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.