A Week in Writing #575 - Getting Ready for Pasadena

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

The getting ready for Pasadena refers to the Pasadena Comic Con, which we signed up for last year basically on the auggestion of someone we ran into at LightBox. Coincidentally, it is happening in the same place, the Pasadena Convention Center. Now, this is a small one day con, but you still want to be ready for it.

It is small, compared to SDCC or WonderCon. As an example, we don't know where we'll be tabling and won't know until the day of. It's sort of a "come find us" in a sea of Artist Alley tables, which is a disadvantage. And the social media images they've provided are for last year's con, which I guess happened in May.

I tried to come up with some sort of image for our social media. My initial image was something like this:

which I thought was pretty good for a writer, but could be better. I asked Trevor to take a go at it and he came up with:

which is a big improvement. So, if you're going, find us and say hi.

As part of the prep, we spent Saturday afternoon sort of setting up the table. It's good practice to know where everything goes, especially considering we'll be doing the actual setup early Sunday morning and most likely sleep deprived.

I also spent part of today applying for and receiving a resale license; got to pay the tax man.

There has also been progress on the next issue of Powers Squared. Our artist is turning in a page almost once every other day or so. And as good as that is, it takes time to review and give comments, but she's doing really great work.

One of the fun things about doing a podcast is when a guest interview doesn't pan out, you still have to come up with something to discuss. Paul and I decided to do one about GameStop. OAPS #334 - The Fall of GameStop (A Gamer's Perspective) was the result. You can watch it on twitch for the next few days, listen to it here (or the other platforms listed there as well), or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday after 2:30 pm PST.

My review of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, as promised, was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. Having watched that last week prompted Trevor to want to watch the documentary about Anvil, which he has also reviewed. I'm currently working on a review for Alias Boston Blackie, a leftover Christmas drive-by movie, as part of the drain the DVR.

I managed to get some work in on Blackmail. We're nearing the 80,000 word threshold and are up to 78.525 words.

No queries yet. I haven't had the time to rework a query letter.

Since we're tabling next Sunday, this little missive might be late, either Sunday or Monday. So thanks, in advance, for understanding.

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

A Week in Writing #574 - AI Was the Topic

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

With the prominence of AI in pratically everything, Paul and I spent our podcast discussing for the second time, "AI in Media (Part 2)". We're not experts, but it is something as creators we feel very strongly about. We've talked about it before on our 199th episode "Discussing A.I. in Media", which you're free to watch as well. The new podcast can be listened to here, watched for the next week here or watched on our YouTube channel after 2:30 pm on Wednesday. If you have opinions about AI, we would love to hear them.

We were planning on discussing it with our new artist on the next podcast, which we were planning to record on Saturday to fit her schedule. But things didn't work out as planned and after an hour of waiting, and still in contact, we called it. We'll have to reschedule, but it probably won't be any time this month. Maybe next. It's hard to coordinate a time that is good for everyone.

There are new pages coming in for the new issue of Powers Squared, and our colorist, for the first time in months, has something to work on, so all is good and moving forward.

Speaking of moving forward, my review of One Battle After Another went up on Trophy Unlocked as our Saturday Morning Review. This honestly wasn't a movie I really wanted to see, but seeing as it's awards season and this is being nominated, we decided to watch and review. I also wrote a review for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, which should go up next Saturday. I tried to watch The Second Woman to review it, but it was a no-go for me.

I did rework the beginning of Blackmail, and made more updates. I think it works better. I'm up to 77,725 words for those who are counting along with me, about 1700 more than last week. My goal is at least 80,000 words, so I'm feeling more confident on reaching that, I feel like I've got 4 or 5 more chapters to go and then my favorite part, editing. After that, I've got another one to work on, a currently untitled story that I was bout 20,000 words into before switching to Blackmail.

I'm still planning on starting up querying again, but I have to work on a better letter, since the last one went nowhere. I've also come up with a better comps for the book, so I'm hopeful, but you've got to be.

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

A Week in Writing #573 - Happy New Year 2026

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

Well, the new year is upon us now. I'm sort of beyond the age to make new year's resolutions. We all want to be healthier and to keep working on what we love. So, while not resolutions, the goals remain the same.

Paul and I talked about goals on our recent podcast, OAPS #332- Powers Squared 2026 Preview. Even though it says Powers Squared, we also talked about The Blade of Miracles and, of course, the podcast. You can still catch it on our twitch channel for the next week, listen to it here or wait and watch it on our our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm. Still trying to work out a time to have our new artist on the podcast, but the time difference makes that tricky.

On the subject of Powers Squared, this was newsletter week, which went out this morning. Of course, I'd like you to sign up for The Hound Dogs' Howl, which is free, of course. You can sign up here.

My review of Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. Prior to that, each of the reviewers on Trophy Unlocked wrote their highlights/disappointments from 2025. You can read Paul's here, Trevor's here and mine here. I also wrote a review for One Battle After Another, which I presume will show up sooner than later.

I made some progress on my own Blackmail, but not as much as I had hoped for. I'm up to just over 76,000 words as of now, which is about 2800 more than last week, but I would have hoped for more, but there were other things to work on. I did have an idea about rewriting the opening of the book, which is more of a moving the first two chapters around and getting to the action sooner.

I watched a seminar on agents and query letters to prepare myself for getting back into the hunt on those. It's depressing to be ghosted, but that's the way it is, I guess but you've got to play the game.

Well, it's back to work this week, but I still want to keep working on Blackmail and hopefully review more new pages for Powers Squared.

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