A Week in Writing #453 - What's Up with Me and Social Media?

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

I don't know what it is with me and social media but now I'm having issues with LinkedIn. If you're a new reader of this missive, I had issues with connecting my website via GoDaddy to Facebook. Those issues cleared up without much help from either GoDaddy or Facebook; I'm sure about the former, but I never heard back from the latter at all.

Now, I'm apparently unable to post on LinkedIn. I have my account and my business page for Powers Squared and make three to four posts to each every week. Usually, it has to do with something on the website or a new podcast or video I'm trying to promote. As an example, each Friday when I post the podcast on PodBean, there is a social share distribution which pushes it out to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn, but to my account not Powers Squared's page. On Fridays, I like to update the post to my account with some tags and then copy it to the page. That worked great until this past Friday when instead of providing a place to make the post I got a black screen.

LinkedIn gave me the usual advise, clear the cache and history and then try it in Incognito. Sadly, it didn't work. They were kind enough to make the post for me but they're also escalating it. I haven't heard back since Saturday, but I'm trying to remain positive. But why do I keep having these issues?

Finished another review this weekend, for Speedway (1928), a silent melodrama starring William Haines and Anita Page. I thought it might be a good one to post prior to the Indianapolis 500 race in May. Part of the drain the DVR Saturdays.

The Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, in honor of Earth Day, was Paul's review of WALL-E. The Wednesday Game Day review was actually a movie based on a video game, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which we had watched the previous Sunday; I added a A Non-Gamer's Perspective at the end.

Things seem to be slow this month with Powers Squared. Our new artist, Julia Canon, is adjusting to the new role and we should have pages by the first week in May. I don't mind the getting into the groove change over but I don't want to see production drop off so significantly. I'd like to at least get the next two issues done by the end of the year. Our weekly podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, dealt with this in our monthly team meeting.

We're still working towards a June release of Issue #17 and I'm putting up peek-of-the-weeks related. This week's though goes all the way back to Issue #1 and Billy O'Shea's first appearance, since we recreate that moment in the new issue.

More writing on Skylar but again I think I'm editing out as much as I'm adding, if that makes sense. I'm hovering just below 64,000 words with 80,000 being the goal. I'm changing things as I go and hope that I'm making improvements as I do.

On the query front, one new one, no rejections but a couple of DNRs. I've got 8 out there. As they say, it only takes one.

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

A Week in Writing #393 - Quick Rejection This Time

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

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you've no doubt read how the book I'm supposedly writing, currently called fka Skylar, is always getting short shrift in my writing. I tried to change that on Monday night but I got too tired to work on it. Has that ever happened to you? I need to do better with that, but there always seems to be something else consuming my time.

A lot of it seems to go to Powers Squared. I know I spend an inordinate amount of time on this book between reviewing artwork, posting three times a week, and then sharing them on Facebook to various groups I belong to. And there is always something I think I forget to do. Usually, it's updating the latest video on the website. We record our podcast every Friday night at 6pm, live on twitch.tv/powerssquared. Paul then takes the audio from the video, which I upload to Podbean. Over the next 24 hours, it goes out to various platforms, but the best is that it also shows up automatically on our website at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps.

Later, usually on Sunday, I post the video to YouTube and schedule it for Wednesday at 2:30 pm. Through our website, I write and schedule some social media posts that come out at the same time. Later, I post another one on Instagram and Facebook of a video Paul and I shoot after the show with a link. I then go to Facebook and share the post to various groups I belong to. This supposedly gets us more awareness, though not necessarily more views. I also then post to Linkedin and the page I have set up there for Powers Squared. Again, more awareness though not necessarily more views.

Also, every Sunday, I post a new peek-of-the-week on our website. Again, a social media post gets scheduled for Tuesday at 2:30 pm to advertise. I don't really have a good idea how many people check out this feature but we average about 80 to 90 website visits a month, which sadly is considered good according to Go Daddy. And then there are some more follow-up posts to Facebook groups, again to make people aware.

We've also been prepping the last few weeks for a Kickstarter in March. I've been writing the text for the page with Paul, with feedback from our consultant. There are still some things I'm not sure about but I'm hoping things will get clearer in the weeks ahead.

One new query this week, got rejected the next morning by the agent. Nice not to have to wait for it. "Thank you for considering me as a possible fit to represent your book. I have reviewed your query and, at this time, I do not believe that I am the right agent to represent your work. Please know that we are extremely selective, even with the materials we review. I do appreciate you thinking of us as an agency, however, and I encourage you to continue your search for an agent who is just the right fit for you. I wish you every success in your publishing endeavors." An obvious form letter, but I guess it's better than not hearing back at all.

I spent more time researching possible agents. I decided what I have in Broken People is more of a thriller so I thought I might do better aiming it at them. Lots of agents and while there is overlap, there are a lot more. I'm still going through possibles through QueryTracker, so I'll let you know the count when I'm done.

My review of Ghostbusters: Afterlife went up as Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review. Paul's review of Control Ultimate Edition for the PS5, was our Wednesday Game Day review. No new review for me. On Saturday, we watched Free Guy and since he has more experience with video games, Paul will be writing that review. Look for it next Saturday.

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

A Week in Writing #305 - Pre-Query research

As promised, this week I began the sometimes arduous task of researching agents so that I might have the privilege of their rejection later. Of course, I hope this time I hit gold and find someone who will take an interest in my work, but I want to prepare myself for what has been the norm.

I began by using the site querytracker.com, which tracks agents and allows you to track your queries there as well, in an effort to make this a more communal process. They list agents by genres they handle, so using my previous spreadsheet, I added and subtracted from that to come out with a list of possible agents based on that criteria,

The next step, and this is where I am at present, is to do a deeper dive into these agents and their websites to see, for starters, if they actually mention handling or looking for books in that genre. While a majority of them are coming back positive, there are some that don't mention it or handle it for say Middle Grade and YA, not my target audience. I'm also noting what their position is at the firm. I'm not sure if it's better to hit the highest person on their food chain, say the owner, who no doubt is very good but also very busy, or to hit the lowest person, someone new and hoping to build their "list".

After that, I'll do a deeper dive on the ones I want to query to, who they handle and how to contact them. More and more of it appears to be going online with a form rather than an email. My guess is that forms are easier to ignore.

We'll see where it goes from there and I will, of course, be complaining informing you here as I go.

I am still working on my rewrites for The Runaway. I'm trying to fix things as I go, though I know I'll have to go back through it again later.

Oh, remember Familiar Stranger? And the editor who dropped off the face of the Earth after 30 pages? Well, my mother asked me out of the blue about that last week, and offered to call the man, since she's the one who originally introduced us and knew him previously. She, of course, left a message, since he didn't pick up her call either. She told me she left a message saying that it was about "David's novel". I would have played it differently, as I doubt she'll ever hear back from him. Personally, I've moved on without him but if she wants to go down that rabbit hole, so be it. I will let you know if anything ever changes on that front, so don't hold your breath waiting.

We did a new On the Air with Powers Squared on Friday talking about life outside the comic book. I made a point of mentioning this blog, so if anyone has followed up on that, welcome! Leave a comment.

We received new pages from our artist this week, inks to be exact. We still have four to review and will do that before the day is over, even if this might go out before that.

As far as future content is concerned, Paul and I had a Google Hangout with the co-founder of Artithmeric this morning (evening his time), Andrew Copeland. He runs a couple of ad agencies, a CBD consulting firm and Artithmeric. Next time I feel like I'm busy I'll try to remember all that he has on his plate. That video should be coming out next Sunday on our YouTube channel.

We also got back the audio for a couple of new Character profiles that will be going up later in July along with other Google Hangouts we did with our artist and colorist. You might want to subscribe and ring the bell to be sure to be notified when they go up.

I'm working on a new review for Trophy Unlocked, The Clay Pigeon, another from our Drain the DVR Saturday nights. I should have it done shortly but couldn't get it done before I did this. I did have a new post on the blog, Heat Lightning (1934), the last of my June Pre-Code Hollywood posts. Before that, on Wednesday, was another Transformers Game review from Trevor, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark.

Well, I think that covers the bases for now. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #297 - Stay at Home Week 7

I'm going to have to rethink the slug for these as I may be staying home permanently. Now don't worry, dear reader, I have not been fired nor am I losing my job but they're letting us decide if we want to work in the office, post-stay-at-home orders, every day, some days or no days a week. If you go in every day, you get a place to sit, which I guess would be six feet of bench, rather than the current three feet. If you go in less than that, you get "hoteled", meaning you sit where there is available space that day. If you work from home, it's the end of the dining room table, which is what it is now. We have to make the decision during a pandemic that will affect us going forward, even after there is a vaccine.

Since I have to make that decision now, I'm opting to stay home. I'm not anxious to be there every day since that would be a bit of a crapshoot with my health and well-being. And going in even one day a week would still be a bit of crapshoot as well as there are no guaranteed COVID-free days.

There would definitely be advantages like no commute and no ironing. I'm thinking that would save me the equivalent of one and a half workdays a week or about 75 workdays a year. Hopefully, I will put that added time to better use than sitting in a car on the 101, 405 and 10 freeways every day.

Now, what I am doing with the time I have been saving? The short answer is never enough, especially when it comes to The Runaway. I worked a couple of nights on the book but never got traction on the chapter I need to write. It's one of those, I know what I want to happen, it's how to get into it. That said, I did finish one new chapter this week but I need to get on it more than I have been.

One new review this week, The Sea Hawk (1940). We watched the film on Friday night and in-between other writing this weekend I finished it. It goes into the backlog for me and I'm not sure when it will appear on the blog. This month, we're celebrating Scooby-Doo month on Trophy Unlocked. The Saturday Morning Review was Trevor's review of Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost.

So that brings us back to the third leg of my writing trifecta, Powers Squared. This week, it's been more about the business side of things as we wait for a date Issue #9 will go up on comiXology and then scramble to get the other platforms synched up.

This week, we've been having some issues with our Podcast. The week before last, Paul and I watched a Zoom presentation about expanding your podcast's audience and some of the ways we were given haven't panned out as well as I'd hoped. I don't want to get into everything but I've been documenting my issues the same way I would at work, which you know is not fun. I'm hoping the support people at Podbean can straighten us out.

Got to try my hand at writing a feature story for our newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl. We've been trying for the last couple of months to feature other Creative Twins and another creative pointed us to some brothers who are out to be models and actors and I wrote up their story based on an email they sent us. We want to have more subscribers to the newsletter, which I hope some of you would do. In the meantime, I'm going to link to a preview if you want to take a look at what we put out every Sunday. You can read it here and if that looks interesting, sign up here. Go ahead and sign up even if it doesn't look interesting because you'll get a free digital copy of the first issue if you do and then you'll know what I'm writing about, though I have to warn you it only gets better.

I've also been working on revising our Pitch packet for that someday pitch we hope to do for an animated series based on Powers Squared. You gotta have dreams.

In the it's-not-all-about-me department, we did a table read this week after dinner of a script Paul wrote as part of a writing program submission, an episode of Rick and Morty. I won't go into specifics, but I have to give him credit for writing in the voice of the show. I mean it does read like an episode. He's done this before during an animation writing class he did. He wrote a script for a show called Tutenstein and someone who had worked on the show told him the same thing, that it read like an episode. That's quite a talent, if you ask me. I'd like to think I could do that if given the chance but he actually can do it now.

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

A Week in Writing #296 - Stay at Home Week 6

I think it was the late lyricist Peter Sinfield, who wrote: "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends..." which is how I'm starting to feel about the Coronavirus. Not that I'm one of those who can't wait to throw off the shackles of governmental repression but this seems to be a never-ending story.

I will be honest with you that I'm not one of those people who needs to be around other people to feel alive. When I did go to work, I spent most of the day with headphones on because there was no escaping all the noise from everyone around me. The environment was open seating, by which I mean we sat at a long table and had the most minuscule of dividers between us and the people on either side or in front. I'm hearing they're talking about changing things up but I can't imagine they'll make it Covid-safe. I think I'm home for the duration which is okay by me. And I'm not alone at home so I can get by. I do look forward to someday going to a record store or a comic book store or to a movie in a theater but I can hang on until that day comes.

As far as writing, which is the point if this blog, I think we're done with the next script for Powers Squared (Issue #15) and the proposed Pilot for a series based on the comic book. I know, big dream but they do come true and you have to be ready for them. If nothing else, it's a good exercise to learn to write in a different format than a novel or a comic book. We even read the Issue #15 script on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. Now, we need to work on the Pitch packet.

Paul and I attended a Zoom presentation during the week about how to get more ears on our Podbean podcast. So far, I think it's working as we have gotten more reactions than normal, though I'm not 100% sure if everyone who reacted is going to become a longtime listener. We're now not only on Podbean and Apple Podcasts but we're also on Spotify and the podcast is playable from Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

With a creative endeavor with a website, there is work that goes into maintaining it. This Saturday I redid our Join page on the website, which I encourage you to do, adding in Spotify as well as reorganizing the various ways you can follow us. I also added a new character page for Quincy Victoria Davidson, who gets introduced in Issue #10.

I did finish two future reviews for Trophy Unlocked this week, King of the Underworld (1939), a gangster film starring Kay Francis with Humphrey Bogart getting top-billing, and Loose Ankles (1930), a pre-coder starring Loretta Young and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Not sure when they'll go up but I'm certainly ready when the call comes. While I know the rest of the world is watching Netflix, we're trying to go through the backlog on our DVR and get rid of some of the older recordings that have been sitting there for literally years.

This week's Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked was JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for the Dreamcast, a videogame from the last century, 1999 to be exact. Like classic films, this blog also covers classic videogames as well. My job when these reviews are published is to update Facebook and Twitter and to add them to a Pinterest page I set up for the blog, you know a different and visual sorting of the reviews. I also tweet every day that there is a title, movie or videogame on Trophy Unlocked with a release anniversary as well.

I was able to work some on The Runaway but probably only about 1000 words this week. I think I've written that I think I'm in the home stretch but it might take until the end of May to get the draft completely done, at least at the rate I'm going.

A Week in Writing #295 - Stay at Home Week 5

Does this feel like the new normal yet? If I could I would work from home, though I'd prefer it to be writing for a living rather than what I currently do for a living. There's nothing wrong with what I do and there is nothing wrong with the company I do work for, but writing is what I want to do and it is still only an avocation.

I'm still not seeing this abundance of time even though there isn't that commute. When I get off work, I'm trying to go for a walk which means that's time I'm not writing. In my case, I need the steps. I know there is nothing magical about 10,000 steps but I do know it's better than zero steps, so I do try to make an effort to get some walking in, though I sometimes feel like it's an uphill battle.

Powers Squared once again took a big chunk of the week's writing. Again, it's not so much the writing but what I say is the business side of the project. For the first time, we had an issue rejected by Comixology. And it wasn't for content but formatting. We submitted the same file we had used during the Kickstarter and apparently, it wasn't as good as it could have been. They didn't like the border around the cover, some pixelation on a page and the margins around the outside were too wide, or at least could have been thinner. All fair critiques and I had no problem fixing them but it's a little time-consuming and as much as I don't mind editing to make something better, I don't like having to re-do things. I know that's a bit of a contradiction but that's how I feel. I resubmitted it a couple of days later, so I think we're good. Now I'm wondering if I need to change files used elsewhere.

We also received new inked pages from Rachel, which we needed to review and there was one page that was revised, so we had to send it to Julia, our colorist, before she did too much on it. We were wondering how she was doing, so during our intermission on movie night, we noticed she was streaming her work on the book, so we dropped in for a quick chat.

And, of course, there's the podcast/twitch stream, the newsletter and the YouTube video that have to be done every week as well.

Finished one review this week, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, but that may wait until October. I think I'm one short of the five we'll need for that month. We're trying to go through our DVR every Saturday so who knows what we'll find there.

I actually have a new review up on Trophy Unlocked this week as the Saturday morning review, Little Big Man (1970), a sort of  Forrest Gump of the Indian Wars.

And then there's The Runaway. I'm still working on the book. I got through one chapter but there is still a lot of work left to be done. I keep thinking tomorrow or tonight and something always seems to come up. I won't outright lie and say this will be my priority for the week but I really want it to be. When I finish this draft, I'll have to take some time to send out queries. What's a pandemic without some rejections thrown in for good measure?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #293 - Stay at Home Week 3

There is a certain sameness to every week now, some of which is good and some of which is mundane. If I don't have to ever commute or iron a shirt for work again I could be a very happy man.
I feel like I have extra time but I never think I'm using it correctly. There are no little projects around the house that I'm sneaking in while I'm "working", at least none I would admit to on a pubic blog. However, I'm not really finding that extra bit of time that I'm otherwise saving. That time seems to be taken up with sleep and the second walk of the day. By the time I get back to writing, it seems that I'm pretty much getting back to it at the usual time if not even later than I had. I know bitch, bitch, bitch, as my step-father used to say when we complained. I'm lucky to have a job that I can do from home, but I wish there was more.

Powers Squared seems to be taking up most of my writing time again this week. I've been wanting to get us up on Amazon Kindle, which is hopefully another revenue stream. God knows we could use it. Well, everything has to be formatted in a kindle friendly format, mobi, and then uploaded onto the Kindle Direct Publishing Site. It's not hard but repetitive. And all the metadata about the book has to be entered for each one as if it were brand new. With the exception of my name, since it's my account, I had to enter everyone's name anew each time.

Once we had a couple of issues up, when I tried to find them, the input had to be exact or else it couldn't find them. To facilitate that I set up an Author's Page on the Amazon site and at least captured all the issues in one place. If you have a kindle reader or you're just curious, you can find everything at http://amazon.com/author/davidhankins

Then there are pages to review. Every month, our artist sends us two sets of thumbnails for the eight pages she plans to draw that month. Paul and I then have to sit down and go through them. Again, not a hard process but it takes time away from whatever else either one of us might be planning to do. I'm not complaining, just trying to explain where the time goes.

In addition to that, Paul and I do a Podcast  (and a Twitch Stream) each Friday and a YouTube video each Sunday as well as a newsletter. Each takes time and thought. It's not always easy to come up with two to three different topics each week about Powers Squared. We were able to do a Q&A session on Friday and on Sunday talked about our Poll Question: What Do You Miss Most about Comic Books during the Coronavirus Pandemic?

And if that wasn't enough, in this week's Hound Dogs' Howl, we were finally able to feature some creative twins, who had recently had their first table at a convention. Pretty cool stuff but we had promised their father that we would let them review it before we published, so that had to be written ahead of time.

I also did some rewrites this week on the script for Issue 15, How They Met, which will be the next issue Rachel will be working on in a couple of months but we wanted to be ready.

Putting that aside, I did manage to finish two reviews for Chaplin and The Curse of the Cat People. These will appear at some point in the future. This week's Trophy Unlocked Saturday Morning Review was Trevor's review of Ori and the Will of the Wisps, a video game that came out last month.

What got squeezed out this week was The Runaway. No time for that story. I'm hoping next week to be able to get back to it, with all this extra time I have.

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

A Week in Writing #280 - Pretty Much Taking the Week Off

The holidays and writing aren't always complimentary. While I did do some writing, I didn't do as much as I thought I would have. Maybe not the best way to start the New Year but what are you going to do.

Let's start with what I did do. I did some rewrites on The Runaway but didn't really do anything on it after Monday. I believe I've gotten through all the changes I needed to make so far in the story. Making a change in a story is like throwing a rock in the water, it starts a ripple effect and there might be changes still to come as I continue the rewrite process.

On Saturday, a review I wrote last year about Treasure Island (1950) was published as Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review. Next week, we'll be featuring a review of a remake of sorts, Treasure Planet, which Trevor wrote as a companion piece. The blog is counting down to its 1000th review. Mine makes 995 so we're getting close. 

Before the year ended, all three of the writers on Trophy Unlocked published our highlight/lowlight lists for 2019. Mine is more film-centric than Paul's or Trevor's.

I also wrote a new one for Charlie Chaplin's The Circus, a film we watched as part of our annual post-Christmas movie day. We have more than one copy of the film in our library. The version we watched as a Criterion Blu-Ray of the 1969 re-release. The review ended up being about 2500 words. 

Work on Powers Squared continued. The comic book seems to be the one thing that we never take a break from, at least not a long break. Paul and I spent part of a day doing some business work, checking to see if we need any new copyrights, not yet; uploading a digital copy of Issue #8 onto the Comixology website and reviewing some candidates for the coloring opening we have.

During the past week, we also made our first attempt to line up a signing at a comic book store. I will admit I was a little surprised at the positive response to our overture but there is still more to do before I mention the who involved but it is one of our goals for the new year and I was happy  we at least got a start on it.

Later that day, I uploaded issues we have on Ka-Blam to their IndyPlanet website. IndyPlanet provides both digital and printed versions, so we're hoping that it will increase our readership and coffers.

I also paid for all the Kickstarter Rewards with our physical providers and updated the Kickstarter page with information from one of them. 

Paul and I continued to do our weekly On The Air with Powers Squared podcast and A Week in Powers Squared YouTube video. We are changing the newsletter from weekly to monthly. It's a real grind to do a full-blown weekly newsletter. We're still going to email our list throughout the month but make them more targeted. In fact, I imagine we'll be sending out more emails than before.

Seems like a busy week, though I always feel like there is more I could have done. But holidays are meant to be enjoyed. Next week, reality comes back with a vengeance. It will be back to a routine and I'm hoping there will be more time to write as a result.

In the meantime, keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #279 - 2019: The Year in Review

The end of the year is a good time to look back at everything you've done and all that you haven't. It seems for everything I have done there must be four or five things that I haven't.

Let's begin with writing novels. I always feel like I'm working on something at all times, though I always don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. As an example, I finished my own rewrite of Broken People and while I did send out a few queries but after being rejected, or in this case, ignored, I stopped. I had other things I needed to do so I stopped sending out queries on that book.

I did start a new rewrite, The Runaway, and have been working on that pretty much ever since finishing Broken People. I keep going back to the beginning as new ideas come to me. It's not advice that I would give out to others; the idea is to get through a draft first but in this case, it works for me. I had pretty much the same experience with every book I've written.

And I have officially given up on ever hearing from the guy who was supposed to edit Familiar Stranger. He very much flaked out on me and I'm closing the door permanently on him ever helping me again. Sometimes, you've got to cut bait and move on.

Looking forward, I need to query Broken People more and finish The Runaway. Those seem like pretty straight forward goals, so I'll stick with them.

As far as Powers Squared is concerned, I believe we did a lot: we had our first signing, attended our first convention, set up a mailing list, started a newsletter, started a weekly Podcast and ran a successful Kickstarter campaign. The only thing we overlooked was putting out new issues, though if you count the ones we sent out per the Kickstarter, issues #8 and #9 did get some distribution.

While I enjoy working on the newsletter and believe it is a necessary thing to do, I am happy that we've decided to cut it back from weekly to monthly. We'll still send out emails on a weekly basis, they just won't be a full-fledged newsletter, which takes time every weekend to write. I'm hoping that with a less frequent schedule we'll be able to make what we do send stand out more.

Our goal for 2020 is to distribute more consistently, so rather than releasing whole story arcs at a time, we're planning on releasing one issue at a time on a more regular basis. We want to do more signings and conventions. And most of all, we want to keep making Powers Squared, which means we need to find a new colorist since ours is leaving us.

As far as Trophy Unlocked goes, I ended up publishing 30 reviews this year. I really enjoy working on the blog and I'm already working on ones that may not show up for a year or so. (You got to do Christmas movies when you see them.)

Early in 2020, the blog will reach 1000 reviews, which is pretty exciting.

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

A Week in Writing #272 - Kickstarter and Other Writing

Big week for me as well as for Powers Squared. We finally launched our Kickstarter. If you've never done one, there is a lot that goes into it and I was fortunate to have a good team working with me, my sons, and the co-creators of the book with me, Paul and Trevor. I don't think I could have done it without their help.

I feel compelled to let you know that you can help with the Kickstarter if you want. Please go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/630936668/powers-squared-mathemagical. We have a wide range of ways that you can help, from $5 to $100 and from digital to print issues, t-shirts and a hardcover trade. If you've been reading about the book here in this blog and have wondered what it's about, then this would be a great time to start. Well, I hope you decide to anyway.

Throughout the campaign, I will discuss how it's going and what is working and what isn't, should you ever decide to do one for yourself. So far, we've notified the people on our mailing list, posted on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and on various Facebook pages, including our own and groups I'm members of. So far, the response has been slow but it is still early.

Last week, we had started work on the next story arc, The Imposter, and this week we had some feedback from the artist, which is always good to get. Even though we may be the co-creators, we're not artists and her feedback and questions are usually very good.

On Friday night, Paul and I recorded and posted our 10th On The Air With Powers Squared on Podbean. For some reason, it didn't show up on iTunes. There is surprisingly little support available on iTunes or Apple Podcasts. I tried to go back to Podbean but got some confusing "help" so I had to write to their Support. Seems our forever free account has expired? Hopefully, we'll get that worked out in short order.

In other writing, I managed to do some more rewrites on The Runaway going through several chapters as I work to get back to where I left off to work on Broken People. I think I'm working through what had been some rough spots for me.

I did not, though I plan to soon, send out any queries for Broken People. There really wasn't any time for that this past week.

On Saturday night, I did manage to write a future review for Trophy Unlocked. On Friday night, we watched The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and I wanted to get it down on paper while there was some quiet time.

My review of Thieves' Highway was the Saturday Morning Review. We published it in honor of Noirvember.

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

A Week in Writing #271

Sometimes weeks don't go as planned or one aspect takes over for the others. This week, for the most part, was spent working on the Powers Squared Kickstarter. I don't know if you've ever done one but it has been a learning experience. Not hard so much as time-consuming.

Given the limited time I have every day to actually write, a lot of that has been writing and, of course, rewriting things like Our Story and Shipping. But that's not to say that I'm the only one working on it. Both Paul and Trevor have been helping as well. Paul, who shot, edited, re-shot and re-edited our Kickstarter video has also been editing the copy. Trevor has made many of the graphics that we're using to show off the Tier Rewards we're offering.

The software you have to use on the Kickstarter site is a bit wonky if you ask me. To begin with, it's one long page and though it allows you to add whatever you want to, including images, it doesn't act like say Word. If I delete a line at the bottom of the page, all the lines of text above it seem to be adjusted, though the images seem to stay pretty much where they are. The same is true if I add a line at the top, all the text gets adjusted below it. There seems to be a constant re-editing of the page with every change you make. Gets a little old.

I think we're very close, probably one more run through the content and then it's off to Kickstarter to approve. After that, we'll be up and running.

That wasn't the only thing I worked on this week, though it did dominate things.

More on Powers Squared, we got the final inked pages and the cover for Issue #12 from our artist, Rachel Wells. I made a final pass through the script for the next story arc, The Imposter. I hadn't looked at it since July. A few minor edits, like correcting the wrong character name once and adding "Hmm" to the beginning of one line of dialogue.

On Friday, Paul and I did our weekly podcast, On The Air with Powers Squared. On episode #9, we discuss putting together the first creative team for the comic book. You can hear it on Podbean and on iTunes.

Did some more rewrites this past week on The Runaway. I don't know if you've had the experience but sometimes when I go back through something I've written, I get into a better groove with the story. Phrasing I thought was good is made better or thrown out altogether with the goal of making the writing better. Looking forward to getting more back into it when time permits.

No new reviews from me this week but that doesn't mean there weren't several in Trophy Unlocked from Trevor, both video game reviews: SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (PS2) on the anniversary of the game's release; and Catherine: Full Body which was this week's Saturday Morning Review.

Kickstarter promises to be a big factor next week as well but I'm hoping to get back to other writing as well next week.

Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #270

My big accomplishment of the week was finishing my rewrite on Broken People. The ending that I remembered as being overly long turned out not to be that way upon final review. I think I was remembering an earlier version.

So, I've gone through it for what feels like the umpteenth time, spell checked and even gone through it to make sure the chapter numbers are well-centered. The next thing to do is to resume the query process. To that end, I did some more research using Query Tracker as the starting point. From there, I look up the individual agents on their agency's websites.

The first disappointment is when the genres listed on Query Tracker are not reflected in the agent's profile or else it's the same word but they're looking for Young Adult mysteries, which, of course, is not what I'm writing. The only thing worse is finding out the agent you're looking for is no longer at the agency or even in the agent game. That happened to me this week when I was doing some research.

I didn't actually pull the trigger on sending new queries; I'm saving that pleasure for the coming week.

This week, for Powers Squared, we received four lettered pages from Trevor, so it was overall a slow week on the comic book. That didn't mean nothing happened. Paul and I, of course, did our usual Sunday YouTube video and our Friday night Podcast. On this last Friday's, we discussed writing the first storyline for the comic book. We initially wrote the first drafts more than 8 years ago and that first script went through a lot of changes between then and 2015 when we actually had the first issue drawn.

We also worked some on the Kickstarter we're doing for the comic book. There's a lot of planning that goes into it but we're also making changes on the fly as we're putting it together.

In addition to the work mentioned above, I wrote a new review for Trophy Unlocked, Revenge of the Creature, though I'm thinking it might wait until next October to get published. That's when the blog once again turns to horror. To complete the month's look at the genre we published Paul's review of
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island.

Things I need to do this next week, besides write, include finishing the Kickstarter stuff and making myself reach out once again to the editor on Familiar Stranger. I keep putting that off because I feel like I know how that will go. I'll call, leave a message and then never hear back. What is it they say about insanity? But I guess the thing is I don't expect a different outcome. Maybe fate will surprise me.

Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #269

There were a lot of pluses and minuses this week in writing.

I continued to do rewrites on Broken People. I'm getting near the end of the book and for some reason, I was having a hard time concentrating on it. Part of it I'll put down to the day job taking it out on me. It's not that I do anything labor-intensive but it is a big chunk of the day, from leaving at 7 in the morning and not getting home until 6:30, most nights take a lot of wind out of your sails.

I decided to put it aside by mid-week. I should be able to finish it next week. There is some post-climax stuff that I'd like to cut down on. I think I go into too much explanation on what happens after the main story ends. I don't want to be too short, as I don't like to see things left dangling, but at the same time I think I say too much. I have to strike the right balance. And it's not what happens to the characters that I want to shorten, it's the bigger picture stuff. There are events that are put into motion that don't necessarily end with the end of the story if you know what I mean. That's the part that I think I go into too much detail explaining.

Did some work on future reviews for Trophy Unlocked, even completing one that probably won't show up again until next October, when the site does a salute to horror films. Saw and reviewed White Zombie (1932), a really low-budget horror film starring Bela Lugosi, who only the year before had appeared in Dracula (1931).

This week's horror film was The Banana Splits Movie (2019), a very badly done horror film starring a somewhat forgotten IP from the 1960s. After seeing the film, it would probably have been better served staying forgotten.

I also completed a review of Sabotage (1936), a British Hitchcock film that I also watched recently. Not sure when that will show up but it's now ready to go whenever it's called upon. That's one nice thing about writing reviews for older films, they are always relevant in their own way. They might become more so, if, for example, a particular subject matter came up in today's world or there is a milestone anniversary. But, for the most part, if the film stands the test of time, there is always room for writing about it.

We're still putting together our Kickstarter stuff for Powers Squared. We've lined up all the tier rewards and now it's down to putting it together and shooting a video. We want to include Trevor but he's away today at a seminar and Paul is still under the weather. We canceled our weekly Podcast, On the Air With Powers Squared, because he was still too sick to do it.

Last week, we ran a contest to try and cross-promote our A Week in Powers Squared videos, our newsletter, the Hound Dogs' Howl, and our podcast, On the Air With Powers Squared.  Fortunately, we had a winner within 48 hours. At least someone listens to OAPS.

We did receive four pages from our colorist but that was really all that happened with the actual comic book this week.

So next week, the goal is to finish the rewrites on Broken People and send out some more queries and to reach out, once again, to the elusive editor on Familiar Stranger to see if he's still alive and what the f- happened. These enduring mysteries keep us going.

Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #268 - Lots of Rewrites

I've never been one to shy away from rewrites and, in fact, that's my favorite part of the writing process. This past week, I continued my work on Broken People and it's a good thing, too. I found where I had used the exact same passage in two places in the book, no doubt, the error from my previous rewrite on the book.

This book has gone through various rewrites in the past, the first being with my disappeared editor on Familiar Stranger. He had been slow back then but I don't remember so much radio silence in the past. Then, it was called Killer Blog, which was a sort of title that sounded okay but really meant nothing. It's not like a killer blog was a real thing but at the time, I liked it. I did query the book around and almost got somewhere with it.

An agency put me in touch with one of their editors and she gave me some feedback on it. I did find when going through it with her that there was some garbage stuff in the manuscript. Apparently, some time after my work with my editor the manuscript had gotten corrupted and things that I thought were there weren't and there was some real nonsense text in it as well. However, this isn't what she was pointing out to me.

After I completed that rewrite, I resubmitted it to the agency again and, of course, got nowhere fast. I was rejected there and other places with one female agent even calling it misogynistic, which frankly hurt and I felt was misguided. There is sex in the book, not graphic and the man, who is the protagonist, does describe the woman he's involved with but he also describes everyone he meets in some detail.

I rewrote it again, changing the name to Personal and Professional but got again, nowhere fast. I let it sit after a round of rejections. I started to look at it again because of a recent news story, not a couple of years old. There apparently was a couple, a doctor and his girlfriend, who would get women drunk and/or drugged and shoot video of them having sex with her. Now, there was something already similar in the book. My protagonist is a private detective and one of his clients in the book is a former news anchor who had appeared in a sex video.

In the earliest versions, that part was based on another news story in which an anchor went on vacation, got drunk and entered a wet t-shirt contest. She apparently wanted to win so bad that she stripped naked, or close to it, to win. Unbeknownst to her, they were recording the event and it got out and she lost her job as a result.

I had changed that to her being in a sex video while on vacation with her husband. A couple got her drunk and had their way with her and recorded it. That seemed rather out there until I heard about the couple in Newport Beach doing the same thing. So, I decided to take a new look at the book and I changed the name as I went. There was a song on the radio by Lovelytheband, called Broken, which I liked and thought one of the attractions between my hero and the former news reporter, was that she thought he was broken like her.

I thought I had done a pretty good rewrite but after getting nowhere with my few queries, I decided to go through it again and have been spending as much time on it the last few weeks before I resubmit it for querying. So far, none of the ones I've sent have gotten even a nibble, not even the online queries. I think the 6 weeks, if not two months, have passed so I'm calling them rejected.

I even took some time to rewrite the query letter, trying to concentrate on what I thought was the best parts of my previous one and pointing out that it is a character-driven murder mystery and trying to downplay some of the big city corruption that is also part of the story.

Work on the rewrite continues. I think it will take a couple of more weeks before I'm done and then it's back to the query cycle. They say you only have to impress one, right?

When that's done, I will go back again to see if the Familiar Stranger editor is still alive and find out what the f- happened. I may not be a patient person but I don't like to give up either.

In addition to the work on the book, I also completed a future review for Trophy Unlocked. This is a short film called Employee's Entrance, which was on TCM recently. I had started to watch it one morning while flipping channels and decided to record it along with several others so I could possibly review them later.

I also published on Saturday, The Fly, my second review for October and Trophy Unlocked's annual review of horror movies during the month.

Not a whole lot happened on Powers Squared this week. No new pages, though we did get a nice mention from our colorist on Instagram. Trevor did letter four pages so he's caught up for now.

Paul and I did our 54th video on YouTube on Sunday and our seventh podcast on Friday night in our effort to promote the comic book.

Well, that just about does it for this week. More rewrites and hopefully a new review. Keep writing. I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #267

Well, my big plans took a bit of a sidetrack. On Saturday night, last week, I decided to take a second look at Broken People before I sent off any more queries. Well, as I read through it, I found some misspelled words so I've been going back through the manuscript. The mistakes are no one's fault but mine and I'm making some other changes along the way.

It's not really a chore as I find myself liking editing. My goal is always to make whatever I'm working on better so I welcome the opportunity, though it has been distracting from other work.

Speaking of which, there are about three films that I'd like to write reviews of which I hope to get to in the next week or so, in between work on Broken People, The Runaway and whatever might come up on Powers Squared.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we had a pretty busy week. Spent some time this week making some inquiries on various tier rewards. We had to change up our supplier and the style of the t-shirt we want to use. We had worked with our artist, Rachel Wells, to come up with a design, highlighted the name of the school and featuring our Hound Dogs mascot, recently christened as Elvis, after the singer who popularized the song. For this nickname, we hosted a poll on our website and on Twitter and out of the four choices we gave, Elvis was a close but clear winner.

When we priced out the t-shirt on the first vendor we thought of using, the price was too high. Buying one shirt would cost close to $50, with shipping and for a better price, we would have to order 48 or more of them. While we're hoping for a successful Kickstarter, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We went back to our original supplier, Artithmeric, and we can produce either a black or white version for much less and still turn a profit. They will also handle our graphic novel.

For printed versions of the comic book, we're using another supplier, hoping to keep costs down there as much as we can.

Even though I haven't written any new reviews this week, I still had one posted as Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review, the original Cat People. October has been Horror film month on the blog, so this is the first of four that will be published this month.

We also posted a new review for Joker. This one was written by Paul. We like to mix in new films as well as older ones. And don't sleep on video games, either.

I'm going to keep working on Broken People and hopefully get to some reviews this week. And next up for us will be doing a video for the Kickstarter. Wish us luck. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #266

Somehow this wasn't the week to get back on track. It's sort of birthday week around here. First, it was my birthday on Wednesday and then my sons' birthdays on Saturday. Ports have fleet week and cities have fashion weeks, we have cake week in my house. My mother likes to call it the House of Libra, as my wife's birthday is in a couple of weeks, we are all born under the same zodiac sign. A lot of indecision around the house.

Sundays are always busy, football game notwithstanding. Paul and I have a weekly video we do for our YouTube channel. This past Sunday was our 52nd, our one year anniversary of our doing them. With the exception of Comic-Con, which delayed it until Monday, we've done them each and every Sunday. We talk about what is going on that week with the comic book, even some weeks when there is very little happening.

We also send out a weekly newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, and again, even on lean weeks. We've been fortunate that there is usually something worth writing about, including our new Mascot.

Late on Sunday, we did receive some pages from our artist, Rachel. Our first pages since Hurricane Dorian forced her to temporarily relocate and after we had her finish up the mascot. We received four pages of pencils from Issue #12. Paul and I didn't have a chance to look at them until Monday night but we did give our notes.

Did some other writing on Monday on The Runaway but not much I'm afraid. I'm working on a part of the novel that I'm rethinking. I'm sort of using a recent story in the news but I don't want to be too on the nose, if you know what I mean. I'm going through a thought process and making some changes. That's what I get for being a pantser with no outline to guide me, the freedom to make changes on the fly.

Don't think I did much of anything on Tuesday but on my birthday, I actually wrote a review of the movie we went to see, Downton Abbey, which was posted on Trophy Unlocked the next morning. About 700 words, so not too bad between eating out, cake and presents.

Thursday night was mostly spent out again. Both sons were taking classes, so my wife and I decided to have a bit of a date night, but we also had to run an errand for the boys' birthday. Did manage some more work on The Runaway that night but again, not very much.

Friday night, Paul and I did another episode of On the Air with Powers Squared, our podcast on PodBean and iTunes.

Saturday was Paul and Trevor's birthday, so the day was mostly spent with them, which was fun. There are some things more important than writing and family is one of them. Some things, though, still go on. Trophy Unlocked published our usual Saturday Morning Review, The First Tree, a video game reviewed by Trevor.

Next week, I need to get back to things full swing. There is still so much to do, including sending out more queries for Broken People, more work on The Runaway and, of course, Powers Squared.

Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week In Writing #265

This week has been more what I would call the business side of writing rather than the art of writing. Like every week, this one starts on Sunday, which is a busy day for Powers Squared. Paul and I do a weekly video for our YouTube channel. While the video doesn't take all that long to shoot, there is still some editing, which Paul does, then posting the video and hitting social media to promote it. I'm trying to be more efficient when posting but I sometimes forget.

Then we have a newsletter to get out. Usually, some work has been done on this already but there is always something to do on it, a test email to make sure the links all work and then finally sending it out. I usually take the newsletter and post it on Facebook and Tumblr, though I really doubt many people are really reading it that way.

Finally, there is this post which I also put up on Sunday, and then there is more posting on social media, Facebook and Twitter but different accounts than the comic book.

Did a little work on The Runaway but not much.

On Monday, more business. We were working with our artist on final design for the mascot and t-shirt design. Looking good.

Spent more time on the powerpoint for pitching Powers Squared as an animated series, which is one of our creative stretch goals. Making some edits and thinking about what else to do with it. Not much to show for the evening but sometimes it's just that way.

Tuesday night I worked on two reviews for Trophy Unlocked. They were already written but I wanted to put them up on the blog site and add photographs. These are reviews for The Fly and Cat People, reviews for October and Trophy Unlocked's annual salute to the horror genre.

Since it had been about six weeks since I had sent in a couple of queries for Broken People, and, of course, heard nothing back, I had to take them off my list. I did some more research on agents and even did some looking for a possible agent for Powers Squared. We're going to need representation to do a pitch anyway.

On the way home on Wednesday, I called the work number for the editor on Familiar Stranger. He had actually communicated during the summer and said he would be working on it during August. I think it was the occasion of his birthday and I told him I wouldn't bug him until September. I figured the middle of the month was a good time to try.

Not surprisingly, I got his voicemail at work and left a message. Almost right away I got a text saying to text him. I think this is something attached to the voicemail since I got the same message the last time I tried calling him during the summer.

So, I texted him that I was in the car and then texted him later when I wasn't. I also PM-ed him on Facebook, which was the last way we had communicated. Well, as I'm writing this no response, no real surprise. I'm disappointed but some people are unreliable. I don't like radio silence and I don't like being lied to. I'm going to have to move on since it's been almost a year and a half since I sent the manuscript to him. I knew he'd be slow but this is utterly ridiculous.

We also received pages that night from our colorist. Actually, we had received them the night before but it was late before we noticed so Paul and I sat down to go over them after we got back from dinner. Had a couple of minor issues that we asked her to fix. One of them was not her fault but she agreed to fix it anyway.

I also worked some more on the Pitch powerpoint, changing up the logline and some of the other details, like episode synopsis and images. I sent it on to Paul to look at for more changes. I never mind rewriting, since the point is always to get better.

Also, edited in the mascot in with the new banner that our artist sent us. We wanted to try to match the banner on the school newspaper. Our artist prepared us one that matched what she was doing in the comic book. I took that edited version and added to the template for the newsletter.

Sort of felt uninspired on Thursday, so I worked on this blog, so pretty much everything written to this point was done on Thursday night. I'm trying to figure out a way to squeeze in as much time as I can on Sunday.

I also toyed around with a t-shirt design though I didn't save it. Just wanted to see what it might look like. Maybe I'll try to recreate it later this week.

On Friday, Paul and I recorded our fourth podcast, which is available on PodBean and iTunes. This week, we talked about the origins of the two main characters not named Marty or Eli.

Also received a couple of revised pages from Nina. We had her fix a continuity error that we didn't catch when this was in pencils or inks. She was kind enough to correct it and then we asked her for one more favor, which she did.

Saturday was spent mostly out of the house. We went as a family to see Genndy Tarakovsky's Primal, which was playing at the Downtown Independent theater, we think trying to qualify for an Academy Award nomination. You can read Trevor's review on Trophy Unlocked.

Well, that about does it for the week. Promise to actually write more this coming week. You, keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #263

This week started with the Labor Day holiday. We weren't going anywhere and it was too hot to worry about doing much outside. We live in The Valley and it was pushing three digits when two will do.

Staying inside meant I could work on a review of a movie I happened to see the night before on TCM, The Mating Call. A silent film from 1928, I found myself intrigued and I wasn't able to find much really good information about it. I like it when I can find a film I can really write about, which in most cases, is to actually tell the story rather than the very brief and sometimes incorrect ones available on the internet. The review, which I wrote in the morning, ended up being almost 2800 words. Not sure when the review will post, but I like having more in the quiver than just the next one I'll need.

Wrote another 988 words on The Runaway, as I'm trying to make up for a less than stellar week in writing the one before.

We heard from our artist on Powers Squared the night before. She's in a mandatory evacuation area due to hurricane Dorian, so we may not be getting anything new from her for quite some time. The most important thing is for her and her husband to stay safe and live to draw another day.

I know we wrote that we're closing down the poll on Mascot colors for the t-shirt but decided to do what the car dealers do and extend the weekend until the 3rd. I'll post something in the morning in a last effort to get votes. But after that, we'll have to shut it down and make a decision.

Wasn't expecting to hear anything about my queries, though I did check the status on the one through the Query Status Portal and there is nothing new to report. Still no decision has been made. While I don't like the uncertainty, not knowing is better than rejection.

Late on Monday afternoon, I had what seemed like a major catastrophe when all my Microsoft Office products went bad. Not sure what the cause was but when I opened Word, Excel or PowerPoint I got a giant white screen rather than the program or the file I was trying to open. I have protection through Geek Squad but they're going to have to dial in and there is a five to five and a half hour wait due to the holiday, so I'm going to ask Paul to call for me tomorrow. Ackk! It really took the wind out of my sails.

I have a backup computer, my old laptop, but it took 20 minutes to boot up and I had to update a bunch of the passwords, etc. A real pain but I'm hoping this is very temporary.

Tuesday was hard, going back to work and all. Didn't really have the energy to do much writing though I did make some posts on Facebook and Twitter, update the website and come up with a new poll question for Powers Squared.

I also posted about a new review that went up on Trophy Unlocked. In honor of the release of Catherine: Full Body, which was on Tuesday, Trevor wrote a second review of the original Catherine which he posted that morning.

Geek Squad came through and now Word and Excel seem to work fine. I'm still having an issue with PowerPoint. I found what seems like a really good template for putting together Pitch Packets, though this one is for live-action, I would think there are updates that can be made to make it animation friendly.

The problem is that it's a Google doc and I don't like having to do my personal projects on the internet. You can download it into Powerpoint but when I do, almost nothing displays. The same is true of other Powerpoint presentations I have made in the past. This is the problem I tried to fix on my own that lead to my problems with Excel and Word, so I'm going to seek professional help with this. Can't ask Paul to babysit this again for me, so I'll probably hit them up this weekend.

Besides some social media posts, including posting our Peek-of-the-Week on Instagram and some posts on Twitter, didn't really get that much done.

Things are kind of slow with Powers Squared at the moment. Hurricane Dorian forced our artist and her husband to evacuate and seek refuge in Raliegh. Not sure how long she'll be displaced but it has sort of put some things on hold for a while.

Thursday morning, I made several posts on Twitter about reviews tied to release anniversaries. This is something I do every morning when there is one to post about. I've also been posting the same image on Pinterest with a link to the review in Trophy Unlocked. I've been trying to abide by decades with some exceptions like Star Wars, Christmas and Westerns. I'm planning to go back through next year and divide them up into genres as well. But that's fodder for another day.

Thursday night I made more progress on The Runaway, writing about 800 words before dinner. We've been eating kind of late for the past few days so it's kind of hard to get motivated after that. I did have an idea for the story. I'm sure I'm not alone but sometimes real-life events can influence my stories. While I had been sort of banging around trying to think of where to take the story, I decided that I could use a story that has been in the news as background for some of the action in the book.

Friday, Paul and I did our second On the Air with Powers Squared Podcast on Podbean. Last week, we talked about why we decided to do a comic book, this week, we talked about the various influences on the comic book, including our writing and the visual look of the comic book. Would really appreciate it if you would give it a listen here.

This Saturday's Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked was one written by Paul for Metal Wolf Chaos XD, the remaster released earlier this summer of a videogame originally released on Xbox in 2004.

Got some good news early Saturday afternoon, our Powers Squared artist Rachel Wells and her husband have returned home after evacuating based on the threat of Hurricane Dorian. Happy to hear that she's okay and happier still that we can get moving again on the comic book and on some merchandise we're excited about.

Saturday, I finally had a chance to get Geek Squad on my issue with Powerpoint. I started with them about 5:30 and it was after 7:30 before the problem was resolved. Geek Squad dialed in and then had Microsoft dial in and work on it. Eventually, they had to re-install Microsoft Office. It took a while but at least everything seems to be working, though everything is running slow and every website I open, I have to reload before everything shows, like the banner image on this post. I'm hoping that soon things will pick up again but the first time something doesn't load it gets a little scary.

I worked on Powers Squared's newsletter The Hound Dogs' Howl, something I had worked on earlier in the day and then after all the dial-in help. We had heard from our artist, Rachel, and she was back home after fleeing Hurrican Dorian. I wanted to update that part of the newsletter but the first time I went in it wouldn't edit. I was able to refresh and then I could edit.

When I worked on this blog on Saturday night, I couldn't even get into the blog at first. Again, refreshing helped but I hope this isn't a long-term trend.

Sort of a bumpy way to end this week in writing. Hope next week goes smoother. Keep writing and we'll see you next week.