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.

A Week in Writing #544 - The Excitement of an Excel Spreadsheet

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

Now that I've finished the rewrites on Skylar, and I'm putting together a list of agents to query for Past Present, I still find myself tweaking. Has this ever happened to you: You're alone and you start to think about something you've written and suddenly an answer comes to you or a better way of saying something. Well that happened to me with Past Present. It was a bit of dialogue that I thought should be proached between characters. So, went back into the book and added it. It doesn't change anything as far as the story goes, but I think it fills a hole, so to speak. Something, as a reader, I'd want a character to ask another.

I'm also working on my new story idea, which so far doesn't have a name. I've been trying to be good and work on the query list, but there is only so much excitement you can have with an Excel spreadsheet, so I'm drawn to working on the story. I had one of those moments with this book that I wanted to capture and once I'm in it, I keep wanting to work on it. I know the premise and how I want the book to end, so it's just filling in all the rest.

This week's podcast was our January 2025 Team Meeting, minus one. Our current artist, Jen Moreno, couldn't make it for reasons I was never told, so we carried on as a quartet with Julia Canon, Trevor, Paul and myself. However, some months there isn't much going on, so this is a rather short podcast. You can listen to it here or wait and watch it on Wednesday after 2:30 here. The apt subtitle is "A Quick Update."

I'm trying to get serious about WonderCon, as it is screaming up in a little more than two months. The banner and table runner we ordered came in ahead of schedule and they look pretty good. Now, I need to worry about the number of books and order some of Trevor's book, The Blade of Miracles, so we have some for the Con. More on that as I know them.

My review of The Red Badge of Courage went up on Trophy Unlocked as the Saturday Morning Review. I also wrote a new review of Blackmail (1929), at least the sound version. This was on TCM recently, along with a special about the importance of the movie in shaping director Alfred Hitchcock's legacy. That special was sandwiched between the silent and sound versions of the film. I recorded both, but only had time for one, and chose the sound. I'd like to watch the silent version and update the review accordingly. But that's for another time.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but that is about all for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #543 - LA's Burning

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. I'm safe, if you're concerned.

This has been an apocalyptic week in SoCal, where I live. It started with 100 mph winds and then fires pretty much everywhere. In the beginning, we were only effected by the occasional drop in electricity. By that, I mean the lights would turn off for a few seconds, then come back on and then shut off again. Nothing bad happened, just every clock in the house had to be reset.

On Friday, we got a little concerned when the Palisades fire started to edge up the Santa Monica mountains and came close to coming over the ridge. We could see the glow of the flames from our street, but they were several miles away and thanks to the work of the first responders and numerous water drops, it never made it over.

We'll see what the next week brings, but I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll be all-right. If you're in the L.A. area, I hope you come out of this unscathed and if the worst happens, remember that things can be replaced. I feel like I can have some empathy for the victims. When I was about three or so, the house I was living in burned to the ground and we lost pretty much everything. At the same time, I realize my experience as a child would be much different than adults would have. They're the ones who have to worry about all the important things.

In between the power outages, I did finally mange to complete my rewrite on Skylar. I can finally put that one to bed, at least for awhile. Before I pick up on the next story, I decided to get serious about querying. Since I had tried and failed to get a bite with Broken People, I decided to try another one. I sat down and started going through Past Present, which has been around for awhile, and one that I had tried to get representation for previously. But it's a good place to start in the overall story arc of the character, since subsequent books' event happen after this story.

So, since finishing Skylar, I've read and made some minor updates to Past Present. I'm now going through it looking for grammar mistakes, which will probably take awhile. After that, I want to write up a synopsis for it and then a query letter. After that, it's back to making lists and starting the process all over again.

For our podcast this week, we gave a brief update on the SoCal fires and then discussed upcoming films for 2025. Not every film, but ones we might have an interest in. You can listen to our #278 podcast here or wait and watch it on Wednesday afternoon here.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we can officially announce that we're going to WonderCon 2025. You can follow things on our Events page. I realized a couple of days ago that we're about two months out, so I got serious about ordering some new things for our booth, including a table runner and a new banner, one with the new logo on it. Next, it'll be ordering some books for the Con. Hope if you're coming to WonderCon, you'll look us up. Details to follow.

Given the week we've had, we chose An American Tragedy for the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. On Sunday, we posted Trevor's review of Flow. We watched it on Friday while being concerned we'd be caught up in the fire, so watching it under duress might not be the optimal viewing experience.

I'm currently working on a review of Penguin Pool Murder (1932). As always, no idea when it will publish.

That will about do it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #542 - *(@-$%?!!!

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. And hey, Happy New Year!

I've read elsewhere that somewhere between Christmas and New Years, you start to forget which day you're in. While that really didn't happen for me, I do think I enjoy post-Christmas as much as pre-Christmas. There are a lot of pressures that are off and you do things like go to movies, play board games, minature golf and even a puzzle.

I did have a less than fun experience this past week, when I became the victim of fraud. A check that I had sent to pay off my credit card bill was pulled out of the mailbox, scrubbed, the payee changed and the amount changed and cashed. Another check I sent to pay for a home improvement project was also apparently waylaided and apparently hasn't arrived and hasn't been cashed. So, now I'm deliquent on two payments. I tried to pay online, but they have to do test deposits, etc., so that's not a quick answer to my problem. Had to change bank accounts, but the money hasn't yet been returned to my account. More fun to come and I'm sure a hit to my credit rating. Enough about my personal life.

Looking ahead to 2025, Paul and I did a podcast about that for Powers Squared. OAPS #277 - Powers Squared 2025 Preview. We talk about the books that are coming out, including The Blade of Miracles (TBOM), and four issues of Powers Squared, as well as our attendance at WonderCon in March. You can listen to that now here, or watch it on Wednesday on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) at 2:30 pm on Wednesday, here.

Our newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl went out today. I'd invite you, as I do once a month, to subscribe here. It's free and you get a free issue of Powers Squared as a reward. And the content is not the same as this post.

Progress made this week on the books, with the main line work done on the pencils for Issue 28, pages 9-16, and final cover art for Issue #27. 

Played the Copyright dance this weekend for the two complete issues of Powers Squared, #24 and 25, as well as 12 issues of TBOM.

Reviews don't take a holiday on Trophy Unlocked. The year ended on Tuesday with separate lists from Paul (EHeroFlareNeos), Trevor (Tetris_King) and myself (lionsroar). You'll notice a lot of the same films, since we see most of them together. I did a review of A Complete Unknown for News Year's Day. and my review of review of Mystery House went up as the Saturday Morning Review.

I also completed a couple of reviews, one for A Night at the Opera, which we watched on New Year's Eve, and The Lodger (1927), which we watched on Saturday night. Not sure when either will go up.

My goal was to finish the rewrite to Skylar by the end of the year. I'm about 40 pages short. Wasn't able to work on it as much as I wanted, but I also came to a point where I needed to write an additional chapter. I'm now just above 80,000 words, so that's good.

I want to finish the rewrites before going back to doing queries. I need to pick the book, have a synopsis ready and a letter, so there's even more work to be done to get there.

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