A Week in Writing #616 - Going Back to LA Comic Con

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

The big news for me this week, is that SRCC Press, the publisher behind Powers Squared and The Blade of Miracles, will be returning to LA Comic Con in October, as a "guest" of the convention. It seems like every other year, we get involved with this Con. In 2022, we had a panel at the show and in 2024, we tabled and had a panel. Now, we're going back two years later. This is one of those things about Cons that I wouldn't have known if someone hadn't brought it to my attention. Steven Prince, the creator of Monster Matador, brought it to my attention, so I applied. We get a table and two chairs and I'm sure we'll be in the garage somewhere as the halls are being rennovated for the 2028 Olympics, but a free table is a free table. I'll give you more as I learn more, and, of course, will write about the experience here.

This week, the newsletter was the prime activity. Happy to say it was finished and sent out this morning, which is always a good feeling. If you haven't signed up for it, you have until August 1st to do so, if you'd like to receive it. Enroll here. It comes out once a month and it is FREE.

Our podcast this week featured another comic book writer, David Lucarelli, one of the only people we actually talked to at the Fanbase 10th Anniversary Potluck, a couple of weeks ago. He's the writer behind Tinsletown, The Children's Vampire Hunting Brigade, and Dr. Zomba's Ghostly Tales. Cool guy and I think it's a good interview. We prepped questions and he kept answering them before we asked, which is always nice. You can catch it on our Twitch channel for the next few days, listen here, and/or wait to watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm.

Next week, our podcast will be the Comic Book Club, and we'll be discussing It Rhymes With Lust, hailed as the first graphic novel. If you've read it or are curious, check us out at 6 pm PDT at twitch.tv/powerssquared.

I'm finishing up a review of Scarlet Street, which I believe was a recording leftover from TCM's last Summer of Darkness. As always, not sure when it will go up. But there are plenty of other reviews on Trophy Unlocked  for you to read, including Wednesday's Game Day review of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Paul; Trevor's Second Opinion - Toy Story 2 was the Saturday Morning Review; and there was a surprise review this morning on Mortal Kombat 2, also by Paul. If you haven't caught on, this is Toy Story month on the blog.

I haven't yet picked up with Blackmail. Instead, I read through my sketchy start on another story in the franchise. I've started rewriting it, but I will spend sometime working on Blackmail, since that needs to get done.

Well, that's about it from me. Keep writing and I'll see back here next week.

A Week in Writing #529 - Report From the Front - Tabling at L.A. Comic-Con

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

This week, Powers Squared took a step that it had never done before, that is tabling at a "major" Con; and I intentionally put major in quotes. While L.A. is a major city, L.A. Comic-Con does not have the same reputation as say San Diego Comic-Con, or even WonderCon, though the last event was a bit of a disappointment.

Friday was the first day of the Con. As you might imagine, no one really slept well the night before, mostly due to anxiety; we were delving into the unknown for us. We had been told that we would unload and then get our badges and were expecting that when we got to the Convention Center. However, there was a long line of cars that wasn't moving. Getting out to investigate, I was told I'd have to check in first and when I went to check-in, I was told that I'd have to have the badge first.

We left the car in what was supposed to be a turning lane to go get our badges. I told the guy behind us that we would be leaving the car there and he was cool with it, as he was aware and his wife was getting their badges. Picking up the badges wasn't hard, though it's a long walk from the back of the convention center, through the garage to the front lobby. The only hitch was, even though I had informed the Con and had been told it would be taken care of, initially, there were only two badges, when I had requested four, but that was easily overcome and off we went.

Badges in hand, we got our pass, took the truck up and unloaded all the stuff we'd brought. Unloading wasn't hard and then we moved the truck. We had been told parking would be $25 and it turned out to be $30.

After setting up the booth, we took some boxes back to the truck and waited. We had been introduced to the floor manager, but when I tried to approach him later, I couldn't catch him. We had brought four chairs and didn't need the two assigned to the booth. I wanted to get rid of them, but not be charged for missing chairs or some such thing. We spent the day with the chairs, to make a long story short.

Being on the booth side of a Con is a much different experience. Time moves very slowly and especially so when there is little foot traffic. We did manage one sale and got three people to sign up for our mailing list. I don't think there were many sales going on around us, but for all we'd put into it, the results weren't great to say the least. But it's the first day of the Con, right?

We had brought a laptop to make a stab at recording our Friday night podcast, but due to connection issues, we ended up calling in with Paul's phone hooked up to a microphone and two headsets. I haven't seen the results, but they're available here to listen to and will be uploaded for Wednesday's premiere on our YouTube channel.

Saturday was a longer day than Friday and was somewhat uneventful for our booth. It was chibi shirt day, as we all wore chibi shirts of the four main characters, Marty (Paul), Eli (Trevor), Mocha (my wife) and Dr. Atlas (me). It actually helped with the pitch, as I could use my shirt to explain Dr. Atlas being in the story.

If you look at the description of our neighboring vendors, you might get the wrong impression of the people behind the table. To one side of us was a company that published spicy romance and erotica books and on the other side was a couple that published images of the boss cat back at their bookstore. Our pre-apocalyptic comic book was wedged in between. We could literally watch people look at the books and the oh and ah over the cat images; and, of course, passing us by in the process.

However, we did sell 3 issues (all #1) and 1 trade, so sales were way up from the day before.

Sunday was our last day and possibly the best day we had at the Con. We sold 17 issues, most to one person, and 1 trade. We also had a panel to attend, Under the Radar, which was a good experience. John Barber came up from San Diego to moderate. Steven Prince (Monster Matador) and Erik Arreaga (Chingona) were panelists along with the three creators of Powers Squared. As was the case the last time we had this panel, the panelist outnumbered the attendees most of the time.

We had heard that packing up at LA Comic Con is the worst, so we planned ahead and got off the floor before it got really bad. We would have made a quick getaway, but we couldn't find my keys. I wasn't sure what had happened to them and they didn't show up until we got home and were in my backpack, which we had searched several times on the way out. Tricky keys.

A big shout out to my wife, Nancy, who pitched in and did so many things for the Con, from setting up the booth to passing out business cards that I know it wouldn't have worked as well without her.

You can see images of our tabling at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/events. Scroll down one event to watch the slideshow.

Even though we were busy all week, we did manage to keep Trophy Unlocked going, with Paul's post of Resident Evil 5 on Wednesday and my review of Little Shop of Horrors on Saturday morning. Given the circumstances, no new reviews for me this week.

I also managed to do a little rewrites on the next story, but not much as time was short getting ready.

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

A Week in Writing #528 - Happy Birthday and then Happy Birthday!

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

The birthday stuff is real. I had mine on Wednesday the 25th and then my sons had theirs on Saturday the 28th. I only mention it since it did impact writing this past week, as we actually went out to dinner twice in three days. We had a good time though, which is what really counts, and I got some cool gifts along the way.

The real story is LA Comic-Con, which seems to be rushing at us like a freight train. I think we're about as prepared as we can be, but there is bound to be something we missed. But it's a necessary step in the process of trying to grow our audience, which is what I hope happens as a result.

If you're going, were in Small Press SP304. And if that wasn't enough, we're participating in the Floor Tour, organized by Don Nguyen, who has been a guest on our podcast. The flyer is pretty self-explanatary:

And, if that weren't enough, we're also part of a panel: Under the Radar. If you remember, we did this same panel at LA Comic-Con back in 2022. This time, we've upgraded the moderator, from me, to John Barber and the guests are pretty impressive as well, Erik Arreaga (Chingona) and Steven Prince (Monster Matador).

And there are also these three stragglers, me and the boys behind Powers Squared.

We had a pre-panel discussion on Friday's podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. Erik wasn't able to attend, but we had a good discussion with John and Steven. You can listen to it now here or watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm on our YouTube Channel. Our better yet, you could attend the panel in person to lend support.

The rest of the time, I spent editing Skylar. I'm finally at the part where I need to do some more writing to tie the story up. That may have to wait until after the Con.

No new review from me this week, as we went out for dinner on Saturday. But there were still reviews on Trophy Unlocked, with a Wednesday Game Day review of The WereCleaner by Trevor and then the Saturday Morning Review was also his for The Wild Robot, which we squeezed in on Friday afternoon.

The next week will probably be Powers Squared-centric, as the Con is coming and I also have to work on the newsletter, which, like this missive, will be delayed one day because of the Con.

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

A Week in Wrting # 527 - Editing is My Favorite Part of Writing

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

I've spent most of my writing time this past week editing Skylar. This is my favorite part of the writing process, since I feel that I always want to make it better. While I've been working on this book, for what seems like forever, it is interesting to read passages that I haven't in months. I haven't quite gotten to parts that need major revisions or new content, though I do think that's coming at some point.

I was spending the rest of my time working on t-shirt displays for LA Comic-Con, which was basically sizing images and QR codes. Speaking of LACC, I believe we've purchased almost everything we're going to need for the show, but there is still some signage that needs to be dealt with, including pricing.

I'll be honest, I'm a little nervous about the Con. There are so many unknowns involved. I'm hoping that all the planning will pay off and we'll have a pretty much smooth operation, but there are other factors I can't yet imagine, since we've never done anything like this before.

Some of that was covered in our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, this past Friday. It was our September Team Meeting with artist/colorist Julia Canon, artist Jen Moreno and Trevor, who letters the books. You can listen to it here or wait until Wednesday and watch it on our YouTube channel at 2:30 pm LA time. These are usually some of my favorite podcasts, though some of the best conversations happen after sign off.

Next week, the podcast will play host to John Barber, Erik Arreaga, Steven Prince and the creators of Powers Squared for a pre-panel virtual meet and greet. The six of us will be moderator and panelists at Under the Radar, at LA Comic-Con. I believe I'm the only one who has spoken to everyone involved and want to be sure we all know each other a little better before the panel. That will be next Friday at 6 pm PDT on twitch.tv/powerssquared. Be There and Be Squared, as we say.

Okay, no new review from me this week. The plan was to watch something I'd recorded, but since it was Batman Day, we decided at the last minute to watch Batman: Hush and I won't be the one writing that review.

My review of  We're in the Money (1935) was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, but it was far from the only one this week, as on Thursday, Trevor's review of Transformers One was published and Wednesday was Game Day with Paul's review of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which was also the 1600th review on the blog.

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

A Week in Writing #526 - COVID/Flu Vaccinations

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

As I've mentioned before, Powers Squared will be at L.A. Comic-Con in October. That was part of the reason we decided this past Friday to get our Covid and Flu Vaccinations. And while we were aware that there would be side effects, none of expected that it would pretty much lay us up for Saturday. The vaccines are a good idea for everyone, but just beware it's going to kick Covid and the flu, but your own ass a little bit, too.

So, if you're going to be attending L.A. ComicCon, please look us up using this handy little map.

And, if you're coming on Sunday, please check out our panel, Under the Radar. It's at noon on Sunday in room 406A. (And, yes, I'm aware Steve Prince's name is mispelled and the app will be updated.) We're going to have a podcast with all of the participants on the 27th, so that might be fun to watch.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we had a good session on Sunday afternoon, going over sketches by our new artist, Jen Moreno. She started work on Issue #28 "Agnes Wreckage" (working title) and Paul and I had a call with her going over the pages. Good stuff.

Because of the side-effects, mentioned above, no new review this week from me. We instead watched Shorts 2, a collection from Mystery Science Theater 3000. My review of The First Auto was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. And, if  you missed it, like I did, there was a Wednesday is Game Day review of 20 Small Mazes, written by Trevor.

On our Friday podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, we interviewed James Salvani, a comic book artist and writer, best known for his work on the Darkwing Duck comic books. He talked about his career as well as his new Kickstarter for Pirates: A Graphic History. (That's a link to the Kickstarter).  If you'd like to hear the podcast, you can listen here, or you can wait and watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT here.

To round out the week, I started editing on Skylar. This is my favorite part of the writing process, editing my own work, and trying to make it better. I've gone through about 154 pages so far and that will be my primary project next week.

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

A Week in Writing # 523 - Another Slow Week

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

This has not been another red-letter week for me, when it came to writing. This week's excuse: the DNC and watching speechs after dinner and sometimes until almost 10 at night. I'm not going to get political, but that's my excuse this week.

The main project, which did take time, is trying to revise a "handout" that I'd like to make available at LA Comic-Con, describing our books. I use the word handout loosely, meaning something to have available at the table for passerbys to puruse, in case they want to look, but not speak. Prep continues in big and small ways, including ordering s-hooks to use to hang sample t-shirts from. We settled on the samples, now I'm trying to lower the prices before I order any.

We did receive an invite to participate in the first ever Neurodiversity Comic Con on November 9 in NYC. That, as they say, is a litttle too far for us. We are donating a couple of hardback trades to the cause, but it would be a little too expensive to participate in person. If you're interested in the con, you can find more information here: http://www.diversitycomiccon.com

We're still prepping for the next issue of Powers Squared  to be released on September 4. Paul and I spent a few minutes getting the book up on Kindle and GlobalComix. Family Affair, Part 1 sees Marty and Eli preparing for a visit from their estranged parents, Peter and Peggy Powers. And even though the boys have their secrets, their parents have some of their own. You can read a review of the issue: here.

This past week's podcast starred Trevor as we discussed Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Trevor has been reading the long-running comic book series, which is a good thing for a podcast about a book series. You can listen here or watch it on YouTube on Wednesday.

One more note about Powers Squared, I realized this morning that the newsletter is only a week away, so that's something else I'm going to have to work on this week.

Even though I haven't really worked on my backlog of reviews to write, and frankly, I may skip some, my review of What! No Beer? was the Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked.

And I did do cursory work on Skylar, but nothing to write home about.

I do plan to start sending queries again but I'll probably wait until after LA Comic-Con, as I don't need more disappointment in my life.

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

A Week in Writing #520 - Newsletter Week (and not much else)

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

Being this was the last week of July, I spent time putting together The Hound Dogs' Howl, the monthly newsletter from Powers Squared. While, the newletter sort of writes itself, there are bits that need attention. This month's was writing the section on twins. If you subscribe (and why aren't you?), you would know that we do a focus on twins, real and fictional. Since we had met the Gibbs Sisters, twins who write together, including graphic novels, at a networking event at San Diego Comic-Con, I thought they would be a good choice.

If you're interested, you can read the newsletter here or, better yet, enroll at San Romero Community College here and receive it in your inbox the first Sunday of every month.

Other than that, I didn't really do much writing. Call it the post-Con bends or something, but it takes awhile to recover from the experience.

Last night, as an example, we had had dinner and watched a rather short film, Daughter of Shanghai (1937), but as soon as I sat down afterward to write, I pretty much fell asleep, and it was only 10. Not a productive night to say the least.

While there were no new reviews from me, Trophy Unlocked continued, wrapping up X-Men month with Paul's second look at Deadpool (Game) and finally, on the 31st, his review of Deadpool & Wolverine. The Saturday Morning Review this week was also his review of My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission.

On the business side of things, I submitted my panel and ordered books for L.A. Comic-Con in October; and we wrote follow ups to people we met at SDCC, some of whom we'd like to have as guests on our podcast.

Speaking of On the Air with Powers Squared, we did recount our experience at SDCC, but more from an attendee rather than as a professional. I covered that in last week's post, which I hope someone found useful, or at least interesting. You can listen the podcast here or wait until Wednesday to watch on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) here. Paul is also working on a video detailing our experience at the Con. Links when those go up.

Nothing else to report, but there's always next week to right the ship.

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

A Week in Writing #516 - Not the Best Holiday Break

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

I won't go into details, but the time I've had off from work was very expensive for me personally and I mean that in the dollars and cents way. Nothing really bad happened, but keeping up a house can sometimes be very expensive, not to mention maintaining cars. It's been a large financial hit all the way around and time has been spent on other things besides writing because of it.

I did manage to finish a chapter and write a new one for Skylar, including over 1400 words today, which has been a long-time goal not oft reached; hence the name of the page: https://1000wordsadayeasily.blogspot.com.

I'm also working on a review of Man's Castle, a 1933 melodrama starring Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young. As usual, no idea when it will appear on Trophy Unlocked, especially since we're in the midst of X-Men month on the blog. So far, Trevor's review of X-Men (2000) kicked things off on Tuesday, followed by Paul's review of  X2 (2003) on Thursday and my review of X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) as the Saturday Morning Review. During July, we will review all of the X-Men movies and a video game, culminating with Deadpool & Wolverine at the end. See, there is method to the madness.

On the Powers Squared front, Paul, Trevor and myself, the creators of the comic book, did our own character tier list as this week's OAPS podcast. This was in reaction to a similar tier list done the week before by the artists (Julia Canon, Jen Moreno, and artist emeritus, Rachel Wells). You can listen to ours here or watch it later, on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared), on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT, here.

To give you a preview, here's the artists' version:

and here is ours:

You can decide which is right. (See last week's post for links to their podcasts (audio and video).

We opened the banner we ordered for LA Comic-Con and it looks good. I was worried that the QR code wouldn't work, but it does. Haven't put it all together yet, but will share when that happens. We also received the t-shirts we ordered for the Con as well. While we're not going to be selling them there, we wanted to be able to wear everything available. There will be a discount for anyone who buys during the Con online.

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

A Week in Writing #514 - Starting to Take Shape

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

Spent some time this week trying to put the booth for LA Comic-Con into shape. Got out the box of things we used at our last convention appearance, which was over 5 years ago, and started to put together what we're going to need now. This includes a skirt for the table and a new banner for the booth. It was decided by a group vote to have the new banner and the table cloth match colors and then there was agreeing on the placement of the items on the banner.

We already have one for Powers Squared, though it has the old logo on it, but we wanted to have one for SRCC, which is how people join our mailing list. Getting people to sign up is really the goal of the con as far as I'm concerned. I want to sell books, but I want us to expand our reach, too.

While we're not selling t-shirts at the show, they will be on sale on the website. To that end, we ordered some t-shirts to wear at the show. I will, of course, post photos on our website after the event, but until then, you'll just have to imagine what I'm going to look like wearing Julia's chibi Dr. Atlas designed t-shirt.

We were able to ask another creative about their con experience when Lucas Scheffel made his 7th appearance on our podcast, OAPS. Lucas, dressed as his character Gary Gorilla throughout, related his experience with conventions in Australia, which is where he lives. We also discussed his latest Kickstarter for Gary Gorilla, as well as his thoughts on the last two issues of Powers Squared. You can listen to it on or find other platform links on our website: https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps. You can also opt to watch it, and it's worth watching, when it goes up on our YouTube channel on Wedenesday afternoon at 2:30 PDT. While you're there, subscribe and ring the bell, as they say.

Next week, will be the 250th OAPS podcast, but we will be out of town (more on this later), so the artists past, present and possibly future will be taking over the show for us, the first of at least two times this summer.

Speaking of future artists, we took some steps this week on replacing our artist, who is leaving the role at her own choice. Our current colorist has expressed an interest in assuming the artist role and we asked her to draw the four main characters to get the testing underway. Still waiting to see what she comes up with.

I wrote a review this weekend for The Big Trail (1930), John Wayne's first starring role in a film directed by Raoul Walsh. My review of Blondie (1938) was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked.

And there was more work on Skylar this week, though not as much as I would have wanted. I seem to be getting a late start and getting sleepy earlier, which is a bad combination.

Next week, we'll be visiting my wife's family over the weekend, so this missive will be a day late.

That does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week, just a day late.

A Week in Writing #510 - Prep Work Underway

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

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Let's start with last week's big news, announcing that Powers Squared is tabling at Los Angeles Comic-Con in October. That's not something that will come easily for us as we haven't done a Con since 2019 and that was about as small of one as you can find, the San Fernando Valley Comic-Book Convention. We're going downtown for the next one and we have to improve our game.

To that end, we spent about two hours yesterday afternoon watching Stephen Silver's seminar about conventions. While it was geared more towards artists, a lot of what he discussed would be applicable to us. The pre-recorded seminar did provide useful advice and did come with a check list.

We've already started testing a battery backup to use. I'm thinking about having a computer available in case someone wants to sign up for our newsletter and we're planning on trying to do our podcast that Friday night as well.

It's starting to be newsletter time, and I used the delay in the Indianapolis 500 to work on it. I think I got through most of the basic stuff. I still need to do a spotlight on twins and there's still a recommnedation, but I think we're in pretty good shape.

I did manage to get some work done on the oft-put off Skylar. Mostly, I had a couple of ideas that I think will make it better and I believe, on at least a first draft level, I got them in. Now, the push to finish it continues.

I still haven't gotten back to the query/rejection process, but I at least have been thinking about it. Too many things to do first.

For the third week in a row, my review was featured on Trophy Unlocked. This week, I actually had two. The Saturday morning review was The Secret Six (1931), one of the older reviews I wrote. And then today, we published a review of the silent film Speedway (1929), in honor of the Indy 500 race.

I'm now working on three reviews, adding The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) to the pile.

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

A Week in Writing #509 - Tabling at LA Comic-Con

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

Well, I guess the big news is that Powers Squared will be tabling at this year's LA Comic-Con in October. This is something we've been talking about for months and years and we've finally decided to bite the bullet (it ain't cheap) and table in Small Press. The con runs from October 4-6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and we're hoping to at least introduce new people to our book. If you attend, hope you'll drop by.

It will be a sort of return for us, as we did do a panel at the Con a couple of years ago.

As with everything, I really have no idea what it will take to pull off and I don't know how success will be measured, but it will be a new experience, and one that I will be reporting on here, so buckle up as you go along the ride with me.

I don't know if you've been listening or watching, but the Transformers podcasts are coming out really great. We had a conversation with John Barber, who had been the writer and editor when the franchise was at IDW. He's a great interview and is a lot of fun. I would encourage everyone to give it a listen here or watch the video when it goes up on YouTube on Wednesday. It is still available on twitch.tv/powerssquared until next Friday.

John was nice enough to tweet out about being on the show, but I'm sure he drove eyes to twitch.tv/powersquared, which also apparently exists.

In addition to the OAPS coming out on Wednesday, we also posted another Taste Test, #7, in which Paul samples and compares three original MrBeast flavors against their new formulas.

Speaking of Powers Squared, our artist and colorist are busy working on new pages, which we should have by the end of the month, so hopefully, everything is staying on time.

No new review this week from me, though my review of The Sin of Nora Moran was the coveted Saturday Morning Review. This follows my review of Let It Be, my Second Look actually, which was released on Monday to coincide with the film's original release date in 1970.

I have two reviews that I still need to work on, and instead of Saturday night movies, we watched Episode 3 of the latest Dr. Who series, "The Devil's Chord", in which the 15th Doctor meets The Beatles. Quick review, while I like the new doctor Ncuti Gatwa and his companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), the story didn't really work for me. The actor playing the villain, Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon) is a force of nature, but wasn't enough to save the episode for me.

I did some work, good work I'd say, on Skylar this week, but never enough.

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

A Week in Writing #434 - And Now for Something Completely Different

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

Perhaps it's a miracle of the Season but the unexpected happened this week. If you've been following along with this blog for any length of time, you know that I have had very little luck with querying. While I have received a few outright rejections, most of my queries have ended up in the DNR pile. That was until this past week.

Wonders of wonders, I received a request from an agent to send the first three chapters and a synopsis. Talk about being caught flat-footed, the synopsis has long been this nagging chore that I have procrastinated on writing. Well, I managed to get that done and Paul reviewed it for me and off it went. Now comes more waiting. But now that I have one written, a tight two-pages, there are more queries I can make, if, of course, this one doesn't pan out.

As I wrote last time, I'm off the query train until next year, anyway.

The 15th issue of Powers Squared dropped this past Wednesday. I gave up on having a special feeling when something gets out. There are no fanfares or public notice that something you've put time and money into has been released other than whatever I've put out. Usually, it's more of a rush, trying to make sure all the pieces fall into place. And despite how much you try, they never do. There is always one platform that appears to lag behind or a review you were counting on doesn't come out. Both happened this time around.

For some reason, Kindle has become more of a bother than a benefit. It seems like a month ago, we put 15 on the site. Using their program to assemble the upload is a bit of pain as it doesn't matter if you're doing everything correctly, it can still crash on you. With this past upload, we opened the previous issue, #14, to check on what answers we gave. Well, ever since then, neither issue is available. Not sure why 14 is affected but apparently there is some sort of review process which is taking way too long. We've missed the release date and 14 is no longer available. Since I can't recall making any money so far from Kindle or from its predecessor ComiXology, I'm wondering why I want to go through the trouble. They seem to more of a hinderance than a boon. Maybe it's time to move on from them.

On the Powers Squared front, our artist handed in thumbnails for the last four pages of Issue 23. We're having a little back and forth on possible covers but nothing really out of the ordinary on that front. Our colorist is down with COVID at the moment and we wish her a speedy recovery. Trevor has finished more pages and I think we're coming to the end of work on Issue #21.

If you wish you had attended our panel at last week's LA Comic-Con, you can watch it now. I posted it on our YouTube channel.

In a couple of days, you can watch our podcast from Friday here. We turned the script and did a Christmas special about reviews on Trophy Unlocked.

On the subject of reviews, my review of the Laurel and Hardy short Big Business went up on Trophy Unlocked as the Saturday Morning Review. I'm working on two reviews this week, one for One Fatal Hour and another one for Snowglobe. The latter will appear during some future Christmas holiday. Over the past two weekends we've watched Snowglobe and a sort of remake, A Snow Globe Christmas, which Paul is reviewing.

I'm sorry to say that work on fka Skylar suffered this week and I never had a chance to get back to it. I will have to do better 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 #433 - Dog Drives Car - Doesn't Crash

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

Well, we can all take a deep breath now, the Under the Radar panel happened and, for the most part, was as successful as could be expected. The turnout was low, maybe 6 to 8 but judging what I saw at other panels not bad. None of the panels I saw were packed, though the one next door, New Rockstars: The Breakroom, was pretty loud.

The topic strayed a little bit towards the end but it was still pretty good. Before the panel, I went back and forth about whether or not we had too many questions or it wouldn't be enough to fill the 50 minutes. Well, I needn't worry about that. We didn't get to all of our questions but we managed to start on time and end on time.

My biggest disappointment was that no one stayed around afterwards and I was giving away copies of Issue #1 and #15. I'm not sure why that happened. Maybe they just didn't seem interested but, hey free books are free books. Oh well.

The high for me was that the volunteer managing our room had asked for the room because she was interested in our panel. That was a nice feeling going in. I was able to give her copies of the issues and she started reading them. We even signed one for her. We'll see if she continues to read them. I asked her to write us and let us know. So if we get one new reader that would be a success.

I think the participants liked the panel. Both Don Nguyen and Tina Cesa Ward thought I should try to  present it again at other cons. We'll see. I think I need to take a deep breath first.

Thinks I learned from my first panel: 1) Get out on time. The panel before us took their sweet time getting off the stage. We're supposed to have 10 minutes but I think we got less than five. I know we're no big shakes but they could have done a better job with the transition. 2) Be prepared for the unexpected. As I wrote, the panel didn't go as planned but I think everyone had a good time 3) Be nice to the volunteer, they might turn into a fan.

My wife recorded the panel, so we'll be posting that soon but not as an OAPS. I'll let you know when it goes up.

Oh, new issue dropping on December 7th. This will be Powers Squared's 15th issue; "How They Met" was an idea long time coming. The day that Mocha met Marty and Eli Powers would change all three of their lives, so says the synopsis. You should be able to find links where to buy at The Campus Store.

No new queries this week. I think I might be done for the year with those, not done for good. I think the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is not a good time to get attention. Besides, I should spend the time working on a two to three page synopsis. I've started one but never finished. I'll also try to research more agents. I should probably also start prepping another book for the query game.

And, no new review from me yet. I'll be working on one for The Automat, a documentary we watched on Saturday night after our first day at LA Comic Con. We had only new review this week on Trophy Unlocked, kicking off the holiday season with Trevor's review of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.

As a bit of a bonus, I did make some progress on fka Skylar, 56356 words so far and counting.

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

A Week in Writing #432 - More Like a Week in Driving

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

Oh, the holidays are upon us, which means things get pushed to the side to make way, including writing, I'm sorry to say.

Thanksgiving is one of the hardest holidays for me, when it comes to writing. The week is short, so less time and there is a lot of driving involved, about 16+ hours over three days, and there is the pressure to socialize rather than write. And, I'm usually so tired that I can't concentrate enough to write anyway.

So, let's bottom line it: No queries this week. That's a Thursday thing for me and I think I was probably driving or eating when I would normally have queried someone.

No live On the Air with Powers Squared on Friday. We still did the podcast but it was a prerecorded meeting with the panelists for Under the Radar, the panel I'm moderating at L.A. Comic-Con. We recorded it a couple of weeks ago, and Paul was able to edit for playback on Friday. The big event is coming next Sunday, so I'm sure I'll be writing about it in this space afterwards. If you're going, hope to see you there.

Had a pleasant surprise on Thanksgiving related to Powers Squared. We were spending the holiday with my neice and nephew through marriage. If you've ever bothered to look at the Creative Team tab on our website and under Other Contributors you'll find his name since he designed the original logo for us. Well, on his own, he decided to update it. I am not one for change for the sake of change but I also like to make things better. We're going through some changes, so next year might be time to refresh the logo along with everything else. I won't unveil it until we've made the decision to make the update but I think it's coming soon.

If we do change the logo, I'm not planning on going back and updating older issues, but have the change reflected going forward on newer issues and on the various banners we have around the internet.

Had a less than pleasant surprise on Friday, when I discovered or at last realized that the date on our graphic for the panel was wrong. It said Saturday when it should have been Sunday. The artist, also a panelist, made the change that night and sent it to me but I had already included it with the press releases and it had already been used on the internet. I really hate myself for not being more on the ball with things like that. This isn't the first time I've messed up a press release with bad data.

No new review from me this week, as we watched the The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special when we got home from our trip and Trevor will be reviewing that for Trophy Unlocked. It will be the first of our usual holiday reviews, so next Saturday. I did, however, have two appear on the blog this week. Saturday Morning's review was mine for See How They Run, and on Thursday we posted my review of Plymouth Adventure (1952) for Thanksgiving. The Wednesday morning GameDay review was Trevor's for Endling - Extinction is Forever.

Well, that about does it for me. Hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving and I'll see you here next week.

A Week in Writing #431 - Not a Good Week for Queries

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

I try every week to query at least one agent about Broken People, which again this week, I did. Usually, I never hear back. Well, this week, that changed. Actually heard back from two agents this week. Unfortunately, both were rejections:

The first came in early in the week, and was a bit of a form:

Hello:

Thank you for the opportunity to read your submission, which we have carefully considered but decided to decline. Unfortunately, due to the volume of queries we receive, we are unable to reply with individual feedback.

We hope you will not be discouraged by this reply, as this is a subjective business, and other agents will likely feel differently. We wish you the best in finding the right match for your work. If, however, you end up querying a new project in the future, we would of course be happy to consider it.

With warm regards,

The second was from the agent I queried on Thursday night, I received that on Friday afternoon:

Thanks for writing me. This sounds like a viable idea, but a bit too ‘genre. For my small list which means a bit more to the literary rather than the commercial.since you’re thinking down the road for series potential, I think you’d be better served working with an agent who’s a better March - best of luck in your continuing search.

I'm presenting as the agents sent it, without edits. I think the agent meant "March" to be "match" but it does seem to indicate that this wasn't a form, which I do appreciate, despite the rejection.

To top things off, I also DNRed another one after the time period to hear back, if I was going to, had expired. If you're counting, I have four out there for Broken People.

What do they say, that you have to keep pitching but sometimes it seems futile.

No new review this week for me. I had intended to write one for Out Yonder, a silent film starring Olive Thomas. I had read Laini Giles' The Forgotten Flapper: A Novel of Olive Thomas which I enjoyed and I was looking to actually seeing the actress at work. When I saw that TCM was showing it, I set it to record. The time frame given was 45 minutes and that was what was recorded. I had read that the film was over an hour but I figured that maybe it was a shortened "all we could find" version. Too bad for me, the film is 20 minutes longer. Imagine my surprise in the middle of a dramatic scene it cut off. I'll admit that I hadn't tried to HBOMax but this wasn't one of the films I could watch on TCM as Catchup and the only viewable version was the Dutch one from which TCM's version had been restored with new interstitials in English. Since I didn't see how it ended, I put it down to a lost cause, at least for now.

I did have two reviews this week on Trophy Unlocked. The Saturday Morning review was Elvis, as the blog plays catch up for the year. I also had a review up on Monday, as last week was Pinocchio week. We started off with my review of the original Disney film, followed on Wednesday by Trevor's review of the 2022 Disney live-action remake, and Paul reviewed the new Guillermo del Toro version, also 2022, which we saw in the theater prior to its Netflix premiere, for Friday. Busy week on the blog.

On Powers Squared news, we're getting ready for our panel at L.A. Comic-Con on December 4th. The below graphic, done by Don Nguyen gives you the details of the time and place. If you're going to be at LA Comic-Con, I hope you'll come by and see us.

More pages from our artist on her last issue, #23, for us.

On this week's On the Air with Powers Squared, we had our third Comic Book Club meeting on Friday, discussing Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe. You can listen here, if you're interested. Next January, we're going to discuss Locke and Key.

Some more work on fka Skylar but not really enough to mention. Sorry about that but some weeks are harder than others.

Speaking of hard weeks, with Thanksgiving next week, I don't know how much I'll get done. But I will be trying. More on that next Sunday.

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

A Week in Writing #430 - Is Routine a Good Thing?

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

If you're like me, you like a little routine in your writing. I try to hit all the basic food groups so to speak every week: Powers Squared, Trophy Unlocked, fka Skylar, and, a query. It's good to get to everything but is it a good thing? Is it getting me anywhere?

Even writing this blog is part of the routine. It takes about a half hour to 45 minutes to write down what I did during the week. I know that I need this as much as a reminder as anything else.

Routine is good and all but every so often it's good to shake things up. That's coming for me in early December when I moderate the Under the Radar panel but that's several weeks away. And, of course, we have the start of the holidays, and then routine is totally out the window.

But until then, let's go through the routine:

With Powers Squared, our artist delivered pencils for four pages this week. All were good with a couple of changes but overall it's looking good. Nothing else new to report, except that our next issue drops on December 7th.

As part of the release of a new issue, I do a little feature each Sunday, called peek-of-the-week. It goes up every Sunday morning on our website and on Pinterest before sending out messages on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook about it on Tuesday. Again, the looking's free.

This month on Trophy Unlocked, we're playing a little catch-up for the rest of the year, that is movies we've seen, perhaps late, but want to get reviews out before the end of the year. We started that this past Saturday morning with my review of Everything Everywhere All at Once. There will be more to come. Wednesday's Game Day review was Trevor's review of Stray.

I'm currently working on a review for probably next year of Batman & Mr. Freeeze: SubZero. We watched a couple of animated Batman movies on Friday night out of respect for Kevin Conroy, who died. He had been the voice of Batman for many years.

I finished my review of Plymouth Adventure. Maybe this Thanksgiving?

On Saturday night, we went to Santa Monica to see Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. Paul will be writing the review, as we will be doing a Pinocchio week this month as well. The Classic and two of the 2022 entries. Something to look forward to.

As far as writing, I worked on fka Skylar during the early part of the week. I'm up to 54,423 words. A lot of writing for not much progress. There are always so many other factors that get involved.

One new query this week for Broken People. I DNRed several old ones. No response is the new "no" in looking for an agent.

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

A Week in Writing #428 - It's Official

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

Well, it's finally official, I know the day and time of the panel, just not the room. It's kind of exciting and scary at the same time. I've never been on a panel at a convention before, let alone moderated one. I think I'll do okay. Paul and I have been doing a podcast for several years, so I know what it's like talking and not knowing who, if anyone, is listening. I've ordered some copies of the first and the 15th issue to have with me. I also ordered new business cards for Powers Squared. I just want to be prepared in case there is a chance of a new reader coming out of this.

I also reserved my tickets for San Diego Comic-Con for next year. One of the advantages of doing a comic book is the Professional status that comes with it. I should check into a table or something when it's time for that convention.

Work continues on the books with our artist, colorist, and letterer all working on different issues. As I wrote earlier, we're losing our current artist at the end of the year and we're hoping our colorist will be able to step forward and take that over. We've all agreed to her doing a test with one page and the four main characters. I'm hoping she makes it. We discussed all this on Friday as part of our October 2022 Team Meeting OAPS podcast.

Jerry Lee Lewis died this past week, so in tribute, we watched High School Confidential (1958), the only Hollywood film I knew he was in. This was my review to write and based on the movie's theme of anti-drugs, this will probably be our next 4/20 review.

My review of Bride of Frankenstein (1935) was Trophy Unlocked's Saturday morning review. Part of the blog's celebration of horror films during the month of October. We were also celebrating Silent Hill Month, which Paul wrapped up with Silent Hill: Downpour on Monday; a review of the comic book Silent Hill Downpour: Anne's Story on Wednesday; and a second look at P.T. on Friday.

In other writing, more progress this week on fka Skylar. For anyone keeping track, I'm up to 51,694 words. Worked on it for a couple of days earlier in the week. I want to spend more time with it and hope to get it done sometime near the end of the year. I can hope, can't I?

One new query and two DNRs this week for Broken People, so I'm keeping pace though I still need to finish a full synopsis before I can send to certain agents.

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