The Writing Life, 2 November 2024
Finally settling in to a new home and the home stretch of the year.
The last two months of 2024 are now upon Iowa. I’m looking forward to seeing what they bring.
The Home Front
As you can see from the cover photo, so to speak, my wife Laura and myself have finally set up shop in our new home in Fort Madison. It’s a two-story structure dating from the mid-20th century and has more than a few updated features. I think we’ll be happy here for a while to come.
There have been a few hiccups along the way with some quick renovations and a couple of calls to the repairman for the odd thing, but for the most part things are going well and there is plenty to work on and develop on the property for some time to come.
As for me, I seem to have found a fine writing location you can see above, tucked into a corner of the basement and a desk that was just sitting here, left behind. It might be the best quality desk I’ve yet owned. Whether I could ever transport it out of the basement is another issue, but no matter what, I’ll enjoy if for however long I have it. Regardless, this basement even has a door I can close, space for my books, plenty of lighting, a TV, bathroom with shower, work bench, and all the storage I could ask for. Hopefully I start getting productive and not just fuss around down here.
If I get bored I might do a blog specifically about my new writing space, so I’ll leave it there.
I think summer has finally, irrevocably left Iowa for 2024, so that’s nice.
What I’m Writing
My current progress on my ongoing projects:
The Yank Striker 2, the sequel for The Yank Striker: I’m proud to have rushed past the 59,000-word mark for the rough draft. I now have a clear idea of where I’m heading with the book and where it will wrap up, and I have a pretty good twist in mind for what is to come. Then I remind myself not to get to carried away with loving my own work, because this is, once again, a rough draft. Having a completed 75,000 word rough draft by 1 January 2025 seems to be increasingly viable.
The Untitled Pro Wrestling Family Drama project: I’ve just made some small progress with the rough draft, to be honest. Then again, this is the project I want to work on when I let The Yank Striker 2 rough draft sit for a while, so I want to have something to work on. I’m still past 24,000 words, which is not bad progress for something I’m not focusing my entire attention on.
I might get into where the main character is starting the research into his own life. It’s going to be interesting to try and balance his existence as a writer with his dive into his family’s life of professional wrestling. I have a feeling the wrestling and the family drama is going to outweigh watching my main character in writer’s workshops and writing at home. 🙂
The Untitled Liegois Poetry Chapbook: So far, little recent progress on this. I think I want to get some feedback from my poetry friends about the layout of this chapbook and whether it makes sense to include all of these photos. We’ll see what they have to say.
What I’m Doing Having to Do With Writing
(AKA personal appearances)
I (also sometimes known as The Dude In Purple) have some events coming up this fall and some others I’m tentatively adding to the schedule. All these events will be me appearing live and with my books, The Holy Fool and The Yank Striker.
I will attend the Fort Madison Area Art Association’s Meet the Author Book Signing event from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, November 30, at the FMAAA’s center at 825 Avenue G, Fort Madison. This would be my first author’s event in my new home of Fort Madison, and I am overjoyed to be part of this gathering.
I’m hoping to be part of the DSM Book Festival at the at Franklin Junior High Event Center, 4801 Franklin Ave., Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, 22 March 2025. This is being sponsored by one of my favorite independent book stores in Des Moines, Beaverdale Books. I’ll provide more information, hopefully, as the event approaches.
I’ll be looking to add some more dates on the appearance calendar, and this weekend I’m hoping to reach out to some other groups as well. Hope to see you at one of those places.
Writing Quote of the Week:
Words of wisdom from Tim O’Brien, one of the authors I’ve really admired.
The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness.
Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
A Few Links About My Books and Where to Find Them
(Feel free to ignore this bit if you’ve read it before)
Currently, I have TWO novels in my official backlist.
My first book is a journalism thriller set in Chicago during the turbulent days of the 2008 election and the start of the Great Recession. Check out more about it here.
The Holy Fool
Debut novels are tricky things. While I’ve not asked this question specifically of some of my fellow writers, the general impression I get is most writers consider their debut novels both with pride at their accomplishment and ruefulness at missed opportunities for improvement. And I’m no different.
You can get the paperback version of this book on Amazon here and the ebook version of it here.
A fellow Iowa writer and organizer of the Windsor Heights Book Fair, Tyler Granger, recently did a review of my book: you can find it here3.
My second book, the first in the The Yank Striker series, is a soccer drama telling the story of the beginning of a young American’s career as a player. There’s more about it here.
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?
The paperback version of this book can be found on Amazon and the site of my publisher, Biblio Publishing. It is also available in ebook format on Amazon here.
John Buzbee of The Culture Buzz radio show in Des Moines (KFMG FM) interviewed me about the Yank Striker. You can catch it here.
For full links to these and other helpful places having to do with me and my writing, you can go to this page on my Wordpress site, Liegois Media.
You can also get my books in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:
Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
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.
Another Way to Support Me (No Pressure… 😊)
If you are interested in supporting me but can’t quite afford a full subscription (although my paid subscription is just five dollars a month or an even better steal at thirty-five dollars a year), I have a new option for you4.
I am now on Venmo. If you are interested in a donation of whatever you can provide, you can just send whatever you can afford to there. You can choose to buy me a cup of coffee or whatever you can afford. Just click the button below or scan the QR code below to help out. Anything you can provide helps me keep things going.
Final Thoughts
Anyway, that’s pretty much how things have been for me regarding writing and a few other things. Hope you writers out there are being productive and creative and everyone out there is keeping safe.
-30-
Promotional image courtesy of the sponsoring organization.
Thanks to the Iowa City Book Festival for sponsoring me at their local author’s fair two weeks previously. It was a fantastic and well-planned event and I’m looking forward to coming back next year.
If anyone does any reviews of my work, I’d love to post some links to them. Send it to me in the DM’s or comments.
It would be great if Substack had a per-story payment scheme, but not yet. I totally would be in favor of it.