A Week in Writing #622 - Prepping for SDCC

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

San Diego Comic-Con is next week and there are a lot of preparations that have to be made before going; planning out panels, exclusives and the like. I will admit I'm not a big participant in the prep for the event, as my wife and two sons really have their pulses on what's going on. I do appreciate their efforts. I chime in with what panels I'd like to attend, but I'm not really big on autographs or exclusives. There are several panels I'd like to attend, but I also want to walk the floor, and, dare I say it, attend Hall H for the first time in 20 cons.

With the panels I attend, I'll be sure to write something up here next week, though, please be kind, that might not appear until Monday. You are forewarned.

A point of interest, is that our fourth colorist on Powers Squared, Nina Gaillard, will be at SDCC and is nominated for an Eisner Award. We hope to actually meet her for the first time in person and we, of course, hope she wins.

I took it on myself to do a better job cataloging the podcasts. Several are gone and some remain only in audio format, but I've finished cataloging all available 492 podcasts and videos, including our most recent one, OAPS #360 - "SDCC 2026 Prep + Unboxing", sort of keeping with the theme of Con prep mentioned above. If you watch our raw podcasts on Twitch, a couple of weeks ago, we attempted to unbox SRCC 70th Anniversary t-shirts, only to find that we received the wrong order. That was rectified, but we had other reasons for waiting, which I won't get into here. However, the t-shirts were correct and we talked about the new trades, one each for Powers Squared and for The Blade of Miracles. You can still watch it on twitch.tv for the next few days, listen to it here (where you can also find the other platforms it's on), or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel after 2:30 pm on Wednesday.

Julia Canon, our colorist turned artist turned colorist, will be hosting the podcast in our absence, but again there will be delays in getting the video to audio, which will have to wait for our return next week. Catch her on our twitch channel next Friday at 6 pm.

I think I'm finally done with Blackmail, though I won't be doing anything with it until Fall. I've learned that many agents take the Summer off or very slowly, so I won't start the query drudge until then.

I also worked on a couple of outlines for possible stories for Billy and Raven, characters we spun out last year into their own book this year, "Life on the Road".

No new review from my this week, sorry to say. The Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Today, we published Trevor's review for Descendants: Wicked Wonderland.

Next week, I'll have to start working on the next newsletter, and work on questions for our next guest on the podcast, creator Demi Naito, who will be on August 7.

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

A Week in Writing #617 - So, I Lied

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

I know I said last week that I would be working on Blackmail this week, but I didn't. Instead, I continued to work on the new story, untitled at this juncture. It's been a combination of editing what I had previously written as well as some new bits to tie it together. I do plan to get back to Blackmail, but this one sort of drew me in. In this one, he's hired to find a girl that supposedly ran away from home the summer before her senior year at high school. The twist is that it was 15 years ago. Also, at this point, J.D., my main character, is now a father by his wife, so I get to mix that into the story as well. At this stage, I'm 17,771 words in, compared to the 20,546 words I had on the first draft and there is only one more chapter from the previous version, then I will get back to Blackmail and finish that up.

Our podcast this week was our 24th Comic Book Club. This time it was my choice, usually I let my turn pass but I had become aware of what was supposed to be one of the first graphic novels, It Rhymes with Lust written by Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller (under the pseudonym "Drake Waller"), with art by Matt Baker and inks by Ray Osrin. Besides the three of us, Rachel Wells and Julia Canon were also there to give their opinions. The book dates from 1950, and is influenced by film noir. You can watch it on our twitch channel for the next few days but there may be audio issues. You're better off listening to it here or waiting until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch it on our YouTube channel.

I'm sort of working for a review of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929), though sometimes watching a movie on Saturday night can be a dicey endeavor. And, yes, I dozed during the watching, so I'm rewatching those parts I missed. Being more awake has made me enjoy it more, but I won't be starting a review until I've seen it all. Trophy Unlocked isn't dependent on me for reviews and there were three this past week, starting with Tuesday's review of The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act, written by Paul. The Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's review of River City Girls 2; and the Saturday Morning Review was Paul's of Toy Story 3: it is his blog after all.

Waiting for a second proof of the third Trade for Powers Squared and a first for Trevor's for The Blade of Miracles. Trying to get ready in case we're called off the bench for San Diego Comic-Con. We were last year, so you never know. I just don't want to be caught flat-footed again. We managed to scramble to get everything ready with three weeks notice but the stars sort of aligned for some of that to happen, and I don't want to count on that coming together again.

Work continues on issue #30 of Powers Squared. Our artist is currently working on page 14 and our colorist is working on the first 8 pages. The next issue to come out would #28, "Agnes, Wreckage", Part 1 and I think we're probably looking at August for that to come out. It's going to be an interesting story arc, as two different artists will have drawn the two issues.

So next week, I should get back to Blackmail and finish my review of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. Next weekend, we're attending DesignerCon in Pasadena. I've never attended it before, so it will be new, and hopefully exciting. I'll be writing about it after.

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

A Week in Writing #616 - Going Back to LA Comic Con

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

The big news for me this week, is that SRCC Press, the publisher behind Powers Squared and The Blade of Miracles, will be returning to LA Comic Con in October, as a "guest" of the convention. It seems like every other year, we get involved with this Con. In 2022, we had a panel at the show and in 2024, we tabled and had a panel. Now, we're going back two years later. This is one of those things about Cons that I wouldn't have known if someone hadn't brought it to my attention. Steven Prince, the creator of Monster Matador, brought it to my attention, so I applied. We get a table and two chairs and I'm sure we'll be in the garage somewhere as the halls are being rennovated for the 2028 Olympics, but a free table is a free table. I'll give you more as I learn more, and, of course, will write about the experience here.

This week, the newsletter was the prime activity. Happy to say it was finished and sent out this morning, which is always a good feeling. If you haven't signed up for it, you have until August 1st to do so, if you'd like to receive it. Enroll here. It comes out once a month and it is FREE.

Our podcast this week featured another comic book writer, David Lucarelli, one of the only people we actually talked to at the Fanbase 10th Anniversary Potluck, a couple of weeks ago. He's the writer behind Tinsletown, The Children's Vampire Hunting Brigade, and Dr. Zomba's Ghostly Tales. Cool guy and I think it's a good interview. We prepped questions and he kept answering them before we asked, which is always nice. You can catch it on our Twitch channel for the next few days, listen here, and/or wait to watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm.

Next week, our podcast will be the Comic Book Club, and we'll be discussing It Rhymes With Lust, hailed as the first graphic novel. If you've read it or are curious, check us out at 6 pm PDT at twitch.tv/powerssquared.

I'm finishing up a review of Scarlet Street, which I believe was a recording leftover from TCM's last Summer of Darkness. As always, not sure when it will go up. But there are plenty of other reviews on Trophy Unlocked  for you to read, including Wednesday's Game Day review of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Paul; Trevor's Second Opinion - Toy Story 2 was the Saturday Morning Review; and there was a surprise review this morning on Mortal Kombat 2, also by Paul. If you haven't caught on, this is Toy Story month on the blog.

I haven't yet picked up with Blackmail. Instead, I read through my sketchy start on another story in the franchise. I've started rewriting it, but I will spend sometime working on Blackmail, since that needs to get done.

Well, that's about it from me. Keep writing and I'll see back here next week.

A Week in Writing #497 - Monday Was a Great Day

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

I had one of my best days as a writer on Monday. Not only did I finish the review, X-Men: The Last Stand, but I also rewrote the script for "Billy and Raven", a one-shot related to Powers Squared, wrote about 1500 words on my new story and read one of my son's short stories; something I was very overdue at doing. And if that wasn't enough, my entire family built the Megablocks set "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Beatles", which was 681 pieces and took three hours to build.(Note: I'd still be building it if I was doing it if my sons hadn't done the heavy lifting.) Not bad for a free day from the office.

I tried to duplicate the 1000 words again on Tuesday, and sort of barely made it, on Wednesday, I just fell short of 600. None of this, mind you, had anything to do with Skylar, but I have been thinking about making some changes in her backstory, so it's not like I've forgotten that book, it's just that I've had ideas for this newer story.

I still have to write a review this week for X-Men: First Class. Trophy Unlocked will be doing a series of X-Men movie reviews leading up to the release of Deadpool and Wolverine later this year. Only one review this week: Trevor's review of PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie was the Saturday Morning review.

Started working, over the weekend, on the next Hound Dogs' Howl, the Powers Squared newsletter. Still time to sign up for it at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/srcc. I also need to write a press release or two for upcoming releases. If you're at all curious about the issues, below is a graphic showing when they'll be released through the rest of the year. They'll all be available through The Campus Store as they come out.

Speaking of releases, made the mobi files for the issues this year. I'm not sure why, but it always takes more than one try to make an issue using the software. Sort of frustrating, but the last three went pretty quickly. Paul and I posted the first issue this afternoon, so it will be available for pre-order in a day or so. We also posted the next issue on GlobalComix, so everything seems to be moving forward.

We had our monthly team meeting on Friday for On the Air with Powers Squared, and we all agreed to give Billy and Raven a one-shot. You never know, it might catch on. You can listen here now, or watch the video on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PT.

I had to resend the second trade to Library Pass this week. Apparently, the first one failed (?). Next week, we'll get more into the Library Pass when our guest will be Moni Barrette, the librarian we've been working with there. We go Live at 6 pm PT on Friday at twitch.tv/powerssquared.

Just so it's no surprise, no queries yet. Still have some thinking and homework to do on that before I launch into a new soul-sucking round of that.

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

A Week in Writing #470 - Just Add Water and Stir

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

This post comes during a very weird time in Los Angeles, where I live. Not only are we having a tropical storm roll through here for the first time in over 80 years, but we also felt the earth roll as we had an earthquake as well. As someone said on the news, L.A. is the country's disaster theme park. I know you want to know but except for some minor flooding in our garage, we're doing just fine. We sort of thought we had until winter before we had to worry about rain and the flooding but who knew we'd have rain in August?

Well, I know you're not reading this for the weather.

I'll save you some time, no new queries this week, no overt rejections either and very little writing, except for the idea I had for the comic book. I managed to do four drafts of a two part script, 5295 words. It started with one idea and ended a different way. I gave it to Paul to look at today. Even if it doesn't become a comic book, I still enjoyed writing it. It's been a long time, it seems, since anything I've written has been made into comic book form.

It wasn't my plan to spend the week on it but it started to roll and I just went with it.

Because of the pending storm and the possibility of a power outage, I didn't want to be working on a new review this week. So, instead, we watched the first episode of the MST3K season 13, a Kickstarter we backed in 2021 but for which, after paying for shipment on top of the Kickstarter, just received this week. One of the more botched Kickstarters I've been a part of and probably the last one I'll do for MST3K. The episode wasn't very funny and seemed sort of high budget cheap, if that makes sense. The original was made on a shoe string but it was way better than this version. The short we watched was funny, but that doesn't make up for everything else.

Because of the possible power outages, I also moved some of my normal Sunday morning social media stuff to Saturday night, including uploading our Friday On the Air with Powers Squared up to YouTube and scheduling posts for later in the week. This past Friday's podcast was mostly Paul talking about Metalocalypse and Dethklok, the fictional but still real band featured in the series. That goes up on Wednesday or you can listen to it here.

Even though I didn't write a new review this week, my review of  Nancy Drew. . . Trouble Shooter (1939) was Trophy Unlocked's Saturday morning review. We decided the review was our salute to the waning days of summer. The Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's for Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach – Ruin (DLC).

Just to give everyone a head's up, next weekend gets sort of discombobulated with Metallica coming to town for two shows, Friday and Sunday night. OAPS will be hosted by Julia Canon and will be another Artists Takeover, which I encourage everyone to support. It should be Live at 6 pm PT, so please watch. And, because the concert is also on Sunday night, this missive won't come out until Monday.

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

A Week in Writing #469 - Rethinking the Queries

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

Sometimes it's best to stop doing the same old thing and try something new. I've finally come to that conclusion with my query letters for Broken People. I'm not sure what's not clicking but obviously, after so many query emails and nothing to show for it, I'm going back to the drawing board on it. I'm trying to rewrite how the story begins. Maybe those sample pages will work when the ones I've been sending haven't so far.

I began that quest on Thursday night, my usual night for sending a query letter. In the meantime, I'll consider sending out another story. I was close with Past Present, maybe I'll revive that query letter and send it out. Give me a little time on that one though. I've also got Skylar to finish and a new story to think about. Too much, too much.

A big week for us with our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. David Petersen, the creator of Mouse Guard, was our guest for a little over two hours. If that seems long, I think we could have gone another hour but I thought two hours was long enough, not only for any listener/viewers but also for us. He was a great interview, very open and funny. You can still catch it on twitch and the audio is available as well. On Wednesday, the video will premiere on YouTube.

Busy week for me with reviews. My Barbie review was the Saturday Morning review on Trophy Unlocked and my review of Oppenheimer was published today. Sorry, it took us a little time to get to Barbenheimer, but life is complicated. We wanted to see Oppenheimer in 70 mm IMAX, but the theater we went to, the TCL Chinese's 70 mm projector failed. I used to really like the Chinese theater, but the last two times have been disappointing. We got free tickets, rather than a refund, but I'm not sure I can count on them to come through. Not sure what happened to the theater, but it's a shell of what it used to be.

I'm also finishing up another review for the blog, Find the Blackmailer, a definite B-movie from 1943.

I've begun working on the rewrite of the pilot script after receiving notes. And I actually had an idea for the book, a story involving one of the boys' friends, Steve. We've sorted of hinted he has a secret and now it gets revealed and it isn't good.

On the subject of Powers Squared, I've been making some updates to the website following some advice from a fellow and more successful creator, Russell Nohelty, whom I talked with at Comic-Con and followed up with post show. He pointed out that it is not apparent how to get a sample of the book, so I'm adding buttons on pages pointing how to do that, as well as where to buy and our weekly peek-of-the-week feature, which, while on the webpage, is sort of hidden under the More tab on the homepage.

I'm always open to making things better.

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

A Week in Writing #468 - Starting to Feel Normal Again

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

Well, two weeks out and I'm starting to feel normal again after Comic-Con. I hate the expression "getting back into the swing of things", though I'm pretty sure I've used it before. Let's just say I'm starting to feel normal again, good or bad, for what it's worth.

After writing last week that I hadn't worked on either Skylar or my new idea, I sat down and started working on a chapter for the new story. It's a bit of a fantasy chapter, so I don't think it will make it whole into the finished work but it was an idea I had to write down nonetheless. I worked on it off and on throughout the week and ended up writing about 3200 words. I may do another round of cleaning it up before getting back to Skylar, which I know I need to finish.

I also worked on the latest edition of The Hound Dogs' Howl and writing a piece on the M-Twins from the Marvel universe. Again, it's only available to enrollees at San Romero Community College, which you are free to enroll in.

I'll admit I was getting frustrated with the slow pace of pages for Powers Squared, but our artist turned in 7 and our colorist 8 this week, so I'm feeling a little better about things.

I've been reading Mouse Guard by David Petersen, as he will be our guest this Friday on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squard on twitch.tv/powerssquared and later on YouTube. If you've never watched or listened to the podcast before, this might be one you don't want to miss.

Rounding out the updates on Powers Squared, I got feedback on the script and there is a lot to be done to make it better. Something else I want to look at this coming week.

For Trophy Unlocked, I'm currently working on a review for Blondie (1938). We haven't decided yet who will be writing it but we have a review to do for Barbie. Next weekend, we're finally going to see Oppenheimer so we want to do our own version of Barbenheimer when we do. Comic-Con sort of got us off as far as seeing movies when they first come out. I wanted to see Oppenheimer in IMAX and it wasn't until next weekend that opportunities and times worked out.

That may explain why my review of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One didn't appear on the blog until Saturday morning. Sunday saw Trevor's review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, a film we managed to see close to it's original release on Friday afternoon. The first review last week was also Trevor's Game Day review of Tron: Identity for the PC.

To round things out, I did manage a new query this week. I'm down to four "active" queries, which may lead me to redo the synopsis on the query letter and maybe even rewrite the start of the book to bring the action more to the forefront.

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

A Week in Writing #462 - And the Rejections Keep Coming

 

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

In not so good news, the rejections keep coming. 

Received this one on Thursday, which was nice but I had already DNR'd the request since I had sent the query in January and they had a six week turn around. So, that took some of the sting out of receiving the official notification five months later:

Dear David,

 

Thank you for your interest in our agency. We have reviewed the material you sent regarding your manuscript and are sorry to report to you that we will not ask to consider the work for representation.

 

Please understand that we are a small agency and take on very few new clients. With limited time and personnel, we've learned to trust our instincts about whether there would be a good fit between a particular writer and us. We certainly recognize that we might well be passing up a good opportunity.

 

We wish you the best of luck in placing this with another agent and ultimately, a publisher.

 

Sincerely,

While I was at it, I decided to DNR another one that I had sent on 3/30. It had apparently gone past their response time, too, so I took it as a pass. But maybe it a few months I'll hear it officially.

On the subject of rejections, I mean queries, I sent another out on Thuirsday. This one was interesting as the agent want page, synopsis and then the query letter, in that order. I sort of had to try, since that was so different. So far, no rejection yet.

My review of The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. The Wednesday Game Day review as Trevor's for Katamari Damacy Reroll (PS4). I'm currently working on a review of Bombshell (1933), the Jean Harlow starrer.

It's sort of been quiet on the Powers Squared  front. Our artist had a family crisis and has been pulled away for the time being, so new pages for our new colorist to work on. Hopefully, the pages are coming soon but family does come first.

I decided to make some updates to the website and especially the page on SRCC (San Romero Community College). I'm trying to update the class list on the page, so it's a WIP as they say. I'll be sure to let you know when it's safe to look.

I also worked on the newsletter for next Sunday, today. Not hard work but there is stuff to do to get it ready.

Our latest podcast was our comic book club, our 9th meeting, discussing the Bernie Krigstein book, Master Race. It supposed to be a very influential comic book and if you watch the video, there's a link to where you can read it for free. It goes up on Wednesday on YouTube.

In the meantime, we put up the fifth and final taste test video on Sunday, Multiflavor Blowout | Taste Test #5. It was recorded in February but with summer approaching, I thought it might be  helpful on what to drink and which ones to avoid.

This might be a good place to come clean about something I did. When we put up the video OAPS #195 Issue #17 Preview I paid someone to boost it. I have boosted previous videos on Facebook but my hope was that since it was basically a commercial for the issue boosting it might lead to more readers. I don't believe there were necessarily bots involved but we hit an abnormally high views (1K). I didn't clear this with the others involved, especially my son Paul, who is my co-host on the podcast. In the long run, I don't think there was any real harm done but I don't think it necessarily led to more readers. I want to apologize here for my actions. My intentions might have good but it was not a good thing to have done.

More writing on Skylar but I'm sort of in limbo at the moment. I did have the opening idea for the next book, so I've written about 2300 words since Friday.

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