A Week in Writing #618 - Tell Me If This Has Happened to You

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. And Happy Father's Day!

We were going to do a very different podcast than we ended up doing. The idea was to talk about the 70th anniversary of San Romero Community College, the fake college where Powers Squared is based. The plan was to do an unboxing of the t-shirts I had ordered to celebrate, and, hopefully encourage someone to buy when they went online. Instead, we ended up talking about Toy Story 5 as well as the entire franchise.

The pivot came when we unboxed the shirts and discovered we got the wrong ones. Instead of the 70th anniversary shirts, we got the regular shirts. To complete the tale, I had also ordered one for the artist who designed them and she received hers earlier than we were going to do the podcast. She said they looked good, so I thought we were good to go. Turns out, I had inadvertantly ordered her the old t-shirt and she was tired when she looked at it, and didn't notice the error. The supplier is supposed to make good on ours, so hopefully that'll come quickly. And, yes, I ordered the artist the correct one this time. My guess is someone completed her order and then just continued with ours not noticing they were different items.

If you're interested, you can listen to the podcast here, and/or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch it on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared).

Speaking of Toy Story 5, I wrote the review, which came out today on Trophy Unlocked. This was a culmination of Toy Story related reviews, including the Wednesday Game Day review of Toy Story 3 (Game) by Trevor, and his second opinion review of Toy Story 4, which was the Saturday Morning Review on the blog.

I did mention last week that I was going to Designer-Con, known as D-Con on Saturday in Pasadena. It was my first time to attend. Even though we had weekend passes, it was pretty easy to do it all in one afternoon. It's more like LightBox than say Comic-Con. A lot of creatives showing their wares. We were able to make contact with someone we would like to have on the podcast, and see artists we were familiar with, but overall, we had a good time. No panels to attend, but still a lot of walking.

Work continues on the next issues of Powers Squared, though we sort of working on the same page for a week now. I think it'll get sorted out, but it really comes down to consistency of how a room looks now to how it's looked in previous issues.

I did work, and I'm still working on Blackmail. I'm still going through the last few chapters, currently making minor changes. It's currently 88,467 words, if you're still counting.

This coming week, we're planning to go to Golden Apple and pick up the trades that didn't sell. We were supposed to go back about six months ago, but Saturdays are hard to plan, so we're planning to go next Saturday. Hopefully, some sold, but otherwise, we can reuse them.

Still no word about SDCC, but I'm still trying to get ready in case it happens. We're hopefully, readying possible trades of both Powers Squared  and The Blade of Miracles. We got proofs back yesterday and made some minor changes, so hopefully, they'll look better.

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

A Week in Writing #617 - So, I Lied

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

I know I said last week that I would be working on Blackmail this week, but I didn't. Instead, I continued to work on the new story, untitled at this juncture. It's been a combination of editing what I had previously written as well as some new bits to tie it together. I do plan to get back to Blackmail, but this one sort of drew me in. In this one, he's hired to find a girl that supposedly ran away from home the summer before her senior year at high school. The twist is that it was 15 years ago. Also, at this point, J.D., my main character, is now a father by his wife, so I get to mix that into the story as well. At this stage, I'm 17,771 words in, compared to the 20,546 words I had on the first draft and there is only one more chapter from the previous version, then I will get back to Blackmail and finish that up.

Our podcast this week was our 24th Comic Book Club. This time it was my choice, usually I let my turn pass but I had become aware of what was supposed to be one of the first graphic novels, It Rhymes with Lust written by Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller (under the pseudonym "Drake Waller"), with art by Matt Baker and inks by Ray Osrin. Besides the three of us, Rachel Wells and Julia Canon were also there to give their opinions. The book dates from 1950, and is influenced by film noir. You can watch it on our twitch channel for the next few days but there may be audio issues. You're better off listening to it here or waiting until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch it on our YouTube channel.

I'm sort of working for a review of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929), though sometimes watching a movie on Saturday night can be a dicey endeavor. And, yes, I dozed during the watching, so I'm rewatching those parts I missed. Being more awake has made me enjoy it more, but I won't be starting a review until I've seen it all. Trophy Unlocked isn't dependent on me for reviews and there were three this past week, starting with Tuesday's review of The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act, written by Paul. The Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's review of River City Girls 2; and the Saturday Morning Review was Paul's of Toy Story 3: it is his blog after all.

Waiting for a second proof of the third Trade for Powers Squared and a first for Trevor's for The Blade of Miracles. Trying to get ready in case we're called off the bench for San Diego Comic-Con. We were last year, so you never know. I just don't want to be caught flat-footed again. We managed to scramble to get everything ready with three weeks notice but the stars sort of aligned for some of that to happen, and I don't want to count on that coming together again.

Work continues on issue #30 of Powers Squared. Our artist is currently working on page 14 and our colorist is working on the first 8 pages. The next issue to come out would #28, "Agnes, Wreckage", Part 1 and I think we're probably looking at August for that to come out. It's going to be an interesting story arc, as two different artists will have drawn the two issues.

So next week, I should get back to Blackmail and finish my review of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. Next weekend, we're attending DesignerCon in Pasadena. I've never attended it before, so it will be new, and hopefully exciting. I'll be writing about it after.

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

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 #601 - Happy the Week is Over

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

You ever have what seems like a busy week but when it's over, you're not sure if you accomplished much?

Case in point for me. I believe I mentioned in a past post that I was having communication problems with our printer. I could go on their message board and leave a message but then never see it. Well, they cleared that up but never told me, so it was by chance that I looked this weekend. I found out the details why the last iteration of The Blade of Miracles #12 had been off, and I made the corrections. However, when I went to order the reprint, I somehow got Issue #3 with changes and then Issue #12 without changes. I don't need a new #3 and it was #12 I needed to change. I wrote them and sent a link to the revised one in a dropbox. Fingers crossed it will work out.

That said, Issue #12 is coming out on Wednesday through The Campus Store. We prerecorded a preview of the issue, as well as a tier list for Daft Punk, a band Trevor like very much, who retired five years ago this month. Paul did some pretty good editing and it's available here for the next few days, can be listened to here and will be on our YouTube channel on Wedneday at 2:30 pm PST.

We're getting close to completing the artwork for Issue #29 of Powers Squared, though it's going a little slower than I would have expected. We're about three pages and a cover away.

Sort of unexpectantly, my review of the first Mission:Impossible movie went up as the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. It's not like I didn't know it was going up, but we've decided to publish reviews for the first three films in that series and now was as good a time as any. I'm currently working on a review for Brief Encounter (1945).

I did get some work done on Blackmail. We're now up to 86,409 words and I think I'm in the landing zone for finishing the first draft. It's going to need work, but I'd be happy to get to the editing stage.

That may take a backseat to some rewrites I need to do to a Powers Squared script and this is going to be newsletter week and we're pre-recording a podcast on Tuesday night for Friday. Hopefully, I'll get through that week, too.

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

A Week in Writing #599 - Blame it on the Bunny!

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

I know it looks like I'm looking for excuses, but hear me out. I'm going to blame my lack of production on Bugs Bunny. I know it sounds far-fetched, but he was the Star of the Month on TCM and my wife wanted to watch them in real time. This delayed dinner, but my window to work didn't get later. And, hey, I enjoyed them, too.

I'm most disappointed by my work on Blackmail, which was practically nil. I did finish the chapter, but it's going to need a lot of rewrites when the time comes. I'm up to 82,586, which is a little over 1,100 words from last week, which is about average. I'm really surprised to see that total.

It wasn't that I didn't do anything. I did review work from our artist and colorist for Powers Squared, and, of course, pay them for their work from last month.

As "publisher" of The Blade of Miracles, I had a week-long running issue with our printer. While it dates back to a mistake I made in the order, it took a week to work out the upload, but they got it done and the proof is on its way.

I also did some work on future issues of Powers Squared.

Related, the school where it takes place, San Romero Community College, is celebrating it's 70th anniversary and we were working with a former artist on the book to come up with a variant seal to celebrate. You can find here, if you're interested.

There was also the podcast. This week it was one Paul wanted to do, a Megadeth Tier List, celebrating the 17 albums the band has issued. You can watch it here for the next few days, listen to it now here or wait and watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm when it premieres on our YouTube channel.

My review of They Call it Sin was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I also wrote a future review of Little Amélie or the Character of Rain which I assume will go up soon.

So, not the worst week I've had writing but not the best one either.

As always, I hope to work more on Blackmail but I don't always control what is going on.

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

A Week in Writing #598 - Didn't Get it All Done

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

My goals for this week were simple enough: do the newsletter, The Hound Dog's Howl, and work more on Blackmail. Well, I got about half of that done, it was the newsletter. Even though much of it is formulaic, it still takes time. And by formulaic, I don't mean that I'm in possession of some magic formula about how to put together a newsletter, but more that there is a layout to ours that I follow month in and month out. There is some writing involved, things do happen during the month. This past month, as an example, we had a new issue of The Blade of Miracles released, we tabled at a convention and our latest trade went up on ComicsPlus through LibraryPass. If you would like to read it, please subscribe here. It's FREE.

The work on Blackmail never really got off the ground. I'm up to 80,472 words, which isn't much of an improvement from last week. Things happen that get in the way. Some of it is the book itself. I knoew what I want to have happen in the next chapter but sometimes it's a little difficult to get into it.

Our podcast this week, was our 22nd Comic Book Club. It seems like it had been months since I had read Vagabond, a manga by Takehiko Inoue, which wasn't the plan. When you're trying to schedule five people in two cities, and people have their own lives, it can be hard, especially when you're working around the holidays. Our former artist Rachel Wells, and our current colorist, Julia Canon, joined Trevor, Paul and myself. You can listen to it here, watch it for the next few days on our twitch channel, or wait until Wedmesday at 2:30 pm PST and watch it on our YouTube channel. While you're there, please feel free to subscribe and sign up for notifications.

Quite an active week on Trophy Unlocked. On Wednesday, Paul's review of Iron Lung went up. He and Trevor had attended what was supposed to be the first screening of the film on Tuesday night. The Saturday Morning Review was my review of Samaritan, a digital release based on the comic book by a friend of a friend. We had watched it after Lewis Felton had appeared on our podcast and talked about how his business partner had written a spec script that didn't sell, but when he made it into a comic book, that sold. If you want to hear more, you can check out the interview with Lewis Fenton here.

I've also written a review of The Beast of the City, a 1932 MGM film starring Walter Huston and Jean Harlow. As always, no idea when it will appear.

This past Wednesday saw the release of issue 11 of Trevor's The Blade of Miracles. You can find it in both physical and digital at The Campus Store on our website. I'm still working on getting #12 ready for release later this month.

On the Powers Squared front, I feel like I'm in a waiting pattern. Our new artist should be delivering a new page soon, our colorist should be sending new colored pages soon and I'm working with our old artist about a new seal to celebrate SRCC's 70th anniversary. San Romero Community College is the ficticious school where a lot of the comic book takes place in and around. Amd according to the story, it was founded in 1956. I'll be sharing the new seal when done.

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

A Week in Writing #597 - Report From the Front: A One Day Con

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

We're a little late this week, thanks to tabling at the Pasadena Comic Con. While the con was over by 5, I was too brain dead to write this post, by the time we got home.

Having tabled at SDCC, Pasadena Comic Con is a few steps down the ladder from that. You can tell it's run on a shoe string. The room we ended up in reminded me a little of WonderCon, as it seemed to be off the beaten path, but also it was very low light. And our table, though near the entrance, was also a bit off the path of most visitors. But you can't blame everything on placement. However, we did hear that it was slow for many, sales wise, and very slow for us, only two copies of Trevor's The Blade of Miracles. 

The con was a learning expreience though. Here's what I learned:

    The day started before 6 am with loading the truck in the dark. Learned it would be better to do that the day before. Still managed to get most everything in the bed, but no need to wait. I'm also considering a shell for the back that would increase the storage vertically as well.

    Too many issues on display. So far, with Powers Squared and The Blade of Miracles, we have 38 issues and 2 trades, which frankly is overwhelming and requires two display racks. In future, we're going to have just trades and the first issues out, with the others ready to go. We're also thinking about having something to show the story arcs out without it being the issues themselves.

    Offer free things. We have Starbursts, but our table neighbor had stickers, and they weren't even related to his book. However, it got people to stop and take them, start a conversation and he made sales. I'm liking the idea of stickers, but also bookmarks.

    Have a QR code on the table. Again, it worked for our neighbor. People didn't even seem to ask what it was, but accessed it instinctively.

Besides making new friends, it was nice to reconnect with familiar faces, who were at the Con. Former guests on the podcast include Tony Fleecs, Livio Ramondelli, Stephen E. Gordon and Bin Lee. We also reconnected with the first artist we had tried to work with on Powers Squared, who was also tabling a couple of rows over. While we never got off the ground with them, it was nice to reconnect.

While the Con sort of dominated the weekend, other things also moved forward. There were three reviews on Trophy Unlocked, Paul reviewed the Megadeth: Behind the Mask listening party on Friday, Trevor's review of Anvil! The Story of Anvil on Saturday, and Paul's review of Return to Silent Hill. Meanwhile, I completed a review of The House on Telegraph Hill for later consumption.

I also managed to work some more on Blackmail, mostly some edits further back in the story, currently a flashback that gets told. So now, the word count is 80,025, and I still have a few chapters to go.

In the meantime, work continues on new pages for Powers Squared. 

And let's not forget, the podcast. This week's was a very brief preview of issue #11 of Trevor's The Blade of Miracles, which comes out on Wednesday and will be available in digital and print through The Campus Store on our website. You can still watch it for a few days here, listen to it here or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel here Wedensday after 2:30 PST.

This coming week, I need to work again on our newsletter,The Hound Dogs' Howl, and hopefully make more progress on Blackmail.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you 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 #592 - The Holidays Are Coming

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

Sorry to borrow a line from that terrible AI Coca-Cola commercial, but I'm sure the sentiment existed before they used it. The truth is Christmas will be quickly upon us. I hope yours is happy and safe.

Even though it's the holidays, we are still releasing one issue of The Blade of Miracles, #10, on Christmas Eve and on Kindle on Christmas Day; couldn't be helped. It could be considered a very last minute gift or a diversion if needed. You'll be able to find links to it at The Campus Store on our website.

We're still getting pages from our new artist for Powers Squared. Not only is she good, but she's quick and, as I said last time, it feels like it's a comic book again.

We talked about that change, as well as other events for Powers Squared and The Blade of Miracles, on our podcast, which comes out on Christmas Day. Called Powers Squared 2025 Rewind, the podcast can still be watched on our twitch.tv channel for the rest of the week, listened to here, and watched on our YouTube channel on Christmas Day after 2:30 pm PT.

No new review this week from me. Last night, we went to the mall, as a sort of tradition. Our shopping is complete, but it's nice to walk around and see what's what and say hi to Santa, if not sit on his knee.

That's not to say we don't have reviews. This was a big week for Trophy Unlocked, which celebrated it's 15 year and nearly 1700 reviews of movies and videogames. The anniversary post was Paul's review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009). Prior to that, on Wednesday was Trevor's review of Tron RUN/r. Yesterday, the Saturday Morning Review was mine for O. Henry’s Full House (1952). It's an anthology film of the writer's work and includes "The Gift of the Magi", which seemed appropriate for the season.

Work continued on Blackmail. I'm now up to 71, 343, so with everything, I did get in over 1000 words this week. I also continued going through older books and looking for descriptions of one of the main characters. However, with one book, The Runaway, I found that the chapter numbering made no sense, so I had to go back through it and renumber them, which wasn't hard, but just time-consuming, and a little embarassing as well. Not sure what happened there.

This coming week, I'm hoping to get more work in on Blackmail. There is also our own made-up holiday, "Movie Day", which is the day after. We still believe in physical media, so we spend a day watching some of the new titles we've just received. I'm sure you have your own way that you spend your time with family and friends.

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

A Week in Writing #591 - Things Don't Always Go According to Plan

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

I believe the plan was to work a lot on Blackmail this week. While I did some work in the book, and passed 70,000 words on the road to 80,000, I didn't work on it as much as I wanted to. But the word count now is 70011 and growing. I also spent some time doing some retro work on previous books. I know it might seem odd but with this book, I believe I've finally nailed the description for one of the characters and I wanted to be sure it is the same in previous books.

One of the thing that has occupied my time has been our new artist turning in pages, which has been missing from my life for months. I was telling the other creators, my sons, that it feels like Powers Squared is a comic book again. Yeah!

On the subject of comic books, our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, this week was about Trevor's The Blade of Miracles and the new issue coming out later this month. You can watch it on twitch.tv for the next few days, listen to it now here, or wait and watch it on YouTube after 2:30 pm PST on Wednesday here. I've also added a preview of the book on our website, so check it out.

SRCC Press learned this week that we've been waitlisted for WonderCon 2026, which is disappointing, considering we've also been waitlisted for San Diego Comic-Con. You never know, but I'm not sure if we would want to do Small Press again there. We're hoping for Artists Alley since that's where the action is at that Con.

Trophy Unlocked gets into the holiday mode, with Miracle on Main Street (1939), which is one that I wrote. Before that it was Game Day on the blog with Paul's review of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. And that would be a lot, but not for Trophy Unlocked, because the week started with Paul's review of the film Five Nights at Freddy's 2. I also wrote a review of Cash on Demand (1961), a British Christmastime bank robbery film that I stumbled across on Saturday night. Most likely, it will be on hold until next Christmas, but it would be worth waiting for. 

The Trophy Unlocked blog is also only a few days away from celebrating it's 15th anniversary. The first post was a review by Paul of Tron: Legacy on December 18, 2010. Now there are over 1725 reviews. I don't know if Paul had this in mind when he started the blog, but it's quite an achievement and one I'm happy to be a part of.

Next week, here's hoping for more pages of Powers Squared and Blackmail.

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

A Week in Writing #589 - Happy Holidays

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

I'm hoping everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Mine was good, up on Thanksgiving to San Mateo and back the next day. It's a lot of driving let me tell you, which is not my favorite way to spend the day.

Not much Black Friday shopping, save for our annual trip to Barnes & Noble; we go other times, too, but always on Black Friday. Black Friday isn't what it used to be, which is both good and bad. I miss the hubbub but at the same time, I don't. But now it's like Black Friday Month, so the actual day means nothing.

I'm happy to report that despite a shorter week, I managed to write more on Blackmail than I have in a long while. I'm now up to 68,432, so we're getting closer; 80,000 is my goal.

We recorded what might be our shortest podcast ever on Wednesday and were back in time to post it on Friday. In OAPS #327 - Powers Squared State of Play 2025, we discuss the current status of Powers Squared, which is missing an artist. Again it's short, but you can watch it here for a few more days, listen to it here or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PST and watch it here.

Speaking of the artist, our lawyer sent her the contract he drafted on Thanksgiving Day, but haven't heard anything back. Hopefully, soon we'll be able to announce the hire and we can get back to producing the book.

Wednesday was a busy one for us, as the 9th issue of The Blade of Miracles, Trevor's comic book series, came out on that day. This is "Mordred, Part 2" and in this issue, "The final battle begins!" The issue, like all of the series, is available in print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

The holiday didn't stop Trophy Unlocked. On Wednesday, Game Day, Paul's review of Dispatch, a recent PC game, went up. My review of Armored Car Robbery was the Saturday Morning Review, as well as the last of our Noirvember reviews. Not really working on a new one. Finally finished the Batman serial review, but I haven't yet started Heroes For Sale. We did see Zootopia 2 earlier today, but I'll let someone else review that one.

This week, it's truly newsletter time, so I'll be working on this. I hope to be working on Blackmail, and I might be looking back at some other books, since I've hit on the description of one of the main characters and would like to make sure it's the same one when she's described.

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

A Week in Writing #588 - Blame it on the Contract

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

This week was mostly spent in reviewing an artist contract for our "new" artist. There was some back and forth with the lawyer and I wanted to make sure everyone on our side was happy with it. You might not think it would be that big of a deal, but it does take time. It started when I wanted to be sure the new contract took into account AI and the lawyer went on from there. At this point, it's close and I want this to be over, so we can get the artist working.

In other Powers Squared  news, we were notified on Friday that we're waitlisted for San Diego Comic-Con 2026. Hopefully, we'll get in and get more than three weeks of a heads-up.

We also shot our podcast a day early, so that took Thursday night away as well. The podcast was to provide Trevor with the chance to preview the new issue of his book, The Blade of Miracles, "Mordred, Part 2." The 9th issue drops on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and will be available in both print and digital at The Campus Store on our website.

Because we pre-recorded the podcast, the easiest thing would be to stream the recording on time, but I managed to mess that up, so it went out about 15 minutes late. Still, you can watch it on our twitch channel for the next few days, listen to it here or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm and watch it here.

My review of The Big Steal went up on Trophy Unlocked as part of our celebration of Noirvember. Paul's review of Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution  for the Game Boy Advance went up as the Wednesday Game Day review. Trevor's review of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional went up this morning. This was a film that we watched on Friday night. We did watch a movie on Saturday night, The Lost World (1925), but since most of us fell asleep during it, I don't think I'll be reviewing it. I'm still working on The Batman serial and Heroes for Sale, so I've got my hands full at the moment.

The way the week went meant I didn't get much of a chance to work on Blackmail this week, so we're standing still at 66,618 words.

As I'm sure everyone is aware, this next week includes the Thanksgiving Day holiday, which means there will probably be no writing on either Thursday or Friday. I aslo realize that sooner than later, I'll have to work on the next newsletter but luckily the first Sunday of December isn't until the 7th. So, I'm going to apologize now if my output isn't up to expectations for the next few weeks, though I want to get going again with Blackmail.

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

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 #583 - The Time Had Come

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

Well, things finally came to a head this week and I fired the artist on Powers Squared. It was not something I wanted to do, but after two months and no finished pages and two weeks and no response to a direct message, I didn't feel like I had a choice. It was time to move on. We're in the process of looking for a new artist and hopefully we'll find one soon. There have, so far, been only four artists to draw the book, which isn't bad for 28 issues. One drew five, another drew four, this last one did only one and one aritst drew 18 issues in all.

On this week's podcast, Paul and I discussed horror movies, in time for Halloween. I figured if we did it on Halloween it would be too late. For me, watching horror films after Halloween is a little like watching Christmas movies in January; the season has passed. You can still watch it on our twitch channel for the next few days, listen to it now here, or wait and watch it in all its glory on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT here. The choice is yours.

Next week's podcast should be a preview for the next issue of Trevor's book The Blade of Miracles, #8, "Mordred, Part 1". There is also a new review of the book for your perusal. And the peek-of-the-week is from that book as well.

Speaking of horror films, or more like Gothic Science Fiction, we attended a screening of Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein this past Saturday. I was anxious to see it because I had read the Mary Shelley novel and had high hopes del Toro's version would be a closer adaptation to the book than Universal's Frankenstein (1931) had been. My review will go up next Saturday, so you'll have to wait until then to know how I feel about the new movie.

In the meantime, Paul's review of Tron: Ares went up on Saturday on Trophy Unlocked. And on Game Day Wednesday, Trevor's review of the PC game Tron: Catalyst was featured.

I also did some prelimary research on the Batman serial we're watching, though we didn't watch any this past Saturday.

More work on Blackmail this week, but more like editing, though I did add a chapter. The word count is now 61,671, so some movement forward on that. This Tuesday past was my wife's birthday, so I took the day off. Since it was raining, we sheltered in place for half the day and I was able to get some work done on the book.

No new queries this week. I've got to get back on that horse soon.

The next week, we'll keep working on finding a new artist and I hope to get in more writing on Blackmail.

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

A Week in Writing #582 - Not As Bad As Advertised

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

I sort of lost part of a day this week. It was colonoscopy time again, which I had scheduled for Wednesday. I feared I would be more out of it that day/night, but it wasn't that bad. I'm not going to make this blog about getting screened, but it's better to know either way than not know. I'll leave it to you to decide what you want to do.

I did do some writing on Blackmail, which was supposed to be the week's main event. I ended up adding a new chapter and making some other revisions. Now, I'm up to 61,000+ words, but still about 19,000 to go with more story to tell.

Our podcast this week was our 21st Comic Book Club, Grommets by Rick Remender and Brian Posehn. Julia Canon and Rachel Wells joined us for the discussion. You can see it for the next few days on our twitch channel, listen to it here or wait and watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PT. Our next book will be Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue, if you want to virtually participate. Not sure when that podcast will be made.

We had a bit of a discussion, offline, about the sitch with Powers Squared and I will be letting our current artist go come Monday. By then it will have been two weeks of radio silence, which for me is a no-go. We've been stuck about five pages in on an issue for over two months, so I don't see it getting done this year. Time to make a change.

The Saturday Morning Review this week on Trophy Unlocked was my review of The Sound of Music. Next week will be Paul's for Tron: Ares, which we watched yesterday in IMAX 3D, the way it was intended. We're still slogging our way through The Batman 1943 serial, so that review is still several weeks away.

I need to get back into the query game soon. Hopefully next week or the week after, depending on how things go.

This week, I also need to prep for the next issue of The Blade of Miracles #8, "Mordred, Part 1", which is coming out at the end of the month, October 29. Several things need to happen before then, so it's not a mad rush like last month.

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

A Week in Writing #581 - Newsletter Week, Again!

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

My whole family had our COVID vaccinations yesterday. It seems vaccines effect people differently. Besides the sore shoulder, I know that at about 10 last night my mind went to mush. Now, it seems to do that more and more to me anyway. I try to write until about 11 pm and some nights by 10:30 I'm really done. If I'm not falling asleep at the keyboard, then I'm in a half-sleep haze, wanting to do something but not quite making it happen. Time for bed at that point.

For our podcast on Friday, we interviewed Lewis Fenton of Mythos Comics. They were one of the booths next to us in Small Press at San Diego Comic-Con. It was a pretty good interview, and I ended up buying some books off their website as a result. One that Lewis had worked on, The Brave, is the story of Squanto, the indian who came forward to help the Pilgrims and also spoke perfect English. I also bought the two issues of Samaritan, a comic book that started out as a screenplay but became a comic book when the script didn't sell, but when it did, they lost rights to the story, so the book only had two issues. You can hear more by listening to the podcast here, watching it on twitch.tv/powerssquared for the next few days, or catching it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday after 2:30 pm PDT.

Following our interview, we watched Samaritan, which lives on Amazon Prime, and I wrote a review of it over the weekend. As always, not sure when it will go up. However, my review of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale did go up as Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review. Earlier in the week, on Game Day Wednesday, Paul's review of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach went up as well.

This week was sort of dominated by The Hound Dogs' Howl, our monthly newsletter. This month, the featured twins are Bridgette and Paula Powers, no relation to Marty and Eli Powers, from Australia. There is also a round up of stories about Powers Squared, The Blade of Miracles and our videos and podcasts on YouTube. It's FREE if you want to subscribe. In keeping with the collegiate theme, you "enroll" at San Romero Community College to get on the list, plus you get a free digital copy of Issue #1. You can sign up here. End of plug.

I am about finished with our current artist on Powers Squared. I believe I mentioned last week that we got pages a week and a day late, but there has been no communication back since we sent her comments, which we sent on the 29th and we're coming up on a week of radio silence. I don't like firing people, but it seems to be headed in that direction.

On the subject of Powers Squared, we sent in the physical issues required as part of the application for Small Press. They had to be postmarked by the 11th, but I wanted to get them sent and not have to worry.

Some work this week as well on Blackmail; remember, this was supposed to be a newsletter week. I'm writing a couple of chapters that are out of my wheelhouse totally, so I'm making up procedures that a law enforcement organization would follow. It makes me feel rather tentative while writing it. My best hope is to get through it, which I've done. I'm at 58,526 words, which is about 22,00 short, with more to come.

I've got to get back to Blackmail this week, though I will warn you I'm going to miss a day, but that can wait until next week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #579 - The Sound of Music

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

Rarely does a review dominate a week as much as The Sound of Music took. I hate to say it, but it took up most of my writing time this week working on it. It's a little short of 3000 words. Since we watched it on Sunday afternoon, I didn't really get to it until Monday, and then it was a combination of a late start and trying to pay attention to a replay of a Cowboys game, which took time. I had to watch the game over two nights as it was. Anyway, the review is done and I don't have a new one to work on this week.

Since Saturday was also Batman Day, we ended up watching three episodes of the Batman serial from 1943. As you can imagine, as it was made during World War II, there are racist comments about the Japanese. My idea is to watch the serial and then review it, so this will be a few weeks in the making, but we'll be ready for Batman Day next year for sure.

Batman Day also has a certain place in Powers Squared history as that was the day, four year ago, when we (Paul, Trevor, myself and Julia Canon) had our signing at Golden Apple in Hollywood. I remember because we were also asked to hand out free Batman books.

Speaking of Powers Squared, the next issue, #26 - "The Great Escape", is coming out on Wednesday, September 24. On the same day, the next issue of Trevor's The Blade of Miracles, #7 - "Vivienne", is also being released. To commemorate the ocassion, our podcast on Friday, OAPS #317 - "SRCC Press September MEGA Update", was a preview of both issues, with Julia Canon guesting to talk about "The Great Escape". You can still catch it on twitch.tv (at least the live version), or listen to it here, or watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday, after 2:30 pm PDT.

In the meantime, you can watch Oreo-Reese's Taste Test that went up this afternoon. In it, Paul samples the various Oreo and Reese's combinations that are currently on the market and gives his opinion.

The Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, was Trevor's review of Lilo & Stitch (2025), one of the summer movies that we decided to wait until it was on Disney+. We recently had that same experience with Elio and a review from Paul will probably be out next week or soon after.

My work this week on Blackmail, isn't worth writing about, so we'll leave it there.

This coming week, I need to produce a press release and Bark newsletter about the new issue. Other than that, I'm hoping to spend most of my time working on Blackmail.

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

A Week in Writing #578 - Never too Late

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

Just to show that it's never too late to hear back from an agent, I received an email on Monday, September 8, for a query I sent on May 8, and which I wrote off as DNR on July 8. But that doesn't mean the agent was done with me. It should come as no surprise that it wasn't a request for more pages or even a personalized rejection. Just a form response:

"Thank you so much for giving me a chance to consider your work. Unfortunately, I don’t believe I’m the right person to represent it effectively. Publishing is such a subjective industry; so, please don’t be discouraged. I wish you the absolute best of luck finding an agent who can represent your work with the enthusiasm it deserves."

Not necessarily worth waiting for, but it does show some agents do respond, it's just not in a timely manner.

No queries this week, again. I'm hoping to learn some things soon and will get back into the query game after that.

I did work some on Blackmail this week, though I'm rewriting the newest chapter I'd written, and I've added a few things in what I had already written. One of the things I like about writing is seeing something current and make it relate to what I'm writing. I came across such a story this week, and while I won't name names, it involved two atheletes, from different sports, who had a relationship. It was some of the things the woman said about the man fit in with my book, so I made a point of using the spirit of how she described it, though I made sure not to quote her. So, the word count is now over 56,000, but I am making progress.

Had a little issue with the next issue of Powers Squared. We got back a proof and there was dialogue credited to the wrong character, an easy fix, and why you get proofs, but I wasn't sure if I should delay the issue by a month. I changed my mind this week and it may not be available everywhere on the first day, but that's life.

So, there'll be two issues coming out on the 24th: Issue #7 of The Blade of Miracles and #26 of Powers Squared. I had intended to release four issues of Powers Squared this year, but production issues with #29 have me rethinking that.

Trophy Unlocked hit 1700 reviews this week, with Trevor's review of Look Back having the honors. On Wednesday, Paul put up a review of ENA: Dream BBQ Chapter 1 - Lonely Door. Saturday night was upheaved this week because Paul was judging at a Yu-Gi-Oh! Regional, but we went to see a 60th anniversary showing of The Sound of Music today, and I'll probably be the one reviewing it.

Speaking of Paul's judging, our Friday podcast was about his previous experience with doing that at a previous Regional. I know I learned a few things during the show. You can listen to it here, watch it  on our twitch channel for a few more days, or watch it on our You Tube channel (@powerssquared) here Wednesday after 2:30 pm PDT.

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