A Week in Writing #518 - And It Gets Worse

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

I have not been able to do that for most of the week and it's starting to drive me crazy. My computer has been at Geek Squad since Sunday afternoon, and the two to three days has stretched into four. If it's not ready by Friday, I'm going to go take it back. I can't go another day without it. I'm starting this on Wednesday night using a Chromebook and the whole process is only adding to my aggravation, with the small keyboard and several sites not logging in for whatever reason.

I can't make posts on some sites, like LinkedIn, which doesn't trust that my password is my password. (Agghh!) And some apps I haven't logged into in years, like Grammarly, won't stop trying to launch. (Double Agghh!!) The Chromebook is better than nothing, but not by much.

And, if that wasn't bad enough, my glasses broke for the second time this year and I've had to resort to an old pair, vintage unknown. Just what you want to have happen a week before you're going to a five day convention.

For writing, this has been perhaps my worst week so far. I'm finding without being able to write, my whole routine is thrown off and I'm losing my mind in the process.

I finally did get back the laptop on Thursday, but the damage was already done to the week. Add to that planning for SDCC has taken up time as well, even though I don't do the heavy lifting in the process. We usually have several sessions working in all the things you can and cannot do at Comic-Con, as there are events and panels that conflict with each other. Even with planning, nothing is guaranteed. You want to do something and so do another 100,000 people.

We did meet on Thursday night with Jen Moreno, the current colorist and future artist on Powers Squared. Jen has shown some talent, but has never done a comic book before. Feel like we're both experimenting. Paint me cautiously optimistic. She probably won't start drawing it until September, but I would really like to get another issue done this year.

Speaking of that, I did do some rewrites this week on the script, following Paul's feedback. I haven't shown him the rewrite yet, but I hope we're closer.

Our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, which started this week's problems, went off without a hitch. The Geeks couldn't make the update; per the agent I spoke with, some older computers cannot handle the OBS upgrade, which was my problem, but he re-installed the older version.

The podcast itself was Paul and I talking about our prep for SDCC. You can listen now here, or wait until Wednesday, when Comic-Con kicks off, to watch it here. We're planning to talk about our experience the week we get back. But in the meantime, the artists will take over the podcast again, hope you watch when it goes live next Friday at 6pm PDT on twitch.tv/powerssquared.

Our salute to X-Men continued on Trophy Unlocked, with three posts starting on Tuesday with Paul's second look at Deadpool, followed on Thursday with my review of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), followed on Saturday with Trevor's Second Look at Logan and Logan Noir. I'm now two reviews down, having missed last week doing a review of Three Faces East and now Scarface (1932), which we watched last night. Not sure when I'll get to them, but it probably won't be this week, as it is another short one for me.

Again, Skylar got left out in the cold.

Now, just as a reminder, everything will be a little slower next week. This post will be a day late and will be another Report From the Front with what I learned at the Con.

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

A Week in Writing #517 - From Bad to Worse

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

As if things couldn't get worse...

After going a couple of days without air conditioning, and just when things are getting back to normal, it looks like my computer will have to go into the shop. It all started with trying to update OBS, a software we use for our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. What should have been an easy update not only delayed us going live, but after spending three plus hours online with Geek Squad, now appears that the issue couldn't be resolved, at least not over the internet, and I'll have to take the computer in. Not sure that means they can fix it, but that's my next/only alternative.

I'm hoping it won't be long in the shop, as it will impact me if it's even overnight, let alone several days. Not only do I write, including this blog, but I also post on social media in support of Powers Squared and Trophy Unlocked, update the website, etc.

Speaking of Trophy Unlocked, X-Men Month is still going strong, with reviews of  X-Men Origins: Wolverine by Paul going up on Monday morning, followed on Wednesday by my review of X-Men: First Class, followed by Paul's review of The Wolverine on Friday and Trevor's review of X-Men: Days of Future Past as the Saturday Morning Review.

The delayed podcast on Friday was also about the X-Men franchise, with an emphasis on the films, though there was some talk about the animated series that have been based on the comic books. You can listen to it here, where you can also find links to various platforms, or watch it on Wednesday after 2:30 pm here. You can also find links to our video podasts at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/videos.

I'm a little frustrated on the progress of Powers Squared of late. We're waiting for the final pages from our current artist and I reached out to someone whom I believe wants to be the next artist and all I'm hearing back are crickets. I'm not really seeing the advantages of texting and will have to resort to actually calling them to get updates. I feel like that's the old way to do things, but I don't see much of a choice.

I tried to do some writing on Skylar this week, but didn't get far on either Monday or Tuesday. Monday night was sans air-conditioner and I'm finding my creative juices flow better at 73 degrees than say 93 degrees. Tuesday I was too tired after a lousy night of sleep to make much headway.

Prep continues for our annual trip to SDCC. We're in the panels stage now, with each of us reviewing the panels as they're released. As always, you can't do them all. The family will sit down soon to go over what we found and then map out some sort of strategy for the con, which also includes the floor, autographs and exclusives. It's very involved.

So, depending on the RX for the laptop, my writing might be curtailed in the new week. Fingers crossed it will go fast.

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

A Week in Writing #516 - Not the Best Holiday Break

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

I won't go into details, but the time I've had off from work was very expensive for me personally and I mean that in the dollars and cents way. Nothing really bad happened, but keeping up a house can sometimes be very expensive, not to mention maintaining cars. It's been a large financial hit all the way around and time has been spent on other things besides writing because of it.

I did manage to finish a chapter and write a new one for Skylar, including over 1400 words today, which has been a long-time goal not oft reached; hence the name of the page: https://1000wordsadayeasily.blogspot.com.

I'm also working on a review of Man's Castle, a 1933 melodrama starring Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young. As usual, no idea when it will appear on Trophy Unlocked, especially since we're in the midst of X-Men month on the blog. So far, Trevor's review of X-Men (2000) kicked things off on Tuesday, followed by Paul's review of  X2 (2003) on Thursday and my review of X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) as the Saturday Morning Review. During July, we will review all of the X-Men movies and a video game, culminating with Deadpool & Wolverine at the end. See, there is method to the madness.

On the Powers Squared front, Paul, Trevor and myself, the creators of the comic book, did our own character tier list as this week's OAPS podcast. This was in reaction to a similar tier list done the week before by the artists (Julia Canon, Jen Moreno, and artist emeritus, Rachel Wells). You can listen to ours here or watch it later, on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared), on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT, here.

To give you a preview, here's the artists' version:

and here is ours:

You can decide which is right. (See last week's post for links to their podcasts (audio and video).

We opened the banner we ordered for LA Comic-Con and it looks good. I was worried that the QR code wouldn't work, but it does. Haven't put it all together yet, but will share when that happens. We also received the t-shirts we ordered for the Con as well. While we're not going to be selling them there, we wanted to be able to wear everything available. There will be a discount for anyone who buys during the Con online.

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

A Week in Writing #515 - The Artists Takeover

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

We're a day late since I was driving most of Sunday. Too tired to really think much after 9+ hours behind the wheel. I have to give longhaul truck drivers credit, as I don't think I could ever do that.

Thanks to the artists, both past and present, for taking over our podcast in our absence. They decided to do a tier list of the characters from Powers Squared (there's a tab on the home page) if you want to play along. You can watch them on Wednesday at 2:30 pm on our YouTube channel. The audio is coming to https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps. Not sure I 100% agree with their ratings and am proposing the creators of the book do one of our own.

We're trying to map out podcasts for the month of July, and the artists will return at the end of the month, when we're off at San Diego Comic-Con. Speaking of which, last week, I heard from SDCC about tabling for this year's show (I was on the waiting list). As great an opportunity that would have been, I'm not prepared enough for that show, so I had to respectfully decline the last minute offer. Perhaps I would have been more ready to go if we had tabled somewhere before, but I'm not even sure I have everything I'll need and don't want to blow the opportunity by not being ready for it (and the additional costs associated with it as well).

Part of what I want to learn about tabling, for LA Comic-Con is, hopefully, going to come from speaking with small press exhibitors at SDCC. They are, hopefully, in the know and we can get advice before ordering our books. If the opportunity comes up next year, we'll be ready or at least better prepared to go from standing still to the big show.

Speaking of Powers Squared, we had a nice feature in the patreon magazine Mystic Mind #10 from Kirin Comics. I responded to a post, I believe on Facebook, looking for indie comics looking for publicity and we were selected. I'm told we will be considered for a Reader's Choice at the end of the year. You can support them at https://www.patreon.com/kirincomicstuff. If another way comes up to get the magazine, I'll be sure to let you know.

No new reviews from me this week, though my review for American Graffiti was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. Next month, though, July, will be devoted exclusively to X-Men and Deadpool. If you've been reading along, you know that we've been watching all the X-Men franchise films, including Deadpool, now that all pays off. So, keep checking for the first of 15 reviews, including a Deadpool video game and, of course, Deadpool & Wolverine, which will conclude the month. The movie, unfortunately, opens during Comic-Con, but we've reserved seats for the 29th, so it will be reviewed as promptly as possible.

Travelling Friday to Sunday and prepping for that trip, unfortunately, took a hit on my output this week. I did work some on Skylar and feel like I'm finally getting to new parts of the story. I've already mapped out an ending, but there are still several steps before I get there.

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

A Week in Writing #514 - Starting to Take Shape

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

Spent some time this week trying to put the booth for LA Comic-Con into shape. Got out the box of things we used at our last convention appearance, which was over 5 years ago, and started to put together what we're going to need now. This includes a skirt for the table and a new banner for the booth. It was decided by a group vote to have the new banner and the table cloth match colors and then there was agreeing on the placement of the items on the banner.

We already have one for Powers Squared, though it has the old logo on it, but we wanted to have one for SRCC, which is how people join our mailing list. Getting people to sign up is really the goal of the con as far as I'm concerned. I want to sell books, but I want us to expand our reach, too.

While we're not selling t-shirts at the show, they will be on sale on the website. To that end, we ordered some t-shirts to wear at the show. I will, of course, post photos on our website after the event, but until then, you'll just have to imagine what I'm going to look like wearing Julia's chibi Dr. Atlas designed t-shirt.

We were able to ask another creative about their con experience when Lucas Scheffel made his 7th appearance on our podcast, OAPS. Lucas, dressed as his character Gary Gorilla throughout, related his experience with conventions in Australia, which is where he lives. We also discussed his latest Kickstarter for Gary Gorilla, as well as his thoughts on the last two issues of Powers Squared. You can listen to it on or find other platform links on our website: https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps. You can also opt to watch it, and it's worth watching, when it goes up on our YouTube channel on Wedenesday afternoon at 2:30 PDT. While you're there, subscribe and ring the bell, as they say.

Next week, will be the 250th OAPS podcast, but we will be out of town (more on this later), so the artists past, present and possibly future will be taking over the show for us, the first of at least two times this summer.

Speaking of future artists, we took some steps this week on replacing our artist, who is leaving the role at her own choice. Our current colorist has expressed an interest in assuming the artist role and we asked her to draw the four main characters to get the testing underway. Still waiting to see what she comes up with.

I wrote a review this weekend for The Big Trail (1930), John Wayne's first starring role in a film directed by Raoul Walsh. My review of Blondie (1938) was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked.

And there was more work on Skylar this week, though not as much as I would have wanted. I seem to be getting a late start and getting sleepy earlier, which is a bad combination.

Next week, we'll be visiting my wife's family over the weekend, so this missive will be a day late.

That does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week, just a day late.

A Week in Writing #513 - The Show Must Go On

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing and a Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there.

More cancellations on this week's OAPS podcast. We were doing our 14th Comic Book Club podcast, to discuss Pompo: The Cinéphile Vol. 1, story and art by Shogo Sugitani. This time, Jen and Rachel had to pull out at the last minute due to reasons. But, as the old saying goes, the show must go on, so just Julia joined Paul, Trevor and myself on the show. Interestingly, earlier in the week, I had the notion that one or more wouldn't make the show. It was a good show, as we also discussed our three favorite films, since that is also something in the manga. If your curious, you can listen to it on our website. If you want to watch it, it's on our twitch channel now (twitch.tv/powerssquared) but only for  a week. If you're reading this later or want to watch it on our YouTube channel it will be available there on Wednesday afternoon.

Next week, fingers crossed, Lucas Scheffel's rescheduled appearance. We're closing in on #250, but unfortunately, we won't be a part of it, as we're having to go out of town. The good news is that Julia will be hosting another artists' takeover.

My plan this week was to work more on Skylar and it did start out well, with my writing more than 1200 words on Monday, but the progress did slow as the week went on and there was more editing than writing.

I'm currently working on a review of Dark Phoenix (2019) for later in the summer. We've been on a mission to watch all the X-Men films prior to the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, so all will be revealed in good time. Trevor had the last two reviews on Trophy Unlocked with a review of Robot Dreams as the Saturday Morning review and Inside Out 2 up today; we watched it on Friday afternoon in 3D before the podcast.

New issue was released this past Wednesday, Powers Squared Issue #21, "Mission: Istanistan, Part 2". Every release is not without a hiccup or two along the way. One of the platforms we're available on, even with a month's notice, missed the date of release, but did make good the next day. If you're curious, check it out here.

They're far alone from problems. As has been noted here, we did a Graphic Novel version of the first five issues some time back and then did a revised version for a Kickstarter with another platform we're on. Not too long ago, we did another trade for the next four issues, which is currently only available on LibraryPass. However, I wanted to have print versions available for the future. When I submitted the pages, I included the cover and the backcover in the .pdf and they ended up in the book. (My mistake, though it wasn't one I rushed to fix.) This past week, I got around to dealing with it; I wanted to make sure I was following how the previous trade looked. When I downloaded the .pdf being used, it wasn't the right one. Rather that using the .pdf we used for the Kickstarter, the old version was being used (that is, if anyone ordered the book.) I'm still in the process of getting that fixed. This is how I spend my nights sometimes, working through fun stuff like this.

Issue 21 was featured in the Indy Spotlight on First Comics News on Saturday. Always nice to get a little unsolicited push. Much appreciated. I won't go through all the gymnastics I had to do to get this link on our website, but it's there as well, along with the other stories which have featured Powers Squared.

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

A Week in Writing #512 - A Week of Reviews/New Issue

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

Rather than a week in review, this was a week of reviews, as I spent most nights this past week finishing reviews for Trophy Unlocked. I know that doesn't sound like a week's worth of work, but given how things are going, that took the week. A couple of the reviews were pretty far along, American Graffiti and X-Men: Apocalypse, but another was barely started, Pushover. Then there is finding images, spell checking, adding links, posting and placing the images and that takes longer than you might think.

As it turns out, Pushover was the Saturday Morning Review on the blog. That was more of a late Friday night decision but that one's up. The X-Men review will have to wait for summer and I'm not sure when American Graffiti will appear; let's not get ahead of ourselves.

In other news, we have a new issue of Powers Squared coming out on Wednesday. "Mission: Istanistan, Part 2". This issue is a continuaiton of "Mission: Istanistan, Part 1". In that issue, the U.S. military enlisted Marty and Eli to help stop a rogue nation, Istanistan, from deploying a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) that they've been developing. Eli volunteers to teleport into the site and, using telepathy, Marty relays instructions on setting an explosive. But things go wrong and Eli is captured. Even though the Army tells Marty there is nothing they can do, he takes it upon himself to mount a rescue. But things again do not go according to plan. You'll have to read the issue to find out what happens. The issue will be available in print and digital through our website's store, The Campus Store. It's where the Hound Dogs shop.

Not a lot this week with Powers Squared. Our colorist's computer has been on the fritz for awhile, so we don't yet have her pages and I'm not sure when we'll be seeing art from our artist (see last week's post for details on that situaiton.) And no work forward yet on finding a replacement, other than some texts with our current colorist.

Our podcast had a guest all lined up, Lucas Scheffel, the creator of Angry Fred and Gary Gorilla, but he had a family emergency and had to postpone. Luckily, we had recorded a short preview on Issue #21 in April and were able to slot it into the OAPS timeslot. You can listen to it on our website (which also has links to the other platforms it appears on) or wait and watch it Wednesday afternoon on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared).

As always, Skylar got the short shrift. I did find myself editing another of the books, The Runaway, sort of by accident. I was looking for something else, but opened the title and started reading and editing as I went along. A real edit job awaits before I would submit for query, but I think it reads pretty well.

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

A Week in Writing #511 - A Bit of a Surprise

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

A bit of a surprise this week. The artist on Powers Squared, Julia Canon, has stepped down. The current issue that she's been working on, #27 "Billy and Raven", will be her last as the artist. This came during a Discord call that was initiated by me because she was not only way behind on pages but was being unresponsive, which are two things I hate. My plan was to read her the riot act and instead, before we can launch into anything, she resigned. She'll still finish the issue, which, again, is now behind schedule, but we're now looking for a replacement.

There are currently two streams of search. We've reached out to our former artist, Rachel Wells, to see if she knows of someone; she is a SCAD grad. And our current colorist, Jen Moreno, has already made it clear that she'd like to be considered for the spot. She's never done a book before, but from what I've seen, she's talented as an illustrator; it's another thing to do sequential storytelling. We'll probably want to do a test with all the potentials to see if their style is a good mix for us.

Julia's not going anywhere and will still be a part of the podcasts, etc. going forward, but it remains to be seen if she'll return to being the colorist or not.

This was newsletter week and that did get off this morning, when it was due. We've opted for the first Sunday of the month, as it gives us an opportunity to look back at the previous month and doesn't overwhelm. We tried a weekly newsletter, but were advised that was overkill, not to mention hard on me/us.

Our celebration of all things Transformers came to an end on Friday, when we played our interview with Marty Isenberg, who had been a writer on several Transformers-themed shows. While we usually go live on Fridays, we pre-recorded this interview back in April, when he was available. It also gave us some flexibility having one in the back pocket, so to speak. It's available to listen to here and can be watched after Wednesday, the 5th, here. There is also a playlist of all the TF40 podcasts, if anyone is interested.

For Trophy Unlocked, my review of The Guardsman (1931) was the Saturday Morning Review. This one dates back to 2021, but at least it's seen the light of day. I'm still working on three, having finished The Little Shop of Horrors, I'm also working on one for Pushover.  As part of our drain the DVR Saturday nights, I picked this one, since I had recorded it twice to view; it seemed like the time to get to it.

I've worked on Skylar as often as possible during the week. I've got a new chapter to write, as the plot has been evolving, so I'm looking forward to that.

Queries have not made their way back into the grind. I just don't have the time to get to it. One more thing to add the pile that's already too high.

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

A Week in Writing #510 - Prep Work Underway

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

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Let's start with last week's big news, announcing that Powers Squared is tabling at Los Angeles Comic-Con in October. That's not something that will come easily for us as we haven't done a Con since 2019 and that was about as small of one as you can find, the San Fernando Valley Comic-Book Convention. We're going downtown for the next one and we have to improve our game.

To that end, we spent about two hours yesterday afternoon watching Stephen Silver's seminar about conventions. While it was geared more towards artists, a lot of what he discussed would be applicable to us. The pre-recorded seminar did provide useful advice and did come with a check list.

We've already started testing a battery backup to use. I'm thinking about having a computer available in case someone wants to sign up for our newsletter and we're planning on trying to do our podcast that Friday night as well.

It's starting to be newsletter time, and I used the delay in the Indianapolis 500 to work on it. I think I got through most of the basic stuff. I still need to do a spotlight on twins and there's still a recommnedation, but I think we're in pretty good shape.

I did manage to get some work done on the oft-put off Skylar. Mostly, I had a couple of ideas that I think will make it better and I believe, on at least a first draft level, I got them in. Now, the push to finish it continues.

I still haven't gotten back to the query/rejection process, but I at least have been thinking about it. Too many things to do first.

For the third week in a row, my review was featured on Trophy Unlocked. This week, I actually had two. The Saturday morning review was The Secret Six (1931), one of the older reviews I wrote. And then today, we published a review of the silent film Speedway (1929), in honor of the Indy 500 race.

I'm now working on three reviews, adding The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) to the pile.

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

A Week in Writing #509 - Tabling at LA Comic-Con

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

Well, I guess the big news is that Powers Squared will be tabling at this year's LA Comic-Con in October. This is something we've been talking about for months and years and we've finally decided to bite the bullet (it ain't cheap) and table in Small Press. The con runs from October 4-6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and we're hoping to at least introduce new people to our book. If you attend, hope you'll drop by.

It will be a sort of return for us, as we did do a panel at the Con a couple of years ago.

As with everything, I really have no idea what it will take to pull off and I don't know how success will be measured, but it will be a new experience, and one that I will be reporting on here, so buckle up as you go along the ride with me.

I don't know if you've been listening or watching, but the Transformers podcasts are coming out really great. We had a conversation with John Barber, who had been the writer and editor when the franchise was at IDW. He's a great interview and is a lot of fun. I would encourage everyone to give it a listen here or watch the video when it goes up on YouTube on Wednesday. It is still available on twitch.tv/powerssquared until next Friday.

John was nice enough to tweet out about being on the show, but I'm sure he drove eyes to twitch.tv/powersquared, which also apparently exists.

In addition to the OAPS coming out on Wednesday, we also posted another Taste Test, #7, in which Paul samples and compares three original MrBeast flavors against their new formulas.

Speaking of Powers Squared, our artist and colorist are busy working on new pages, which we should have by the end of the month, so hopefully, everything is staying on time.

No new review this week from me, though my review of The Sin of Nora Moran was the coveted Saturday Morning Review. This follows my review of Let It Be, my Second Look actually, which was released on Monday to coincide with the film's original release date in 1970.

I have two reviews that I still need to work on, and instead of Saturday night movies, we watched Episode 3 of the latest Dr. Who series, "The Devil's Chord", in which the 15th Doctor meets The Beatles. Quick review, while I like the new doctor Ncuti Gatwa and his companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), the story didn't really work for me. The actor playing the villain, Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon) is a force of nature, but wasn't enough to save the episode for me.

I did some work, good work I'd say, on Skylar this week, but never enough.

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

A Week in Writing #508 - Fun with Podcasts

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

You've probably read here before that we do a weekly podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, and that we've devoted May to the 40th Anniversary of Transformers. My sons and co-creators of Powers Squared are big fans of the franchise and have lined up some great interview subjects. You can listen here to our latest podcast with Bob Budiansky, the man behind much of what we know of as Transformers, as he helped name over 200 characters and wrote bios for them while he was at Marvel.

While the interview went well, after I blew the intro and mispronounced his name, I'm human, the actual mechanics sort of failed us. We had sent him a Google Meet link, which has worked well for us in the past. Well, he couldn't open it, for whatever reason. We discovered this only when we were a few minutes from go-time.

When that didn't work, we opted to try Zoom, which took some time to get us all connected and recording, so we didn't go off on time. But oh, that wasn't the end of it. Since we didn't have an account, the Zoom call came to an end after 30 minutes, but we decided before time ran out to have him set up the Zoom meeting, since he has an account and we continued with Part 2 after that for another half hour. Paul managed to edit the audio together and then the videos, which took about 2 hours to render. The video has been loaded and will be available on YouTube on Wednesday, 2:30 pm PDT. Judging by the reaction via PodBean, counting downloads, it may very well be the most popular one we've ever done.

Bur wait, that wasn't the only podcast we did this weekend, The next day, we had arranged for our former artist, Rachel Wells to join us as a Part 2 of "What's in My Bag?", the video we did last weekend with her about Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) and the books we had picked up. Well, on Saturday night we were to discuss what we thought of after reading them. While that would normally go off without a hitch, it did not.

It seemed to take forever, a relative term, for us to connect using our Discord group. When we finally did, we couldn't hear Rachel. Well, after rebooting a couple of times, we got everything working (the royal We as Paul did all the work) and recorded the video. That too can be watched on YouTube now.

We're coming up on the next release of Powers Squared in about a month on June 12. With that it mind, the first version of the cover, a thumbnail was this week's peek-of-the-week. When we get to that, I start publishing similar images from the book, so if you want to get a look at it go to https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/peek-of-the-week and there is a link there to the issues page.

Shook up the week a little bit, watching the movie Let it Be for the first time in 50 years on Disney+ and then writing a review of it for Trophy Unlocked. That will appear on Monday, which is the 54th anniversary of it's actual release.

Speaking of that blog, my review of Smart Woman (1931). It was literally the oldest one that I had put up on the blog that hadn't been posted, something like three years old. The review is so old that I don't remember the film, but my opinion is there for you to read. I'm currently finishing up one for X-Men: Apacolypse and starting one for American Grafitti, which we watched on Saturday night after the podcast.

As per the usual, Skylar got short shrift. I did work on it one night, and I know you've heard this before, but I have a new idea to incorporate into it, bringing back an FBI character from previous tomes on J.D. Barrister, private investigator.

Well, that's about it for me. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #507 - Newsletter Time

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

This was not a week I'll look back on recalling the great writing I did. To be honest, I didn't get to Skylar at all this week, and frankly, I'm not happy about that.

I'd like to blame a lot of things but, in reality, it's the not enough hours in the day. The biggest thing I managed to get through this week was the newsletter, which apparently required a lot of editing, so I'm not really happy about that. I'm not saying it wasn't needed.

Being the end/begining of the month, I'm trying to collect pages from the artist and colorist for Powers Squared. I want 8 pages a month from both, but that doesn't always happen. I know I'm not dealing with full-time artists, but I still want to keep this book moving as fast as possible. You never know the future and there might come a time when this extra money will dry up.

We kicked off Transformers  month on our podcast on Friday with an interview with artist Livio Ramondelli, who has done artwork for the IDW run, as well as a cover for the Skybound run of the series. It was a nice conversation. We were thinking we had enough questions for about an hour, but it was over in about half that time. If you didn't catch it live on twitch.tv/powerssquared, you can listen to it here or wait until Wednesday when it goes up on YouTube. Next week, our guest is supposed to be Bob Budiansky, who wrote the first Transformers comic for Marvel. We go LIVE every Friday at 6 pm PDT.

And, as if that wasn't enough, yesterday was Free Comic Book Day and we recorded a show with Rachel Wells, talking about the books we found at our local comic book store. She ended up with about 12 books, but we could only get three each from ours. Let the Philadelphia v. Los Angeles trash talk start now. Again, it was live on twitch and can now be viewed on our YouTube channel. We're going to meet next Saturday, time TBD, to discuss what we've read.

Speaking of YouTube, I found a mistake I had made with uploading a video a couple of weeks ago; OAPS #240 - Kaiji (the Anime) is Great. In my defense, I upload on Sunday mornings, so I might have been groggy at the time, but I uploaded the same video as the week before. I'm not sure how YouTube counts things, but I think 10 people watched it without commenting it was the wrong video. On the plus side, more people have apparently watched it this time around, so that's something. But chasing my tail on that one took up most of an evening of writing.

On the Trophy Unlocked front, no new review from me this week. I've been given the rather undesirable job of reviewing X-Men: Apocalypse, which we watched on Friday night. We're planning on a rather lengthy salute to X-Men prior to the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, which comes out in July (and during San Diego Comic-Con).

It started out as Game Day week on the blog with Paul's reviews of two JoJo games, a Second Look - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle on Monday and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R on Wednesday. However, it ended the week as a salute to Weird Al. On Friday, there was Trevor's review of The Compleat Al followed on Saturday Morning with his review of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.

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

A Week in Writing #506 - Did You Go to IthaCon?

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

I'm starting this week with Powers Squared news. I sat on the press release for awhile, since we had an issue come out at the same time the books went live, but First Comics News published the press release about LibraryPass. If you're curious, you can read it here. While this may be old news to readers of this blog, I mention it because it leads to another story I want to relate.

I only sent the release out to three outlets, mostly because they've written about Powers Squared before. One of the journalists is a man named Ed Catto, who had done a feature about us for Pop Culture Squad. Rather than publishing the release, he wrote back with an offer. He was heading IthaCon this weekend, in Ithaca, New York and offered to pass out any flyers we might have at the convention. This was Tuesday morning.

To be honest, we don't have a flyer for Powers Squared as we haven't tabled at a major con yet. But it sounded like an opportunity. However, we were going that night to see Spider-Man 2, the best of the Spider-Man films, as part of a Spider-Mondays promotion to celebrate Columbia Pictures 100th anniversary. I know, it was Tuesday night, but they were still showing it.

Getting home at about 10, I put together a flyer and made edits the following morning. IthaCon is a small event, with about 2000 attendees over two days, so we decided to 200. I have this FT job, so Paul and Trevor took it to Kinko's/FedEx, picked out the type of paper and called me. I don't know if you've ever printed 200 copies of anything, but it was quite expensive for us. The store arranged to save us some money and have them printed near where Ed lives and have them delivered to him. Great. I wrote Ed a couple of times but as of this writing haven't heard back, so I hope they went out and were picked up by attendees.

In case, you didn't go, here's what we passed out:

Our Friday podcast was our April team meeting on Friday, with Julia Canon and Trevor attending. (Our colorist, Jen Moreno had a last minute conflict.) You can hear it here or watch it on Wednesday here. After we did that podcast, our former artist Rachel Wells, joined us, along with Julia and Trevor, to discuss Issue #21, Mission: Istanistan, Pt 2, since we would have shot something the Friday before in June, but we have a guest scheduled that Friday.

Next Friday, OAPS starts its month-long salute to Transformers' 40th anniversary with artist Livio Ramondelli. If you'd like to watch the interview live, it should start at 6 pm PT on Friday at twitch.tv/powerssquared.

In addition to that, Saturday is Free Comic Book Day and Rachel is joining us to do a live "What's in My Bag" podcast on Twitch and then on YouTube. That should drop on 1 o'clock PT on twitch.tv/powerssquared and then on our YouTube channel @powerssquared if you're interested in what we select.

And this week, I need to spend time putting together the newsletter, which will go out on May 5. Not too late to sign up at SRCC, if you're interested. (It's FREE)

I'm working on a new review of a very old film, The Johnstown Flood (1926) for Trophy Unlocked. As always, no idea when it will appear. This past Saturday Morning's Review was Trevor's for Nanny McPhee, which like American Fiction was watched on a cell phone during our recent trip to Texas. On Wednesday, Paul's review of Spy X Family Code: White appeared. It was a film we watched last weekend.

And let's not forget Skylar, which was worked on quite a bit this past week. I think I might have even squeezed some work on it on Tuesday. Making good progress and I'd like to think I'll have a draft by the end of May.

But so much to do to get there.

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

A Week in Writing #505 - Work/Sleep Balance

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

I know we all speak about a work/life balance but I'm dealing with a writing/sleep balance, in that by the time I get around to writing, I'm good for about an hour before I drop or lose the ability to make coherent thoughts. I'm sure this is something that plagues a lot of amateur writers with day jobs and families, so I know I'm not alone in this.

While I've been working on the Skylar story, there are times when I'm not as imaginative as I need to be in order to put down what I want to write. I'm getting through it, but sometimes I get to the point where I have to write something and my mind is not concentrating, if you know what I mean. I'll keep at it, but sometimes the progress is slower than I'd like.

The work on new issues of Powers Squared is sort of piecemeal. Our artist did deliver four pages of edits and two more draft pages of the newest issue, #27, we're working on. I'm not sure what our colorist is working on spefically, though I suspect she's finishing up #26 and our letterer just finished issue #24.

I had had high hopes of doing a Kickstarter this year, but I wanted to use #24 and #25 as part of the rewards and I'm not sure when it will be done. I'm also thinking that we need to have a bigger mailing list than we have now, since it hasn't really grown in quite a while. My attempts here have not been fruitful. I'm still hoping to do the LA Comic-Con this year and hope that we can add names to the list there. If you know of someone who might be interested or you yourself might be, please enroll today at SRCC; it's FREE.

This week's podcast, OAPS #240 - Kaiji (The Anime) is Great, has Trevor joining the show to discuss with Paul, the anime series. You can listen to it now here or watch it here on Wednesday pm. Next week is our monthly Team Meeting. Before we launch into Transformers Month in May, as well as FCBD with Rachel joining us for those shows.

My review of American Fiction was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I first watched the film on my phone during a recent flight and then again at home with my family before I wrote the review. I'm currently working on one for A Farewell to Arms (1932). Don't know when that will go up, but I have to finish it first.

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

A Week in Writing #504 - Short Week

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

A trip, even a short one, can take it out of you. I think it took us a couple of days to readjust. We live a very routine life, somewhat on purpose, so even three days away seems like a big disruption to the status quo. This week really didn't get going in earnest until Tuesday, when work called and things went back to the usual normal.

Spent a lot of the writing time this week on Skylar. I'm still working through the previous chapters, cleaning them up and trying to run together the two storylines better. As I believe I wrote before, inspiration has led me to more of a melding of the storylines together. I try to work on it every night, Monday through Thursday for at least an hour or until I fall asleep, whichever comes first.

Not much to report this week on the Powers Squared front, but more on the OAPS side of things. We've lined up four creatives connected to the Transformers franchise and we're devoting May to the 40th Anniversary. We're starting with Livio Ramondelli on May 3rd, so I'm inviting you, dear reader, to join us. As always the podcast starts at 6 pm PT on twitch.tv/powerssquared

On Friday's podcast, Paul and I talked about the rather disappointing time we had at this past WonderCon. Some of it may have been the weather, but there were still empty booths and little to do. No major label, save IDW, was there and the IDW booth was mostly TMNT. Saturday may not have been the best day, but it was our only day and one that was very disappointing. You can listen to our musings here or wait until Wednesday and watch them on our YouTube channel: @powerssquared

For Trophy Unlocked, I finished my review of American Fiction, in the better late than never category. I'm not sure when it will appear, but it falls into the recommend pile. I watched it twice within 8 days, so I think I can say it's worth watching.

This week's Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of Migration, which, like I did with American Fiction, he watched on his phone during the flight to Texas.

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

A Week in Writing #503 - The Week That Wasn't

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

My week in writing was short changed by a weekend trip, Friday 10 am to Sunday 11:30 pm, trip to Houston to celebrate my mother's 100th birthday. Not much chance to write during the weekend, including this blog and reviews for Trophy Unlocked, so this was sort of the week that wasn't and why I am late with this missive this week.

I did do some work this week on Skylar, working on it most nights when we weren't planning this excursion, so it wasn't a total loss. I'm still working on what will be the first draft when finished, but I'm getting good ideas on where I can take the story, so I'm anxious to get back to it.

Even though we weren't here or available, the On the Air with Powers Squared podcast was made, with Julia Canon, Rachel Wells and Jen Moreno handling the honors. Apparently, there was an audio issue so Julia is not heard throughout. I tried to watch while in the air over Texas, so I thought maybe that was my internet connection, still no one who watched apparently mentioned it. We've had recording issues of our own, so we can't get too upset, but you wish it hadn't happened. You can listen to what there is here or watch it here on Wednesday afternoon.

And this morning, Paul, Trevor and I recorded the first episode of what will be a month of  podcasts celebtraing the 40th anniversary of the Transformers franchise during May. At 10 this morning, we interviewed Marty Isenberg, who wrote on several Transformers-related series. We've lined up other guests, though not all of the dates have been set, but it should be an interesting departure for us.

While I didn't write any reviews this weekend, again, there was a new Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, Trevor's review of The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! the UK and original version of Aardman Animation's The Pirates! Band of Misfits, which I reviewed back in 2013.

I did see a movie, on the airplane on my cellphone, American Fiction, which I will try to review later, but would recommend to anyone who writes.

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

A Week in Writing #502 - Not a Wonderful WonderCon

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. And Happy Easter, if you're reading this on Sunday night.

In the indie comics game, spring is sort of the unofficial start of Con Season. Every town of significant size will have one or more conventions celebrating culture and/or comic books for the rest of the year. I'm not much of a con goer or a tabler, if that's a word, at least not so far. I don't have the flexibilty for one thing, or the money. And even if those weren't issues, there's getting a table.

I was on the waiting list, or at least, I was informed that I was for this year's WonderCon, which happened this past weekend in Anaheim. And even though I never got off the waitlist, there were still several open spots on the convention floor. I don't know why and, if I ask, I won't be told either. My critique of this year's WonderCon is not based on this oversight on their part or on their slowness to renew our professional status (5+ months), but what I saw at the con. If you're curious about our expectations, that was the focus of this week's podcast. Listen here, available now, or watch here on Wednesday.

Compared to Comic-Con, WonderCon is small to begin with. After doing the floor, which took several hours, there wasn't much else to do. There were no major players in attendance, save IDW. It never bodes well when there is a large non-culture related vendor. In this case, it was a medical college, which seemed very much out of place, but probably paid well for the space. Plenty of vendors and artists and we bought judiciously. There were, of course, panels, but by mid-afternoon, a couple of hours before the next panel we wanted to attend, or at least I wanted to attend, we were all bored, tired and ready to go. I'm sorry to have missed the How to Get News Coverage panel, one that I usually attend, not only to support the moderator, Rik Offenberger, but because I've actually met people who have written about Powers Squared.

We did attend one panel, Independent Creator's Summit, which I had high hopes for, but after about fifteen minutes, we bailed. What I thought and hoped would be a how to grow outside of comics into animation, games, etc., turned in one of those panels that was more about the panelists, or at least that's how it was going. I always look for chances to learn something new, but I'm not interested in a biography lesson. And when one of the creators talks about "many projects" they'll be working on without specifics, even when pressed by the moderator, it didn't promise to be very informative.

There are always positives. We did run into people we knew and were able to ask three creators if they'd be interested in being on our podcast, so there were good takeaways, just not knowledge.

WonderCon also interfered with my writing a review this week. When we got home on Saturday, the most I could absorb was MST3K's take on Village of the Giants, which it turns out we had already seen anyway. We don't review parodies of movies, save for Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, which was a riff on This Island Earth, which we also reviewed.

My review of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. The week was the final one for God of War Month on the blog, which included Trevor's Second Look - God of War: Ascension on Monday, his review of God of War (Dark Horse Comic) on Wednesday, and finally his review of God of War: Fallen God (Comic) on Friday.

I did work pretty consistently this week on Skylar, trying, when I can, to get through editing a chapter or two a night. I'm coming up on another new passage, and then there are more rewrites and new writing ahead of me.

Next week, my blog will most likely be a day late. I'll explain then.

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

A Week in Writing #501 - There's Always a First Time for Everything

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

My writing this week took a twist I hadn't expected. Since our artist on Powers Squared, Julia Canon, was finishing up her work on issue #26, The Great Escape, I sent her the script for the next issue. As a change of pace, this one is more Powers Squared related than about the actual story. In issue #1, we introduced Billy O'Shea, a young boy whom like Marty and Eli, had super powers granted to him by a yokai. Billy came back in issues 16-18, Mocha and Raven, Parts 1-3, accompanied by Raven, the Yatagarasu who granted him the powers for his good deeds and turned protector when Dr. Atlas threatened him. We established in that story that Billy and Raven make a living as a long haul trucker utilizing Billy's powers of super strength and punctuality.

Well, there were things in the script that Julia questioned and after conversing with Paul and myself during the week, it was decided a rewrite was in order, so there goes Thursday night. With the rewrites and editing complete, a new version is ready. If this new storyline turns out to be a go, and we make more, Trevor has also come up with some story ideas that we might use in future.

A comic book is a collaborative process, at least for us who do not draw. We've gotten used to changes being made when the words on the page get turned into images. Rachel Wells, our previous artist, would occasionally move and/or combine panels when she thought it was necessary for the story. Usually, we went along with her suggestions. However, this is the first time we've rewritten a script, like this, for the artist.

Speaking of comic books, we had our 13th Comic Book Club session on Friday's On the Air with Powers Squared. Along with Rachel, Julia, Trevor and Jen Moreno, we discussed The Apothecary Diaries manga written by Itsuki Nanao and illustrated by Nekokurage. Afterward, a tribute to Akira Toriyama, the creator behind Dragon Ball. You can listen here or watch it here on Wednesday afternoon after 2:30 pm PT. Our next book will be Pompo the Cinephile, a Japanese manga by Shogo Sugitani. Read along and join us when we discuss. That session hasn't yet been scheduled, but I'll let you know when here. If you do plan to be a part of it, please have your three favorite films ready as well.

On the subject of the movies, on Saturday afternoon, we watched Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and I wrote the review, which will appear next Saturday morning on Trophy Unlocked. It's been a busy week on the blog. God of War month continued with Trevor's Second Look - God of War: Ghost of Sparta on Tuesday, and his Second Look - God of War (WildStorm/DC Comic) on Thursday, with more to come next week. The Saturday Morning Review this week was Paul's take on Kung Fu Panda 4.

A lot of my writing this week has been Powers Squared related. In addition to the rewrites, there was  work on the newsletter, which will go out the first Sunday in April. I think, with the exception of some last minute updates, it should be ready to go.

I did manage to do some work on Skylar, but most of it has been rewrites rather than new pages. 

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

A Week in Writing #500 - Nice Way to End the Week

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

A nice way to end the week is to meet up with someone and have a good talk and catch up. And that's what happened this week on the podcast On the Air with Powers Squared. Lucas Scheffel, a comic book creator from Australia, was our guest for the sixth time, and for the first time in well over a year. We talked about his new comic book Kickstarter, comic book convenstions, Cricket and, of course, Bluey. You can listen to it on our website or wait until Wednesday to watch it here.

Seeing as it's a live podcast, we had a driver issue that delayed us and which Paul managed to work through, but it does speak to the challenges of doing one regularly, so there is some editing involved but nothing of substance edited out, just the rough start.

On the topic of the podcasts, I'm revamping that part of the website. I've been trying to keep a "Best of" section of videos, but that can get to be unweildy. So, I'm thinking of keeping a Best of but also adding separate sections for The Comic Book Club videos, the Taste Testing videos, and one of the conversations we've had with other creators. The videos about particular issues I've been adding to the pages about those issues, which is another way to keep the links on the website. So far, I've only done the section for The Comic Book Club. If you're interested, you can take a look at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/videos.

Working on the next issue of Powers Squared, which is sometimes a slower go than I appreciate. I really want 8 pages a month from the creatives involved: arist, colorist, letterer, but that is easier said than done. We're getting close to the end with the artwork for #26, tentatively titled, The Great Escape, as the artist is finishing the final pages and the cover.

For Trophy Unlocked, I wrote a review of Main Street After Dark (1945), a definite B-movie that was also the film debut of Audrey Totter. Not sure when it will appear. The blog is still in the middle of God of War month with two new reviews. On Tuesday, Trevor's Second Look - God of War: Chains of Olympus and on Thursday it was his Second Look - God of War III Remastered. The Saturday Morning Review was Paul's for Pompo the Cinephile, a 2021 anime look at making movies.

On the Skylar front, I did make some progress. I'm changing the story a bit, so some of what I've written will be changing, but I'm liking it better.

No querying this month. I think it may be April before I get to that.

During the year, there are several times when real life and family collide with my writing. I'm coming up on one of those in a few weeks. My mother is having a milestone birthday and we're all flying to see her in Houston. We're flying on a Friday, so we're relying on our arist, Julia, to take over the show. But there's also things like the Saturday Morning Review, the uploads and the newsletter that have to be done ahead of time. And, of course, this blog will be late by a day because of it, too. But that's a couple of weeks away.

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

A Week in Writing #499 - More Issues with GoDaddy

 

I hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing.

Another banner week when it came to my on-going issues with GoDaddy. Last week, it was an issue with inserting an image. This week, I was trying to create a social post for our upcoming podcast on Friday. However, at least through Google, I was unable to even open the website. I tried to get help, but texting with someone took about three hours. I'm not sure who they think has that much time to wait for help, especially for small businesses. I ended up making the posts myself directly on the social media platforms and when I did get back to the website, this morning, all seemed to be fixed.

At times, on Friday afternoon, I'm ready to find a new host platform. My biggest concern is having to rebuild the site from scratch and losing the email we have set up. But it doesn't seem like a week goes by that I don't get frustrated with GoDaddy.

We have a new issue of Powers Squared, coming out this coming week, on Wednesday March 13. It's called "Mission: Istanistan, Part 1" and was written by myself and Paul, with art by Rachel Wells, colors by Julia Canon and lettering by Trevor. In this issue, the U.S. Army enlists Marty and Eli Powers to work on a classified secret mission to stop a rogue nation, Istanistan, from completing work on a WMD. The mission seems simple, one will teleport in and do the work and the other will use telepathy to guide them. It's a dangerous mission, but what could go wrong?

We talked about it on this week's podcast, with Rachel, Julia and Trevor all participating. You can listen here, or watch the video on YouTube on Wednesday. There is a preview available to look at and you can order it in print or digital through The Campus Store, where and when available. Oh, by the way, links to all of the issues are available there as well.

It's been a busy week on Trophy Unlocked with the kick off of God of War Month on the blog. Things started off with Trevor's Second Look at God of War (2005). On Wednesday was Trevor's Second Look - God of War II; and on Friday was his Second Look - God of War: Betrayal. I got the Saturday Morning Review with The Last Command (1928). No new review this week from me. We spent Saturday night away from home this week, so that took care of that.

Did some writing this week on Skylar; finally getting to the part I've been wanting to rewrite for the longest time.

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

A Week in Writing #498 - Newsletter and Podcasts

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

Sort of a busy week, though mostly behind the scenes sorts of stuff.

Every month, like it or not, we publish The Hound Dogs' Howl, our monthly newsletter on all things Powers Squared. Now, a lot of this is rather routine stuff, however, the lead, a feature about twins, A Heard Around Campus bit, as well as a recommendation have to be written. And wait for it, here comes my monthly pitch to have you, dear reader, consider signing up for it by enrolling in San Romero Community College. It's FREE!

This week's podcast features Moni Barrette, the Director, Collection Development & Publisher Relations at LibraryPass Comics Plus was our guest. While we try to have this be a conversation, questions still have to be drafted and reviewed. Moni talked about her career as well as getting comic books in libraries, one of which ways is through Comics Plus, which is what we're doing with Powers Squared. You can listen to the podcast now here or wait until Wednesday and watch it here.

I'm growing more and more frustrated with GoDaddy, which our website uses. Every Sunday morning, I upload the previous Friday night's podcast to the YouTube and the new peek-of-the-week to the website. I then update the website with links to the new video, update other pages related to the peek-of-the-week, especially when it involves the cover and then write and schedule two social media posts to coincide with the new data.

The last thing I need at 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning is for GoDaddy to f### up, which it did today. For some reason, the new color cover wasn't inserting like it should. There had been a black and white ink cover that was being replaced with the colored version. But, oh no, GoDaddy wouldn't do it. I manged, after several attempts to get the colored version to show up on the pages I wanted to put it on, including in addition to the peek-of-the-week page but also The Campus Store and the page about the issue. I try to keep them in sync, as it doesn't make sense to have a peek-of-the-week that is already available elsewhere on the website.

The biggest problem I had was in trying to do the social media posts. The colored version wouldn't insert, but rather the previous black and white one would insert in its place. I tried to remember what GoDaddy had advised I do when things didn't seem to work, which was to clear the cache. This is something I hate to do, since I have relog into every app and, surprise, surprise, that doesn't always go well, as the saved password for whatever reason doesn't match the password it's supposed to be per the site. I'm still not completely logged into X as a result. The better solution, since that didn't fix the problem, was to reload the image; that worked. If anyone has a good suggestion to replace GoDaddy, I'm all ears. Leave it in the comments.

Well, I finished my review of X-Men: First Class and started a new one for Naked Alibi (1954). On Trophy Unlocked, the Saturday Morning Review was Paul's for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. And ICYMI, Leap Year (1924) made it to the blog. Just as a warning, we're coming up on March and it will be mostly devoted to the God of War franchise, so buckle up.

I did manage some fictional writing this week, but it probably doesn't add up to 1000 words, but there I did do something.

I still have more of that to do, a review to finish, press releases to write and, hopefully, more pages to review from our artist and colorist.

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