The Writing Life, 16 December 2023

On the road (as is usual these days) and thinking ahead.

I'm back in Fort Madison today, so here's a few pics I've taken of the place so far. I'll try and take some more today for later posts.

It’s that time again. Let’s talk about writing and some other stuff.

The Home Front

Well, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind week for me and my wife. If we’re counting the buildup to this decision, it’s actually been a whirlwind couple of months for us, to be honest.

Now that the big decision’s been made and the word is out, there’s plenty to get done in the months ahead. Laura’s plan is to move out to Fort Madison to begin her work. By then, we’re hoping to already have an apartment there; we’re actually apartment-hunting this weekend in Fort Madison.

We are hoping to get our Chariton house sold as soon as possible, but we might end up asking for whoever buys it to take possession of it in late May, perhaps. I am planning on finishing out the school year at my current district, so I will continue to work in the area at least until mid-May.

For now, we’ve been donating or getting rid of some items we know we’re not going to have use of anymore with considerable success. We may also include some items we’re not going to have immediate use of because we’re likely to be renting in Fort Madison for at least a year while we consider what’s out there.

Anyone interested in a cool little house in Chariton, Iowa, can email me at jasonliegois@liegois.media. Serious inquiries only, of course.

Although our son in Des Moines will be a little less than three hours away, most everyone in my immediate family will now be within about an hour drive, which will be a good thing. I’m looking forward to being part of a new community.

What I’m Writing

I’ve been writing more than I have been during the past month, but whether I have been writing things I should be writing is another issue lol.

Work on The Yank Striker 2 paused for a bit due to the general lull in my writing, but I honestly had some other things going on. I have restarted the project, but I have also been toying with an idea I’ve had since this year about a family of professional wrestlers and its history. As many writers will note, all of the shiny new ideas sometimes distract from the old ideas. George R.R. Martin is Exhibit A of this phenomenon.

I’ve started to piece together certain… scenes that could be part of a larger story, perhaps the genesis of what would be the first novel in this series I have in mind. I’ve also begun more research on the project to try and put together a story set in 20th century professional wrestling looking back at from the vantage of the 21st century.

I want to thank Deb West of the University of Iowa’s Program in Creative Writing, better known as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. The main character in my prospective project is a member of the workshop, so I had questions about the program and how it works. I had the opportunity to speak with her for a time this week, and she was absolutely generous with her time and knowledge. I never had an opportunity to attend the program, but I am very proud the school I attended has such a fine program for developing writers.

I’ve been doing some thinking about how I’m going to be scheduling my regular posts here on Substack and Wordpress, so I think I’ll talk about it below.

When I’m Writing

I think I’ve pretty much settled on the new schedule with which I’ll be publishing on Substack and my companion site on Wordpress. So, I wanted to just let you know how it’s going to work.

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Unless otherwise noted, I will be publishing my regular posts at 5 p.m. Central time on Saturdays. There may be some times when I have to delay or reschedule those, but I believe I can more or less stick to this schedule. It also doesn’t preclude me from making additional posts over the weekend or at other times if I get particularly productive or if I have something special to say.

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The monthly schedule, thus, will look like this:

• First Saturday of the month: The Writing Life newsletter.

• Second Saturday of the month: Prose Night at the Writing Life. This will be original short fiction, essays, or excerpts from works in progress. I’ll try to surprise you. 🙂

• Third Saturday of the month: The Writing Life newsletter¹.

• Fourth Saturday of the month: Poetry Night at the Writing Life. For these posts, I’ll be posting my original poetry past and present. Normally, I’ve been able to manage two poems a post, but some might be a single poem per week. I’ll try and keep toward more rather than less poems. I like a challenge.

• In the event of a Fifth Saturday of the month: I might take the week off. Or not.

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What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing

With this move, I’m likely going to have to have a change in who I hang out with writing-wise.

I will be three hours away from Des Moines, so attending some of the writing groups I have been meeting with for the past couple of years might not be as easy. At least some of them have online Zoom capabilities, so I do plan to join in that way.

Some of the other places where writers meet, like Iowa City and the Quad Cities, are “only” about two hours away. I might consider reconnecting with some of the groups I was attending when living in Muscatine, but I also know there might be some groups meeting perhaps in Burlington, as well.

The one thing I know for sure is that I don’t want to be without a writers’ group, whether I attend in person or virtually. I think I am very safe to say if I did not have the support of these groups during the past several years, I would not have published my first two books and may never have taken the step toward writing online. I think being in these groups gave me the networking and resources to hone my writing to a greater level than I have ever been in the past.

Writing Quote of the Week

My man Orwell with the basics.

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

• George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

Where You Can Find My Books

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

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

• Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines

• Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.

• The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

All three are great independent bookstores who deserve your support. However, I’m always looking for some new places to place my books, so feel free to hit me up in the comments if anyone has a suggestion.

Final Thoughts

That’s about it for now. I’m hoping I can be more productive during the next few weeks of 2023. It’ll be poetry night next weekend, and I’m planning on cooking up some original work. See you then.

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1. This might wind up being shorter than the newsletter on the first Saturday of the month since only two weeks will lapse between them rather than maybe three weeks. Or maybe not. At this point, your guess is as good as mine.