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.