A Week in Writing #477 - Rewrites, Thumbnails and Resident Evil

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

I'm about done with my re-reading project. I've decided that Paperback Detective needs some work. I think the writing's too loose and some details come out too early in the book. I need to rework some of it to bring it up to standards, well, my standards.

I've also been doing some thinking about Skylar and wanting to rework some aspects of her character in the book. Now, it's just down to the hard part, or the easy part depending, writing it.

Another, unrelated idea came to me as well but I'm not going to into it just yet. Too much other things to work on first.

Speaking of which, I started doing something I haven't done since the first issue, making thumbnails for what should be the next issue of Powers Squared. Part of the reason I'm doing it is to hopefully help the artist know what I'm thinking of in the script. I've already come to this decision, but this confirms the fact that I am not the artist. I even have a badge to that effect and these drawings prove that, although I think some of it has to do with trying to get an idea across in something in less space than a postage stamp. I'm about halfway through the issue.

We'll have to wait to see if it helps, because we still have the current to get through. We are thinking ahead, as we have artwork already done for the trade we're going to release next year. This one is going to be for issues 6-9. We brought Rachel Wells, the artist on those issues, to do the covers. You'll have to wait a bit to see them.

In a bit of cross promotion, our OAPS this week was about the videogame series Resident Evil, since it is Resident Evil Month on Trophy Unlocked. It was mostly a Paul show since he is the gamer of the two of us. You can listen to it here or watch it on Wednesday when it drops on our YouTube channel.

With that said, it should come as no surprise that Resident Evil reviews dominated Trophy Unlocked. Things started on Tuesday with Paul's review of Resident Evil HD Remaster. That was followed by Paul's review of Resident Evil 2 (2019), and then Paul's review of the movie Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City as the Saturday Morning Review. Oh, and there will be more to come through the month. 

Meanwhile, I'm working on a review of Shockproof (1949), which I should finish tonight or tomorrow.

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

A Week in Writing #476 - Eyesight needed

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

Woke up on my birthday and started to put on my glasses when they fell apart in my hands. They were the frameless type and there was already a crack in the lens. My current frames are being reset with new lenses, but they've been delayed two weeks, so this was the prescription before the last one. But that meant I had to go back to a pair of glasses even older. Long story short, I don't remember what glasses I was wearing three years ago, so I'm stumbling to find a pair I can see through. Now, that's a bit of a lowbar; I'm not blind, but it's the small stuff, like everything written on the back of everything or on the internet that I'm having trouble with. Great way to start out the year.

I was able to adjust throughout the week and was able to get my new glasses on Saturday, so it did resolve itself but it does show how important seeing is to writing.

On that subject, I have been reworking Paperback Detective and updating it so that it fits in better with the other stories; lining up events, etc. In this one, J.D. is hired by a client to follow his wife, whom he thinks is having an affair. Before he can determine if she is or not, the woman ends up murdered and J.D.'s client is the prime suspect. Even his defense attorney thinks he's guilty. J.D. is the only one trying to prove him innocent. In that effort, he's working against his ex-, Debbie Estevez, who is the lead on the murder investigation on the case, despite being four months pregnant. It is while discussing the case that J.D. discovers that he might be the father of the baby despite the fact Debbie is married to someone else.

Turning to Powers Squared, we completed The Hound Dogs Howl and sent it out on Sunday morning. The piece on twins ended up being about Tegan and Sara, and the recommnedation was Resident Evil 4 (2023) in case you're interested. You can receive your own copy by signing up here.

This past Friday, we had our September team meeting with Julia Canon, Jen Moreno and Trevor joining Paul and I to discuss what's new with the book. Listen here if you're interested or watch it on Wednesday when it goes up on YouTube.

On the subject of Trophy Unlocked, we completed Batman Month on the blog with Saturday Morning's review of Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham written by Paul. October is horror month but also Resident Evil Month (Part 1).

Totally unrelated to either, I completed a review of Reckless (1935), the Jean Harlow-William Powell starrer. Rather than draining the DVR, this was one of the films in a 7-film set of Harlow films I receieved for my birthday. As is the usual, I have no idea when it will be up on the blog, but I wouldn't imagine it would be in October. December is pretty packed as well.

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

A Week in Writing #474 - Already Feeling the Effects

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

So, we're already two weeks into the football season, and I'm aleady feeling the effects. As much as I love watching my team play, it's three-hours that I really can't write, so therefore lose. I know that writing is about making choices but this one, while fun, does hurt the output. So, there are only so many weeks to go and I'll have to figure out better ways of balancing.

Spending most of my time this past week on a couple of projects: re-reading and editing Getting Even and working on editing the pilot script. Of the two, most of the time has been spend with the former. I usually get about two hours a night so I have to make decisions where to spend that time. I'm enjoying going through the book. Of the three I'm working on, this might be the weakest of the three, but I'm still liking the idea of making the three books line up better so that the last two I've worked on will flow better.

There's another one that I'm going to also work on next, Paperback Detective. This one also includes Leanne as a character and I think, from memory, that it happens between Getting Even and The Runaway. Even though I query the book as stand alone with series potential, there's nothing wrong with getting the series in order and the four books: Public and Private; Getting Even: Paperback Detective; and The Runaway have elements that would build on each other.

As far as the pilot script, I'm still working through that but have been spending less time on it, at least, this past week.

On the subject of Powers Squared, I would say we're having some production bumps. Work is being done but sometimes there are edits which seem to be taking longer than I'd like to get made. I'm still hopeful that we'll get through Issue #25 this year, but this will be the first year when we've only produced two issues.

Issue #25, "Yuki-Onna", was the subject of our latest OAPS podcast, more of like a preview of the issue, which Paul wrote. It's a companion to one that Trevor wrote, "Gashadokuro", which was Issue #24. The stories take place at the same time with Marty ("Yuki-Onna") and Eli ("Gashadokuro") each fighting their own battles. You can listen to it here or watch it on Wednesday on our YouTube channel.

On Trophy Unlocked, my review of Batman: The Movie was the Saturday Morning Review. It was Batman Day, and it's Batman Month on the blog. I started working on a new review of Ruggles of Red Gap, so that will be something else I'll work on this week, too.

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

A Week in Writing #471 - Disaster Averted

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

Sorry I'm a day late with this, but I spent the better part of yesterday at the second of two Metallica concerts at Sofi Stadium. One of those days when you leave about 3 in the afternoon and don't get home until 1 am the next day.

Disaster nearly struck this week, at least for me. I was working on my current story and wanted to refer back to a previous book but then I couldn't find it. And I searched and searched. Spent the better part of two days, read that evenings, looking at every form of back up I made but I could never find it. I did open each book and put in a couple of search words that were relevant to the story, "Barstow", where some of the action takes place, "missing persons", which was why I was looking for it, etc, but I couldn't seem to find it. That is until today. I decided that my happy ending would make a good reason to go into more details.

I know that I have mentioned I'm writing a private deterective series but I don't think I've bored you yet with the details. And, I guess I worry what it will sound like to others if I write it down.

The main character of the story is a private detective, J.D. Barrister, who came out to Los Angeles from the University of Texas with the hopes of becoming a screenwriter. But those dreams faded overtime. In researching a private eye story idea, he interviewed Robert Parkinson, a small timer in the San Fernando Valley. Parkinson needed an assistant and J.D. needed a more steady income and thus he went to work for him.

Soon after arriving in Los Angeles, J.D. was pulled over speeding down Sunset Blvd. by a motorcycle cop, Debbie Estevez. While he couldn't talk his way out of the ticket, he did manage to ask her out for dinner and a romance bloomed. They were desitined for the altar when J.D. pulled back. He and Debbie may love each other but theirs was a combustible relationship and J.D. called it off. Since then, they had been off and on. They are sometimes friends with benefits but she is always his first call when he needs help with the police.

The first book I wrote was one called Simple Sins in which J.D. is hired to follow a cheating husband but uncovers, instead, industrial espionage. Not only is Debbie around but J.D. also makes a contact at the FBI, Special Agent Howard Strait, who also reoccurs in other stories. Prior to my blog, I had shopped this one around and, surprise surprise, found no takers. In the book, it is stealth technology that is being passed on to the Chinese through an Albanian consulate. This, I know, dates the book, and I started to rewrite it once but it got sort of out of hand.

The series follows J.D.'s case load but also his personal life as well and events in one book will have consequences in other installments. As an example, Debbie does eventually marry someone else, an attorney named Enrique Sepulveda. Their relationship is hurried along when it is discovered Debbie is pregnant.

J.D., after various relationships in his books, falls in love with Leanne Wilson, a former model turned opthamologist. A third generation Japanese American, Leanne's grandfather was a white American soldier who fell in love with a Japanese woman after World War II. Leanne had also been married once to an actor. J.D. got involved when she suspected, correctly, that her husband was having affairs on the set. But it was several years later, when J.D. was running an adultery sting operation, that they got back together. A woman would hire J.D. to test their husbands and women like Leanne would be put out as bait to see if the man bit. It was after one such sting that J.D. and Leanne discovered a mutual attraction and they've been together ever since. I'm leaving out several storylines, but you get the gist.

J.D. makes a career following suspected philandering spouses, finding the occassional runaway, and sometimes dealing with blackmailers. His clients have included former girlfriends, show business agents, wives and once, a disgraced former news anchor.

The latter takes place in Broken People, the book I have unsuccessfully been querying for what seems like a long time. Times are hard and J.D. takes to process serving to make ends meet. The last person on his list is a political blogger, whom ends up murdered after J.D. serves him. When the police investigation, of which Debbie is a part, arrests someone for the crime, J.D. is not convinced they have the right person. Neither is Stacy Michaels, a waitress at the club where J.D. found the blogger. A former news anchor from Cincinatti, Stacy has come to LA to start over. But she thinks cracking this case would put her back on television. With the aid of another political blogger, Tom Black, that happens. J.D. is reuniting, briefly, with Debbis as she convolesces at his apartment when she's shot in a shootout with her former partner on the case.

In Past Present, J.D. is hired by his former college sweetheart, Brianna Miller, to follow her husband, Dalton McLean. Dalton is the blacksheep son in a family of Dallas-based real estate developers who was sent to L.A. to start a branch there, but it was really just to get rid of him. Dalton is indeed having an affair with a younger woman, Katy 'Kat' Wiley, whom unbeknownst to most everyone, including Kat, is actually his daughter from a college affair. I won't go into too many details but there is a murder involved that J.D. helps to solve.

In Public and Private, J.D. is hired by agent Irv Stringer to retrieve some intimate photos stolen off the computer of an up and coming actress, Cassandra Leonard, for which she is being blackmailed. In searching for the blackmailer, J.D. develops a short-lived sexual relationship with the star, as well as sleeps with an already engaged Debbie. There is an unrelated murder of a drug dealer that ends up being related and the blackmailer himself ends up killed on Christmas morning. There are a lot of suspects, including Cassandra, and Stringer, who had flown out of L.A. about the time of the blackmailer's murder and had lied to the police about it. The story ends with a shootout on the Paramount lot.

In Getting Even,  Maddie Crosby, a minor character in the previous book, hires J.D. when she thinks she's been involved in a murder but the body is missing. J.D. is then hired by the father of the missing victim to find his son, an investigation that takes J.D. up to Mendocino. This is also the book wherein J.D. hires Leanne to work the sting and they become an item. Meanwhile, Debbie is both engaged to Enrique and hasn't given up totally on J.D., but a pregnancy has her and Enrique setting a date.

The Runaway was the book I thought I'd lost but was under my nose the whole time. In this, J.D. is hired to find a man that has gone missing. Debbie, who is now married and nine months pregnant, helps J.D. until he has to rush her to the hospital to give birth. Back on his case, he finds the man he's looking for dead in Barstow. As it turns out, he was working for a client of Enrique's who was taking in runaway girls and using them for his own sexual desires and those of his friends. As the police noose closes in, Enrique turns on Debbie, effectively ending their marriage.

Skylar, the book I have been working on off and on, is J.D.'s first case post Covid shutdown. He has been living with Leanne at her apartment in Brentwood and is now using his old one as his office. The first client is a next door neighbor who is being blackmailed into having sex with a former lover, a Russian drug dealer. While he's working on that, his future father-in-law, Ken Takahashi, comes to visit and gets J.D. involved in a tontine the grandfather has been involved with. Ken's visit prompts J.D. to ask Leanne to marry him. I haven't quite figured out how to wrap this one up. I sort of wrote myself into a corner that I have to redo. At the end of the book, spoiler alert, J.D. finds out that Debbie's baby is really his.

This takes us to the new story idea I've had and have been working on. This time, Brianna, who is also a lawyer, hires J.D. to look for a woman for a client, who ran away from home fifteen years prior. A big task that comes with a big paycheck if he can find her. In the meantime, J.D. has been married to Leanne and is just getting to know his now three-year-old daughter Cristina Rose. Because this invovled a missing person's report, I wanted to reference a similar situation from The Runaway, the book, which is when I thought I couldn't find it.

There are a couple of other books in the series, Paperback Detective, and Familiar Stranger, but I think you get the idea. Well, now that you're pretty caught up with my private eye stories, I'll fill you in with what else is going on with other projects.

Since we were at the Metallica show on Friday night, Julia Canon hosted and she and our colorist, Jen Moreno, worked on a back-to-school theme using characters from Powers Squared. While you can listen to it here, this might be a better one to wait for on YouTube, when it goes up on Wednesday.

I started but didn't get very far with a review of British Intelligence (1940), something to work on. There were two reviews up with weekend on Trophy Unlocked, Trevor's of Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox on Saturday morning, and Paul's review of the recently released 

Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar went up on Sunday.

Well, I've got a newsletter to start, so I'll end it here. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #227

This is supposed to be one of those weeks when you take a look back at what you've done and look forward to what you want to get accomplished. I'm going to resist the temptation to look back at 52 weekly posts to come up with this year-end post.

Let's begin with Powers Squared. So much has happened and there is still so much to do. We began the year with a new creative team. Paul and I wanted to take the comic book in a new direction and we were happy to start working with Rachel Wells and Nina Gaillard on the comic book. Because of them, this has been a very productive year, which we will begin releasing in 2019. We've completed three issues and are about a month or so away from completing a fourth. (It previously took us two full years to get five done.)

The last three of the first five issues came out this year and despite some nice publicity, including an interview with FreakSugar, reviews in First Comic News, a nice write-up in Adventures in Poor Taste and an Ask Me Anything, I don't think we broke any sales records. In fact, I don't think we've sold enough to warrant getting paid by comiXology. (In fact, I think the lack of sales caused them to sort of turn their backs on us, so to speak.) It would be easy to give up, but I think the best stories are still to come.

I don't talk about the cost to produce the comic book (and I won't here, either) but let's just say it takes just about every extra penny we have and preventing us, as a family, from doing things like taking vacations, doing things to the house, to buying a new car. I'm hoping to change some of that by doing some crowdfunding in the coming year. I don't want you to cry for me Argentina, but we're hoping to get some help and, hopefully, more exposure for the comic.

We've tried to grow our social media presence with a website, a Facebook page, an Instagram account, Tumblr account, Twitter account, a YouTube Channel, and, lastly, a Pinterest account. That's not to say we've been successful on all fronts. You have to keep feeding these platforms and sometimes that's very difficult. I don't want to get too far ahead with revealing too much about future issues so that when they come out we have new images to share. At the same time, I wanted to promote the issues that came out last year, which sort of left our current Creative Team on the sidelines while we did that.

Now, we can concentrate on our new issues. I plan to submit Issues 6 and 7 early in the new year to comiXology but would also like to see if we can get some support from some of the media outlets that had supported us last time out.

Would also like to look into printing on demand. To that end, I spent some time this week coming up with back covers, both inside and out, for the issues. Now to get those reviewed and then we'll see where to go from there.

Work has already begun on Issue #10. We've submitted the script to Rachel, who has already begun to do some sketches for a new character we're introducing. She also seemed to really like the script which is a good thing as we're going to be living with this story arc for most of the coming year. This story arc is called What's in a Name? and will continue for three issues.

Trophy Unlocked celebrated its eighth anniversary and the 900th review post this past year. We're getting our end of the year posts ready and those will be out tomorrow, the 31st. This past week, we posted three new reviews. In addition to our usual Saturday Morning Review, What Price Hollywood?, we also published a review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which Trevor wrote. We also published one more from Paul for Ready Player One.

Every year, we spend the day after Christmas watching movies, which we call Movie Day (I know, really clever). As a result, we have a couple of reviews, including Ready Player One and one I wrote for Wonder Wheel. Not sure if we'll be writing reviews of the other films we watched that day or not. One of them, Incredibles 2, we've already written about.

While I wasn't sure last week about the rewrite for The Runaway, I did some work on Christmas Day and a couple of other days this past week. The stumbling block I thought I had sort of disappeared when I got back to it. So I'm about 12,000 words into that rewrite.

Still no word from my editor on Familiar Stranger. Despite his promises to the contrary, it has been radio-silence for most of this year. I did receive about 50 pages but that was literally months ago. I wish I didn't feel the pressure to get the work done but I do. And frankly, I have a hard time when other people don't feel the same urgency. But there isn't much I can do to light a fire under him.

I need to spend some time putting together a list of potential agents to try and sell Broken People. I've kept spreadsheets in the past but I think I'm going to start the process from scratch. There are a few agents from the Writer's Digest Novel Writing Conference that I'd like to query to as well.

So next year, I hope it's a breakout year for Powers Squared, with more eyes on Trophy Unlocked and I find an agent for my books. Tall order, but that's what dreams are made of.

A Week in Writing #214

Like most weeks, this one came with its own set of issues, not all of which were bad. To begin with, this past week was sort of birthday week at our house. I had mine on Tuesday and both Paul and Trevor had theirs on Friday. (My wife's is in a few weeks away in October; get your cards ready now.) And, yes, we're all Libras in this house. I say all this to note that there were some other things that took time in order to get any writing done.

That's not to say that I didn't do any this week. Most of the time has been spent on the rewrite I mentioned the last couple of weeks, taking an old manuscript (fka A Killer Blog) and updating it to take into account some recent news items that could be assimilated into the story. My method is to print out the pages and then read them with a pencil in hand and editing as I go. I try to be less enamored with my writing and more critical.

I've gone through about 350 pages so far and it is a little less than 500 pages. Since this has gone through several (and I mean dozens) of previous rewrites, as I'm going through I'm remembering chapters from other versions that I want to incorporate. When I get to sit down at a computer with my notes I'll be sure to go back and find those chapters. I'm looking forward to the process. Since this has been edited several times prior, I don't think I'm going to send it, again, to my editor and may try to shop it around.

Speaking of my editor, I did actually call him this week and tell him I'm ready for more pages. He even said he had more to send but as I'm sitting here recounting my week, I'm still waiting. It's hard to strike the right balance between understanding people are busy with other things than yourself and having to wait for days, weeks and months for them to deliver. If I didn't like working with him and appreciate his insights, I would have walked away months ago.

No new reviews were written by me this week, not enough time to really sit down and do one. I have several in progress and with no new movie from Friday, I'm hoping to have some time this week to finish one. Since we're heading into October and our annual salute to horror, I need to finish Get Out, though I do already have one ready to go.

For the latest Trophy Unlocked Saturday Morning Review, I published one for Aladdin (1992), the film most notably voiced by the late great Robin Williams and the source material for Disney's latest Broadway triumph.

So this brings us to Powers Squared, the oft-written about and apparently seldom read comic book that we've been working on for years now. We published the Promo created for us by Your Motion Comic on the website and then republished a slightly different version on our YouTube Channel. Someone we had shown the video to before had a comment after it was published, which made sense so we had the change made and uploaded the new version on Saturday. We lost all of the views, so if you have seen it, please view the new version here. While you're there, please Subscribe and ring the bell. Also, comments and likes are always welcomed.

Part of the reason to subscribe is so that you'll be aware of any new videos we publish. Paul thinks we should put up one every week, so we'll see. It will sort of be a Week in Powers Squared type of Vlog and sometimes will just be me and sometimes, we hope, will include others on the team. See our first one, me and Paul here.

Speaking of the YouTube channel, I really hate having to work with Google on these things. The first time we tried to upload it not only logged us into the wrong channel but on its own changed the name of the Powers Squared channel. Every time I have to log into the channel, all of my other logins get hosed and I have re-login to Google under a different ID so I can get to things like this blog site. I am having to re-edit what I wrote, since somehow, even though I saved it, the blog post was not all saved. (I'm blaming Google just because.)

This week, with a little help from GoDaddy, and I mean little help, I was able to get the Poll question to work on the website. I hope to do a weekly poll question with them being related to the comic book so some of them will help if you've read it. GoDaddy had first directed me to a free poll website, but it turns out it doesn't work with their software. When I chatted with someone on Friday about it, they at first said they weren't hosting my website, so that was not a good start. They finally came around but said they couldn't help. I did manage to find one, PollDaddy, which is an unrelated service and was able to get the poll to work.

On other Powers Squared news, our artist, Rachel, sent us the last four pages and the cover to Issue #8 as jpegs on Wednesday. She does this in case we have any other last minute changes. There was one panel on one page that we wanted to be redone and I sent her an email that night with the change we wanted to be made. After a couple of days, I started to wonder why we hadn't heard from her. Turns out the email got stuck in my Drafts and didn't send. When I found it on Saturday afternoon, I sent it to her and by Saturday night she had made the change and sent us Tiffs. Those have been put in the Dropbox for Nina so the cycle continues.

Our letterer, Trevor, made a few minor changes to a couple of pages so I made a new .pdf for Issue #6 and #7, the latter I sent to everyone on the creative team.

I'm not going to send the new issue to our contact at comiXology until after New York Comic Con because he hasn't responded to my emails about Issue #6 from other a month ago. No reason to put me through the aggravation of waiting for an answer that will not be forthcoming.

There seems to be a lot of waiting when it comes to writing. A lot of waiting, so get used to it.

A Week in Writing #206

Well, the week started out fairly normal and I'd have to say quiet. I was trying to get back into the swing of things. I was making some final edits to a script of a future Powers Squared issue and posting some images from the comic book on Instagram, you know like you're supposed to.

On Tuesday, saw a tweet from AMAfeed for an article they published on boredpanda.com titled 11 Non-DC/ Marvel Comics You Should Read Before This Year Ends (Part 1). The cool thing and the reason I received the tweet was that Powers Squared was mentioned as #4. I was pretty excited and sent the link to Paul, Trevor and my wife.

While all of the other comic books had images of their covers, our mention had the same out of focus one of me from our AMAfeed last July. I would have picked a better image if I wasn't in a hurry (I was painting a bathroom at the time) and had known I couldn't ever change it. But there it was a few weeks later staring back at me from the article. Not a good showing.

Paul noticed that the brief write up also listed Marty and Eli Powers as the creators of their own comic book. Strange, I didn't remember them being there at the time. I wasn't miffed that I was omitted, even though I had lead the AMAfeed earlier in the month, but it didn't look good to have fictional characters listed as the creators.

After a couple of messages with AMAfeed through twitter, to their credit, they picked another image from our website and corrected the creators to be Paul and Trevor. Two out of three ain't bad, as they say and it wasn't worth going back a third time. At least now we have a better listing as you can see above.

I mention the incident not only to point out a bit of recognition but also to point out that under the right circumstances you can get "bad" press turned around. Now, if only the article said where you could buy the comic book.

On Friday, Paul and I had a delightful Google Hangout with Nina Gaillard our colorist, which was also posted on our You Tube channel. We also picked up our first subscriber, so that was nice.

Our colorist, Nina Gaillard during our Google Hangout.

Watched and wrote a review for She Had to Say Yes (1933), a Pre-Code drama directed by Busby Berkeley and George Amy and starring Loretta Young, which was published as Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review. Need to work on one for Game Night, a recent film that I only recently watched from a Digital download.

Still in a bit of a holding pattern with J.D. Barrister stories. Still no word from my editor on Familiar Stranger and I haven't had the will to re-edit the ending of Paperback Detective, yet. I made some brief notes for another story but I really think I should re-edit another of the "unfinished" books before I venture into uncharted territory.

I'll make the decision this week and let you know here as usual.

A Week in Writing #205

Well, as sort of predicted, this was a low energy low creativity week for me. I really don't know why but the week post SDCC is always hard. I've read other writers, who attended, complain about the same thing so I guess I'm in good company.

Sadly, did very little writing this week, finally towards the end picking up the script to a future Powers Squared issue. It occurred to me, sort of out of the blue, that no one is ever held accountable for some people dying in the story arc and that just didn't seem right for a superhero story. When I went back in to fix that, I started rereading and rewriting from the start. I'm sure what I do isn't unique but when I read something I've written I try to read it not so much as it is on the page, but as how it should sound. That leads to other changes and I'm still going through that process.

One of the things I was looking at, was trying to improve my panel descriptions, because of the panel I took last week. I'm trying to do some work on them but when we talked this week to our artist Rachel Wells, she indicated that she likes the descriptions to be somewhat vague because it gives her more leeway. So I guess I'm trying to find a balance since I find I'm using "Continuation of Action" too much.

While we want to continue to have an active YouTube presence, we still want to do a similar video with our colorist, Nina Gaillard, Paul wants to do something different from them all being interviews. It's a good idea, it's just how to do that we're discussing. Perhaps some sort of trailer for the comic book. Stay tuned.

On the creative-side, Nina delivered the last four pages of Issue #7 as well as the cover. Those were forwarded to Trevor for lettering. Rachel delivered inks for the first eight pages of Issue #8, gulp, so that's moving forward as well. Really appreciate all of their hard work on the book.

No new reviews from me this week. Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review went to Trevor's re-review of M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender. It's a good thing to have multiple reviewers sharing the responsibilities.

Still, no word from my editor on Familiar Stranger and I've been derelict lately on re-reading the ending of Paperback Detective. I have been playing with an idea for a new J.D. Barrister story, though I think there are older ones that still need work. I don't know yet where I'm going but I will, of course, update you here.

On the subject of writing, I had lunch on Friday with a couple of women who used to work for me at Sony Pictures. It was something that was long overdue and I'm glad we were able to reconnect. One of them, like me, is a writer, though she writes in a different genre, YA. We briefly touched on the unpleasant side of writing, the query process. Like me, she doesn't want to self-publish so we have to go the traditional route and get an agent who will represent us to a publisher. It is a very tricky and, more times than not, unfulfilling activity. Everyone has their own war stories, so to speak, and it was nice to commiserate a little bit about that with another writer.

Whenever Familiar Stranger gets worked out, I'll be going through that process myself. I view it as a necessary evil thing you have to go through if you want to make it. And we all want to make it.

Well, I'm hoping to get back on track this next week. Until then, keep writing.

A Week in Writing #204 - Report From the Front SDCC 2018

Well, the big push this week and the subject of most of this Report From the Front is San Diego Comic Con 2018.

The report is about my experience at Comic-Con and not a wrap up of the celebrity sightings or the parties. I'm not a big photographer of Cosplayers, either. Even though there may be some really interesting and provocative characters running around on the floor, I'm too consistently worried about my phone battery running down to spend too much time documenting.

I did personally see a couple of strange sights that I can relate. Both Funimation and Viz had problems in their booths, though I think Funimation's was caused by over-anxious fans and Viz brought it on themselves. For Funimation. it was the Funko exclusives for Dragon Ball Z that they were selling. Apparently, there were three incidents on Preview night, before I got to the floor, that caused them to be shut down for a couple of days. In one, a man and his child were knocked to the ground.

On Saturday morning, Viz had My Hero Academia's creator, Kohei Horikoshi, in for a signing. However, the booth didn't handle the ticket distribution very well. You had to show up first thing on Saturday to get one for that day's signing. However, they refused to tell anyone where this distribution was going to happen so by 9:30, the allotted time, there were hundreds of people in the booth and spilling out onto the floor, blocking one of the walkways.

In order to disperse the crowd, a Viz spokesperson said that the San Diego Fire Marshall was threatening to shut down Comic-Con if they didn't leave the booth. Not sure how true that was, but it could easily have been a PR nightmare for Viz. I don't think anyone would want to be known as the company that closed down the Con.

I'm always tired at Comic-Con and it started the first day we were here, even before the day started. The night before as I was trying to add some spreadsheets to my new Chromebook, which I was taking with me, the damned thing kicked me out and wanted me to log in using a Gmail account Google forced me to set up in order to shoot the Google Hangout video with Rachel last week. Very aggravating when your devices try to take over. Thanks to Paul, I think we've put them down for the time being.

For the first time ever, and we've attended 12 out of the last 13 years, all of us didn't get badges for all of the same days. While my sons and I got all four days and preview night, my wife only got Sunday. We were able to share badges and get her down on the floor every day, but it was not the same with just the three of us doing it.

Comic-Con never fails to both amaze and disappoint. Everything is either free or at or above MSRP if you're buying anything from one of the booths. There is always too much to do and decisions have to be made all the time between fun things to do and programs or panels that will educate you.

Something to keep in mind if you ever get to do a signing: look up and engage the reader/fan. I got my Beatles fix by buying the graphic novel someone made from their film Yellow Submarine, which I went back to the booth to get signed the next day. These guys just signed the book and passed it to the next person. No eye contact, no conversation, no "Thank you for buying my book", no recognition that I'm another human being. Bad form. I don't think I would ever go out of my way to buy another book from these writers/artists. The ones who engage you make you want to come back again and again. There are several artists who seem to genuinely remember my sons from past cons and ones who even remember me. Those are the type of people you want to continue to support.

While walking on the floor, recognized Ivan Salazar from photographs Chip Mosher has posted from time to time. Ivan was part of the PR push for Powers Squared Issues 3-5, so we stopped by to say thank you and introduce ourselves. Turns out he was talking with Pamela Mullin Horvath who was handling the heavy PR lifting and who's 4th of July vacation I sort of interrupted, so we got to thank her in person as well. I would have taken David Sedaris's advice, that I heard during one of his shows, to write a letter to everyone involved but some of these companies do all they can to mask a physical address on the internet so the next best thing, at least I hope so, is to thank them in person.

Favorite things heard in passing on the floor "There are only comics down that way..." "Aquaman is not that great..." and a teenage boy talking to another teenage boy, "When I grow up I want to get one costume..."

Oh, and for anyone tracking miles, per my Fitbit, I walked 6.06 miles on Wednesday, 6.18 miles on Thursday, 9.92 miles on Friday, 5.98 miles on Saturday and 6.4 miles on Sunday, most steps taken at what I like to think is a chain gang shuffle through the floor at the San Diego Convention Center.

Now to the panels and the free advice I'm passing on.

On the first night of the show, attended Comics PR and Marketing 101, led for apparently the 9th or 10th year by Chip Mosher from comiXology. I think I've been to the last four or so. Every year there are different panelists and different advice. This year all panelists were creators attached to the new ComiXology Originals initiative.

Got some good advice that I will pass on here:

1) Handle your social media professionally. Don't get political or use as a personal vendetta. Keep shit talk to a minimum. Stick to your work.

2) Look into local avenues for promotion: newspapers, etc., so we'll see if we can interest anyone from the Times or the Daily News in our story. It's things like that that will make my mother, an old-school PR person, happy to hear.

3) Don't expect people to find you. Even if you're good, you have to keep telling people what you've done.

4) Be shameless

5) Do PR for yourself as creator. You're your own brand.

6) Find out what makes your book different and market to that.

7) Pays to advertise. As an example, on Facebook. But remember not to spend what you can't afford.

8) Look for people who are writing about comic books and ask them if you can add them to your press list.

9) Ask people to retweet/like/share.

10) Their advice was to build a fanbase before going out on Kickstarter. (Contradictory advice will come in a later panel).

11) If you want to use Kickstarter, be active on Kickstarter before. Support other projects.

On Friday, I attended How to Create, Market, & Crowdfund Indy Comics. This was presented by Brian Pulido, who successfully funded I believe 17 Kickstarters for over $1.3 million. It may also help that Brian was a creator in comics for over two decades and has a bit of a built-in fanbase that others might not. However, his advice is worth listening to as well:

1) Study what Kickstarter has to offer in their "Creator Handbook." Learn the language of crowdfunding.

2) When people back your project, remember they arrive when they arrive. Be sure to welcome them no matter when they do. This may involve telling them your story from the beginning, but you have to be willing to do that.

3) He suggested having a person dedicated to answering questions when you're doing a Kickstarter. I know easier said than done, but he repeatedly stressed the need to provide good customer service, which includes answering questions quickly.

4) Be completely authentic throughout. Be honest and aspirational.

5) You must have a video for a Kickstarter and it must be good.

6) You can use Kickstarter without an established fan base. Relate yourself as a content creator.

7) Make a budget and make a budget for stretch goals.

8) Take postage into account. Postage can kill you if you don't account for it. Take a prototype of everything to the Post Office and find out how much it will be to ship. Add postage to your price. Buy shipping supplies wholesale.

The main take away is that advice varies from panel to panel. Not sure if you have to have a fan base to start a successful Kickstarter, but I do know that we need to grow our base. To that end, I updated the website to include a Mailing List and would appreciate it, if interested, you could sign up on the site.

The final panel I attended, on Sunday, was How to Write Better Panel Descriptions led by Andy Schmidt from comicsexperience.com. With him on stage was another writer, Mike Costa, and artists Phillip Sevy and Reilly Brown.

1) Good news, it apparently doesn't matter if you write the descriptions or the dialogue first in your script. Schmidt and Costa do the opposite of each other and both have been published.

2) Panel descriptions are not really a description of what its supposed to look like, but more of what the writer wants the artist to do.

3) There should only be one action per panel. Tell the artist what the action is and move on.

4) Not every panel has action. Sometimes its more about emotional throughlines. Tell the artist what you emotionally want to accomplish in the panel. "Phillip is angry" was the example given.

5) Secondary action in the panel must be inconsequential.

6) Credited to Frank Miller: No more than five actions per page.

7) Use active voice. Describe the action as they happen. Use Present tense. Try to inspire your artist.

8) Okay to have silent panels.

9) Try to be terse in your descriptions. Get to the point.

10) Try to excite your artist.

11) Organize your panel descriptions with the most important information first and the rest in the order of importance.

12) Set up what's going on in the story. If a character is supposed to have a gun, show them having it prior to using it.

13) Establishing shots are the exceptions and may have longer descriptions.

Like all advice, some of it is common sense and you may already be doing it now. In some ways, that's the best kind of advice, do what you're doing as long as it is working.

Did have the revelation while we were there that Powers Squared does already have its own Cosplayers. Paul and Trevor are walking versions of Marty and Eli Powers. Posted this photo on Instagram as proof.

Trevor and Paul as their alternate personas, Eli and Marty.

The more I post, the more I realize I don't know about social media. I didn't hashtag the photo as Powers Squared or SDCC 2018. I'm not used to thinking of such things and sometimes in the heat of the moment forget to do what others may find natural.

Even though we were gone, work continued on the comic book. Nina, our colorist, delivered her final pages in the Dropbox and Rachel, our artist, sent pencils for Pages 5 - 8. Haven't, as of this writing, had a chance to look at either. We did manage to send Nina a copy of the script for the next story arc.

Trophy Unlocked continues to post a Saturday morning review, even when we're not around. Attack of the 50 Foot Woman seemed the most appropriate considering where we were. Hope you had a chance to look at it.

Radio silence continues with my editor on Familiar Stranger and I didn't get too far past completing the rewrite on Paperback Detective. I think the latter still needs work, but I ran out of time before leaving.

This week, I'm hoping to get my land legs and get back to things. Only don't expect too much. Always good to set expectations low on post SDCC weeks.

A Week in Writing #202

Now that the dust has settled and I can take a step back, I realize that some of the stories that were published about Powers Squared at the time contained some factual errors, mostly revolving around the colorist on issues #3-5. For some reason, the colorist on Issues 1-2, Lisa Richards, is given credit in a couple of places as the colorist on the more recent issues. This isn't information that we provided and I want to go on record here with my apologies to Paige Cambern for being overlooked in those articles. Everyone deserves credit for their own work. In the euphoria of the moment, I didn't notice this error.

Another "ugly" reality is that you don't control the press. Besides the errors above, which I assume were innocent mistakes, the reviews that we were waiting for came with comments about the lettering being cut off on a couple of issues. This was shocking to hear as we believe the review was based on .pdfs that we sent, not what was on comiXology's website. However, hearing that sort of comment might keep someone curious from buying it. comiXology did confirm that there were no issues with the comic on their site and Paul and I confirmed that there was no issue with the .pdfs. Fortunately, the PR firm contacted the publisher and he took down the comment on one review. I contacted him, in between painting a bathroom, and he took the comment off the other review. Hopefully, not too much damage was done. I really wonder what happened.

While we're still publicizing Issues 1-5, work continues on Issue #8. Spent part of Tuesday night looking over thumbnails for the first 8 pages. Our artist sends us two versions and Paul and I select some panels from one version and some panels from another, sort of like ordering on a Chinese restaurant menu. Instead of moo goo gai pan and shrimp toast, its panel 1 from the A version and panel 2 through 5 from B. Later in the week, she sent us the rough layouts based on our panel choices.

She also provided us with a final character study of our newest villain, Professor Theorem, so it's interesting to see things taking shape.

A little note about copyrights, which are a very good thing but also quite slow. Last summer, June 11, 2017, as a matter of fact, we applied for copyrights on the first two issue of Powers Squared, both script and visuals. (The script had already been copyrighted.) Well, it took until this past week to get the notices from the Copyright Office. That's a little over a year. There was an issue about the work-for-hire but that, I believe, was in the original application. Just wanted to let you know that the wheels of government can turn very slowly.

I was approached this week to do an AMAfeed about Powers Squared. Didn't want to miss out on the exposure, so I agreed to do it. Sort of threw it up on their site sort of quickly and it shows. The headline I wrote contains the word anything after AMA. They also wanted a proof photo and at the time I was painting a bathroom and hadn't shaven in a couple of days; let's just say, not a pretty picture. I used a photo I had around but when it was displayed on their site, it really looks blurry. (Tip, headlines and photos are two things you can't go back and change. I know because I tried.)

The AMA went live on Friday and so far we've had about 20 questions. If you have a question about Powers Squared, then please ask away here. It'll be open through next Friday, June 13th. We've also invited our artists to submit answers as well. I'll write more about this experience next week.

On Saturday, thanks to Paul's editing, we posted a new video of me with my sons, the first time we've all sat down together on camera. We were answering the questions given to us by FreakSugar for their interview. You can view it on our YouTube channel here. You can also read the actual  FreakSugar interview here. It was our first interview and we wanted to commemorate the occasion.

Related to the comic-book, this week the program schedule for San Diego Comic-Con was released and we went through them looking for both educational as well as entertaining panels to attend. The trip will be discussed in greater detail in the post Report from the Front, the following Monday.

Also wrote a short review for Ant-Man and the Wasp for Trophy Unlocked. Thanks to the holiday we were able to see the film on Friday morning and put up a review that evening. It's rare we get one up the day a film is released. The Saturday Morning Review was Paul's about Bayonetta 2, as last week's was about Bayonetta.

I did call my editor about Familiar Stranger. The main thing is he's still alive and well. This is not unusual to have long gaps between hearing from him. Not that I like it, but it's not unusual. He's doing me a favor and I understand that. But it was good to talk to him and get an update.

I'm still working on finishing the rewrite for Paperback Detective. I'm into the final main chapter, trying to preserve as much as I can from the original but changing the location where it takes place from a car in a downtown parking garage to the house where a murder took place. I always knew I needed to change that and I think it will work a lot better.

A Week in Writing #201

Well as weeks go, this was a big one for us at Powers Squared. Not everything we had thought would happen did, but there was a lot that did. The week started with Adventures in Poor Taste's [EXCLUSIVE] Comixology Preview: Powers Squared #3 on Monday. This was a really nice write up about the three issues that were going to be released on Wednesday.

Then there was the actual publication on Wednesday of the next three issues of the book, a story arc we called WITH GREAT POWERS COME SOMETHING, SOMETHING, SOMETHING... on Comixology. All three issues are available for purchase, time to shill: Issue #3, Issue #4 and Issue #5.

Comixology wrote up a very nice piece about us on Tumblr NEW SERIES Debut Powers Squared, which prompted us to open our own account on Tumblr.

Thursday saw the release of our interview on FreakSugar.com THE CREATORS OF POWERS SQUARED ON FAMILIAL AUTONOMY & TEAMWORK which was our first not self-driven interview. I encourage everyone to read it.

On Friday, we published the third part of the interview of Paul and Trevor talking about their involvement with the development of Powers Squared. You can find that video on our YouTube channel. Next week, we're planning on releasing another video, our answering of FreakSugar's questions before we submitted our final answers. And after that, we're planning on doing a Google hangout with our artist, the Friday after that, so there's something to look forward to.

We're still waiting for some reviews that we were told were in the works. Not really sure what became of them. Our PR contact went radio silent on us, so I don't know if they're still going to happen or not. The contact they were using was also one I had cultivated so I may not wait for them if there is no response on Monday. I hate to make a pest of myself, but I really really hate it when people suddenly stop communicating.

We've also been approached about doing an Ask Me Anything session. Not sure if that will come to fruition but I will let you know if that comes to fruition. It sounds sort of exciting and scary at the same time.

Our Instagram following is growing, which seems to be the best reception we've had on social media. That has been a very accepting place for us to be and it allows us to also update other platforms at the same time. So it's a win-win for us.

Our colorist delivered pages 13-16 for Issue #7 this weekend, so her work on that issue should wrap up in July. Looking forward to seeing what our artist does with Issue #8 as we're now starting on the next story arc. Always trying to stay ahead of ourselves.

On to other writing, still no word from my editor on Familiar Stranger, whom I'll be calling next week to make sure he's still alive. Again, radio silence. I've been working on my other book, Paperback Detective. I'm going through the edits I made in prep for the rewrite of the ending, which sorely needs it. That's not to say its bad, but I think that it takes place at the wrong location in the story, so I'm hoping to fix that.

Worked on a review this weekend, about 2000+ words on the film Captured! (1933), a film that I had recorded from an earlier showing on TCM. That will wait for a future time. This past Saturday, we published a review of the Switch version of Bayonetta written by Paul.

So, besides calling my editor and following up on reviews I'm looking forward, trying to finish the rewrites on Paperback Detective and seeing Ant-Man and The Wasp later in the week.

A Week in Writing #200

This week was mostly, though not entirely, about Powers Squared. As confirmation, the next three issues, the story arc With Great Powers Comes Something, Something, Something..., will be published on Wednesday, June 27 on comiXology.com. To that end, we spent part of this past weekend answering some questions for an interview on Freaksugar that should appear on Wednesday. We also edited and posted a video to our YouTube channel and shot another one we'll put up later of Paul, Trevor and I answering Freaksugar's questions. We're also planning to do a Google hangout with our artist, Rachel Wells. So much still to come.

Also, Adventures in Poor Taste is confirmed to run an exclusive preview of issue #3 tentatively on Monday, 6/25 and our good friends at First Comics News is confirmed for review coverage to tentatively run on Wednesday, 6/27.

Okay, now that the shilling has stopped, there was also work done on Powers Squared the project as well. Our artist completed her inks for Issue #7 and we're now moving on to Issue #8, which starts a new story arc, Mathemagical. We're bringing back Dr. Atlas and introducing a new villain, Professor Theorem. Rachel has done some preliminary character design work on her already. We're basing her on alternative rock musician K.Flay, for whom I'm a big fan, as an homage.

We've written the scripts for this story arc and the one to follow, What's In a Name?. I haven't yet started to make revisions on The Imposter, the arc to follow that based on feedback from Paul and Trevor. It's been more a matter of time than any disagreement on making them. In fact, their suggestions should make it better, which as a writer I'm always after.

Rachel has also come back with some comments and suggestions on Mathemagical, all of which are welcomed. We've always meant for the creation of the book to be an interactive process.

On Thursday night, Paul, Trevor and I attended a local gathering, Koffee and Komics at a cafe on Tujunga near Universal City. I had been a member of the group for a couple of years but had never attended one of the functions. It was a small group and the Hankins men do what we do best, sit on the side and talk to one person at a time. We're not great socializers. We did come away with a few ideas, including looking into Printing on Demand for Powers Squared.

We only stayed about an hour and a half as there was work to be done. When I got home I also registered the script for Mathemagical with the WGA, made some updates to files to keep my thumb drive and hard drive in sync.

I also continued editing on Paperback Detective. I've edited through page 436. The next section requires some rewrites, which is why I originally put it aside to finish later.

No new reviews from me this week, though Trophy Unlocked did post Paul's Batman Ninja as our Saturday Morning Review. We are going to work on new ones, including one for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which we saw this afternoon at the Cinerama Dome, so look for that coming soon.

Next week, in addition to seeing our comic book get published, there will be other writing involved, including more rewrites and reviews.

A Week in Writing #199

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that a lot of what goes on revolves around Powers Squared, the comic book my sons and I created several years ago. And I know I've been begging, yes begging, for you to check out us out on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. It's all part of trying to grow our brand and its been a struggle all the way. Organic growth is best, but it is slow and all that work doesn't necessarily end up with increased sales. To that end, we received an accounting update from comiXology this week and we've sold exactly 1 issue in the past two months.

But hopefully, that will change in the very near future. Don't know the details, but we're hopeful that our next release, on June 27th, will be getting more of a push and hopefully, more people will hear about Powers Squared. We're supposed to find out more next week and I will be certain to fill you in here, as well as the other social media outlets I've listed above.

Work continues on the book, as Issue #7 is nearing the end of the art phase and its fairly far along with coloring as well. I'd like to think we'd have the issue ready to go in a couple of months. We've worked out the scripts for the next two issues and we'll probably start working on them next month with the artist.

I'm still giving serious consideration to kickstarting or some other crowdfunding method to help with some of the expenses of the production. Nothing concrete, yet but I'll be sure to let you know if it ever comes to fruition. It's not a make or break issue for the comic book, but it would be a big financial relief to not have to carry it all on my biweekly paychecks.

We posted another video this past week on our YouTube channel, one featuring Paul and Trevor, the co-creators and the basis for Marty and Eli Powers in the comic book. We have more footage, so hopefully, there will be more forthcoming, as well as a chat with our current artist, Rachel Wells, yet to be scheduled.

Finished a review this week for Conflict (1945) and published one on Trophy Unlocked for Buster Keaton's Seven Chances (1925), the latter in honor of Saturday being Buster Keaton Day in Los Angeles. Besides the proclamation, I don't think there was really much else done to commemorate one of the greats of silent film comedies.

Still no word from my editor on Familiar Stranger. Not wanting to let the grass grow under my feet, I decided to re-edit another in the yet to be published J.D. Barrister series of private investigator mysteries. This one is called Paperback Detective. I started working on it on Friday and I'm about 134 pages into editing it. I know there will be needed work at the end of the book, as I decided to change the location, but right now I'm enjoying the work. I'm printing out forty pages at a time and working on it in odd moments during the day.