I would have to say that I am a late bloomer as a writer, despite the fact that writing has been a part of my personal and professional life for at least 30 years.
I was a journalist for well over a decade, but I never really made it as a big celebrity, even a regional celebrity in a state that becomes the center of the American political universe every four years. For more than a decade, I taught writing as a language arts, special education, and adjunct professor for various school districts and junior colleges, but you usually don’t get well known for being a teacher unless you manage to go above and beyond what most teachers do and become fodder for a television or theatrical movie like Stand and Deliver or something of that nature.
And for a long time, I was interested in being a novelist. From my teens, I was interested in writing fiction, and thought I could be perhaps the next Kurt Vonnegut or Stephen King. However, it wasn’t until well past my 40th birthday until I managed to get my first book published. The Holy Fool (a little journalism thriller set in 2008 Chicago at the eve of the Great Recession) was not a massive hit, as most books are not, to be honest. Of course, the COVID-19 outbreak and my moving to a new community shortly after the book’s release didn’t help, but anyway.
It’s more common, really, that someone doesn’t become an A-list celebrity, much less an A-list author. My taste for literary fiction has dimmed more than a little bit, but one book that I suppose would qualify as such was a 2008 novel by James Frey entitled Bright Shiny Morning. It is a book following the lives of both famous and non-famous residents of Los Angeles who hope to make their dreams come true.
At one point of the book, Frey begins telling the stories - sometimes vignettes, sometimes only a few short sentences - of dozens of people who came out to Los Angeles to make their fortunes in the entertainment business. Some of these entries read:
John. Guitar virtuoso. Originally from Cleveland. Moved to Los Angeles with his band at age 20. Works at the counter of a car-rental office. Age 29.
Brad. Actor. Moved at 20. Works as a bouncer. He is now 30.
Bert. Writer. Moved at 24. Bartender. He is now 50.
In that section of the book, Frey states that an estimated 100,000 people move to the Los Angeles area every year to pursue careers in entertainment, joining the thousands of people who have previously traveled there to do the same thing and will be joined by thousands more in the years to come. (Then again, a message at the start of the book says “Nothing in this book should be considered accurate or reliable.”)
In short, it is not easy getting yourself noticed. And I never traveled out to either Los Angeles or, which might make more sense for a novelist, to the capital of American publishing in New York City. In the end, I decided to stay in Iowa, because I had fallen in love with a bright, beautiful, and ambitious young woman and wanted to make my home with her, and making my home with her meant living in Iowa. In the end, that’s what I wanted and I thought I could make a good-enough living as a journalist in Iowa.
So I married her (Laura) and made my start. We’re still married almost 25 years later, and produced two kids who are now starting their own independent lives. It turns out that it’s a tough thing to be a newspaper journalist in the 21st century as opposed to the last two centuries, but I found a second career in teaching. It also turns out that Laura has had a very successful career in the area of first solid waste and then public administration (a tale in itself), and it became quickly apparent that hers would be more successful financially than me. And I am totally happy with that and proud of her and all of her success. As someone who served and continues to serve the communities she has lived in, she has impacted so many lives.
I have to say that the path of my life is something that I am at peace with. I think I have made a difference with my life as a journalist, a teacher, and as a member of my family. But writing has remained central to my life and to my identity. Being creative as a writer has been the thing that has given me the greatest joy other than my family.
As a teacher, I’ve often encountered students who have grand dreams for their futures but have no clear idea as to how they should make these dreams come true. I’ve related to these students more than they might know.
As a young kid, I had ambitions of being a writer, but no idea of how to make such a thing happened. As a journalist and teacher, I certainly became a type of writer, but it was not the storytelling novelist or short story author of my imagination.
That’s not a surprise to me. If you have a dream but no idea of how to pursue it or reach it, it’s just a dream or fantasy. I had the desire to be a writer, and I’d shown enough people my work that I knew I had a talent for writing. However, to truly develop that talent, to develop myself as a writer, was something I didn’t tackle for a long time in my life.
That brings me to why I decided to get on Substack.
As it turns out, right around the time Substack first came into existence, I began a little blog entitled Liegois Media. The start of this was a Facebook page (which still exists) that I decided to use as part of my work as a journalist. My thought at the time was that I would be able to use it to help monitor social media and get in touch with possible sources or story ideas.
Well, after I left journalism (for the last time or just for now? Stranger things have happened), I was without much use for the page. I decided to use it to post things that had just to do with writing and my favorite authors.
Many years even before this, I had puttered around with a blog that wound up being a grab-bag of topics and opinions that had grabbed my attention at the moment. I was also writing this anonymously. As you might expect, as with several of my other projects it eventually fizzled out and my interest faded. However, I wondered if a blog with a more focused theme might be more sustainable. This coincided with my growing desire to try and actually try and be a writer on my own and not just connected with my day jobs.
With that, I started Liegois Media on the Wordpress platform. I have been posting on a regular basis now for the past five years. As I say in the tag line for this Substack page, it focused on my writing and the writing life as I have been experiencing it. On a weekly basis, I’ve been posting statistics on how much I have been writing, and I have worked to improve those numbers for some time. It’s also been a place where I’ve posting articles about writing advice, my experiences with writing and what things I have learned through experience. I’ve posted reviews of writing products, including one on Substack a few weeks ago. I’ve even posted some of my original writing, including essays and short stories. (I’m on Twitter as well.)
It was there that I chronicled my efforts to finally become a published author. It was there that I began to share my first experiments as a poet. And now, I am detailing the slow but deliberate process to dive into the world of self-publishing, for several reasons which I’ll talk about in future posts.
Even before that review, I’ve been admiring the work of writers here like Amanda Palmer, Charlotte Clymer, and Heather Cox Richardson, among others. I’ve been intrigued by the new audience here and a chance to reach a new group of readers.
With that, I will be cross-posting items posted on the Wordpress Liegois Media site here, as well as past articles from the site which I think might be of interest. For example, I ended up starting a series of articles entitled A Writer’s Biography which is becoming something of a memoir in serialized form. (I think I will keep the writing journal posts on Wordpress and not post them here - unless fans really are desperate for them. :)
So, that is my introduction to all of you. I hope what I post here will be of some interest and eventually build into… something. I’m looking forward to what comes.