A Week in Writing #619 - Feeling Good for a Change

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

I had a very nice surprise on Saturday, which I'd like to share. A little over a year ago, we left six copies of our then two trades with Golden Apple Comics in Hollywood. We were supposed to go back in six months to see how things went. As they say, life is what happens while you're busy making other plans, going back seemed to be put off and off and off. When I ran into Ryan, the owner, at WonderCon this spring, I apologized but he seemed to take it in stride. But we finally planned on going and that became one of the things we did on Saturday; wrote it on the calendar and everything.

To be honest, I expected to come away with 12 copies of the books, but to my surprise, they had sold 4 of each and kept the other four to sell them as well. I know there are books out there by indie publishers that sell that many in an afternoon at a con, but for me and Powers Squared, this was a big deal. So, I left the shop feeling good with more money in my pocket than I had going in.

While we're on the subject of Powers Squared, our artist is now working on page 15 of the next issue and the colorist has finished the first 8 pages, so things are coming togther.

Still waiting to hear if we're going to be called off the bench again for San Diego Comic Con. I'm not getting a good feeling about that, so we might not be tabling there this year. We are, and pardon me if I've mentioned this before, going to be Guests at L.A. Comic Con in October, so things aren't so bad, I guess.

I did work some on Blackmail this past week, but it's been a little slower than I expected. I've rewritten bits and pieces of the story leading up to the third act, so to speak, of the story. The word count is now at 88,460, as I've been taking away as much as I've been adding. I'm not going to promise a date when I'll be done, as there will be other things, no doubt that will come up, or have to be done this next week.

Our podcast this week, "OAPS #357 - DesignerCon 2026 (Pasadena)", was recapping our recent experience at DesignerCon last weekend. You never waste an experience when you do a podcast. You can watch now on our twitch channel for the next few days, listen to it here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch it on our YouTube channel.

Next Friday will be somewhat momentous, as it will be the eve of the United States' 250th anniversary. We're not a political podcast, but wanted to not let such a memorable anniversary go by without comment, so we've invited Lucas Scheffel (Angry Fred, Gary the Gorilla, Ned Kelly: First Blood) to be our guest, as he was an American History major in college.

I did write a review today for Supergirl, which we watched in a theater this morning. I think you'll have to wait until tomorrow to know what I thought about it. Otherwise, Trophy Unlocked is starting a summer of John Wick reviews, beginning with Trevor's review of the first film, John Wick. There will be other reviews, but we had a backlog of those films, so stayed tuned.

This coming week, will be more about the monthly newsletter than anything else. The Hound Dogs' Howl comes out once a month on the first Sunday of the month, so if you want to get your own copy, sign up. It's FREE!

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

A Week in Writing #606 - One Day WonderCon

 

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

Since we weren't tabling at WonderCon, not that we didn't try, we attended the Con on Sunday. And even though we weren't selected, there were plenty of empty tables abound. Sort of makes you think they don't want you.

From an attendee point of view, there seemed to be fewer people. I'm used to the chaingang two-step of Comic-Con, so being able to take full strides at the Con was nice, but it told me that attendance appeared to be down. However, fot those we talked to in Small Press, the Con seemed to be good for them. I think I mentioned this before, but we'd like to attend in Artist Alley, rather than Small Press, since that seems to be more our speed. Not that we'd make any more money, but maybe not lose it as fast.

Did attend one panel about pitching board games.The takeaways: Structure the Pitch from the top down. Pitch - What it's about, then the unique selling points and then key information: audience, age range, components, player count, how long to play a game and MSRP. Basically, provide as much info in as short a time as possible. Fun fact, if your manufacturing costs are say $10, the MSRP will be $90 to $100. Generally, you're looking for a MSRP of $20 to $25 for a mass retail game.

What you should bring with you is a prototype of your game, a sales sheet and a 3-6 page pitch deck, though the latter wasn't required by everyone. There was even the suggestion of a 30 second sizzle reel, but again not universally required. Also, don't worry about the art because it will be changed. Games are also broken down by time spent playing, from 15 minutes (lightwieght) to 1 hour (middlewieght) to several hours (heavyweight).

On the subject of cons and comic books we did release the 27th issue of Powers Squared this past week. "Billy and Raven: Life on the Road." In this issue, we spun off two characters from pervious story arcs, Billy O'Shea and Raven, the Yatagarasu who granted him powers. They're trying to stay off the grid, and away from villain Dr. Atlas, as long haul truckers. In this issue, they find that life on the road isn't without troubles. Hope you take a shot on it. You can find out where to buy it (print and digital) here, or take a preview of the issue here.

I spent most of the week working on Blackmail. I'm trying to review the pages before going through the notes at the keyboard. It's interesting to me that sometimes I'll still make more changes. I did have a moment yesterday that I think improved the book, but only took a few keystrokes to do it. This is a detective story and one of the people he interviews was interesting but the reason for interviewing them was sort of week. But I realized I could move a couple of sentences around, add a few and then they were more of a possible witness. I don't know about you, but I love moments like that.

No new movie review from me this week, as we were sort of getting ready for WonderCon and I wouldn't have time to watch a feature. I did finish mine for The Lady Refuses. But there were two reviews this week on Trophy Unlocked. Wednesday was game day with Trevor's Second Look - Starlink: Battle for Atlas (+ DLC), The Saturday Morning Review was also Trevor's TMNT (2007).

The podcast this week was a look at the films that have been nominated for Best Animated Feature through the years. Paul and I don't always agree with the Oscars choice. You can listen to it here, watch it here for the next few days (though it's in three parts) and watch the complete version on our YouTube channel starting on Wednesday at 2:30 pm. The reason it's in three parts on Twitch, is that a malfunctioning Smoke detector went off twice during the podcast. I had to get on a stepladder and disconnect it.

Next week, more work on Blackmail, and it's newsletter week as well, so I've got my work cut out.

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