A Week in Writing #580 - Birthday, Birthday, Birthday

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

There is a three week period, starting in late September, when we celebrate four birthdays in my family of four. This is that week, starting with mine on Thursday and my sons' today. That doesn't mean I took the week off, but the output might not be as great as it could be.

Paul and I took a nostalgic look back at the videos on our YouTube channel that had garnered the most views on this week's On the Air with Powers Squared podcast. The videos cover a variety of the topics our videos cover, from interviews with other creators but also comic book clubs, Who is...? videos for our characters, taste tests, vlogs about SDCC, etc. I'll grant you it's a little meta, but it is what it is. You can listen to it here or watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday after 2:30 pm PDT here.

I did write two reviews this week, one for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, which we watched on my birthday, and The Invisible Man Returns for October, which we watched on Friday night. We're still watching The Batman serial, as well. I would imagine The Grand Finale will be up soon. Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review this week was Paul's review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle and this week a surprise Sunday morning review by Paul of Elio.

We published two books this week, "The Great Escape", #26 from Powers Squared, and "Vivienne", #7 of Trevor's book, The Blade of Miracles. Both are available in print and digital through The Campus Store on our website. Shout out to Ka-Blam and their platform Indy Planet. We were having issues with the .pdf for "The Great Escape", but they managed to get it up on Indy Planet the same day they got the revised .pdf. I really appreciate their extra effort to make it work. I also want to add that the black border around the cover, rather than white, was their idea.

And, as if that wasn't enough, we submitted our third trade to ComicsPlus by Library Pass. This one includes issues 10-14, The "What's in a Name" through "The Imposter" storylines. Not sure when that will be available.

Spoke to our local comic book store about doing a signing and selling our trades there. Went well, but more to come on that.

I'm honestly to beyond the point of no return with our current artist, who is about two months overdue. I did receive pages, but a week and a day after they were supposed to be turned in. It's really adversely affecting Powers Squared and a change is in the offing.

We applied today to table at the Golden State Fur Con in 2026, as we think there is furry appeal in both The Blade of Miracles and to an extent, Powers Squared. More to come on that as well.

I managed to do some work on Blackmail. Almost to 58,000 words. I completed one chapter and started on the next one. I believe I'm entering what would be called the third act. I think I need to do some research before I get too much futher.

Next week, it's newsletter time again, so that will definitely play into whatever else I do.

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

A Week in Writing #352 - What Does it Mean to Be Published?

Hope everyone is staying safe and writing.

This past Wednesday, we dropped the 11th issue of Powers Squared. The issue is available on five different platforms and in print and digital formats. I remember the day we published the first issue and really not that much has changed about the experience. While I want to be excited about each new issue's release, every time is pretty much like the one before, which means nothing seems to change.

We publish on a Wednesday, which is traditionally new comic book day, at least in the U.S. The date is chosen, not by us but by ComiXology, the first site we published on. Since then, despite moving to additional platforms, we've let them set the date. They are, after all, the largest one we publish on.

But the actual day is no different than any other Wednesday, except that I have additional work to do. I still go to work, even if it's working from home, go to meetings, etc., and clock out at the end of the day no different than when I started the day. I'm not sure what I'm expecting to change but the fact is nothing does. Worse yet, there is usually no more money in the bank because of it.

As a writer, you really want people to read and hopefully enjoy your work. You might not expect to get rich off your endeavors but you really want a reaction of some kind. I know that comic books might not be considered high literature to some but it is storytelling, a collaborative creative effort, and something that I'm very proud of. I just wish others would be aware of it and we would hear some feedback from those who had. Is that too much to ask?

While I wait for that answer, let's move on.

Ever have to buy a printer in a hurry? I did. The printer we had been using for several years now ran out of ink and I had neglected to order any.  After ordering more, my wife and I went to our local Office Depot to get a new cartridge of black ink. We put it in and got a message that the ink cartridge was damaged. Never had gotten that message before, so back to the store, the woman gives us a new one, we take it home and it's damaged, too. We did a little research and it appeared it wasn't something wrong with the cartridge but the printer.

As we're both working from home, printing is really something you can't wait the few days it might take to get the printer fixed. And there was no telling if it could be fixed at all and would it cost as much as a new printer would. Couldn't take the time, so a new printer we bought. Maybe it's nostalgia but we miss the other printer. Isn't that just the way it is?

In other writing, I actually had a really good day working on Skylar. Saturday morning and afternoon I was sort of on a roll and hit that proverbial 1000 words a day and then some. It really felt good. That's a feeling I miss most nights.

No new queries this week, as I'm holding at five out. I'll check the status of those and decide if I need to DNR one and send out a new one. But if I can save myself the stress one week, I'm not above doing that.

This Saturday night, rather than draining the DVR, we watched a blu-ray disc of The Sign of the Cross (1932). I'm working on that review and am about 2000 words into it. In other review news, this past Saturday's review of Resident Evil Village (PS5), by Paul, was the blog's 1200th. In the week prior, in order to get to 1200, we had How to Train Your Dragon week, with reviews of all three films, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, How to Train Your Dragon, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, respectively. The first was written by Trevor and the other two by Paul.

In other news, my sons and I finally got our second vaccine shot this past Tuesday. Hope if you're not fully vaccinated, you're in the process.

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

A Week in Writing #351 - Blame it on the Pizza

Hope everyone is staying safe and writing.

Usually, on Saturday nights, my family watches a movie that we've recorded on the DVR, okay I've recorded on the DVR. After we watch it, I delete it and write a review. Not this week, and I'm blaming it on the pizza. A national chain was having a 49% sale which I thought would be fun, as a change of pace. However, it went awry from there. I'll take responsibility for it but one of the local stores is partially to blame.

Occasionally, I'll select the wrong location online and, usually, I'll catch it before I leave home. However, last night, we went to the store we usually use and waited, you know with the emergency brake a-blazing. One of the workers came out to deliver to another customer and asked the name my order was under. I gave her my name and waited. She came back a few minutes later and told us that the order was still in the oven. All, I think, is right with the world.

Well, I get the indication on the app that the order is ready and we wait. After about five minutes and a couple of tries to get someone to talk at the door, another worker goes back and a few minutes later tells us that we don't have an order at that store.

We check the app and head to the right store. They were very attentive and they give us our order. However, by then, it had been over an hour and it was too late to watch a movie, so no movie and no review for me this week.

That is not to say that there was a dearth of reviews on Trophy Unlocked. On Wednesday, Trevor's review of Star Wars Racer Revenge went up, and on Saturday, Paul's review of  The Great Mouse Detective was the featured review. On Sunday, Trevor posted our MonsterVerse Review Hub, one place for all of the recent Godzilla-King Kong tetralogy of films.

This week, the blog will hit 1200 reviews on Saturday, so stay tuned.

On Thursday, I managed to send off a new query, again through an online form. If you've read this blog before, you know how little I like this part of the writing process. This one wasn't as bad as others, though I did have to come up with who might want to read Broken People and I was spared trying to think of marketing schemes for it. Of course, it's a wait-and-see process now. But I do have five out that can be considered active.

All of this is the background for what was the biggest item of the week. On Thursday, I was notified that ComiXology was going to publish our book on Wednesday, May 19th, or six days later. That put into process a lot of footwork on our part, including uploading issues to Kindle and GlobalComix, two of the platforms we publish on. I had already made the .mobi file I needed for Kindle but I hadn't uploaded it since I didn't know the date it was going to be released at the time. When we went to add the issue to GlobalComix, it was already there ready to go. I don't think either of us remembered uploading it but that made it go much faster than I expected.

We were lucky to have a review in the pipeline, and one that was particularly positive. You can read it here.

Paul and I also shot a commercial, which Paul edited, which we plan to post on the day it comes out. Additionally, we wrote and published our first Bark in quite a while. What had been a weekly newsletter is now to used for events like this. One will also be sent out on the day of publication.

Around that, we had a roundtable with the creative team on Friday and then a team-building exercise on Sunday afternoon, playing Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. We had some technical issues both times but Paul figured it out and both Rachel and Julia were very patient with things. I don't want to take up too much of their private time but I think we all had fun.

I would, of course, ask you to consider purchasing the new issue on one of the five platforms we publish on. These are available through our website at The Campus Store. The links will be live as soon as we know them but for now, you can read about the new issue and perhaps catch up on the back issues you haven't read yet. And, while you're there, you can enroll at San Romero Community College and join our mailing list. It's always FREE!

Commercial over, I'll wrap up with my current book, Skylar, which isn't getting all the love it deserves. Maybe when things calm down I'll be able to get back to it. It is not that I haven't been thinking about it, though. My plan is to add a murder in the mix sooner than later in the story. But that doesn't make up for the lack of actually writing on it.

Next week, Paul, Trevor and I will be getting our second COVID shot on Tuesday, which might make Wednesday interesting if I have any sort of bad reaction but we'll see. I would encourage anyone who hasn't gotten vaccinated to do so as soon as possible.

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

A Week in Writing #327 - Let's Talk Wednesday

Hope everyone is staying well and had a Happy and safe Thanksgiving.

I know last week I wrote a lot about the previous Thursday, I thought today I'd write about this past Wednesday, or the release date of the latest issue of Powers Squared, #10 What's in a Name? Part 1. I know that sometimes I plug hard the comic book but it's only because I want it to be a success. As with any endeavor a writer undertakes, he/she wants it to be a success. I double down on Powers Squared since it is also something I am self-publishing. i.e. paying for. If you insist on supporting me in this, then please go to https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/the-campus-store.

Well, it may sound easy to self-publish a comic book but there are a lot of steps involved, which you can multiply by the number of outlets or platforms you're going out on. As a publisher, you stress over each one.

The first step, which I undertook sometime back, was to submit the comic book to the various outlets. We're on ComiXology, Artithmeric.com, IndyPlanet and Kindle, each with their own requirements, though many overlap. By that I mean if I meet the specs for say IndyPlanet, I can pretty much send the same files to the other outlets as well. I have been updating the cover for ComiXology, which doesn't like a border around the cover.

The submission process is a little different for each site. As an example, neither ComiXology or Kindle require you to purchase the book when you put it up. To be honest, neither Artithmeric or IndyPlanet require that either, but you want to see what a book looks like before you sell it, you have to order one and have it printed and shipped. With Issue #10, we have two covers, so I had to have two different copies from each of those outlets.

Some are more helpful than others. Paul and I had decided on our own that we wanted to have the issue out before Artithmeric's Black Friday Sale, which is going on right now through December 4, so we picked November 25th, the day before Thanksgiving. Releasing prior to a holiday, or a big convention, is probably not the best idea, as people's minds are elsewhere, but that was the date we chose. It was only a week before the release that ComiXology confirmed that they were also releasing it on that date as well.

ComiXology is the only outlet that you have no control over when the release date is picked and my guess is that they pick the dates based on some sort of algorithm rather than what is the best date to release it. They've picked dates that were the Wednesday before Comic-Con, the day before the 4th of July and this time the day before Thanksgiving.

So everything seemed to be in place except for something special I wanted to do on IndyPlanet. I had given them more than a week but never heard back on it. We wanted our B cover or Covid Cover to be print only and when submitting the issue, I didn't see a way to do that. I wrote to them a couple of times but it wasn't until the 25th before they confirmed they would do it.

About a week before the release, we sent out Press Releases to eight comic book news websites. This netted one story on First Comics News, who has been pretty supportive of us. That story came out the next day. I checked the other outlets today before writing this and that would otherwise be a goose egg.

Then there was the review. First Comics News has also been the only outlet to review all the issues and I was expecting it to be up on the day of release but it wasn't. It took a couple of emails on Wednesday and bothering the editor on Thanksgiving but it did go up a day late.

I also purchased some Facebook ads. I believe I had sworn off those earlier but I was hoping to see if things had changed. Each ad is $10 and runs for five days. We placed one when we launched our new landing page. Despite reaching 5558 people, I don't believe any of them actually signed up. We placed one when the issue was released. So far, that's reached only 984 people 31 clicked the link; no telling if any bought the book. On Friday, we put out another one for the Black Friday Sale. 1204 reached two clicks. I keep telling myself this is a marathon but it would be nice to get somewhere now.

So, the jury is still out on the ads and the release. I'll report back here if I receive any numbers on sales.

No queries this week. Thursday is my night and it was Thanksgiving. For those keeping score, I have sent out four and have one rejection.

I did work a couple of nights on Skylar. I guess a word count would be appropriate; that way we can all track how I'm doing on that project. So, right now I'm at 16535 words. Check back next week to see how much futher I get.

My review of The Clay Pigeon was Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review, thus ending our Noirvember salute. There were two more reviews this week on the blog, Trevor's review of  Transformers: Prime - One Shall Stand went up on Thursday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the series that it derived from. And on Wednesday, there was Trevor's review of Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion (PS4).

Next month starts the blog's salute to Christmas titles. Not necessarily for next month, I did write three reviews this weekend of Christmas titles, including A Christmas Carol (1910), Mickey's Christmas Carol, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Maybe they will come out this year, maybe next. I think we have enough for this year so it's nice to get ahead.

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

A Week in Writing #326 - Let's Talk Thursday

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

Let me start with a plug: Powers Squared Issue #10, What's in a Name? Part 1, releases on Wednesday, November 25th. If you're reading this, I would really appreciate the support. Issues are available in print and digital and links will be live on the day of release at the website's new Campus Store. There is also going to be a Black Friday Sale at artithmeric.com for a week. You can get 25% off by using the code BLACKFRIDAY. If you've ever thought about buying an issue of the comic book I write about each week, then this would be a golden time to do it.

I don't know about you, but some days are more successful than others when it comes to writing. This week, Thursday sticks out as a particularly busy day. As with most weeks it seems, it starts with Powers Squared.

It began in the morning, when I received an email from the US Copyright Office, in effect, denying our request to update the copyright. It wasn't so much that we couldn't but the mechanism the Copyright Office had told us to do it turned out to be wrong. I don't mind re-doing the claim, with the right instructions, but I was resisted to losing the $200 fee they charged me to make the revised claim, since I was working off their instructions. To their credit, the agent I was working with has offered to see if the fee can be refunded, so that's still up in the air.

During the day, we received pages from Rachel; pencils for the last four pages of Issue #16 as well as the cover. Paul and I did sit down and review after dinner. These sessions don't usually last very long but there are usually comments which are sent back to her and that night was no exception. Nothing really major mind you; all minor. I was reminded with getting Issue #10 ready for ComiXology that they didn't like the cover having a border. I've had to make adjustments and since I'm making changes months after the issue has been drawn, colored, and lettered, I have to be careful not to go outside the margins so to speak. Don't know if you've ever published a comic book, but print versions have margin and trim spaces. I don't think making that change or any of the changes we asked for were necessarily difficult since the next morning, she had the changes ready to go.

That night, I had some things to take care of with posting the new issue of Powers Squared on IndyPlanet. It consisted of adding preview pages. Earlier I had a question about the page count and I still have a question about whether or not one of the covers (we have two this time) can be print only; IndyPlanet offers both print and digital. That question is still outstanding. We're good either way but it would be good to know.

I then made the edits on the next script for Powers Squared, a sort of Metal Gear homage, tentatively called Mission: Istanistan. I was making updates Paul had suggested and I also moved one panel to the previous page. Again, nothing too hard.

I then worked out some talking points for our OAPS podcast. We had Kathryn Calamia on. She currently has a Kickstarter going for her comic book Like Father, Like Daughter. I had met her through a Facebook post in which she was looking for indie comics to use as tier rewards. I thought letting her use Issue #1 of Powers Squared might find us some new readers. I asked her to be on our show but I wanted us to prep for her. The actual interview took place the next evening and you can watch or listen to the show through links you can find here. I think the show went pretty well.

Next, I sent a query letter out for Broken People, trying to keep to my one-a-week goal. I had found this particular agent on QueryTracker as someone "new" that week. It was a bit of a gamble. QueryTracker shows she represents Crime Fiction, which is what I'm hawking, but the agency's website stated True Crime, but I thought it was worth a chance and a new assistant agent might be wanting to build a list.

Well, I was wrong. I sent the query at about 9:40 pm on Thursday and by 1:30 in the afternoon, I was rejected. "Thank you for your query, but unfortunately, I don't think this is a fit for me. I appreciate your getting in touch, though, and wish you the best with this project." Not the most informative of rejections but they rarely are. I don't think it has anything to do with the actual writing, since I didn't send any samples. The instructions on the agency's websites only asked for a query letter.

I'll give the agent credit for being quick. The rejection was sort of like ripping off a bandage. Painful, as always, but quick and over with. So if you're keeping track at home, that's four sent and one rejection. And now I need to send out two more.

I finished that night off with some writing and updates on Skylar, the most recent manuscript I'm working on. I'm reimagining some of what I had written to get to the action quicker and to introduce characters more judiciously.

Not a typical day but you sort of get a sense of what I'm up to; divided in all sorts of ways.

I would be remiss not to mention my Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, Scene of the Crime; part of our Noirvember celebration. This was also My Little Pony week on Trophy Unlocked with five reviews featuring My Little Pony: Equestria Girls; My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks; My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Friendship Games; My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Legend of Everfree; and My Little Pony: The Movie (2017). Those reviews were written by Paul and Trevor, so check them out, too.

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

A Week in Writing #298 - The New Reality

I don't know how you're doing with the COVID stay at home orders and the partial-lifting thereof. I hope that everyone reading this is listening to the medical advice coming from the CDC or your own personal physician.

Public Service Announcement over with, let's get into the writing this week.

It probably won't come as a surprise to anyone that reads this that this past week has been spent primarily on Power Squared. Work sort of intensified as we're getting ready to launch Issue #9 on Wednesday the 13th. (You can order it here, BTW.)

I'm finding the more platforms you're on, the harder it is to coordinate not only the same product but release dates as well. We've been letting comiXology dictate the release date, more out of loyalty than anything else. They, in turn, give you a week's heads up on the date, which means you then need to scramble to get other platforms ready. For me, this included a new pdf for Artithmeric, our first Print-on-Demand platform to use, which they put up a week too soon.

Then there is the usual work, looking at thumbnails and cover art for the issue we're working on. Our artist, Rachel Wells, made a couple of suggestions which Paul and I agreed were beneficial to the story. I really like that part of working with her. I never felt the script was written in cement and the goal is always to make it better.

Did a little more work on the Pitch Packet, but that's still not ready for primetime, as they used to say.

I did manage to work some more on The Runaway. I don't know if this ever happens to you, but one night I was planning on working on it when the whole Issue #9 thing happened and I had to make and send a new .pdf. That somehow delayed me enough that I didn't really work on The Runaway that night.

Well, it turns out to have been one of those nights of sleep, when you don't. That used to happen to me all the time but it hasn't happened recently, or at least more infrequently than it used to. Well, that morning around 2 I got up and came out to my computer and wrote about 500 words, that I have been able to use to complete the chapter I was working on. I think I'm about one to two chapters now from wrapping the whole draft up.

I want to use the "free time" after that to send out more pre-rejection queries to see if I can manage to land an agent using a previous book.

One new review this week, The Third Man, a film that I actually own but happened to catch on Saturday morning on TCM. It is one of those films I've been meaning to watch and it was too easy to watch it then, so I did.

This is still part of Scooby-Doo month on Trophy Unlocked, so the Saturday Morning Review was Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders. Another review appeared on Wednesday, MediEvil (PS4), which is becoming an unofficially new game review Wednesday on the blog. It's all good.

Well, that's all for now. 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 #283 - 1000 Reviews and Powers Squared Day

Let me explain the headline. The 1000 review milestone was reached by Trophy Unlocked, which is a blog that Paul started a little over 9 years ago and to which, you know dear reader, that I contribute to. It's a really cool milestone and it works out to a little over 100 reviews each year. Quite an accomplishment and a team effort. Paul started the blog after watching Tron: Legacy at the El Capitan Theatre when the film opened. He invited Trevor and then myself to contribute reviews. My bent is more of the classic films, but I've done current films as well. It's really been a pleasure working with him and Trevor on it.

That working relationship even precedes our working together on Powers Squared. I don't know if that's normal, for a family to work together on various writing projects, but for the most part, it seems to work for us.

The 1000th review was a re-review of the first film and went up on Saturday. We're not close to being done with it either and we're already mapping out special months and weeks for 2020, so please keep reading, or start reading if you haven't yet. End of plug.

I did write another review for future use on the blog, Monty Python's Life of Brian. We watched the film this Friday following the recent news of the death of Terry Jones, the director of the film and one of the founding members of Monty Python. There is some really strong imagery in the film which is cut, for the most part, by the usual humor of the group, which goes from witty to grotesque at the drop of a hat.

Powers Squared Day was our idea to promote the release of Issue 8, Mathemagical Part 1, as well as merch that we had only previously made available during the Kickstarter. We've let ComiXology set the date and we're releasing simultaneously on two other platforms: Artithmeric.com, which has been our print-on-demand partner and a new platform, Indy Planet, which is related to Ka-Blam, which has done printing for us before. The Merch, the two collegiate t-shirts and the hardback trade will be available only through Artithmeric, which had supplied them for the Kickstarter.

On Saturday, I sent out some new press releases for Powers Squared Day. We don't have a large roster of press that we rely on, though we've occasionally gotten a nibble. We will most likely get a review for First Comic News and hopefully some press from other websites as well.

We've been doing the usual promotion work for the comic book, the podcast and the video, as well as our new weekly newsletter, The Bark. I invited you to subscribe to one or more of them, as we can really use all the following we can find. All are free and usually the videos and the audio are in the 10-minute range, so what have you got to lose?

New pages, pencils from Rachel this week so Issue #13 is starting to take shape. We're still looking for a colorist but I believe we have three good candidates, one of which most likely will be our new colorist.

I've been shy or lazy about calling the comic book store about setting up a signing. There's a lot that goes into it, including money and the calendar and I guess I get nervous they may say "no". I guess I'm a big scaredy-cat when it comes right down to it. Also, it's hard to get away from work and make a call in the alley but that's really not an excuse.

So with all of that, how am I doing on The Runaway? I will admit not as well as I would have hoped. I did do some writing on the book but nothing to brag about this week. It's sometimes hard to get the time and the energy to really dig into it. I'm hoping to do some more work tonight but no promises.

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