A Week in Writing #566 - Getting Nowhere Fast

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

I wish I could say we've finalized the deal with the artist, but we're all but there. I had asked the lawyer who drafted the original agreement we use to review it to see if there needs to be any updates (No AI, etc.). Since it's a favor, I can't get too mad, but the artist is chomping at the bit to get started and I'm anxiously waiting, too.

We had a second conversation with James Silvani, a comic book artist and the creator of Pirates: A Graphic History (But not THAT kind of graphic), which had a successful Kickstarter last year. My sons had run into him at Comic-Con and he said he was interested in appearing again, which is always nice to hear. You can watch it on our twitch.tv/powerssquared for the next few days, listen to it here or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm.

On Trophy Unlocked, we continued Noirvember with my Saturday Morning review of I Wake Up Screaming. On Wednesday, Game Day, was Trevor's review of Once Upon a Katamari. I'm working on my review of The Batman serial, which is going to be long; and Heroes For Sale (1933).

I'm finding, and I'm not sure it's all blameable on Daylight Savings Time, but I'm getting to things later in the evening and thus have less time to go from being productive to being a half-awake zombie at a laptop. Part of it has been dealing with our prospective artist and sending things to them, but work seems to go on longer and that makes everything get pushed back. Also, we shot our podcast on Thursday night, rather than Friday, and had some retakes we had to do because of audio issues, but that sort of took up two nights, the first being getting ready for it after the guest confirmed two nights before at 11:30 pm.

As a result, my output on Blackmail wasn't what I wanted it to be. I started a new chapter but I'm not happy with the results but let's count the words for 66,618, which I don't think really moves the needle much.

I'll try to do better this week, but it's a pledge, not a promise.

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

A Week in Writing #565 - Getting Close

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

We're very close to announcing a new artist for Powers Squared. I believe we're just down to the contract and I've asked a lawyer friend of mine to review it to see if we need to make any updates to the terms. The artist seems anxious to get going, too. That would be big news for us.

We signed up for Pasadena Comic Con next January, so I hope if you're attending you'll stop by and say hello. More details to come as we know them. I did some ordering over the weekend to get prepared. I'm not one of those creators who has a thousand copies of each book in the garage.

Our guest on Friday was Chris Ayers, a character designer/art director and the creator of The Daily Zoo, which he's been doing now for 20 years. Really nice guy and I think it was a good interview. You can check it on twitch.tv/powerssquared for the next week, listen to it here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm to watch it on our YouTube channel.

Sometimes nailing down guests is a little like herding kittens. We're still working on someone for next week, I won't say who, but it's finding a day and time to do it that's the issue, I think.

In honor of Noirvember, my review for Odds Against Tomorrow was the Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked. We're still going through The Batman serial, two episodes left, but I am working on a review for Blind Spot, a film noir I caught afterwards. Seeing as this is Noirvember, I suspect more of my backlog will appear.

I did some more work this week on Blackmail. I finished the next chapter and started a new one. I'm trying to show the character's attempts to balance his professional career, as a private detective, with his personal life, which includes a pregnant wife and a young child by another woman. I know I don't usually write much about my stories here but I thought you might find that interesting. Oh, and the case he's working on involves his wife and her ex-husband. The word count is now 65,570, so we're like a 1000 words a week, rather than a day.

Next week, I'm hoping to wrap up the contract with the new artist; work on prepping for the next few releases of The Blade of Miracles; finish my reivew of Blind Spot; and to work more on Blackmail. Let's see what gets in the way.

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

A Week in Writing #564 - Newsletter and Dodgers

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

Not the biggest Dodgers fan, not into baseball in general, but I like watching the World Series. Last Monday's game nearly did me in as it went 18 innings and sort of threw me off my routine and sleep, at least for that day. We ended watching most of the games, so everything was a little delyaed on those nights.

Still, got the newsletter done and out and that was the project for the week. For the most part, it writes itself, as it's a collection of things we've already done and most of the sections are standard, though there is new writing as well, including a Heard on Campus (it is supposed to be the school paper), a recommendation, and a highlight on twins. If you're curious you can always subscribe. And this is not a substack asking for money; our newsletter is monthly and free.

On the Powers Squared front, I think we're getting close to signing a new artist.

Four reviews on Trophy Unlocked this week and none of them mine, which is okay. Wednesday was Game Day with Trevor's look at Little Nightmares III. That was followed on Thursday with Paul's review of Fobia, Vol, 1, a horror anthology by Derrick Acosta of Mega64. Friday saw Paul's review of Silent Hill f  and Saturday Trevor's review of Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc.

No review this week from me and we didn't even watch any of The Batman serial that we've been watching. Blame the Dodgers for that, too, going into extra innings and all. We had just come from watching Back to the Future. My sons have loved the movie, but had never seen it in a theater. Hopefully, we'll get back our routine next week.

Our podcast this week was Halloween-themed. Since it was to air, originally, on Halloween, we decided to reminisce about past Halloweens, which was really fun. You can watch it for the next few days on our twitch channel, or listen to the audio here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm to watch it on our YouTube channel.

Once again, no new queries from me and, surprise, surprise, no responses from agents either.

I did some work this week on Blackmail. I thought of a plot point that would allow me to make the story more interesting and still add to my word count, which is at 64,583, still 15,000+ short. As always, I want to work on it more.

Next week, it will be back to Standard Time and I hope the switch goes well.

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

A Week in Writing #563 - New Issue of The Blade of Miracles

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

Well, it's not Powers Squared, but there will be a new issue of The Blade of Miracles, which will be released later this week. The eighth issue of a twelve-issue run is called "Mordred, Part 1" and, as they all have been, was written, drawn and lettered by Trevor and edited by Paul. The issue will be available in print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

It should be no surprise that the release of "Mordred, Part 1" was the subject of our podcast on Friday, OAPS #322 - TBOM #8 Preview. If you missed it, you can stil catch it on twitch.tv/powerssquared for the next few days, listen to it here or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm.

To support the release, I've written a press release and a new The Bark, both of which are pending review.

Trevor has been busy, as he also had four reviews on Trophy Unlcoked this week, starting with Me & My Katamari on Monday followed by Second Look - Beautiful Katamari (+ DLC) on Tuesday, Katamari Forever; and Second Look - Touch My Katamari on Friday. My review of Frankenstein was the Saturday Morning Review. No new review this week from me.

We did watch the original Scream on Friday and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc on Sunday morning, so I would be expecting reviews for them to be out in the near future.

We attended LightBox Expo on Saturday in Pasadena. Though the Con has panels, which are hard to get into, it is basically a giant artist alley. We walked the floor, talked to some artists, made a few invitations to appear on our podcast and spent a lot of money. Just me and the boys this time. Fun and tiring, but no report from the front for this one.

Some work this week on Blackmail. I'm now over 63,000 words, so there is progress. I've gone back through the book and made edits for the time being and I'm working on a new chapter. I'm still about 17,000 words short of my goal, but the important thing is to keep working on it.

This coming week is, once again, newsletter time, so I'll be working on that.

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

A Week in Writing # 562 - The Time Had Come

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

Well, things finally came to a head this week and I fired the artist on Powers Squared. It was not something I wanted to do, but after two months and no finished pages and two weeks and no response to a direct message, I didn't feel like I had a choice. It was time to move on. We're in the process of looking for a new artist and hopefully we'll find one soon. There have, so far, been only four artists to draw the book, which isn't bad for 28 issues. One drew five, another drew four, this last one did only one and one aritst drew 18 issues in all.

On this week's podcast, Paul and I discussed horror movies, in time for Halloween. I figured if we did it on Halloween it would be too late. For me, watching horror films after Halloween is a little like watching Christmas movies in January; the season has passed. You can still watch it on our twitch channel for the next few days, listen to it now here, or wait and watch it in all its glory on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT here. The choice is yours.

Next week's podcast should be a preview for the next issue of Trevor's book The Blade of Miracles, #8, "Mordred, Part 1". There is also a new review of the book for your perusal. And the peek-of-the-week is from that book as well.

Speaking of horror films, or more like Gothic Science Fiction, we attended a screening of Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein this past Saturday. I was anxious to see it because I had read the Mary Shelley novel and had high hopes del Toro's version would be a closer adaptation to the book than Universal's Frankenstein (1931) had been. My review will go up next Saturday, so you'll have to wait until then to know how I feel about the new movie.

In the meantime, Paul's review of Tron: Ares went up on Saturday on Trophy Unlocked. And on Game Day Wednesday, Trevor's review of the PC game Tron: Catalyst was featured.

I also did some prelimary research on the Batman serial we're watching, though we didn't watch any this past Saturday.

More work on Blackmail this week, but more like editing, though I did add a chapter. The word count is now 61,671, so some movement forward on that. This Tuesday past was my wife's birthday, so I took the day off. Since it was raining, we sheltered in place for half the day and I was able to get some work done on the book.

No new queries this week. I've got to get back on that horse soon.

The next week, we'll keep working on finding a new artist and I hope to get in more writing on Blackmail.

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

A Week in Writing #561 - Not As Bad As Advertised

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

I sort of lost part of a day this week. It was colonoscopy time again, which I had scheduled for Wednesday. I feared I would be more out of it that day/night, but it wasn't that bad. I'm not going to make this blog about getting screened, but it's better to know either way than not know. I'll leave it to you to decide what you want to do.

I did do some writing on Blackmail, which was supposed to be the week's main event. I ended up adding a new chapter and making some other revisions. Now, I'm up to 61,000+ words, but still about 19,000 to go with more story to tell.

Our podcast this week was our 21st Comic Book Club, Grommets by Rick Remender and Brian Posehn. Julia Canon and Rachel Wells joined us for the discussion. You can see it for the next few days on our twitch channel, listen to it here or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PT. Our next book will be Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue, if you want to virtually participate. Not sure when that podcast will be made.

We had a bit of a discussion, offline, about the sitch with Powers Squared and I will be letting our current artist go come Monday. By then it will have been two weeks of radio silence, which for me is a no-go. We've been stuck about five pages in on an issue for over two months, so I don't see it getting done this year. Time to make a change.

The Saturday Morning Review this week on Trophy Unlocked was my review of The Sound of Music. Next week will be Paul's for Tron: Ares, which we watched yesterday in IMAX 3D, the way it was intended. We're still slogging our way through The Batman 1943 serial, so that review is still several weeks away.

I need to get back into the query game soon. Hopefully next week or the week after, depending on how things go.

This week, I also need to prep for the next issue of The Blade of Miracles #8, "Mordred, Part 1", which is coming out at the end of the month, October 29. Several things need to happen before then, so it's not a mad rush like last month.

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

A Week in Writing #560 - Newsletter Week, Again!

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

My whole family had our COVID vaccinations yesterday. It seems vaccines effect people differently. Besides the sore shoulder, I know that at about 10 last night my mind went to mush. Now, it seems to do that more and more to me anyway. I try to write until about 11 pm and some nights by 10:30 I'm really done. If I'm not falling asleep at the keyboard, then I'm in a half-sleep haze, wanting to do something but not quite making it happen. Time for bed at that point.

For our podcast on Friday, we interviewed Lewis Fenton of Mythos Comics. They were one of the booths next to us in Small Press at San Diego Comic-Con. It was a pretty good interview, and I ended up buying some books off their website as a result. One that Lewis had worked on, The Brave, is the story of Squanto, the indian who came forward to help the Pilgrims and also spoke perfect English. I also bought the two issues of Samaritan, a comic book that started out as a screenplay but became a comic book when the script didn't sell, but when it did, they lost rights to the story, so the book only had two issues. You can hear more by listening to the podcast here, watching it on twitch.tv/powerssquared for the next few days, or catching it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday after 2:30 pm PDT.

Following our interview, we watched Samaritan, which lives on Amazon Prime, and I wrote a review of it over the weekend. As always, not sure when it will go up. However, my review of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale did go up as Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review. Earlier in the week, on Game Day Wednesday, Paul's review of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach went up as well.

This week was sort of dominated by The Hound Dogs' Howl, our monthly newsletter. This month, the featured twins are Bridgette and Paula Powers, no relation to Marty and Eli Powers, from Australia. There is also a round up of stories about Powers Squared, The Blade of Miracles and our videos and podcasts on YouTube. It's FREE if you want to subscribe. In keeping with the collegiate theme, you "enroll" at San Romero Community College to get on the list, plus you get a free digital copy of Issue #1. You can sign up here. End of plug.

I am about finished with our current artist on Powers Squared. I believe I mentioned last week that we got pages a week and a day late, but there has been no communication back since we sent her comments, which we sent on the 29th and we're coming up on a week of radio silence. I don't like firing people, but it seems to be headed in that direction.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we sent in the physical issues required as part of the application for Small Press. They had to be postmarked by the 11th, but I wanted to get them sent and not have to worry.

Some work this week as well on Blackmail; remember, this was supposed to be a newsletter week. I'm writing a couple of chapters that are out of my wheelhouse totally, so I'm making up procedures that a law enforcement organization would follow. It makes me feel rather tentative while writing it. My best hope is to get through it, which I've done. I'm at 58,526 words, which is about 22,00 short, with more to come.

I've got to get back to Blackmail this week, though I will warn you I'm going to miss a day, but that can wait until next week.

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