A Week in Writing #410 - The Work of Writing

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

Not a bad week, really, but sometimes it feels like I'm doing more of the work of writing, rather than actually writing if that makes sense.

I sometimes feel like I spend more time making updates to the Powers Squared website. I thought I had been keeping up but apparently, there were covers to update, links to change and even credits that needed to be updated. It seems like a never-ending process. Even trying to keep up with it, I realize I miss things, like posting links to videos. I decided to change that by posting them early rather than waiting for them to be released. I upload the videos on Sunday mornings and schedule them for Wednesday afternoons, and I also update the peek-of-the-week every Sunday. For both, I schedule Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts for later in the week; Tuesday for the peek-of-the-week and Wednesday for the videos.

There are other posts I make, like every morning on Twitter for posts on Trophy Unlocked that have anniversaries, #OTD. I've been doing that for a couple of years now, but finally got wise last year to saving and reusing the posts rather than trying to come up with a new one every time.

Then there are also posts I make to Pinterest, some for Trophy Unlocked and others for Powers Squared. As I started with, sometimes it feels like the work of writing, not the writing itself that takes up my time.

Worked a little bit on fka Skylar. I had an idea I wanted to introduce but I couldn't find the right place to do it. I guess I'll have to save it for later.

After rewriting the first chapter of Broken People, I started to go back through the book. I even found one section that didn't make sense where it was. I guess it's fortunate that no agent has asked to see more than the first three chapters so far.

I did query the book again, though I'm not really hopeful of the agent. I read some comments on Query Tracker about them. Apparently, they received responses that they didn't like. So far, I haven't received anything, so I'm waiting that out.

Powers Squared continues to move forward with our artist sending in eight pages of pencils for issue #22.

We're going to set release dates for Issue #13 this week and hopefully some more things as well, like new merch.

We had our monthly team meeting on Friday and since we're going to be at Comic-Con, Rachel and Julia may host a show without us. That should be fun. We're also talking about setting up a Comic Book Club for the podcast as well.

Our pitch is finally finished and now we're waiting to schedule someone we trust to go through it for us. So much is going on.

With Trophy Unlocked, I wrote a review for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which should be going up soon on the blog. We watched it finally on Friday night on Disney+. I'm also working on a review for Chance of Heaven (1933) from Saturday night but that's still in progress. For those interested, the Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe and the Wednesday Game Day Review was Paul's for Bugsnax: The Isle of Bigsnax (DLC).

So in the week ahead, I have to finish my review of Chance of Heaven, work on our monthly newsletter, The Hound Dogs's Howl, make a new query and work on fka Skylar. Wish me luck.

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

A Week in Writing #290 - Coronavirus, Working from Home and other issues

First off, I hope that this finds you safe and healthy. Things are really getting crazy out there and I hope you're able to maintain your good health during the coming weeks and months. Like many of you, I've opted to work from home for the duration and I'm fortunate that there is a way I can do that. While these are terrible times, I'm trying to look on the bright side: no commute means about two to three hours a day that I get back, which I'm hoping to put to good use. I figure I can transition from writing to work in a matter of seconds rather than an hour or more each way.

This all started for me on Friday, when I was volunteered to work from home as an experiment, which turned out to be permanent, at least for the upcoming week. I received notice today that next week they want everyone to work from home. While other companies are saying to work from home for the duration, mine appears to be taking a more conservative approach. Even then, things have changed quickly. On Thursday, as I wrote, I was part of an experiment. On Friday it was voluntary to work from home and on Sunday, it became work from home.

On the downside, and there are many, our signing at Golden Apple Comics was postponed indefinitely as they stopped all in-store events. Unluckily, we were the first to be affected. While we have to agree with the decision, it is still disappointing. One of the things we wanted to do more of in 2020 was in-store signings and conventions. Now, it appears, those plans are put off as everything is being canceled or postponed.

It will be interesting to see how things play out in the near future as we all have to get used to what will no doubt be a new reality, at least for a few weeks, if not longer.

With the coming chaos, it hasn't been a great week for me as far as writing goes. I did some work on The Runaway this week, but only about 1000 words, which I know is pitiful. I know there will be more rewrites in all of this over time, so the important thing is to finish this draft.

Since Paul and I took a class recently at UCLA about pitching, I decided to try my hands at writing the pilot script. I think I'm through the first act and I know there will be edits to come but it's kind of cool to be doing something different.

Paul and I also managed to get our twitch stream to work though it took two tries. Apparently, the connection dropped, which is why we don't live-stream anymore on our YouTube Channel. We've decided to twitch stream the recording of our podcast, On the Air With Powers Squared, which is still available on PodBean and Apple Podcasts. I hope you'll take a listen or watch.

No new reviews from me, though I am trying to wrap up one on Song of the South. I think one of my reviews will go up next week but in the meantime, the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked was Darksiders Genesis by Paul. With studios postponing releases, it's playing havoc with some month-long celebrations we're trying to do, like Bond month. We'll have to play it by ear until the dust settles.

Hope you are healthy and safe. So keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #272 - Kickstarter and Other Writing

Big week for me as well as for Powers Squared. We finally launched our Kickstarter. If you've never done one, there is a lot that goes into it and I was fortunate to have a good team working with me, my sons, and the co-creators of the book with me, Paul and Trevor. I don't think I could have done it without their help.

I feel compelled to let you know that you can help with the Kickstarter if you want. Please go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/630936668/powers-squared-mathemagical. We have a wide range of ways that you can help, from $5 to $100 and from digital to print issues, t-shirts and a hardcover trade. If you've been reading about the book here in this blog and have wondered what it's about, then this would be a great time to start. Well, I hope you decide to anyway.

Throughout the campaign, I will discuss how it's going and what is working and what isn't, should you ever decide to do one for yourself. So far, we've notified the people on our mailing list, posted on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and on various Facebook pages, including our own and groups I'm members of. So far, the response has been slow but it is still early.

Last week, we had started work on the next story arc, The Imposter, and this week we had some feedback from the artist, which is always good to get. Even though we may be the co-creators, we're not artists and her feedback and questions are usually very good.

On Friday night, Paul and I recorded and posted our 10th On The Air With Powers Squared on Podbean. For some reason, it didn't show up on iTunes. There is surprisingly little support available on iTunes or Apple Podcasts. I tried to go back to Podbean but got some confusing "help" so I had to write to their Support. Seems our forever free account has expired? Hopefully, we'll get that worked out in short order.

In other writing, I managed to do some more rewrites on The Runaway going through several chapters as I work to get back to where I left off to work on Broken People. I think I'm working through what had been some rough spots for me.

I did not, though I plan to soon, send out any queries for Broken People. There really wasn't any time for that this past week.

On Saturday night, I did manage to write a future review for Trophy Unlocked. On Friday night, we watched The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and I wanted to get it down on paper while there was some quiet time.

My review of Thieves' Highway was the Saturday Morning Review. We published it in honor of Noirvember.

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

A Week in Writing #271

Sometimes weeks don't go as planned or one aspect takes over for the others. This week, for the most part, was spent working on the Powers Squared Kickstarter. I don't know if you've ever done one but it has been a learning experience. Not hard so much as time-consuming.

Given the limited time I have every day to actually write, a lot of that has been writing and, of course, rewriting things like Our Story and Shipping. But that's not to say that I'm the only one working on it. Both Paul and Trevor have been helping as well. Paul, who shot, edited, re-shot and re-edited our Kickstarter video has also been editing the copy. Trevor has made many of the graphics that we're using to show off the Tier Rewards we're offering.

The software you have to use on the Kickstarter site is a bit wonky if you ask me. To begin with, it's one long page and though it allows you to add whatever you want to, including images, it doesn't act like say Word. If I delete a line at the bottom of the page, all the lines of text above it seem to be adjusted, though the images seem to stay pretty much where they are. The same is true if I add a line at the top, all the text gets adjusted below it. There seems to be a constant re-editing of the page with every change you make. Gets a little old.

I think we're very close, probably one more run through the content and then it's off to Kickstarter to approve. After that, we'll be up and running.

That wasn't the only thing I worked on this week, though it did dominate things.

More on Powers Squared, we got the final inked pages and the cover for Issue #12 from our artist, Rachel Wells. I made a final pass through the script for the next story arc, The Imposter. I hadn't looked at it since July. A few minor edits, like correcting the wrong character name once and adding "Hmm" to the beginning of one line of dialogue.

On Friday, Paul and I did our weekly podcast, On The Air with Powers Squared. On episode #9, we discuss putting together the first creative team for the comic book. You can hear it on Podbean and on iTunes.

Did some more rewrites this past week on The Runaway. I don't know if you've had the experience but sometimes when I go back through something I've written, I get into a better groove with the story. Phrasing I thought was good is made better or thrown out altogether with the goal of making the writing better. Looking forward to getting more back into it when time permits.

No new reviews from me this week but that doesn't mean there weren't several in Trophy Unlocked from Trevor, both video game reviews: SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (PS2) on the anniversary of the game's release; and Catherine: Full Body which was this week's Saturday Morning Review.

Kickstarter promises to be a big factor next week as well but I'm hoping to get back to other writing as well next week.

Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #270

My big accomplishment of the week was finishing my rewrite on Broken People. The ending that I remembered as being overly long turned out not to be that way upon final review. I think I was remembering an earlier version.

So, I've gone through it for what feels like the umpteenth time, spell checked and even gone through it to make sure the chapter numbers are well-centered. The next thing to do is to resume the query process. To that end, I did some more research using Query Tracker as the starting point. From there, I look up the individual agents on their agency's websites.

The first disappointment is when the genres listed on Query Tracker are not reflected in the agent's profile or else it's the same word but they're looking for Young Adult mysteries, which, of course, is not what I'm writing. The only thing worse is finding out the agent you're looking for is no longer at the agency or even in the agent game. That happened to me this week when I was doing some research.

I didn't actually pull the trigger on sending new queries; I'm saving that pleasure for the coming week.

This week, for Powers Squared, we received four lettered pages from Trevor, so it was overall a slow week on the comic book. That didn't mean nothing happened. Paul and I, of course, did our usual Sunday YouTube video and our Friday night Podcast. On this last Friday's, we discussed writing the first storyline for the comic book. We initially wrote the first drafts more than 8 years ago and that first script went through a lot of changes between then and 2015 when we actually had the first issue drawn.

We also worked some on the Kickstarter we're doing for the comic book. There's a lot of planning that goes into it but we're also making changes on the fly as we're putting it together.

In addition to the work mentioned above, I wrote a new review for Trophy Unlocked, Revenge of the Creature, though I'm thinking it might wait until next October to get published. That's when the blog once again turns to horror. To complete the month's look at the genre we published Paul's review of
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island.

Things I need to do this next week, besides write, include finishing the Kickstarter stuff and making myself reach out once again to the editor on Familiar Stranger. I keep putting that off because I feel like I know how that will go. I'll call, leave a message and then never hear back. What is it they say about insanity? But I guess the thing is I don't expect a different outcome. Maybe fate will surprise me.

Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #269

There were a lot of pluses and minuses this week in writing.

I continued to do rewrites on Broken People. I'm getting near the end of the book and for some reason, I was having a hard time concentrating on it. Part of it I'll put down to the day job taking it out on me. It's not that I do anything labor-intensive but it is a big chunk of the day, from leaving at 7 in the morning and not getting home until 6:30, most nights take a lot of wind out of your sails.

I decided to put it aside by mid-week. I should be able to finish it next week. There is some post-climax stuff that I'd like to cut down on. I think I go into too much explanation on what happens after the main story ends. I don't want to be too short, as I don't like to see things left dangling, but at the same time I think I say too much. I have to strike the right balance. And it's not what happens to the characters that I want to shorten, it's the bigger picture stuff. There are events that are put into motion that don't necessarily end with the end of the story if you know what I mean. That's the part that I think I go into too much detail explaining.

Did some work on future reviews for Trophy Unlocked, even completing one that probably won't show up again until next October, when the site does a salute to horror films. Saw and reviewed White Zombie (1932), a really low-budget horror film starring Bela Lugosi, who only the year before had appeared in Dracula (1931).

This week's horror film was The Banana Splits Movie (2019), a very badly done horror film starring a somewhat forgotten IP from the 1960s. After seeing the film, it would probably have been better served staying forgotten.

I also completed a review of Sabotage (1936), a British Hitchcock film that I also watched recently. Not sure when that will show up but it's now ready to go whenever it's called upon. That's one nice thing about writing reviews for older films, they are always relevant in their own way. They might become more so, if, for example, a particular subject matter came up in today's world or there is a milestone anniversary. But, for the most part, if the film stands the test of time, there is always room for writing about it.

We're still putting together our Kickstarter stuff for Powers Squared. We've lined up all the tier rewards and now it's down to putting it together and shooting a video. We want to include Trevor but he's away today at a seminar and Paul is still under the weather. We canceled our weekly Podcast, On the Air With Powers Squared, because he was still too sick to do it.

Last week, we ran a contest to try and cross-promote our A Week in Powers Squared videos, our newsletter, the Hound Dogs' Howl, and our podcast, On the Air With Powers Squared.  Fortunately, we had a winner within 48 hours. At least someone listens to OAPS.

We did receive four pages from our colorist but that was really all that happened with the actual comic book this week.

So next week, the goal is to finish the rewrites on Broken People and send out some more queries and to reach out, once again, to the elusive editor on Familiar Stranger to see if he's still alive and what the f- happened. These enduring mysteries keep us going.

Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #266

Somehow this wasn't the week to get back on track. It's sort of birthday week around here. First, it was my birthday on Wednesday and then my sons' birthdays on Saturday. Ports have fleet week and cities have fashion weeks, we have cake week in my house. My mother likes to call it the House of Libra, as my wife's birthday is in a couple of weeks, we are all born under the same zodiac sign. A lot of indecision around the house.

Sundays are always busy, football game notwithstanding. Paul and I have a weekly video we do for our YouTube channel. This past Sunday was our 52nd, our one year anniversary of our doing them. With the exception of Comic-Con, which delayed it until Monday, we've done them each and every Sunday. We talk about what is going on that week with the comic book, even some weeks when there is very little happening.

We also send out a weekly newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, and again, even on lean weeks. We've been fortunate that there is usually something worth writing about, including our new Mascot.

Late on Sunday, we did receive some pages from our artist, Rachel. Our first pages since Hurricane Dorian forced her to temporarily relocate and after we had her finish up the mascot. We received four pages of pencils from Issue #12. Paul and I didn't have a chance to look at them until Monday night but we did give our notes.

Did some other writing on Monday on The Runaway but not much I'm afraid. I'm working on a part of the novel that I'm rethinking. I'm sort of using a recent story in the news but I don't want to be too on the nose, if you know what I mean. I'm going through a thought process and making some changes. That's what I get for being a pantser with no outline to guide me, the freedom to make changes on the fly.

Don't think I did much of anything on Tuesday but on my birthday, I actually wrote a review of the movie we went to see, Downton Abbey, which was posted on Trophy Unlocked the next morning. About 700 words, so not too bad between eating out, cake and presents.

Thursday night was mostly spent out again. Both sons were taking classes, so my wife and I decided to have a bit of a date night, but we also had to run an errand for the boys' birthday. Did manage some more work on The Runaway that night but again, not very much.

Friday night, Paul and I did another episode of On the Air with Powers Squared, our podcast on PodBean and iTunes.

Saturday was Paul and Trevor's birthday, so the day was mostly spent with them, which was fun. There are some things more important than writing and family is one of them. Some things, though, still go on. Trophy Unlocked published our usual Saturday Morning Review, The First Tree, a video game reviewed by Trevor.

Next week, I need to get back to things full swing. There is still so much to do, including sending out more queries for Broken People, more work on The Runaway and, of course, Powers Squared.

Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week In Writing #265

This week has been more what I would call the business side of writing rather than the art of writing. Like every week, this one starts on Sunday, which is a busy day for Powers Squared. Paul and I do a weekly video for our YouTube channel. While the video doesn't take all that long to shoot, there is still some editing, which Paul does, then posting the video and hitting social media to promote it. I'm trying to be more efficient when posting but I sometimes forget.

Then we have a newsletter to get out. Usually, some work has been done on this already but there is always something to do on it, a test email to make sure the links all work and then finally sending it out. I usually take the newsletter and post it on Facebook and Tumblr, though I really doubt many people are really reading it that way.

Finally, there is this post which I also put up on Sunday, and then there is more posting on social media, Facebook and Twitter but different accounts than the comic book.

Did a little work on The Runaway but not much.

On Monday, more business. We were working with our artist on final design for the mascot and t-shirt design. Looking good.

Spent more time on the powerpoint for pitching Powers Squared as an animated series, which is one of our creative stretch goals. Making some edits and thinking about what else to do with it. Not much to show for the evening but sometimes it's just that way.

Tuesday night I worked on two reviews for Trophy Unlocked. They were already written but I wanted to put them up on the blog site and add photographs. These are reviews for The Fly and Cat People, reviews for October and Trophy Unlocked's annual salute to the horror genre.

Since it had been about six weeks since I had sent in a couple of queries for Broken People, and, of course, heard nothing back, I had to take them off my list. I did some more research on agents and even did some looking for a possible agent for Powers Squared. We're going to need representation to do a pitch anyway.

On the way home on Wednesday, I called the work number for the editor on Familiar Stranger. He had actually communicated during the summer and said he would be working on it during August. I think it was the occasion of his birthday and I told him I wouldn't bug him until September. I figured the middle of the month was a good time to try.

Not surprisingly, I got his voicemail at work and left a message. Almost right away I got a text saying to text him. I think this is something attached to the voicemail since I got the same message the last time I tried calling him during the summer.

So, I texted him that I was in the car and then texted him later when I wasn't. I also PM-ed him on Facebook, which was the last way we had communicated. Well, as I'm writing this no response, no real surprise. I'm disappointed but some people are unreliable. I don't like radio silence and I don't like being lied to. I'm going to have to move on since it's been almost a year and a half since I sent the manuscript to him. I knew he'd be slow but this is utterly ridiculous.

We also received pages that night from our colorist. Actually, we had received them the night before but it was late before we noticed so Paul and I sat down to go over them after we got back from dinner. Had a couple of minor issues that we asked her to fix. One of them was not her fault but she agreed to fix it anyway.

I also worked some more on the Pitch powerpoint, changing up the logline and some of the other details, like episode synopsis and images. I sent it on to Paul to look at for more changes. I never mind rewriting, since the point is always to get better.

Also, edited in the mascot in with the new banner that our artist sent us. We wanted to try to match the banner on the school newspaper. Our artist prepared us one that matched what she was doing in the comic book. I took that edited version and added to the template for the newsletter.

Sort of felt uninspired on Thursday, so I worked on this blog, so pretty much everything written to this point was done on Thursday night. I'm trying to figure out a way to squeeze in as much time as I can on Sunday.

I also toyed around with a t-shirt design though I didn't save it. Just wanted to see what it might look like. Maybe I'll try to recreate it later this week.

On Friday, Paul and I recorded our fourth podcast, which is available on PodBean and iTunes. This week, we talked about the origins of the two main characters not named Marty or Eli.

Also received a couple of revised pages from Nina. We had her fix a continuity error that we didn't catch when this was in pencils or inks. She was kind enough to correct it and then we asked her for one more favor, which she did.

Saturday was spent mostly out of the house. We went as a family to see Genndy Tarakovsky's Primal, which was playing at the Downtown Independent theater, we think trying to qualify for an Academy Award nomination. You can read Trevor's review on Trophy Unlocked.

Well, that about does it for the week. Promise to actually write more this coming week. You, keep writing and I'll see you next week.