A Week in the Writing Life, 23 September 2023
All sort of quiet on the South Central Iowa front.
Hey, I usually don’t make these appeals all the time, but I would love it if you were interested in getting a paid subscription to The Writing Life. Currently it costs just $5 per month (as low as I can keep it now on Substack) but a yearly subscription is just $40 per year, which is a sizable discount from the monthly rate. You’ll get access to all my archived stories as well as paid-subscriber exclusive material (including original fiction, poetry, and essays) for that price.
And if you are hard-pressed for cash, I’d be happy with a free subscription as well. Feel free to recommend my newsletter to others, and I’ll be delighted to do the same. Every little bit helps.
Like last week, I’m going to be spending much of this weekend on the road1. However, I got some writing done over the week, so I’ve got some stuff to share. Since things are slow on the home front stuff, we’ll get started on that.
What I’ve Been Writing
I’ve been making some more progress on The Yank Striker 2 this week. Started on a scene where DJ and a close friend of his head out on the town after a game, looking for a good time… and they’re a bit surprised to find it.
The following is a minor spoiler for The Yank Striker (which the vast majority of you probably haven’t read yet) so if you are seriously against spoilers you may want to stop reading here and totally skip this next part.
(Unless you are like me and couldn’t care less about spoilers (as I talked about in this article2), which in that case, keep reading.)3
My Thoughts On Spoilers
A week or so ago, I ran across a review of the movie Nope online. I'm a fan of horror - not a surprise. I'm a fan of movie reviews - also not a surprise. Also, I happen to be a fan of the movie's director, Jordan Peele, ever since his Key and Peele days. So, I was interested in reading through it.
Anyway…
DJ is not the only young LGBTQ footballer on his team, and not the best one either. He’s gone from being a star player on his father’s college football team to just another American kid looking to prove himself. But he and this other player, a Brazilian player his age, have become good friends and supporters on the pitch, and DJ also wants to watch out for him off the pitch as well. This will be the first time they’ve been out on the town together, and London is sometimes considered the LGBTQ capital of the world.
One of these party scenes is always a tricky thing to do. My view is you don’t ever want to just have a scene where people are just relaxing and having fun unless there’s another purpose for it. In this case, I wanted to see how the local LGBTQ community are paying attention to two new potential stars. I’m looking forward to the challenge.
Okay, spoilers over…
Other stuff I’m writing includes this newsletter, maybe another Poetry Night at the Writing Life entry this weekend (should I have this be a monthly thing? I’m leaning toward it), and some random fanfic to keep my productivity moving.
I’ve been getting into a good rhythm when I get home from teaching at the end of the day. If I don’t have any night meetings and get home at a normal time, my schedule looks pretty much like this:
4:45-7 p.m.: Get home, walk and feed dog, get my random things ready for the morning, and dinner.
7-8:30 or 9 p.m.: Writing and occasionally writing related things.
9-10 or 10:30 p.m.: Relaxing for the evening and settling in for the night.
I might not have as much time to be productive as some of my writing friends who are retired from their work and can do this whenever I want, but I do manage to get stuff done. That’s only because I’m compelled to do this even when it seems not too many people are reading it, and even when I’m not in the mood to write, I keep asking myself why I’m not writing. Such is my life circa 2023.
What I’ve Been Doing Having to Do With Writing
I need to just sit down one evening and curate my Substack recommendations and do more with them. There’s a lot of great writing others are doing out there and I want to spread the word about them because I know I’d want someone to do the same for me.
Of course, that would take some time for me to do, time I could be spending getting more writing done. Thus is the paradox of a writer who finds himself doing things not having directly to do with writing.
Writing Advice for the Week
At some point on this site, I need to talk a bit about George Orwell was one of my literary heroes growing up. As a kid, I was fascinated by the stories he wrote, but when I got older, I got more out of his later work on the craft of writing. If I was going to have to say who the best writer in the English language was in the 20th century, I’d likely have to settle on Orwell4.
I recently ran across an article by Ann Wright for Rough House Media back in October 2022 on the subject of Orwell’s six Rules of Writing. I appreciated Wright’s analysis and interpretation of these rules as well. From my understanding, I believe Orwell might have shared my point of view of seeing writing “rules,” with the exception of basic grammar and mechanics, as more guidelines than hard and fast rules.
With this in mind, I decided to take a look at each of Orwell’s rules in turn. Number one on the list is:
This is Orwell trying to steer us away from sounding like everyone else. If you are saying everything in the fashion many other writers use, how are you going to stand out? Why should people keep reading your work? It’s like watching a presidential primary debate in Iowa or New Hampshire and watching ten look-alike candidates agree to the very same political stances (and the same catchphrases as well). Why choose any of them?
Now, Orwell would be absolutely in favor of using vivid, original metaphors and other figures of speech. While he would absolutely caution a reader from using a metaphor needing an entire paragraph of explanation, he would be in favor of a balance of originality (as he indicates with this guideline) and simplicity and clarity (as we will see with his other guidelines later).
What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations
Ugh, it’s been too long since I’ve shouted out any stuff on Substack and/or Wordpress. But…
From my feed on the new Substack app (and thanks to the author I’m about to plug,
, for letting me know about the updated app), it seems like a lot of my recommended writers here on Substack are liking this next piece. I liked his breakdown of how first Facebook and now Twitter (forget X) have moved away from being active social networks and more their own ecosystems (the walled gardens of the title). It also talks about why Substack and other similar systems like Reddit might have more durability than what Facebook and Twitter have turned into. It’s a really good read.
Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books
Here’s my upcoming appearances:
From 12-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct 1, I’ll be at the Windsor Heights Book Fair, 1141 69th St., Windsor Heights, and it is their second annual event. I’ll be joining 20 other local authors appearing there. This is also going to be a fund-raiser as well, a free-will donation to one of the local food banks in the area. I talked about this earlier, and I’d love to see people there.
A Quick Promotional Note For an Upcoming Event
·
Just wanted to do a quick post about an event I’ll be at in a few weeks. This is actually one of the first benefit events I’ve been a part of as an author. As I mentioned here on some of my past weekly newsletters, I’ll be at this event from 12-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct 1. It’ll be located at 1141 69th St., Windsor Heights.
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.
This fair is going to be part of a week-long festival throughout Iowa City from Oct. 8-15. Among the authors and artists hosting events throughout the week are John Irving, Jonathan Lethem, and Werner Herzog. I won’t be able to make it to many of the events because it’s a school week, and I’m far to far away in south central Iowa to casually visit Iowa City. Please, click on the link in this paragraph and check out everything going on at the festival.
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.
I highly recommend all three places.
Writing Quote(s) of the Week
I haven’t done too many quotes about poetry in this space. Here’s a couple that interested me. First:
A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him.
Dylan Thomas
I usually don’t post writing quotes I’m still trying to figure out, but it’s Leonard Cohen so I’m making an exception.
Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.
Leonard Cohen
Final Thoughts
Whoever has either left a comment or even and email, know I’ll get back to you as soon as I can5. I always love hearing from people in the comments or by email, so say hi or let me know what made you push the subscribe button or what might tempt you to do so.
– 30 –
Is anyone honestly interested in what it’s like to drive halfway across the state twice in a row? I mean, there are plenty of pretty spots around Iowa, even near my current home of Chariton, but it’s not like the Rockies, California, or the Pacific Northwest. Then again, it’s not as flat as Kansas. I wouldn’t recommend driving across Kansas unless a professional is driving you because that can be a long trip.
The article is one of my paid subscriber exclusives from a year back, but it’s actually a good read, I’d like to think. I talk a little bit about my childhood experiences with an old-time movie theater was a decent read. Plus, I even revised it and everything.
The non-sequiturs in this newsletter are a bit heavy this week.
There is absolutely no way I will ever have a “best ever” short list of authors or books numbering less than two dozen in each category. And if I’m talking about all genres? 100 books and/or authors, minimum.
If I don’t answer email right away, keep pestering me. There’s a lot of newsletters flooding my inbox now.