A Week in Writing #427 - Dog Catches Car

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

After a couple of weeks of little time, I felt I had more writing time this week. I spent three nights working on fka Skylar getting more than 2000 words further into the book. Now I'm up to 49,996 words and to be honest I'm enjoying getting on with it.

Got some news while I was writing this. I had proposed a panel for Los Angeles Comic Con and they accepted it. It's about comic books that are under the radar, like Powers Squared. Now I sort of feel like the dog who caught the car; now what? It's sort of exciting and scary at the same time. I have until Tuesday to confirm and I think I have two other creators lined up. More here as I find it out. Wish me luck.

Switching things up, Powers Squared's latest issue got a good review, which I've been sharing pretty much everywhere I can, so I'm going to do it here as well. I will admit I'm not sure how to get more reviews but we've been lucky to get them from First Comics News'  Richard Vasseur, who has reviewed all 14 issues. For the most part, they've been positive but it is always nice to get some feedback. As a plug, the issue is available through our store.

Speaking of Powers Squared, our artist is working on the first 8 pages of her final book for us. We got pencils this week, the last set coming in last night. We still need to review and send any comments. We also have to decide on the test for our colorist to see if she can be the next artist. I am rooting for her.

Worked on but have not finished my review for Everything Everywhere All At Once, but I did write one for Bride of Frankenstein to complete our October tribute to Horror films.

It's still Silent Hill month on Tropy Unlocked and so there were three reviews this week related to that, all written by Paul: Silent Hill: Origins (Monday); Silent Hill: Homecoming (Wednesday); and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Friday). Saturday Morning's review was also Paul's for the 1984 short Frankenweenie.

For our Friday OAPS podcast, we (Paul) discussed the Silent Hill franchise, including games, movies and graphic novels. It goes up on YouTube on Wednesday. I think the visuals will be more compelling but if you want to listen to it, it's available now here.

I also sent out one new query for Broken People. It's one of those only if we're interested kind of agencies. This one wanted approx. the first 25 pages. I sent slightly more to complete the chapter.

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

A Week in Writing #426 - Short Week but Press Coverage

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

Well, this was a short week for me. More birthdays, my wife's this time, so Thursday and Friday were spent in celebration. Disneyland on Thursday and dinner out on Friday. So, some things didn't get done.

To begin with, no queries this week. About the time I would usually be sending one, I think I was somewhere on the I-5 heading north. That said, I did DNR one. The agency's time to respond was "only if we're interested". After two months, I'm going to guess they're not.

I don't want to bury the lead too much, but there was a nice feature about Powers Squared on Scoop this week: Heroic Twins Star in Powers Squared Comic. This was the result of an effort that started back at San Diego Comic-Con in July. While I did not meet the person at Scoop during the panel they were on, I did follow up with them by email. I heard back and sent an introductory press release they asked for but then never heard back. Apparently, they never got the information I sent them, which I didn't find out until I followed up about the upcoming release of Issue #14. I ended up resending the first press release and they ended up writing the story. While perseverance paid off this time, that's not always the case.

This is as good a place as any to announce that the next issue of Powers Squared will be released on October 19th. Issue #14, The Imposter Part 2, completes two story arcs, one that began in Issue #10 and, of course, the one that started with Issue #13. Getting an issue published, even self-published, has proven harder recently. One of the platforms we work with has been slower than usual about getting issues up. Apparently, there are a lot of books and even though I moved it to publish two weeks ago, I don't have any idea when it will appear on that site. But it will be available on the 19th in both digital and print formats and you can find out where at The Campus Store.

With Paul and I preoccupied on Friday, our artist Rachel Wells and our colorist Julia Canon did OAPS without us, drawing characters from the upcoming issue, as well as one for Halloween. You can watch this now on twitch.tv/powerssquared or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm on our YouTube channel but it is worth watching, they always seem to have a good time when they get together.

And work continues on Issue #23, which will be our last with Rachel.

Did some more writing on fka Skylar but I'm only up to 47,770 words, which is only +61 words from last week, so not all effort moves the stick. I did work on it for two nights but probably only a couple of hours in total.

On the review front, I did manage to get one of the two I needed to get done, When Worlds Collide. As always not sure when it will appear. My review of The Strange Life of Dr. Frankenstein was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. In addition to Halloween, it's also Silent Hill month with three reviews, all by Paul: Silent Hill: Revelation on Monday, Silent Hill HD Collection on Wednesday and Silent Hill 4: The Room on Friday.

Next week will be a full week and I hope to get more done.

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

A Week in Writing #416 - Eight Years On

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

It didn't really occur to me until I numbered this post that I've been doing this little blog for 8 years now. (52 X 8 = 416). I'm not sure what this proves other than I don't know when to quit. Shout out to Paul Hankins, who has been my editor for the entire eight years and the one person I know who has read every post. No telling how bad this would read without him.

I don't really want to spend this post going over what little progress I've made through the years. This has been my place to share the ups and downs of my writing journey. And, since it has been eight years, I guess I'm still on that journey. I don't know if I'll ever make landfall but I'll be happy to let you know if I ever get there, wherever there happens to be.

Part of that journey is trying to get representation for my writing. As I've been detailing my recent efforts using the book Broken People. If you've been reading this blog, you know how much I love this process and how sarcastic I can be. To that end, I did hear back on a query I had given up on. The query dated from 4/29/2022 and it wasn't until Monday I heard back.

Surprise, not, it was a rejection but one that at least seemed somewhat personalized, coming as a response to my original email, so color me impressed:

Hi David,

Thanks for thinking of me for this. While I did like the premise, I'm afraid that I didn't connect enough with the pages in order to pursue. I do wish you the best of luck in placing this elsewhere.

All the best,

__________

I also realize, based on his reaction, that updating the book was probably a good idea; it is something I have done since. While I don't want to go into all the changes, the book used to start with:

Her hand was soft and surprisingly warm and holding it grounded me. I had spent most of the day playing errand boy for a law firm. My business card reads private detective but when times were hard, and my rent is already overdue, I'll do practically anything for money. Delivering subpoenas and summons wasn't below me.

Now it starts like this:

    The first punch landed and drew blood. If that hadn’t happened, the fight would have almost been comical. Daniel Redmond had to have a foot or more in height and nearly two hundred pounds on his opponent, a short, wiry Guatemalan former flyweight named Pedro Lopez, or as the ring announcer called him, the “Guatemalan Guerilla”. What Redmond didn't have was his wits about him and the flyweight was getting the best of him.

It gets to the action quicker and I hope that it might make an agent more interested in reading more.

Changing topics, work on Powers Squared continues. On Monday, we got pages from our colorist. Paul and I reviewed them and sent back some notes.

Sundays are busy for me when it comes to the comic book. I update the website with a new image every week, or what I'd like to call a peek-of-the-week. It's a glimpse at a future issue; currently, it's Issue #14. I also post Friday's OAPS on YouTube and set it to go up on Wednesday. Then I update Pinterest with both updates and finally set up some social media posts to go out on Tuesday and Wednesday, Tuesday for the peek-of-the-week, and Wednesday for the video.

This Sunday, being the first one of the month, means there is also a newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl to get out. A lot of it I do during the week leading up to it but there are still last-minute revisions and links to check before it gets sent.

I'm working on a couple of reviews this week, The Devil and Miss Jones was a movie I happened to catch while otherwise writing, and Tomorrow is Another Day from Saturday's drain the DVR exercise. I hope to finish them this week.

One of my reviews, Bull Durham (1988) went up as Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review. Wednesday's Game Day review was Trevor's for The Looker.

To round out the week, yes, I did work on fka Skylar, it's just not in a way that has increased the word count but I'm getting there.

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

A Week in Writing #413 - Prepping for the Task Ahead

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

Coming up next week is SDCC 2022, or what is also known as Comic-Con. For those who have never been, the convention is a blur of activity with exclusives, panels, autographs, and announcements all seemingly overlapping to the point that you can never see it all, try as you might.

Around my house there is at least two weeks of prep, going through all the posts about what is coming to San Diego and trying to figure out who will go do what (panel, signing) while we're there. I want to mix professional learning with fun and networking, which in our house takes a series of spreadsheets and a planning session or two. Not to mention the nightly bleery-eyed meetings to plan the attack for the next day when we're there.

I wrote last week about my apprehensions with the new COVID variant but we're going anyway. If you want to think happy thoughts about us while we're there, please do. I have to think we'll come out of this clean or clear, after the app of the same name.

If you're going, I'll be the one wearing a Powers Squared t-shirt, so if you are, say hello if you see me.

In the spirit of Comic-Con, we had artist and creator Don Nguyen on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. Unlike us, Don has a table at the con in Artist Alley. We did apply but we were turned down due to the backlog from the previous canceled SDCCs in 2020 and 2021. I imagine it's a very different experience but one that we'll need to do eventually if we want to play in the big leagues. I always feel like we're just a step or two away from something happening.

On the subject of Powers Squared, our latest issue dropped this past Wednesday; Issue #13, The Imposter, Part 1. (The link will take you to where you can buy it.) Releasing printed comic books in this day and age is harder than you'd think, what with paper shortages. One of the platforms we use is backlogged to the point that they couldn't guarantee it would be up on their site, even with two weeks' notice, so we're only up on three out of the four we usually work with. I checked as I'm writing this and it is still not up and they're closing shop and will be at SDCC as well.

Had a learning experience with proofs. One set, from the other print platform, took over two months to get the proofs to us and it was only then that we saw the error in our ways. Apparently, I had included two of the same page in the pdf so there were three blank pages at the end of the issue, including the back cover. Thankfully, it is not an issue that we're releasing in the near future so we can make the change.

While it might seem like we're only doing Comic-Con prep, that would be wrong.

During this past week, I did send out a new query for Broken People, my Thursday night chore. I also messed around a little more with the opening chapter. I'm sure that is not the right thing to do but I decided that I could make it better, so I did. I still need to rewrite the synopsis, which would open up more query options for the book. I did remove one from my list as a DNR, as their prescribed time period had expired.

I also managed to make some headway with fka Skylar, though I think I'm updating some backstory ideas I have for it, all of which I think will make it better and have a better twist at the end. So, the word count will come; trust me.

I also wrote a review for Blast of Silence, which I realized was a leftover from some Christmas holiday recording and part of the Drain the DVR campaign. Not sure when that will come out. As I mentioned last week, we're good with Christmas movies for a couple of seasons and we're not in a rush to put this one out.

My review of Jingle All the Way was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. We decided to give in to the inevitable pressure from Hallmark and acknowledge Christmas in July. No game review this week but that feature will return next week.

Let's talk next week, while we're on the subject. Writing, including this blog, will go on hiatus from Wednesday until Sunday, so I probably won't get a lot of work done before we leave; no film reviews will be written and no queries will be sent. On Monday, I will, however, publish a Report From the Front, detailing my experiences at Comic-Con and any pertinent information I might have learned while attending.

So, until then, keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #408 - Another Banner Week, Not.

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

I realize I sit down every Sunday night to write this and I really never know if anyone reading this is actually writing. I would really like to hear from someone, anyone, reading this to leave a comment and let me know what you're doing. Are you a writer? Is this blog ever helpful? Feel free to leave comments below. It would be nice to hear from you.

I can't say I really burned it up this week at the laptop. I'm really not sure what the reason is. I'd like to say it's Daylight Savings Time that is throwing me off. I never feel like I get enough sleep. I'm aware that this is an ongoing theme of the blog but it gets light outside at five-something in the morning and I'm apparently a light sleeper. Brain turns on, worrying about things I can't control mind you, but I'm up. At night, I try to soldier through until 11 but I'm getting to be no good after 10:30.

To that end, not much happened on fka Skylar. I mean I opened it up and figured out what I need to do next but beyond that a few lines and nothing more.

As far as reviews go, I've been busy. The Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked was mine for Nanook of the North (1922), which came out 100 years ago that day. I like it when that works out. Am I the only one?

Wednesday's GameDay review was Trevor's for Resistance: Burning Skies.

I also wrote two reviews for the future. Has anyone else been watching the TV Series, Julia? Well, we have been which got us interested in re-watching Julie & Julia (2009), which I wrote a review for on Friday night/Saturday Morning. Then, as part of our drain the DVR Saturday night, we watched Stage Fright (1950), so that was what I worked on Saturday night and Sunday. In all about 3500 words, for those who are counting.

What if you ordered a proof and it never came? Well, that's what it feels like sometimes. In May, I ordered two sets of proofs for new issues of Powers Squared: Issues 13-15. As of Friday, I had not received either set. What I had hoped to be an unboxing video for them on OAPS turned into a pre-recorded segment of us signing the fine art prints from our less than recent Kickstarter. Actually, the timing was good as the rewards went out on Friday or were supposed to. I'm hopeful that I'll have one by this week. Would really like to know they exist before launching them onto the world.

Final touches on the pitch, which now goes to Trevor to put together. I went through and selected images for us to use. Hopefully, we can get this done soon and see if we can get another look at it from the person that gave us feedback. Things just take time.

We're in the beginning stages of organizing our yearly pilgrimage to San Diego Comic-Con, which should be live this year. Preliminary stuff so far, like signing up for the parking lottery, but steps that have to be taken.

Sent another query for Broken People, and surprise, no response from any of them so far. This week, I should expand to another book. Can't hurt to have more than one out on the query trail, can it?

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

A Week in Writing #287 - The Runaway Taking Shape

Every week is different when it comes to writing. This week, I think I was able to spend more time on The Runaway, making some progress on the book. I don't have an exact word count but I was able to write to the point where I was able to insert the section I had written ahead, which was over 5000 words. I'm still not sure the book, as it's currently shaping up, will be long enough. That still remains to be seen as I'm not done yet but I do have it in the back of my mind as I think I'm on the downhill side of writing this book.

I also had an idea about how to change my query letter for another novel, Broken People. Had sort of a sleepless night and the wording sort of came to me. It takes me one step closer to actually sending out query letters again. That's a really necessary step but one that will take a lot of time, which is always at a premium, especially over the next few weeks.

That takes us to Powers Squared and what's on the schedule for that project. On March 14th, we have our signing at Golden Apple Comics, which we're very excited about. Before that, Paul and I will be attending a two-part seminar at UCLA that's supposed to help us with our idea to pitch the book as an animated TV series. That's the goal at least. So the next three Saturdays, prime writing time, are taken up with what I like to think of as the business side of writing. It has its place but it does take away from the actual art-side of the equation.

New pages this week from our artist, Rachel Wells. She's completed pencils on the last four pages of Issue #13 and the cover. We had only one brief change we wanted her to make and she made that as well.

Our new colorist, Julia Canon, started working this week on Issue #13. I know this, in part, because she is Twitch streaming her work. You can follow along at https://www.twitch.tv/blythe_pov/. I'll admit I've watched a couple of hours so far. I feel a little like I'm spying on her, if you know what I mean, but I really appreciate her being public about her work and publicizing the book on a consistent basis. That's the sort of help that we really haven't gotten before from one of our artists.

No new reviews from me this week. I did finish up one on The St. Valentine's Day Massacre but that doesn't really count. This week's Saturday Review on Trophy Unlocked was Paul's review of Slayer: The Replentless Killogy. Trust me when I say the film is a big difference from what we had been reviewing during last week's Sonic Week.