A Week in Writing #547 - A Weird Week

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

A short week with a National holiday at the end really sort of threw me off my game. Let's begin with Thursday. I didn't submit a new query. I know I said I would, but I figured no one was going to react on the 4th of July and I didn't want to start the DNR clock on anything queries. I know it's an excuse, but it makes sense, at least it did to me.

Friday, even though we had pre-taped the podcast, we all forgot about it until about 6:40 pm, only 40 mnutes late. It went up and if I hadn't told you that, you probably wouldn't have known. But we're all about honesty here. This podcast was our 19th Comic Book Club, yes 19. We were a small party of four, with only Julia Canon joining Trevor, Paul and myself in discussing Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo: Ice and Snow. You can still catch it on twitch for a little longer this time (one week), listen to it now here or watch it on YouTube when it goes up on Wednesday, July 9 at 2:30 pm PDT.

On Saturday, which is usually a night that we watch a movie that I review, we instead watched A Minecraft Movie, which Paul is reviewing. So no new review from me for two weeks in a row. As I said, this is a weird week. That said, the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked was my review of Gulliver's Travels, the 1939 film, which was the second animated feature film made; the first being Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

My big project this week was to write the Powers Squared newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, which I'm happy to say went out on time, so something worked this week. This was our June wrap up. A typical newsletter, it talks about what happened in the worlds of Powers Squared and The Blade of Miracles during the past month, including new issues for each. We also recounted the news as it relates to Golden Apple, as well as going vertical with the first issue of each book.

There is then a wrap up of the videos we've done, a link to the current audio podcast we had last Friday (see above), a section I call "Heard Around Campus" (since this is supposed to be a school paper), a spotlight on twins, a recommendation, a list of upcoming Powers Squared  milestones, and any social media mentions of us, if there were any. As always, you can subscribe here, if the spirit so moves you. And, it's FREE.

On to Blackmail, the book I'm currently writing. I added the chapter I was thinking about, which accounts for most of my work on the book. The word count is a little more than 49,000 words, so there has been progress.

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

A Week in Writing #546 - Three Down (Well Almost)

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

The three down are in reference to my queries for Past Present. One rejection came in this week, ironically, the last query I sent out was the first rejection I received. I won't go into what it said, but safe to say it was a form letter; what else do you expect these days from agents, other than no response at all? I wonder how many form letter emails I'll receive which will include "...please forgive me for responding with a form letter."

The first one I sent, in late April, has over-ripened into a DNR, as it's been two months. And the second one I sent is a few days away at best from spoiling as well.

And, to top it off, no new query this week. I spent most of Thursday night either getting ready for the trip I mentioned last week, or waiting to talk to the artist who did our podcast this past Friday.

Speaking of On the Air with Powers Squared, Julia Canon, our artist/colorst, hosted the show, bringing in her own guest, Kevin Krust. If you have a good memory, you might remember that we had Kevin on as a guest many moons ago, OAPS # 231 - Attempting to Impart Wisdom, She brought him back for OAPS #305 - The Return of KevinKrust...Hold the Krust. You can listen to it here, or watch it on YouTube on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT. And, if you act fast, you can still catch it on our twitch channel but only until next Friday.

Despite being out of town, there was a new review on Trophy Unlocked, Trevor's review of to a T. Since we weren't home, no Friday night movie, no Saturday night movie and no new review from me. We'll have to correct that in due time.

Even though I was away for part of the time, I'm now up to over 47,700 words on Blackmail. I did have an idea for it, so I'm going to add a bit at the beginning of the book to, hopefully, set up the subplot of the book. So for a short week, I managed to write nearly 4000 words. I'm impressing myself with that.

For the coming week, I've got a newsletter to write and a new query to make. I'm also having an issue with the copyright office, which I need to address. Oh, the fun never stops.

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

A Week in Writing #545 - Gearing Up for Summer (New Issues)

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

By gearing up for the summer, I'm not talking about repacking the tents but rather working on what needs to be done during the summer months ahead. We took a step in that direction this weekend with some podcasts we shot.

Our ode to the start of summer was the Friday podcast, or "Jaws 50th Anniversary Sharktacular", that we did on Friday night. With the official start of summer comes the summer blockbuster and many credit Jaws with being the first. Paul, Trevor and I spent the time talking about the film, and our impressions, etc. You can listen to it here or wait to watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 PDT here (more podcasts below).

Separate from that, but connected, was a special Friday morning review of Jaws by Paul on Trophy Unlocked published to commorate the anniversary. And even the Saturday Morning Review was Jaws-themed, with Trevor's review of the game, Jaws Unleashed (2006), in which you are the shark.

And if that wasn't enough, we shot two more podcasts on Saturday afternoon with Julia Canon. The first one we did won't go up until the 4th of July. We do an occassional Comic Book Club and not everyone could make the meeting. The four of us discussed Usagi Yojimbo Volume 39: Ice and Snow by Stan Sakai. So, forget about that one for a couple of weeks.

It's the second one that will go up immediately; a preview of the two books SRCC Press is releasing on Wednesday, Powers Squared Issue #25 and The Blade of Miracles #4. Julia was part of the former but not of the latter, so there are really two podcasts put together with some clever editing by Paul. It's called: "[Secret Episode] OAPS #304 - SRCC Press Double Feature! PSQ #25 + TBOM #4 Preview". This is also available to listen to here and will also be available on our YouTube channel on Wednesday but at 2:31 pm PDT.

I would be remiss not to talk more about both issues. Powers Squared #25, "Yuki-Onna" was written by Paul as a companion to Powers Squared #24, "Gashadokuro", which was written by Trevor. Just as that first issue dealt with Eli on his own fighting an evil yokai, "Yuki-Onna" finds Marty in a life or death battle with a yokai known to suck the life force from her victims. The artwork was by artist Julia Canon, colors were by Jennifer Moreno with Trevor doing the lettering.

The Blade of Miracles is Trevor's 12-part epic adventure loosely based on the Arthurian legend. In the fourth issue, "The Black Knight, Part 1," Lancelot returns to his hometown of Benwick in search of Excalibur, only to find it in ruin. Who would commit such a terrible deed and why? In addition to writing, Trevor also illustrated and lettered the issue with Paul serving as editor.

Both issues will be available starting on June 25 through The Campus Store in both print and digital formats.

No new review from me this week. On Friday night, we watched Mission: Impossible 2, which I wasn't going to review, but because there was a lot written about its similarities to the Alfred Hitchcock film, Notorious, we rewatched that film. I had reviewed the film on the blog about 14 years ago, and I'll stand by what I wrote at the time. I did go back and add some images that we weren't adding to reviews at the time.

About 1500 more words this week on Blackmail, so for anyone counting, it's up to 43,806 words.

One new query this week, and while none have come back as rejected, one is about to DNR itself in a couple of days. They all go ripe after 8 weeks and this one is about to hit that mark. Would love to hear from an agent out there.

Well, that about does it for me. One note, I'm spending time with my wife's family this weekend, so next week's may be delayed a day, so bear with me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #545 - Happy Father's Day!

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

Happy Father's Day, to those who celebrate. I know I do.

I'll start this week with our podcast. We were lucky to have Patrick Horvath as our guest. He is the creator of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees. He was a great guest, as most are, and was willing to talk about his career in film and television as well as comic books. He is about to publish the next chapter in Beneath the Trees, called Rite of Spring, which comes out in early July. You can listen to it now here, watch it for the next few days on our Twitch channel, or wait until Wednesday, when it will premiere on our YouTube channel at 2:30 pm PDT.

Speaking of our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, we came up with a business card for it as a way of hopefully enticing more guests for the show.

On the subject of Powers Squared, and The Blade of Miracles, we have completed our agreement with Digital Paper Productions for a phone friendly version of the first books of each. Not sure yet where they will be released, but we'll keep you posted on that front.

And speaking of the two books, both will have issues coming out on the 25th of June. For Powers Squared, it will be the 25th issue, "Yuki-Onna", which Paul wrote; and for TBOM it will be Issue #4, "The Black Knight, Part 1", which Trevor wrote, drew and lettered. They'll both be available in print and digital in The Campus Store on our website.

Turning to movies, this week's Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked,  was my review of Big City Blues, a 1932 drama starring Joan Blondell. I'm currently working on a review for Berlin Express, part of our clear the DVR. This is a very old recording dating back to the last Summer of Darkness on TCM; 2015.

One new query, and so far nary a word from any agency, good or bad, save a receipt for delivery. But I guess that's just the joy of querying in this day and age.

More work on Blackmail. 41,896 words so far, which is over 2000 more from last week's total.

This week's priority is a press release for the issues, finishing my review and more work on Blackmail.

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

A Week in Writing #544 - One Thing Leads to Another

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

Well, sometimes the best laid plans change and there is a ripple effect. Case in point, this Friday we had scheduled another creator to be on our podcast. He had an experience that I thought would make a good show. However, a couple of days before, he must have looked at his calendar and realized that he was double-booked, our podcast and an out-of-state con. With him out, we had to find a new topic.

We had been kicking around the idea of doing a tribute to Thomas the Tank Engine since the books it was based on was celebrating 80 years; The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry. So, we switched to that and I think had a good show. You can listen to that podcast here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT and watch it here. It was fun to reminece about a show we all enjoyed watching when the boys were younger.

Having talked about Thomas, we decided that night to rewatch Bullet Train since Thomas is sort of tangentially central to the plot.

But the ripples also extended to our choice for my review of Caveman to go up on Trophy Unlocked as the Saturday Morning Review. The connection being that Ringo Starr, who was the train conductor in the early series, is also the star of the film. Sometimes you just have to play it out.

In the other big news, Powers Squared is now being sold at the Golden Apple Comics store in Hollywood; both trades. This goes back to WonderCon, when we asked the owner Ryan Liebowitz about it and he agreed. The delay was on me. I wanted to make sure both trades had a proper spine and it took the printer longer than anticipated to get them to us and then it was finding a Saturday to go there, and last Saturday was the open date.

But there was a lot of waiting and we went to the Farmer's Market after eating at Pink's, so by the time we got home, the day was sort of shot and so were we. As a result, no new reviews for me this week. At times like that, we usually watch an MST3K episode.

One new query this week, and, as always, no idea if I've been rejected by anyone. Silence is not golden but you never know how long the silence will last.

I did work on Blackmail some more this week, but I've written to a point that I'm not really sure how to proceed. It's more lack of knowledge on my part, so I sort of stopped when I got there. We're at 39,721 words, but the story needs to be longer. But we're not done, just paused.

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

A Week in Writing #543 - OAPS Celebrates #300

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

On the Air with Powers Squared, the weekly podcast that mostly Paul and I host, has hit a new milestone with our 300th show. As I wrote last week, we used a pre-recorded interview we did back in March with Eric and Julia Lewald, animation writers and showrunners, perhaps best known for their work on X-Men: The Animated Series. You can listen to the 300th podcast here or watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT here.

I think 300 speaks to our consistency as much as anything. And it is not something we could do alone. To start, I wanted to be sure to thank Paul for being there week after week and Trevor for his participation. I also wanted to thank our colorist/artist Julia Canon, who has picked up the slack when we weren't able to do the show. It takes a village, as they say. Thanks to our guests, everyone involved with Powers Squared and to anyone who listens or watches.

Not much on the Powers Squared front, 'cept Trevor finished lettering what he has for issue #28. That doesn't mean there won't be a new issue this month. That's coming this month, "Yuki-Onna" written by Paul. There will be more about that as time goes by.

It was newsletter week, and the 89th The Hound Dog's Howl went out this morning. You can get your own copy by enrolling at SRCC, here. It's free and you receive a free digital copy of Issue #1 to get you started. We send out one newsletter a month and The Bark when an issue of either Powers Squared or The Blade of Miracles is released.

No new review this week from me. We mixed things up on Saturday. Last weekend, we saw and I reviewed, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Since the film harks back to the first movie, on Friday night we watched the film Mission: Impossible, and on Saturday night watched an episode from the original series; Season 2, Episode 1, since that was the first season with Peter Graves as Jim Phelps. I'm not sure who will be reviewing the first Mission: Impossible.

The Saturday morning review this week on Trophy Unlocked was Paul's for Kronk's New Groove, a direct-to-video sequel to The Emperor's New Groove. Wednesday was GameDay with Trevor's review of the mobile game Very Little Nightmares.

Sent out my weekly query on Thursday. This agent wasn't very specific on what they wanted outside of a letter, which is what I sent. Still haven't heard back, good or bad, from anyone, though I suspect we'll start DNRing some if I don't.

More work on Blackmail this week, though not much to show, less than 1000 words, though that does include editing. The count is 37,633. More to come.

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

A Week in Writing #542 - Where Did the Week Go?

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

Some Sundays when I sit down to write this blog, I wonder what happened to everything I planned to do during the past week. For some reason, this doesn't feel like an overly productive one, though we'll see when I'm done.

Let's start with Powers Squared, since we haven't in awhile. Not a lot to report here. Our artist and I have come to an agreement on fewer pages a month, I just haven't seen any since. Her real job seems to be demanding, so I'm trying to play ball but I do want to keep the comic book moving forward.

Our corresponding podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, was a short one this week. We previewed issue #3, "The Lady Guinevere", of Trevor's book, The Blade of Miracles. You can watch it now on our twitch channel, twitch.tv/powerssquared, listen to it here or wait until it hits our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm. This new issue will be available on May 30, through The Campus Store on our website. You can also learn more about the series here.

Next week will be our 300th podcast, and we're premiering our conversation with Eric and Julia Lewald from a couple of months back. We had to pre-record it to work with their schedule and we decided the 300th podcast would be a fitting occasion for it.

I hate to admit it, but I'm still not done with my I Wake Up Screaming review, though I'm close. My review of When Worlds Collide was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. On Friday afternoon, we rewatched Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part 1, and on Saturday morning, and I mean at 8:45 am, went to see Mission: Impossibe - The Final Reckoning, which I also reviewed and it went up this morning on the blog.

I did some work this week on the newsletter, which will be coming out next Sunday. I wanted to strike while the iron was hot, so to speak. I like to get as much of the heavy lifting out of the way as early as possible. If you'd like to get your own copy, of course, you can join the mailing list by enrolling at SRCC, which is the fictious college where the story takes place. And, of course, it's free.

Sent out my fifth query this week for Past Present. Of course, I've received no rejections or requests for more.

I did work some on Blackmail again this week. Not sure if I moved the word count very much higher. It stands now at 36,665, which is about 2500 more than the week before. Remember, 1000 Words A Day is a goal.

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

A Week in Writing #541 - Three Videos and a 4th Query

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

Ever had what feels like a busy week but you're not sure what you've accomplished?

Let's start with the good. Busy YouTube week, shooting three podcasts. For our usual podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared featured an old friend, Josue Kure, as well as his writer Tim Gomez. I had met Josue online in a Facebook group called List Launch, and we had him on the podcast in December 2011, #63 if you're keeping track. He was on, then, to promote a comic book he and Tim had written called Reaper Rules, and this time, he was on to promote Super Foods, and their upcoming Kickstarter. You can listen on our website here, or watch it on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 pm PDT here.

Or, for something you can watch now, try our videoblog, What's in My Bag? FCBD 2025, Part 2. As no surprise, this is a follow up to our What's in My Bag? FCBD 2025, Part 1, from 2 weeks ago. In that one, Rachel Wells, Paul, Trevor and I talked about the books we'd picked up at our local comic bookstore on Free Comic Book Day. In this one, we actually discuss the books we'd read, which can be the more interesting part. You can only watch it on our YouTube channel, here, or on twitch.tv here for the next few days.

On, if that weren't enough, we also pre-taped a preview of Trevor's next book, Blade of Miracles Issue #3, but you'll have to wait to see that. Ths issue drops at the end of the month. I also did a peek-of-the-week about it too, which you can see here. When the book drops on the 28th, you'll be able to find it on our website in The Campus Store.

I sent out my fourth query this past week. So far no rejections (they're no doubt coming) and no DNRs (they're coming as well). But I'm trying to be consistent and get them done.

The Saturday Morning Review this week on Trophy Unlocked was Paul's review of Moana 2, the sequel to Moana, which Trevor reviewed last week. I'm currently working on a review of I Wake Up Screaming (1941), which was another of our draining the DVR. I believe this recording was about 5 years old. I had another one I wanted to watch, A Lady of Chance (1928), but TCM sort of screwed up the recording, since it cut off the first few minutes, meaning they went ahead of schedule. But the other got the job done.

I worked some this week on Blackmail, though I think I'm more in an editing mode with it at the moment, so the word count didn't really grow; 34,157.

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

A Week in Writing #540 - Three Down More to Go

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. And Happy Mother's Day to any mothers who read this.

This week, I continued my one query a week program and got one out on Thursday night. Once again, though, I sent out a query to an agent closed to queries, so I'm not counting that one. I thought I had learned my lesson from week one, but I guess I hadn't. When I got the "we're closeed to queries" response, I sent out another one right away, as I want to stay on task. So the count is three and, so far, no rejections or DNR. I'm sure they're coming in due time.

We had another creator we met at WonderCon on our podcast, Michael Boheem, the man who started Dopecat comics. I think we all had a good time. You can listen to that podcast here, or you can wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm to watch it on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) here.

We were originally planning to do our What's in my Bag? follow up on Saturday but that got delayed until next Saturday. I don't know what time but I imagine it will be some time Saturday morning PDT. There will be social media posts to point you to the right time.

I did some more work this week on Blackmail, and I'm now up to 32,496 words, which is about 3500 more than last week. I'm adding a second case my character is handling or handled. I hope to finish that part of the story this week and then get back into the current case he's working on. I'm never sure how much to write about the actual story. While most of it's set, there can always be changes; I'm a pantser at heart.

The Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked this week was Trevor's review, actually a second-look at, Moana, the Disney animated feature from 2016. And if there's a second look this week at Moana, that must mean there's a first look at Moana 2 coming soon.

For me, I completed a review this week for The Invaders (1912), an early Western from directors Francis Ford and Thomas Ince. It's sort of sad that so many involved with the film were big stars in their day but are largely forgotten now. Sometimes, their personal stories are as interesting as the film itself. This is another one I happened across on TCM and decided to record it. And now, it can be deleted from the DVR.

This week, more work on Blackmail, and a new query.

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

A Week in Writing #539 - Two Down More to Go

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

My big project this week was the Powers Squared monthly newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, which went out this morning. While it's not hard work, it is time consuming. There are three sections that I actually have to write: The introduction, the Heard Around Campus section, and the spotlight on twins. The rest of it sort of follows a format. My biggest complaint isn't the work, but the platform we use. For some reason Mail Chimp, which we've been using since the beginning, and I have different ideas on punctuation. I like the period at the end, but it likes to have it at the beginning of the last line. At least, that's been my editing challenge the last few times. Maybe there's a simple fix but maybe, as Paul suggested, we have to burn the format to the ground and build it back. Anyway, if you're interested, you can read it here. Of course, I'd appreciate it more if you'd subscribe.

It's been a busy week with videos. Two videos went up on Wednesday, last week's OAPS podcasts (see last week's missive for links), then on Thursday, Paul's Ruffles vs Lay's All Dressed Taste Test went up. We used a pre-recorded Comic Book Club for Friday's OAPS. Back in April, we got together with artists Julia Canon and Rachel Wells to discuss The Sculptor by Scott McCloud. You can listen to it here or wait until Wedneday at 2:30 pm on our YouTube Channel. And, if that wasn't enough, we did a live podcast with Rachel, our annual Free Comic Book Day "What's in my Bag? Part 1". We discuss the pulls we made at our local comic book shops for FCBD. Next week, we'll discuss what we read. You can watch the first part here.

A bit of good news, we got pages from our artist this week, so things are, at least, for now all good. Now the final pages for Issue #27 are ready for coloring.

My review for Blade went up on Trophy Unlocked, as the Saturday Morning Review. We decided that since it was one of the earlier Marvel Comic movies, it was fitting given it was also Free Comic Book Day. I also finished a review of Isle of Fury, an early Humphrey Bogart film that I came across on TCM. No hurry to get that one up, if you know what I mean.

Another query went out and I was surprised to recieve a response back. Not a rejection or an ask for pages but rather a "we got your query" email and to set my expectations. If I don't hear back in 8 weeks, it's a pass. So far, we're two in and no rejections/DNRs yet.

Not much happened this week with Blackmail, not that I don't have an idea where to add to the story, but I ran out of time this week. So, with some edits, I only pushed it to 28,966 words; so far to go. But that will have to wait until next week.

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

A Week in Writing #538 - Getting Going

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

Okay, this week, I got on the query train and sent out my first query email of the year. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it was necessary to get over the hump, as it were, and see if I can get an agent. I read somewhere that you're supposed to tell the story in the query, so I did that. I'm not sure if it was too much or too little and I'm sure what I'm doing is probably wrong, so I'll have to look into that before I send the next one out. So, the count is one out and no rejections or DNRs, at least so far.

On the subject of writing, I did more work this week on Blackmail; actually trying to make it more of a priority. I'm up to 28,640 words, which is about 4000 more than last week, so it does pay off. I'm not sure I can keep that pace up, at least not this coming week, more on that later. I'm going back to add in some more details, and a subplot. I don't want to bore you with the story too much. But safe to say, progress is being made.

Speaking of progress, got pages back from our colorist this week and we're now about four pages away from finishing an issue. The hold up is the artwork and since I'm being ghosted by the artist, I don't know the status of them. I'm afraid there might be changes coming in the creative staff if this continues. I love the artwork, but it's the radio silence and the lack of progress that's getting me to my breaking point.

New issue of The Blade of Miracles to discuss. The second issue should be available on Wednesday, again not sure if everyone will be ready, but I'm hoping. It should be available in print and digital through The Campus Store.

There are two OAPS podcasts this week. And, one of them is a preview of the above issue, "Lady of the Lake" and our special guest is Trevor. You can listen to it now here, or wait until Wednesday and watch it on our YouTube channel, here. 

As if that wasn't enough, there's a second [Secret Episode], our monthly team meeting, which included only our colorist, Julia Canon, but it was a good time. We taped it a week ago Saturday to try to accomodate everyone's schedule. You can listen to it here or watch it on Wednesday here. It comes out 15 minutes after the first one. 

As far as Trophy Unlocked is concerned, the Saturday Morning Review was Trevor's review of Sherlock Gnomes. This week's Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's review of Sonic Unleashed for the PS3. I'm currently working on a review of The Boy Friend (1971), which was recently, like Saturday morning, on TCM. It's a favorite of my wife's, so we watched it right away.

This coming week, in addition to another query, and more Blackmail, I need to work on the newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, which is due next Sunday. You can, of course, receive your own copy by enrolling at SRCC. It's free and it would keep me from having to mention it if you do. Sounds like a good bargain to me.

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

A Week in Writing #537 - Only So Many Hours in the Day

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

There are so many hours in the week for me. And while I try to stay active, sometimes, like this week, time runs out. Case in point, on Thursday night, my query night, I spent about an hour and a half working on a query letter and including the number of pages the agent states they want. But when I checked to make sure I had covered everything, I discovered they were closed to queries. How long, I don't know. Now, is is my fault that I didn't look before spending that time, but by the time I found this out, I was too tired to look for another agent to send it to. I'm hoping that the time I spent on the query email will pay dividends down the road, but I'm sure there will be an agent that wants only one paragraph to sum up the story or will want something else not in the query so I'm sure not all of it will be used.

And then, there is time shifting. We did a live podcast on Friday night with Scott Lost, a comic book artist and former pro wrestler that we met at this past WonderCon. As always, you can listen to it here or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm to watch it on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared). I think it was a good interview, so I encourage you to check it out. Then on Saturday morning, we recorded two more podcasts for use later, including a Comic Book Club with Julia Canon and Rachel Wells, to discuss The Sculptor by Scott McCloud, and then a team meeing with Julia. These will appear at later dates. Even though we had scheduled these for a Saturday so everyone could participate, our artist had more pressing things to attend to and could not be a part of them. As they say, the show must go on.

No new review from me this week, because I realized that I hadn't actually finished my review of Lili, from the week before. And, for the first time in a few weeks, the Saturday Morning Review wasn't one I had written. Instead, it was Paul's review of Gnomeo & Juliet. The Wednesday Game Day review was Trevor's about Project Shoreline.

To round up the week, I did more work on Blackmail. Mostly filling in some gaps and, hopefully, adding atmosphere. But the count is now up to 24,670, so it's more like a 1000 words a week, rather than a 1000 words a day.

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

A Week in Writing #536 - Spinning Wheels?

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

Let's start with Blackmail, a book I've been working on lately. It's part of my private detective series that I don't really ever talk much about. This week, I believe I've finished two chapters and started in on a third. I'm finding that one night I'll write down a first take of the chapter and then the next night go back and edit it, adding here and substracting there. Currently, I'm at 23,287 words.

As promised, I did work on the querying but I didn't actually send one yet. Instead, I compared my current list of agents against previous queries. Even though the last time I queried this was ten years ago, a number which shocked me, I didn't want to get rejected again by someone who had already rejected it. Given there were two lists, that took up a good portion of the evening I had set aside for querying.

This week's podcast was a 20th Anniversary God of War Retrospective. I have never played these games but my sons had, so I basically sat back, asked a couple of questions, and then let them handle most of the podcast. There is apparently a lot to say. You can listen to it on our website here, where you can also find the other platforms it's on, or wait until Wednesday when it will be available on our YouTube channel and watch it here.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we're trying something new, at least for us. When we were at WonderCon, I noticed someone in Small Press had a monitor with videos playing. She was nice enough to share her secret setup, so we're going to try it at the next Con we go to, whenever that is. I think videos, which we already have, would be visually stimulating and might draw people to us.

Speaking of wanting to table again, I was having a wicked time getting through the WonderCon portal to sign up for next year. It was one of those circular jobs where it doesn't take you any place helpful. Even though I have an ID and password, that apparently wasn't right for this. So I tried to play the "forgot my password" game, but that didn't lead anywhere useful, giving me a User number that meant nothing. I contacted them and was able to get through to someone, who told me to go in as a new exhibitor and they would collate the requests. I guess we'll see.

My review of Mata Hari was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I'm currently working on one for Lili (1953), something we'd had on our DVR for ten years, as it turns out. I hope to finish it this week and then no idea when it will appear.

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

A Week in Writing #535 - The Letdown Afters

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

Nothing makes you feel less important than having a big event in your life and then no one asking how it went. After tabling at the biggest convention we ever had, no one ever asked how it went. I take that back, one person, not knowing why I was out asked and I told her about it, but it felt like no one cared. I know, "Boo hoo hoo," but it does show me that even though something might be important to you doesn't mean anyone else will give a damn.

Speaking of WonderCon, I've tried to reup for next year but their signup doesn't seem to recognize me and keeps sending me around in circles. Very frustrating. I wrote to someone there, hoping they can help me.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we did recount our experience with Lucas Scheffel asking us questions about it on our latest podcast. OAPS #291 - WonderCon 2025 Recap with Lucas Scheffel is available to listen to here and will be available on our YouTube channel on Wednesday after 2:30 pm here. Lucas is always a lot of fun to talk to, so it's worth a watch or listen.

This was also newsletter week. Again, we recapped the highlights from WonderCon, list out the videos from the month, highlighted twin brother comic book creators, and had our monthly recommendation to name the highlights. If you'd like to receive the newsletter, enroll at SRCC here. As a reminder, SRCC is a made-up school where much of Powers Squared takes place and enrollment is free.

My review for The Cat in the Hat (1971), a TV Special, was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlcoked. To show you how long some of these have been sitting around, that review dates back to 2020. I think we finally posted to get rid of it, but that's how it goes sometimes.

I'm currently working on a review of Rancho Notorious (1952), what I've heard described as a cult Western. You'll have to wait if you want to know what I thought about it. We watched it last night from a DVR recording that was 8 years old.

Wrote some on Blackmail this week, though I'm not proud of how much. 20,513 words so far.

I need to start the query process this week; I need more rejection in my life. I haven't really thought much about it the last few weeks, but it's time to get my feet wet.

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

A Week In Writing #534 - Report from the Front: WonderCon 2025

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

Well, it's a day late, but we're back from WonderCon 2025, our first time to table at a major comic book con. I'll be honest, it was a bit of a learning experience and maybe Small Press isn't a good fit if you're trying to grow your brand, at least for us.

Sales were slow. We had set up the booth on Thursday afternoon. We ended up paying for parking at the convention center because it seemed easier for us. In addition to the items for the booth, we also bring our own chairs, and yes, I know you're not supposed to sit at a table, but you do. Booths normally come with two seats but since there are four of us, we bring our own. Set up went pretty quick.

On the first day we didn't sell anything, though we did trade comic books with Hunter Jackson, a co-founder of the group GWAR. He approached us and asked if we wanted to trade books. I'll be honest, I didn't know who he was, but it seemed like a fun idea.

On Saturday, the so-called busiest day, we sold one book and one trade to different people. Otherwise, we looked. If you've never been to WonderCon, you might not be aware that there are three halls, A, B and C (see map below) that the convention takes up at the convention center. Attendees enter the convention, not through A but through hall C and while C and B are crowded, fewer people make it to Hall A, a lot fewer for some reason, and unless they're looking for comics and other books, they're mostly there to line up for Funko, which is the big draw in Hall A.

Sunday, we lowered our prices by 20% and actually sold a second trade, to the same man who bought the first one the day before, and two copies each of the first issues of Powers Squared and The Blade of Miracles, Trevor's book.

I didn't attend any panels, though Trevor did attend a couple on developing tabletop games.

Overall, from what we heard from other tablers, it was slow, blame the economy, though I'm sure some did better than others and had repeat business. We handed out about 400+ business cards, including ones for both books and we physically added five people to the mailing list, so hopefully, more will follow.

If you want to see photos from WonderCon, please visit the Events page on our website at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/events.

We did do a podcast live from the event, hosted by our colorist, Julia Canon. You can listen to it here or you can watch it here on Wednesday after 2:30 pm. We also tried to line up some future appearance with a number of creators we met at the Con. We'll be following up with them, but if you want to know when an interview is going up, please subscribe to our YouTube channel (@powerssquared).

Trophy Unlocked didn't take off for the Con, so my review of The Day the Earth Blew Up (2024) went up on Saturday. But because of the Con, no new review from me this week.

I did do some work this week on Blackmail. I last worked on it on Thursday night before the Con. I'm up to 19412 words.

For the coming week, we'll be following up on a few things from the Con and there is also the newsletter The Hound Dogs' Howl, which will go out next Sunday.

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

A Week in Writing #533 - Final Prep for WonderCon

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

Well, we're less than a week out from WonderCon 2025. It's the largest convention Powers Squared has ever attended. It runs for three days, March 28-30 in Anaheim, California. Since we signed up, we've started to release a second book, The Blade of Miracles, which Trevor created, so there's more to worry about, more signage, etc.

We set up the booth, at home, for a test run on Saturday and Sunday, just to see how things look. We're going down on Thursday to set up and the show starts on Friday at 11:30 am.

If you're going, and I'm sure most of you are not, please come by and say "hi."

For On the Air with Powers Squared, we interviewed the creative team of Eric and Julia Lewald, probably best known for their work on X-Men: The Animated Series, which has recently been revitalized as X-Men '97. This is a little more podcast fun from last week, because we're holding back on releasing that interview, since we have a preview of #24 "Gashadokuro." That can be listened to here, and watched on Wednesday, at 2:30 pm on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared), here. We recorded this one last Saturday when we could get the entire creative team together.

Wednesday will be the release of that issue. As always, it will be available in print and digital through The Campus Store on our website. It's never too late to start reading Powers Squared and your patronage would be appreciated.

Next week, artist/colorist Julia Canon will be hosting the podcast. Hopefully, we'll be able to connect with her but it will be her show, so anything can happen. Tune in to see at twitch.tv/powerssquared.

We did see a movie over the weekend, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie and I wrote the review, which I assume will go up soon, given the fact that it's not long for theaters. Also, this week's Saturday Morning Review, on Trophy Unlocked, was mine for Waitress, which we discussed last week as the perfect Pi(e) Day movie. The Wednesday Game Day review as Trevor's for URLate.

A modicum of progress on Blackmail. I'm up to 16,180, which isn't much change, and certainly not 1000 words a day, but some is more than nothing, I guess.

Word of note, everything will get delayed a day, as I don't think we'll be back until late on Sunday.

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

A Week in Writing #552 - Podcast Fun

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

As a reader of this blog, you are no doubt aware that we, Powers Squared, do a weekly podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. This past week, Friday and Saturday, we recorded three. The first was a preview for Trevor's book The Blade of Miracles Issue #1 that we shot that afternoon. That one didn't go through our usual, twitch.tv/powerssquared, but directly to Podbean, et al on Sunday, which you can listen to now here, and the video will go up on Wednesday, March 19th at 2:31 pm, here. That's OAPS #288.

The reason it's one minute later, is that we also went live on Friday at 6 pm with creator and artist Don Nguyen. Since we're tabling at Wonder Con this year, we invited Don on to give us some advice about the show. You can also listen to that here, or you can wait until that video goes up on Wednesday, March 19th at 2:30 pm here. That's OAPS #287.

And, if that wasn't enough, we recorded a third OAPS on Saturday afternoon with Julia and Jen to discuss the next issue of Powers Squared, "Gashadokuro". It was the first book Julia had drawn and the first Jen had colored. Due to their work schedules, Saturdays are the only days they are both available. That OAPS #289 comes out next Friday on twitch.tv/powerssquared. 

We did get some new sketch pages from our artist this week, so happy to report we're making some progress on issue #28.

Okay, here's the plug for Wonder Con. If you're going, please stop by and say hi. We'll be in Small Press, SP-05. To make it easier to find us, see map below:

My review of Conclave went up as the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I'm also working on two more, one for Waitress, which we watched on Friday, Pi(e) Day. If you've seen the movie, you'll get it. On Saturday night, we watched Merrily We Go To Hell (1932), a Pre-code drama directed by Dorothy Arzner, which I'm also reviewing.

To round out the week, I am continuing to work on Blackmail, and am now up to 14,605 words.

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

A Week in Writing #551 - Everyone's Favorite Time of The Year

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

I'm being sarcastic about Daylight Savings Time being everyone's favorite time of the year. While I enjoy the sunlight lasting longer into the night, I do know that it plays havoc for a couple of days. I know it does with me. What I'm trying to say in a round-a-bout way is that to expect a little less from me this week as I adjust.

The weekend didn't get off to the greatest of starts. Sometimes the podcasts don't go as you expect. Our guest this past Friday was late to the show and I felt was really only using us as an infomercial for his books and dropped out when he was done, but before the show was over. Most guests hang around for a little post-podcast conversation, but not him. I guess after 286, you're allowed a clunker or two. If you want to hear the show, you can do so here; or you can wait for the video to go up on Wednesday at 2:30 PDT here. There is also an unedited version still up on twitch.tv/powerssquared, but you gotta hurry since it goes down in a few days.

We're getting close to releasing a new issue of Powers Squared, "Gashadokuro," so I've been updating the website to accomodate. I also need to write a press release since we're being so active in March with two releases and WonderCon at the end of the month. "Gashadokuro" was written by Trevor, who also created The Blade of Miracles, which is also debuting this month.

Recently, I complained here about the return of some books that had been on the shelf at a bookstore. Even though I had been asking for their return in mid-January, to ensure they were back in time for WonderCon, it wasn't until near the end of February before they were sent and the sender expected them to take a month to six weeks to get to me, which hmm, might be after I needed them. A good news update, they arrived early and so, we're set.

Speaking of WonderCon, and we're going to talk a lot about it this month and a little of next, should you be going, here is where we'll be:

If you are going, please come by and say hello.

On the writing front, I've been working on Blackmail, and I'm up to over 12,000 words. It's not a 1000 words a day, but I'm actually working on it.

My review of Elektra was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked  this week. We were trying to tie-in with the new Daredevil series with our last two Saturday mornings. The Wednesday, Game Day, review was Paul's review of Sonic Colors: Ultimate. I also finished a review of Caveman (1981), which should go up someday.

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

A Week in Writing #550 - Busy March Ahead

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

I think this is going to be a busy month for me and for Powers Squared. Not only is the 24th issue of the comic book coming out on March 26th, but we're also introducing Trevor's own comic book, The Blade of Miracles, which drops a week earlier on the 19th. And, if that wasn't enough, we're tabling at WonderCon on the 28 through 30th. Come look for us in Small Press, SP-5. This one of those moments when it seems like it could easily get overwhelming, even if that was the only thing going on.

We should be pretty well set for WonderCon. The only thing missing are the trades that I had sent to the bookstore in Hawaii. Since they didn't sell, I thought it would be cheaper to have them returned than to order new ones. I hope that strategy pays off. I first contacted the bookstore about it in mid-January about returning them for WonderCon, and after multiple follow ups, they finally sent them back on Friday the 28th, and then sent them via Media Mail, thinking it would take 4 to 6 weeks to get to me. The timing of that really sucks, but according to Informed Delivery, I should receive them by March 17. Still, I'm not sure why it took so long to get them in the mail and why you'd send them on a timetable that would mean I wouldn't get them until after the event I needed them for?

A lot of work came through for Powers Squared, with both Trevor and Jen finishing 8 pages, well 7 in the latter's case. So, we're about four to five pages away on two issues. We also got in some new artwork from Rachel Wells for the trade we're hoping to put out this year. So more to come on that front as well.

We had Australian comic book creator Lucas Scheffel on our podcast for the 10th time. This time he was on the show to promote his coming Kickstarter for Ned Kelly: The 5 Revolvers #1 | Graphic Novel (which you can find by clicking on the link). You can listen to the podcast now here or watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday after 2:30 pm, here. And don't forget you can tune in and watch it LIVE every Friday at 6pm at twitch.tv/powerssquared.

This was also newsletter day today. Did you get your copy of The Hound Dogs' Howl? If you didn't, please sign up here.

My review of Anora, went up this afternoon, ahead of the Oscars. Paul's review of Daredevil (+ Director's Cut) was Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review. We also watched Conclave last night, but that review won't go up until some time after Awards season is over.

Did some work this week on Blackmail including a thousand+ word sit down on Friday afternoon. I'm about 9200 words in and it's more a mater of time than things to write.

So this week, have to make sure all the books are uploaded for publication and write a news release about all that's going to happen this month.

I hear you, what no querying? No, sorry that's something that I didn't get to this week. I may not get to it until April at the earliest, given all that needs to get done this month.

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

A Week in Writing #549 - Worrying About WonderCon

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

I'm wondering if I should be getting nervous about WonderCon. We're about a month away and not everything is pulled together. I've ordered additional copies, on the hopes that we'll sell well at the con, but I'm also waiting for some things to arrive, or be sent for that matter.

After L.A. Comic Con, I sent five copies of our first trade to a bookstore in Hawaii. Well, in the middle of January, I wrote to see if I could get them back. Here were are nearing the end of February and I haven't gotten any indications that they've been sent, despite my asking for that. I'm pretty sure we should get them in a week, but they have to send them back, and yes, I have to pay for that shipping, but it would be less than ordering new ones.

I've also ordered some business cards specific to The Blade of Miracles, Trevor's book, that we should also be selling at WonderCon. TBOM will be the first non-Powers Squared title on the SRCC Press label. We're planning to put it out on March 19, so stayed tuned.

I've also revamped the website,  https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/ to include TBOM  and make it more visible, but bunching up the Powers Squared issues to match the trades we've put out or are planning to put out; Issues 1-5, 6-9, 10-14, 15-18, and 19-23. I'll be adding a new page for 24, probably next week, since we're planning to put that one out, the week after TBOM and two days before WonderCon on March 26.

Speaking of Powers Squared, we had our February Team Meeting on Friday with Julia attending. You can listen to our brief update here or watch it on our YouTube channel here after 2:30 pm PST on Wednesday. If you do watch it, I hope you'll also like and subscribe.

Our artist was unavailable when we do the podcast, so I'm hoping we can find a day and time that she might be able to appear, and yes, we do pre-tape on ocassion. Of course, we haven't heard much from her lately, as her work schedule runs into the night.

One more note about Powers Squared, since the month is almost over, I need to write the newsletter for publication next Sunday. You can, if you're interested, sign up for the newsletter, here. It contains some of the information I write about here, but is still different content. Hope you do.

Because of all the hype we've been hearing about it, we watch Anora last night. We're planning to put the review up next Sunday morning. The review I wrote last week, The Locket (1946), went up as the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, mostly because of the tale I mentioned in last week's blog. The Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's for Sonic Superstars (PS5).

No querying this week, I still want to make one more pass on the list, putting email queries above Query Manager submissions. I guess I'm a little nervous about what I'll have to have for those.

Did some work on Blackmail this week. I'm up to 6345 words so far. My protagonist finds out a secret about his wife and her ex-husband and has to work for her ex- in order to get the evidence back.

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

A Week in Writing #548 - Valentine's Day Special

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

Seeing as Friday was Valentine's Day, hope you had a happy one, this week's On the Air with Powers Squared was titled "Powers Squared Valentine's Day Special". The podcast was dedicated to a look at relationships and romances in the comic book, of which there are several. If you want to find out more, you can listen to here, watch it on twitch.tv for the next week, or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) when it premieres on Wedneday at 2:30 pm.

Big week with Powers Squared, as we recieved and reviewed pages from our artist, from our colorist and from our former artist, who is doing a cover for an upcoming trade we're planning. It was good to receive pages, a lot of good work, but hopefully our feedback was helpful.

I finished my query list this week. After looking at agency websites, here's my current breakdown, which is subject to change as I actually start: 2 are green, meaning they seem like good ones to query first, 85 are next up, meaning they are open to queries and they seem to represent mysteries, 66 are ones I would query if it gets to that point. They were listed on Query Tracker as taking mysteries, but their website either doesn't specify genres or they're not taking queries at the moment. That left 75 which either didn't specify mysteries, or want a cozy mystery, or want something for a different age range. So, basically, I have 153 possible queries to send. I hope it doesn't take that many to find representation. Well, that's fodder for another day.

It's been Paddington week on Trophy Unlocked, with two reviews from Trevor, Paddington 2 was the Saturday Morning Review, and we put up his review of Paddington in Peru which went up this morning. I'm currently working on a review of The Locket (1946). Funny story about that. We try (and fail) to clean out our DVR. When we watched this one, last night, it turns out we recorded it in 2015 during TCM's last Summer of Darkness. Nice to know a ten-year-old recording still plays.

As far as Blackmail goes, I did do some work on it, but it was more editing of what I've already written. I need to do more.

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

A Week in Writing #547 - Not Sponsored

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

The headline is about our latest On the Air with Powers Squared: OAPS #282 - Fidget Toys (Not Sponsored). We decided that since we have an affiliate code for a brand of fidget toys, we decided we should do a podcast about fidget toys. Trevor, who uses them, came on to discuss ones he's used and which ones worked, or didn't work for him. If you're curious about them, you can listen to it here, or better yet, since it's visual, you can watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PST here on our YouTube channel (@powersssquared).

Good news, our artist came through and submitted pages. We've been sort of on hold waiting for them. Hopefully, things can get back on track and receive them more regularly going forward.

More work on my query list, I'm down through the Os. I've decided to have four colors. Red for not right for me or I'm not going to query for whatever reason, usually genres they take (44). Yellow for ones I plan to query (84), Green for ones I plan to query first (2) and orange for ones I'm going to come back to later (7). More to come.

For Trophy Unlocked, I completed a review for Five Steps to Danger, as always not sure when it will appear. We've been on a Paddington kick of late, so Trevor's review of the first film Paddington was the Saturday Morning Review. Early in the week, was Paul's review of Sonic Frontiers as the Wednesday Game Day Review.

Not a banner week for me writing wise. I've done about 2,000 words on a new story, which I'm calling Blackmail, but not much else, I'm afraid, at least on that book.

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

A Week in Writing #546 - The Waiting Game

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

I've been in a holding pattern on the next issue of Powers Squared. Our current artist is about a month overdue with pages and I'm feeling very frustrated. I've tried to be "nice" about it, but it's really starting to make me mad. There have been about two or three times when pages would be uploaded into our dropbox, but those days have come and gone and there are no pages. And days go by without a reply to my DMs and that's something that I've already made clear is not acceptable to me.

My understanding is that there are issues, but she hasn't really ever told me directly what they are. She has a lot of talent, at least in what I've seen so far, but you have to deliver at some point, don't you? I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I am thinking about letting her go if things don't start happening. We haven't fired anyone off the project since we let our first artist go, but that was more quality than quantity issues. I'll let you know what happens when it does.

While this was newsletter day, I have a bit of information I didn't know at the time, so you'll be the first to know, but it appears our table at WonderCon will be SP-305. I don't have a good map, yet, to show you where it is, but based on the map from last year, it appears it's against the wall. If you're going to WonderCon, I hope you'll look us up.

Worked some more this week on my agent list, which is honestly boring work. I would be further along if I enjoyed it. I'm looking at individual agents and agencies and am through about 66 agents, and a solid third are on my don't query list. Either they don't mention mysteries on their list of genres or they're interested in BIPOC writers, which I am not. Of the remainder, only two have gotten green on my list, which is the best; most are yellow, which is I will query. It's all subjective, but that's what I've found so far.

I'm a little wary of agents who don't specify genres, don't have websites or don't have any guidelines on what they're looking for from writers. Also, if they only take postal submissions, you have to wonder how they communicate to publishers in this day of electronic everything.

I did spend some time on my second story idea, but it's sort of bogged down between what I want to have the characters say. What might sound good while I'm driving to and from work maybe doesn't work when I try to sit down and write it several hours later. It's all a process.

We celebrated 25 years of Yu-Gi-Oh! anime this year on our latest podcast, OAPS #281 - Yu-Gi-Oh! DM Quarter Century Retrospective. You can listen to it here, watch on twitch here for the next few days, or watch it on our YouTube channel after 2:30 pm PST Wednesday here.

For Trophy Unlocked, there were two reviews this week. On Wednesday, Game Day, there was Trevor's review of PIO, and the Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of Black Dynamite. As a result of that film, which is a parody of blaxploitation films in the early 1970s, I thought we should watch a real film from that time, so we watch Coffy, the one we have in our video collection. Because of that, I wrote a review of that film, and as always, not sure when it will be released.

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

A Week in Writing #545 - First Stage Query List Complete

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

My big accomplishment this week is finally compiling a first query list for Past Present, the book I'm looking to try to find an agent to represent. By that, I mean, I went through QueryTracker, a site I've used before, searched for agents that handle Crime/Police and Mystery genres. With that list, I limited my list to Agents in the US who were open to queries. That has given me a list of 227 agents; there may be multiples per agency. I'm tracking agent's name, agency, what forms they want to receive queries (post, email, form, Query Manager), email (if that's how they want to receive them), website, what they want, and dates. I haven't gotten past websites at this point.

Using the comments from other queriests (my word), I marked most (172) as yellow or normal or the kind of comments you'd might expect to see. Some were red for bad, a few green as in good, and some (40) red as in bad, or as Monty Python would say to "lay down and avoid." Reds go to agents who have not responded in a long time (years), or have really bad comments, or want "clean reads" (i.e. no sex no cursing). 14 were Green meaning good. These were agents who seemed to give feedback rather than form letter rejections, or people really liked working with even if they didn't take them on as a client. One agent was new and had no comments, yet.

Now, this was a first run through. I will most likely avoid the reds, but I'll do more research on the yellows and greens. While QueryTracker is a good site for research, I have found in the past that just because QT says they handle a genre doesn't mean the agency/agent actually handles that, or maybe only handles say Cozy Mysteries. And, also what does the agent want to receive.

While post only agents might be ones to avoid, I do prefer emails, rather than Online Forms and Query Manager, which, if you didn't know, is a database many agents are using. But we'll see as the research continues. I don't plan to research every agent before querying, but I may want to find an agent I want to query before starting the process.

I hate to say it, but I've thought of another story for my private detective stories. I wrote out a brief synopsis for myself. So, that's two stories I'll be working on for that character. I hate to say it, the second one intrigues me more at this point.

Last weekend, I submitted the next two issues of Powers Squared to get proofs made. Got feedback on one cover that seemed to have some pixelation. I was able to fix it, having been able to recover my version of Photoshop Elements. Not sure what happened the first time, but it's good now.

We had a Comic Book Club meeting on our podcast this past Friday. Artists Julia Canon and Rachel Wells, join Trevor, Paul and I to discuss Rooster Fighter Vol. 1 written and illustrated by Shū Sakuratani. You can listen to it now here or watch it when it comes out on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm, here.

Next Sunday is the first of February and the latest issue of The Hound Dogs' Howl will be coming out. Be sure to sign up to receive your copy at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/srcc to join the mailing list.

This past Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked was my review of the silent film The Johnstown Flood. I figured since L.A. is living through one natural disaster, why not look at how one of the first in the U.S. was handled on film.

My review this week was Blackmail (1929), but the silent version. This is not an all out review, but more an addendum to the one I wrote about the sound version. As always, no date for pub yet.

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