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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #596 - Getting Ready for Pasadena

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

The getting ready for Pasadena refers to the Pasadena Comic Con, which we signed up for last year basically on the auggestion of someone we ran into at LightBox. Coincidentally, it is happening in the same place, the Pasadena Convention Center. Now, this is a small one day con, but you still want to be ready for it.

It is small, compared to SDCC or WonderCon. As an example, we don't know where we'll be tabling and won't know until the day of. It's sort of a "come find us" in a sea of Artist Alley tables, which is a disadvantage. And the social media images they've provided are for last year's con, which I guess happened in May.

I tried to come up with some sort of image for our social media. My initial image was something like this:

which I thought was pretty good for a writer, but could be better. I asked Trevor to take a go at it and he came up with:

which is a big improvement. So, if you're going, find us and say hi.

As part of the prep, we spent Saturday afternoon sort of setting up the table. It's good practice to know where everything goes, especially considering we'll be doing the actual setup early Sunday morning and most likely sleep deprived.

I also spent part of today applying for and receiving a resale license; got to pay the tax man.

There has also been progress on the next issue of Powers Squared. Our artist is turning in a page almost once every other day or so. And as good as that is, it takes time to review and give comments, but she's doing really great work.

One of the fun things about doing a podcast is when a guest interview doesn't pan out, you still have to come up with something to discuss. Paul and I decided to do one about GameStop. OAPS #334 - The Fall of GameStop (A Gamer's Perspective) was the result. You can watch it on twitch for the next few days, listen to it here (or the other platforms listed there as well), or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday after 2:30 pm PST.

My review of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, as promised, was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. Having watched that last week prompted Trevor to want to watch the documentary about Anvil, which he has also reviewed. I'm currently working on a review for Alias Boston Blackie, a leftover Christmas drive-by movie, as part of the drain the DVR.

I managed to get some work in on Blackmail. We're nearing the 80,000 word threshold and are up to 78.525 words.

No queries yet. I haven't had the time to rework a query letter.

Since we're tabling next Sunday, this little missive might be late, either Sunday or Monday. So thanks, in advance, for understanding.

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

A Week in Writing #593 - Christmastime

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

Christmas at my house is really great and very physical media heavy, including books, movies, video games and music. The biggest problem is getting to everything, but that is fodder for another day. But they will probably be sources for reviews on Trophy Unlocked sometime in the future.

Speaking of Trophy Unlocked, the holiday didn't stop reviews, including Paul's Game Day review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011), which came out on Wednesday the 24th. My review of Blast of Silence was the Saturday Morning Review. I didn't think of it at the time, but the story of the movie takes place between Christmas and New Years, so it was an appropriate pick for the holiday week.

I aslo have written three reviews this past week, including two holiday specials It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown, and The Little Drummer Boy. The third one was Ninotchka from 1939, which was one of the movies we watched on "Movie Day", our post-Christmas day ritual. These will all come out some time in the future, so stay turned.

SRCC Press didn't stop either, as we launched Trevor's 10th issue of The Blade of Miracles on Christmas Eve. Titled, "Mordred, Part 3", the book is available in both print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

Our new artist continued work on Powers Squared and didn't take the holiday off either, turning in several pages during the past week. I'm very happy with her and hope this will continue for a long while.

As far as my writing, I made some updates to previous books, Getting Even and The Runaway, while also working on Blackmail. For those following along, I'm now up to 73,207 words.

We actually pre-recorded this past week's podcast to take into account Movie Day. Recorded on the 16th, OAPS #331 - Kickstarter Unboxing - Pirates and Robots had us unboxing recent Kickstarter deliveries, including Pirates: A Graphic History (But not THAT kind of graphic) and Transformers, The Compendium Set.  You can still watch it on our twitch.tv channel, listen to it here or wait until the 31st at 2:30 pm PST and watch it here.

Next week, I've got a newsletter to work on, a highlights/disappointments post to do for Trophy Unlocked and I'd like to work more on Blackmail.

A Week in Writing #584 - New Issue of The Blade of Miracles

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

Well, it's not Powers Squared, but there will be a new issue of The Blade of Miracles, which will be released later this week. The eighth issue of a twelve-issue run is called "Mordred, Part 1" and, as they all have been, was written, drawn and lettered by Trevor and edited by Paul. The issue will be available in print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

It should be no surprise that the release of "Mordred, Part 1" was the subject of our podcast on Friday, OAPS #322 - TBOM #8 Preview. If you missed it, you can stil catch it on twitch.tv/powerssquared for the next few days, listen to it here or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm.

To support the release, I've written a press release and a new The Bark, both of which are pending review.

Trevor has been busy, as he also had four reviews on Trophy Unlcoked this week, starting with Me & My Katamari on Monday followed by Second Look - Beautiful Katamari (+ DLC) on Tuesday, Katamari Forever; and Second Look - Touch My Katamari on Friday. My review of Frankenstein was the Saturday Morning Review. No new review this week from me.

We did watch the original Scream on Friday and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc on Sunday morning, so I would be expecting reviews for them to be out in the near future.

We attended LightBox Expo on Saturday in Pasadena. Though the Con has panels, which are hard to get into, it is basically a giant artist alley. We walked the floor, talked to some artists, made a few invitations to appear on our podcast and spent a lot of money. Just me and the boys this time. Fun and tiring, but no report from the front for this one.

Some work this week on Blackmail. I'm now over 63,000 words, so there is progress. I've gone back through the book and made edits for the time being and I'm working on a new chapter. I'm still about 17,000 words short of my goal, but the important thing is to keep working on it.

This coming week is, once again, newsletter time, so I'll be working on that.

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

A Week in Writing #571 - Report From the Front: San Diego Comic-Con 2025

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

I know this is a day late but we didn't get home from San Diego Comic-Con until about 10:30 on Sunday night and I was in no shape to be doing much other than eating, unloading and sleeping.

For the first time ever, SRCC Press (Powers Squared and The Book of Miracles) tabled at San Diego Comic-Con. As I believe I mentioned in an earlier post, we didn't know we would be tabling until July 3rd at 6:30 pm, so it gave a little less that three weeks to pull everything together. If we had had more time, we might have ordered different things, like a table runner for SRCC Press and maybe a banner for The Blade of Miracles. But we had to make do with what we had, though we did order some more trades and copies of issues to have on hand.

We went down on Tuesday to set up at the Convention Center. Things went surprisingly easy as far as that went. While Paul and I were officially the exhibitors, we were able to have my wife, and Trevor, help us set up the table.

Doing that then, freed up Wednesday, so we could wander around the Gaslamp District and see the installation of the installations. I guess I never realized they were ready so close to the start of the Con. Preview Night is a different experience when you're behind a table. As soon as the doors open, there is a mad dash for exclusives. Since we had no exclusives, business was slow, though we did sell one copy of Issue One.

I won't go through each day, but it was safe to say, even though this wasn't a money-maker, we did far better than LA Comic-Con and Wonder Con combined. We were hindered by the short lead time (we didn't make the printed program) and by a neighboring table, which not only partially blocked us from view, but also attracted enough of a crowd that further blocked us. However, some people did find us.

We sold about 8 times as much as we did at WonderCon, which is a nice trajectory to see. We had one customer come by and after hearing my spiel, bought the first five issues, and then she came back later that evening to buy the other 20 issues. That was 25 issues in one day, which is definitely a record for us. Also a record, 17 new names signed up for our mailing list.

On another day, someone bought the run for The Blade of Miracles, which currently has five issues out. Our overall take, which is paltry, was still about 3.5 times what we made at WonderCon.

You can see photos from SDCC 2025 on our website at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/events.

Since we were gone on Friday, artist Julia Canon took over as host of the podcast, On the Air With Powers Squared, and one of her guests is me, live from the floor. She also shows how she colors Power Squared. You can watch it at twitch.tv/powerssquared. You can listen to it on our website here or watch it on Wednesday after 2:30 pm here.

And just because we were away, that doesn't mean things came to a stop on Trophy Unlocked. With the new Fantastic Four opening on Friday, we went old school with a review (a second look) at the last version of the story, Fantastic Four (2015).

This was nearly a week without any writing from me. I did manage a little work on Blackmail, so I'm at about 50,160 words, which is good, but I'm far from through with the story.

And, it should go without saying, no new queries from me.

This coming week will involve adding all the names on our sign up sheet, writing the newsletter and getting everything put away.

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

A Week in Writing #569 - Going to the Show

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

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

So, if you are going, look for us:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #562 - Where Did the Week Go?

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

Some Sundays when I sit down to write this blog, I wonder what happened to everything I planned to do during the past week. For some reason, this doesn't feel like an overly productive one, though we'll see when I'm done.

Let's start with Powers Squared, since we haven't in awhile. Not a lot to report here. Our artist and I have come to an agreement on fewer pages a month, I just haven't seen any since. Her real job seems to be demanding, so I'm trying to play ball but I do want to keep the comic book moving forward.

Our corresponding podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, was a short one this week. We previewed issue #3, "The Lady Guinevere", of Trevor's book, The Blade of Miracles. You can watch it now on our twitch channel, twitch.tv/powerssquared, listen to it here or wait until it hits our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm. This new issue will be available on May 30, through The Campus Store on our website. You can also learn more about the series here.

Next week will be our 300th podcast, and we're premiering our conversation with Eric and Julia Lewald from a couple of months back. We had to pre-record it to work with their schedule and we decided the 300th podcast would be a fitting occasion for it.

I hate to admit it, but I'm still not done with my I Wake Up Screaming review, though I'm close. My review of When Worlds Collide was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. On Friday afternoon, we rewatched Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part 1, and on Saturday morning, and I mean at 8:45 am, went to see Mission: Impossibe - The Final Reckoning, which I also reviewed and it went up this morning on the blog.

I did some work this week on the newsletter, which will be coming out next Sunday. I wanted to strike while the iron was hot, so to speak. I like to get as much of the heavy lifting out of the way as early as possible. If you'd like to get your own copy, of course, you can join the mailing list by enrolling at SRCC, which is the fictious college where the story takes place. And, of course, it's free.

Sent out my fifth query this week for Past Present. Of course, I've received no rejections or requests for more.

I did work some on Blackmail again this week. Not sure if I moved the word count very much higher. It stands now at 36,665, which is about 2500 more than the week before. Remember, 1000 Words A Day is a goal.

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

A Week in Writing #551 - Everyone's Favorite Time of The Year

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

I'm being sarcastic about Daylight Savings Time being everyone's favorite time of the year. While I enjoy the sunlight lasting longer into the night, I do know that it plays havoc for a couple of days. I know it does with me. What I'm trying to say in a round-a-bout way is that to expect a little less from me this week as I adjust.

The weekend didn't get off to the greatest of starts. Sometimes the podcasts don't go as you expect. Our guest this past Friday was late to the show and I felt was really only using us as an infomercial for his books and dropped out when he was done, but before the show was over. Most guests hang around for a little post-podcast conversation, but not him. I guess after 286, you're allowed a clunker or two. If you want to hear the show, you can do so here; or you can wait for the video to go up on Wednesday at 2:30 PDT here. There is also an unedited version still up on twitch.tv/powerssquared, but you gotta hurry since it goes down in a few days.

We're getting close to releasing a new issue of Powers Squared, "Gashadokuro," so I've been updating the website to accomodate. I also need to write a press release since we're being so active in March with two releases and WonderCon at the end of the month. "Gashadokuro" was written by Trevor, who also created The Blade of Miracles, which is also debuting this month.

Recently, I complained here about the return of some books that had been on the shelf at a bookstore. Even though I had been asking for their return in mid-January, to ensure they were back in time for WonderCon, it wasn't until near the end of February before they were sent and the sender expected them to take a month to six weeks to get to me, which hmm, might be after I needed them. A good news update, they arrived early and so, we're set.

Speaking of WonderCon, and we're going to talk a lot about it this month and a little of next, should you be going, here is where we'll be:

If you are going, please come by and say hello.

On the writing front, I've been working on Blackmail, and I'm up to over 12,000 words. It's not a 1000 words a day, but I'm actually working on it.

My review of Elektra was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked  this week. We were trying to tie-in with the new Daredevil series with our last two Saturday mornings. The Wednesday, Game Day, review was Paul's review of Sonic Colors: Ultimate. I also finished a review of Caveman (1981), which should go up someday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #479 - Still Slow Going

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

Speaking of staying safe, over the weekend, I, along with the rest of my family, got vaccinated for the flu and for the new strain of Covid. In a couple of weeks, I'll go back and get one for RSV, as, yes, I'm in that age range.

Another not so effective week of writing. The cold was still with me for a good part of the week, so that's my excuse. Now that I've rounded that corner, I have to get back to getting things done.

This week, my big accomplishment was getting a dba set up. I'm doing business as SRCC Press, the publisher of Powers Squared. I don't think it means anything really, but my CPA has been after me to set one up, so I finally did it. Partly because I need to but also because in the new year, Powers Squared will be available on Library Pass, which means our books will be in school libraries across the country. This has been something we were told to do by Gamal Hennessey a couple of years ago, but that was easier said than done.

But it looks like that's coming along. I need to send in the materials still. Being under the weather was my excuse, but now it's getting ISBN numbers. Not that I'm afraid of the process of getting one, it's the cost. Since a number costs more than all the monies we've ever received for the books, I've been a little squeamish about the expense, but I think it would help with the entire process so I'm going to have to bite the bullet and do it.

We're putting together a second trade, issues 6-9 for Library Pass. The covers have been drawn, but not colored and it's a chance for us to fix something that bothered my co-creators when it was printed. A minor bit of dialogue, and no, it's not what was said, nothing bad, more like how it was presented. I think I kind of bullied it through the first go round so this would be a chance to make it right. We'll incorporate it into the Kickstarter I'd like to do next year and then make them available some time after that.

I have done some work, but not much, on a new approach to Skylar, that long suffering novel I keep writing about writing. I moved the introduction of the character up and I'm making some other changes. We'll see if it comes out better this time around.

I am working on a review of The Vampire Bat (1933), look for that next Halloween on Trophy Unlocked, so watch for it. In the meantime, it's been horror and Resident Evil Month. Tuesday was Paul's review of Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster followed on Thursday with his review of Resident Evil 4 (2005). The Saturday morning review was, surprise, also Paul's, this one for Frankenweenie (2012).

I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Trophy Unlocked hit a new milestone over the weekend, 1500 Reviews.

The OAPS this week was our 11th Comic Book Club meeting, this time it was Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, written and illustrated by Bryan Lee O'Malley, with Julia Canon, Jen Moreno, Rachel Wells and Trevor. You can listen here or watch it here on Wednesday. Next week, it's a team meeting, which you're welcome to watch on twitch.tv/powerssquared at 6 pm PT next Friday. Be There and Be Squared.

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