A Week in Writing #506 - Did You Go to IthaCon?

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

I'm starting this week with Powers Squared news. I sat on the press release for awhile, since we had an issue come out at the same time the books went live, but First Comics News published the press release about LibraryPass. If you're curious, you can read it here. While this may be old news to readers of this blog, I mention it because it leads to another story I want to relate.

I only sent the release out to three outlets, mostly because they've written about Powers Squared before. One of the journalists is a man named Ed Catto, who had done a feature about us for Pop Culture Squad. Rather than publishing the release, he wrote back with an offer. He was heading IthaCon this weekend, in Ithaca, New York and offered to pass out any flyers we might have at the convention. This was Tuesday morning.

To be honest, we don't have a flyer for Powers Squared as we haven't tabled at a major con yet. But it sounded like an opportunity. However, we were going that night to see Spider-Man 2, the best of the Spider-Man films, as part of a Spider-Mondays promotion to celebrate Columbia Pictures 100th anniversary. I know, it was Tuesday night, but they were still showing it.

Getting home at about 10, I put together a flyer and made edits the following morning. IthaCon is a small event, with about 2000 attendees over two days, so we decided to 200. I have this FT job, so Paul and Trevor took it to Kinko's/FedEx, picked out the type of paper and called me. I don't know if you've ever printed 200 copies of anything, but it was quite expensive for us. The store arranged to save us some money and have them printed near where Ed lives and have them delivered to him. Great. I wrote Ed a couple of times but as of this writing haven't heard back, so I hope they went out and were picked up by attendees.

In case, you didn't go, here's what we passed out:

Our Friday podcast was our April team meeting on Friday, with Julia Canon and Trevor attending. (Our colorist, Jen Moreno had a last minute conflict.) You can hear it here or watch it on Wednesday here. After we did that podcast, our former artist Rachel Wells, joined us, along with Julia and Trevor, to discuss Issue #21, Mission: Istanistan, Pt 2, since we would have shot something the Friday before in June, but we have a guest scheduled that Friday.

Next Friday, OAPS starts its month-long salute to Transformers' 40th anniversary with artist Livio Ramondelli. If you'd like to watch the interview live, it should start at 6 pm PT on Friday at twitch.tv/powerssquared.

In addition to that, Saturday is Free Comic Book Day and Rachel is joining us to do a live "What's in My Bag" podcast on Twitch and then on YouTube. That should drop on 1 o'clock PT on twitch.tv/powerssquared and then on our YouTube channel @powerssquared if you're interested in what we select.

And this week, I need to spend time putting together the newsletter, which will go out on May 5. Not too late to sign up at SRCC, if you're interested. (It's FREE)

I'm working on a new review of a very old film, The Johnstown Flood (1926) for Trophy Unlocked. As always, no idea when it will appear. This past Saturday Morning's Review was Trevor's for Nanny McPhee, which like American Fiction was watched on a cell phone during our recent trip to Texas. On Wednesday, Paul's review of Spy X Family Code: White appeared. It was a film we watched last weekend.

And let's not forget Skylar, which was worked on quite a bit this past week. I think I might have even squeezed some work on it on Tuesday. Making good progress and I'd like to think I'll have a draft by the end of May.

But so much to do to get there.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll seee you next week.

A Week in Writing #505 - Work/Sleep Balance

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

I know we all speak about a work/life balance but I'm dealing with a writing/sleep balance, in that by the time I get around to writing, I'm good for about an hour before I drop or lose the ability to make coherent thoughts. I'm sure this is something that plagues a lot of amateur writers with day jobs and families, so I know I'm not alone in this.

While I've been working on the Skylar story, there are times when I'm not as imaginative as I need to be in order to put down what I want to write. I'm getting through it, but sometimes I get to the point where I have to write something and my mind is not concentrating, if you know what I mean. I'll keep at it, but sometimes the progress is slower than I'd like.

The work on new issues of Powers Squared is sort of piecemeal. Our artist did deliver four pages of edits and two more draft pages of the newest issue, #27, we're working on. I'm not sure what our colorist is working on spefically, though I suspect she's finishing up #26 and our letterer just finished issue #24.

I had had high hopes of doing a Kickstarter this year, but I wanted to use #24 and #25 as part of the rewards and I'm not sure when it will be done. I'm also thinking that we need to have a bigger mailing list than we have now, since it hasn't really grown in quite a while. My attempts here have not been fruitful. I'm still hoping to do the LA Comic-Con this year and hope that we can add names to the list there. If you know of someone who might be interested or you yourself might be, please enroll today at SRCC; it's FREE.

This week's podcast, OAPS #240 - Kaiji (The Anime) is Great, has Trevor joining the show to discuss with Paul, the anime series. You can listen to it now here or watch it here on Wednesday pm. Next week is our monthly Team Meeting. Before we launch into Transformers Month in May, as well as FCBD with Rachel joining us for those shows.

My review of American Fiction was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I first watched the film on my phone during a recent flight and then again at home with my family before I wrote the review. I'm currently working on one for A Farewell to Arms (1932). Don't know when that will go up, but I have to finish it first.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #504 - Short Week

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

A trip, even a short one, can take it out of you. I think it took us a couple of days to readjust. We live a very routine life, somewhat on purpose, so even three days away seems like a big disruption to the status quo. This week really didn't get going in earnest until Tuesday, when work called and things went back to the usual normal.

Spent a lot of the writing time this week on Skylar. I'm still working through the previous chapters, cleaning them up and trying to run together the two storylines better. As I believe I wrote before, inspiration has led me to more of a melding of the storylines together. I try to work on it every night, Monday through Thursday for at least an hour or until I fall asleep, whichever comes first.

Not much to report this week on the Powers Squared front, but more on the OAPS side of things. We've lined up four creatives connected to the Transformers franchise and we're devoting May to the 40th Anniversary. We're starting with Livio Ramondelli on May 3rd, so I'm inviting you, dear reader, to join us. As always the podcast starts at 6 pm PT on twitch.tv/powerssquared

On Friday's podcast, Paul and I talked about the rather disappointing time we had at this past WonderCon. Some of it may have been the weather, but there were still empty booths and little to do. No major label, save IDW, was there and the IDW booth was mostly TMNT. Saturday may not have been the best day, but it was our only day and one that was very disappointing. You can listen to our musings here or wait until Wednesday and watch them on our YouTube channel: @powerssquared

For Trophy Unlocked, I finished my review of American Fiction, in the better late than never category. I'm not sure when it will appear, but it falls into the recommend pile. I watched it twice within 8 days, so I think I can say it's worth watching.

This week's Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of Migration, which, like I did with American Fiction, he watched on his phone during the flight to Texas.

Well, that just about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #503 - The Week That Wasn't

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

My week in writing was short changed by a weekend trip, Friday 10 am to Sunday 11:30 pm, trip to Houston to celebrate my mother's 100th birthday. Not much chance to write during the weekend, including this blog and reviews for Trophy Unlocked, so this was sort of the week that wasn't and why I am late with this missive this week.

I did do some work this week on Skylar, working on it most nights when we weren't planning this excursion, so it wasn't a total loss. I'm still working on what will be the first draft when finished, but I'm getting good ideas on where I can take the story, so I'm anxious to get back to it.

Even though we weren't here or available, the On the Air with Powers Squared podcast was made, with Julia Canon, Rachel Wells and Jen Moreno handling the honors. Apparently, there was an audio issue so Julia is not heard throughout. I tried to watch while in the air over Texas, so I thought maybe that was my internet connection, still no one who watched apparently mentioned it. We've had recording issues of our own, so we can't get too upset, but you wish it hadn't happened. You can listen to what there is here or watch it here on Wednesday afternoon.

And this morning, Paul, Trevor and I recorded the first episode of what will be a month of  podcasts celebtraing the 40th anniversary of the Transformers franchise during May. At 10 this morning, we interviewed Marty Isenberg, who wrote on several Transformers-related series. We've lined up other guests, though not all of the dates have been set, but it should be an interesting departure for us.

While I didn't write any reviews this weekend, again, there was a new Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, Trevor's review of The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! the UK and original version of Aardman Animation's The Pirates! Band of Misfits, which I reviewed back in 2013.

I did see a movie, on the airplane on my cellphone, American Fiction, which I will try to review later, but would recommend to anyone who writes.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.