A Week in Writing #598 - Didn't Get it All Done

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

My goals for this week were simple enough: do the newsletter, The Hound Dog's Howl, and work more on Blackmail. Well, I got about half of that done, it was the newsletter. Even though much of it is formulaic, it still takes time. And by formulaic, I don't mean that I'm in possession of some magic formula about how to put together a newsletter, but more that there is a layout to ours that I follow month in and month out. There is some writing involved, things do happen during the month. This past month, as an example, we had a new issue of The Blade of Miracles released, we tabled at a convention and our latest trade went up on ComicsPlus through LibraryPass. If you would like to read it, please subscribe here. It's FREE.

The work on Blackmail never really got off the ground. I'm up to 80,472 words, which isn't much of an improvement from last week. Things happen that get in the way. Some of it is the book itself. I knoew what I want to have happen in the next chapter but sometimes it's a little difficult to get into it.

Our podcast this week, was our 22nd Comic Book Club. It seems like it had been months since I had read Vagabond, a manga by Takehiko Inoue, which wasn't the plan. When you're trying to schedule five people in two cities, and people have their own lives, it can be hard, especially when you're working around the holidays. Our former artist Rachel Wells, and our current colorist, Julia Canon, joined Trevor, Paul and myself. You can listen to it here, watch it for the next few days on our twitch channel, or wait until Wedmesday at 2:30 pm PST and watch it on our YouTube channel. While you're there, please feel free to subscribe and sign up for notifications.

Quite an active week on Trophy Unlocked. On Wednesday, Paul's review of Iron Lung went up. He and Trevor had attended what was supposed to be the first screening of the film on Tuesday night. The Saturday Morning Review was my review of Samaritan, a digital release based on the comic book by a friend of a friend. We had watched it after Lewis Felton had appeared on our podcast and talked about how his business partner had written a spec script that didn't sell, but when he made it into a comic book, that sold. If you want to hear more, you can check out the interview with Lewis Fenton here.

I've also written a review of The Beast of the City, a 1932 MGM film starring Walter Huston and Jean Harlow. As always, no idea when it will appear.

This past Wednesday saw the release of issue 11 of Trevor's The Blade of Miracles. You can find it in both physical and digital at The Campus Store on our website. I'm still working on getting #12 ready for release later this month.

On the Powers Squared front, I feel like I'm in a waiting pattern. Our new artist should be delivering a new page soon, our colorist should be sending new colored pages soon and I'm working with our old artist about a new seal to celebrate SRCC's 70th anniversary. San Romero Community College is the ficticious school where a lot of the comic book takes place in and around. Amd according to the story, it was founded in 1956. I'll be sharing the new seal when done.

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

A Week in Writing #576 - A Much Better Week

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

I feel like I'm finally getting back in the groove, so to speak. While I could have done better, I think I'm feeling good for the first time in about a month.

I'll start with Blackmail, which I usally end with. Previously, I had been waffling about getting started on the next chapter, which I can now report I've finished. Word count is now 52684, which is going in the right direction.

Our podcast was also about books, or rather our 20th Comic Book Club. Of the other members, outside of the Hankins family, only one attended, Rachel Wells. We discussed Look Back by Tatsuki Fujimoto. Rather than live, we had pre-recorded it a couple of weeks ago. You can listen to it here or watch it on Wednesday after 2:30 on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared). The next book, in case you want to read along, is Grommets, written by Rick Remender and Brian Posehn.

We also recorded a new taste test video on Saturday night and put it up this afternoon. Paul taste tests three unique Mountain Dew Flavors: Baja Blast (Taco Bell), Mango Rush (Little Caesars) and Purple Thunder (Circle K). You can find it here.

Wrote a new review this weekend for Thunderbolts*. It came out in May, but we waited until it was on Disney+ to watch it. I would imagine the review will be up sooner rather than later. My review of 3 Bad Men was the Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked.

I did some preliminary work on the newsletter this week, writing the twin profile piece, and some other odds and ends. That comes out next Sunday, so there is still time to sign up for it, which you can do here.

Our artist has contracted COVID, so I'm not sure what the status is for the next five pages. Our colorist has completed the first four pages of the issue, as well as the covers for the third trade.

We do have a new issue of Powers Squared coming out at the end of September, our 26th, "The Great Escape", as well as the 7th issue of The Blade of Miracles, "Vivienne". So another big month for SRCC Press.

So, hopefully more on Blackmail, finishing the newsletter and working on other projects (maybe even a new query) are on the horizon for next week.

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

A Week in Writing #564 - One Thing Leads to Another

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

Well, sometimes the best laid plans change and there is a ripple effect. Case in point, this Friday we had scheduled another creator to be on our podcast. He had an experience that I thought would make a good show. However, a couple of days before, he must have looked at his calendar and realized that he was double-booked, our podcast and an out-of-state con. With him out, we had to find a new topic.

We had been kicking around the idea of doing a tribute to Thomas the Tank Engine since the books it was based on was celebrating 80 years; The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry. So, we switched to that and I think had a good show. You can listen to that podcast here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT and watch it here. It was fun to reminece about a show we all enjoyed watching when the boys were younger.

Having talked about Thomas, we decided that night to rewatch Bullet Train since Thomas is sort of tangentially central to the plot.

But the ripples also extended to our choice for my review of Caveman to go up on Trophy Unlocked as the Saturday Morning Review. The connection being that Ringo Starr, who was the train conductor in the early series, is also the star of the film. Sometimes you just have to play it out.

In the other big news, Powers Squared is now being sold at the Golden Apple Comics store in Hollywood; both trades. This goes back to WonderCon, when we asked the owner Ryan Liebowitz about it and he agreed. The delay was on me. I wanted to make sure both trades had a proper spine and it took the printer longer than anticipated to get them to us and then it was finding a Saturday to go there, and last Saturday was the open date.

But there was a lot of waiting and we went to the Farmer's Market after eating at Pink's, so by the time we got home, the day was sort of shot and so were we. As a result, no new reviews for me this week. At times like that, we usually watch an MST3K episode.

One new query this week, and, as always, no idea if I've been rejected by anyone. Silence is not golden but you never know how long the silence will last.

I did work on Blackmail some more this week, but I've written to a point that I'm not really sure how to proceed. It's more lack of knowledge on my part, so I sort of stopped when I got there. We're at 39,721 words, but the story needs to be longer. But we're not done, just paused.

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

A Week in Writing #560 - Three Down More to Go

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. And Happy Mother's Day to any mothers who read this.

This week, I continued my one query a week program and got one out on Thursday night. Once again, though, I sent out a query to an agent closed to queries, so I'm not counting that one. I thought I had learned my lesson from week one, but I guess I hadn't. When I got the "we're closeed to queries" response, I sent out another one right away, as I want to stay on task. So the count is three and, so far, no rejections or DNR. I'm sure they're coming in due time.

We had another creator we met at WonderCon on our podcast, Michael Boheem, the man who started Dopecat comics. I think we all had a good time. You can listen to that podcast here, or you can wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm to watch it on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) here.

We were originally planning to do our What's in my Bag? follow up on Saturday but that got delayed until next Saturday. I don't know what time but I imagine it will be some time Saturday morning PDT. There will be social media posts to point you to the right time.

I did some more work this week on Blackmail, and I'm now up to 32,496 words, which is about 3500 more than last week. I'm adding a second case my character is handling or handled. I hope to finish that part of the story this week and then get back into the current case he's working on. I'm never sure how much to write about the actual story. While most of it's set, there can always be changes; I'm a pantser at heart.

The Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked this week was Trevor's review, actually a second-look at, Moana, the Disney animated feature from 2016. And if there's a second look this week at Moana, that must mean there's a first look at Moana 2 coming soon.

For me, I completed a review this week for The Invaders (1912), an early Western from directors Francis Ford and Thomas Ince. It's sort of sad that so many involved with the film were big stars in their day but are largely forgotten now. Sometimes, their personal stories are as interesting as the film itself. This is another one I happened across on TCM and decided to record it. And now, it can be deleted from the DVR.

This week, more work on Blackmail, and a new query.

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

A Week in Writing #552 - Podcast Fun

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

As a reader of this blog, you are no doubt aware that we, Powers Squared, do a weekly podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. This past week, Friday and Saturday, we recorded three. The first was a preview for Trevor's book The Blade of Miracles Issue #1 that we shot that afternoon. That one didn't go through our usual, twitch.tv/powerssquared, but directly to Podbean, et al on Sunday, which you can listen to now here, and the video will go up on Wednesday, March 19th at 2:31 pm, here. That's OAPS #288.

The reason it's one minute later, is that we also went live on Friday at 6 pm with creator and artist Don Nguyen. Since we're tabling at Wonder Con this year, we invited Don on to give us some advice about the show. You can also listen to that here, or you can wait until that video goes up on Wednesday, March 19th at 2:30 pm here. That's OAPS #287.

And, if that wasn't enough, we recorded a third OAPS on Saturday afternoon with Julia and Jen to discuss the next issue of Powers Squared, "Gashadokuro". It was the first book Julia had drawn and the first Jen had colored. Due to their work schedules, Saturdays are the only days they are both available. That OAPS #289 comes out next Friday on twitch.tv/powerssquared. 

We did get some new sketch pages from our artist this week, so happy to report we're making some progress on issue #28.

Okay, here's the plug for Wonder Con. If you're going, please stop by and say hi. We'll be in Small Press, SP-05. To make it easier to find us, see map below:

My review of Conclave went up as the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I'm also working on two more, one for Waitress, which we watched on Friday, Pi(e) Day. If you've seen the movie, you'll get it. On Saturday night, we watched Merrily We Go To Hell (1932), a Pre-code drama directed by Dorothy Arzner, which I'm also reviewing.

To round out the week, I am continuing to work on Blackmail, and am now up to 14,605 words.

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

A Week in Writing #549 - Worrying About WonderCon

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

I'm wondering if I should be getting nervous about WonderCon. We're about a month away and not everything is pulled together. I've ordered additional copies, on the hopes that we'll sell well at the con, but I'm also waiting for some things to arrive, or be sent for that matter.

After L.A. Comic Con, I sent five copies of our first trade to a bookstore in Hawaii. Well, in the middle of January, I wrote to see if I could get them back. Here were are nearing the end of February and I haven't gotten any indications that they've been sent, despite my asking for that. I'm pretty sure we should get them in a week, but they have to send them back, and yes, I have to pay for that shipping, but it would be less than ordering new ones.

I've also ordered some business cards specific to The Blade of Miracles, Trevor's book, that we should also be selling at WonderCon. TBOM will be the first non-Powers Squared title on the SRCC Press label. We're planning to put it out on March 19, so stayed tuned.

I've also revamped the website,  https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/ to include TBOM  and make it more visible, but bunching up the Powers Squared issues to match the trades we've put out or are planning to put out; Issues 1-5, 6-9, 10-14, 15-18, and 19-23. I'll be adding a new page for 24, probably next week, since we're planning to put that one out, the week after TBOM and two days before WonderCon on March 26.

Speaking of Powers Squared, we had our February Team Meeting on Friday with Julia attending. You can listen to our brief update here or watch it on our YouTube channel here after 2:30 pm PST on Wednesday. If you do watch it, I hope you'll also like and subscribe.

Our artist was unavailable when we do the podcast, so I'm hoping we can find a day and time that she might be able to appear, and yes, we do pre-tape on ocassion. Of course, we haven't heard much from her lately, as her work schedule runs into the night.

One more note about Powers Squared, since the month is almost over, I need to write the newsletter for publication next Sunday. You can, if you're interested, sign up for the newsletter, here. It contains some of the information I write about here, but is still different content. Hope you do.

Because of all the hype we've been hearing about it, we watch Anora last night. We're planning to put the review up next Sunday morning. The review I wrote last week, The Locket (1946), went up as the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked, mostly because of the tale I mentioned in last week's blog. The Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's for Sonic Superstars (PS5).

No querying this week, I still want to make one more pass on the list, putting email queries above Query Manager submissions. I guess I'm a little nervous about what I'll have to have for those.

Did some work on Blackmail this week. I'm up to 6345 words so far. My protagonist finds out a secret about his wife and her ex-husband and has to work for her ex- in order to get the evidence back.

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

A Week in Writing #547 - Not Sponsored

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

The headline is about our latest On the Air with Powers Squared: OAPS #282 - Fidget Toys (Not Sponsored). We decided that since we have an affiliate code for a brand of fidget toys, we decided we should do a podcast about fidget toys. Trevor, who uses them, came on to discuss ones he's used and which ones worked, or didn't work for him. If you're curious about them, you can listen to it here, or better yet, since it's visual, you can watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PST here on our YouTube channel (@powersssquared).

Good news, our artist came through and submitted pages. We've been sort of on hold waiting for them. Hopefully, things can get back on track and receive them more regularly going forward.

More work on my query list, I'm down through the Os. I've decided to have four colors. Red for not right for me or I'm not going to query for whatever reason, usually genres they take (44). Yellow for ones I plan to query (84), Green for ones I plan to query first (2) and orange for ones I'm going to come back to later (7). More to come.

For Trophy Unlocked, I completed a review for Five Steps to Danger, as always not sure when it will appear. We've been on a Paddington kick of late, so Trevor's review of the first film Paddington was the Saturday Morning Review. Early in the week, was Paul's review of Sonic Frontiers as the Wednesday Game Day Review.

Not a banner week for me writing wise. I've done about 2,000 words on a new story, which I'm calling Blackmail, but not much else, I'm afraid, at least on that book.

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

A Week in Writing #546 - The Waiting Game

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

I've been in a holding pattern on the next issue of Powers Squared. Our current artist is about a month overdue with pages and I'm feeling very frustrated. I've tried to be "nice" about it, but it's really starting to make me mad. There have been about two or three times when pages would be uploaded into our dropbox, but those days have come and gone and there are no pages. And days go by without a reply to my DMs and that's something that I've already made clear is not acceptable to me.

My understanding is that there are issues, but she hasn't really ever told me directly what they are. She has a lot of talent, at least in what I've seen so far, but you have to deliver at some point, don't you? I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I am thinking about letting her go if things don't start happening. We haven't fired anyone off the project since we let our first artist go, but that was more quality than quantity issues. I'll let you know what happens when it does.

While this was newsletter day, I have a bit of information I didn't know at the time, so you'll be the first to know, but it appears our table at WonderCon will be SP-305. I don't have a good map, yet, to show you where it is, but based on the map from last year, it appears it's against the wall. If you're going to WonderCon, I hope you'll look us up.

Worked some more this week on my agent list, which is honestly boring work. I would be further along if I enjoyed it. I'm looking at individual agents and agencies and am through about 66 agents, and a solid third are on my don't query list. Either they don't mention mysteries on their list of genres or they're interested in BIPOC writers, which I am not. Of the remainder, only two have gotten green on my list, which is the best; most are yellow, which is I will query. It's all subjective, but that's what I've found so far.

I'm a little wary of agents who don't specify genres, don't have websites or don't have any guidelines on what they're looking for from writers. Also, if they only take postal submissions, you have to wonder how they communicate to publishers in this day of electronic everything.

I did spend some time on my second story idea, but it's sort of bogged down between what I want to have the characters say. What might sound good while I'm driving to and from work maybe doesn't work when I try to sit down and write it several hours later. It's all a process.

We celebrated 25 years of Yu-Gi-Oh! anime this year on our latest podcast, OAPS #281 - Yu-Gi-Oh! DM Quarter Century Retrospective. You can listen to it here, watch on twitch here for the next few days, or watch it on our YouTube channel after 2:30 pm PST Wednesday here.

For Trophy Unlocked, there were two reviews this week. On Wednesday, Game Day, there was Trevor's review of PIO, and the Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of Black Dynamite. As a result of that film, which is a parody of blaxploitation films in the early 1970s, I thought we should watch a real film from that time, so we watch Coffy, the one we have in our video collection. Because of that, I wrote a review of that film, and as always, not sure when it will be released.

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

A Week in Writing #537 - Turkeyless Thanksgiving and Other Tales

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

Not the best Thanksgiving holiday. While it's not the meal that's really important, but family, let me tell you the meal is also important. Case in point, this year, no turkey for the Hankins on Thanksgiving Day. You don't realize how much you miss it until you can't have any. Long story short, there were questions on how much the turkey had been cooked, thanks to an electric issue, and when the carving started, there was blood, which isn't a good sign. There was more cooking, but was it enough? We decided, the four of us, not to risk it. Others ate it and no one got sick, but why take the risk? So, no turkey, stuffing and no next day sandwich, which is the real prize.

The trip back was long, 9 hours +, counting stops, helped to being longer by an accident in the Grapevine. Two cars went over the edge and a helicopter had to be called in to take one of the victims to the hospital. Meanwhile, we're sitting in traffic with no clue about what's going on. Not a fun way to end any trip.

Not a total loss, managed to find a couple of Black Friday Record Store Day releases, getting one at less that face value, so I can't complain too much about that.

Because of the holiday, not too much writing got done. I feel like I'm squeezing this in, as a matter of fact.

No new reviews, but my review of Hell's Heroes went up on Saturday morning. This year, Trophy Unlocked is celebrating the Christmas season with a look at various versions of the Three Godfathers story on film. Hell's Heroes from 1929 was the first chronologically that we watched and there is more to come, as this is a popular story to retell. Trevor's review of Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion went up on Wednesday.

Even though we were away, there was a new podcast, one that we had prerecorded a couple of weeks ago. Artist Rachel Wells, colorist Julia Canon and letterer Trevor Hankins, joined Paul and myself to discuss the new issue #23 "Family Affair, Part 2", which drops next Wednesday. You can listen here or watch on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 on our YouTube channel. The issue will be available in both print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

Also, got out the newsletter today. Most of the work had already been done, but there's always something that has to be corrected. If you'd like your own copy of The Hound Dags' Howl, you can sign up by enrolling at SRCC here. It's free!

Some editing this week on Skylar as I'm reading it through one more time looking for inconsistencies and missing words, etc. Hopefully, I'll be done by year's end, if not sooner.

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

A Week in Writing #530 - Back to Reality

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

This is my first real post-Con week and sadly, the glow wears out quickly. It's a different feeling that I usually get when we go to say San Diego Comic-Con. Not totally unrelated, but different. And strangely, when I attend a Con I get more questions at work about it. This time, no one in my department even asked about it. Someone at work, in another department, did ask a couple of days later, but you kind of hope that it's a conversation for at least the first day. But alas...

We have been very busy with the videos about the Con on our YouTube channel. First up was Paul's LA Comic Con Haul video, wherein he talks about his experience and what exclusives he bought and who he got autographs from/spoke to. That went up on Tuesday. On Wednesday was our podcast from the floor, OAPS #264 LIVE From LA Comic Con 2024, that was followed on Friday with the Under The Radar | LACC 2024 Panel video. Paul edited two recordings, one by Erik Arreaga and one by my wife Nancy, together. We ended the week with the podcast, OAPS #265 LA Comic Con Wrap Up (feat. Lucas Scheffel). The audio can be heard here and the video will be available on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT here.

Interesting story, we were planning to talk about the experience on our podcast, who wouldn't, before Lucas offered to ask us questions about it. Our videos with Lucas are always fun, so we thought that would be an interesting twist. So, when that goes up on YouTube, I think we'll be pretty much done with L.A. Comic-Con.

Did we get the fever to do more Cons? I would say yes. We've reached out to a couple and we'll see what comes of it. I know we're on the waiting list for Artists' Alley at Ontario, and we've applied to both WonderCon and SDCC. In fact, I wrote to SDCC on Monday and got an almost immediate reply, telling me that submissions would have to be postmarked by October 11th. Since I had the day off, it was relatively easy to comply, but I'm glad I asked when I did.

I got back to my rewrites on Skylar and I believe I only got through five chapters, so less than expected.

For Trophy Unlocked, I'm working on a review of Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), which I need to complete because that's going to go up on Saturday, as part of our horror in October salute. My review of The Vampire Bat was the Saturday Morning Review and Paul's review of Resident Evil: Revelations was the Wednesday Game Day review. More horror and Resident Evil to come.

This week, I have that review to finish and more work on Skylar and I should probably start work on the newsletter.

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

A Week in Writing #529 - Report From the Front - Tabling at L.A. Comic-Con

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

This week, Powers Squared took a step that it had never done before, that is tabling at a "major" Con; and I intentionally put major in quotes. While L.A. is a major city, L.A. Comic-Con does not have the same reputation as say San Diego Comic-Con, or even WonderCon, though the last event was a bit of a disappointment.

Friday was the first day of the Con. As you might imagine, no one really slept well the night before, mostly due to anxiety; we were delving into the unknown for us. We had been told that we would unload and then get our badges and were expecting that when we got to the Convention Center. However, there was a long line of cars that wasn't moving. Getting out to investigate, I was told I'd have to check in first and when I went to check-in, I was told that I'd have to have the badge first.

We left the car in what was supposed to be a turning lane to go get our badges. I told the guy behind us that we would be leaving the car there and he was cool with it, as he was aware and his wife was getting their badges. Picking up the badges wasn't hard, though it's a long walk from the back of the convention center, through the garage to the front lobby. The only hitch was, even though I had informed the Con and had been told it would be taken care of, initially, there were only two badges, when I had requested four, but that was easily overcome and off we went.

Badges in hand, we got our pass, took the truck up and unloaded all the stuff we'd brought. Unloading wasn't hard and then we moved the truck. We had been told parking would be $25 and it turned out to be $30.

After setting up the booth, we took some boxes back to the truck and waited. We had been introduced to the floor manager, but when I tried to approach him later, I couldn't catch him. We had brought four chairs and didn't need the two assigned to the booth. I wanted to get rid of them, but not be charged for missing chairs or some such thing. We spent the day with the chairs, to make a long story short.

Being on the booth side of a Con is a much different experience. Time moves very slowly and especially so when there is little foot traffic. We did manage one sale and got three people to sign up for our mailing list. I don't think there were many sales going on around us, but for all we'd put into it, the results weren't great to say the least. But it's the first day of the Con, right?

We had brought a laptop to make a stab at recording our Friday night podcast, but due to connection issues, we ended up calling in with Paul's phone hooked up to a microphone and two headsets. I haven't seen the results, but they're available here to listen to and will be uploaded for Wednesday's premiere on our YouTube channel.

Saturday was a longer day than Friday and was somewhat uneventful for our booth. It was chibi shirt day, as we all wore chibi shirts of the four main characters, Marty (Paul), Eli (Trevor), Mocha (my wife) and Dr. Atlas (me). It actually helped with the pitch, as I could use my shirt to explain Dr. Atlas being in the story.

If you look at the description of our neighboring vendors, you might get the wrong impression of the people behind the table. To one side of us was a company that published spicy romance and erotica books and on the other side was a couple that published images of the boss cat back at their bookstore. Our pre-apocalyptic comic book was wedged in between. We could literally watch people look at the books and the oh and ah over the cat images; and, of course, passing us by in the process.

However, we did sell 3 issues (all #1) and 1 trade, so sales were way up from the day before.

Sunday was our last day and possibly the best day we had at the Con. We sold 17 issues, most to one person, and 1 trade. We also had a panel to attend, Under the Radar, which was a good experience. John Barber came up from San Diego to moderate. Steven Prince (Monster Matador) and Erik Arreaga (Chingona) were panelists along with the three creators of Powers Squared. As was the case the last time we had this panel, the panelist outnumbered the attendees most of the time.

We had heard that packing up at LA Comic Con is the worst, so we planned ahead and got off the floor before it got really bad. We would have made a quick getaway, but we couldn't find my keys. I wasn't sure what had happened to them and they didn't show up until we got home and were in my backpack, which we had searched several times on the way out. Tricky keys.

A big shout out to my wife, Nancy, who pitched in and did so many things for the Con, from setting up the booth to passing out business cards that I know it wouldn't have worked as well without her.

You can see images of our tabling at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/events. Scroll down one event to watch the slideshow.

Even though we were busy all week, we did manage to keep Trophy Unlocked going, with Paul's post of Resident Evil 5 on Wednesday and my review of Little Shop of Horrors on Saturday morning. Given the circumstances, no new reviews for me this week.

I also managed to do a little rewrites on the next story, but not much as time was short getting ready.

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

A Week in Writing #525 - 10 Years of Weeks

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

Well, I'm going to consider this my 10th anniversary for writing this blog. I think the first post came out on September 1, 2014, but my first A Week in Writing was the 7th. If you're looking for some retrospective or a detail of what I've learned in that time, I'm going to disappoint you. What I've learned in the past ten years is not to give up. You've got to keep trying, keep moving forward and not stop. If your dream is to write, then you've got to write.

Before getting on with it though, I do want to thank my son Paul, who has been the editor on this blog for its entire run. It would be gibberish without him.

Since this blog is supposed to be about the past week, we're going to discuss that.

While this blog is celebrating it's 10th anniversary, we just did our 260th On the Air with Powers Squared. Since we've had him on the show seven times before, we decided to celebrate the milestone with Lucas Scheffel, a comic book creator from Australia. We talked about his projects, his recent con appearances and even his son's own book Pepperoni Man. But in a change of pace, we also discussed "Family Affair" Parts 1 and 2. You can listen to our conversation here or watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm on our YouTube channel.

During the week, we reviewed Julia's sketches for her final six pages of Issue #27. I believe I mentioned this previously, but Julia and Jen will be trading jobs on the book. Hopefully, we can get the issue completed by the end of the year.

Let's move on to Trophy Unlocked. This week, I had two reviews on the blog. The Saturday Morning Review was mine for Chaplin (1992). On Saturday, we went to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, so I wrote the review for that film and it went up this morning. I also started a review of Professional Sweetheart, but I'm not done with that one yet.

Since we were going to review Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, I thought I would take a look at my older review of Beetlejuice. At the end of the review was an outdated link to Warner Bros's Archive site, so I removed it. Apparently, removing that led to the blogger.com people pulling the review, referring it saying it "was flagged to us for review. We have determined that it violates our guidelines..." Huh? Editing is a violation of their guidelines? Apparently, we were spamming??? Anyway, it apparently righted itself and the post is back up.

And, if that wasn't enough, I believe I've finished the first draft of Skylar. I'm hoping net week to start editing. I believe there are still holes, but it's time to get on with it.

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

A Week in Writing #524 - Finally Getting Up to Speed

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

For whatever reason, the last two weeks have been a slog for me trying to get anything done. Late starts and falling asleep haven't helped. But this past week, I feel like I got back into it and made some real progress on things.

But let's start with the newest issue of Powers Squared, "Family Affair, Part 1", which drops on September 4. In this issue, Marty and Eli must get ready for something they've been trying to avoid, seeing their parents, Peter and Peggy Powers. And it turns out that their parents have secrets of their own. The issue will be available in both print and digital through The Campus Store on our website.

We also recorded a preview of the issue with colorist Julia Canon joining Paul, Trevor and myself. It is scheduled to be released the same day that the issue comes out. Hear it now here or watch it later on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared).

Speaking of podcasts, next week will be #260 for On the Air with Powers Squared, or five years, so be sure to check it out next Friday, September 6 at 6 pm PDT on twitch.tv/powerssquared.

That leads me to the newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, which came out today. It's not hard to write, but it does take some time and I have to come up with a couple of news items besides just pointing to past podcasts. This time, I wrote about Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, twins comic book writers and creators from Brazil. While you should join the mailing list, you can also read it here if you'd like.

Still getting ready for our turn at L.A. Comic-Con. I don't yet know where on the floor we'll be, but the panel I proposed, Under the Radar, will be Sunday at noon in room 406 B. We're planning on a pre-Con podcast with the participants and moderator on Friday, September 27.

There always seems like there's something else to do to get ready and I'm afraid we're still putting together the pieces. I would imagine things would be going together quicker and cheaper if this wasn't our first major Con. Hopefully, the next one won't take so much set up. Hopefully, there will be a next one.

We have all the books. This week, we bought sample t-shirts to hang up. Again, we're not selling them at the Con, but I've reduced the price on each to $20 and there will be a 15% discount, so I hope that is enticing enough to hopefully make some sales during the Con. Still need to buy the dolly for all the stuff.

Finished my review of Lady Be Good this week and began the process around The First Auto. My review of High School Confidential! (1958) was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. When we were picking one, I thought it might be appropriate since school was starting all over the country.

And I also worked on Skylar this week. Though I never wrote a 1000 words a day, that's a goal, I did complete the first draft of a chapter I wanted to write, so I made progress there as well.

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

A Week in Writing #520 - Newsletter Week (and not much else)

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

Being this was the last week of July, I spent time putting together The Hound Dogs' Howl, the monthly newsletter from Powers Squared. While, the newletter sort of writes itself, there are bits that need attention. This month's was writing the section on twins. If you subscribe (and why aren't you?), you would know that we do a focus on twins, real and fictional. Since we had met the Gibbs Sisters, twins who write together, including graphic novels, at a networking event at San Diego Comic-Con, I thought they would be a good choice.

If you're interested, you can read the newsletter here or, better yet, enroll at San Romero Community College here and receive it in your inbox the first Sunday of every month.

Other than that, I didn't really do much writing. Call it the post-Con bends or something, but it takes awhile to recover from the experience.

Last night, as an example, we had had dinner and watched a rather short film, Daughter of Shanghai (1937), but as soon as I sat down afterward to write, I pretty much fell asleep, and it was only 10. Not a productive night to say the least.

While there were no new reviews from me, Trophy Unlocked continued, wrapping up X-Men month with Paul's second look at Deadpool (Game) and finally, on the 31st, his review of Deadpool & Wolverine. The Saturday Morning Review this week was also his review of My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission.

On the business side of things, I submitted my panel and ordered books for L.A. Comic-Con in October; and we wrote follow ups to people we met at SDCC, some of whom we'd like to have as guests on our podcast.

Speaking of On the Air with Powers Squared, we did recount our experience at SDCC, but more from an attendee rather than as a professional. I covered that in last week's post, which I hope someone found useful, or at least interesting. You can listen the podcast here or wait until Wednesday to watch on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) here. Paul is also working on a video detailing our experience at the Con. Links when those go up.

Nothing else to report, but there's always next week to right the ship.

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

A Week in Writing #518 - And It Gets Worse

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

I have not been able to do that for most of the week and it's starting to drive me crazy. My computer has been at Geek Squad since Sunday afternoon, and the two to three days has stretched into four. If it's not ready by Friday, I'm going to go take it back. I can't go another day without it. I'm starting this on Wednesday night using a Chromebook and the whole process is only adding to my aggravation, with the small keyboard and several sites not logging in for whatever reason.

I can't make posts on some sites, like LinkedIn, which doesn't trust that my password is my password. (Agghh!) And some apps I haven't logged into in years, like Grammarly, won't stop trying to launch. (Double Agghh!!) The Chromebook is better than nothing, but not by much.

And, if that wasn't bad enough, my glasses broke for the second time this year and I've had to resort to an old pair, vintage unknown. Just what you want to have happen a week before you're going to a five day convention.

For writing, this has been perhaps my worst week so far. I'm finding without being able to write, my whole routine is thrown off and I'm losing my mind in the process.

I finally did get back the laptop on Thursday, but the damage was already done to the week. Add to that planning for SDCC has taken up time as well, even though I don't do the heavy lifting in the process. We usually have several sessions working in all the things you can and cannot do at Comic-Con, as there are events and panels that conflict with each other. Even with planning, nothing is guaranteed. You want to do something and so do another 100,000 people.

We did meet on Thursday night with Jen Moreno, the current colorist and future artist on Powers Squared. Jen has shown some talent, but has never done a comic book before. Feel like we're both experimenting. Paint me cautiously optimistic. She probably won't start drawing it until September, but I would really like to get another issue done this year.

Speaking of that, I did do some rewrites this week on the script, following Paul's feedback. I haven't shown him the rewrite yet, but I hope we're closer.

Our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, which started this week's problems, went off without a hitch. The Geeks couldn't make the update; per the agent I spoke with, some older computers cannot handle the OBS upgrade, which was my problem, but he re-installed the older version.

The podcast itself was Paul and I talking about our prep for SDCC. You can listen now here, or wait until Wednesday, when Comic-Con kicks off, to watch it here. We're planning to talk about our experience the week we get back. But in the meantime, the artists will take over the podcast again, hope you watch when it goes live next Friday at 6pm PDT on twitch.tv/powerssquared.

Our salute to X-Men continued on Trophy Unlocked, with three posts starting on Tuesday with Paul's second look at Deadpool, followed on Thursday with my review of X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), followed on Saturday with Trevor's Second Look at Logan and Logan Noir. I'm now two reviews down, having missed last week doing a review of Three Faces East and now Scarface (1932), which we watched last night. Not sure when I'll get to them, but it probably won't be this week, as it is another short one for me.

Again, Skylar got left out in the cold.

Now, just as a reminder, everything will be a little slower next week. This post will be a day late and will be another Report From the Front with what I learned at the Con.

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

A Week in Writing #517 - From Bad to Worse

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

As if things couldn't get worse...

After going a couple of days without air conditioning, and just when things are getting back to normal, it looks like my computer will have to go into the shop. It all started with trying to update OBS, a software we use for our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. What should have been an easy update not only delayed us going live, but after spending three plus hours online with Geek Squad, now appears that the issue couldn't be resolved, at least not over the internet, and I'll have to take the computer in. Not sure that means they can fix it, but that's my next/only alternative.

I'm hoping it won't be long in the shop, as it will impact me if it's even overnight, let alone several days. Not only do I write, including this blog, but I also post on social media in support of Powers Squared and Trophy Unlocked, update the website, etc.

Speaking of Trophy Unlocked, X-Men Month is still going strong, with reviews of  X-Men Origins: Wolverine by Paul going up on Monday morning, followed on Wednesday by my review of X-Men: First Class, followed by Paul's review of The Wolverine on Friday and Trevor's review of X-Men: Days of Future Past as the Saturday Morning Review.

The delayed podcast on Friday was also about the X-Men franchise, with an emphasis on the films, though there was some talk about the animated series that have been based on the comic books. You can listen to it here, where you can also find links to various platforms, or watch it on Wednesday after 2:30 pm here. You can also find links to our video podasts at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/videos.

I'm a little frustrated on the progress of Powers Squared of late. We're waiting for the final pages from our current artist and I reached out to someone whom I believe wants to be the next artist and all I'm hearing back are crickets. I'm not really seeing the advantages of texting and will have to resort to actually calling them to get updates. I feel like that's the old way to do things, but I don't see much of a choice.

I tried to do some writing on Skylar this week, but didn't get far on either Monday or Tuesday. Monday night was sans air-conditioner and I'm finding my creative juices flow better at 73 degrees than say 93 degrees. Tuesday I was too tired after a lousy night of sleep to make much headway.

Prep continues for our annual trip to SDCC. We're in the panels stage now, with each of us reviewing the panels as they're released. As always, you can't do them all. The family will sit down soon to go over what we found and then map out some sort of strategy for the con, which also includes the floor, autographs and exclusives. It's very involved.

So, depending on the RX for the laptop, my writing might be curtailed in the new week. Fingers crossed it will go fast.

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

A Week in Writing #483 - A Week Behind the Scenes

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

I felt like this was a week for doing other things related to writing, but not the craft itself. Some weeks are just like that.

There was a lot of behind the scenes things to do and mostly with Powers Squared, what else is new?

I've been trying to do three things at once for the book. Our former artist, Rachel Wells, had been working on a project for me which finally came to fruition this week, a seal for San Romero Community College, the location for the comic book. It had started out as a different project, a diploma for the schoool. On that, she had put a seal for the school, which got me to thinking. On the website, we've been using an edited ad for The Campus Store as the logo for the school itself, but it really should have its own.

There was some back and forth as we discussed ideas. Sort of loosely based on several that we found on the internet, including CSUN's, where Paul and Trevor attended, and SCAD, which is Rachel's alma mater, we decided to break the seal down into certain quadrants to represent the school, including the mascot, the English building (the oldest building on campus), academics, represented by a quill and parchment, and wheat fields, representing the old farm the school sits on. Then there were the colors to use, which should be school colors. Anyway, the seal came out pretty good:

You can read the story behind the seal and a short history of San Romero Community College on the website.

With the comic book, we're not only gearing up for a release of the next issue, #19 "Kamaitachi", on December 6, but also with the second trade for the book, which I'm hoping to launch initially on Library Pass next year. With that, it was getting the colors right for the cover and now it's getting the credits page updated. Jen Moreno, our colorist, handled the cover for me and did a really good job, but you'll have to wait to find out.

One of the background duties that I hadn't realized hadn't been done was getting the new issue up on Kindle and GlobalComix. But the issue will be up on both and is currently available for pre-ordering on Kindle. 

Speaking of Kindle, I've been reading about the demise of ComiXology, to which I have to say good riddance. While I was initially happy to be available on the platform, I'm not sure if it was really worth it as I think our launch was botched by the site. We stopped submitting to them several issues ago and started with Kindle since we figured that was where it was going; not that we've made anything from that site either. But hey, who's bitter?

If it's not one thing it's another. The next issue we're going to work on, #26, has a lot of yokai and I asked our current artist, Julia Canon, to do some character designs for the project, which she did this week as well. Work should start on that pretty soon, though we are coming into the holidays, so I'm sure schedules will get messed with.

Our podcast this week, was an early Monthly Team Meeting with Julia and Jen, along with Trevor, on OAPS. You can listen here and/or watch it here on Wednesday afternoon on.

I also started working this weekend on the next Hound Dog's Howl, our monthly newsletter. I had some free time, so why not get started on it?

For Trophy Unlocked, I completed the review I was doing for Coquette and wrote a new one for The Red Badge of Courage (1951), don't know when either will appear. Wedneday was Trevor's review of TY the Tasmanian Tiger 4: Bush Rescue Returns and on Saturday we took a pause from Noirvember to celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Land Before Time with a review also written by Trevor.

All that didn't leave much time for Skylar, though I did do some minor work on it. The desire is there, it is just time which is always in short supply.

Next week is Thanksgiving, so I want to make sure to wish everyone a Happy and Safe day, especially if you're travelling. And, of course, that will impact my output, so understand when next's weeks post might seem short.

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

A Week in Writing #482 - Things Are Getting Back to Normal

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

Things seem to be getting back to normal, which means back to what might be a normal routine.

Let's start this week off with Trophy Unlocked. I finished my review of Two O’clock Courage and started a new one for Coquette (1929), an early sound film starring Mary Pickford, part of the drain the DVR Saturdays.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary, Trevor's review of the animated Disney film Robin Hood (1973) went up on the date it was released.

The celebration of Noirvember continued with my review of Tomorrow is Another Day (1951). And today, Trevor's review of Rohan at the Louvre (2023) went up. This is a Japanese film, in Japanese with subtitles. We had watched the series, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, which is, itself, a spin-off series of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Rohan bled over into a podcast that we recorded on Friday after our live podcast, with Trevor joining us. We're trying to plan for the Friday after Thanksgiving, which we're not sure we'll be back in time for the podcast.

Our live podcast, "Writers Roundtable" was just Paul and I and we were discussing our writing process for Powers Squared and the collaborative process that follows as we work with artists and colorists to bring the words to life. It's available to listen to here and will be up on Wednesday afternoon on YouTube here.

We're starting to transition to a new issue, #26 "The Great Escape" while still wrapping up pages from issue #25. I've asked our artist, Julia Canon, to do some character designs before we get going.

In other Powers Squared news, our new logo for San Romero Community College seems to be getting close. Mostly, we're going over the colored version that our previous artist, Rachel Wells prepared for me. It started out as a project to design a diploma for the school and started with the seal on that document. I like making the school seem more "real".

To round out the week, I did work on Skylar this week and am finally to the point where I'm actually writing and not just editing, so that's sort of exciting. I'm not going to get into word counts just yet, but it is progress.

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

A Week in Writing #481 - It's Back

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

Well, it's that time of the year again, the big experiment with time-shifting known as the end of Daylight Savings Time. Fall back only means you get an extra hour once and for that you get days betting darker sooner and your internal clocks thrown off for a day or so. Not really sure it's a good deal. I write this, as I do every year, because I don't know the impact it's going to have on me next week. I try to write until I get sleepy and that might come earlier for a few days. Forwarning that next week might not be too productive.

The big project for this week was the newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, and the big announcement was something I've already talked about last week, the book becoming available on ComicsPlus powered by LibraryPass. Last week, I wrote about the anxiety, or the sense of finality with submitting it. That surprisingly went well, so we're on course.

In addition to the news, there are links to last month's OAPS, a link to the newest Peek-of-the-week, an article about Booster Gold and Goldstar, and a recommendation for Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, not to mention the usual Heard on Campus feature. As always, you can always sign up for the newsletter and get a free copy of the first book by signing up here.

I'm still hoping we can get the second trade ready in the next few days or week and submit that as well. The covers have been drawn and are being colored, so we should be good to go soon. It will be different to release something through another method than we have before, but it's hopefully all about getting eyes on the book.

The drawing on Issue 25 seems to be coming to an end, so we should be start working on Issue 26. I've already sent the artist a list of yokai that will appear in the book and asked her to come up with some character designs before we launch into it.

Finishing up on Powers Squared, our Friday OAPS was dedicated to another franchise, in this case, Five Nights at Freddy's. The movie, currently playing in theaters, is based on a series of video games developed by Scott Cawthon and this what we, Trevor, Paul and I, discussed on our podcast, though they know much more about it than I do. You can listen now here or watch it on Wednesday on our YouTube channel.

Trophy Unlocked kicked off Noirvember with my review of The Killer is Loose on Saturday. I frankly don't remember when I wrote it but it was nice to get one up on the blog. For Halloween, Paul's review of Five Nights at Freddy's the movie went up. Fitting for the day. On Monday, it was the conclusion of Resident Evil Month with Paul's review of Resident Evil 4 - Separate Ways (DLC).

I've started working on a new review of yet another film noir, Two O’clock Courage (1945). Not sure when it will appear. 

I also managed to get some work done on Sklyar this week, though I'm still going through the book and haven't, yet, written anything new.

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

A Week in Writing #477 - Rewrites, Thumbnails and Resident Evil

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

I'm about done with my re-reading project. I've decided that Paperback Detective needs some work. I think the writing's too loose and some details come out too early in the book. I need to rework some of it to bring it up to standards, well, my standards.

I've also been doing some thinking about Skylar and wanting to rework some aspects of her character in the book. Now, it's just down to the hard part, or the easy part depending, writing it.

Another, unrelated idea came to me as well but I'm not going to into it just yet. Too much other things to work on first.

Speaking of which, I started doing something I haven't done since the first issue, making thumbnails for what should be the next issue of Powers Squared. Part of the reason I'm doing it is to hopefully help the artist know what I'm thinking of in the script. I've already come to this decision, but this confirms the fact that I am not the artist. I even have a badge to that effect and these drawings prove that, although I think some of it has to do with trying to get an idea across in something in less space than a postage stamp. I'm about halfway through the issue.

We'll have to wait to see if it helps, because we still have the current to get through. We are thinking ahead, as we have artwork already done for the trade we're going to release next year. This one is going to be for issues 6-9. We brought Rachel Wells, the artist on those issues, to do the covers. You'll have to wait a bit to see them.

In a bit of cross promotion, our OAPS this week was about the videogame series Resident Evil, since it is Resident Evil Month on Trophy Unlocked. It was mostly a Paul show since he is the gamer of the two of us. You can listen to it here or watch it on Wednesday when it drops on our YouTube channel.

With that said, it should come as no surprise that Resident Evil reviews dominated Trophy Unlocked. Things started on Tuesday with Paul's review of Resident Evil HD Remaster. That was followed by Paul's review of Resident Evil 2 (2019), and then Paul's review of the movie Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City as the Saturday Morning Review. Oh, and there will be more to come through the month. 

Meanwhile, I'm working on a review of Shockproof (1949), which I should finish tonight or tomorrow.

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