A Week in Writing #172

Before my writing turns to Christmas cards, I want to take a little time to catch up with the week that was. Managed to spend some time on all the projects, including Powers Squared, Trophy Unlocked and Familiar Stranger.

For Trophy Unlocked, I decided to get all of this year's Christmas reviews ready to publish over the next two weeks. Saturday's post was Running Scared (1986) a second buddy cop film set in and around Christmas, what we like to call on the blog, drive-by Christmas films.

Finished off two other reviews, which are more traditional fare: Scrooge (1935) and Miracle on 34th Street. Those two reviews, 1400 and 4000 words respectively, will appear over the next couple of weeks and be added to our Holiday film hub. I wrote a couple of additional reviews, one for Justice League, which I will publish sometime next week. I know that the film has been out, but it was not a priority for us to see, as we had other agenda items ahead of it. Even though we're done for this year as far as Christmas movies go, we did watch one Christmas film on Friday that I wrote about for next year's holiday season, Babes in Toyland (1934) with Laurel and Hardy. Talk about planning ahead of time, but it will show up eventually on the blog, most likely in a year or so.

We made some additional progress on our next three issues of Powers Squared. Now that our letterer, Trevor, had finished his work, Paul and I went through issues 4 and 5 and made edits, some about moving the dialogue and telepathic bubbles, but others adding or editing what is already on the page. There is nothing quite like seeing it "finished" to make you want to make changes. I think Paul and I were both a little disappointed with some of the artwork, which despite our best efforts is not always what we wanted, but sometimes you have to close your eyes, grit your teeth and move on, which we have done. I'm still hoping to get everything wrapped up by the end of next week.

Familiar Stranger wasn't left out either, though I never seem to get as far as I would like. I'm a little short of 42,000 words, only about 3000 more than last week, but I'm hoping with less reviews to worry about, I'll be able to make more progress between Christmas cards and shopping. I did come up with an idea for a section I'm coming up on, which might help me get past the hump I find myself coming up against. I know I have an ending in mind, it's setting it up that has been my Achilles heel on this book. I don't think I'll get it done by the end of the year, but I'm hoping to make some really good progress before we sing Auld Lang Syne.

Here's hoping you can find the time to get to your own writing even as the year comes to a close.