on The Yank Striker. My hope is for a considerable amount of close reading and a bare minimum of changes. I would like this to be the last round of changes made before my publisher and I make the book available for publication.

What’s frustrating me about this and the sequel to the book I am now writing is I’m having to try and do some more planning for the sequel rather than straight writing. As much as some writers like to write by the seat of their pants (“Pantsers,” as some of the fellow members of my Iowa Writers’ Corner put it), I never could feel comfortable with not planning where my stories are going to go. This especially seems to make sense to me, given this will be part of a series and I believe that I will need a solidly secure world-build and background for it. I’m well-ahead on that score, but I still feel like I need to do more, and I need to relax and get that planning done while not being so paranoid about my word count. I can be productive even if I’m not putting a massive amount of words on paper.

One thing I sorted out that will feature in the next book is this: I’ve managed to come up with a club anthem for my fictional East End of London club. I took an old East End pub tune, worked around the lyrics, and voila, a new club anthem. Many different clubs have their anthems, like “You’ll Never Walk Alone” for Liverpool and “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” for West Ham United, and I thought it would be appropriate for my fictional team to have its own song. I had initially thought of some reworkings of rock tunes[2], but to absolutely make sure to avoid any copyright issues, I decided on a public domain tune with roots in the East End. I might give some of my paid subscribers a look at that tune sometime soon, or another type of paid subscriber post, but due to my traveling this week, that might be not quite in the cards. We’ll have to see.

Again, I am trying to avoid a slump in about three weeks when I go on summer vacation. I have suffered through some similar slumps during the past two years, but I think that with my awareness of this tendency, I have a better chance of fighting against it. I’m not going to post the numbers here on Substack, but I’ll probably mention in the weekly newsletter if I beat the slump. If you are desperate to find out my weekly word-count numbers, check out this section of my Worpress blog Liegois Media.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

Not much changing here. I’m trying to make a note to try and look through more Substacks during the weekend and midweek, and make some more Substack Notes. I think they are good for short notes, announcements, and shouting out other authors.

Earlier this week, for example, I announced that all my subscribers had been entered into a giveaway for my first book, The Holy Fool, as part of my anticipatory celebrations for the next book coming out. I’ll announce the winner of the contest next week on Substack Notes, but I’ll reach out to the winner beforehand. Said winner will receive an autographed hardcopy of the book from me. Good luck, everyone.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

This was a good review of a writing and planning tool called Obsidian by the author of Occam’s Lab . Check it out.

This was Parker Molloy ‘s great look at the closing of Buzzfeed news and its consequences.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

This is the real reason why you need to follow Stephen King’s admonition that to be a good writer, you need to read a lot as well as write a lot.

Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.

William Faulkner

Final Thoughts

I’ve praised the band Fairport Convention recently, and I’m a big fan of their English folk and rock blend; essentially, it’s the English equivalent to the Byrds of the 1960’s (and around the same era, too). I start thinking of some good fantasy adventures like Lord of the Rings when I hear it.

Here’s another one of their better songs to wrap this up. Take care.

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Footnotes:

  1. So, if you are wondering why this particular newsletter might be a bit shorter than some of my others, that’s the reason.
  2. “C’mon Feel the Noize” seemed to be one of the higher ones on my list, or a similar sing-along from the 1970’s glam rock era.

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.

A Week in the Writing Life, 22 April 2023

[Photo Note: An old picture of my hometown of Muscatine sometime around the turn of the 20th Century. It just looked cool; there was no other reason to include it.]

It’s been another week for me. Let’s talk about it.

Home Front Stuff

The weather in southern Iowa has continued to keep weird. It was in the 30’s and actually snowing on Sunday, up into the low 70’s by Wednesday, and then 50’s and rainy by the end of the week. But sure, there’s no such thing as climate change that brings with it unpredictable swings of weather[1].

I managed to meet my son in person when I was up in Des Moines for last Saturday and we had a good time[2]. He had fun telling me some stories about his work at the Iowa Events Center, where he works part time in maintenance when he is not doing his regular heating and air conditioning work. I realize how few times I will continue to see my kids in person now that they are in their twenties and trying to make their own way in the world.

Speaking of kids, my daughter got to go to the University of Missouri in Columbia last weekend with some of her fellow University of Iowa chemical engineering students. It’s great to see her growing and learning new stuff.

What I’ve Been Writing

I have to admit that work on The Yank Striker 2 has not gone as far as I wanted. I feel like I was just waiting for the last little round of revisions for the first book in the series to happen soon, but I’m still waiting on the next step. And now that I’ve gotten the new proof, that can begin. My hope is that I don’t find anything and I tell my publishers that all is good. I can dream, anyway.

So, I feel like I need to review what I’ve already written for the second book before I can start writing more new material, and there’s a bit of a mental paralysis. There’s always fan fiction for some fast productivity, but I don’t want it to be a crutch for running in place when I want to do something productive. I ended up doing some anyway because I wanted to be writing something, at the very least[3].

I think this is just the rehashing of an old argument I’ve had with myself for the past year. I know that whenever I’m more productive, when the numbers are up, I feel psychologically better about myself. I’ve said this before, but I never understood writers who had to be in depressive or chaotic moods to be their most creative. I always do better when I’m in a good place psychologically.

That’s one of the reasons that I’m really attentive of a slump after I go on break next month from school. I have often found myself so exhausted mentally from the end of the experience that my mind basically wants to do nothing for at least four to five weeks.

Getting back to The Yank Striker itself, I get the feeling that I will eventually announce a release date sometime this summer. This would be convenient for me, as I would have more free time to get involved with things like release events, appearances, and the like. We’ll have to see, as I am still waiting on more details as to when this is coming.

With all of that on the horizon, I think, a revisit of my first book, The Holy Fool, and what I think it had to say about the state of journalism in America might be a good topic for a paid-subscriber exclusive item. However I do want to have a book contest giveaway involving The Holy Fool and some of my subscribers. Watch this space – I might do a special May Day giveaway.

I’ve posted a few Substack Notes during the previous week and this week as well. It’s been a great way for me to run into even more writers that have impressed me, so I ended up subscribing to a few of them. If I make that a habit, do I add those notes to my writing totals that I keep track of? The mind reels. As long as I use it in small doses, I think it will go all right.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

I’m continuing to try and clean up the Substack with all of the older or outdated posts that got imported from Liegois Media. That’s still going to take a long time, longer than I had hoped. I wished there was a menu option where you were able to easily access a large number of your past posts to change their status or delete them. Unfortunately, no such feature exists in Substack, so that will take much longer than even I anticipated.

Updating some of the posts in Liegois Media, I expect, might take longer, and will not start until I finish on Substack. Again, it’s going to take a long time, but I have to frankly doubt there is a big demand for people to read all of my old posts without paying for some, or that I would be forgoing a ton of dollars if I didn’t get everything set up right away.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

There have been so many people I have been running into on Substack, WordPress, and Facebook. There have been a lot of good stuff out there.

Reb Brown is an actor who was big in the ’70’s and 80’s. I saw him in films like Uncommon Valor, Space Mutiny, but I knew him best as my first encounter with Captain America. He seems like an honestly sweet dude. This is a pic of him as Cap.

The New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly has a page on Substack. It’s nice to see that not all publications are getting rid of their cartoonists like the Des Moines Register did to Brian Duffy. I like her work, especially this one.

Robert Leonard is a radio man from my neck of south central Iowa who also writes on Substack. He just published something in TIME recently; it’s worth a read.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

I have to say I absolutely believe in this quote. It’s the same instinct that got me reading fiction as a kid and the same instinct that has me writing.

After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.

Philip Pullman

And I have an extra quote from Louie to get myself motivated because I truly need that this week after the lull in writing that I’ve been facing.

Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.

Louis L’Amour

Final Thoughts

I was doing some research on my new project and looking into English folk songs for a potential football club anthem (regarding The Yank Striker series) and wound up looking at a page of great American folk songs when I heard this one by the late great Blaze Foley. If there are more perfectly crafted songs, there are not many of them. Take care.

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Footnotes:

  1. It’s nuts that I’m starting to talk about the weather all the time? I think it’s because my personal life gets pretty routine, especially with the ins and outs of a typical school year.
  2. And yes, I know that technically makes it the week prior to this week, but we can color outside the lines sometimes, right?
  3. Occasionally, I’ll write some things in these newsletters that are a bit contradictory. I should explain that I typically put this together over the course of several days and my mood (and the circumstances behind them) can change a bit. I have to get started on the process almost as soon as the last newsletter finishes or I wouldn’t ever have it done on time.

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.

A Week in the Writing Life, 15 April 2023

[Photo note: My front porch area this Easter weekend, courtesy of my wife. It’s a nice place to relax in the morning because the sun comes up behind the house from the west.]

Hi, everyone. Let’s get to it.

Home Front Stuff

I decided to include that photo at the top of this newsletter since A., my wife took it, B., it showed her nice work with our back patio, and C., it was a reminder of a fantastic weekend weather-wise. It is the type of spring weather I really look forward to when April comes around.

Unfortunately, this week in southern Iowa has hovered in the 70 to 80 degree Fahrenheit territory, which is entirely too much like early summer weather for my taste. If I lived in a place that was 50-70 degrees year-round, I would be in paradise[1].

Although we were not in the same city, me, my wife, and both our kids had steak for Easter Sunday dinner rather than the traditional ham, with excellent results all around. We might be starting a new family tradition.

What I’ve Been Writing

Due to the volume of corrections/revisions I suggested for the manuscript of The Yank Striker, it took me until this week to get that second revision of the book wrapped up. I’m hoping to get a better idea of when the publishing date for the book will be within the next few weeks. When I know, you will be the first to know.

After an extended hiatus, work on The Yank Striker 2 has resumed this week. Much of this work had been more in the nature of initial revisions and review as I see what I already have and start making plans for what I want to put in the book. I’m a bit frustrated that some of the written notes I could have sworn were stowed away in one of those hand-sized notebooks I have around my house and get half-filled with writings. After a quick check of my existing notebooks, I decided to recreate those notes in another half-used book and solidify my tentative plans for how I want to plot out the project. With more than 15,000 words already down, I want to make sure what I have to tell next will fit a manuscript of about 80,000 words or so, which I think will fit this second part of the series.

I’ve been working on a few ideas for some more paid-subscriber exclusive material, including a continuation of this article I did regarding worldbuilding in fiction, a revisit of my first book, The Holy Fool, and what I think it had to say about the state of journalism in America and elsewhere, and a quick discussion of the new Substack Notes feature on Substack. Keep an eye on this space to see which of those ideas I decide to tackle this weekend.

On a somewhat related note, I’ll likely try and post my first Substack Notes this week as well. We’ll see how that goes. There have been one or two people who are wondering whether it could be an alternative to Twitter. My experience with Twitter was something of an afterthought, so the decline and fall of that platform is not really a concern to me anymore. Hopefully, Substack notes doesn’t end in tears like Twitter did, though I am somewhat optimistic.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing

I’m still trying to update my pages and previous posts to account for the new paid subscriber tier. I talked about that a bit during the last newsletter, so I won’t repeat all of that here. I actually think I could have imported my entire WordPress blog to Substack now that I was reading some of the Substack FAQs. Oh, well, I’ll stick to what I have now, I think. I’m about… 35 percent finished with the Substack work, at least? It’s a work in progress.

If all goes according to plan, I’ll be meeting with my Iowa Writers’ Corner writing group right around the time this newsletter gets published. I’m on the program this week with a presentation on revision. I’m glad that I worked up my Google Slides presentation for the meeting at least a week in advance, so I had that going for me this weekend.

Another thing that I need to think about is having a regular reading schedule as well as a writing schedule. There are so many great writers out there on WordPress and Substack and I try to catch them sometimes, but I don’t do it on a consistent basis. I truly believe in Stephen King’s advice that good writers have to both write a lot and read a lot. And, as I’ve mentioned before, I need to be doing constructive writing as well as the fun sort of writing. And, if I expect people to read my work online, I should be willing to do the same. Perhaps I could try and set aside dates (midweek and weekend?) to just tour the writing interwebs for a bit and see what other people are writing. I have been doing at least some reading as you see below, but I need to make it more of a routine. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Free Piece of Writing Advice/Insight for This Week

I do believe I’ve settled on having these short writing advice pieces in the newsletter every other week. I want whatever advice I do give to be something that you typically couldn’t just Google right off or figure out when you use spellcheck/grammar check on your documents. I also want for the advice not to come off as too repetitive, because I am writing this newsletter on a weekly basis. I’ve also re-titled the section “Free Piece of Writing Advice/Insight for This Week” because some of these thoughts might be more observations that precise instructions to readers. Consider yourself warned.

This week, my advice is this: as soon as you can, try to find a writing group. By a writing group, I mean a group of people who are interested in writing, are actively writing, and who are interested in making themselves better writers. Not all groups that call themselves “writing groups” could fit all three of those criteria.

Why is this a good thing? A good writing group helps sustain your interest in writing. It puts you in touch with people who share your interests, can encourage you and provide solid critiques, and be an invaluable resource for you as you seen to improve all aspects of your craft. I credit belonging to writing groups later in my life, when I wanted to restart my interest in writing, as a critical part of my growth and development.

Also, don’t be discouraged if, for example, you live in a smaller community where there might not be enough people to form a strong writing group. There are plenty of opportunities to meet online with writing groups and even attend meetings through Zoom, Google Meets, or other programs. My group has many members who attend virtually (and I count myself among that number sometimes).

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

Although I’ll likely get into a deeper dive into my initial thoughts on Substack Notes in another post, I appreciated this post from the founders of Substack on their vision for the platform. It’s been refreshing to see this idea of growing an online community through reader-first and writer-first policies. Hopefully it stays that way.

Theodora Taylor is another writer out there who is giving some writing advice on Substack through her page The Official Universal Fantasy Substack. I’m starting to dive into her advice, and once I get paid, one of her e-books will likely be on my shelf. Looking forward to it.

Writing Quote of the Week

This week’s quote is absolutely true. Also, if you have several different places where you can stop a story, you have a nice little series on your hands. 🙂

There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.

Frank Herbert

Final Thoughts

When I have some time to myself and don’t have anything else going on, like work, family obligations, this blog, or my other writing projects, I’ve begun to think about this big fantasy project I’ve been pondering for the past couple of years. Whenever I do get it started and I start looking for some music to listen to while writing fantasy, I think this song will be on the top of my playlist. Fairport Convention is the real deal.

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Footnotes:

  1. Can you guess that I’m living as far south as I ever want to at this point?

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.