What a difference a week can make and it ain't good. I try not to get political and I won't here, but I don't want to act like I'm living in a vacuum. As if the stay at home order was one thing, now, as I'm writing this, Los Angeles, where I live, is having a curfew, the second night in a row. All I want to say is that while I am saddened by the death of George Floyd (there's no excuse for what happened to him) and upset that some things never seem to change or at least change fast enough when it comes to race, and appreciate the protests in the streets, I can't get behind the vandalism. One thing I remember from the 1992 L.A. Riots was the destruction they caused and how long it took some of these neighborhoods to recover. My six-month pregnant wife and I helped deliver food after the riots and seeing the aftermath up close has stayed with me. Protest, make your voices heard, vote for people who have your best interest in mind but don't burn down and loot the stores. It's a no-win situation for everyone and it detracts from the cause.
On that cheery note, I want to turn to myself and my writing for the week, which is the point of this blog.
I'm still working on my rewrites for The Runaway, which, as I mentioned last week, is sort of my treading water until I can cheat off my son's writing class when it comes to querying. I'm trying to go through a couple of chapters a day and so far I've done just that. I'm up to Chapter Twenty-Seven. The story isn't getting too much longer but I am able to find some story errors which I'm more than happy to fix.
I've been thinking a little about the next book, the one that will be post-COVID and take place in that world. What will the new normal be like for my private detective character? What will happen during the pandemic that will change his world and what sort of cases will he be handling as a result? As I said, I'm just starting to think about that. I figure I'll have some time, too, as this thing doesn't look like it's just going to go away.
I've written a new review, The Merry Widow (1934), which we watched as part of clean off the DVR Saturday. It was a musical that I had sort of avoided watching for years but had recorded it. In my review, I recall hearing another movie, Irreconcilable Differences, of all things, discuss the Lubitsch Touch and use The Merry Widow as an example. I know, but I had to see it in a class at USC led by Arthur Knight, the late great film critic. He would bring guests in and I believe this was one of the films he showed. Well, the quote stuck with me and when I saw the film on TCM, some years back, I recorded it with that film in the back of my head.
I'm hoping I get back on Trophy Unlocked in June but in the meantime, Scooby-Doo Month has wrapped with the live-action Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed on Saturday. Wednesday was another video game review, Helltaker.
Powers Squared still chugs along. Our artist has finished work on Issue #14 and we've sent her the script for Issue #15, which is a one-shot, currently called How They Met.
At Paul's instigation, we've changed up our content on our YouTube channel to include some Character Profiles. This week and next, we've brought in our artist and colorist to read the text. They both did a good job with it and we're planning on making more in the weeks ahead. The nice thing is that it relieves us of doing A Week in Powers Squared and we keep having new content every Sunday as planned.
On the subject of comic books, I backed one on Kickstarter this week. The goal was $500 and they have made way more than this, based, in part, on the writer being a major player in the world of digital comics. They said they needed the money for some of the print costs. The writer had backed our Kickstarter, though for a far lesser amount, and we've been working with him almost since we've been doing Powers Squared. After I backed it, I saw that he was posting photos of a billboard about the book and the Kickstarter. Is it me or does the need for the $500 seem disingenuous? I mean, if you have money for a billboard, don't you have the money to print the book? Or rather, if you need money to print the book why are you spending money on a billboard? It doesn't add up for me.
So, it's been a busy week. Hope you stay safe and I'll see you next week back here.
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