A Week in Writing #141

So busy week, why don't I feel like more got done?

To begin with, this was the week I finally heard back from that agent who had had my manuscript for Personal and Professional for six months. It took about six weeks to get a reply only to be told she had rejected it in January; just hadn't bothered to tell me that's all. She wrote some encouraging things, like "As you know, I do like this mystery" she also wrote it "needed to be updated a bit and made to feel a touch more modern." Since it's set in the present day, I'm not sure what she's after.

She also wrote, "As I suggested before, I'd like to see less talk and more action too." While that's not a bad suggestion, I have no idea when this "before" was that she refers to. And as perhaps unknowingly took a dig at my editor with "I'm hoping you'll have it edited and cleaned up, then that you'll forward it my way again."

Now this is by far from the worst rejection I've had and I've received plenty, but the fact that she took four months to tell me she had rejected me is a little off putting. I did forward the exchange to my editor, but I have not heard back, which sadly seems to be my luck with emails.

Managed to squeeze in a little writing on Familiar Stranger, but not enough to brag about. Only a few minutes and more just to complete a thought I hadn't. The goal is always to get to more of it, the reality is I don't always have the time I need.

Moving on to Powers Squared, the comic book is what occupies most nights for me. Received the final pages from our second colorist. Sad to part ways with her really, but she just wouldn't have the time to do more than a page or so a week. Our new colorist is burning up the joint, sending over the weekend pages 7 and 8. She has been great as well, helping to fix some of the debris left in the artwork; colorists are your last line of defense.

Speaking of which our artist has come awake and is working very hard to wrap up Issue #3 and seems anxious to start in on Issue #4. He took our request for more detail to heart and actually overdid it a little, needing to remove a mural he placed in the background. We thought it would be too distracting.

Our letterer worked through some changes for us and even my own blunder. I had written a short prologue for issue #2 which looked great on the page after some editing by Paul. The problem was, I realized I had sent the prologue for Issue #3 instead. It gets a little confusing going back and forth sometimes and that time in caught up with me.

But what it seems I've spent a lot of time on this past week is downloading, reviewing and commenting. You would be surprised how time-consuming those activities can be.

Managed to work on a couple of reviews this weekend, including one for Night Nurse (1931) that I'm still working on. I did write a short review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which we watched on Saturday night. I also published one for Charlie Chaplin's The Adventurer (1917) on Saturday morning, which means we published reviews for movies that were released about 100 years apart this weekend.

So all in all a busy week, but as always, I want to get more done.