A Week in Writing #364 - Yes, I Sent a Query

I hope everyone is staying safe, getting vaccinated, and writing.

Yes, the headline is correct, I did send a query this week. I don't know about you but I find the queries that you do on a form rather daunting and a tinge more impersonal than those that want an email. To be honest, I'm not good at the marketing the forms want you to provide. While the forms seem to have standardized the process, at least for the querier, the agent's response to them is not. I don't know if an agent ever really sees the forms, the same way I'm never sure the agent reads the email, but it seems to me that it's faster to send an email, though I get the same anxiety either way.

Going through what's already out there, I closed out another query DNR, so I've got two. One that is coming up on the 12 weeks the agency's site said they need and the one I just submitted on Thursday night.

I did some more writing on Skylar, even though I think I just got through one more chapter this week. Still, it is some progress and I do like working on it. I got a late start last night and didn't get as far as I had wanted to get, but I could barely keep my eyes open.

On the subject of writing, we published our podcast with Carla Hoch, the author of the book Fight Write; it was our 100th episode of On the Air with Powers Squared. I think it was a good interview and I encourage you to watch and/or listen to it. Links at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps and it will be going up on our YouTube channel on Wednesday. If you write fight scenes, you'll want to catch it. I've just finished reading Fight Write and would highly recommend it, even if Carla had not been on our show.

Now that we've crossed into the Powers Squared section of this post, let me give you an update. We just submitted Issue #12 to comiXology so we're off to the races. Issue 12 is What's in a Name? Part 3 and concludes the story arc. The logline: Marty and Eli have each other's back but continue to be drawn apart by the events and people in their lives. Could this be the end of Powers Squared?

Our on-demand publishers already have the book and the other submissions are pretty easy to do (GlobalComix and Kindle). When a date is set, I will, of course, let you know. What you do with the information is up to you. That is a veiled plea to buy it.

We've shifted some of our attention to the coming Kickstarter with Artithmeric.com. They want to get our book, as well as others, into bookstores in Europe. We've remastered some of the dialogue and our artist is coming up with a new cover and back cover to use on the BD (bande dessinée) that they'll be kickstarting. The cover, at least the drawing has been completed and they've approved, so now we're working on the back cover. My goal is to get our end done by the end of the month with the Kickstarter to go live in October. If you've never read the comic book this would be a good jumping on point, as it will be the first five pre-Rachel Wells issues.

No new review this week, as we changed up our norms. We watched The Suicide Squad on Friday, reviewed today on Trophy Unlocked. Instead of watching an old movie, we instead watched four episodes of Harley Quinn, the DC animated series with Kaley Cuoco voicing the main character.

That said, my review of The Racket (1928) went up on Saturday. This is the film I wanted to watch after reading Bathing Beauty: A Novel of Marie Prevost by Laini Giles. The film was nominated for the first Academy Awards but lost Best Picture to Wings.

On Wednesday was Trevor's review of the video game Phineas and Ferb: Day of Doofenshmirtz, so now you're caught up.

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

A Week in Writing #313 - Lost Time

Hope everyone is staying safe!

I don't know about you, but I lost some writing time this past week due to watching the DNC's virtual convention. I wasn't planning on it, but I got caught up in the event. That won't be an issue this week, which is about as political as I get on this blog.

So that explains why I didn't do some of the things I was planning to do. I'll start with the bad, no queries again this week. I know I'm putting that off and I will promise to do better this week. I think I've found some good prospects. If and when I do I will report back here.

I did work this week on a script for a second episode of Powers Squared: The Animated Series. I know it's still a pipedream, but I wanted to work on writing this kind of project. I finished a first draft this week and did a round of edits. I still want to go through it again before showing it to anyone. I'll let you know when I do and what is said.

There was some review work we did this week on the book itself; pencils from our artist, the last four pages as well as the cover of issue #15. Nothing too time consuming, though we do take it seriously and try to give it the time necessary.

More writing on my "next" novel, though I made a change that required some rewrites and I didn't get as much done as I would have liked (see excuse above). I'm about 8000 words in and while I have a general idea where I want it to go, I'm a pantser so that's as much as I'm working with.

I did finish a new review this week for Trophy Unlocked, Bird of Paradise (1932) a pre-code film starring Delores del Rio and Joel McCrea. I also put up on the blog four reviews for October (never too soon to get ready for Halloween); horror films: White Zombie, The Curse of the Cat People, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), and Revenge of the Creature.

This week, the reviews were Carrion for the Switch on Wednesday and The Emoji Movie on Saturday, both written by Paul.

Well, not a big week but I hope you'll keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #250 | Report from the Front Ground Zero Animation Expo

This past week was a bit of everything with a little work done on most of the projects. The one thing I didn't make any progress on was my review of Sabrina, but that was not mission critical as Trophy Unlocked currently has a plethora of reviews ready to go. This week's Saturday Morning Review was Trevor's review of Trover Saves the Universe, a VR game for the PS4 developed by Justin Roiland, the man and voice behind Rick and Morty. We'll get to Sabrina in due time. I hope to wrap it up this week, time permitting.

More work was done on the rewrite of The Runaway, though never as much as I'd like. Sort of taking things a little slow this week, trying to get back into the swing. No new queries, and no progress on the synopsis of Broken People. And to complete the triumvirate of disappointment, no word from the editor on Familiar Stranger. Just like last week.

Though it wasn't my intention, the bulk of the week was spent on Powers Squared. Rachel delivered not only more tiffs, but the thumbnails for the last four pages of Issue #11, as well as ideas for the cover. She is usually very prompt at the beginning of the month with the thumbnails and I should have been expecting them from her.

I also spent some time, in prep for the Ground Zero Animation Expo, working on a Pitch Packet for Powers Squared. We think it would make a good animated series and one of the reasons for attending the Expo was to attend the panel Developing and Pitching. Having attended, I had to rethink much of what I had already done, which is a good thing.

The panel was moderated by Daniela Rodriguez and Marc Monroy, neither of whom I had heard of prior. Actually, until the panel started, I had no idea who would be running it. As it turns out, in keeping with the looseness of the Expo, there was no prepared presentation with both wanting to rely on Q&A. For those who know me, you'll be surprised, but I was particularly verbal at this panel, something I'm not usually at these sorts of things.

While Daniela and Marc were free with advice, it should be noted that neither had successfully pitched a show. Marc is an illustrator for hire and has worked on other people's pitches and Daniela had pitched a show at Nickelodeon where she works, though it didn't sound like it was picked up. Not that their advice was not good, it was not the sort of expertise one would expect, at say, Comic-Con.

I was able to ask about what should be in a Pitch Packet, or Pitch Deck as they called it. According to them, a packet should be no more than 6 to 7 pages front and back. There should be a synopsis of the story, some description of the main characters, focus on the physical world of the series, referred to as the physics. And there should, of course, be the artwork. Listening to this, I realized I needed to completely revamp what I had done, which I began to do later that night when we got back from the Expo.

They were also quick to point out that there are a series of green lights. Having a pitch greenlit does not mean it will ever get on the air. Usually, a studio will have to sell it to a network or streaming service so they, too, have to greenlight the series. And there is, of course, development, which can take months or even years and still end with no series. No guarantees in life or in pitching. Try not to feel discouraged.

One of the things Marc mentioned, and he did do most of the talking during the panel, was that some animation studios are making comics out of their stories to get attention for their IP. He even said if you have a comic book, you're about 90 percent there for a pitch. Having a comic book, that was something I took great interest in and pursued with him afterward on the floor of the Expo at his table.

Of course, with any Pitch panel I've been to, they are long on advice on what to have in your deck, but short on how to get it in front of someone at a studio or network. The advice is usually to look at the website of where you want to pitch, which led to a little misinformation. In our one-on-one talk, Marc suggested we contact Netflix, who is trying to ramp up their animation and is looking for new IPs to exploit. He suggested we follow the steps on their website and submit the comic book through that. However, in looking at the Netflix website, they are not open to unsolicited submissions and only work with literary agents. So, there is an extra-extra step involved.

They also recommended copyrighting your pitch, which is not a bad idea, however, they can take 6 to 8 months. In my experience with actually pitching a series, I registered it with the Writers Guild of America, which seemed to be sufficient, cheaper and quicker.

Overall, I had a good time at the GZAE and would recommend it to anyone interested in getting into animation. The floor is very manageable and everyone seems interested in engaging you. There were a few vendors in the mix as well, though surprisingly there was only one directly selling something that could be used to actually animate.

As I wrote, I started to rework our pitch deck, but I think I need to put that aside to concentrate on our Kickstarter and adding more names to our mailing list. Oh, the fun never stops.

A Week in Writing #234

For a little change of pace, I thought I'd better describe the week as it goes along.

On Monday night, Paul and I reviewed new pencils from Rachel. She sent us pages 9 through 16 on Sunday night but we didn't have a chance to look at it until the next night. We liked what she sent and didn't have any comments or suggestions. She should be sending us more pages this month.

Also worked on the next week's A Week in Powers Squared thumbnail. Found an image from Issue #4 which we will be discussing. I had already done some editing on the image and was able to do some color matching for the background. I'll admit I have no flair for the lettering but I was happy with the overall look. Usually, the lettering covers up something in the image or looks wedged in but this one has the image to one side and the lettering on the other.

Finished my review of Making a Living for Trophy Unlocked, adding about 355 words to the review, adding images and posting it on the blog.

Also did some more work on The Runaway.

Tuesday night, I started a review of The Stratton Story, a film I happened to watch on TCM during their salute to the Academy Awards. I had seen the film before and have always liked it but I thought why not review it. I also searched for images from the movie for the review. Not sure when it will appear but its always good to have some in reserve.

I also did some more writing on The Runaway.

Wednesday night, I completed The Stratton Story review and did some more writing on The Runaway.

This brings us to Valentine's Day and I'm sorry to say nothing new was written that night or Friday night, either, though we did watch Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016), an animated tribute to the old Batman TV Series from the 1960s. Trevor has this idea for Batman month in May, so I'm writing a review of that film as part of that tribute. I worked on it on Saturday and Sunday and am about 1600 words into the review as of this writing.

For Trophy Unlocked, on Saturday morning, published my review of Charlie Chaplin's first film, Making a Living (1914) as part of our salute in February to short films. One more review to go and I'm not sure what it will be as of yet.

On Friday night we received four more pages of pencils from Rachel, as Issue #10, What's in a Name? continues to take shape. Paul and I sat down to look at them on Saturday and gave her our feedback. Aside from questions about the two-page spread in the story, everything looks pretty good. She got back to us on Sunday with a revision, which we liked.

Also, on Friday, updated the poll question on the website. We seem to max at about 9 votes but it is never too late, unless until next Friday afternoon, to vote. The question before you this week is #21, If you had to choose one: Telekinesis vs. Teleportation? Takes about two seconds to vote.

We also spent part of Saturday exploring the Artithmeric website, as they offer creators the ability to have their comic books printed on demand and shipped worldwide. We're thinking this might be a good outlet for Powers Squared. We had been working on doing back covers for all the issues which I had thought I was done with on Sunday and started to compile print versions in pdfs. Only then did I discover that the new pages were slightly smaller than the rest of the pages, something I had thought I had already caught but apparently hadn't. Ended up figuring it out but I haven't yet recompiled the page into issues. When they go up, there will be announcements on all of our social media outlets.

In anticipation of the release of Issues 5 and 6, we commissioned our second Motion Comic as a trailer for those issues. This one went bumpier than the first one and took longer. I'm not sure what happened except the creator was sidelined by his day job. Also, we were allowed only one set of edits so we're "satisfied" with the finished product, as we sort of have to be. It'll be up as soon as we know the date of release.

Paul and I shot and posted our 21st weekly vlog on our YouTube channel, called Powers Squared Comic. You can view it here. Paul also submitted the video to jacksfilms to see if it might be featured on that YouTuber's YIAY series. Fingers crossed. Even if he makes fun of it, it would be more viewers than we get now. We also put up a story on Instagram about doing the video.

Well, that sort of gets us up to current. No new queries this week and no word from the editor on Familiar Stranger, though I haven't, yet, reached out to him again. You got to leave something for the week ahead.

A Week in Writing #230

As I sit down to write this, I'm wondering how much writing I've done this week. This is the sort of thoughts I go through every week when I put together this blog. In some ways, it hasn't been my best week, though I do think I got some things done.

This week with Powers Squared, we did receive pencils for the first four pages of Issue #10. There's always the feeling that things are getting real when you start to see the image of what it will look like. Pretty good stuff, though we asked for a couple of minor fixes. The promise of the next four pages is hanging out there so it should be any day now.

No pages from the colorist so far but she has billed me which is usually a sign we're getting close. She's got a lot going on this month. Her own crowdfunding project to send out, a convention in March to prep for, her own Etsy store and our comic book, so I know she's busy. But right now, no pages means no pages for Trevor to letter and Issue 9 remains incomplete.

Now that we've registered Issues 5 and 6 for copyright, the next step is to submit them to comiXology in hopes someone will purchase them. I don' t know why this step is so hard, I mean with done it before but every time I get a little nervous and any excuse not to seems good enough. In looking at the pages for images to add to the website, I did find an error, similar to the one we found in Issue #10 but this time we missed it. I blame myself but you want it to be as perfect as it can be. I won't point it out here so if you find it let me know.

I did spend some time working on a couple of pet projects, trying to get the comic book ready for possible print on request and kickstarting or crowdfunding Issue #10. I worked on the back cover and on the various levels of contributions. I need to get feedback but trying to keep those moving forward as well.

Paul and I continue to do our weekly vlog A Week in Powers Squared on YouTube. It can be somewhat demeaning to have 0 views, which we've had for the past two weeks but I guess we're gluttons for futility as we keep doing them. If you take pity and actually watch one, let us know what you think about it, either here or in the comments on YouTube.

This week, no new review for me on Trophy Unlocked but there were two from the other writers. Trevor reviewed Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan (1993) and Paul reviewed the new film Dragon Ball Super: Broly which is out in theaters now. It seemed right that review should be our Saturday Morning Review.

I did work on one review this week, I'm about 2500 words into one for Cabin in the Sky (1943) for future publication. I've got more work to do on it but it should be ready soon.

On Runaway, my latest novel, I've written another chapter though I wish I had done more. I'm working my way through a new section so it is a little more than rewriting as simply writing. It's not that I have writer's block but more writer's weary. This past week had been filled with long commutes thanks to rain and that can really take it out of you.

Next week, there will be a slight hiccup, as we're all going to a concert on Tuesday night so that's one day lost for sure. With writing, it's always something.

A Week in Writing #227

This is supposed to be one of those weeks when you take a look back at what you've done and look forward to what you want to get accomplished. I'm going to resist the temptation to look back at 52 weekly posts to come up with this year-end post.

Let's begin with Powers Squared. So much has happened and there is still so much to do. We began the year with a new creative team. Paul and I wanted to take the comic book in a new direction and we were happy to start working with Rachel Wells and Nina Gaillard on the comic book. Because of them, this has been a very productive year, which we will begin releasing in 2019. We've completed three issues and are about a month or so away from completing a fourth. (It previously took us two full years to get five done.)

The last three of the first five issues came out this year and despite some nice publicity, including an interview with FreakSugar, reviews in First Comic News, a nice write-up in Adventures in Poor Taste and an Ask Me Anything, I don't think we broke any sales records. In fact, I don't think we've sold enough to warrant getting paid by comiXology. (In fact, I think the lack of sales caused them to sort of turn their backs on us, so to speak.) It would be easy to give up, but I think the best stories are still to come.

I don't talk about the cost to produce the comic book (and I won't here, either) but let's just say it takes just about every extra penny we have and preventing us, as a family, from doing things like taking vacations, doing things to the house, to buying a new car. I'm hoping to change some of that by doing some crowdfunding in the coming year. I don't want you to cry for me Argentina, but we're hoping to get some help and, hopefully, more exposure for the comic.

We've tried to grow our social media presence with a website, a Facebook page, an Instagram account, Tumblr account, Twitter account, a YouTube Channel, and, lastly, a Pinterest account. That's not to say we've been successful on all fronts. You have to keep feeding these platforms and sometimes that's very difficult. I don't want to get too far ahead with revealing too much about future issues so that when they come out we have new images to share. At the same time, I wanted to promote the issues that came out last year, which sort of left our current Creative Team on the sidelines while we did that.

Now, we can concentrate on our new issues. I plan to submit Issues 6 and 7 early in the new year to comiXology but would also like to see if we can get some support from some of the media outlets that had supported us last time out.

Would also like to look into printing on demand. To that end, I spent some time this week coming up with back covers, both inside and out, for the issues. Now to get those reviewed and then we'll see where to go from there.

Work has already begun on Issue #10. We've submitted the script to Rachel, who has already begun to do some sketches for a new character we're introducing. She also seemed to really like the script which is a good thing as we're going to be living with this story arc for most of the coming year. This story arc is called What's in a Name? and will continue for three issues.

Trophy Unlocked celebrated its eighth anniversary and the 900th review post this past year. We're getting our end of the year posts ready and those will be out tomorrow, the 31st. This past week, we posted three new reviews. In addition to our usual Saturday Morning Review, What Price Hollywood?, we also published a review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which Trevor wrote. We also published one more from Paul for Ready Player One.

Every year, we spend the day after Christmas watching movies, which we call Movie Day (I know, really clever). As a result, we have a couple of reviews, including Ready Player One and one I wrote for Wonder Wheel. Not sure if we'll be writing reviews of the other films we watched that day or not. One of them, Incredibles 2, we've already written about.

While I wasn't sure last week about the rewrite for The Runaway, I did some work on Christmas Day and a couple of other days this past week. The stumbling block I thought I had sort of disappeared when I got back to it. So I'm about 12,000 words into that rewrite.

Still no word from my editor on Familiar Stranger. Despite his promises to the contrary, it has been radio-silence for most of this year. I did receive about 50 pages but that was literally months ago. I wish I didn't feel the pressure to get the work done but I do. And frankly, I have a hard time when other people don't feel the same urgency. But there isn't much I can do to light a fire under him.

I need to spend some time putting together a list of potential agents to try and sell Broken People. I've kept spreadsheets in the past but I think I'm going to start the process from scratch. There are a few agents from the Writer's Digest Novel Writing Conference that I'd like to query to as well.

So next year, I hope it's a breakout year for Powers Squared, with more eyes on Trophy Unlocked and I find an agent for my books. Tall order, but that's what dreams are made of.

A Week in Writing #226

Well, the holidays are practically upon us and as I suspected prep has taken its toll on output.

For the most part, I'm rethinking The Runaway. I got to the point where I'm not sure where to go next. My premise needs more attention that I can give it at the moment. I need to figure out how my PI can find someone with little or no information provided by his client. It will take some thinking and perhaps research so it moved to back burner for now.

This week in Powers Squared has been fairly active as everyone involved gets ready for Christmas and family. Our colorist, Nina, has notified us that she won't be able to finish the next four pages until after the New Year. That should be fine since there won't be more than four pages and a cover for her to do in January, so I don't anticipate us getting behind schedule.

Rachel sent us the final pages for Issue #9 and the cover both based on a little feedback we gave her. I really like how the last panel got worked out.

We finished a rather last minute rewrite on the script for the next story arc, Issues 10-12, currently called What's In a Name? It started with my taking a final look which led to some rewrites and then more edits from Trevor and Paul. Some of the changes were grammatical (apparently I don't know a question when I write one) and word choice. We had pretty much worked it all out prior but this is the 12th and hopefully last rewrite.

Rachel has, in the past, made some artistic changes but we're also curious about how she likes the story since we're all going to be living with it for most of the coming year. She seemed anxious to get to work on it but I'm not expecting anything from her until after the holidays.

Still trying to Direct Message Powers Squared followers to also follow us on other social media sites. Once again, I did five and then Twitter won't let me do any more than that at one sitting. Not sure what's up with that but it does make sure I'm not spending too much time on social media. So far, the results haven't been overwhelming, no new followers on Tumblr or YouTube, as a result, this week. I know its supposed to be an uphill march but I never realized it would be this slow.

Our poll question, "Who is your favorite supporting character in Powers Squared?" has gotten our usual one vote so far. Somehow the saying, if you can reach just one person, seems a little hollow when you only ever reach is one. If I knew who the person is who responds to the poll question every week I'd point them out for praise. Again, thank you for paying attention.

New video up on YouTube, A Week in Powers Squared #13. You can watch it here. Paul and I discuss the origins of the characters: Uncle Brian, Mocha, and Jennifer Perry.

As far as Trophy Unlocked goes, we've completed our annual look at Christmas films with the comedy The Santa Clause. But wait that's not all, Paul reviewed Once Upon a Deadpool, which is a PG-13 version of the R-rated hit Deadpool 2, which came out much earlier this year. A bit of a box office grab for Fox/Disney, but really worth the trouble if you managed to see a screening during its limited run. I'm sure it will see the light of day on home video next year if you missed it.

I did finish two more reviews, one for next week, What Price Hollywood? and one for next Christmas, Cover Up, so you're going to have to wait for that one for about a year. With the year coming to a close, please look out for our annual lists of Highlights from the past year, with each of the reviewers weighing in with their own lists. Those should be out early next week which means you'll have to wait a few days for those.

So until next week, hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!