A Week in Writing #412 - New Issue Coming Out

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

Let's start with Powers Squared. We have a new issue coming out officially on Wednesday, July 13. It's #13, The Imposter Part 1. Just when relationships appear to be pulling Marty and Eli apart, someone on campus tries ruining Marty's reputation by impersonating him. Who could it be? Find out on Wednesday. The issue and where to buy it can be found at The Campus Store. As they become available, there will be links to where it can be purchased both physically and digitally. There is also some new merch as well that I'm excited about, some chibi t-shirts, and a new poster, again, links at The Campus Store if you're at all interested. I'd love it if you were.

In addition to that, we're also releasing a short character video - Who is Pedro? He's a character that is introduced in this story arc and plays a big part in the story. You can watch it here on Wednesday morning.

On our Friday podcast, we talked about the new book but Paul also discussed the passing of Kazuki Takahashi, the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and what the manga, anime, and games have meant to him. And, surprisingly, how it influenced an issue of Powers Squared. That also goes up on YouTube on Wednesday afternoon and can be watched here when it does.

Otherwise, it's been rather slow on the comic book front, nothing new, so far, from our artist or colorist, at least not this past week.

On our horizon is San Diego Comic-Con. No table this year, though we did apply, there was no room. We'll try again next year if there is one. I don't mean to sound cryptic but I'm not hundred percent sure this year is going to happen, what with COVID numbers rising. I believe it will but I am sort of nervous about being in a room with 160,000 of my closest friends. Can anyone say "super spreader event"? We're taking precautions but it is always in the back of your mind.

Just as an editor's note: I don't envision doing this blog on the Sunday night we get back. However, I will do it on that Monday, as a Report from the Front. I will be attending some panels about writing and comic books and I will share what I learn here, but you'll have to wait.

Did get some time working on fka Skylar this week. I've been moving around some things and have some, of what I consider, to be really good ideas for how it will end; I just got to get there. But I do want to report, time was spent on the project.

Another query this week for Broken People. I did DNR one of my queries since I never did hear back but otherwise it has been radio silence from the agents so far. This is, of course, the new normal so I feel like I have Schrodinger's query until either the time passes or I hear back.

Finished a new future review for Trophy Unlocked. This one is for a less than cheery Christmas movie, The Cheaters (1945), part of our Drain the DVR campaign. I guess this caught my eye last December. I know, the title alone really makes you think about the holidays. Not sure when this one will appear. We seem to be overwhelmed with Christmas movie reviews and there are only so many weeks in December.

We did manage to cut into our backlog this week with the Saturday morning review being Paul's review of Mickey's Christmas Carol. As I wrote on Facebook, blame Hallmark for making Christmas in July a thing. We're just trying to keep up, that's all. Wednesday's Game Day review was Trevor's review of Kao the Kangaroo (2022).

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

A Week in Writing #401 - Funded, Now What?

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

Well, the Kickstarter funded with days to spare; whew! I will admit I don't enjoy the process, as I've detailed in the previous posts during the past month. Often frustrating, we did finally get over the finish. If anyone reading this took the hint and backed us, I want to thank you. As a writer, I want people to want to read what I write. I'm not doing this blog for the heck of it (more on that later). I have goals, just as everyone does, and I consider Powers Squared a brand I helped to create, and as such, I want people to read it.

I'm not quite ready to do a post-mortem on the Kickstarter, I'll actually wait until it has finished before I do that.

Back to the more on that later bit from above. On our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, we had as our guest Doug Neff, the moderator of San Diego Comic-Con's Comic Creator Connection and the author of Epic Win! The Geek's Guide to the Journey from Fan to Creator. You might not realize it, dear reader, but that book was responsible for this blog. In it, Doug talks about building a team to help you with your creativity. Sadly, I didn't have a team like he described. I feel like I'm self-motivated but I didn't have a coach, someone to make sure I was trying to reach my goals. So, I hit on the idea of making the internet my coach, so I started this blog to keep me accountable.

Paul and I had also been through the Comic Creator Connection several times and even though we never were able to make a lasting connection with an artist there, we still kept up with Doug and his husband, Corey, and try to be sure to see them at every con we both attend.

If you're curious about what we talked about, you can listen to it on the Powers Squared website: https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps, or on Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Tune In, and our LinkedIn page. And coming up on Wednesday the 27th, you can watch it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/ojBM-Cj0q1w but you'll have to wait.

Big week for Trophy Unlocked with three reviews published. Wednesday/Game Day featured Paul's review of the videogame River City Girls. The Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Today (Sunday) the third review went up, Trevor's review of the just-opened The Bad Guys. Not to be outdone, I wrote on for The Batman, which we watched on Friday night but mine will wait for the appropriate time when the blog does a spotlight on Batman. Of course, I'll let you know when it goes up.

After finally getting to the chapter I've been wanting to write for fka Skylar, I've continued working on it more though it never seems to be enough. It's never enough. I'm up to 34,585 words at present with many more to go.

No new queries this week. I think I ran out of steam on Thursday night. It's a window that if I miss it, I'm afraid I miss it. Coach, I'll do better next week.

Well, that seems like a good place to stop. Keep writing and I'll see you again next week.

A Week in Writing #399 - The Kickstarter is over 75 Percent Funded

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

I don't mean to bury the lead, so yes the Kickstarter is 75 percent funded with a little more than two weeks left to go. If you're reading this I ask that you take a look at the Kickstarter, as it means a lot to me and I want this to be funded and beyond. All writers want their work to be read and that doesn't only mean serious writers of literary fiction, that means all writers. I've put a lot of sweat and perseverance into Powers Squared and I would hope others would give it a try. Chances are if you read the book, you just might like it.

Shameless plug over.

Had my first experience in a movie theater in over two years. On Friday, my family and I went to see Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (read the review on Trophy Unlocked). It was weird to be back. The last film we'd seen in a theater was the first Sonic The Hedgehog film, so this was a nice bookend, though I'm not convinced, yet, that it will become a normal thing for me. I'm one of those people who still wears a mask in public and I'm not convinced the pandemic is really behind us. The theater was nice and all that but I'm not ready to book my next excursion.

On the subject of Trophy Unlocked, Sonic 2 was the Saturday Morning Review and Paul's review of Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition was the Wednesday Game Day review.

My future contribution is one that I wrote for Murder at the Vanities (1934), a pre-Code murder mystery set on the opening night of Earl Carroll's Vanities. Since we saw Sonic 2 in the afternoon, trying to avoid crowds, we went with something short for our Friday night movie. As always, not sure when it will appear.

Paul and I talked about our experience and about going to WonderCon on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared on Friday, so the feelings were still fresh. We were back on the air after missing last week's show due to Paul being under the weather.

My main focus over the past week has, no surprise, been the Kickstarter. On the advice of our consultant, I started doing a series of posts on Facebook and Instagram getting more into the story behind Powers Squared with a link to the Kickstarter rather than just an out-and-out plug. Not sure how well those are going over but I'm planning at least a couple of more before the week is out.

No new queries this week, I sort of lost the will to do one. No new rejections either, which really doesn't mean anything.

More work on fka Skylar. I'm finding that I usually work on it at the end of the week, like today, or the beginning of the week, like Monday. I really wish I could work on it more than I do but something's gotta give.

Well, it's a short one this week. Keep writing and I'll see you again next week.

A Week in Writing #396 - The Kickstarter is Upon Us

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

Our Kickstarter is just about to start. We're working with Artithmeric.com, a British on-demand publisher, to raise money to have our Graphic Novel translated into French so that it can be sold in Europe as a bande dessinée, or BD. We go live on the 24th, and I hope you, dear reader, will help to support the cause. You can sign up in advance and/or pledge at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/artithmeric/powers-squared-a-twin-superhero-drama. It would really mean a lot to me.

Paul and I did a walkthrough of our Kickstarter on our live twitch.tv video. You can watch it there or wait for it to show up on Wednesday on YouTube.

Needless to say, a lot of my time has been spent on the Kickstarter campaign and trying to get all the social media posts and our newsletter ready to go. I like the idea that you can schedule things to post, which means I don't have to be sitting at this computer when I'm supposed to be sitting at my work computer and still get the message out.

On that topic, tell me if this has ever happened to you. I have a series of social media posts I make every week, which I now schedule through our Go Daddy website powerssquaredcomicbook.com only two of them didn't go, for some reason that was never explained. I hate when that happens, even though that was the first time because time is always tight for me. I don't want to have to redo anything like that if I don't have to.

The Kickstarter has been the only thing I've been working on. I manage to spend a couple of nights with my long-neglected thriller, fka Skylar. I'm happy with actually working on it and making some progress.

And I've sent a new query this week, which sort of negates the rejection I received on Thursday. This was from the agency I queried on March 3rd:

Hi David,

Thank you for querying XXXXXXXXXp. We have read your query and regrettably, your project does not seem like a right fit for our agency.

Thank you again for thinking of us. Please be well.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXX

Surprised to get a response so quickly, and frankly at all these days.

My review of Wife vs. Secretary was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked this week. I started a new one for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) but I'm not terribly far along. The Wednesday Game Day Review was Paul's review of Spyro: Year of the Dragon.

Well, that about does it for me. Please consider supporting our Kickstarter and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #386 - One Week at a Time

Hope everyone is staying safe, has been boosted, and is, of course, writing.

Welcome to the working week, at least for me. With the holidays over, it was back to the 8 to 5 world, and writing gets put on the back burner, that is in the wee hours after dinner and before going to bed. Oh, how I wish the 8 to 5 was spent on writing.

I get a little mad at myself when I don't use all the hours I can to write. Sometimes, like today, there is a feeling of ennui and you look up and most of the afternoon has gone. Oh, I got some things done in the morning, posting a film's anniversary post on Twitter for Trophy Unlocked; picking and posting a new peek-of-the-week for Powers Squared; uploading the next video to YouTube, and setting up some social media posts to run next week, but then not much. But all of this, I look at as the business side of writing, not actual writing itself.

So, what did I do this week?

I continued working on Skylar (no longer the name) finishing a couple of chapters. I like ending chapters on a page-turner, or at least a question that needs to be answered, and I managed that on both of the chapters I finished during the week. We should probably log my word count, currently, this version is up to 22,646. Please don't apply the 1000 words a day and I think I'll be at near 30,000 next week. That would be great, but the 1000 words covers a lot of sins, so to speak.

As an example, after watching The Cat's Meow, I wrote nearly 3000 words on it for Trophy Unlocked. We watched the movie in honor of the director Peter Bogdanovich's passing. It seems this year has gotten off to a bumpy start with so many Hollywood players dying recently. As always, I'm not sure when this will run but I like having gotten it done within 24 hours of watching the film.

On the subject of Trophy Unlocked, the blog is starting a salute to the Shantae game series, with Paul's review of the first game appearing on Wednesday. The Saturday morning review was Paul's of Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion, a rather odd bit of anime (my opinion) that we watched recently.

I also worked this week on an outline for a pilot episode for our proposed Powers Squared animated series. Paul is the family expert in writing animation and I'm trying to learn from him. I finished a version on Thursday night but I'd like to take another look at it before showing it to him.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we made our first podcast of the year with a team meeting, including the creatives we work with; Rachel Wells, Julia Canon, and Trevor joining Paul and me on the show. I really enjoy talking with Rachel and Julia since otherwise the communication is limited to emails, text messages, and DMs on Discord. We also got the skinny on another project Rachel is working on which is currently on Indiegogo, Commander in Chef. She's been rather hush-hush about it up until now. (You are under no obligation to fund it, please wait instead for our Kickstarter coming in a couple of months.) And yes, I will be hyping it here, so no need to worry that you've missed it or anything.

So, for next week it promises to be more of the same. I'll finish my version of the outline, continue to work on fka Skylar and, yes, wait for it, send out the first query of the year. And who knows, maybe one of them will write back this time.

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

A Week in Writing #385 - Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year's celebration and that, of course, you've been writing.

Tell me if this has ever happened to you. A couple of days ago, I was lying in bed in that half-awake state and a bunch of dialogue for the book I'm writing came to me. It sounded so good to me at the time and gave the story a different slant. Too bad, I didn't have a chance to get up right then and there and write it out. I guess I thought it would stay with me. Well, tonight, I finally had the opportunity to put it down and it's not quite as good as I remembered it being. I figured it's better than it was and hopefully, I can make it better when I get to edit. I don't think I'm alone on this.

I've been able to do some writing during the holidays but it's also been a time to hang with family so sometimes other things have taken priority and some nights, I didn't do much.

That doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything. I've been trying to do some work on the upcoming Kickstarter, trying out some ideas for title and credits pages. Still a work in progress. In addition, had a conversation with our colorist on some chibis I've asked her to do. Again, still a work in progress.

It sort of seems that Powers Squared has taken a holiday break as, besides four colored pages and a cover, there hasn't been anything new to look at for a while. I'm sure things will get back on track in the new year.

Trophy Unlocked celebrated a milestone this past Saturday, as Paul's review of  The 25th Ward: The Silver Case was the 1300th one on the blog. Quite an accomplishment when you think about it. On New Year's Eve, we posted our end-of-the-year lists, with each of us, Paul, Trevor, and myself doing our own lists. Theirs also include video games which I don't have time to play. Even though it's the holiday season, Wednesday is still game day on Trophy Unlocked, with Paul's review of Octodad: Dadliest Catch.

I did complete a new review of To Be or Not to Be, the 1942 film starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard in her final film. As with most of my reviews, I don't know when it will post. I also prepped some Christmas-themed reviews for the blog, which again, I don't know when they'll appear. I already think we have a backlog of Christmas/holiday films as it is. I've also been discovering that our drive-by definition for Christmas films (if it happens at the holiday it's a Christmas film), seems to be more common as TCM showed a lot of "Christmas" films this past month that had only a tangential connection to the holiday.

I'm not sure when but next month I'll be getting back to the joys of querying and I'll update you on that when it happens. I think the first week back to work probably isn't any better for agents than it is for me returning to work.

I guess I should say something about my goals for the new year, as this is the first post of 2022. Of course, I want to find an agent, a process I hate but it seems like the best way to get published. With Powers Squared more issues, a successful Kickstarter, and the chance to pitch the book as a series. I'm also hoping to continue to grow our mailing list and subscribers to our podcast OAPS. And, of course, keep writing this weekly missive with hopefully really cool news to report on all things above.

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

A Week in Writing #361 - I Miss Comic-Con - Report From the Front

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

Every year for the past 12 or so, my family and I have made the trek to San Diego for Comic-Con. What started out as a bit of a lark, hey let's check this out after Legoland, has turned into an annual event and led us to co-create our own comic book, the oft-written about Powers Squared, which has, in turn, led to things like Podcasts, mailing lists, and newsletters, which, if you've read more than one of these posts, have read me writing about more than once.

As part of our yearly trek, I write a Report from the Front, where I detail what I did and what I learned. No doubt, you're aware, that for the second year in a row, the actual event has been canceled and has continued as a website linking you to Exhibitors to buy exclusives and YouTube where the panels take place. So, the front lines are as close as my couch.

Over the years, as we've gotten more involved in the business side of comic books, I've tried to make a point of attending more practical panels, i.e., those that teach rather than hype. (Note: If you've never been to SDCC before, there is a lot of hyping going on. Constantly.) This year, there were fewer days, from five to three plus the random program on Wednesday and Thursday, so there were fewer panels to watch.

If you're like me and you've been working from home during the pandemic you've probably been on a few Zoom calls that you simply watched, i.e., it hasn't been interactive. And imagine if the Zoom call you were watching was pre-taped. If you can do that, then you've had the Comic-Con@Home experience. As exciting as a pre-recorded conversation that you're not a part of, which is often to be applied sarcastically.

Now, a few panels have had some production values but I would put those under the category of hype; Unmasking Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins on Wednesday and the Dragon Ball: Special Panel are examples.

But for the most part, the informational ones seemed more like work than anything else. And I know that whoever puts together the panels usually brings together people they've worked with before, but sometimes you can overdo it when three-quarters of the guests work on the same podcast for example. You're not really getting a universal lesson when everyone has the same experiences.

We watched panels on podcasting and branding, but I don't really think I learned anything new from either. The one overriding truth seems to be that no one makes money on podcasts or comic books but you do it for love. The other is that if you do work in the industry, you have to be two of the three: nice to work with (not an asshole), talented, and meet your deadlines. There, I saved you three days of video watching. You're welcome.

I know this is meant to mostly be about Comic-Con@home, but I did want to give you an update on a query. No, not a new one, and not good news either, but a rejection. One of the queries I made back in April was finally officially resolved, about a month after I gave up on it. The agency said that they take 8 weeks to reply to queries so I took that to mean a pass at the end of June. However, 8 weeks can apparently mean 12 weeks because I received a form letter rejection at 2:33 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Again, this blog isn't here to settle scores but it doesn't get more impersonal than a form letter sent at 2:33 on a Sunday morning.

The takeaway from this, if you're looking for a bright side, is that when an agency says 8 weeks it could really be 12 weeks, so the fact you hadn't heard back doesn't really mean it's a rejection, it just means that they're behind schedule. Best of luck.

And it's never fun to start the day being rejected.

In other news, I did manage to finish the fourth draft of a story idea I had for Powers Squared, Aroma Therapy. 40 pages over two issues. Don't know if it will make it to print but it was an idea I've had for a while and decided to write it this week, yes in lieu of other writing.

And the podcast that the comic book birthed, On the Air with Powers Squared, is about to celebrate its 100th episode. For that show, we got Carla Hoch, the author of Fight Write to be a guest. If you have any questions you'd like to ask about fight scenes in books or comic books, leave me a comment by Thursday morning, we're taping her in advance, and I'll ask for you.

For Trophy Unlocked, in the spirit of Comic-Con, we featured Trevor's review of the video game Blacksad: Under the Sun and his review of The Peanuts Movie on Saturday morning. I'm currently working on a review of Who Framed Roger Rabbit for future publication. Hard to do much writing when you're watching videos.

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

A Week in Writing #349 - Trying to Find the Time

I don't know if you ever have weeks like this but there is more to do than time permits. It seems like every week is a study in compromise. And there is a certain unpredictability about working on a comic book that just adds to the stress. Pages show up whenever they're ready and that means they need to be looked at and feedback given and then relooked at when the changes are made. I'm not saying it's a difficult process but just time-demanding and time-consuming.

I'm pretty used to Powers Squared being the main activity many weeks but some weeks it takes up more time than others. That's not to mention prepping for the show on Friday, social media posts, updating the website, posting the video. This week, we had the added step of putting out our now monthly newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl. A lot of it is rote by now but there is always a creative twins story that has to be researched and written, a peek-of-the-week to decide on, and test emails to make sure the links all work.

This week, Paul and I are going to have a zoom call with one of our on-demand printers. We want to talk to them about the future and how we're going to get there together or separately. We need everyone's help to make this a going enterprise.

I did write a new review this week. Another Saturday night clean out the DVR film, The Wagons Roll at Night (1941). While the title may sound like a Western, it's about a carnival. The reason for recording and watching the film is Humphrey Bogart. Not sure when it will appear. Probably no time soon. My review of The Secret Bride went up on Trophy Unlocked on Saturday morning and Paul's review of the video game Minit went up on Wednesday. Next week, it's going to be solid Star Wars films and video games, so I'll be reporting back on those reviews next week.

No new queries this week. I've got the five out and I sort of ran out of time on Thursday when I usually send one. See how it relates back to the subject of this review? I'm pretty sure by now one of them has expired even though I've heard nothing back from any of them. But as I've written, nothing means no these days.

Skylar, as always it seems, takes a backseat to everything else. I try to work on it at least a couple of days a week but two is about as many as I get to it. I'm reworking some of the plot and, of course, other things along the way.

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

A Week in Writing #347 - What Next?

Hope everyone is staying safe and writing.

Have you ever had a moment when you've done something really big and then realize you're going to have to think of something to do next week? On the Air with Powers Squared, we had the biggest guest we've had on the show, John Barber, the Editor-in-Chief at IDW, and our longest show clocking in at about 90 minutes.

John is someone we've known for about a decade, mostly through conventions, but he was nice enough to give us the opportunity to be on our show. We didn't think we'd have another chance so we asked him everything we could about his career. He started out doing webcomics and has worked at Marvel as well as IDW. He was very gracious with his time. I encourage you to check it out. Currently, the audio is available on several platforms, but you can listen to it on our website, https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps.

Now, we have to come up with something for next Friday. Can't top that but we'll do the best we can. I'm guessing we'll do something closer to the original intention of the show, which was to provide a behind-the-scenes look at Powers Squared. Stay tuned.

While we're on the subject of Powers Squared, please allow me to discuss a promotion we're running. One of the platforms we have it on is GlobalComix. Unlike other digital platforms like ComiXology there is no app to download. Well, anyway, on GlobalComix, we're offering the first three issues of Powers Squared for FREE! If you've been dragging your feet about reading it, now is the time. You can check out the offer at https://globalcomix.com/c/powers-squared?lang=en&utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=instagram%20post&utm_campaign=first_three_free. The hope is after the first three you'll want to read more and we might make some money. Talk about pipedream.

We're still waiting to hear back from ComiXology on Issue #11, so we haven't set a release date just yet.

I had another review go up on Trophy Unlocked this Saturday, Tomorrow is Forever (1946). The week prior was Hitman week #2 with Paul's reviews running Monday through Friday in this order: Hitman: Codename 47; Hitman 2: Silent Assassin; Hitman: Contracts; Hitman: Blood Money; and Hitman: Absolution. I did write a new one this weekend, Wife vs. Secretary (1936). No idea when it will go up but as always, I'll let you know when it does.

I did do a new query this week for Broken People. I decided to mix things up and sent it to an agent in England. I know, long shot but if I am rejected it will be interesting to compare ones from there to ones from here. I'll try to do a new one this week. I still need to write a new hook, I guess, based on my last rejection. You really hope they go on the writing but I think it's any excuse not to actually read them. But hey that's just my opinion.

In between everything, I have been doing more writing on Skylar. I'm still going through my routine of editing to get back to where I left off. I'm starting to think about making a change in the plotting of the story itself, something to raise the stakes.

I'm not sure where you are with the COVID vaccine but I'm scheduled to get my first shot on Tuesday morning. Last time I got a vaccine shot, about a year or so ago, it wiped me out the next day. So we'll see and hope for the best. But I'm encouraging you if you get a chance to get one that you do it. We all want to continue writing, don't we?

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

A Week in Writing #335 - Query Hell

I hope everyone is staying safe and writing.

So tell me, has this ever happened to you? You've edited and spell-checked your manuscript repeatedly in Word but when you paste the first ten pages into your query email, there are suddenly several words that are identified as questionable. You try to make all the corrections there but it makes you rethink your book, at least the spelling in it.

Well, that happened to me on Thursday. I was going through the process of sending out my weekly query when suddenly several words show up in the email as possibly misspelled. I make those corrections before I send it but it gets me thinking about what I've been sending.

Trust me when I say I had gone through Broken People several times but I'm finding that the spell check is not perfect in Word and the grammar program I have on the internet is picking up things that had not presented themselves before. On top of that, I started going through the book again and I'm finding errors that shouldn't be there. Embarrassing to say the least.

That got me to look at the book again and I've decided to make some changes. I had been given the advice to get to the action sooner and so in looking at this again, I've decided to move the chapters around and start with what would have been the fourth chapter and use the first three in a flashback. I'm liking it but I think I'm going to give the book yet another go through before I send out samples again. I've decided to "wash" all of the pages through email before I send them. To make the changes work, I'm also going to have some more edits to make but I think it will make it a better book, which is always the goal.

As far as the one I sent on Thursday, should I hear back I can send him more than the first ten pages of that version. But going forward, I'll be using a new version of the book to query with.

Speaking of queries, I pulled the pin on the two that were still open from last year. The time periods for them to get back to me if they were interested have expired.

Enough about that.

Spent more time this week on Parents' Day for Powers Squared. As I was getting to the end of the story I wanted to make changes so that's still a work in progress, at least the second half. I'm pretty happy with Part 1 though I still have another run-through of it to go.

Worked more on Character Descriptions to match the Character Sheets our artist Rachel is working on for us. There are obviously four main characters so the first set I worked on matched what she was doing independently. We had her on our show, On the Air with Powers Squared, on Friday to discuss. You can find links or listen to it on our website https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps

I did some more work earlier in the week on Skylar, though I've put that aside while I'm working on Parents' Day and my new rework on Broken People.

I finished one review for Trophy Unlocked, Tomorrow is Forever, and started another this week, Nobody Lives Forever, both for future use. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Trevor's review of the videogame Devil Dice went up, and on Saturday morning, Paul's review of A Goofy Movie. I'm sure I'll make an appearance sometime this year but there are a lot of reviews that have been gathering dust. I'll be ready when I get the chance.

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

A Week in Writing #319 - More Birthdays and Frustrations

A new week and what did I do?

I hate to keep using this excuse but Birthdays played a part in this week as well. Yes, mine was Friday but my sons' were this past Monday. Not that that taints the whole week but that was another day I didn't really try to do too much. If you're new to this blog, Paul and Trevor are my sons but also the co-creators on Powers Squared, that comic book I keep writing about.

Then there was the Presidential Debate on Tuesday. I'm not getting political here but watching that and the follow-up coverage did sort of take a lot of time away from other pursuits like writing. I don't plan to watch any of the future Presidential ones, as it was a colossal waste of time, though I will watch the Vice-Presidential one on Wednesday, so don't expect a lot from me that day.

And while I had the promise of working on Thursday night, the breaking news sort of dominated me after that. So, that's the better part of three nights. And besides the podcast, I don't really try to "write" on Fridays, as that's pizza and movie night.

For the rest of the week, I felt a sort of general ennui which is not conducive to getting a lot done. I don't know if it was the odd, for us, schedule we'd been keeping or maybe just a bit of overload getting the best of me. I kind of felt like doing more of the menial rather than creative aspects of the writing. As an example, I spent a couple of nights updating Pinterest with the reviews that are either scheduled so far or will be having anniversaries this month. So that's gone now as an excuse for next week.

Did a little writing on Skylar and think I've finally finished the chapter I was working on. I already have some ideas for the next few, it's just a matter of putting the ideas down.

Getting back to Powers Squared, we had a good podcast on Friday. Seth Laderman, a former production exec at Lionsgate, was our guest. He's someone I've known for the past several years and he was a supporter of our Kickstarter. You can check it out on our YouTube Channel.

We also had some review work that Paul and I did on Thursday with pages from Rachel. Judging by Twitter and Twitch I think we're getting closer to finishing the coloring on Issue #15. There were some pending questions from the colorist that we've tried to answer but that's still unresolved for now.

Did some "editing" on a script Paul wrote for a future Powers Squared issue. Made some suggestions and am actually making some changes to present to him as a possible way for it to go. I made one pass and am reviewing that before I show it to him.

I did promise to fill you in on my conversation with the US Copyright Office. I spoke on the phone with one of their Information Specialists on Monday but I don't think I got the answer I was after. The woman was very nice and admitted that we had gotten bad advice from one of their own but there was no mention of stopping the process and refunding my money. And she couldn't tell me what had been submitted to them back in 2019, which seems odd for the repository of copyrighted IPs. I couldn't either, but I think we did submit everything, so there's still hope it will right itself in the end. I'm afraid I'm going to have to wait until next year to find out for sure, since that's how long these seem to take.

On Trophy Unlocked, my review of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) went up as the Saturday Morning Review, the kickoff of Horror month on the blog. There should be a new horror film review every Saturday through the end of the month. On Wednesday, Paul's review of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner M∀RS for the PS4 was featured. We're getting frightfully close to the 1100th review on the blog, so that's pretty cool.

I did write a review of Smarty (1934), for future use. Another drain the DVR movies that have been on there since Joan Blondell was the featured star on TCM. I honestly don't know how long ago that's been but it's safe to say awhile.

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

A Week in Writing #317 - Venting Some Frustrations

Hope everyone is staying safe.

I'm going to do something I rarely do and vent a little on my frustration with someone I had counted on as a friend. I will not name names, as that is not my style, but I do want to make it clear that I don't appreciate the treatment.

As anyone who regularly reads this blog, my sons and I have a comic book, Powers Squared that we've been putting out for several years. To hopefully publicize it, my son Paul and I do a podcast On the Air with Powers Squared, sorry if this old news to some, which we record while live-streaming on Twitch.TV. For the last few weeks, we've been trying to have guests on the show. We've had the artist, Rachel Wells, our colorist, Julia Canon, and our letterer, Trevor Hankins, on the show. To complete the sequence, we thought it would be a great idea to have someone on the show that has supported the book, at least through the Kickstarter, and had read all the issues, including up through #12 (again part of the Kickstarter).

He was someone I had known for about five years now and had championed to my son as a good guest. There were things he had worked on that we could ask him about, etc. He couldn't make it the first week but said he could this Friday. We had been communicating via Linkedin messenger and had done so as late as Tuesday since we needed an icon for the "ad" we put up on Instagram, which feeds Twitter and Facebook. Got his okay and that was the last thing we heard from him since. Friday comes, we send him the Google Hangout invite and nothing and as I'm writing this nearly two days later, since. I've messaged him a couple of times on Linkedin, but no response.

Now, I'll regret saying this if indeed there was some unexpected family emergency, but it would have been nice to have gotten some sort of heads up that he couldn't make it or at least something since saying he was sorry he forgot or something, anything. Again, I won't name him and I'm pretty sure he doesn't read this blog, but I'm very disappointed.

We were left a little flat-footed at 6 pm on Friday but we managed to pull a preview of Issue #10 out of nowhere at the last minute. You can watch it and/or listen to it. To find the outlets, go to https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/join. We managed to add a new outlet this past week or so: Amazon Music, so we're now on five podcast outlets. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

Other progress was made on the comic book this week, as both Rachel and Julia turned in pages, though for different issues. With Trevor, we're working on Issues 14 (lettering),15 (coloring) and 16 (pencils).

For the future, Paul and I are both working on separate story arcs. I completed my rewrites on Mission Istanistan, which is a three-issue arc and Paul is writing one tentatively called Kamaitachi Story. We'll hopefully get to these next year if all goes well.

We're currently waiting on some proofs to come back on Issue #10. We got one, but there is another one pending. So, hopefully soon.

No update on the copyright issue. I didn't have a chance to call. I feel like I've given them a chance to respond via email, so I will have to find the time this week. Can't let this fester too long.

In other writing, I'm finishing up a review for two films, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 and 2. Saturday was Batman Day, so we watched part one on Friday night and part two on Saturday. I've gotten through most of the review, but not quite done yet.

To celebrate Batman Day, Trophy Unlocked put up Paul's review of Batman: Year One (2011). And just when you think there were no more Tony Hawk game reviews left, we had at least one more, which came out on Wednesday, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD.

Made some more progress on Skylar, though I think I only got about 1000 more words done. I'm up to about 13599 words and counting. I'll try to keep you abreast of my progress here.

And, to round off the week, no queries. I know, I'm bad. Still need to research like-books. I tried but didn't find any results when I googled it. Sadly, there is only so much time in a week.

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

A Week in Writing #315 - That Frustrated Feeling

Hope everyone is staying safe and continuing to write.

Before I sat down to write this entry, I was feeling pretty frustrated as everything I've tried to do today hasn't worked or at least worked easily. I was hoping to spend part of the weekend working on things Powers Squared and even though the weekend isn't technically over (Labor Day), I don't think I'm going to get everything done.

My frustration has nothing to do with the people I'm working with on the project, they're all great. But I was hoping to do some preliminary work on Issue #10, which we want to get out in the next month or so. It feels like it is overdue.

I wanted to get some proofs made. We use two different print-on-demand services, one in the US and one in the UK. Our US one won't let you upload your files until after you've paid, which is all well and good, but you can't pay the invoice generated on the site until they send you an email link, which is a bit frustrating. To their credit, they did check their messages on a Sunday afternoon and sent me the invoice, so I was at least able to get that part done.

With the UK one, which also does t-shirts, I wanted to get a couple proofs made, but could only get one done. Again, not their fault, but one of the two images needs to be altered in a way that is above my limited Photoshop skills. I've contacted the original colorist to see if she still has the layered tiff file that would make the change easier to make. If not, there are other options, but it means it won't happen this weekend.

When I tried to upload the comic book to that site to get a proof made by them, I got an error message I can't get past, so I have to wait for them to get back in the office. Again, I'll probably be able to do it tomorrow, but that's not what I was planning to do then.

Otherwise, things are going well with the book. We have a great team and we've started a new issue this month, our 16th (part of the reason 10 seems to be late). Paul and I had Rachel as a guest on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, and she discussed character design and turning the script into thumbnails. You can watch it on our YouTube channel if you're interested.

In other writing, I finished my first round of research on agents. I decided to wait until after Labor Day to send out my first queries. I will admit to being nervous. I researched about 95 agents. As I discussed last week, I've grouped them into three color categories: greens are the best bets (44); yellows are secondary choices (40) and reds are not to query (11). You sort of want to test a few to see if it's the query or the agent, so I'll take it slow.

I did some more writing on Skylar, but not really enough to have more than this much mention here.

For Trophy Unlocked, I worked on two reviews, one I've completed for Old Yeller (1957) and one I'm still working on for Three Men On a Horse (1936). Again, I don't know when they'll see the light of the internet. This week and next have been pretty much dedicated to Tony Hawk, with reviews this week for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS1), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (PS1), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS2), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (PS2) and Tony Hawk's Underground (PS2). The Saturday Morning Review was Mulan, but the 1998 original and not the one on Disney+ (see what we did there?)

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

A Week in Writing #311

Let me start off this blog with a couple of updates. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I had reached out to someone I had seen on a Comic-Con@home video who claimed to be a marketer for comic books. Well, two weeks and counting and no response. Not sure if that speaks to their lack of interest or their lack of business acumen. I will do what they don't want you to do when looking for an agent and nudge. If after that there's no response, I will count this as a minor misadventure.

Speaking of looking for agents, I did do some more research, but no queries. Researching possible agents is very time-consuming and a little soul-crushing. You read everything they're looking for and you start to doubt yourself. I'm not talking so much about the work but the little things agents seem to be looking for, things I'm sure they think will make the work stand out to a publisher, which is, of course, their goal as well as mine. However, it sometimes feels like I'm trying to fit my square peg in their round hole. I'm guessing that theirs is a moving target as well, as in what they're looking for now is not what they'll be looking for next week or next month. You can't write for the agent, you have to write for yourself and hope they'll somehow match.

I did do some more work on my latest idea. I think I have the setup, but I'm trying to figure out what case I would use. I originally thought about blackmail but I've used that before. Now I'm leaning to using a tontine as the plot device. I've had the idea for a while and it just occurred to me this week to try it.

In other writing, I did complete two reviews this week, one for Kindergarten Cop (1990) and one for Dance, Girl, Dance (1940). The former was spurred by the fact a showing of the film in Oregon was canceled because it was deemed controversial and compared to Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind. It should appear next Saturday on Trophy Unlocked. Dance, Girl, Dance was a result of our weekly drain the DVR. Not sure when that will be published.

What was published was a week-long survey of the Final Fantasy VII franchise, including games and a feature based on the game, written by Paul. On Saturday, it was the 20th anniversary of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins written by Trevor. The two of them have been very busy during the pandemic with writing reviews.

For Powers Squared it was the usual week of a Podcast on Friday, a YouTube video on Sunday, and a newsletter to our subscribers. This week's podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, featured a guest for the first time, our artist Rachel Wells. Our colorist, Julia Canon, had us set up a Discord account for the comic book and it allows us to do videos, which, using OBS, we were able to broadcast on Twitch and then, using Audacity, pulled the audio from the video.

Keeping with the creative team, this week's YouTube video was a Google Hangout with both Rachel and Julia, the first time we had ever spoken to both of them at the same time. We also posted an unboxing video, featuring an anthology Artithmeric is trying to get distributed, which would serialize 10 of their books, including Powers Squared.

We also did what I hope is the final run-through of the Pilot script for our proposed animated series. I've got a few notes but I think we're pretty much there. Next, we can hopefully finish up the Pitch Packet for it.

There always feels like there is something else to do with the book. We're always trying to figure out how to grow our audience. If you have any ideas, please feel free to share in the comments. I mean that.

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

A Week in Writing #294 - Stay at Home Week 4

Am I the only one who doesn't see an end in sight for this? Not that I really miss most of the workday experience but it's the rest of it that sort of gets to me.

I feel like I've lost the little bit of private space I have in the house, which has never been very much to begin with. I usually write either at the end of the dining room table or on a tray in the living room. I also work from home from the dining room table, which means there is no mental separation. To make it a little harder is that my wife is also working from home and the laptop she's using is also on the dining room table, so while I'm trying to write, she's also on her computer, doing what I don't know. What matters is that the time and place I used to call my own is now a shared space. It's a little thing but it does sort of inhibit me a little. I really wish I had a private place I could go but that's not in the cards.

This week, I did manage to do a little more writing on The Runaway, finishing one chapter and starting another. I think things are progressing but never as fast as I want them to.

I did write a couple of reviews for Trophy Unlocked, Gulliver's Travels (1939) and Little Big Man. I'm not sure when these will appear. My co-writers on the blog have a large backlog of reviews and theirs have been featured much more of late. This Saturday Morning's Review was the recent video game Doom Eternal. And I know they've planned out special months for part of the year so I'm not sure where I am in line.

We tried to upload the next issue of Powers Squared (#9) onto the ComiXology site but ran into a potential issue. When we uploaded Issue #8 earlier this year, it ended up as a different series than the rest of them. For whatever reason, there were two Powers Squared series listed and only one of them is good. I was able to get the renegade issue put back with the pack and was told the other series had been or would be deleted. However, it was back on Saturday night. I've also found out that the person that had helped me is no longer with the company so we're still up in a little limbo at the moment. I'm pretty sure which one to use but I was also pretty sure last time and you can see where that got me.

More rewrites on the Pilot script but they're mostly format issues. Paul has taken a course in animation writing and, I believe, has a flair for it so I'm counting on him to point out the error in my ways. Hopefully, we're coming to the end of that and I'll be able to work on the pitch deck. All these new talents I have to develop on the fly.

We sort of cut corners this week. We decided to do a different sort of Podcast this week, which we also simul-stream on Twitch. For this week's installment of On the Air with Powers Squared, we read the first issue, which I know is great for an audio podcast but we did our best to describe the artwork. Well, we liked the video so well that we also used it for our A Week in Powers Squared video. Hey, it's Easter, so come on. For anyone counting, we've done 31 podcasts and 80 weekly videos and this is the first time we've crossed the streams so to speak. I've also posted the video on our website, so no reason not to watch.

Well, that is about all for this week. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #288 - Pitch Decks and Criticism

Some weeks seem to have themes, even if you don't start out thinking about it. This week, it seems like criticism is what we dealt with most this week.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Paul and I are involved almost weekly with critiquing the work of our artist, colorist and letterer, as it relates to Powers Squared. This week, we had a bit of a change as we received some criticism for one of our own projects. I believe I've mentioned here before that we would like to pitch Powers Squared as an animated TV Series.

To that end, we prepared our version of a Pitch Deck and showed it to someone who has experience in TV animation. To say the least, the critique was super good while not being overly positive. And, it was exactly what we needed. We did the best we could but it obviously wasn't good enough and we only want to make it better. Really appreciated the constructive criticism we received.

We made criticism the centerpiece of our Friday night podcast, On the Air With Powers Squared, which you can listen to here or here. We also did a Twitch Stream but we didn't have the right settings so it's gone. It was still fun, though, and I think we'll do better next week with the settings and save it. If you want you can follow us at https://www.twitch.tv/powerssquared, so when we do the next one, you'll be notified.

On the subject of pitching, Paul and I attended the first of two sessions at UCLA on Pitching for Feature Films and Television Series. I think we both learned a lot and got some really good ideas about what we need to do both in the pitch and in the pitch deck. There is still more to learn and I'm looking forward to the next session, next Saturday's session, though I've got homework. I haven't had homework in years and while it's not hard, I'm not looking forward to having to do it. But even then I'm pretty sure it will be helpful in the long run.

The week wasn't all about Powers Squared. I did make some progress on The Runaway, though never as much as I want. There were a couple of nights where I wrote 3 and 4 pages a night but there were just as many where I didn't get much done. I still like what I've outlined for the rest of the story but I want to get through it. I know there are rewrites in my future and that's okay. As I believe I've mentioned before, that's my favorite part of the process.

Again, this week, no new reviews from me. However, Trophy Unlocked continues on without my contributions. This Saturday Morning's Review was Trevor's review of Recess: School's Out. We had watched the movie a week or so ago when one of the voice actors, Jason Davis, died.

Next week promises to be tight. In addition to the homework I have, we're going to Disneyland on Tuesday. My wife has been wanting to go for about a decade now and there was a pretty sweet L.A. resident deal so we have to go three times before the middle of May. So next week, I'm at least losing one whole day. It's for a good cause and all but I still hate losing the writing time, if that makes sense. And then there's going back to work the next day. But that's next week.

Speaking of which, I'll be back next Sunday to report on what I did do. So until then, keep writing.

A Week in Writing #287 - The Runaway Taking Shape

Every week is different when it comes to writing. This week, I think I was able to spend more time on The Runaway, making some progress on the book. I don't have an exact word count but I was able to write to the point where I was able to insert the section I had written ahead, which was over 5000 words. I'm still not sure the book, as it's currently shaping up, will be long enough. That still remains to be seen as I'm not done yet but I do have it in the back of my mind as I think I'm on the downhill side of writing this book.

I also had an idea about how to change my query letter for another novel, Broken People. Had sort of a sleepless night and the wording sort of came to me. It takes me one step closer to actually sending out query letters again. That's a really necessary step but one that will take a lot of time, which is always at a premium, especially over the next few weeks.

That takes us to Powers Squared and what's on the schedule for that project. On March 14th, we have our signing at Golden Apple Comics, which we're very excited about. Before that, Paul and I will be attending a two-part seminar at UCLA that's supposed to help us with our idea to pitch the book as an animated TV series. That's the goal at least. So the next three Saturdays, prime writing time, are taken up with what I like to think of as the business side of writing. It has its place but it does take away from the actual art-side of the equation.

New pages this week from our artist, Rachel Wells. She's completed pencils on the last four pages of Issue #13 and the cover. We had only one brief change we wanted her to make and she made that as well.

Our new colorist, Julia Canon, started working this week on Issue #13. I know this, in part, because she is Twitch streaming her work. You can follow along at https://www.twitch.tv/blythe_pov/. I'll admit I've watched a couple of hours so far. I feel a little like I'm spying on her, if you know what I mean, but I really appreciate her being public about her work and publicizing the book on a consistent basis. That's the sort of help that we really haven't gotten before from one of our artists.

No new reviews from me this week. I did finish up one on The St. Valentine's Day Massacre but that doesn't really count. This week's Saturday Review on Trophy Unlocked was Paul's review of Slayer: The Replentless Killogy. Trust me when I say the film is a big difference from what we had been reviewing during last week's Sonic Week.

A Week in Writing #286 - Under the Weather but Still Writing

Being under the weather and writing don't go hand-in-hand, or at least you really can't be one and do much with the other. I'm mentioning this because I've been a touch under the weather for the past few days. Nothing serious, not even really a cold or the terrible Coronavirus. Just a little dry throat, running nose and weak in the knees. As I'm writing this, I'm feeling better but this isn't how I wanted to spend the day off I took on Friday nor the upcoming President's Day holiday. But what is it they say, life is what happens while you're busy making other plans. I'm sure I've used that before to describe a week of writing that has not gone as planned.

Let's start with Trophy Unlocked this time to reveal how little I've done this week. No new reviews from me, though the blog has been busy. Seven reviews were posted in seven days, a rare feat for the site. 6 of them were related to Sonic Week, five reviews of games and a Japanese OVA leading to the release of Sonic The Hedgehog (2020) and that review, which was posted today. The Saturday Morning Review was Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind + Concert Video (DLC). None of these seven reviews were written by me, which is fine. Sonic is not really in my wheelhouse.

I did have an idea for a review but when I sat down to work on it I couldn't concentrate enough on it to make any headway. The review would be for next Valentine's Day, The Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), which I happened to have seen the next day on TV in its entirety and without commercial interruption. It seems fitting for next year. I just have to write it.

Did some work on The Runaway. There was another unrelated news story that I was able to weave into the story, or at least I'd like to think I was able to. All the same, not really all that much progress was made overall on the story.

This leaves us with Powers Squared, and it is once again here that I think I spent most of my time. This week, Paul and I each, separately, went over the last three issues of the book, 10-13, What's in a Name? looking at the lettering. For the most part, there weren't any issues, just a couple of run together words and some misplaced punctuations. Paul did edit down some dialogue and had Trevor, who does the lettering, move a speech bubble. This led to our weekly podcast, On The Air With Powers Squared, inviting Trevor on as a guest and talking about the importance of lettering as the topic.

Finishing them off allowed us to send out the last of the Kickstarter rewards. So, we're finally finished with that project.

During the week, I managed to nail down our signing at Golden Apple, a very important comic book store here in Los Angeles. We're scheduled for two hours on the afternoon of March 14th. I spoke to one of the owners by phone on Monday so I guess it's as official as it will get. I've ordered issues to sell and we've designed a special trading card for the occasion. We're hoping to make the most of the event as we can.

Paul and I, despite being under the weather, did our weekly video A Week in Powers Squared and sent out the latest edition of our mini newsletter, The Bark. As they say in the theater, the show must go on.

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

A Week in Writing #284 - Realities

There is a lot of excitement around getting published, even self-published, which is essentially what we're doing. January 29th was the date ComiXology decided to put up our latest issue of Powers Squared: Mathemagical Part 1, or Issue #8 so that became our publication date, and if you remember from last week's post, Powers Squared Day.

We did what we could to get the word out but there is a good chance most of the world doesn't know it's been released, let alone know the comic book exists. But that's not to say we don't want it presented in the best way possible.

With this issue, in addition to ComiXology and Artithmeric, we added a third platform, IndyPlanet but in some ways that only added to the difficulties, or realities that headline this post. Before I discuss these, I do want to point out that each one was taken care of quickly, though they did still happen. Names will be changed to protect the innocent and all that and really no real harm happened.

To begin with, one platform put it out there early and had to pull it back. For another, Issue #8 was listed separately from the previous seven. And finally, one item that we thought would be up wasn't listed. Again, all of these issues were quickly dealt with but it is a sign that you can never really totally relax and assume everything will go according to plan.

Speaking of plans, we're closer to selecting a new colorist. We had three very good candidates and have received test pages back. We're still evaluating them, as not everyone on the creative team has had a chance to weigh in. But the decision will be made soon.

Meanwhile, progress continues to be made on Issue #13. Rachel sent us new pages and Paul and I used reviewing them as the basis for our weekly Podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. We try to take people behind the scenes and this week we went as far behind the scenes as we possibly could.

One new review from me this week, Parasite, the 2019 Korean film that is getting all the hype and buzz. We watched it on Friday night and the review should go up on February 5 as Trophy Unlocked tries to play catch up before the Academy Awards.

New reviews in that vein on the blog, with Trevor's review of Frozen II getting published as the Saturday Morning Review. Check it out. Also coming, Sonic Week, leading up to the release of the new film, which will most likely be our first 2020 film to be reviewed.

I continued to work on The Runaway, finishing up a couple of new chapters as I'm going. I had what I think is a really good idea on Saturday morning which I can't wait to get to for the book. Sometimes things come together in bits and pieces so I'm hopeful this book will work out. It's the writing and having the time for the writing that is keeping me back.

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

A Week in Writing #275 - Writing, the Holidays and Kickstarter

The truth about writing, holidays, and travel is that something has to give. You really can't do all three at the same time. This Thanksgiving not only did we have to travel, like we do every year but we also left a day early because of snow in the Grapevine, the main way north out of Los Angeles.
So the week essentially gets cut back to only a couple of days.

It's hard to write with a group of people around as well. With nothing to do for the moment, I sat down to work on this and was quickly interrupted twice in about five minutes. Make that three times. There's no solitude in a crowd.

We did some work on Powers Squared this week, besides hyping the Kickstarter whenever we could. New pages from Nina came in on Sunday, which was a bad day for Paul and I to look at them. He had been gone the previous day to DesignerCon with Trevor, they had a friend over in the afternoon and there was a football game on that I wanted to watch. (I only follow one team in one sport, so give this to me.) We still had a newsletter to get out and I had this blog to write, so time was tight.

The pages looked good when we had a chance to look at them on Monday. We're also actively looking for a replacement colorist. So far, only two people have approached us and both are very good. We're still sort of distracted to really concentrate on that right now.

Paul and I spent some time over the holiday to talk with my wife's siblings and their adult children into supporting our Kickstarter. They were very receptive and we raised a lot of funding. Some even offered to talk with others they work with to support it as well. We're getting closer to our goal but we still have a ways to go.

On Friday, even though we were traveling Paul and I figured out how to do a mail merge and sent out emails to 70 people from the mailing list who have not, so far, supported the Kickstarter. Paul sent out blast emails to classmates in two of his recent classes. And I even sent personal emails to two of my oldest friends and two of my siblings who have not backed us.

So far, the only response I've received was from one of the friends. I've known this guy since high school and he declined to help, stating amongst other excuses that he wasn't the target audience and pleading poverty since he's retired. I'm sorry but I didn't take that well. I'm not the target audience for the comic book, and neither are most of the backers, so that doesn't hold water and he's a retired city employee so I don't think he's really hurting. Hey, I've had total strangers pledge a dollar. Someone I've known my entire adult life can't do that much?

I thought about writing him back but there is no nice way to say what I'm thinking, so I dropped him from our mailing list instead. You have to separate the wheat from the chaff. I guess I'm looking at this Kickstarter as a testing ground of sorts. If you won't support us then maybe it's time for us both to move on.

Managed to squeeze in some work on The Runaway on Monday night and some more rewrites on Thanksgiving day as well. Hard to write too much on the road but I feel like I have to at least try. I think it's in my DNA.

No new reviews from me this week but Trevor published one for Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review, Transformers: Prime - The Game. Trevor is our resident expert on all things Transformers so he brings a lot of knowledge to his review. Next week, we start the Christmas season on the blog and will feature Christmas-themed films every Saturday until Christmas.

Speaking of next week, I'll leave it here for now and we'll pick it up then. Keep writing.