A Week in Writing #606 - One Day WonderCon

 

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

Since we weren't tabling at WonderCon, not that we didn't try, we attended the Con on Sunday. And even though we weren't selected, there were plenty of empty tables abound. Sort of makes you think they don't want you.

From an attendee point of view, there seemed to be fewer people. I'm used to the chaingang two-step of Comic-Con, so being able to take full strides at the Con was nice, but it told me that attendance appeared to be down. However, fot those we talked to in Small Press, the Con seemed to be good for them. I think I mentioned this before, but we'd like to attend in Artist Alley, rather than Small Press, since that seems to be more our speed. Not that we'd make any more money, but maybe not lose it as fast.

Did attend one panel about pitching board games.The takeaways: Structure the Pitch from the top down. Pitch - What it's about, then the unique selling points and then key information: audience, age range, components, player count, how long to play a game and MSRP. Basically, provide as much info in as short a time as possible. Fun fact, if your manufacturing costs are say $10, the MSRP will be $90 to $100. Generally, you're looking for a MSRP of $20 to $25 for a mass retail game.

What you should bring with you is a prototype of your game, a sales sheet and a 3-6 page pitch deck, though the latter wasn't required by everyone. There was even the suggestion of a 30 second sizzle reel, but again not universally required. Also, don't worry about the art because it will be changed. Games are also broken down by time spent playing, from 15 minutes (lightwieght) to 1 hour (middlewieght) to several hours (heavyweight).

On the subject of cons and comic books we did release the 27th issue of Powers Squared this past week. "Billy and Raven: Life on the Road." In this issue, we spun off two characters from pervious story arcs, Billy O'Shea and Raven, the Yatagarasu who granted him powers. They're trying to stay off the grid, and away from villain Dr. Atlas, as long haul truckers. In this issue, they find that life on the road isn't without troubles. Hope you take a shot on it. You can find out where to buy it (print and digital) here, or take a preview of the issue here.

I spent most of the week working on Blackmail. I'm trying to review the pages before going through the notes at the keyboard. It's interesting to me that sometimes I'll still make more changes. I did have a moment yesterday that I think improved the book, but only took a few keystrokes to do it. This is a detective story and one of the people he interviews was interesting but the reason for interviewing them was sort of week. But I realized I could move a couple of sentences around, add a few and then they were more of a possible witness. I don't know about you, but I love moments like that.

No new movie review from me this week, as we were sort of getting ready for WonderCon and I wouldn't have time to watch a feature. I did finish mine for The Lady Refuses. But there were two reviews this week on Trophy Unlocked. Wednesday was game day with Trevor's Second Look - Starlink: Battle for Atlas (+ DLC), The Saturday Morning Review was also Trevor's TMNT (2007).

The podcast this week was a look at the films that have been nominated for Best Animated Feature through the years. Paul and I don't always agree with the Oscars choice. You can listen to it here, watch it here for the next few days (though it's in three parts) and watch the complete version on our YouTube channel starting on Wednesday at 2:30 pm. The reason it's in three parts on Twitch, is that a malfunctioning Smoke detector went off twice during the podcast. I had to get on a stepladder and disconnect it.

Next week, more work on Blackmail, and it's newsletter week as well, so I've got my work cut out.

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

A Week in Writing #591 - Things Don't Always Go According to Plan

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

I believe the plan was to work a lot on Blackmail this week. While I did some work in the book, and passed 70,000 words on the road to 80,000, I didn't work on it as much as I wanted to. But the word count now is 70011 and growing. I also spent some time doing some retro work on previous books. I know it might seem odd but with this book, I believe I've finally nailed the description for one of the characters and I wanted to be sure it is the same in previous books.

One of the thing that has occupied my time has been our new artist turning in pages, which has been missing from my life for months. I was telling the other creators, my sons, that it feels like Powers Squared is a comic book again. Yeah!

On the subject of comic books, our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, this week was about Trevor's The Blade of Miracles and the new issue coming out later this month. You can watch it on twitch.tv for the next few days, listen to it now here, or wait and watch it on YouTube after 2:30 pm PST on Wednesday here. I've also added a preview of the book on our website, so check it out.

SRCC Press learned this week that we've been waitlisted for WonderCon 2026, which is disappointing, considering we've also been waitlisted for San Diego Comic-Con. You never know, but I'm not sure if we would want to do Small Press again there. We're hoping for Artists Alley since that's where the action is at that Con.

Trophy Unlocked gets into the holiday mode, with Miracle on Main Street (1939), which is one that I wrote. Before that it was Game Day on the blog with Paul's review of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. And that would be a lot, but not for Trophy Unlocked, because the week started with Paul's review of the film Five Nights at Freddy's 2. I also wrote a review of Cash on Demand (1961), a British Christmastime bank robbery film that I stumbled across on Saturday night. Most likely, it will be on hold until next Christmas, but it would be worth waiting for. 

The Trophy Unlocked blog is also only a few days away from celebrating it's 15th anniversary. The first post was a review by Paul of Tron: Legacy on December 18, 2010. Now there are over 1725 reviews. I don't know if Paul had this in mind when he started the blog, but it's quite an achievement and one I'm happy to be a part of.

Next week, here's hoping for more pages of Powers Squared and Blackmail.

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

A Week in Writing #556 - 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 #554 - 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 #553 - 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 #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 #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 #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 #534 - WonderCon and BlueSky

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

Big things are afoot for Powers Squared. The biggest news is that we will be tabling at WonderCon in 2025 (March 28-30). This is a big step for us, but I think we're up for it, especially after tabling at LA Comic Con. I've already added it to Events on our webpage. Much more to come in later posts.

Secondly, Powers Squared and I are both leaving Twitter (X). It's not so much what happened Tuesday, though that does contribute, but it's their AI policy. I don't want to post images that will train AI. If you're following me, it's @lionsroar91406.bsky.social and if you've been following Powers Squared  @MartyandEli, it's going to be Powers Squared at @powerssquaredcomic.bsky.social. I hope you'll follow both of this on this new platform.

On the subject of Powers Squared, Paul and I discussed issue #23, only as it relates to unboxing proofs of issues #23. A couple of weeks ago, I found a mistake that probably should have been caught earlier. A glass that was supposed to be refilled, was full. I know it's minor, but you want it to be right. As it turns out, both proofs, one for Ka-Blam and the other Artithmeric, each arrived a day or so apart, and we didn't have a guest lined up, so it seemed like something new we could do. This issue comes out on December 4 and will be available in post physical and digital and links will be available in The Campus Store on our website. If you're curious to hear our latest podcast, OAPS #269, here or watch it on Wednesday after 2:30 pm PST here.

The peek-of-the-week, and yes, we do it weekly on the website, is a pencil of the cover. You can look at it here.

Yesterday was the first Neurodiversity Comic Con. I heard it went well. I've added some photos on our website on the Events page; to see them scroll down below WonderCon. Powers Squared was one of the sponsors.

Finished two reviews this week: one for The Thirteenth Chair (1929) and the other for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving; the latter should be up on or before the upcoming holiday. No new review this week, as we rewatched Chicken Run this weekend. As I write that, I realize we've never reviewed that title before, hmm.

My review of The Cat's Meow (2002) was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked this past week. But that wasn't the only review on the blog; Trevor's review of Epic Mickey: Rebrushed was the Wednesday Game Day review.

Did some work on Skylar and actually wrote some on it, but it is far from finished.

While I haven't launched query season, I did sign up to get a link to a video seminar about query letters. If and when I look at it, I'll let you know what I learn.

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

A Week in Writing #504 - Short Week

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

A trip, even a short one, can take it out of you. I think it took us a couple of days to readjust. We live a very routine life, somewhat on purpose, so even three days away seems like a big disruption to the status quo. This week really didn't get going in earnest until Tuesday, when work called and things went back to the usual normal.

Spent a lot of the writing time this week on Skylar. I'm still working through the previous chapters, cleaning them up and trying to run together the two storylines better. As I believe I wrote before, inspiration has led me to more of a melding of the storylines together. I try to work on it every night, Monday through Thursday for at least an hour or until I fall asleep, whichever comes first.

Not much to report this week on the Powers Squared front, but more on the OAPS side of things. We've lined up four creatives connected to the Transformers franchise and we're devoting May to the 40th Anniversary. We're starting with Livio Ramondelli on May 3rd, so I'm inviting you, dear reader, to join us. As always the podcast starts at 6 pm PT on twitch.tv/powerssquared

On Friday's podcast, Paul and I talked about the rather disappointing time we had at this past WonderCon. Some of it may have been the weather, but there were still empty booths and little to do. No major label, save IDW, was there and the IDW booth was mostly TMNT. Saturday may not have been the best day, but it was our only day and one that was very disappointing. You can listen to our musings here or wait until Wednesday and watch them on our YouTube channel: @powerssquared

For Trophy Unlocked, I finished my review of American Fiction, in the better late than never category. I'm not sure when it will appear, but it falls into the recommend pile. I watched it twice within 8 days, so I think I can say it's worth watching.

This week's Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of Migration, which, like I did with American Fiction, he watched on his phone during the flight to Texas.

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

A Week in Writing #502 - Not a Wonderful WonderCon

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. And Happy Easter, if you're reading this on Sunday night.

In the indie comics game, spring is sort of the unofficial start of Con Season. Every town of significant size will have one or more conventions celebrating culture and/or comic books for the rest of the year. I'm not much of a con goer or a tabler, if that's a word, at least not so far. I don't have the flexibilty for one thing, or the money. And even if those weren't issues, there's getting a table.

I was on the waiting list, or at least, I was informed that I was for this year's WonderCon, which happened this past weekend in Anaheim. And even though I never got off the waitlist, there were still several open spots on the convention floor. I don't know why and, if I ask, I won't be told either. My critique of this year's WonderCon is not based on this oversight on their part or on their slowness to renew our professional status (5+ months), but what I saw at the con. If you're curious about our expectations, that was the focus of this week's podcast. Listen here, available now, or watch here on Wednesday.

Compared to Comic-Con, WonderCon is small to begin with. After doing the floor, which took several hours, there wasn't much else to do. There were no major players in attendance, save IDW. It never bodes well when there is a large non-culture related vendor. In this case, it was a medical college, which seemed very much out of place, but probably paid well for the space. Plenty of vendors and artists and we bought judiciously. There were, of course, panels, but by mid-afternoon, a couple of hours before the next panel we wanted to attend, or at least I wanted to attend, we were all bored, tired and ready to go. I'm sorry to have missed the How to Get News Coverage panel, one that I usually attend, not only to support the moderator, Rik Offenberger, but because I've actually met people who have written about Powers Squared.

We did attend one panel, Independent Creator's Summit, which I had high hopes for, but after about fifteen minutes, we bailed. What I thought and hoped would be a how to grow outside of comics into animation, games, etc., turned in one of those panels that was more about the panelists, or at least that's how it was going. I always look for chances to learn something new, but I'm not interested in a biography lesson. And when one of the creators talks about "many projects" they'll be working on without specifics, even when pressed by the moderator, it didn't promise to be very informative.

There are always positives. We did run into people we knew and were able to ask three creators if they'd be interested in being on our podcast, so there were good takeaways, just not knowledge.

WonderCon also interfered with my writing a review this week. When we got home on Saturday, the most I could absorb was MST3K's take on Village of the Giants, which it turns out we had already seen anyway. We don't review parodies of movies, save for Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, which was a riff on This Island Earth, which we also reviewed.

My review of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. The week was the final one for God of War Month on the blog, which included Trevor's Second Look - God of War: Ascension on Monday, his review of God of War (Dark Horse Comic) on Wednesday, and finally his review of God of War: Fallen God (Comic) on Friday.

I did work pretty consistently this week on Skylar, trying, when I can, to get through editing a chapter or two a night. I'm coming up on another new passage, and then there are more rewrites and new writing ahead of me.

Next week, my blog will most likely be a day late. I'll explain then.

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

A Week in Writing #484 - The Thanksgiving Hole

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

If you're like me, you spent a good portion of the Thanksgiving holiday travelling. For me it was two days, Thursday and Friday with about 14 hours behind the wheel. While it's nice to spend time with family, the holiday leaves a hole in the week in writing that really can't be filled. Which is my way to introduce this blog where not much happened.

I'll start with our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. We weren't sure we'd be back in time on Friday to do it live and if we were would we feel like doing one. So, to fill the void, we pre-recorded one, just Paul, Trevor and myself, discussing the Japanese drama series Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan and the feature film Rohan at the Louvre. Our artrist, Julia Canon, was nice enough to post it for us. As always, you can listen to it now here or watch it on Wednesday after 2:30 pm here. The choice is yours.

Next week, a new issue of Powers Squared drops. Issue #19, "Kamaitachi", written primarily by Paul with my assist. Of course, I'd appreciate it if you would check it out. It will be available in print and digital, all of which you can find in The Campus Store, where the Hound Dogs shop. It's the site for links to all our publications and merch, so I would encourage you to check it out.

I still have a lot of work to do between now and then. I need to send out a press release for the book. I usually send it out to several outlets and, of course, am ignored by them. I'm just going to send it this time to the few that have actually published it or have published something about Powers Squared. That way I'm not so disappointed.

Still waiting to hear from San Diego Comic-Con about our professional renewal. We're still within the window for hearing back but I'd rather have it settled. I believe we qualify so I'll give it a few more weeks before I out-and-out panic. I'm also trying to find out about tabling at WonderCon and SDCC, as it appears to be the time. More waiting ahead for me and for us.

For Trophy Unlocked, my review of Three Strangers appeared as the Saturday Morning Review, ending the short celebration of Noirvember on the blog. We're now turning our attention to Christmas. No shortage of reviews for that holiday, so stayed tuned. I'm also working on a new review of Abandoned (1949); don't expect it to appear this year but want to get it done.

As usual, more progress but not as much as I'd like on Skylar.

For the coming week, besides the press release, I have the newsletter to complete, a review to complete and hopefully, the next trade to complete; it's close. Well, more about in the next blog.

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

A Week in Writing #449 - Report from the Front: WonderCon 2023

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

Well, it's that time of year again, the start of comic book conventions. I know that while every city or town of any size, it seems, has a convention of some sort, we tend to stick to the big two, WonderCon and Comic-Con, mostly because they're local. I wish I could attend more but there is only so much time and money to go around.

This past weekend was WonderCon 2023 in Anaheim. My sons and co-collaborators on Powers Squared attended on Saturday. The drive down took about an hour and then it took another hour to park the car. So, there was at least one panel I missed. However, I did attend one panel that I believe speaks to my situation and might speak to yours as well, should you be a part-time creator like myself.

The panel was called Balancing Your Day Job and Your Passion Project: A Survial Guide, hosted by Mallory Shoemaker and Jordon Dene Ellis. If you were really interested in Mallory and Jordon, then this was probably the panel for you. A lot of the time was spent talking about their own experiences, which while not universal ones are similar to most part-time creators. Too many ideas, too many projects and not enough time. Neither, I take, are making a living off their projects as both are happily fully employed at Adobe.

The take away from the panel were five tips:

1) Done is Better than Perfect

2) Don't monetize everything

3) Take Breaks. You need them.

4) Pick and Choose your projects

5) A Day Job Doesn't = Failure

These are all good things to keep in mind, though I wouldn't mind monetizing something I'm working on.

The fun part of cons, at least for me, is learning new things and meeting friends who are also there. We did manage to walk pretty much the entire floor and ran into several people that we've known from past cons, including Don Nguyen, Stephen Silver, Steven E. Gordon, and Patrick Ballesteros. We didn't talk to Patrick, he's always very busy, but he did, later in the day, email us and agree to be on our podcast in April, so there's something to look forward to.

Now, it's back to the real world and remembering #5 from above, not feeling like a failure.

Because of WonderCon, no new reviews from me this week. My film day is Saturday and after walking around, accumulating nearly 10 miles worth of steps, no one was in the state that could take watching a movie. We'll get them next week.

That doesn't mean Trophy Unlocked closed up shop. The Saturday Morning Review was Trevor's review of The Aristocats (1970).

I know the official name of this blog is 1000 Words a Day (Easily to complete the url), it is rare that I hit that feat. It is more of a goal. When I'm writing a review that seems to be fairly easy to hit, but with fiction it can be a bit harder. However, earlier this week, working on the oft-overlooked Skylar, I hit the mark and went a little beyond as well one night. It was a matter of having time and starting early, something that didn't happen for most of the rest of the week. I did however, tackle some of the things I've been alluding to in this blog about the story, so there is more work to do.

I started having some second thoughts about Past Present, not so much the story but some of the situations in the story that might need to be updated to keep up with technology, which has changed since I first wrote it. The same about Broken People, but for that one, I'm waiting to see if I get a bite before going ahead and making any updates. That said, or written in this case, I didn't send out a query for Past Present, though I did for Broken People. I also DNRd a couple of queries from January that would seem to have expired without feedback from an agent.

Our podcast this past week, was our March 2023 Team Meeting. Artist Julia Canon and letterer (and co-creator) Trevor Hankins joined Paul and me to discuss the state of things and where we want things to go. We're talking Kickstarter but that will be much later in the year. If you're curious about the state of the book, you can listen here or watch it on Wednesday here.

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

A Week in Writing #399 - The Kickstarter is over 75 Percent Funded

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

I don't mean to bury the lead, so yes the Kickstarter is 75 percent funded with a little more than two weeks left to go. If you're reading this I ask that you take a look at the Kickstarter, as it means a lot to me and I want this to be funded and beyond. All writers want their work to be read and that doesn't only mean serious writers of literary fiction, that means all writers. I've put a lot of sweat and perseverance into Powers Squared and I would hope others would give it a try. Chances are if you read the book, you just might like it.

Shameless plug over.

Had my first experience in a movie theater in over two years. On Friday, my family and I went to see Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (read the review on Trophy Unlocked). It was weird to be back. The last film we'd seen in a theater was the first Sonic The Hedgehog film, so this was a nice bookend, though I'm not convinced, yet, that it will become a normal thing for me. I'm one of those people who still wears a mask in public and I'm not convinced the pandemic is really behind us. The theater was nice and all that but I'm not ready to book my next excursion.

On the subject of Trophy Unlocked, Sonic 2 was the Saturday Morning Review and Paul's review of Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition was the Wednesday Game Day review.

My future contribution is one that I wrote for Murder at the Vanities (1934), a pre-Code murder mystery set on the opening night of Earl Carroll's Vanities. Since we saw Sonic 2 in the afternoon, trying to avoid crowds, we went with something short for our Friday night movie. As always, not sure when it will appear.

Paul and I talked about our experience and about going to WonderCon on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared on Friday, so the feelings were still fresh. We were back on the air after missing last week's show due to Paul being under the weather.

My main focus over the past week has, no surprise, been the Kickstarter. On the advice of our consultant, I started doing a series of posts on Facebook and Instagram getting more into the story behind Powers Squared with a link to the Kickstarter rather than just an out-and-out plug. Not sure how well those are going over but I'm planning at least a couple of more before the week is out.

No new queries this week, I sort of lost the will to do one. No new rejections either, which really doesn't mean anything.

More work on fka Skylar. I'm finding that I usually work on it at the end of the week, like today, or the beginning of the week, like Monday. I really wish I could work on it more than I do but something's gotta give.

Well, it's a short one this week. Keep writing and I'll see you again next week.

A Week in Writing #240 - Report from the Front - WonderCon

Well, let's start with some news from the other writing I do, the sort of stuff that ends up on the bottom of this blog, you know, shake things up. To begin with, no new queries, though I did hear back from one of the agents I wrote about representing Broken People.

On Wednesday morning, at my day job, a response from one of the three agents I have queried popped up in my personal emails. If you're like me, the dream is to someday be able to walk away from your job because you've finally made that as a writer. Like a lot of you, I still think that starts with getting representation, so my day was looking up. Each email from an agent holds within it the potential of that dream. I think you can see where this is going. "Not for us, thanks," didn't kill that dream but did defer it for another time and another agent to help make it come true.

The point of this blog isn't to call people out, at least not by name, but to provide a public record of what I'm doing or, at least, trying to do with my writing every week. So I'm not going to call the agent out by name but rather to state how defeating such a summary rejection can be to me or to anyone. While one query letter may seem a lot like the next one, these terse rejections do hurt a little. Now, I'll admit I had little hope this particular agent would take me, I only queried her because I hadn't anyone in quite a while and I had the necessary information about her (yes, the agent is a woman) and her requirements weren't all that different from previous agents, okay two, that I had already sent out. But there was no salutation at the start, no sincerely at the end, just "Not for us, thanks." I mean, I get more friendly form emails from junk mail. You have every right to reject me or any writer, you just might want to up your game a little. You never know what might happen in the future.

I did reach out to the editor on Familiar Stranger twice this past week, once on the phone and once a PM on Facebook. And, wait for it, neither got a response. The thing with cell phone numbers, and why I don't always give them out (yes I still have a landline for that reason), is that you know the owner of the phone has to have it close by and probably, in fact, saw it ringing, saw my name attached to the number and didn't answer. A home number you can assume the person isn't home but a cell phone means they made a conscious decision not to pick up or listen to the voicemail you left. Ouch!

So, enough about rejection for a while (at least until the next one arrives).

Nothing new from the artists on Powers Squared this week, though that doesn't mean nothing happened with the comic book. In fact, some really big news for us. We're a little over a month away from our first comic book store appearance (and signing). I won't go into many details now but it's our local store on Free Comic Book Day, so it should provide us with some good local exposure.

That also means there is a lot of legwork we're going to have to do in April to prepare. Still, it is an exciting opportunity. And if you read this, and you live in the Los Angeles area, we would love to see you come by. In addition to selling copies of Powers Squared, we'll be signing issues if someone wants us to as well as hopefully adding to our mailing list. If you're reading this and want to be apart of the mailing list, please go to https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/ and join the mailing list. It's on the front page, you can't miss it. We would really appreciate the support.

Paul and I ended up spending most of this past Tuesday night watching what turned out to be a two-hour infomercial for ComixLaunch.com about the need for a mailing list before starting something like a Kickstarter project. I'm thinking next month we'll start using some of this text, enhanced of course, as part of a weekly email to people on the list to let them know what's going on with the book. I'll still do this blog and Paul and I will still do the weekly vlog, we'll just be making sure more people know about A Week in Powers Squared and how to buy the comic and, hopefully, join in on the conversation.

Paul and David talk about WonderCon amongst other topics on this week's vlog.

Paul, Trevor and I did attend this past weekend's WonderCon in Anaheim. Usually, I'll do a report from the Front with notes from the various panels and people that we meet, etc. I'm not a really big one on taking photos of cosplayers, there are better people at that than I, so if you're looking for that than this is not the place.

For anyone who has never been, WonderCon is sort of a baby-sized version of San Diego Comic Con. It is in some ways a dry-run for that larger event. A lot of the reason for going is to learn and to network with people you've met at previous cons or have met through other walks of life. So it was more a learning experience than anything else. I did wear a Powers Squared t-shirt, but I also wore a jean jacket which covered up most of it.

We only attended a couple of panels: How to Get Press Coverage and Forging Careers in Fandom. We had attended the first one last year as well. Led by Rik Offenberg from First Comic News, the panel discusses what has worked for them in the past and how they encourage you to write press releases to send to media outlets, including theirs.

When sending a press release you should always have a pitch. Offenberg mentioned that he had received an email that morning asking him to cover his Kickstarter but gave no details beyond that. That's the kind of email that will get deleted along with the spam. It's always a good idea to follow the website and engage them on social media before sending them your press release.

Also, a good idea is to supply links and images that the writer can use to write their story; the idea is to make it as easy on them as possible. The suggestion was also made to have an A story and a B story in the release that both come together in the end.

Sitting there listening to them, I thought about what sort of press release we could write to publicize our book signing and who we could send it to.

They also talked about doing podcasts, which I took to mean other people's podcasts and conventions. The Long Beach Comic Con, which unfortunately has already happened, was mentioned. The idea is to start small and work your way up. The rule on Podcasts is to choose one with 30 or more episodes since a lot of people stop and start them. Thirty shows a certain commitment.

Forging Careers in Fandom wasn't really aimed at me, though it was an interesting panel to attend. They talked about their jobs which for the most part are freelance and don't always pay a living wage. The panelists did stress sticking with it as part of their success. They do a lot of jobs from event planning to Community Manager for Dungeons and Dragons to Disney Bounding, which is not the sort of work that I would see myself doing, though it does show that you can if you persist, you can find work doing something you enjoy.

To round off the week, no new reviews written but I did publish one on Saturday on Trophy Unlocked: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. We had seen the film in the theater and as I recall we really liked it. But does it hold up after 14 years? Find out and read the review.

So next week well be a shortened one. We're taking a family trip out of town for several days which I'm sure will keep me from doing much writing. I would hope that I could do some on the plane rides but last time we flew I couldn't even open the laptop on the tray, the seats were that close together. But I will, of course, report all here next Sunday. Keep writing until then.

A Week in Writing #187 - Report From the Front - WonderCon 2018

Busy week this week. To begin with, spent a good portion of the week working on edits for Familiar Stranger, the oft-written about but never seen novel I've been working on for longer than I care to admit. This is the point in my process where I print out the pages and re-read them and make edits in pencil as I do. It's a chance to really read it, which is something I realize I don't do when it's only on the computer screen.

Sitting down with thirty to forty pages at a time is a real visceral experience that I do enjoy. While no one really loves rewriting, I like the editing process. I'm up to page 208 and feel like I'm making it a stronger book and rethinking certain aspects as I go. As an example, I've vacillated in different rewrites between someone driving a pickup truck or a van and rethinking it, since I have them working as a baker when they're not in this story, a van seems to be truer to the character. I know it may seem simple (and possibly stupid) but it is part of making the overall story better. Details help.

No new reviews written this week; I'm starting to miss writing them actually, but this past Friday night was not movie night, rather Cowboy Bebop night as we finished watching the series for a panel we attended, that we'll get to later when we get to WonderCon. Did publish a new Saturday Morning Review, however, Lady Bird. I know you're saying, hey that was out last year why the delay? Well, to be honest, when the film first came out, it wasn't really on our radar. When it was nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture, we finally watched it. Then there is slating it in for publication, as we want to have new content every week. Sorry for the delay in getting to it.

There was some work on Powers Squared this week, as the artist finished her work on Issue #6, including a cover. Most of the time, however, was spent on social media as we've finally gotten serious about getting the word out. Last week, we relaunched our Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/powerssquaredcomicbook/ and our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PowersSquaredComicBook/ Like our website:
https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/ they're easy to spot as they contain some version of this image (accept no substitute):

Coming soon, a twitter account and on the horizon videos about the creation and future of the book. So much to look forward to as we try to spread our social media wings. Issues 3 - 5 have been accepted at comiXology and you'll find out here when a release date is sent.

Part of that included attending the recent WonderCon in Anaheim this past Saturday. We all attended a panel first thing in the day called How To Get Press Coverage, which was very informative. The panel included many in the media who cover comics or who have comics they're promoting or are in promotion. Learned that Press Releases are still a real thing and that there are other places to ply your promotion efforts besides the obvious. Here's a tip, the military press, since servicemen have a lot of time to spend reading and read comic books.

Manged to make contact with the moderator of the panel and will be following up with him this week. I wasn't planning on hitting him up about Powers Squared, but when he asked what I had I fumbled into my elevator talk, which was a bit rusty. Still, he seemed interested and gave me his card.

Also, Paul and I attended another panel later in the day called Writing Great Dialogue. While all of the panelists were informative, Mairghread Scott really stood out. She's written for both comic books and animation. A lot of what you hear in these panels is somewhat common sense, but it's obvious that she's studied the craft and is applying what she knows.

We did spend time on the floor and ran into some very helpful people in Artist Alley, including the artist Sean Galloway, currently our only Instagram follower, and some members of the Koffee and Komics group that we've belonged to but haven't attended any of their monthly get-togethers. Very cool people.

We also managed to slap a howdy on a couple of friends we've met through our con attending, including Doug Neff, who runs the Comic Creator Connection at WonderCon and SDCC amongst other endeavors, and an editor at IDW who we've been running into for years at conventions, Wonder, Comic and Bot. We gave them each our latest issues of Powers Squared and asked for comment.

Attending conventions has turned into a little more work than play sometimes, as we try to maintain our tenuous network of friends in the industry and make a point to attend panels that are informative. However, it is not all work and no play.

One of the nice things about WonderCon, as opposed to its big brother Comic-Con, is that you have a real chance to get into popular panels. The Anaheim Convention Center recently added a couple of really big rooms, so we were able to get seats together in popular panels like Cartoon Voices and a screening of an episode of the Netflix series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, hosted by Nathan Fillion. We attended the latter so that we could get into the panel that followed, Celebrating 20 Years of Cowboy Bebop (see how it circles back to Friday night). The latter was surprisingly sparsely attended but was still a fun way to end our WonderCon.

For the next week, the goals are to keep up the editing on Familiar Stranger, make more progress on the content of Powers Squared and also to work on those press releases and to update our social media presence. Whew, a busy week ahead for sure.

A Week in Writing #136 - WonderCon

Usually after visiting a convention, San Diego Comic-Con or WonderCon aka Anaheim Comic Con, we write a Report from the Front discussing what we saw and what we learned. This time it will be a little different as while we walked the exhibit floor, attended a panel and actually attended a party, the big news for me, and for us, is that Powers Squared should be getting a digital publication in the next few months. Details on that when it gets closer.

We're still a ways away from being ready, but things are looking promising. The comments we received on our first issue were positive and constructive. The coloring is really greatly improved and that was noted. We still have some tweaking to do with the lettering, but it was a positive review session. As we get closer we'll be no doubt launching twitter and facebook accounts and inviting everyone who reads this to follow. Your support will be greatly appreciated.

Work continues on Powers Squared Issues #2 and 3, with our colorist working on page 10 and the artist hopefully moving on to the last four pages of issue #3. There will no doubt be tweaks on these before we're through, but any progress is good.

For the most part, WonderCon is just a smaller version of SDCC and one day is usually enough to see everything on the exhibit floor. Panels would be another reason to attend. There is usually a mixture of educational/instructional ones and those that are more for entertainment purposes, like the one we attended after our meeting.

Cartoon Voices was a panel hosted by Mark Evanier with five voice actors that you may have heard of, but whose voices you probably definitely know: Dan Gilvezan, Elle Newlands, Bill Farmer, Katie Leigh and Daniel Ross. These are men and women who don't just recite lines in their own voices, ala Jack McBrayer or Kristen Schaal, but do a wide-range of unique ones. Farmer, for example, does Goofy for Disney and Ross Donald Duck. All the actors were asked pretty much the same questions, what voices they do, the most obscure job they've done and then performed together in a cold read of Rapunzel. Very entertaining.

Writing this week slowed down on Familiar Stranger. I'm up to 57,000 words and 305 pages; finally getting to the parts that really need rewriting. I'm still not 100 percent sure about this middle part, which is what has stumped me in the past, so the writing may slow down for a bit as it's harder work than the rewrite has been up to now.

Still, no word on the Submittable Query and I haven't yet followed up. Sometimes there are weeks when there is too much and too little time to get to everything you intend to. Sort of lost the weekend, from Friday night on, due to WonderCon: prep, attendance, and recovery. My Fitbit says I walked 6.35 miles, which I think might be low, but remember I was carrying a backpack most of that time,

I did write a new review this week for Predator (1987) and published an older one, From Here to Eternity (1953), as Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review. As is customary with the blog, we also posted an April Fool's one for Wall Street Kid HD, a nonexistent videogame. Sorry, but with leaving for WonderCon early and coming back late, didn't really have a chance to promote, but a few people did find it and read it on their own.

So the week ahead should show more progress on the comic book and the mystery novel, but just how much is anyone's guess.