Sunday, August 28, 2016

A Week in Writing #105

Nothing like getting all dressed up and having no place to go. Finished the comic book on Sunday, but it was too big to email and I haven't heard back from the man I want to send it to about an alternative method. Got an email last Friday from an agent about sending her my manuscript, but they neglected to open my online submission so I can do it. Add to that and we haven't heard from the artist or colorist for a couple of days, even after pinging them. As Tom Petty once sang "waiting is the hardest part."

Speaking of waiting for no reason, Wednesday night got my thumbdrive back. Apparently the guy I gave it to never looked at it. I know he blames the FBI raid, see previous post, but in reality he's also said he was going to look at it on Thursday, a couple of days before the raid. Then he claimed he was having laptop issues and even after the raid he said he had access to two different computers, but still a week later, never had a chance to look at it.  Funny thing, when I was going to reuse the thumb drive, I noticed that there was an entire movie on the drive, Lost in Translation. Wasn't there when I gave it to him. He claims someone else did it, he's not saying who or why the thumbdrive was left unattended.

As a writer you want to share what you've written and get feedback, but there's a certain trust involved. As a reader you're supposed to safeguard the writer's work, not walk away and leave it up on someone else's computer.

Better things happened on Friday. To start with, the agent who contacted me through Submittable, got back to me and opened the portal. It was only after I uploaded the manuscript and closed the portal did I realize that they prefer Times New Roman and I had the manuscript formatted to Courier New. I wrote an email write away, but I haven't heard anything since. Not sure if they don't read emails over the weekend or what. Hopefully, it should be okay. Else, as I wrote her, I'd be happy to redo.

Also met on Friday with the development guy at the Comic-Con channel about From Fan to Creator. I don't think anything is imminent with it, but he didn't totally discourage me, even saying that he thought it was a strong pitch, especially for the first one I'd ever done. The channel hasn't gotten to Comic Books, which he hopes it will; nor are they looking at the moment for competition shows. But he did say he has it in a stack to look at if and when the time comes. He also asked me what else I was working on and I mentioned the comic book and gave him a copy of the Powerpoint I'd made the weekend before. Can't hurt. Of course, when I was making more copies this weekend, I found I had grabbed the wrong image for one of the pages. It's always something.

Things have been coming in dribs and drabs on the comic book. We're going back and forth with the artist on a couple of panels on one page. Still in the layout/pencil stage, so changes are relatively easy. Still, days go by sometimes between pages and I'm never sure why that is. I know I'm not the only paying client, but I don't know why there are several day gaps in between.

The colorist hasn't gotten past page 1. There have been consistency errors again. We compared page 20 to page 1 and the coloring on one of the characters seems to have changed. I think he's fixing, but he's even harder to figure out than the artist. I see he's looking for more clients, but I don't want to feel like I'm getting shafted as a result. During the summer, I had written to both with the stretch goal of being done by Labor Day. That looks highly unlikely given the rate we're going. I plan to write to both on Labor Day asking them to pick up the pace. The first part took far too long to complete.

My letterer's computer troubles continue. Geek Squad, where we took it after HP was of no help, even though it's under warranty, kept telling us to buy the wrong replacement parts. I don't understand why I have to buy these parts in the first place. When I take my car in for repair and they say I need a new radiator, they don't expect me to buy one and bring it in. Why does Geek Squad expect me to buy the parts, in this case a solid state harddrive? First they told us to buy any solid state hard drive, wrong. It had to be a particular type, which they told us and we bought. Only, you guessed it wrong. Today Paul's computer was having the same issue (can mine be far behind) and we found out the part we had ordered was also wrong. Turns out Geek Squad had two drives that would work, so the repairs should be done soon. But what a hassle and run around.

I began this week to rewrite the synopsis for Public and Private, but I haven't had time to finish it yet. I think I need a better one for some other agents I want to query. I'll admit to getting a little confused when an agent asks for a synopsis, since I don't know how long of a one they want. So I'm going to write the best one I can and use that. I actually think I was on to something with the rewrite.

Pubished a review on Trophy Unlocked for Titanic (1943), a Nazi propaganda film about the sinking of the famous ocean liner in 1912. Apparently, the English were a bunch of capitalist cowards and the Germans, mostly in steerage, were brave and honorable. Sort of an odd film. No new reviews this week.

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