A Week in Writing #628 - 7 Years of On the Air with Powers Squared, 1800 Reviews and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

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

As the title suggests, On the Air with Powers Squared celebrated 7 years of podcasts on Friday with #366. Our guest was Val Hochberg, noted artist and webcomic creator. She is someone we've been after for a while. The boys, especially Paul, is a big fan of her work, so it was great to have her on the show. Val talked about her career and influences, mostly with Paul, which was quite all-right. You can still watch it for the next few days on our twitch channel, listen to it on here, or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel at 2:30 pm PDT on Wednesday.

The night before, we recorded another podcast, this one with Nina Gaillard, former colorist for Powers Squared, and now Eisner-nominated for her work on Chickenpox, a book by Remy Lai. It was the first time Nina had done a podcast with us since 2019, so it was good to catch up. We're holding it back for a while, but it will be coming out soon. More when it does.

And if that wasn't enough, Trophy Unlocked celebrated 1800 reviews on Saturday, with my second review of Citizen Kane. A Second Screening came about from watching the movie with an audience, something I don't think I had done since college, and even then it was probably a bunch of film students, so they don't count as a public viewing with paying customers. It did change my perspective on the film. Earlier in the week on Wednesday, Game Day, was Trevor's review of Sonic Riders for the PS2. I'm workng on a review of Nancy Drew... Detective, while Paul is working on one for the new Buddy film and Trevor is working on one for Coyote vs. Acme.

On the Powers Squared front, Wednesday saw the release of Issue #28, the one and only issue drawn by Jen Moreno. In this issue, "Agnes: Wreckage, Part 1", while trying to assist with his research, Marty and Eli Powers’ former science instructor Agnes Miller accidentally took an overdose of the Viribus compound, a chemical blend found in the blood of people with superpowers. As a result, she now has powers that she can’t control and neither can Dr. Atlas. With nowhere to turn, he comes to beg Marty, Eli and Mocha for help. But will they answer the call? It's available in print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

You have to give us credit; 7 years of a podcast, 1800 reviews and a new issue of a comic book. I don't think many people can point to that in a week's work. We're consistent if nothing else.

More on Powers Squared: We're also getting new pages on Issue #31 from our artist, and hopefully in the next month or so, we'll wrap issue #30.

I also applied to table at both WonderCon 2027 and San Diego Comic-Con 2027, so we'll see what happens.

Finally, I think I'm one step closer to being finished with Blackmail. I finished my final go through, and now it's just down to reviewing for repeats, which I hope there aren't many. By repeats, I mean where I might have talked about the same thing more than once, a description or an event. I'm not 100 percent happy with my final paragraph either, so I might not be totally done. The count is now 90,501 words.

Next week will be time for the newsletter again, so I think that's where a lot of my time will be spent, if it's not on Blackmail. You can still enroll here, if you want to get your own copy of The Hound Dogs' Howl.

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

A Week in Writing #627 - 25th Comic Book Club

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. Since it's August, hopefully you're also staying cool.

We had our 25th Comic Book Club meeting this past Friday with artists Julia Canon and Rachel Wells joining us to discuss Paul's selection, Maid to Skate, a manga by Suzushiro. It's always fun to listen to what others say about the works we choose. While it's a comic book club, most of the selections have been of the manga variety, which I think has more to do with the ages of all but one of the participants. I do learn alot, since oftentimes their references are new to me. As always,  you're invited to watch it for the next few days on our twitch channel, listen to it on various platforms, found here, or wait to watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT. Rachel picked the next book, Dogs on Dates, a graphic novel by Luke Healy if you want to read ahead or join us for the next one.

Wednesday is also the day we're releasing the 28th issue of Powers Squared, "Agnes: Wreckage, Part 1." Powers Squared, for those of you who have missed out, tells the story of Marty and Eli, college-aged identical twins who discover that they were granted super powers by a magical kitsune when they were young. In this issue, while trying to assist with his research, the Marty and Eli Powers’ former science instructor Agnes Miller, accidentally took an overdose of the Viribus compound, a chemical blend found in the blood of people with superpowers. As a result, she now has powers that she can’t control and neither can Dr. Atlas. With nowhere to turn, he comes to beg Marty, Eli and Mocha for help. But will they answer the call? It should be available in print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

I have yet to start a review of A Girl in Every Port (1952), but my review of Dr. Who and The Daleks (1965) was the Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked. This all comes from our recent obessession with all things Doctor Who. We literally just finished the Tenth Doctor's (David Tennant) run. We're taking a break, but there's more to come with the Ninth Doctor, the Eleventh Doctor, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures in the queue.

It's sort of the finale specials of the Tenth Doctor that I'm blaming for not finishing the go through of Blackmail that I've been doing. Some nights, if dinner is late and the show runs over an hour, I get less than two hours a night to work on things. I am enjoying the go through, as I'm finding a lot of little things that need changing. I'm currently at 369 of 408 pages and the word count is up slightly to 90,174. As always, the goal is to get through it this week, but don't hold me to it.

So, I've got a review to start and finish, a new issue coming out, and hopefully, two OAPS podcasts to record this week (details after they happen) and the work on Blackmail to keep me busy next week.

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

A Week in Writing #622 - Prepping for SDCC

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

San Diego Comic-Con is next week and there are a lot of preparations that have to be made before going; planning out panels, exclusives and the like. I will admit I'm not a big participant in the prep for the event, as my wife and two sons really have their pulses on what's going on. I do appreciate their efforts. I chime in with what panels I'd like to attend, but I'm not really big on autographs or exclusives. There are several panels I'd like to attend, but I also want to walk the floor, and, dare I say it, attend Hall H for the first time in 20 cons.

With the panels I attend, I'll be sure to write something up here next week, though, please be kind, that might not appear until Monday. You are forewarned.

A point of interest, is that our fourth colorist on Powers Squared, Nina Gaillard, will be at SDCC and is nominated for an Eisner Award. We hope to actually meet her for the first time in person and we, of course, hope she wins.

I took it on myself to do a better job cataloging the podcasts. Several are gone and some remain only in audio format, but I've finished cataloging all available 492 podcasts and videos, including our most recent one, OAPS #360 - "SDCC 2026 Prep + Unboxing", sort of keeping with the theme of Con prep mentioned above. If you watch our raw podcasts on Twitch, a couple of weeks ago, we attempted to unbox SRCC 70th Anniversary t-shirts, only to find that we received the wrong order. That was rectified, but we had other reasons for waiting, which I won't get into here. However, the t-shirts were correct and we talked about the new trades, one each for Powers Squared and for The Blade of Miracles. You can still watch it on twitch.tv for the next few days, listen to it here (where you can also find the other platforms it's on), or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel after 2:30 pm on Wednesday.

Julia Canon, our colorist turned artist turned colorist, will be hosting the podcast in our absence, but again there will be delays in getting the video to audio, which will have to wait for our return next week. Catch her on our twitch channel next Friday at 6 pm.

I think I'm finally done with Blackmail, though I won't be doing anything with it until Fall. I've learned that many agents take the Summer off or very slowly, so I won't start the query drudge until then.

I also worked on a couple of outlines for possible stories for Billy and Raven, characters we spun out last year into their own book this year, "Life on the Road".

No new review from my this week, sorry to say. The Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Today, we published Trevor's review for Descendants: Wicked Wonderland.

Next week, I'll have to start working on the next newsletter, and work on questions for our next guest on the podcast, creator Demi Naito, who will be on August 7.

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

A Week in Writing #621 - Probably Not Tabling at SDCC

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

San Diego Comic-Con is a little over a week away, and even though I have tried to be ready to come off the waitlist to table at the show a second year, I'm really doubting, at this point, that we're going to get the call. I do feel a bit of disappointment at not being chosen, but I hear that it happens to everyone. It's just I'd like to know what we could do to increase our profile and get selected outright rather than playing the waiting game.

We're still going and leaving on Tuesday, even though we're not setting up. Last year, we had a good time prior to Preview Night and wanted to give it another go. Besides, hotel rooms are relatively cheap on Tuesday night before nearly doubling the next day. That all said, in two weeks, there will most likely be a delay in this blog post. I do plan to attend various panels and will report on them, like I always do.

Work continues on issue #30 of Powers Squared, "Aroma Therapy" with the artist working on the last few pages of the issue. That issue should come out next year. I also set up a page on our website for Issue #28, "Agnes Wreckage, Part 1" which we're hoping to drop in August. It's very blank at the moment, with more to come.

I've written two reviews this week. On Wednesday, we went to a Fathom screening of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. Even though I've reviewed the film once, seeing it on a big screen with an audience not made up of film students was a new experience and brought a different appreciation for the film. I also just finished one for Young and Innocent, a 1937 Hitchcock film, which I saw on the little screen at home. As always, not sure when those will see the light of day.

However, my review of Moana was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. However, this was the 1926 "documentary", not the latest Disney live-action/animated remake of an animated film. The Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's for Deltarune Chapter 5.

I don't know how you felt about PlayStation's recent announcement that in 2028, they would no longer be producing physical discs for their videogames, but that didn't sit well with us, so our Friday On the Air with Powers Squared podcast was "The Benefits of Physical Media." You can watch it for the next few days on our Twitch channel, listen to it now here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT and watch it on our YouTube channel.

Still working on the ending for Blackmail. I did take a swing but I wasn't happy with it. I'll work more on it this coming week.

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

A Week in Writing #615 - Blackmail (Second Draft) Done

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

Well, the headline is that I've finished a second draft of Blackmail. It's the latest in a series of unpublished novels I've written with main character J.D. Barrister, a Los Angeles based private detective. In this book, J.D. is recently married to Dr. Leanne Wilson, who is also two months pregnant. They attend a fundraiser for victims of the L.A. fires at the home of her ex-husband, actor Terry Wilson. Their marriage ended due to his infidelity. It is at the event that J.D. finds out that Terry, preying on her desire to make him happy, took a series of nude in public photographs of her before and during their marriage. He claims there are two volumes of photos and he offers to give one back each time J.D. does a job for him, rather than publish them, which would be embarrassing and bad publicity for her practice.

The first job is to find a woman that it turns out Terry had underage sex with a few years prior following a convention in Anaheim. J.D. manages to track her down to a small town in Michigan, where she's attending college. They meet and he finds out Terry has been paying for $20,000 a month to keep quiet about the incident. Making contact with her gives J.D. the first volume of photos, but to get the second one, Terry wants J.D. to kill her and record the killing.

I don't know how that sounds to anyone, but if you have comments, please feel free to leave them. It's currently, 88,451 words long and I'm going to give it another go through, as I've changed some actions and want to be sure they all line up.

But rather than start in on that right away, I picked up another story I had started. J.D. is hired to find a runaway who has been missing for 15 years. I was about 20,000 words into it before I decided to work on Blackmail. It doesn't have a title yet. I've started reading through it, finding a half started chapter in the middle of what I've written. I think I know what I was intending to do, but it's been several months.

We ended up having to watch our scheduled Friday night movie on Saturday night, Mortal Kombat, prior to seeing Mortal Kombat II, today. Not a good movie for me to review, so nothing new from me this week. I did finish my review of The Wind, if you're curious, but no date for release. The Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked this week is Paul's Second Opinion Toy Story. Hint: there's going to be more Toy Story content in the weeks to come on that blog.

Spent an evening resizing pages for the next two issues of Powers Squared. It's not work I like to have to do, but someone does. We still need to file for copyrights, perhaps next week, and then decide on a release date. We did hear back from the Copyright office about their turning down our months-old application, can we can simply register them separately. It made sense to us, but we had to ask.

Work continues on the next issue of the book, "Aroma Therapy, Part 1". Our artist is working on page 11, so I'm hoping her work wraps up in a couple of months and the issue will hopefully be finished two months after that. Our colorist is about a month behind the artist and the letterer a month after that.

Our podcast this week, was "(The Rest of) The Fourth Doctor". We had very recently finished watching Season 2 of the Tom Baker series, which was the only one we hadn't seen. This gave us a chance to finish off our discussion from before. You can listen to it on our website, watch it on our twitch.tv channel for the next few days, or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) at 2:30 pm PDT on Wednesday. Our guest next week is comic book writer David Blake Lucarelli (Tinseltown, The Children's Vampire Hunting Brigade). We'll go live at 6 pm PDT next Friday at twitch.tv/powerssquared. Be there and Be Squared.

This is newsletter week, so a lot of my attention will be putting together The Hound Dogs' Howl. You can always subscribe, for FREE, at https://mailchi.mp/9b9f918f79af/m1hbvbxiyn. It comes out on the first Sunday of every month, and is different from this blog, if you've ever wondered.

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

A Week in Writing #614 - It's My Fault

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

Well, I won't keep you in suspense any longer. I finally did hear back from PaddyPost about the issues I ranted about last week. Apparently, with my issue with Linkedin, their instructions were to remove the links and try again. I did that and sent a sample text and it made it to Linkedin. Why it took weeks to get that advice, I don't know.

As far as my problem with losing the connection to BlueSky, they put that on BlueSky, which I guess is sort of finicky, so until BlueSky gets right, the losing connection is going to continue. Actually, I don't know if it's BlueSky or PaddyPost to blame, but it's a continuing problem. I reconnected today as a matter of fact, and it disconnected again while I was writing this.

My week sort of got waylaid by a trade I was prepping for the printers. When I got the proof back, all the pages seemed too close to the edge. This printer has a template that I violated, so I was going to redo all the pages and spent a couple of nights working on that before I realized that most of the pages could more easily redone to conform, so that went faster than I feared.

Attended a potluck over the weekend that included other comic book creators. And I discovered that I'm rather horrible at starting conversations. I had never met the host before and I managed to introduce myself, and my family, but until someone showed up that I knew, we huddled together. We did end up having a rather lengthy discussion with another writer at the party but only after he started the conversation. After that we made a hasty retreat.

My review of A Farewell to Arms (1932) went up as the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. Paul's review of Super Mario Galaxy 2 was the Wednesday Game Day review. I'm currently working on a review of The Wind (1928). I seem to be stuck in the silent era lately. Not that I mind that really, as these are films I wanted to see.

Work on Powers Squared continues at a good pace. I did get some rather unexpected news from the U.S. Copyright Office. I had submitted registrations back in August of last year, for two publications that were being released, but because two different people were the writers, we couldn't submit them together. This, of course, dates back to August of last year and I just got that notification this past Thursday. What's 9+ months? I'm going to try to register them individually then, but I think that's a long time to take.

Our podcast this week was about Summer Movies. Paul and I went through the release schedule through the end of August and discussed films we were wanting to see. You can listen here, watch it for a few more days on our Twitch channel, or wait and watch in on YouTube after 2:30 pm on Wednesday.

My goal had been to work more, almost exclusively on Blackmail, however, things didn't go as planned. I'm still working through the changes but I'm behind where I wanted to be. So far, the book is a little shorter than it had been, 87,921 words, which is almost entirely due to the edits I'm working on.

Next week, I'm hoping to work more on Blackmail, but we'll see what the week has in store for me.

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

A Week in Writing #613 - Social Media Meltdown

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

I don't know if you're like me, but there is a certain amount of pressure to post regularly on social media platforms. For me, the main ones I use are Facebook (both David Hankins and Powers Squared), Instagram, LinkedIn (both David Hankins and Powers Squared), Threads, amd Bluesky. [This is not a call to follow me on any of them, but I'm just trying to give you an idea of what I'm on. I used to use GoDaddy for this, but they have very limited reach, like Facebook and Instagram. I decided to try another service, PaddyPost, which are usually Powers Squared related.

With PaddyPost, there were always issues with Bluesky, since they have limited space and for PaddyPost to interface, it has to be shorter than their limit, so I try to keep that in mind. But there are problems with PaddyPost, such as my social media connections keep getting lost, pretty much exclusively Bluesky, but it gets worse. My two LinkedIn accounts stopped working several weeks ago and my emails to PaddyPost Support went unanswered for several weeks. They finally acknowledged me but claimed never to have receive my emails, which I attached on my response. But still no response to my issue.

I also post to Threads directly, because when I try through PaddyPost, I get the largest QR Code I've ever seen and this is only the top part, which fills the screen:

Thanks for nothing.

This led me to reconsider GoDaddy, but you don't create your social media posts, their AI slop does it for you and there's no way to opt out. After spending thirty or more minutes with their help chat, the answer was to let AI write them and then edit it to what you want. What a load of BS. So they're out.

As I'm writing this, I've gotten two emails from PaddyPost about losing connection to BlueSky (both accounts), again, again today! WTF?

My postings are pretty simple. I post every morning about anniversaries of titles reviewed in Trophy Unlocked on BlueSky. I do these directly under my name, and I'm editing as I go to ensure they will work again next year. On Saturdays I post on Facebook and BlueSky about the Saturday Morning Review; I also do it on Wednesday if there is a game review and I know about it ahead of time. Again, these are done directly on the plaforms, little to no issues. I also post on Sunday nights regarding this post on both platforms, again with minimal issues.

What I want help with are the two to three Powers Squared posts, which I try to get to as many platforms as possible. Our Wedneday video goes up at 2:30 pm, which happens to be when I supposed to be doing my day job. So I had been trying to use PaddyPost for those, as well as the Tuesday Peek-of-the-Week post about that feature on our Powers Squared website. We also post a video to Instagram and that works. Even afterwards, there are more groups to post it to on Facebook, which again, I do directly. But it's also supposed to go to BlueSky, Instagram, LinkedIn, but it's not going to LinkedIn and BlueSky's connection, as noted above, is lost at the drop of a hat.

So, I feel like I'm spending too much time trying to get PaddyPost to work properly and if they don't respond in short order, I'm apt to give up on them all together. I had high hopes that they would be a reliable partner and they're proving not to be. 

End of Rant.

In other news, I finsished a review of Moana (1926), the Robert Flaherty documentary. My goal is to save it until the new live-action Disney Moana comes out. You're now officially in on the joke. My review of The Sheep Detectives went up as the Saturday Morning review on Trophy Unlocked. Our artist on Powers Squared has been very busy and I'm already behind as I write this with a new page from her. It's great but every night, I have to review what she's sent and give comments. It's more time consuming that you think, though necessary.

Our Friday night On the Air with Powers Squared podcast, which I had tried to use PaddyPost to "advertise", this week was a look at the Steven Universe universe, the original series, the movie and the Steven Universe Future series. You can listen to it now here, watch it on our Twitch channel for the next few days, or watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm. It will go up even if the social posts don't.

I'm still working on Blackmail, but I've come to a part I plan to rewrite, as the timeline in the story allows me to do that. I'm about 84% through the book at this point and standing at 89,538 words. I'm guessing the latter number will go down with the rewrites, which should tighten the story somewhat. 

So, my next week will be reviewing and rewriting.

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

A Week in Writing #611 - Still Churning

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

I'm still working on Blackmail. After the print out edits, I'm going through it again on the computer, making more edits as I go. I'm not quite to 3/4 of the way through. Currently, the word count is 89,238, though that is subject to change, either up or down. Doing it this way is sort of slow going but I hope to be done soon. I'm also making changes that I may have to also make in previous books, trying to stay consistent with the characters.

The newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, came out this morning. Click the link if you want to read it. It includes links to our YouTube videos, Heard Around Campus section, and a feature on twins in the arts,  as well as a recommendation, and more. It's Free, so take a look.

This past Friday we had the pleasure to interview Megatron, actually Daniel Riordan, who voiced the character during the Robots in Disguise (2001) run. As always, that interview is available on our Twitch channel for the next few days, available as an audio podcast, and will be up on our YouTube channel this coming Wednesday at 2:30 pm.

And because Saturday was Free Comic Book Day/Comics Giveaway Day, we did our annual "What's in My Bag?" stream, in which Paul, Trevor and I discuss the books we picked up and then next week we'll discuss/review them in another stream. Usually, our former artist Rachel Wells will join us, but she couldn't this year.

No new review for me this week. Saturday was a long day, and we decided to watch one of the MST3K films that our recent podcast guest, Joshua Pruett had worked on instead. My recent review of Le Ballet Mécanique went up as Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review.

Progress continues on the next issue of Powers Squared. Our artist has completed work on five pages for the next issue, "Aroma Therapy, Part 1", and it is looking good.

My goal this week is to try to get through Blackmail. I'm also going to finally submit the 3rd trade for printing. I'm hoping to have some on hand should we get chosen again from San Diego Comic-Con, Last year, there was so much to get done in a little over two weeks, so I'm trying to be better prepared this time through.

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

A Week in Writing #610 - All That's Left is the Shredding

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

On Monday, I finally finished going through my notes on the draft for Blackmail. One of the results is that I've got 409 pages to shred, a task I have not yet faced. The word count ended up being 88,940 when I was done with that. I've since started to going through it on the computer, as a second run through. And I'm finding missed words or awkward phrasing this time around. This is somewhat slower, as I don't really like reading on the computer. I'm a little over a quarter of the way through it again, and the current word count is up to 89,018.

Also, on Monday, I finished some edits on a script for a future Powers Squared story arc. I haven't sent it yet for more revisions, but it's always good to have someone read it and make comments. In this case, the reader is my co-writer Paul.

And on Monday, we gave final approval for the lineart for page 3 for the next issue of Powers Squared, "Aroma Therapy," which is currently set as issues 30 and 31. Our artist is doing two pages a week, which is a good pace and we're now working on page 5. 

Trevor, this week, also finished lettering 8 more pages of what should be Issue #29. Currently, our colorist is caught up, but that should change next month.

Our podcast this week was "Record Store Day Memories," a look back on this past year's RSD, including items exclusive to RSD and items we found on sale- at the time. The three of us, Trevor, Paul and I also divulged our greated RSD Exclusive find. If you'd like to watch it on our Twitch channel for the next few days, you can watch it here. It's available in audio now and you can listen here. And if you want to wait for YouTube, it goes up on our channel (@powerssquared) on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT.

This coming week is Free Comic Book Day, and we'll be doing a special, "What's In My Bag?" sometime on Saturday. TBD, but it will be on our YouTube channel. This is traditionally a two-parter; we do a follow up the next week, talking about what we've read.

I finished a review for Blondie of the Follies, a Marion Davies film that I happened across. As always, not sure when it will come out. The Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, was Trevor's review of Mercy, a sci-fi thriller, that came out earlier this year. We watched it on Prime Video, rather than in the theater.

I looked at the calendar and next weekend will be time for The Hounds' Howl newsletter, so I have a feeling that will be a priority for me, as well as trying to get more done on Blackmail. If you're curious about the newsletter, you can always sign up here. It's FREE and you get a digital copy of Issue #1.

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

A Week in Writing #609 - It's Never Easy

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

I seem to be having troubles with alarms lately. First, it was one of our smoke detectors that was going off with an "error" every 24 hours or so, until I finally had to disconnect it. Now it's our home alarm. I received an email that I hadn't tested it in awhile, so I decided to do that one night. But testing revealed a bunch of issues I wasn't aware of before, and now the alarm is sort of on the fritz, and goes off once a day as well. I tried to work with their AI assistant but sometimes you want to talk to a real person, like all the time, and I finally was able to after about an hour of trying to make it work. The fix will apparently take time, not the alarm company's fault, but it's just another hinderance into getting things done.

Our podcast this week was a conversation with Joshua Pruett, a TV and book writer, who got his start as a storyboard artist. Really engaging conversation, he was funny, witty and appreciative. Great time talking with him, but then the issues started. We've been having some issues with volume, which you might have noticed if you've listen regularly, like you should. Well, in order to fix that Paul had to render the video separately and make the audio version later. But somewhere along the way, 10 minutes got cut off, which no one noticed until I was putting the video up on YouTube. I knew the run time but every version I put up on YouTube was 10 minutes short. I thought I had done something wrong. Paul had to re-render the video and make a new audio file, but then the video was too big to pass using a thumbdrive. Anyway, we were able to replace the audio file, which I didn't know was possible, and load the complete video. For this effort, you can listen to it, in its completeness here, watch in on our twitch channel for the next few days, or watch in on our YouTube channel starting on Wednesday at 2:30 PDT.

Work continues on the next issue of Powers Squared, as our aritst has been working on one page at a time, two a week. The results are pretty good, so I'm feeling good about the upcoming story arc, though it will probably be 2027 before they come out, as we try to release 3 to 4 a year.

Despite all the alarm fun, I'm onto the last chapter of Blackmail. I had to make some changes and I'm hopeful I'll get done early next week. I'll probably do another read through, digitally, and check for commas, and spelling issues before putting it to bed.

As far as reviews, I'm currently working on one for Le Ballet Mécanique, a surrealist short from 1924. I think I watched it in film school at some point but I wanted to share it with the family and it was short. This is like the third or fourth silent movie I've reviewed in a row, so maybe next time it'll be a talkie. But the reviews keep coming on Trophy Unlocked. The Game Day Wednesday review as Trevor's for God of War: Sons of Sparta, and he followed that up with the Saturday Morning Review of Exit 8 (8番出口), a Japenese film he and his brother saw this week.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week. And if you ever have any questions or comments, let me know.

A Week in Writing #605 - New Powers Squared Release

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

This week, the next issue of Powers Squared comes out. It's been six months since we've put out an issue. It's not that the issue wasn't ready, it was that the follow up story arc wasn't. The original plan was to put the issue out last year, but when work on Issue #28 ground to a halt, we decided to move the issue to this spring. We have since replaced that artist and are moving forward to Issue #30, as production seems to be back on track.

Last seen in Powers Squared issue #18, "Mocha and Raven, Part 3," Billy O'Shea and Raven get their own issue with "Billy and Raven, A Powers Squared Story: Life on the Road." Billy uses his powers of strength and punctuality to good use as a truck driver. Raven, the Yatagarasu who granted him those powers, is by his side, as the two try to lay low and out of reach of Dr. Atlas. But life on the road can be dangerous. The issue drops on Wednesday the 25th and can be found in both print and digital through The Campua Store.

Because of the pending release, our podcast on Friday was OAPS #343 - Powers Squared Issue #27 Preview. Artist Julia Canon joined Trevor, Paul and myself to discuss the issue. You can still catch it on Twitch for the next few days, listen to it here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch it on our YouTube channel. If you do check it out, please subscribe and ring the bell to be notified when new podcasts go up.

Well, I finally finished my first pencil edits on Blackmail. Still work to be done but it was good to go through it once. I'll have to start implementing my edits and rewrites starting next week.

Working on a new review, this one for The Lady Refuses (1931), a pre-code melodrama starring Betty Compson. As always, not sure when it will appear on Trophy Unlocked. In the meantime, there were three reviews up this week, two game reviews by Trevor, Star Fox Command on Tuesday, and Star Fox Zero + Star Fox Guard on Thursday. The Saturday Morning Review was Paul's for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.

This next week, we're attending WonderCon as professionals. Never heard back from them. I assume we're still on the wait list and that there will also be empty tables when we get there on Sunday. I'll include a report about that next week as well.

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

A Week in Writing #604 - Blackmail and Reviews

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

Like everyone, I've been adjusting to Daylight Savings Time, but I think the transition is almost over.

I've been spending my evenings, which is when I write, or try to, editing Blackmail. This is my favorite part of the writing experience, printing the book fifty pages or so at a time and sitting down with a pencil, reading the book aloud and making changes and notes. I still have several pages to go and after that more work to do.

But that's not all I've been doing this week.

On Friday, our podcast was about TFCon, the Transformers convention my sons were planning on attending. The podcast is still available to watch here for the next few days, available to listen to here and will be up on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) on Wednesday at 2:30 pm. The boys also approached a couple of voice actors connected with Robots in Disguise who might be upcoming guests, so stay tuned. 

I finished reviews for both Blithe Spirit and Hypocrites (1915), a silent film by pioneering filmmaker Lois Weber. As always, not sure when it will go up. But there were plenty of reviews this past week on Trophy Unlocked. On Monday, was Paul's review of Hoppers. On Tuesday was Trevor's review of Star Fox 64 3D, followed on Thursday by his review of Star Fox: Assault. Saturday saw his review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.

There was a lot going on with Powers Squared this week. We're wrapping up Issue #29, getting ready to release issue #27 and about to start work on issue #30. We'll be talking about Issue 27, "Life on the Road, A Powers Squared Story."

My plan for next week is to work more on Blackmail and see where that leads me.

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

A Week in Writing #603 - Botching My Way Through

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

I'm embarassed to admit it but I botched the release of the previous OAPS video. We had, I would think, a good intereview with Jamal Anansi, a comic book writer we tabled next to at Pasadena Comic Con. The problem, for me, was getting it up on our YouTube channel. We normally post the previous Friday night podcast on the following Wednesday on YouTube, and I thought I had scheduled it. However, when I took a look after work, I noticed it wasn't there. Panicking, I tried to release it but it wouldn't let me, for some reason. Paul suggested I refresh the page, which I did and then I could schedule it. Today, when I was scheduling the next video and adding it to our web page, I noticed that for that video, it was pointing to the one before it and probably had for a week. I feel bad. I wrote an email to our guest but I never heard back. And, like many, I don't think he mentioned his appearance on any social media, either. I'm not sure if that's an issue with other podcasters out there, but a mention would help with views.

This past podcast, which I can assure you has been scheduled, was an update about Powers Squared. We haven't released a book in six months. That was a conscious decision, as we had a bit of an issue with our artist at the time and fell way behind schedule. I held back the last issue planned for last year until now, especially since we were releasing an issue a month of Trevor's The Blade of Miracles. The upcoming issue will be our 27th. It's a departure for us, as this is a potential spin off of two characters from previous issues. This time, for sure, you can watch it here for the next few days, listen to it here, or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel at 2:30pm on Wednesday.

My main goal this week was to work on editing Blackmail, which I had decided was done. So, on Monday night, I printed out the first 50 or so pages, or so I thought. My wonderful, and I'm saying that sarcastically, HP printer needed black ink, which I had. Oh, but then it needed yellow ink (or whatever color they call it), which I had. But no we're not done. It also needed red ink. I was out of red ink and since the local office places were closing in fifteen minutes, I was done, with only pages 38-52 or some such. I had to order ink for overnight delivery, which I did. But why does a printer need red ink to print black?

I'm only about 138 pages into the editing. Some because of the delay but also because I'm getting tired and brain dead early some nights. By about 10, I'm practically useless. Not all nights, but just enough to be a problem.

I did finish my review of That'll Be the Day and am currently working one for Blithe Spirits. As always don't know when either is going up. But Trophy Unlocked waits for no one and there have been several reviews this past week, staring with Trevor's review of Star Fox on Wednesday, his review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) on Friday, and then Paul's review of Mission: Impossible III as the Saturday Morning Review. Paul's review of Hoppers will go up tomorrow.

I believe my rewrites for the next Powers Squared story arc are complete and we'll be getting to work on that very, very soon.

My goals for this week, and I'm taking into account the time change which sort of f-s me up for a few days, is to work more on Blackmail and finish my review of Blithe Spirits. I hope the time change doesn't impact you negatively this week.

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

A Week in Writing #595 - 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 #574 - A Meh Week

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

I want to say I spent a good portion of the week working on issues #1-5. I was trying to prepare .pdfs for a submission, and all of the remastered issues looked bad, the margins were way too large. So, I went through the first five issues, re-sized each page and then moved around the various elements to try and make each issue more consistent with each other and to have less margins. I worked on this most nights and just finished with the .pdfs this afternoon. I know it sounds simple and for some issues went quickly for others not so much. But that's now behind and I can start working on the submission this week.

I'm also trying to work on our third trade, which I would like to have ready by Fall.

I know I said I would do a new query this week but I decided at the last minute to rewrite the query letter, taking yet another shot at it. I'm not saying this to be bragging, but there is almost too much going on in the book to easily condense. But I've got to try and hopefully catch an agent's eye. (I know, bad rhyme.) But I'll finish this week and retry.

This weekend, we did two podcasts. On Friday, we had David Petersen, the creator of Mouse Guard on, for the second time. He talked about his work on Magic: The Gathering cards and what's going on with Mouse Guard. As always, you can listen to "Magic and Mice", here or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel here on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT.

We also recorded a future podcast, our 20th Comic Book Club, Look Back by Tatsuki Fujimoto. I set to record on Saturday to make it more available to everyone, but only our former artist, Rachel Wells, made it on the podcast. I'm thinking that will go up soon.

As far as movie reviews, Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review was Trevor's review of Freakier Friday. I'm going to work on one for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which we watched this morning, and Trevor will be working on one for the anime of Look Back, which we watched on Saturday night.

Editing continues on Blackmail, and I'm only at 51,209 words. I'm almost done with editing what I've written and hope to move on to new chapters this week.

So, submission, queries and Blackmail are on this week's agenda. But plans can change, I'm afraid.

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

A Week in Writing #573 - Another Down Week

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

I seem to be racking up disappointing weeks here. I'm not sure what the issue is, but I'm pretty sure it's time, or lack thereof.

On the accomplishment-side of the equation, I did rewatch Brother Orchid and write the review. As always, I don't know when it will see the light of day. That doesn't mean things haven't been busy on Trophy Unlocked. My review of the new Superman movie went up on Wednesday. Saturday saw Trevor's review of Freaky Friday, and then today, his review of Bad Guys 2 went up. Soon, there will be his review of Freakier Friday, which we watched this morning. I also started working on one for The Gangster, another recording from the last Summer of Darkness on TCM.

We also discussed movies on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. Paul and I reviewed the summer movies, or the few we wanted to talk about, as there were like 139 films that will have come out between the beginning of May and the end of August. There are several which we think are better to wait for streaming. You can listen to the podcast here, watch it for a couple of days here or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm to watch it here.

In the meantime, another video went up today on our YouTube channel, Paul's SDCC 2025 Vlog. After about 20 years of SDCC, we got to experience it from the other side of the table. Paul talks about how that went from his perspective. You can watch it now here.

One of the outgrowths of Comic-Con is that we might have found a distributor. However, I'm going through the .pdfs of our remastered first five issues and there are a lot of changes as far as placement that I need to go through. By that, I mean the margins, which for some reason are really off. I'm going back and trying to correct them before moving on with pursuing the distributor, as they want .pdfs. I've done one issue this afternoon and will keep working on that.

We also registered the next two issues of Powers Squared, #26 and 27, for copyright, so I have to update them as well before getting test printings done. It never seems to stop.

No queries again this week, as we spent some of that time inviting people we met at Comic-Con to be guests on the podcast. So far, the only one to come back to us is David Petersen, the creator of Mouse Guard. This would be his second time on the show. Stay tuned. We're also trying to line up a Comic Book Club session as well.

I did some work on Blackmail this week. Still editing. I'm not really happy with one chapter, so I'm going to work some more on it before moving on with the book. I'm a couple of hundred words south of 51,000 with 80,000 a minimum.

This week, I've got pages to realign, as well as a review to work on. I'm sort of promising to do a new query and to work more on Blackmail.

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

A Week in Writing #569 - Going to the Show

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

The big news is that SRCC Press (Powers Squared and The Blade of Mircales) is going to be tabling at San Diego Comic-Con. And we're pretty much ready, though I wish things were moving a little faster. By that, I mean working with Comic-Con International. I am not a patient man, but I don't see why it took 7 days to go from we have an opening, are you interested to here is your table number. And, while I've paid for the table, I'm still waiting to buy the badges, because they haven't approved a form I sent them on Friday.

So, if you are going, look for us:

If all goes right, we should be M-11 in Small Press. It's going to be a bit of a grind, but it should be fun but in a different way. Looking forward to going and I hope we not only make some sales, but also get more people interested in our books.

We did a mock set up today. We're going to incorporate video into our booth, so we're having to buy a monitor for the occasion. And there are still some odds and ends we still need to buy. Nothing like having a three-week lead time for the biggest event in your creative career.

A fair warning, this post will be late a couple of weeks from now, because of SDCC, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.

We had a come to Jesus moment with our artist on Saturday. I'm not sure what's going on sometimes, but I'm hopeful she'll turn it around and get us pages. Otherwise, we're standing still and like a shark, that's deadly for a comic book.

I got to a "refueling point" with Blackmail. By that, I mean I came to a spot where I needed to sort of rethink things and get a running start. For me, that's going back through the book to sort of refamiliarize myself with it and then when I get to the end of what I've written, keep going. I don't think my word count has really shot up as a result. I'm now at 49,726 words and I don't see that number really changing too much either way until I get back to where I left off.

One new query this week. Trying to get back on the horse after missing it for a couple of weeks. All quiet on the agent front.

As far as reviews, I'm currently working on one for 3 Bad Men (1926), a John Ford western. I got interested in it since I'm reading Joy Girl: A Novel of Olive Borden (Forgotten Actresses) by Laini Giles. I've really enjoyed her series of books about silent film stars that are mostly forgotten today. Borden was one of the romantic leads in 3 Bad Men.

Trophy Unlocked doesn't wait for me. The Wednesday Game Day review was Trevor's for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x and the Saturday Morning Review was his as well for Fantastic Four (2005) + Extended Edition. The latter is our look at the previous films leading up to this year's reboot.

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

A Week in Writing #543 - LA's Burning

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.

A Week in Writing #541 - The Christmas Week That Was

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. Hope everyone has a Happy and safe New Year's Eve.

Things have sorted of slowed down this past week. There were a couple of big events this week, something called Christmas seemed to really dominated the week. A lot of fun, and, if you're curious, I got some music and books amongst other things. The day following Christmas is unofficially called Movie Day in my house, when we watch/rewatch movies. We still believe in physical media, so we end up watching discs we got, which are usually films we had seen previously in the year.

All that and I did get some writing done. To begin with, I worked on Skylar some, of course not as much as I might have liked. I have about 76 pages to go with this rewrite, so progress is being made.

Trophy Unlocked was busy with four reviews up this week. My review of Sin Takes a Holiday (1930), was the Saturday Morning Review. Before that on Christmas Day was Trevor's review of The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland (2024). On Christmas Eve, was my review of Red One. Coincidentally, both of these films were released on the same day. The week started off with Paul's review of Awaria.

I did write a new review this week for Larceny, Inc., but I wouldn't expect it to see the light of day until next Christmas at the earliest.

On Powers Squared, Trevor finished lettering issue #26, so we're only one issue behind schedule. Nothing to report on the other issues being worked on.

 

We did make a special announcement on this week's On the Air with Powers Squared podcast. Trevor's own book The Blade of Miracles is going to come out next year under the SRCC Press banner. There are still some logistics to be worked out but it was big news for the last podcast of the year. You can listen to it here, on our website, where you can also find other platforms, and, or watch it on New Year's Day when it premieres on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) at 2:30 pm here.

I also worked some on the newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, which will be coming out next week. Never to late to sign up for it, just enroll at SRCC here. It's free and you get a digital copy of the first issue to boot.

A bit of sad news to report. Powers Squared had our first signing at our local comic bookstore, Galaxy of Comics. We just learned today that the proprietor of that store, Warren Jaycox, was killed in an accident yesterday. My condolences to his family and friends over their loss.

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

A Week in Writing #533 - Busy Week but Fall Back Looms

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

I'm sort of happy to have last week behind me. Congrats to the Dodgers, but those games pushed everything back in my house. And then there was Halloween, which, while fun, was also a bit of disruption as well. And, of course, looming ahead this week is the great fall back, which means it'll get dark earlier and that could affect me, since it has in the past. But that'll be next week's post.

On to this week and let's start with Powers Squared. At the moment, we have two artists, Julia Canon and Jen Moreno, working on separate issues. While I thought that would be a good idea to get more work done, it also means they'll both want to be paid, and deservedly so, for their work. Julia is finishing her work on issue #27, which is a standalone Billy and Raven story, and Jen is working on issue #28, which is the first of a two-parter that we're aiming for 2026. After a slow start, Jen has shown some real talent for sequential storytelling and we're very hopeful going forward.

So during the week, there was a lot of reviewing of pages from both with comments and some revisions, so good for the future of Powers Squared.

This week was capped by our newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, which we send out once a month. I'll put in my plea here for readers to subscribe. It's easy, free, and can be done here. (You get a free digital copy of Issue #1, an added inducement.) We covered the usual topics, including our tabling at LA Comic Con, our bookshelf debut and our support of the Neurodiversity Comic Con, which is happening next week. We also do a salute to twins, this month being  animators Tom and Tony Bancroft, whom we met at Lightbox and much more. Info on subscribing (enrolling at San Romero Community College) can be found here.

Our Friday podcast was a salute to 40 years of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You can watch it here on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PST or listen to it now on our website or one of the other platforms you'll find there as well.

Still working on my review for Elektra, which I need to finish. And I might be reviewing The Thirteenth Chair (1929). That said, my review of The Man with Two Faces (1934) was the Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked. However, it was far from the only review that week on the blog. Paul continued his tribute to Resident Evil games with a second look at Resident Evil Village for the PS5, and on Halloween his review of Silent Hill 2 (2024) went up.

And let's not forget Skylar, I managed to work on that novel for a couple of nights. Some rewrites, but mostly updating per my own edits. I am finding that my chapter numbering in the first draft was pretty inconsistent; I think I had three chapters with Chapter Twenty-Nine as the header. More to come on that.

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