A Week in Writing #538 - Getting Going

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

Okay, this week, I got on the query train and sent out my first query email of the year. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it was necessary to get over the hump, as it were, and see if I can get an agent. I read somewhere that you're supposed to tell the story in the query, so I did that. I'm not sure if it was too much or too little and I'm sure what I'm doing is probably wrong, so I'll have to look into that before I send the next one out. So, the count is one out and no rejections or DNRs, at least so far.

On the subject of writing, I did more work this week on Blackmail; actually trying to make it more of a priority. I'm up to 28,640 words, which is about 4000 more than last week, so it does pay off. I'm not sure I can keep that pace up, at least not this coming week, more on that later. I'm going back to add in some more details, and a subplot. I don't want to bore you with the story too much. But safe to say, progress is being made.

Speaking of progress, got pages back from our colorist this week and we're now about four pages away from finishing an issue. The hold up is the artwork and since I'm being ghosted by the artist, I don't know the status of them. I'm afraid there might be changes coming in the creative staff if this continues. I love the artwork, but it's the radio silence and the lack of progress that's getting me to my breaking point.

New issue of The Blade of Miracles to discuss. The second issue should be available on Wednesday, again not sure if everyone will be ready, but I'm hoping. It should be available in print and digital through The Campus Store.

There are two OAPS podcasts this week. And, one of them is a preview of the above issue, "Lady of the Lake" and our special guest is Trevor. You can listen to it now here, or wait until Wednesday and watch it on our YouTube channel, here. 

As if that wasn't enough, there's a second [Secret Episode], our monthly team meeting, which included only our colorist, Julia Canon, but it was a good time. We taped it a week ago Saturday to try to accomodate everyone's schedule. You can listen to it here or watch it on Wednesday here. It comes out 15 minutes after the first one. 

As far as Trophy Unlocked is concerned, the Saturday Morning Review was Trevor's review of Sherlock Gnomes. This week's Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's review of Sonic Unleashed for the PS3. I'm currently working on a review of The Boy Friend (1971), which was recently, like Saturday morning, on TCM. It's a favorite of my wife's, so we watched it right away.

This coming week, in addition to another query, and more Blackmail, I need to work on the newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, which is due next Sunday. You can, of course, receive your own copy by enrolling at SRCC. It's free and it would keep me from having to mention it if you do. Sounds like a good bargain to me.

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

A Week in Writing #537 - Only So Many Hours in the Day

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

There are so many hours in the week for me. And while I try to stay active, sometimes, like this week, time runs out. Case in point, on Thursday night, my query night, I spent about an hour and a half working on a query letter and including the number of pages the agent states they want. But when I checked to make sure I had covered everything, I discovered they were closed to queries. How long, I don't know. Now, is is my fault that I didn't look before spending that time, but by the time I found this out, I was too tired to look for another agent to send it to. I'm hoping that the time I spent on the query email will pay dividends down the road, but I'm sure there will be an agent that wants only one paragraph to sum up the story or will want something else not in the query so I'm sure not all of it will be used.

And then, there is time shifting. We did a live podcast on Friday night with Scott Lost, a comic book artist and former pro wrestler that we met at this past WonderCon. As always, you can listen to it here or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm to watch it on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared). I think it was a good interview, so I encourage you to check it out. Then on Saturday morning, we recorded two more podcasts for use later, including a Comic Book Club with Julia Canon and Rachel Wells, to discuss The Sculptor by Scott McCloud, and then a team meeing with Julia. These will appear at later dates. Even though we had scheduled these for a Saturday so everyone could participate, our artist had more pressing things to attend to and could not be a part of them. As they say, the show must go on.

No new review from me this week, because I realized that I hadn't actually finished my review of Lili, from the week before. And, for the first time in a few weeks, the Saturday Morning Review wasn't one I had written. Instead, it was Paul's review of Gnomeo & Juliet. The Wednesday Game Day review was Trevor's about Project Shoreline.

To round up the week, I did more work on Blackmail. Mostly filling in some gaps and, hopefully, adding atmosphere. But the count is now up to 24,670, so it's more like a 1000 words a week, rather than a 1000 words a day.

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

A Week in Writing #536 - 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 #535 - The Letdown Afters

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

Nothing makes you feel less important than having a big event in your life and then no one asking how it went. After tabling at the biggest convention we ever had, no one ever asked how it went. I take that back, one person, not knowing why I was out asked and I told her about it, but it felt like no one cared. I know, "Boo hoo hoo," but it does show me that even though something might be important to you doesn't mean anyone else will give a damn.

Speaking of WonderCon, I've tried to reup for next year but their signup doesn't seem to recognize me and keeps sending me around in circles. Very frustrating. I wrote to someone there, hoping they can help me.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we did recount our experience with Lucas Scheffel asking us questions about it on our latest podcast. OAPS #291 - WonderCon 2025 Recap with Lucas Scheffel is available to listen to here and will be available on our YouTube channel on Wednesday after 2:30 pm here. Lucas is always a lot of fun to talk to, so it's worth a watch or listen.

This was also newsletter week. Again, we recapped the highlights from WonderCon, list out the videos from the month, highlighted twin brother comic book creators, and had our monthly recommendation to name the highlights. If you'd like to receive the newsletter, enroll at SRCC here. As a reminder, SRCC is a made-up school where much of Powers Squared takes place and enrollment is free.

My review for The Cat in the Hat (1971), a TV Special, was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlcoked. To show you how long some of these have been sitting around, that review dates back to 2020. I think we finally posted to get rid of it, but that's how it goes sometimes.

I'm currently working on a review of Rancho Notorious (1952), what I've heard described as a cult Western. You'll have to wait if you want to know what I thought about it. We watched it last night from a DVR recording that was 8 years old.

Wrote some on Blackmail this week, though I'm not proud of how much. 20,513 words so far.

I need to start the query process this week; I need more rejection in my life. I haven't really thought much about it the last few weeks, but it's time to get my feet wet.

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

A Week In Writing #534 - 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 #533 - 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 #552 - Podcast Fun

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

As a reader of this blog, you are no doubt aware that we, Powers Squared, do a weekly podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. This past week, Friday and Saturday, we recorded three. The first was a preview for Trevor's book The Blade of Miracles Issue #1 that we shot that afternoon. That one didn't go through our usual, twitch.tv/powerssquared, but directly to Podbean, et al on Sunday, which you can listen to now here, and the video will go up on Wednesday, March 19th at 2:31 pm, here. That's OAPS #288.

The reason it's one minute later, is that we also went live on Friday at 6 pm with creator and artist Don Nguyen. Since we're tabling at Wonder Con this year, we invited Don on to give us some advice about the show. You can also listen to that here, or you can wait until that video goes up on Wednesday, March 19th at 2:30 pm here. That's OAPS #287.

And, if that wasn't enough, we recorded a third OAPS on Saturday afternoon with Julia and Jen to discuss the next issue of Powers Squared, "Gashadokuro". It was the first book Julia had drawn and the first Jen had colored. Due to their work schedules, Saturdays are the only days they are both available. That OAPS #289 comes out next Friday on twitch.tv/powerssquared. 

We did get some new sketch pages from our artist this week, so happy to report we're making some progress on issue #28.

Okay, here's the plug for Wonder Con. If you're going, please stop by and say hi. We'll be in Small Press, SP-05. To make it easier to find us, see map below:

My review of Conclave went up as the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I'm also working on two more, one for Waitress, which we watched on Friday, Pi(e) Day. If you've seen the movie, you'll get it. On Saturday night, we watched Merrily We Go To Hell (1932), a Pre-code drama directed by Dorothy Arzner, which I'm also reviewing.

To round out the week, I am continuing to work on Blackmail, and am now up to 14,605 words.

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