The Writing Life, 4 February 2024
As I start adjusting to the nomadic life and actually get writing done.
I won’t say I’m totally out of sorts, but for the past few days and maybe weeks I’ve been… sort of drifting along, Mostly it’s been due to the transition I’ve been going through personally and the uncertainty it has brought along. I know I will be leaving to make a new life somewhere soon, but exactly what the process will be like and timetables have been hazy at best. It’s only been recently some of these uncertainties have become more certain.
Of course, this has affected my equilibrium… and my writing productivity and consistency, as well. I’ll talk about it, as I write this in my “Eagle’s Nest” in Chariton for the last time.
The Home Front
I feel like I’ll be living out of a tent during the next few months.
This week, in the group text I have with my wife and our two kids, Laura (my wife) said I’ll know what it’s like to be a business traveler this next few months. My daughter, Maddie, called me the itinerant teacher. Sounds about right. 😂
So, this is the situation so far. It appears we have a buyer for the house, and we should close on the house by next Friday. We’ll need to have all of our belongings packed up from the house by then. To be fair, this is a far better situation than it to be July and we have still not sold an empty house. That would be an uncomfortable situation, surely, because we’d have no interest in being absent landlords by any means.
Afterwards, Laura and I will both be officially Fort Madison residents, although I will be hanging out in an area hotel for the middle part of the week while I continue to work for my current district, Twin Cedars of Bussey, Iowa. It may be something of a nomadic life, but it would still cost us less than if we still had the house and the apartment and were paying for than and sundry other family costs.
What I’ve Been Writing
I should have realized this move and all the activity behind it were going to take away from my writing. Not that I haven’t had time, but much of the past couple of days has involved packing away items and getting this place ready to be handed over.
Other than this newsletter and a few odds and ends of writing, I really haven’t done much writing for any of my projects. If trying to write in the middle of a school year at times feels like writing after you’ve been spun around on a merry-go-round and taken the SAT, trying to do this and move from your house at the same time is like doing everything I just mentioned while on painkillers.
Not to talk about writing statistics in great detail here, but I’m likely to be off pace from trying to reach 200,000 words by the end of this year, and feeling behind pace is not a good feeling for me. However, I’m only one month into the year, and I think I have more of an opportunity to pick up my productivity.
Once I get out of the old house and find some temporary quarters, I think things will pick up for me. I’ll only have to worry about working, getting back to where I’m sleeping, and write. We’ll have to see how the life of a nomad writer will be. Considering how often my father traveled through the United States and overseas for his career as a consulting engineer, I need to get some feedback from him about how to deal with being on the road1.
What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing
When I have a free moment, I will have to check my schedule and see what writing events and book fairs are coming up. The book fair “season” really hasn’t started yet, but I do want to try and make it out to some of them I got to last year. I hope I can still make it to the Des Moines area events even though I will be living for all intents and purposes in Fort Madison.
One of my writing friends from the Des Moines area, Amara Clay, gave me some good ideas and tips on public appearances and presentations I want to put into practice the next time I head out to promote my books.
Writing Quote(s) of the Week
Let’s hear it from Jorge this week.
A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.
― Jorge Luis Borges, Twenty-Four Conversations with Borges: Interviews by Roberto Alifano 1981-1983
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 these are great independent bookstores, but I’m always looking for some new places to place my books (especially now in eastern Iowa), so feel free to hit me up in the comments if anyone has a suggestion.
Final Thoughts
That’s about all I have for this week.
This coming week is going to be a crazy sprint to get moved out, so I’m hoping I publish on time on the weekend, but there’s a chance I might not. Hopefully, normal service can be returned in a couple weeks.
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For those of you desperate for writing talk, there won’t be that much this week, since there hasn’t been that much writing. 🤣