A Week in Writing #603 - Botching My Way Through

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

I'm embarassed to admit it but I botched the release of the previous OAPS video. We had, I would think, a good intereview with Jamal Anansi, a comic book writer we tabled next to at Pasadena Comic Con. The problem, for me, was getting it up on our YouTube channel. We normally post the previous Friday night podcast on the following Wednesday on YouTube, and I thought I had scheduled it. However, when I took a look after work, I noticed it wasn't there. Panicking, I tried to release it but it wouldn't let me, for some reason. Paul suggested I refresh the page, which I did and then I could schedule it. Today, when I was scheduling the next video and adding it to our web page, I noticed that for that video, it was pointing to the one before it and probably had for a week. I feel bad. I wrote an email to our guest but I never heard back. And, like many, I don't think he mentioned his appearance on any social media, either. I'm not sure if that's an issue with other podcasters out there, but a mention would help with views.

This past podcast, which I can assure you has been scheduled, was an update about Powers Squared. We haven't released a book in six months. That was a conscious decision, as we had a bit of an issue with our artist at the time and fell way behind schedule. I held back the last issue planned for last year until now, especially since we were releasing an issue a month of Trevor's The Blade of Miracles. The upcoming issue will be our 27th. It's a departure for us, as this is a potential spin off of two characters from previous issues. This time, for sure, you can watch it here for the next few days, listen to it here, or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel at 2:30pm on Wednesday.

My main goal this week was to work on editing Blackmail, which I had decided was done. So, on Monday night, I printed out the first 50 or so pages, or so I thought. My wonderful, and I'm saying that sarcastically, HP printer needed black ink, which I had. Oh, but then it needed yellow ink (or whatever color they call it), which I had. But no we're not done. It also needed red ink. I was out of red ink and since the local office places were closing in fifteen minutes, I was done, with only pages 38-52 or some such. I had to order ink for overnight delivery, which I did. But why does a printer need red ink to print black?

I'm only about 138 pages into the editing. Some because of the delay but also because I'm getting tired and brain dead early some nights. By about 10, I'm practically useless. Not all nights, but just enough to be a problem.

I did finish my review of That'll Be the Day and am currently working one for Blithe Spirits. As always don't know when either is going up. But Trophy Unlocked waits for no one and there have been several reviews this past week, staring with Trevor's review of Star Fox on Wednesday, his review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) on Friday, and then Paul's review of Mission: Impossible III as the Saturday Morning Review. Paul's review of Hoppers will go up tomorrow.

I believe my rewrites for the next Powers Squared story arc are complete and we'll be getting to work on that very, very soon.

My goals for this week, and I'm taking into account the time change which sort of f-s me up for a few days, is to work more on Blackmail and finish my review of Blithe Spirits. I hope the time change doesn't impact you negatively this week.

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

A Week in Writing #602 - But Who's Counting?

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

If you're a regular reader or only occassionally look at my posts, you might be wondering why the number is so much higher than say two weeks ago. Well, that's because, much to my chagrin, I noticed last Sunday, as I was posting, that I had made a mistake in numbering, having gone from 570-something to 550-something many weeks back. Looking back I see that I had skipped numbers twice before as well as misnumbered the last half year or so of posts. I decided not to go back to the 100s where the first skip happened and just renumbered the last 21 to bring in closer to the right number. My apologies, but no one else had caught it either (that's what comments are for).

Something that we haven't misnumbered is our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. For our 340th podcast, our guest this week was Jamal Anansi, a comic book writer who tabled next to us at Pasadena. He's the writer on a couple of books, both out soon through Studio Skye-Tiger Comics, Ebony and the Hall of Dragons, and Sincere American Nightmare. You can still watch this for a few more days on our twitch channel, listen to it here or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm to watch it on our YouTube channel. And while you're there, please subscribe and follow. To accomodate Jamal's schedule, we recorded on Tuesday night.

This week also saw the release of the final issue of  Trevor's The Blade of Miracles, issue #12 "Farewell Britton". This release did not go smoothly. We had a bit of an issue with the primary printer, which wasn't their fault, but it's still not available on their website just yet. Also, The Bark, which goes out to subscribers, got botched and went out way later than I would have wanted. Mailchimp apparently added another step in the sending process, which I must have overlooked.

Work continues on the next issue of Powers Squared with our artist turning in pages multiple times during the week. That in and of itself is great, but each page has to be reviewed and comments written up and sent, which is time-consuming but necessary.

I've also been working this week on rewrites on the next story arc, "Aroma Therapy". I actually went through a few rewrites this week, tweaking and editing. I'm sure there will be more editing before it's ready.

This was also newsletter week. I'm happy to report the latest Hound Dogs' Howl went out this morning. Again, it's not a hard project, just time consuming. You're invited to join the mailing list, which is "enrolling" at San Romero Community College. It's FREE and there are no further obligations. It's different content than these posts. The school is "celebrating" it's 70th anniversary this year, having been founded in 1956. (It's a make believe school, but it's where some of the action takes place in the Powers Squared books.)

The Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked was Paul's review of Mission: Impossible 2. I'm working on a review of That'll Be the Day (1973). Rather than cleansing the DVR, this was from a blu-ray. As always, not sure when this review will appear on the site.

All this mentioning of time-consuming projects is my way of telling you I didn't work on Blackmail at all this week. Not for a lack of desire, but rather the lack of hours in the day. I'm close to finishing and then, of course, there are rewrites and editing to follow. Finishing it will be my project for the week.

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

A Week in Writing #601 - Happy the Week is Over

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

You ever have what seems like a busy week but when it's over, you're not sure if you accomplished much?

Case in point for me. I believe I mentioned in a past post that I was having communication problems with our printer. I could go on their message board and leave a message but then never see it. Well, they cleared that up but never told me, so it was by chance that I looked this weekend. I found out the details why the last iteration of The Blade of Miracles #12 had been off, and I made the corrections. However, when I went to order the reprint, I somehow got Issue #3 with changes and then Issue #12 without changes. I don't need a new #3 and it was #12 I needed to change. I wrote them and sent a link to the revised one in a dropbox. Fingers crossed it will work out.

That said, Issue #12 is coming out on Wednesday through The Campus Store. We prerecorded a preview of the issue, as well as a tier list for Daft Punk, a band Trevor like very much, who retired five years ago this month. Paul did some pretty good editing and it's available here for the next few days, can be listened to here and will be on our YouTube channel on Wedneday at 2:30 pm PST.

We're getting close to completing the artwork for Issue #29 of Powers Squared, though it's going a little slower than I would have expected. We're about three pages and a cover away.

Sort of unexpectantly, my review of the first Mission:Impossible movie went up as the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. It's not like I didn't know it was going up, but we've decided to publish reviews for the first three films in that series and now was as good a time as any. I'm currently working on a review for Brief Encounter (1945).

I did get some work done on Blackmail. We're now up to 86,409 words and I think I'm in the landing zone for finishing the first draft. It's going to need work, but I'd be happy to get to the editing stage.

That may take a backseat to some rewrites I need to do to a Powers Squared script and this is going to be newsletter week and we're pre-recording a podcast on Tuesday night for Friday. Hopefully, I'll get through that week, too.

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

A Week in Writing #600 - Not My Best Week

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

Not a banner week for me to say the least. And there are a number of factors involved, but I was never able this week to really sit down and write, like I wanted to. I won't go into specifics, but everything aligned this week to keep me from doing too much. My main goal was to work on Blackmail, but the word count changed miniscully to 82,690, which is less than a 100 words up from last week. I've done a lot of thinking about it but that doesn't get words on the page or in the computer.

We had better success with our guest on our podcast On the Air with Powers Squared. Heidi Neunhoffer, a Lorcana artist that the boys liked, was at Pasadena Comic Con, at the table across from us. She agreed to do the show and I think it went very well. Turns out we both went to the same college, though I imagine it was close to 40 years apart. Besides that, she was very open about her craft. I think it could have gone on much longer, but I think we got in a lot at over 81 minutes. You can still watch it for the next few days here (our twitch channel) or listen to it ,or find other platforms to listen to it, here. There is always the option to watch in our YouTube channel at 2:30 pm PST on Wednesday.

Two new pages of Powers Squared were worked on and I really like the artwork. Not sure how the coloring or the lettering is going, but we should have a new issue done in a couple of months. Not quite the assembly line, but pretty good.

No word yet on either WonderCon or ComicCon where we are currently on the waitlist.

Had some printing issues this week, trying to communicate. The printer used a sort of message board where you ask about a particular order or issues in general. However, for whatever reason, if I post a message, I can't see it and when they post a message, I can't see it either. That's not good to say the least.

My review of Little Amélie or the Character of Rain went up on Saturday. It's one of the films nominated for Best Animated Feature. While I fear what the Academy will do, this one should win, but I'm set for disappointment. I'm currently working on a review for Till The End of Time (1946), which will go up sometime in the future.

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

A Week in Writing #599 - Blame it on the Bunny!

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

I know it looks like I'm looking for excuses, but hear me out. I'm going to blame my lack of production on Bugs Bunny. I know it sounds far-fetched, but he was the Star of the Month on TCM and my wife wanted to watch them in real time. This delayed dinner, but my window to work didn't get later. And, hey, I enjoyed them, too.

I'm most disappointed by my work on Blackmail, which was practically nil. I did finish the chapter, but it's going to need a lot of rewrites when the time comes. I'm up to 82,586, which is a little over 1,100 words from last week, which is about average. I'm really surprised to see that total.

It wasn't that I didn't do anything. I did review work from our artist and colorist for Powers Squared, and, of course, pay them for their work from last month.

As "publisher" of The Blade of Miracles, I had a week-long running issue with our printer. While it dates back to a mistake I made in the order, it took a week to work out the upload, but they got it done and the proof is on its way.

I also did some work on future issues of Powers Squared.

Related, the school where it takes place, San Romero Community College, is celebrating it's 70th anniversary and we were working with a former artist on the book to come up with a variant seal to celebrate. You can find here, if you're interested.

There was also the podcast. This week it was one Paul wanted to do, a Megadeth Tier List, celebrating the 17 albums the band has issued. You can watch it here for the next few days, listen to it now here or wait and watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm when it premieres on our YouTube channel.

My review of They Call it Sin was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I also wrote a future review of Little Amélie or the Character of Rain which I assume will go up soon.

So, not the worst week I've had writing but not the best one either.

As always, I hope to work more on Blackmail but I don't always control what is going on.

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

A Week in Writing #598 - Didn't Get it All Done

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

My goals for this week were simple enough: do the newsletter, The Hound Dog's Howl, and work more on Blackmail. Well, I got about half of that done, it was the newsletter. Even though much of it is formulaic, it still takes time. And by formulaic, I don't mean that I'm in possession of some magic formula about how to put together a newsletter, but more that there is a layout to ours that I follow month in and month out. There is some writing involved, things do happen during the month. This past month, as an example, we had a new issue of The Blade of Miracles released, we tabled at a convention and our latest trade went up on ComicsPlus through LibraryPass. If you would like to read it, please subscribe here. It's FREE.

The work on Blackmail never really got off the ground. I'm up to 80,472 words, which isn't much of an improvement from last week. Things happen that get in the way. Some of it is the book itself. I knoew what I want to have happen in the next chapter but sometimes it's a little difficult to get into it.

Our podcast this week, was our 22nd Comic Book Club. It seems like it had been months since I had read Vagabond, a manga by Takehiko Inoue, which wasn't the plan. When you're trying to schedule five people in two cities, and people have their own lives, it can be hard, especially when you're working around the holidays. Our former artist Rachel Wells, and our current colorist, Julia Canon, joined Trevor, Paul and myself. You can listen to it here, watch it for the next few days on our twitch channel, or wait until Wedmesday at 2:30 pm PST and watch it on our YouTube channel. While you're there, please feel free to subscribe and sign up for notifications.

Quite an active week on Trophy Unlocked. On Wednesday, Paul's review of Iron Lung went up. He and Trevor had attended what was supposed to be the first screening of the film on Tuesday night. The Saturday Morning Review was my review of Samaritan, a digital release based on the comic book by a friend of a friend. We had watched it after Lewis Felton had appeared on our podcast and talked about how his business partner had written a spec script that didn't sell, but when he made it into a comic book, that sold. If you want to hear more, you can check out the interview with Lewis Fenton here.

I've also written a review of The Beast of the City, a 1932 MGM film starring Walter Huston and Jean Harlow. As always, no idea when it will appear.

This past Wednesday saw the release of issue 11 of Trevor's The Blade of Miracles. You can find it in both physical and digital at The Campus Store on our website. I'm still working on getting #12 ready for release later this month.

On the Powers Squared front, I feel like I'm in a waiting pattern. Our new artist should be delivering a new page soon, our colorist should be sending new colored pages soon and I'm working with our old artist about a new seal to celebrate SRCC's 70th anniversary. San Romero Community College is the ficticious school where a lot of the comic book takes place in and around. Amd according to the story, it was founded in 1956. I'll be sharing the new seal when done.

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

A Week in Writing #597 - Report From the Front: A One Day Con

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

We're a little late this week, thanks to tabling at the Pasadena Comic Con. While the con was over by 5, I was too brain dead to write this post, by the time we got home.

Having tabled at SDCC, Pasadena Comic Con is a few steps down the ladder from that. You can tell it's run on a shoe string. The room we ended up in reminded me a little of WonderCon, as it seemed to be off the beaten path, but also it was very low light. And our table, though near the entrance, was also a bit off the path of most visitors. But you can't blame everything on placement. However, we did hear that it was slow for many, sales wise, and very slow for us, only two copies of Trevor's The Blade of Miracles. 

The con was a learning expreience though. Here's what I learned:

    The day started before 6 am with loading the truck in the dark. Learned it would be better to do that the day before. Still managed to get most everything in the bed, but no need to wait. I'm also considering a shell for the back that would increase the storage vertically as well.

    Too many issues on display. So far, with Powers Squared and The Blade of Miracles, we have 38 issues and 2 trades, which frankly is overwhelming and requires two display racks. In future, we're going to have just trades and the first issues out, with the others ready to go. We're also thinking about having something to show the story arcs out without it being the issues themselves.

    Offer free things. We have Starbursts, but our table neighbor had stickers, and they weren't even related to his book. However, it got people to stop and take them, start a conversation and he made sales. I'm liking the idea of stickers, but also bookmarks.

    Have a QR code on the table. Again, it worked for our neighbor. People didn't even seem to ask what it was, but accessed it instinctively.

Besides making new friends, it was nice to reconnect with familiar faces, who were at the Con. Former guests on the podcast include Tony Fleecs, Livio Ramondelli, Stephen E. Gordon and Bin Lee. We also reconnected with the first artist we had tried to work with on Powers Squared, who was also tabling a couple of rows over. While we never got off the ground with them, it was nice to reconnect.

While the Con sort of dominated the weekend, other things also moved forward. There were three reviews on Trophy Unlocked, Paul reviewed the Megadeth: Behind the Mask listening party on Friday, Trevor's review of Anvil! The Story of Anvil on Saturday, and Paul's review of Return to Silent Hill. Meanwhile, I completed a review of The House on Telegraph Hill for later consumption.

I also managed to work some more on Blackmail, mostly some edits further back in the story, currently a flashback that gets told. So now, the word count is 80,025, and I still have a few chapters to go.

In the meantime, work continues on new pages for Powers Squared. 

And let's not forget, the podcast. This week's was a very brief preview of issue #11 of Trevor's The Blade of Miracles, which comes out on Wednesday and will be available in digital and print through The Campus Store on our website. You can still watch it for a few days here, listen to it here or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel here Wedensday after 2:30 PST.

This coming week, I need to work again on our newsletter,The Hound Dogs' Howl, and hopefully make more progress on Blackmail.

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