The Writing Life, 18 January 2025
And I reached the finish line for my most recent rough draft.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to my writing nook, so to speak.
There’s some big news having to do with a project I’ve been calling The Yank Striker 2. How about we talk about it? Also, I might discuss a few other things.
The Home Front
I got started on the second semester of the school year this week. It’s still amazing to me how fast the second half of last year sped along considering how long the first half of the year dragged along because of all the time spent on the road, out of my old home but not yet in my new one, just waiting for the school year to be over and to finish with all contractual obligations to my old district. It inspired some good poetry, but it was a bit of a slog especially at the end.
When we were having dinner together this past Sunday, my wife pointed out to me by the end of the current school year, I will have worked for five different school districts during the past ten years - an average of two years per district. I hadn’t thought it had been so many in such a short period of time, but the math worked out.
My wife has lived in five different residences in this time (one more than myself because she moved early to Chariton when she got the job of city manager there and I was wrapping up another teaching contract). Then there’s the fact my kids have moved a combined ten times during this time, counting moving them out of or into our homes, dorms in the case of our daughter, and apartments.
That’s a lot of moving in an out, a lot of time on the road. To be honest, both Laura and I would be happy not to be going anywhere different for a while. In another decade, she and even I will be within sight of retirement from our respective professions. Our house is nice, and work is going well. Even with all the uncertainty in the world, I try to appreciate what I do have. All things considered, my life is going well.
What I’ve Been Writing
Hey, remember that book I put out a year and a half ago? You might have heard of it if you’ve been hanging around my blog for a while?
The Yank Striker: A Footballer's Beginning
What would an American soccer superstar look like? Not just someone who was a good player, but an actual legendary, world-class player, someone on the level of a Lionel Messi, a Diego Maradona, a Pele? Where would he come from? What would he be like as a person? And what would his path to soccer superstardom look like?
Remember how I’ve kept saying it was going to be the first in a series? Well, this theoretical series is now coming closer to becoming a reality.
Subscribers, passers-by, and humans alike, I am delighted to announce I have completed the rough draft to the second book in The Yank Striker series, which I have referred to as The Yank Striker 2. I have an idea for the final title of this book, but I am not revealing it until later when the time is right.
I had hoped I would have finished the rough draft before the end of 2024, but I only overshot my target by a mere half month. I now have a 80,345-word first draft on my hands. Oopsy.
It is now in my cloud and various hard drives for future use, safe and sound, and ready for what I consider to be the true work of writing, the revising process.
On Revising (Part 1)
At this moment, I'm a special education teacher. It's something that I've really enjoyed doing, a new step in my education career. It may be the field that I end up teaching in for the rest of my professional life.
Since I officially finished it mid-week this week, my plan is to let the manuscript sit and simmer in the computer and in my head for three and a half weeks. This would mean I’m going to start tackling the second draft of the book by 8 February 2025.
My ultimate goal would be to release the book with my publisher by 1 June of this year. This would mean:
Second draft - begun by 8 February and completed by the end of the month at the latest.
Beta reads - begun at the start of March and completed by the end of March.
Two more rounds of revisions in April.
Final editing and proofreading in May and concluding by the end of May.
This might be the most ambitious release date for any book I’ve ever done. However, I managed to self-publish my own chapbook of poetry before 2024 ran out, so you never know.
The Flow and the Journey
As I’ve mentioned previously in this space, I came into writing poetry more or less under protest.
Watch this space, writers and book readers, watch this space to find out more about the continuing adventures of the American footballer Daniel John Ryan and the second book in his story. It’s a good tale, I promise.
What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing
Starting this week, I’m planning on kickstarting my other preparations for getting The Yank Striker 2 to market. This is going to be more of an effort than just the revising and editing process.
Unlike my first two novels, I’m interested in going to an outside source to design the cover art for The Yank Striker 2. I’m also hoping to find some beta readers for my book once I finish the first revision.
And no offense to all of my great readers online, but I’m not soliciting such help here.
After some time online and having to deal with a massive amount of scammers and grifters trying to separate me from my money for different reasons, I am about done with working with any online book business operations, or at least done with people I don’t have recommendations for from my IRL friends, such as my fellow writers in places like Des Moines, Muscatine, Burlington, and points beyond. Online life might be cool, but it’s no replacement for human connection1.
Also, I’m going to spend this weekend trying to email organizers of Iowa book fairs. I want to get some updates about upcoming dates and whether I can get on the road to be part of those events. When I confirm some of those dates, you’ll be the first to hear from me.
Writing Quote(s) of the Week:
Not sure if I’ve featured T.S. Eliot in this space, so I decided to go with this one. Seems he had a sense of humor for sure.
Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.
T.S. Eliot
Here’s another statement I would cosign, although I often get distracted during my writing. 😅
Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.
Gloria Steinem
Finally, here’s the great Margaret Atwood with the wolves theory of storytelling.
All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.
All of them?
Sure, he says. Think about it. There's escaping from the wolves, fighting the wolves, capturing the wolves, taming the wolves. Being thrown to the wolves, or throwing others to the wolves so the wolves will eat them instead of you. Running with the wolf pack. Turning into a wolf. Best of all, turning into the head wolf. No other decent stories exist2.
Margaret Atwood.
How to support me😊.
Go to the links on the side if you are reading this on a desktop/laptop or the links on my profile to check out some of my other links. For example, in those places, you can find out about my first book, the journalism thriller The Holy Fool: A Journalist’s Revolt, as well as the first book in my The Yank Striker series, The Yank Striker: a Footballer’s Beginning.
If you go follow the links above, you will be able to buy both the paperback and ebook versions of my books on Amazon. Again, if you just put “Jason Liegois” in Google you’ll probably find them on the first page of search results.
If you happen to visit these fine independent book stores in Iowa, you can find my books there:
[NEWEST LOCATION] Green Point Mercantile, 214 Chestnut St., Muscatine.
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St., in my new hometown of Fort Madison.
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.
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.
My poetry book The Flow and the Journey is available at the first two bookstores above (and hopefully more down the road), 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.
On the subject of Substack, it’s fantastic if you are signed up for my free subscription, but I would love it if you signed up for a paid one. The monthly rate is the lowest I can put it ($5 per month) but my yearly rate of $35 is a steal at less than three/fifths the monthly rate.
Now, if you want to support me but can’t quite afford a full subscription, I am now on Venmo. You can just send whatever you can afford. Just click the button below; anything you can provide helps me keep things going.
Final Thoughts
Wow, a lot happening this week. Hope your week went well, and for you writers, I hope you got something down on paper or on screen.
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I am very much tempted to spend the next Prose Night post detailing one of the most elaborate grifts someone tried to pull on me. It’s a cool story, trust me. Might be more interesting than some of my fiction excerpts. 😅
The Yank Striker 2, I believe, would best fit being thrown to the wolves and also running with the wolf pack.