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 #474 - Already Feeling the Effects

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #472 - Reliving the Past

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

After last week's scare, I've been spending time this past week looking back at some of the books I've written. I started with Public and Private for some reason; I'm not sure why, but I've enjoyed reading and editing it anew. As I had mentioned in last week's post, the stories follow a private detective, J.D. Barrister, and his relationships at the time.

He is hired by an agent to retrieve some incriminating photos of an up-and-coming actress, Cassandra Leonard, whose Oscar chances might be thwarted if the photos are released. Cassandra, who knows the blackmailer, Ritchie Fisher, insists on going with J.D. when he tries to make contact. But when they get to his last known address, they find a murder victim, who is not Fisher. After sending Cassandra away with his gun, J.D. calls his ex-, Debbie Estevez, who is a Robbery-Homicide Detective with the LAPD. When J.D. is considered a possible suspect, Debbie has him go with him on a stakeout of Fisher's last known address before sleeping with him, even though she's engaged to Enrique Sepulveda, a defemse attorney.

J.D. also has a romantic liaison with Cassandra when she invites him to a Christmas Eve party she's throwing. When everyone else leaves, she insists that he stay the night with her. That is also the night that Fisher himself is murdered. And while they supply each other with an alibi, she is still considered a person of interest. Also, when it's discovered that her agent, who is on a sky-holiday with his family in Utah, made a quick trip back to L.A. on Christmas Eve, he becomes a suspect, too.

I'm giving the story in very broadstrokes, but I really enjoyed reading it, and I won't tell you who the actual killer is, that would be giving away too much.

Later in the week, I began a similar read/edit of the book I thought I had lost, The Runaway. This one comes after Public and Private, with another book in between, Getting Even. In that one Leanne, J.D.'s current lover, is introduced. (She ultimately become his wife in the new story I started but that's fodder for a later day). I think I'm going to be spending time over the next week or so doing more of this. Then it's on to finish Skylar and get back to the new story.

The new issue of Powers Squared drops on Wednesday, September 6, so just around the corner. This will be issue #18, "Mocha and Raven, Part 3". I sent out several press releases, but I'm only aware that it appeared on First Comics News, who have been very fair to us. The issue is the culmination of a three issue story arc and we discuss it on out latest On the Air with Powers Squared podcast with everyone involved in the issue on the show, including artist Rachel Wells, colorist Julia Canon and letterer Trevor Hankins on the show. You can listen to it here, or watch it on Wednesday when it drops on YouTube.

Of course, you could also buy the issue when it drops. The links will be added throughout the day on Wednesday when they become available, but they will be on The Campus Store on the website; "Where the Hound Dogs Shop."

As always, would appreciate it if you would sign up for the newsletter.

This is Batman Month on Trophy Unlocked. This got its official kick-off on Saturday with Batman: Mask of the Phantasm written by Trevor. I'm currently working on a review for Gotham by Gaslight, which will appear this month. I'm also working on one for We're in the Money (1935). I hope to get them done tomorrow.

I still need to get back to the Pilot script, you know, with my free time.

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

A Week in Writing #471 - Disaster Averted

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar went up on Sunday.

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

A Week in Writing #308 - Knee Deep in Rewrites

Hope everyone is well and staying safe!

Am I alone but I really like the editing process, especially on my own stuff. This past week, I've been printing 25 to 30 pages at a time, trying to end at the end of a chapter of The Runaway and, with whatever available time, I've been reading and editing those pages. I'm old fashioned at this stage, paper and pencil, but for me, it's the only way to do it. I find myself carrying a larger and larger stack of papers with me when I do, as I like to keep all the previous pages with me, in case I want to look for something written before. It's interesting to me that 400 pages printed seem to be taller than 500 pages in the ream it came from.

I also did a rewrite on the pilot script for Powers Squared using notes from the table read. Paul has it for review and more editing. That was something that was on my plate for too long, as I really want to get through that and the pitch packet before summer ends. I would say before the coronavirus ends but I think we'll probably beat that.

Speaking of Powers Squared, I had an idea mid-week about doing more with the college setting of the story. If you've read any of the issues (and thank you for that) you'll know it's set at San Romero Community College. We even have t-shirts with the college crest on them for purchase. I had the idea that when we publish the next issue (#10) later this year that instead of hyping the next book we hype the school. I managed to do a preliminary mockup of the page, but my version of PhotoShop doesn't allow me to do everything I want.

That got me thinking that instead of encouraging people to Join, we should encourage them to enroll and provide them with a page to do that. The idea would be to make it look like a College Catalog with a brief history of the school, a story about the mascot, a way to sign up for the school paper, The Hound Dogs' Howl, and to use various means to have visitors hopefully hit up the shop for issues, websites of the creatives through course listings and staff listings and to provide glimpses of college life at dear old SRCC. I managed to put that page together as well this week, though we're still waiting for feedback from our colorist before launching.

Finished the review I was working on from last week, Scene of the Crime, and started two new ones: Top Gun and The Bribe for Trophy Unlocked. The reviews this week were both by Trevor this week, Wednesday it was Devolverland Expo and on Saturday it was Chicken Little.

Next week will be an abbreviated one as on Wednesday we're going to Comic-Con, though this year it will be a virtual @home experience. The Con will still run for five days with panels online and the Exhibit Hall, Small Press, and Artist Alley going virtual as well. There will be a lot to explore but without the walking and hustle and bustle.

After these sorts of events, I usually do a Report from the Front about what I may have learned about writing. Not sure how much I'll get to this time around as a lot of the instructional panels are either ones I've already attended in person or ones that I'm not interested in attending at all. But we'll see because, as they say, you never know.

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

A Week in Writing #302 - And the Work Continues . . .

Sometimes, I feel like I live in a bubble, as my world has gotten smaller in recent months. I rarely get out of the block around my house and I haven't filled a car with gas in over three months. If I do, indeed, work from home permanently, I'm going to have to figure some way to expand outwards or the chair I'm sitting on writing this will become my whole world.

One of the downsides of working from home is that when work is over, I don't really move. I just shut off Citrix and keep working, though on my own stuff. Oh, I do go for a walk after work but there is no change of place really, something I had gotten used to with working. On the plus side, of course, is that I don't have to spend two-plus hours a day in the car, so the payoff is there.

Writing for me is what keeps me going, though I wish it paid better. Right now I'm spending far more than I'm making and I sometimes feel like that equation is not going to reverse itself. I enjoy the process and still hold out the hope that someone will pay to read what that process wrought. Until then, I keep plugging away.

Let's start with Powers Squared, which always seems to be a player when it comes to time. Since we're at the beginning of the month, there is always the process of renewal. Each month our artist sends us thumbnails for the next eight pages and the process of building a comic book begins anew. As does sitting down and making decisions about which thumbnail to use.

This month, we're starting our 15th issue, How They Met, which tells the story of how our heroes, Marty and Eli Powers, meet their benefactor, Mocha. It's a one-shot, meaning one issue story arc. Hopefully, it will provide a jumping-on point for new readers.

To that end, Paul and I did our Friday podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared twice. Once for Twitch, which was more visual and lasted about half an hour, and a shorter less than 10-minute podcast for PodBean and the other platforms it feeds reviewing those thumbnails. We were able to go live a little earlier than normal on Twitch and picked up a new viewer sort of out of the blue, bringing our grand total up to one but it was a different one so something to cheer. We decided that while reviewing artwork is great for a video stream it wasn't so great for listening, so we did a separate podcast about the process, telling rather than showing.

When I hear people say their podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts, I must admit I wonder how they pull that off. Right now, PodBean, which was chosen because a friend had a podcast on the site, feeds Apple Podcasts and Spotify. It's supposed to feed YouTube and Google Podcasts, but for whatever reason, the former is sporadic at best and the latter apparently takes forever to index. It also feeds to Linkedin, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter but those aren't really what the big podcasts are probably talking about.

In addition to the Podcast and simul-stream, we also do a video every Sunday on YouTube. Paul had the clever idea of mixing things up, so the last two weeks, we've done Character Profiles, which Paul puts together. Last week, we had our colorist, Julia Canon, read the one for Mocha and this week, our artist, Rachel Wells, narrated one for Jennifer Perry. I'm thinking I could read the one for Uncle Brian but we're hoping to get someone with real talent to read other ones. So part of this week was spent writing profiles for Dr. Atlas, Professor Theorem, and Uncle Brian.

Also, since we talk about Yokai in several of the profiles, I decided that our next story arc should probably include them, so I've been reworking an idea called Mocha and Raven. I hadn't looked at it for several years, the last draft dating from 2016. I was surprised at how freeform it was written and how long it was. I think I got it down to three 20-page issues so that's something. It needs much more work but I was pleased I could corral it in a few days.

In addition to the thumbnails, we also reviewed colored pages from Julia today and put out a newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl. That newsletter is once a month and every other week, we call it The Bark and it's slightly down-sized.

So, as you can see Powers Squared keeps us busy.

I managed to do some work on The Runaway this week as well. As I've written previously, I'm treading water until Paul's class get to query writing so I can see what I'm doing wrong before spending the time querying Broken People. A few weeks ago, I wrote about a query taking months to be rejected, well there was a guy on one of the social media that topped that; it took two years for him to receive a rejection based on his first query to an agent. Of course, in the meantime, he had found one, so it had a happy ending for him. When I get around to actually querying Broken People, I hope to hear back sooner than that.

I've been going through The Runaway at about two chapters a day, making basic changes and on Thursday got to a point where I needed to write a new chapter. However, by that time of the week, I was literally too tired to do it. So I haven't worked on The Runaway since Thursday night. I'm hoping with enough sleep I can tackle it this week and get back on track. I've lowered my goal to 90,000 words and I'm hopeful this chapter will help me get there. And no, I'm not writing it for the word count but because the story requires it.

On the Trophy Unlocked front, I returned to the blog this Saturday with Smart Money. I've posted some more for later in the month, which I'll get to as they are released. I'm working on one right now for later, The Sin of Nora Moran, which is part of our DVR deleting Saturdays. Not sure when that will go up but I'll finish that up tonight.

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

A Week in Writing #300 - A Milestone?

Does 300 weekly blog posts feel like a milestone? Sort of. That means I'm on the downside of six years of sitting down once a week to consider what I'm doing in an effort to keep myself honest. I'll probably go through this again in three months, when I hit six years, but in case you don't read that one, this blog started because I don't have a "crew", that is an editor, alpha and beta readers, etc. that you're supposed to have to keep you on task, i.e., writing.

I figured blogging about it would be my way of keeping myself motivated. I'd like to imagine there is someone who reads this that would wonder why I didn't blog one week. Wonder if something had happened? Why did he stop? So I continue this little exercise in self-examination. What did I do this week towards my goal of writing?

Well, let's start with The Runaway. I finished the draft I was working on but rather than go immediately onto the joys of querying (more on that later), I decided to go through the book and look for story incongruities and places where I could flesh it out. The book is a little over 80,000 words and I'd like to see if I can make it a little longer. I'm not trying to flesh it out for the sake of fleshing it out, but rather trying to make sure I'm capturing what I should be. Something my main character sees or smells or thinks that would help the story.

I know I write a lot about this book and never get into what the story is about. My main character is named J.D. Barrister. A Texas transplant, he works as a Private Detective in Los Angeles. He lives and works out of his apartment in Palms. The story opens with J.D. finding a Midwest girl who has run away from home and is not stripping, though she's underage. After returning her home, J.D. is hired to find a different runaway, this time an adult man, John Douglas, who has supposedly disappeared and is hiding out in Barstow. The woman who hires him claims to be the man's wife and pays J.D. $800 to bring him home. J.D. gets delayed when his ex-fiancee, Debbie Estevez, an LAPD homicide detective, goes into labor and he has to take her to the hospital. But that delay saves J.D.'s life and he spends the rest of the book trying to figure out why John Douglas ran and who wanted J.D. killed. I'll work on the synopsis before I start querying the book.

Speaking of querying, my son Paul is taking his last UCLA Extension course on writing the novel and one of the things they'll cover before the session is over is query letters. Rather than flail around on mine, I thought I'd wait to see what I can learn from what he learns before I start sending out my pre-rejection emails for Broken People. (That doesn't sound very hopeful, does it?)

I managed to complete a new future review for Trophy Unlocked, Smart Money (1931). The blog is still in the midst of Scooby-Doo month with Paul's review of the live-action Scooby-Doo published as the Saturday Morning Review and Trevor's review of Donut County coming out on Wednesday, which for the past few weeks as been all videogame reviews. I'm hoping to get off the bench in June.

We received a review of Powers Squared Issue #9 this week from First Comics News. It could have been better, a 3 out of 5, though he did compliment the writing and the art. It's a little frustrating that it came out after the book was published, even though we had told them the date prior, and that the reviewer constantly misspells the main characters' last name. It's Powers not Power. You can read it here and find all the reviews of Powers Squared here.

I also designed a new banner for our PodBean podcast, On The Air With Powers Squared as well as a t-shirt for the show. The banner looks like this:

You can listen to it on various sites, which you can find at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/join

Well, that will about do it for now. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #299 - New Issue Released

Big week for us at Powers Squared in that a new issue was released on Wednesday, which is traditionally New Comic Book Day. It was our 9th issue and the conclusion of the Mathemagical story arc. I mention this, since as a writer, this is something I've worked on which could (the keyword here is could) earn me money. Everything else is either free (Trophy Unlocked) or more theoretical in nature, the books I'm writing such as The Runaway.

I would appreciate it if, as a reader of this blog, you would buy the book and/or recommend the series to someone. Should you decide to, I don't know, buy the book, you could look here if you're so inclined.

On the subject of Powers Squared, Paul and I attended a Zoom call with the staff and some of the creatives from the Artithmeric platform. They are our primary print-on-demand and Merch providers. It was kind of cool to be part of a community. We were there to discuss how we and Artithemeric can grow. I'm hopeful that Powers Squared will be prominent in that growth.

On the theoretical side, I got an update this week on a query I submitted back in August for Broken People. That's right, August, as in nine months ago. And was it worth the wait? Unfortunately, no, a form rejection letter:

"Dear David,
Thank you for sharing your query with me, which I’ve now had the chance to review. After careful consideration, I’m afraid I didn’t respond with the intense enthusiasm which I feel is necessary for me to take on a new project. But this is just one person’s subjective opinion, so please accept my best wishes in your search for representation!"

I'm not surprised. If it took them nine months to read my query, then I'd be shocked if they were enthusiastic about it.

Quite frankly, it had been so long that I had forgotten I had queried them but I made sure to note it on the big agent spreadsheet I keep, so as not to bother them again. I will give them credit, they actually wrote back, which is more than I can say for most of the agents I've queried recently. I can't remember if there was some note on their website, which other agencies have, which states something to the effect that if you don't hear back from us consider it a pass. I mean it took nine months to get a "no", how long are you supposed to wait to hear back if it's a yes?

It's possible that this could have been a "yes". It could have read:

"Dear David,
Thank you for sharing your query with me, which I’ve now had the chance to review. My sincere apologies for taking so long to get back to you. I was about to write you back when I caught COVID-19 which put me out of commission for the last couple of months. I'm just getting my life back in order and am very enthusiastic about your book. If you haven't already found representation, I would really like to read more. Please send me the next 100 pages of Broken People and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible."

I'm not wishing COVID-19 on anyone, but that would have been an acceptable excuse for taking nine months.

The kicker is, I've got more of that to look forward to. I'd say in the near future but if they're all the same as this one, it may be next year before I hear back from everyone.

Speaking of writing, I am getting closer to the end of this draft of The Runaway. I've written the conclusion of the story and I'm writing a final follow up chapter. I've been thinking about what I've written and may need to do some editing on the ending before I put the book down and get on with query hell.

Wrote another future review for Trophy Unlocked this weekend. In our Saturday night clear off the DVR night, we watched THX 1138, the first George Lucas film. I don't recall really loving it, but I thought my sons should see it. You'll have to wait for the review to be published to see what I thought of it.

You can find out what I thought of Scoob!, which came out on Friday. Paul, Trevor and I discuss the film on our A Week in Powers Squared video on our YouTube channel. You can also read Paul's review of it on Trophy Unlocked. There's been a lot of Scooby-Doo lately, as the Saturday Morning Review on the blog was Paul's Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur.

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

A Week in Writing #298 - The New Reality

I don't know how you're doing with the COVID stay at home orders and the partial-lifting thereof. I hope that everyone reading this is listening to the medical advice coming from the CDC or your own personal physician.

Public Service Announcement over with, let's get into the writing this week.

It probably won't come as a surprise to anyone that reads this that this past week has been spent primarily on Power Squared. Work sort of intensified as we're getting ready to launch Issue #9 on Wednesday the 13th. (You can order it here, BTW.)

I'm finding the more platforms you're on, the harder it is to coordinate not only the same product but release dates as well. We've been letting comiXology dictate the release date, more out of loyalty than anything else. They, in turn, give you a week's heads up on the date, which means you then need to scramble to get other platforms ready. For me, this included a new pdf for Artithmeric, our first Print-on-Demand platform to use, which they put up a week too soon.

Then there is the usual work, looking at thumbnails and cover art for the issue we're working on. Our artist, Rachel Wells, made a couple of suggestions which Paul and I agreed were beneficial to the story. I really like that part of working with her. I never felt the script was written in cement and the goal is always to make it better.

Did a little more work on the Pitch Packet, but that's still not ready for primetime, as they used to say.

I did manage to work some more on The Runaway. I don't know if this ever happens to you, but one night I was planning on working on it when the whole Issue #9 thing happened and I had to make and send a new .pdf. That somehow delayed me enough that I didn't really work on The Runaway that night.

Well, it turns out to have been one of those nights of sleep, when you don't. That used to happen to me all the time but it hasn't happened recently, or at least more infrequently than it used to. Well, that morning around 2 I got up and came out to my computer and wrote about 500 words, that I have been able to use to complete the chapter I was working on. I think I'm about one to two chapters now from wrapping the whole draft up.

I want to use the "free time" after that to send out more pre-rejection queries to see if I can manage to land an agent using a previous book.

One new review this week, The Third Man, a film that I actually own but happened to catch on Saturday morning on TCM. It is one of those films I've been meaning to watch and it was too easy to watch it then, so I did.

This is still part of Scooby-Doo month on Trophy Unlocked, so the Saturday Morning Review was Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders. Another review appeared on Wednesday, MediEvil (PS4), which is becoming an unofficially new game review Wednesday on the blog. It's all good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #292 - Stay at Home Week 2

I hope this finds you staying safe and staying home. We all want to make it through these times to what we hope will be a brighter tomorrow, so please do as the CDC recommends.

Sorry about the PSA.

Well, stay at home Week 2 is over and Week 3 looms and what did I do this week? I always feel like the answer is not enough and never too much. I'm not sure if there is really ever a too much but I know all too well about the not enough.

Still trying to get a better schedule set and still trying to adapt from the going from work to "work" without the normal commute in between. When I had to hit the road to come home, I tried to work the 8 hours and then get out of there as soon as I can. Now, I feel like I'm letting that slide just a little. I mean I can work until 5:30 since I don't have to drive home. And then everything gets delayed just a little and prime writing time gets eaten into.

Okay, let's start with something different, The Runaway. I'm still working on the rewrite that, months ago, turned into a new draft. I'm liking the direction it's going in but I'm honestly not getting there as fast as I can. I think I've written one new chapter and am about 500+ words into the next one when I sit down to write this post. Far from the 1000 words a day namesake of the blog.

I'm into uncharted territory now, meaning I'm working on pages I've never written before. And, even though I'm a pantser at heart, I know where this is going though I'm still working out the means. That for me is part of the fun.

I also know that I need to spend more time on that part of the business of writing and send out queries again. Come to think of it, I"m not even sure how the coronavirus has affected that part of the business. Are agents working from home and still taking queries? I guess I'll need to find that out before I start sending new ones.

As far as writing reviews, I finished the one I had been working on for Song of the South and I actually started a new one on Chaplin, the 1992 biopic about the famous film star, director, and writer. Not sure when that will finish or when Song of the South will be published but when it does, I'll let you know here. The Saturday Morning review on Trophy Unlocked, this week, was Paul's review of Celeste, a platform game on the PS4.

Powers Squared is never far from the plate. We received new pages from our artist, the first 8 for Issue #14, which is cool.

In addition, I did another round of edits on the Powers Squared animated series pitch deck and the pilot script, even though I said I didn't want to spend too much time on it. Well, so much for intentions.

Well, that will just about wrap up this week. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #291 - The Influence of COVID-19

Well, a whole week of working from home with the promise of more to come. Personally, I don't mind working from home. No commute every day and no ironing shirts every Sunday. It's not so bad. There are some things I know I could do better. My schedule is off. I'm allowing myself to sleep in which means I don't have as much time in the morning for other things, including walking and social media. My step count is way down from the past month or so. I keep telling myself I'm going to walk everyday at lunch but there is a difference between work lunch, which is going to the gym and then eating, and stay at home lunch, which includes my family. It also doesn't help that it's been rainy most of the week. I mean, I like walking but I don't want to get wet doing it.

So the subject of routine includes writing, which has surprisingly been a little harder now that I'm working from home. I know it may sound weird but some of it has to do with the separation of work from home. I'm used to (don't read that as enjoy) a commute everyday, or a break between one thing and the other. With working from home, I might sign off from Citrix at 5 but I'm still at my "work" desk. I keep thinking I'll use this time to walk but I'm also with family so just getting up and leaving isn't all that easy.

I'm still writing, though this week, I tried to write something very different than I have been. I've made mention of the Pitch class that Paul and I took at UCLA, so I tried my hand at working on the Pilot script for our proposed Powers Squared animated series. Yes, I have dreams. Paul has had more experience with this type of writing but I've taken the first step of trying to turn our comic book into a series.

My first attempt hued very closely to the original text but as I've been working on it, just finished the third draft, I'm finding it somewhat freeing to not stay so strict to the comic book. Oh, don't get me wrong, most of the first issue and a little bit of the second have found their way in but there are other changes, like the teaser Paul thought of, that are not in that issue but it ties really well into the pilot.

There is also other dialogue that I've played with, some at Paul's suggestions but also some new bits, things we didn't see in the comic book between characters who's last name isn't Powers. Not sure how all of it will fly but I think it makes the story better and that's always the first priority.

I did some other writing as well, including working a little bit on The Runaway and some on my oft mentioned review of Song of the South but nothing, pardon the pun, to write home about.

Speaking of reviews, mine of Sabrina finally made it out and was featured as Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review.

Well, the week ahead looms again. I'm hoping to put major work on the Pilot aside for a few days and concentrate on The Runaway for the week's writing. There are parts I'd like to get done You know, those bits that you keep in your head before you put them into the book.

I'm also toying with an idea for a story related to the coronavirus. As a writer, I can't see letting such an event not get into my work. For awhile I've had the idea of a couple being thrown together, you know, a bad date with a natural disaster afterwards. Thinking this virus would make a suitable backdrop. Details to be worked out.

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

A Week in Writing #289 - Amusement Parks and Homework

If you remember, last week, I promised that this week might not be my most productive and I like to think I'm a man of my words. In addition to attending Disneyland on Tuesday, I also had to read two scripts and do a quick pitch for a UCLA class I was attending on how to pitch feature films and, in my case, TV series.

Now, reading a script isn't hard work, though it is time-consuming. For the class, we had to read the script for The Big Sick as well as the pilot for Game of Thrones. To accomplish this took the better part of three nights. Add to that and I had to compose, along with Paul, a quick pitch of our idea, which turned out not to be homework after all, since only Paul and I seemed to have written ours up for class.

The professor is a working writer who was sharing his experience with pitching ideas for both TV and film. (Animated TV was not something he was as familiar with, but much of the same still applies.) It takes more than a great idea to pitch and, in fact, you have to put together several versions, in addition to a Pitch Deck, which is really important for animation. You also need to be able to include in your pitch the significant plot points and emotional journey of your characters, though for TV it is more the end of the pilot. I won't pretend to be an expert at this and the class was really helpful in pointing out what we need to include in our pitch. More work to be done for sure.

Speaking of Powers Squared, and we were, we are doing a signing at Golden Apple Comics at 7018 Melrose Ave., in Hollywood, on March 14th at 1 pm. We'll have copies of all 8 released issues of the book as well as a special trading card designed especially for the event. I hope you will come out for that. And remember, elbow bumps are FREE!

Now, I did try to work in some work on The Runaway during the week. I will say that after returning from Disneyland, I did try to work on the book but I honestly couldn't concentrate on it enough to be more than a token attempt. I did have the idea to plant a character that I want to use later in an earlier part of the book, which I did manage to do during the week, including last night after returning from class. So, at least one new chapter was written this week. Now, on to the rest of it.

And, it should come as no surprise that no new reviews again from me this week. No time. Fortunately, the other two writers on Trophy Unlocked are up to the task. This week's Saturday Morning Review was Paul's look at Darksiders III. I need to get back to this as well.

Looking ahead, we will need to pull a few things together for the signing but I think we're in pretty good shape for it. And there is Daylight Savings, which just happened. I don't know about you but it usually takes me a couple of days to readjust for the time-change either way. But we'll see how things go. I will be back next week to tell you all about it. So, in the meantime, keep writing.

A Week in Writing #288 - Pitch Decks and Criticism

Some weeks seem to have themes, even if you don't start out thinking about it. This week, it seems like criticism is what we dealt with most this week.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Paul and I are involved almost weekly with critiquing the work of our artist, colorist and letterer, as it relates to Powers Squared. This week, we had a bit of a change as we received some criticism for one of our own projects. I believe I've mentioned here before that we would like to pitch Powers Squared as an animated TV Series.

To that end, we prepared our version of a Pitch Deck and showed it to someone who has experience in TV animation. To say the least, the critique was super good while not being overly positive. And, it was exactly what we needed. We did the best we could but it obviously wasn't good enough and we only want to make it better. Really appreciated the constructive criticism we received.

We made criticism the centerpiece of our Friday night podcast, On the Air With Powers Squared, which you can listen to here or here. We also did a Twitch Stream but we didn't have the right settings so it's gone. It was still fun, though, and I think we'll do better next week with the settings and save it. If you want you can follow us at https://www.twitch.tv/powerssquared, so when we do the next one, you'll be notified.

On the subject of pitching, Paul and I attended the first of two sessions at UCLA on Pitching for Feature Films and Television Series. I think we both learned a lot and got some really good ideas about what we need to do both in the pitch and in the pitch deck. There is still more to learn and I'm looking forward to the next session, next Saturday's session, though I've got homework. I haven't had homework in years and while it's not hard, I'm not looking forward to having to do it. But even then I'm pretty sure it will be helpful in the long run.

The week wasn't all about Powers Squared. I did make some progress on The Runaway, though never as much as I want. There were a couple of nights where I wrote 3 and 4 pages a night but there were just as many where I didn't get much done. I still like what I've outlined for the rest of the story but I want to get through it. I know there are rewrites in my future and that's okay. As I believe I've mentioned before, that's my favorite part of the process.

Again, this week, no new reviews from me. However, Trophy Unlocked continues on without my contributions. This Saturday Morning's Review was Trevor's review of Recess: School's Out. We had watched the movie a week or so ago when one of the voice actors, Jason Davis, died.

Next week promises to be tight. In addition to the homework I have, we're going to Disneyland on Tuesday. My wife has been wanting to go for about a decade now and there was a pretty sweet L.A. resident deal so we have to go three times before the middle of May. So next week, I'm at least losing one whole day. It's for a good cause and all but I still hate losing the writing time, if that makes sense. And then there's going back to work the next day. But that's next week.

Speaking of which, I'll be back next Sunday to report on what I did do. So until then, keep writing.

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.

A Week in Writing #286 - Under the Weather but Still Writing

Being under the weather and writing don't go hand-in-hand, or at least you really can't be one and do much with the other. I'm mentioning this because I've been a touch under the weather for the past few days. Nothing serious, not even really a cold or the terrible Coronavirus. Just a little dry throat, running nose and weak in the knees. As I'm writing this, I'm feeling better but this isn't how I wanted to spend the day off I took on Friday nor the upcoming President's Day holiday. But what is it they say, life is what happens while you're busy making other plans. I'm sure I've used that before to describe a week of writing that has not gone as planned.

Let's start with Trophy Unlocked this time to reveal how little I've done this week. No new reviews from me, though the blog has been busy. Seven reviews were posted in seven days, a rare feat for the site. 6 of them were related to Sonic Week, five reviews of games and a Japanese OVA leading to the release of Sonic The Hedgehog (2020) and that review, which was posted today. The Saturday Morning Review was Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind + Concert Video (DLC). None of these seven reviews were written by me, which is fine. Sonic is not really in my wheelhouse.

I did have an idea for a review but when I sat down to work on it I couldn't concentrate enough on it to make any headway. The review would be for next Valentine's Day, The Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), which I happened to have seen the next day on TV in its entirety and without commercial interruption. It seems fitting for next year. I just have to write it.

Did some work on The Runaway. There was another unrelated news story that I was able to weave into the story, or at least I'd like to think I was able to. All the same, not really all that much progress was made overall on the story.

This leaves us with Powers Squared, and it is once again here that I think I spent most of my time. This week, Paul and I each, separately, went over the last three issues of the book, 10-13, What's in a Name? looking at the lettering. For the most part, there weren't any issues, just a couple of run together words and some misplaced punctuations. Paul did edit down some dialogue and had Trevor, who does the lettering, move a speech bubble. This led to our weekly podcast, On The Air With Powers Squared, inviting Trevor on as a guest and talking about the importance of lettering as the topic.

Finishing them off allowed us to send out the last of the Kickstarter rewards. So, we're finally finished with that project.

During the week, I managed to nail down our signing at Golden Apple, a very important comic book store here in Los Angeles. We're scheduled for two hours on the afternoon of March 14th. I spoke to one of the owners by phone on Monday so I guess it's as official as it will get. I've ordered issues to sell and we've designed a special trading card for the occasion. We're hoping to make the most of the event as we can.

Paul and I, despite being under the weather, did our weekly video A Week in Powers Squared and sent out the latest edition of our mini newsletter, The Bark. As they say in the theater, the show must go on.

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

A Week in Writing #285 - New Colorist for Powers Squared

This feels like it has been a rather busy week for me, as far as writing goes. There were several developments with Powers Squared, a breakthrough of sorts on The Runaway and a new future review for Trophy Unlocked.

Let's start where we usually do, with Powers Squared. The biggest news is that we have a new colorist, Julia Canon. We had three candidates, all of whom did test pages. Julia's was the closest to complementing the previous coloring style that we want to continue. We've announced her, though she still hasn't signed our work for hire agreement yet. I don't really like things when they're tentative like that.

Which leads me to other tentative news that I can't really get into too much, but they involve a possible signing at a comic book store and a new project with Artithmeric, both of which are not nailed down yet, so I can't really comment too much but to say I hope they both come off. When things are set I will definitely go into it here.

I was able to do some good writing this week on The Runaway. Even though I'm a pantser as a writer, I decided to try and capture my ideas down for the rest of the book, so now I've got direction, which I think will help me get to the end of it sooner than later. I had a couple of ideas that I had to go back and incorporate earlier in the book, which seemed to make a lot of sense. This is the part that I think I like best about the writing process, making it better. There are times when I can't tell where I'm going and I like it when it seems to come together.

There was a bit I wanted to get to write that was later in the book then I was at, so I decided to go ahead and work on those chapters. I don't know if you're like me but I spend a lot of time commuting every day. It gives me a chance to run dialogue with myself and, in this case, the dialogue in the book would be taking place in a moving car so it seems really appropriate. The problem is that it is never as good by the time I get to sit down behind the computer. I think that's a common problem so at least I'm in good company.

This week, a couple of reviews I'd written showed up on Trophy Unlocked. We were trying to get as many of the films reviewed before the Academy Awards. On Wednesday, we published Parasite and for the Saturday Morning Review JoJo Rabbit.

With the passing this week of actor Kirk Douglas, we watched Lust for Life on Friday night and I wrote a review of it for future use on Trophy Unlocked.

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