A Week in Writing #624 - The Week After

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

I can't say I got as much writing done this past week as I wanted to. Part of that was do to recovering from San Diego Comic-Con and just sort of taking some time off. This was also newsletter week, so what time I did spend on writing was mostly taken up with that. One of the things we announced in the newsletter was the release at the end of the month of Powers Squared issue #28, "Agnes Wreckage, Part 1". We're looking at August 26th. If you'd like to be notified, we do send out The Bark for such ocassions, if you're subscribed to the newsletter, which you're always invited to do.

Our artist has been sending pages throughout the week, mostly the last two pages of the next issue. Our procedure is that she sends sketches and we give comments. Sometimes it's one and done but a lot of the time it takes multiple back and forths, but I think we're just about done with the lineart for issue #30.

One thing we managed to do this past week was watch The Odyssey in 70mm IMAX, which is apparently the preferred way to watch it. My review went up today on Trophy Unlocked. But, of course, this was not the only review this week on the site. The Saturday Morning review was Trevor's review of Ballerina (2025) or as it is also known as From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. We recently got into the John Wick franchise, and, of course, watched them all and have spent five of the last six weeks going through them, one by one.

I started a review of The Big House yesterday, so I hope to finish that in the coming week.

Our podcast this week was OAPS #362 - SDCC 2026 Recap, in which Trevor, Paul and I discuss our recent trip to SDCC, from panels to merch. It's available on our twitch channel for the next few days, or you can listen to it here, or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT to watch it on our YouTube channel. We still have, I believe, one more video before we totally move on from the Con.

I regret to announce that our scheduled guest for next week cancelled on us, so we're left a little bit hanging at the moment. I guess it's better to know now than say Friday afternoon, but it's still a disappointment, since we've had it scheduled for several weeks now. While I won't name names, I will say that I don't plan to ask them again to be on the show.

I had an update I wanted to make to Blackmail, and that has led me to re-reading it, which I've started to do, and so I'm currently giving a third or fourth go-through, making changes and edits as I go. I started on Friday and now I've gone through 8 chapters, so prepare yourself to be hearing about it for the next few weeks.

So, this coming week, we're going to start sending out formal invitations to creators we talked to at SDCC. I also need to finish my review of The Big House and I want to work some more on Blackmail.

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

A Week in Writing #476 - Eyesight needed

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

Woke up on my birthday and started to put on my glasses when they fell apart in my hands. They were the frameless type and there was already a crack in the lens. My current frames are being reset with new lenses, but they've been delayed two weeks, so this was the prescription before the last one. But that meant I had to go back to a pair of glasses even older. Long story short, I don't remember what glasses I was wearing three years ago, so I'm stumbling to find a pair I can see through. Now, that's a bit of a lowbar; I'm not blind, but it's the small stuff, like everything written on the back of everything or on the internet that I'm having trouble with. Great way to start out the year.

I was able to adjust throughout the week and was able to get my new glasses on Saturday, so it did resolve itself but it does show how important seeing is to writing.

On that subject, I have been reworking Paperback Detective and updating it so that it fits in better with the other stories; lining up events, etc. In this one, J.D. is hired by a client to follow his wife, whom he thinks is having an affair. Before he can determine if she is or not, the woman ends up murdered and J.D.'s client is the prime suspect. Even his defense attorney thinks he's guilty. J.D. is the only one trying to prove him innocent. In that effort, he's working against his ex-, Debbie Estevez, who is the lead on the murder investigation on the case, despite being four months pregnant. It is while discussing the case that J.D. discovers that he might be the father of the baby despite the fact Debbie is married to someone else.

Turning to Powers Squared, we completed The Hound Dogs Howl and sent it out on Sunday morning. The piece on twins ended up being about Tegan and Sara, and the recommnedation was Resident Evil 4 (2023) in case you're interested. You can receive your own copy by signing up here.

This past Friday, we had our September team meeting with Julia Canon, Jen Moreno and Trevor joining Paul and I to discuss what's new with the book. Listen here if you're interested or watch it on Wednesday when it goes up on YouTube.

On the subject of Trophy Unlocked, we completed Batman Month on the blog with Saturday Morning's review of Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham written by Paul. October is horror month but also Resident Evil Month (Part 1).

Totally unrelated to either, I completed a review of Reckless (1935), the Jean Harlow-William Powell starrer. Rather than draining the DVR, this was one of the films in a 7-film set of Harlow films I receieved for my birthday. As is the usual, I have no idea when it will be up on the blog, but I wouldn't imagine it would be in October. December is pretty packed as well.

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

A Week in Writing #454 - You Don't Need to Tell Me Three Times

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

Okay, I get it. I received a rejection notice on April 4, which I wrote about in that week's post; it was part of a flurry of rejections (two) I received while travelling. I had actually sent pages to the agent, upon his request, and had been waiting an appropriate amount of time before bugging following up with him. The rejection letter sort of stopped that.

Well, just to make sure I knew I was rejected, Martin Literary Management sent me a second rejection this past Thursday. Interestingly, it turns out the agent is no longer at MLM. Did that play a part in his rejection? I'll never know. At the time, I felt like the letter was based on the first email rather than the submission and I thought it was a form letter. Now, they're two for two:

Dear David,

Thank you for submitting the requested additional materials for your project. I regret to inform you that ______ ____ is no longer affiliated with Martin Literary Management. Your material is no longer under consideration, but we wish you all the best in your literary endeavors and hope that this development does not discouraging you from pursuing your goals

Sincerely, 

This one sounds like they received the materials I sent at least. I don't imagine anyone read them. And, no, there was no signatory on the email, just the logo for the agency. Form? I believe so; probably sent to everyone who had submitted to the agent. So Martin Literary is a no-go. You don't need to tell me three times.

I did submit a new query this past week. This one requests a compelling letter, a paragraph about yourself and the first chapter. Hopefully, what I sent fits the bill.

And, no, I haven't yet queried Past Present. I know, I know, I should but I'm still not happy with the query letter for it.

Spent part of the week working on two projects, Skylar and the Powers Squared Pilot outline. With the former, I'm up to nearly 65,000 words, still way short of my goal but little by little I'll get there. Still not happy enough with the latter to share but I think it's better than it has been.

Working on a review of  Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). As it happens, as part of the drain the DVR, this Harry Belafonte film was there and felt like it would be an appropriate time to watch it with his recent passing. I plan to work on it some more tonight and this week, though that won't be the main project. Trevor's review for Lyle, Lyle Crocodile was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. No GameDay review this week.

This coming week, I think I need to spend time on two projects, both for Powers Squared. The first is the upcoming newsletter which goes out next Sunday. Even though it's pretty much laid out there are still articles to write. I think this month, we'll be doing a write up on the Mario Bros., who are, as it turns out, fraternal twins.

The second project is getting ready for the next issue, which we've scheduled for the middle of June, so I need to get proofs, etc. and start arranging for reviews and release. I'm also going to go ahead and do the same for the other two issues we're releasing this year, at least with the proofs. I don't think that will take terribly long but there's always something that comes up along the way and it has to be done.

Speaking of being done, I think I am for now. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.