A Week in Writing # 523 - Another Slow Week

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

This has not been another red-letter week for me, when it came to writing. This week's excuse: the DNC and watching speechs after dinner and sometimes until almost 10 at night. I'm not going to get political, but that's my excuse this week.

The main project, which did take time, is trying to revise a "handout" that I'd like to make available at LA Comic-Con, describing our books. I use the word handout loosely, meaning something to have available at the table for passerbys to puruse, in case they want to look, but not speak. Prep continues in big and small ways, including ordering s-hooks to use to hang sample t-shirts from. We settled on the samples, now I'm trying to lower the prices before I order any.

We did receive an invite to participate in the first ever Neurodiversity Comic Con on November 9 in NYC. That, as they say, is a litttle too far for us. We are donating a couple of hardback trades to the cause, but it would be a little too expensive to participate in person. If you're interested in the con, you can find more information here: http://www.diversitycomiccon.com

We're still prepping for the next issue of Powers Squared  to be released on September 4. Paul and I spent a few minutes getting the book up on Kindle and GlobalComix. Family Affair, Part 1 sees Marty and Eli preparing for a visit from their estranged parents, Peter and Peggy Powers. And even though the boys have their secrets, their parents have some of their own. You can read a review of the issue: here.

This past week's podcast starred Trevor as we discussed Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Trevor has been reading the long-running comic book series, which is a good thing for a podcast about a book series. You can listen here or watch it on YouTube on Wednesday.

One more note about Powers Squared, I realized this morning that the newsletter is only a week away, so that's something else I'm going to have to work on this week.

Even though I haven't really worked on my backlog of reviews to write, and frankly, I may skip some, my review of What! No Beer? was the Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked.

And I did do cursory work on Skylar, but nothing to write home about.

I do plan to start sending queries again but I'll probably wait until after LA Comic-Con, as I don't need more disappointment in my life.

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

A Week in Writing #522 - Personal Changes and Fighting the Tired

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

I don't want to get into it right now, but things are changing that may lead to changes in finances. and I I'm talking, of course, about Powers Squared. I've been financing it and after a while, that will probably have to stop. I'm hoping we can do a Kickstarter next year and raise some capital to continue when the self-financing pool gets shallow. More details forthcoming but that's all I'm going to say about it now.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we had our 15th Comic Book Club meeting on Friday. Julia Canon and Jen Moreno joined Paul, Trevor and I to discuss Marvel’s Secret Reverse by Kazuki Takahashi, the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh! There was a 4-to-1 on recommending the book, but you'll have to listen to or watch the podcast to find out the split.

Still doing some prep work for L.A. Comic-Con, which is now less than two months away. The books I've ordered have arrived, as has a display rack for the books. There are still odds and ends we need to purchase, but the list is getting shorter. Today, as an example, we ordered a cloth to go over the table if and when we're away. I will, of course, publicize the location when I know it, and that might not be until after September 1st.

And I still don't know the date and place of the panel, Under the Radar, but I will, of course, publicize that as soon as I know.

A surprise Saturday Morning Review for me, my review of You've Got Mail was selected. We had originally thought about it as a possible drive-by Christmas movie, but it's really too drive-by to really count for that.

I did finish my review of Daughter of Shanghai and have begun, barely, one for Lady Be Good (1941). Again, not sure when either will appear.

I worked for three days on Skylar this week, and while I made a change in the storyline, my three days of work amounted to about a 1000 pages total. I'm trying to power through being tired to work on it, but sometimes the tired wins.

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

A Week in Writing #521 - Getting Ready for L.A. Comic-Con

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

It may seem like it's still months away, actually a little under two, but that doesn't mean there aren't panic moments in getting ready for our table at L.A. Comic-Con. The most obvious is getting the table paid for. I had paid for the half of the cost several months ago and had, I believed, until August 15th to pay the second half.

Now, wouldn't you expect to get an invoice asking the amount due? Or, an email reminder to pay and how to pay it? With about a week to go before the deadline, I had gotten neither. I had spoken to a representative of the Con and had exchanged emails, so I thought I'd try him. When I didn't get a response (and I'm impatient by nature), I tried to call him on the phone we had spoken on. Well, that number was no longer in service. What did that mean? Was he no longer there?

I tried the phone number that was on the original receipt, and again, that number was no longer in service. Well, now I'm getting into full panic-mode and I wrote the person who had sent me the receipt, then the info email for the Con, and I even reached out to the Con on their Facebook page, explaining what I was trying to do.

I did receive an email, from someone else at LA Comic-Con, who sent me an invoice and was able to pay the amount due. I even got a phone call from the contact I had spoken to. Apparently, the Con offices were moving and they were getting new phone numbers.

Not sure if there is a lesson in there or not.

On other L.A. Comic-Con news, my panel was accepted. Under the Radar will return to the Con. Again, it will feature the creators of Powers Squared, but will include Erik Arreaga, the creator behind Chingona, and Steven Prince, the creator behind Monster Matador. The moderator this time will be an upgrade, as John Barber, the Editor in Chief at Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide. I don't know the day or time or place just yet, but I'm pleased it was approved.

Now, if that wasn't enough excitment for a week, I also decided to order additional copies of our issues for possible sale. I decided to have at least five copies and reordering some allowed me to make updates to the existing issues on the printer's website. We had not only made some edits on the first five issues, but had also add the SRCC print bug to the covers. Turned out to be seven issues and for whatever reason, the printer's website was taking the uploads, so I had to save them in our dropbox and send them links. Well, the dropbox is practically full now and I keep getting fun messages to upgrade.

The podcast this week was very different than previous ones, as both Paul and Trevor were at a Megadeth concert and we were scheduled for a team meeting. I had the great hope of being able to run it solo, but despite copious notes I ran into an issue and artist/colorist Julia Canon took over. It was odd to be on the guest end of the podcast for a change, but I thought it went quite well. You can listen to it here, or wait and watch it on Youtube on Wedensday afternoon at 2:30 pm PDT here.

Based on this week's peek-of-the-week, I also updated the website for the new issue and adding a synopsis that will possibly be changed, but at least it's showing that it's coming. Since the peek is a pencil of the cover, the preview also features the pencils for the cover and pages 1 and 2. I don't want to play with the peek and then give it all away, now do I? That doesn't seem to be fair.

Well, all that didn't leave much time for anything else. I did make some updates to my review of Daughter of Shanghai, but I wouldn't say I got much done. This week's Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked  was Trevor's review of Descendants: The Rise of Red, a Disney+ movie.

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

A Week in Writing #520 - Newsletter Week (and not much else)

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

Being this was the last week of July, I spent time putting together The Hound Dogs' Howl, the monthly newsletter from Powers Squared. While, the newletter sort of writes itself, there are bits that need attention. This month's was writing the section on twins. If you subscribe (and why aren't you?), you would know that we do a focus on twins, real and fictional. Since we had met the Gibbs Sisters, twins who write together, including graphic novels, at a networking event at San Diego Comic-Con, I thought they would be a good choice.

If you're interested, you can read the newsletter here or, better yet, enroll at San Romero Community College here and receive it in your inbox the first Sunday of every month.

Other than that, I didn't really do much writing. Call it the post-Con bends or something, but it takes awhile to recover from the experience.

Last night, as an example, we had had dinner and watched a rather short film, Daughter of Shanghai (1937), but as soon as I sat down afterward to write, I pretty much fell asleep, and it was only 10. Not a productive night to say the least.

While there were no new reviews from me, Trophy Unlocked continued, wrapping up X-Men month with Paul's second look at Deadpool (Game) and finally, on the 31st, his review of Deadpool & Wolverine. The Saturday Morning Review this week was also his review of My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission.

On the business side of things, I submitted my panel and ordered books for L.A. Comic-Con in October; and we wrote follow ups to people we met at SDCC, some of whom we'd like to have as guests on our podcast.

Speaking of On the Air with Powers Squared, we did recount our experience at SDCC, but more from an attendee rather than as a professional. I covered that in last week's post, which I hope someone found useful, or at least interesting. You can listen the podcast here or wait until Wednesday to watch on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) here. Paul is also working on a video detailing our experience at the Con. Links when those go up.

Nothing else to report, but there's always next week to right the ship.

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