Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. I'm safe, if you're concerned.
This has been an apocalyptic week in SoCal, where I live. It started with 100 mph winds and then fires pretty much everywhere. In the beginning, we were only effected by the occasional drop in electricity. By that, I mean the lights would turn off for a few seconds, then come back on and then shut off again. Nothing bad happened, just every clock in the house had to be reset.
On Friday, we got a little concerned when the Palisades fire started to edge up the Santa Monica mountains and came close to coming over the ridge. We could see the glow of the flames from our street, but they were several miles away and thanks to the work of the first responders and numerous water drops, it never made it over.
We'll see what the next week brings, but I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll be all-right. If you're in the L.A. area, I hope you come out of this unscathed and if the worst happens, remember that things can be replaced. I feel like I can have some empathy for the victims. When I was about three or so, the house I was living in burned to the ground and we lost pretty much everything. At the same time, I realize my experience as a child would be much different than adults would have. They're the ones who have to worry about all the important things.
In between the power outages, I did finally mange to complete my rewrite on Skylar. I can finally put that one to bed, at least for awhile. Before I pick up on the next story, I decided to get serious about querying. Since I had tried and failed to get a bite with Broken People, I decided to try another one. I sat down and started going through Past Present, which has been around for awhile, and one that I had tried to get representation for previously. But it's a good place to start in the overall story arc of the character, since subsequent books' event happen after this story.
So, since finishing Skylar, I've read and made some minor updates to Past Present. I'm now going through it looking for grammar mistakes, which will probably take awhile. After that, I want to write up a synopsis for it and then a query letter. After that, it's back to making lists and starting the process all over again.
For our podcast this week, we gave a brief update on the SoCal fires and then discussed upcoming films for 2025. Not every film, but ones we might have an interest in. You can listen to our #278 podcast here or wait and watch it on Wednesday afternoon here.
On the subject of Powers Squared, we can officially announce that we're going to WonderCon 2025. You can follow things on our Events page. I realized a couple of days ago that we're about two months out, so I got serious about ordering some new things for our booth, including a table runner and a new banner, one with the new logo on it. Next, it'll be ordering some books for the Con. Hope if you're coming to WonderCon, you'll look us up. Details to follow.
Given the week we've had, we chose An American Tragedy for the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. On Sunday, we posted Trevor's review of Flow. We watched it on Friday while being concerned we'd be caught up in the fire, so watching it under duress might not be the optimal viewing experience.
I'm currently working on a review of Penguin Pool Murder (1932). As always, no idea when it will publish.
That will about do it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.
