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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #348 - Query Form Questions

Hope this finds everyone writing and staying safe.

I want to start off by giving myself credit for sending out a new query this week. I know it doesn't sound like much but it is my least favorite part of the writing process. So that's five out and so far no rejections but that doesn't mean anything anymore. Rejections are now less an email but the time running out, so maybe I've been rejected already and just don't know it.

The big trend now is to do your queries online using a form. I've found that with some minor changes the form doesn't change much between agencies. In the boxes on the form, they want to know the basic information, such as contact info, the name of your book, the genre, the word count, a short synopsis, a bio, and maybe some pages. These are the basics of a query letter. What gets me, is that one of the buckets they want you to fill in is the "query letter." I'm not sure what to put in this part. Do I put in the letter I would have sent through email, which would include the name of the book, the genre, a word count, a short synopsis, a bio, and my contact information? That sort of seems like overkill. I want to say it's like a musical artist repeating a song in the encore of the show. I did put in a really condensed version of what would have been my query letter but it seemed sort of gutless if you know what I mean. Well, we'll find out, maybe, if it was the right thing or not. There is no way to know that for sure unless an agent points it out specifically.

Well, that wasn't the only thing I worked on this week, so I think it's enough about that.

Last week, I wrote wondering how we were going to follow our interview of John Barber on OAPS. Well, we decided to get back to our roots and did a deep dive on one page of the upcoming issue, #11, What's in a Name? Part 2. While it may seem like we ad-lib the show, it was all scripted out and the images had to be picked out individually ahead of time. That's sort of what I worked on Wednesday night. It was about 1000+ words so that was my writing goal for the day. Paul reviewed and edited the script on Thursday. You can watch how we did for the next two weeks on twitch.tv/powerssquared or you can listen to it at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps

I purposefully avoided writing a review this week. I honestly didn't feel I had the energy on Saturday night to do one. Also, I thought it was a good idea to break things up. So, instead of drain the DVR Saturday, we watched MST3K's take on Invasion USA and a good time was had by all. Except for the Mystery Science Theater 3000's movie, I wouldn't know how to review one of their send-ups.

But there were other reviews on Trophy Unlocked. On Wednesday, it was a review of the video game Fuse by Trevor and on Saturday, it was the film Tomb Raider written by Paul. Sunday, we had a special review of Mortal Kombat (2021), which came out on Friday. That review was written by Paul.

Somewhere in the mix, I did manage to do some work on Skylar but as always, it never seems to be enough. I don't mean to ever downplay that work but it always seems like the one thing I fit into the mix rather than the main focus of the week.

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

A Week in Writing #333 - Welcome to the Working Week

Let's face it, going back to work after a vacation sucks. I'm know I'm one of the lucky who has a job to go back to but the statement still stands. And I have been out of work before, so I know what that feels like. There were three years between when I was unceremoniously laid off from Sony to the time I found contract work at Paramount Pictures and before I started this blog. Those who have lost their jobs due to COVID have my sympathies.

But I'm the one writing about my experiences so let me have this one.

I had big plans for the week and for the most part I did most of them, though I didn't do one of those things, say it with me, send out queries. My excuse this week has to do with Powers Squared but not the comic book directly.

Back in November, I had asked another creative, Rik Offenberger, if he waned to be on our twitch show, On the Air with Powers Squared. For his own reasons, he was unable to do the show before the holidays. On Monday, I reached out to see if he would be available to do the show some Friday. Well, bing-bang-boom, not only is he doing the show on Friday but he's also bringing some of his co-creators with him. I had to spend some time during the week prepping, including reading their comic books, looking at their website and drafting some questions to ask in case the conversation died down, it didn't. Anyway, that's my excuse for not getting to the queries this week. If you want to watch or listen to the show, you can find links at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps.

But there was news on the queries anyway, sadly bad. My first rejection of the year. A nice form letter that managed to insert the name of my book into the blank space, as in:

Dear David,

I'm sorry, but BROKEN PEOPLE does not sound like a fit for me at this time, and so I will have to pass. Thank you for considering me and I wish you success.

I'll wager that any other rejections I do receive will sound somewhat or exactly like this one. They may use the words "my list" but that would be the variety that adds the spice to life as they say.

There was some real work done as well on Powers Squared itself. Rachel did send us four new pages, pencils, which Paul and I had to review but that was about it on that front.

I did do some work on the website, combining several pages into a single folder. As always, you are more than welcomed to take a look at my work at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/ Comments are always welcomed.

I also managed to write a couple of reviews for Trophy Unlocked, I finished The Tall Target and wrote a new one for Five Star Final (1931). As always no idea when either will actually appear.

Otherwise, it was a busy week on the blog. On Tuesday, Trevor's review for Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People was published, followed on Thursday another of Trevor's review, this one for another game, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures. On Saturday, Trevor completed the hat-trick with his third review of the week, The Powerpuff Girls Movie.

To round out the week, I did make some progress on Skylar, finishing my rewrites and going beyond that. If you're counting words, I'm up to 30,775.

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

A Week in Writing #331 - The Holidays are Upon Us

Hope everyone is well, enjoying the holidays and, of course, writing.

Well, the holidays are upon us, and all thoughts and time turn to family. The one thing that seems to go by the wayside, at least for me, is writing. Not that I didn't do any but writing was not the top priority.

As I wrote last week, I did manage to squeeze in that review of We're No Angels, a movie I've wanted to rewatch for a long time. This is one of those to be published in the future reviews, which may be next Christmas season. I look at Christmas/Holiday movies the same way I do Holiday music. Once December 25th rolls around, that day is done. Reviews are the same way.

On the subject of reviews, this past Wednesday Paul published a review of Bridge Constructor Portal, a video game for the Xbox One. On Saturday was our last holiday review, The Thin Man (1934), in which Christmas plays a prominent role. And while that might seem like plenty, Trophy Unlocked wasn't done. On Christmas Day, we watched Soul on Disney+ and Trevor's review, which includes Burrow, the short that accompanied it, went up on Sunday morning.

But that's not the end of it. The day after Christmas at our house is unofficially Movie Day. We watched several movies that day, including Wonder Woman 1984. Today, I reviewed the movie and it should go up tomorrow. If you don't catch it, there'll be a link in next week's post.

Later in the week, we will be posting an Actual End of the Decade list, looking back at films and videogames from 2011 to 2020, the official years of this decade. We're sticklers for that sort of stuff; this millennium didn't start until 2001 either.

Not much new on the Powers Squared front, though Paul and I did review some new coloring work from Julia sent earlier.

We did something new this week for our OAPS. Since Friday was Christmas we used an interview we had pre-recorded. Paul figured out how to use OBS to show it on Twitch. Apparently, Twitch likes things live and you have to be an affiliate to easily upload to the site. But if there's a will, there's a way. You can watch it here if you're curious, and I hope you are.

I'm still fiddling with a time-travel idea for the comic book, though it's not really coming together, at least, not yet.

To update on the Copyright issue, I received the paperwork ahead of schedule but it turns out it was for only one of the two issues. I have been writing to them that the issue I was having involved two issues of the comic book, not just the one. Not sure why both weren't included. Trust me I did write, when I got the registration, to the agent I had been working with there but with the holiday I'm not surprised I hadn't heard anything. And now that the government won't be shut down I'm hoping to hear back sooner than later but trust me, I'm not letting this go.

On other writing, I did find some time to work on my Skylar manuscript but, of course, never enough. I'm up to 28,760 words, so I'm not hitting the blog's 1000 words a day when it comes to that alone.

As I mentioned last week, no new queries and I'm playing Schrodinger's cat with the ones that I haven't heard back on yet. Until I look, they're still live and being considered. Reality can wait until the start of the new year when I promise I will be getting back to the queries.

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

A Week in Writing #329 - Making Silly Mistakes

Hope everyone is staying safe and writing.

I hope that I'm not alone in this but this week, I kept making what I'll call silly mistakes. I'd like to put it down to being hurried but since this is a blog where I share the good and the bad, I thought I should share the silly as well.

On Friday nights, Paul and I host a live twitch show, On the Air with Powers Squared, that we call a behind the scenes look at our comic book, Powers Squared but in reality, we also interview not only our creative team but also other creatives as well. This past Friday, we lined up Josue F. Kure, the creator behind Reaper Rules. Josue and I had met through a list launch event and had kept up on Facebook and supported each other's Kickstarters but had not actually ever even spoken.

Well, Josue is a very interesting man with a lot of interests, talents and ambitions so it was a very interesting interview. My silly mistake here was in the lead-up. For every show, I post an image on Instagram, which feeds down to the comic book's Twitter account and Facebook page. Since I'm at work when I make this post, I try to do it as quickly as possible. The mistake here was that Josue uses a middle initial, which while I got right in the image I got wrong in the text. I was able to edit Instagram and Facebook posts, I wasn't able to change the Twitter one. As anyone who has Twitter knows, you can't edit tweets. I didn't have the time to fix it and it wasn't a big deal it still was sort of embarrassing.

On Sundays, I write the newsletter for Powers Squared, this week The Bark,  and while I think the text was good and the links worked I made two more mistakes. To start with, I didn't update the Message line so what went out, rather than saying Happy Holidays Hound Dogs made mention of the now over Black Friday Sale. Since I receive other people's emails, I know that I'm not alone in making mistakes, so I resent the newsletter with a correction. Problem solved.

But wait, no. One of the items every week is a Peek-of-the-Week, or an image from the comic book that is discussed in the newsletter but with a link, in the hopes of driving readers to the website. The nice thing is that while the image may change the link doesn't. And, all is well and good, as long as the website gets updated. But if you don't actually hit the button to publish the change no one will know there's a new image. It took me several hours to realize the image hadn't been updated. Don't know how many people, if any, checked for the new image but again, it was a silly mistake for me to make.

So with that confession behind me, let's move on to other writing and places where I didn't make missteps.

As I've written before, I've decided to wait until the New Year to take up querying again. I just don't want to get caught up in the end of the year desk cleaning that goes on in all professions. And, if you're still keeping track I've sent four and have been rejected once. I have a feeling I'm probably running into that "if you haven't heard back from us" clause, written and unwritten, that means they've passed but I'm not going to worry about it until when I start up again.

I've been working on Skylar most nights. My son Paul writes every night from 10 to 11 and I try to do the same. Some nights it's harder than others. I've had a couple where I start to fall asleep but I still try to make it through. I'm up to 25368 words and 140 pages.

I'm sort of leaving the best for last, I guess. I did write a new review this weekend, Repeat Performance (1947), a sort of mixed genre film that may, by design, not see the light of day until 1/1/2022. This past Saturday, on Trophy Unlocked, I did publish the first of my Christmas film reviews, this one a drive-by Christmas tale, The Last Picture Show (1971). To qualify as drive-by Christmas is either the backdrop or plays a role in an otherwise non-holiday tale.

During the week, Paul published his review of the videogame Injustice 2 Legendary Edition. And on Sunday, Trevor published a review of Onward, the pre-pandemic Pixar release that we watched this past Friday night on Disney +.

In other Trophy Unlocked news, the blog will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Friday. Not only will Paul publish a review on that date but we're also going to cross the streams and discuss the blog on our OAPS that evening. I promise not to make any silly mistakes when posting about that. I hope you'll take this as your invite to watch and ask questions. It is quite an accomplishment. We're live on twitch at 6pm PST, hope you'll watch.

Well, if I don't see you then, keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #320 - Getting On Track and Off

 

Hope everyone is healthy and staying safe.

Sometimes I wish I kept track of things as the week went on. From a writing point of view, the week seemed to get off to a good start. But now as I sit here on Sunday evening, I'm having trouble remembering everything I did.

Monday, I worked on a couple of different things, including a script Paul had worked on for a future issue of Powers Squared. I had read it and made some comments that I put into the script. I think it's coming together.

I also worked on my Skylar manuscript. Completing 1000 words on Monday, hitting the goal for the first time in a while. During the week, I managed to get through a complete chapter when I finished working on it on Thursday. I think it's going well but some much more to go.

No queries this week. I know, I know, I'll never find an agent this way. I guess I'm avoiding it, though I know better. There always seems to be something else to work on. I know I need to and I will do it soon. Check back here for those updates.

A lot of work on Powers Squared. New thumbnails from Rachel for the next 8 pages for Issue 16 (Mocha and Raven) and colors from Julia for Issue 15 (How They Met). Trevor has also lettered the first 8 pages, as it were, for Issue 15. So things are moving forward there.

We received copyright registrations this week for Issues 10-12, which is good since we're getting ready to publish the first one of those soon. That only took 8 months. We've had them go much longer than that.

We posted a new Unboxing Video on Wednesday, related to Issue #10, print versions, and t-shirts. We've decided to change up our posting schedule from Sunday morning to Wednesday afternoons. There's supposed to be more people watching YouTube videos then.

We're still doing our Podcast on Friday nights and we had Rachel on as a guest. You can watch it on Twitch.tv. If you want to listen to it, go to https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/join for where you can listen to it.

Two of my reviews up on Trophy Unlocked this week. On Friday, my review of Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York went up, the same day the title was finally being released on Vudu. On Saturday, to celebrate Spooktober, White Zombie was published.

But wait, that's not all for that blog this week. Paul's three reviews for Resident Evil 7 went up throughout the week: Resident Evil 7 Teaser Demo: Beginning Hour (+ Kitchen Demo); on Wednesday Resident Evil 7: Biohazard; and wrapping it up on Thursday Resident Evil 7: Biohazard DLC (Banned Footage Vol. 1 and 2 + Not A Hero + End of Zoe).

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

A Week in Writing #317 - Venting Some Frustrations

Hope everyone is staying safe.

I'm going to do something I rarely do and vent a little on my frustration with someone I had counted on as a friend. I will not name names, as that is not my style, but I do want to make it clear that I don't appreciate the treatment.

As anyone who regularly reads this blog, my sons and I have a comic book, Powers Squared that we've been putting out for several years. To hopefully publicize it, my son Paul and I do a podcast On the Air with Powers Squared, sorry if this old news to some, which we record while live-streaming on Twitch.TV. For the last few weeks, we've been trying to have guests on the show. We've had the artist, Rachel Wells, our colorist, Julia Canon, and our letterer, Trevor Hankins, on the show. To complete the sequence, we thought it would be a great idea to have someone on the show that has supported the book, at least through the Kickstarter, and had read all the issues, including up through #12 (again part of the Kickstarter).

He was someone I had known for about five years now and had championed to my son as a good guest. There were things he had worked on that we could ask him about, etc. He couldn't make it the first week but said he could this Friday. We had been communicating via Linkedin messenger and had done so as late as Tuesday since we needed an icon for the "ad" we put up on Instagram, which feeds Twitter and Facebook. Got his okay and that was the last thing we heard from him since. Friday comes, we send him the Google Hangout invite and nothing and as I'm writing this nearly two days later, since. I've messaged him a couple of times on Linkedin, but no response.

Now, I'll regret saying this if indeed there was some unexpected family emergency, but it would have been nice to have gotten some sort of heads up that he couldn't make it or at least something since saying he was sorry he forgot or something, anything. Again, I won't name him and I'm pretty sure he doesn't read this blog, but I'm very disappointed.

We were left a little flat-footed at 6 pm on Friday but we managed to pull a preview of Issue #10 out of nowhere at the last minute. You can watch it and/or listen to it. To find the outlets, go to https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/join. We managed to add a new outlet this past week or so: Amazon Music, so we're now on five podcast outlets. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

Other progress was made on the comic book this week, as both Rachel and Julia turned in pages, though for different issues. With Trevor, we're working on Issues 14 (lettering),15 (coloring) and 16 (pencils).

For the future, Paul and I are both working on separate story arcs. I completed my rewrites on Mission Istanistan, which is a three-issue arc and Paul is writing one tentatively called Kamaitachi Story. We'll hopefully get to these next year if all goes well.

We're currently waiting on some proofs to come back on Issue #10. We got one, but there is another one pending. So, hopefully soon.

No update on the copyright issue. I didn't have a chance to call. I feel like I've given them a chance to respond via email, so I will have to find the time this week. Can't let this fester too long.

In other writing, I'm finishing up a review for two films, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 and 2. Saturday was Batman Day, so we watched part one on Friday night and part two on Saturday. I've gotten through most of the review, but not quite done yet.

To celebrate Batman Day, Trophy Unlocked put up Paul's review of Batman: Year One (2011). And just when you think there were no more Tony Hawk game reviews left, we had at least one more, which came out on Wednesday, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD.

Made some more progress on Skylar, though I think I only got about 1000 more words done. I'm up to about 13599 words and counting. I'll try to keep you abreast of my progress here.

And, to round off the week, no queries. I know, I'm bad. Still need to research like-books. I tried but didn't find any results when I googled it. Sadly, there is only so much time in a week.

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

A Week in Writing #312 - Six Years On

Well, I don't want to break my arm patting myself on the back, but this is a bit of a milestone; six years ago today, I started writing this little weekly musing on my week in writing. I'm not sure if I should be happy that I've gone this far or a little sad that I don't have more to show for the years in between.

Before I go on any further, I would be remiss not to mention that my son Paul has been edting this blog for the past six years. I really appreciate his help and endurance in this endeavor. I'm sure it wouldn't be nearly as readable if it wasn't for him.

I think I've learned a few things along the way, but I really think I have some much more to learn and to, obviously, do to get where I want to get to, which is making a living at what I really want to do. I know the deck is stacked against me and that it is rare anyone nowadays makes a living just writing, but that's the sort of thing dreams are made of.

Well, no Literary Agent, at least not so far. I am working on this project at the moment; researching potential agents to query. It's a rather slow and boring process if you haven't undertaken it yourself. A couple of things I'm seeing: First, more and more agents are moving towards Online Query Forms. Yes, something even more impersonal than an email and no doubt easier to ignore. Response times are also getting pushed out, rather than four weeks, it seems more common to find six and even longer, that is if they respond at all. Many are now saying they'll get back to you in 12 weeks only if they are interested. So no more of those impersonal form letters/emails. Just if you don't hear from us that means "no".

That doesn't mean I haven't been writing. I think I've written one, rewritten two and started a fourth novel since I began this blog. So, when the day comes, and I get an agent, hopefully, I'll be ready. I will, of course, give you a blow by blow of the process once it gets going. I'm still trying to find 10 agents to query as a first wave. I'm still building my list, to borrow a phrase.

In the past six years, I'm going to guess I've written about 300 reviews of movies for Trophy Unlocked, not all of which (45) have yet to be published. As an example, this week, I wrote two, one for Morning Glory (1933), as part of our drain the DVR Saturday program; and one for Night Club Scandal (1937), a film I just happened to catch on TCM while working on something else.

One of mine did get published this past week, Kindergarten Cop (1990). I was outraged by the "controversy" surrounding the film when it was canceled from a drive-in program in Oregon and we decided to watch it. While I can see how some films, like Gone With The Wind or The Birth of a Nation, might be considered controversial, Kindergarten Cop didn't deserve to be thrown in with those titles. Well, as you can imagine, it rubbed me the wrong way and I had to say something about it.

In other Trophy Unlocked news, Trevor's review of Ghost of Tsushima went up on Wednesday, which seems to be the day for video game reviews.

Six years ago, we were still looking for an artist for Powers Squared, now we've published nine issues and are getting ready to publish our tenth, while number 15 is getting worked on. I think we've come a long way but, like most things, have a long way yet to go.

Even though this hasn't been the best seller I think we thought it would, it still has been fun. I like working with my sons on it. Paul and I work a lot together on podcasts and videos, which I do enjoy. I've also really enjoyed working with our artists, especially Rachel Wells and our colorists, shout outs to Julia Canon. Comic books are a collaborative art and I really like the idea of making it better.

And I've enjoyed most of the ancillary work, like the website, the podcast, the videos, the social media and the newsletters. I hope you've taken a moment to take a look at them at least once in the past six years. (Shameless plug: https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/join)

There is a big difference, I think, between Issue #1 and Issue #10, not only in the art style but also in the storytelling. I'm anxious to see if we can take this further but I feel like COVID has kept us in neutral. We're still working on the engine and I think we'll be better placed when race day comes around again.

We'll enough with the metaphors. Keep writing and I'll see you back here again next week.

A Week in Writing #309 - Report from the Home Front

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'll no doubt remember that when I attend a con, I try to give you a report detailing what I've learned, as a Report from the Front. With COVID-19 spreading, San Diego Comic-Con went virtual this year, so while I attended, I never did leave my couch.

Usually, I make an effort to attend as many how-to programs and panels, but this year there were far fewer of those types and even fewer that really interested me. So my report this time will be somewhat limited. We, as a family, attended several panels via YouTube, which was the only way for the Comic-Con sponsored ones. (Adult Swim, as an example, had their own panels via Twitch). I would say that we spent a lot of time attending panels that were sponsored by Warner Bros, either the Archive or HBO Max, the latter of which seems to be where all the new Cartoon Network-produced programming is going. We have a lot of favorites, such as Summer Camp Island and Adventure Time, which were part of several panels, including one about Storyboarding, which was very interesting.

There was also a Phineas and Ferb panel, this one from Disney+ about the Candace Against the Universe movie that is coming out on that streaming service later in the summer. We've been watching the series pretty much every weekday at lunch, and I think we're all looking forward to the movie, even though we currently don't subscribe to the streaming service.

Warner Bros sponsored two panels, one about the 80th Anniversary of Bugs Bunny, which was a long infomercial for a set they're releasing later this year. And Warner Archives sponsored one about the Secret Origin of Saturday Morning Cartoons, even though the secret is that the original cartoons were reruns of theatrically released cartoons. Both were interesting but not really how-to presentations.

Even though we have a colorist, Paul and I were interested in How To Color a Comic Book, sponsored by Hi-Fi, a coloring service that walked through their process and gave some tips on what they do versus what others do. Fairly informative though I'm still happy with the colorist we have and the work she does.

There were a couple of panels about the Narrative in Videogames, which I think Paul understood better than the rest of us. I've always thought there is a videogame in Powers Squared and watching the panel did get me to thinking about story branches and alternative endings, though I profess not to know a thing about scripting one. It is interesting to hear terms like "Bark", "Cinematic" and "V.O." being used.

We did watch a panel that promised to discuss the science behind Back to the Future, but which really discussed science in comic books and science fiction. This is one of the issues with panels is that they sometimes don't get to point they were supposed to. I was hoping to hear something about hoverboards and instead saw a brief demonstration of a robotic skirt that one of the panelists designed.

Watched a panel about networking. These panels are never really about how-to but more the benefits of having done so in nature. There was a panelist who does marketing for comic books, so I did contact her after the panel. Too soon to have heard back and I don't want to get ahead of myself and commit to hiring her, though I would like to hear what she could do for us and Issue #10, which is coming out soon. I will, of course, let you know if anything comes of this.

Two more panels on Sunday had some useful information. There was a panel on The Writer's Journey: Developing a Producer's Mentality. This was more about working on your own IPs rather than someone else's. And while you may have to be willing to make some changes to get it published or produced, there has to be a line that you're not willing to cross; and if you walk away, you have to really walk away.

The other panel, and our last one of the Con, The Grind NEVER Stops, not even during a quarantine led by Bryan "Kaiser" Tillman. He led another panel that we attended last year and is really a very inspirational speaker. His point was that creatives should use the time during a pandemic to get things done, rather than play videogames and watching Netflix. His advice was 1) Time Management: Plan out your day and then you'll see how much time you actually have; 2) Study: Look at the work of others and see why it is effective; 3) Practice: Work on the areas that you need to improve; 4) Development: The first draft is not going to be your best. You need to work on it to make it better; and, 5) Network: Find groups of like people on social media and share with them and comment on their work as well. While I think Kaiser's intended audience is artists, much of what he said is applicable to writers as well.

Since all the panels were pre-recorded and available on YouTube, it's probably not too late to watch them. You can go to https://www.comic-con.org/cciathome/2020/programming-schedule and see what you might have missed.

I did manage to get some writing done this week and during the downtimes between "Panels". One of the advantages of Comic-Con@Home is that you're not trapped there and can do other things while you wait.

This week, I finished the pencil and paper editing on The Runaway and began to type up those changes. I think I was hoping that the edits would not only make the book better but might have a few more words. I think I was hoping for at least 1000, but I've only added a couple of 100 words and I'm about 25% of the way through the book this time around, or version 9 if you're keeping track.

I also finished the two reviews I started last weekend, The Bribe and Top Gun. They'll be coming out sometime in the future. This week, we continued the trend of publishing a videogame review on Wednesdays with Trevor's review of Spec Ops: The Line for PS3. In keeping with the spirit of Comic-Con, my review of Batman: The Killing Joke went up on Saturday. A bit of coincidence that was also the 4th anniversary of its release in theaters.

We even managed to review some inks from Rachel for Powers Squared and work a little bit on getting a Discord group up and running. Our colorist, Julia Canon, is the spearhead behind that and it promises to make the communication and sharing easier.

We also had the time to write and send the latest newsletter on Powers Squared, The Bark, which you can subscribe to here.

So, to wrap this up, while I enjoyed the extra time and extra money that Comic-Con@Home provided me, I really missed the actual event itself. With all the hassles and people, there is really nothing like it and missing it for a year makes me more excited about going next year.

Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #307 - Let the Rewrites Begin!

Hope everyone is well and staying safe!

This week, some real progress made on several fronts, including as the title suggests, rewrites. I know I'm supposed to be querying Broken People but instead, I started, in earnest, editing The Runaway. This is the part of writing I think I like the most. I will print out 25 or so pages at a time and then sit down with a pencil and read those pages out loud (softly to myself) and mark them up. Hearing the words has a big effect on the writing, at least for me.

It is through this that I find places where I've missed a word, like leaving out "not" which has a real impact on the meaning; or where the dialogue doesn't sound right. Speaking it makes it more real and I find I'm adding words and phrases that would be said that I hadn't written the first time through. Sometimes, I'll even extend the conversation or even a description, sometimes writing on the back of pages as I go. I try to make a concentrated effort to spell things out, as I know that my handwriting is barely legible as human communications. That along with a stubby pencil and words become graphite and smeared blobs on the pages if I'm not careful.

I'm also making notes, like "have I said this before?" or "does this get repeated later?" I know, really behind the scenes stuff. But the goal is always to make it better and this is the best way I can think of to do it. As an example, I mentioned a woman's perfume scent, without describing it. Then I gave it a memorable smell, that reminded my protagonist of his boyhood so that when he smells it again, later in the book, he'll be able to identify the woman wearing it based on that. I like little details like that and this is where they get inserted if they weren't there before.

This week, I've gone through about 200 pages, which is roughly forty percent of the book. It will probably take a week or two to get all the way through, if indeed that's all I work on this week. But alas, it probably won't be. There is another rewrite that I need to turn my attention to as well.

That would be the proposed pilot script for the Powers Squared animated show we want to pitch. This past week, we finally had a family table read, with my wife bowing out due to being under the weather (not COVID). So the boys and I read all the parts and I got Paul's notes. So that rewrite will start next week as well.

Speaking of editing, the next three issues of Powers Squared are edited as well, so we're ready to go with the next story arc, Mocha and Raven. A three-part story that will most likely take us into next year as far as production goes. We're trying to keep ahead of our artist, Rachel Wells.

Speaking of Rachel, we had a Google Hangout with her a couple of weeks ago, which we posted on Sunday on our YouTube channel. Curious about her or what it's like to work on Powers Squared? Well, here's your chance.

We've also had several pages come through in various states, from pencils from Rachel for Issue #15 to colors from Julia on Issue #14 to Trevor doing lettering, also on Issue #14. So, Paul and I have been busy with that as well. We used the opportunity to review Julia's work for our Friday podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, though I'm sure it was probably better on Twitch. If you're curious about that process, you can check out the ways to listen and watch at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/join.

I did start a new review, last night as a matter of fact, for Scene of the Crime (1949) as part of our Drain the DVR Saturday nights. No telling how long we've had that movie, but I think it dates back to the last time TCM had a Summer of Darkness, so it's probably been a few years. I hope to finish it later today or tomorrow, but no telling when it will appear on Trophy Unlocked. This past week, the Wednesday game review was Little Nightmares: Secrets of the Maw (DLC), written by Trevor, and the Saturday Morning Review was Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, written by Paul.

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

A Week in Writing #305 - Pre-Query research

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #290 - Coronavirus, Working from Home and other issues

First off, I hope that this finds you safe and healthy. Things are really getting crazy out there and I hope you're able to maintain your good health during the coming weeks and months. Like many of you, I've opted to work from home for the duration and I'm fortunate that there is a way I can do that. While these are terrible times, I'm trying to look on the bright side: no commute means about two to three hours a day that I get back, which I'm hoping to put to good use. I figure I can transition from writing to work in a matter of seconds rather than an hour or more each way.

This all started for me on Friday, when I was volunteered to work from home as an experiment, which turned out to be permanent, at least for the upcoming week. I received notice today that next week they want everyone to work from home. While other companies are saying to work from home for the duration, mine appears to be taking a more conservative approach. Even then, things have changed quickly. On Thursday, as I wrote, I was part of an experiment. On Friday it was voluntary to work from home and on Sunday, it became work from home.

On the downside, and there are many, our signing at Golden Apple Comics was postponed indefinitely as they stopped all in-store events. Unluckily, we were the first to be affected. While we have to agree with the decision, it is still disappointing. One of the things we wanted to do more of in 2020 was in-store signings and conventions. Now, it appears, those plans are put off as everything is being canceled or postponed.

It will be interesting to see how things play out in the near future as we all have to get used to what will no doubt be a new reality, at least for a few weeks, if not longer.

With the coming chaos, it hasn't been a great week for me as far as writing goes. I did some work on The Runaway this week, but only about 1000 words, which I know is pitiful. I know there will be more rewrites in all of this over time, so the important thing is to finish this draft.

Since Paul and I took a class recently at UCLA about pitching, I decided to try my hands at writing the pilot script. I think I'm through the first act and I know there will be edits to come but it's kind of cool to be doing something different.

Paul and I also managed to get our twitch stream to work though it took two tries. Apparently, the connection dropped, which is why we don't live-stream anymore on our YouTube Channel. We've decided to twitch stream the recording of our podcast, On the Air With Powers Squared, which is still available on PodBean and Apple Podcasts. I hope you'll take a listen or watch.

No new reviews from me, though I am trying to wrap up one on Song of the South. I think one of my reviews will go up next week but in the meantime, the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked was Darksiders Genesis by Paul. With studios postponing releases, it's playing havoc with some month-long celebrations we're trying to do, like Bond month. We'll have to play it by ear until the dust settles.

Hope you are healthy and safe. So keep writing and I'll see you 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.