A Week in Writing #426 - Short Week but Press Coverage

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

Well, this was a short week for me. More birthdays, my wife's this time, so Thursday and Friday were spent in celebration. Disneyland on Thursday and dinner out on Friday. So, some things didn't get done.

To begin with, no queries this week. About the time I would usually be sending one, I think I was somewhere on the I-5 heading north. That said, I did DNR one. The agency's time to respond was "only if we're interested". After two months, I'm going to guess they're not.

I don't want to bury the lead too much, but there was a nice feature about Powers Squared on Scoop this week: Heroic Twins Star in Powers Squared Comic. This was the result of an effort that started back at San Diego Comic-Con in July. While I did not meet the person at Scoop during the panel they were on, I did follow up with them by email. I heard back and sent an introductory press release they asked for but then never heard back. Apparently, they never got the information I sent them, which I didn't find out until I followed up about the upcoming release of Issue #14. I ended up resending the first press release and they ended up writing the story. While perseverance paid off this time, that's not always the case.

This is as good a place as any to announce that the next issue of Powers Squared will be released on October 19th. Issue #14, The Imposter Part 2, completes two story arcs, one that began in Issue #10 and, of course, the one that started with Issue #13. Getting an issue published, even self-published, has proven harder recently. One of the platforms we work with has been slower than usual about getting issues up. Apparently, there are a lot of books and even though I moved it to publish two weeks ago, I don't have any idea when it will appear on that site. But it will be available on the 19th in both digital and print formats and you can find out where at The Campus Store.

With Paul and I preoccupied on Friday, our artist Rachel Wells and our colorist Julia Canon did OAPS without us, drawing characters from the upcoming issue, as well as one for Halloween. You can watch this now on twitch.tv/powerssquared or wait until Wednesday at 2:30 pm on our YouTube channel but it is worth watching, they always seem to have a good time when they get together.

And work continues on Issue #23, which will be our last with Rachel.

Did some more writing on fka Skylar but I'm only up to 47,770 words, which is only +61 words from last week, so not all effort moves the stick. I did work on it for two nights but probably only a couple of hours in total.

On the review front, I did manage to get one of the two I needed to get done, When Worlds Collide. As always not sure when it will appear. My review of The Strange Life of Dr. Frankenstein was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. In addition to Halloween, it's also Silent Hill month with three reviews, all by Paul: Silent Hill: Revelation on Monday, Silent Hill HD Collection on Wednesday and Silent Hill 4: The Room on Friday.

Next week will be a full week and I hope to get more done.

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

A Week in Writing #411 - Getting Ready

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

There is so much to get ready for in July. If you're not a subscriber to The Hound Dogs' Howl, the Powers Squared newsletter, then you may not know that our next issue, #13 The Imposter Part 1, is coming out on July 13th. That's a Wednesday for all those Triskaidekaphobians out there, so it shouldn't be unlucky. In the next week or so, I'm going to have to make sure all the preps have been made, including updating our Campus Store website, making sure the providers are ready as well, and getting out a news release and The Bark, our bulletin.

To that end, I was working on updates to our website and to Artithmeric's, our British on-demand publisher. In addition to the new issue, we're also premiering a new line of Chibi t-shirts designed by our colorist, Julia Canon, who will be making her Powers Squared debut with the issue, even though she's been working with us for a couple of years now.

We also have a video to premiere along with the issue about a new character we're introducing, Pedro. So much to do. This goes back to my last blog about the work of writing.

Our OAPS this week was with Kurt Zauer, an indie creator who reached out to us. That's always interesting. Apparently, he was told we have a good show, which is always nice to hear. He was on the floor of the Anime Midwest Con where he had a booth in Artist Alley. He also has a Kickstarter, which he also wanted to talk about. You can check out the audio here and on Wednesday, the video will be on our YouTube channel, if you want to check it out. It's always nice to meet other creators out there.

Alas, no new review from me this week. Our Drain the DVR Saturday hit a snag when the movie, Girl Crazy (1932) was out of synch, for some reason, and unwatchable. Hopefully, we'll see it some other time.

I did have a review published, today, as a matter of fact, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022); school's back in session. The Saturday Morning Review was Paul's for Lightyear (2022). And the Wednesday Gameday review was Paul's for TimeSplitters: Future Perfect played on an Xbox.

One new query this week for Broken People. I haven't heard back from any of the last several so far, even ones that other writers were reporting were not handling new clients. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I try to give agents a reasonable amount of time before DNRing them (Did Not Respond). I'm really happy with the rewrite of Chapter One, so I'm hopeful I'll catch someone's attention, at least to send more pages.

The big news is I've been able to work on fka Skylar. I still call it that, even though the character's name has changed. I don't have a good title for it yet. I'm going back through it, I know again, trying to add bits where I can. I had another idea that I'm sure will work better than the last one.

The other thing to get ready for is San Diego Comic-Con, which is rapidly approaching. We're just attendees again this year but there are still people to see and things to discuss. We're a little apprehensive about a large-scale in-person event but we're trying to be cautious in our approach. Whatever I find out, I will divulge in my Report from the Front, though it will be delayed a day, as I will be driving most of Sunday. Thanks in advance for understanding.

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

A Week in Writing #409 - Numbering and Rewrites

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

Funny thing. As soon as I published last week's post, I realized I had been numbering wrong for the past few weeks. Apparently, in my world #406 repeats, so I was off by one for about three weeks. The numbering has been corrected but it's things like that that make you feel stupid. Great way to end a week.

I know I said I was going to work on fka Skylar this week, and surprise surprise, I didn't really. Instead, I got interested in rewriting the first chapter of the book I'm currently querying around, Broken People. As you probably know, most queries require a writing sample, some part of the beginning of the novel. It can be 1000 words, the first chapter, the first three chapters, or the first 50 pages, depending on the agent/agency. The one thing they all have in common is that they start at the beginning. I started to wonder if the lack of response was due to how the first chapter started, so I thought I should rewrite it.

I don't usually get into specifics of what I'm actually writing but I'll make an exception in this case.

The first chapter takes place in a club, A-X-N, pronounced Action, where my private detective has followed a man that he has to serve with a subpoena. With the help of a waitress, whose name he doesn't yet know, they've found the man getting into a boxing ring with a former flyweight; the guy's large but super drunk. I won't get into all the action but I began to feel that I had started the chapter in the wrong place.

In the old version, I had the private detective enjoying holding the woman's hand; helping to ground him after a day of searching for people in a rain storm in Los Angeles. If you've ever lived here, rain is a scarce commodity so when it rains, things don't work. Traffic, the backbone of the city, bogs down and what might have taken you an hour can take three. I'm serious, I used to commute to Santa Monica and I had spent that much time one-way because of rain. (Don't miss it.) I thought it humanized my main character but I think maybe that doesn't work so well in a thriller.

In the new version, I have the action start when the first punch from the flyweight lands and draws blood. After all this time, I remembered the old adage start as close to the action as you can, which I wasn't doing obviously.

Now, rewriting a chapter is more than just moving paragraphs around. I mean, there is some of that but things still have to flow. It's not a one-time sit-down and it's done thing either. It took a couple of nights and in the end, the first chapter got shorter but I think it reads better.

I used it on my Thursday night query, so we'll have to wait to see if that was the missing ingredient. I still need to write a short synopsis so I can broaden my search. All in due time.

So, I still need to get back into fka Skylar but I think the time was well spent.

I wrote a new future review for Trophy Unlocked. This time it was Steamboat 'Round the Bend (1935), Will Rogers' last film. Interesting, that wasn't the reason I DVRed it a year or so ago. I had heard about him as a film star amongst his other accomplishments but had never seen anything he had been in, so when this film was shown I thought it would be a chance to watch something he was in. I'll save my opinion for the review, whenever that gets posted.

Paul's review of Hercules (1997) was the Saturday Morning Review. The Wednesday Game Day review was Trevor's review of Moss: Book 2.

Finally received the proofs for Issues 13-15 of Powers Squared. Paul and I did an unboxing video on our Friday On the Air with Powers Squared podcast, which you're invited to listen to and/or watch. I had requested sets of proofs from two of our on-demand publishers but only received one set so far, but you can't wait forever. Check it out at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps if you're interested.

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

A Week in Writing #407 - Feeling Disappointed

Hope everyone is feeling well and staying safe. And, of course, writing.

I'm not one to really talk to about branding. I mean, I'm trying with Powers Squared but I wouldn't say I was an expert at any of it. We try our best to keep things moving forward, trying new ways of getting the word out and, of course, selling merch. Currently, all of the latter is done by one on-demand printer, but I'm having second thoughts about them.

When someone receives something with your brand on it that is damaged and the response is "well, it's not that damaged," it makes you rethink their customer service angle. I'm not in a position to make good on other people's mistakes, but I think they should on their own. And push back that it wasn't that bad sort of gives me pause.

Someone received a t-shirt with our school logo on it (more on the school later) and one of the letters was missing part of the coloring. Apparently, it had gotten stuck to something else in the box and part of it had peeled off. I know the person and I wanted them to, of course, wear the shirt but if it's damaged, they would be less likely to. I took it on myself to write to the on-demand printer about it and they didn't seem to appreciate the feedback. They especially took offense to my notion that it was bad customer service not to make good. (No names, that's not what the blog is about.) Are these the sort of people I want to handle my brand?

So, I'm at least beginning the process of looking for another t-shirt printer. Hopefully, someone who will stand by their products and shipping. So far, it's just been a Google search but if you know of someone, please let me know in the comments. If and when a decision is made, you will be one of the first to know.

Well, back to the school in question, San Romero Community College (SRCC), the fictitious one in Powers Squared. I got an email from a website about nursing schools and they had apparently gotten queries about SRCC. From a creator's point of view, I was amused by the notion that someone wanted to actually enroll. I did inform the site that it was not a real school.

While we're talking Powers Squared, we've begun work on issue #22 of the series. It is our artist's 17th book with us so we had a nice chat with Rachel Wells on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, about it. We've also expanded the number of platforms we're on by three: iHeart Radio, Player FM, and PodChaser, so there's even less reason for not listening.

Also, today was our monthly newsletter, the bulk of which I pull together. While it's intended for our mailing list, I'm going to share it with you, dear reader. Check it out here, if you're curious and, you know, maybe enroll at SRCC.

A new review from me this week on Trophy Unlocked, posted today for Top Gun: Maverick, which we watched on Saturday. Our plan is to be one week after the big openings, hoping for smaller audiences in the theaters. Such was the case on Saturday afternoon. Saturday morning's review on the blog was Trevor's for 101 Dalmations (1961). Wednesday (Game Day) was also one from Trevor for the game Resistance: Retribution. I'm also working on one for Brief Encounter that we watched on Drain the DVR Saturday night.

One new query this week. By the time I get to Thursday nights, I'm looking for the off-ramp from the week, so I'm taking the easiest queries to send. I know I need to spend more time and expand to another book as well but for now, I'm doing the minimum.

I did open the document for fka Skylar so I at least touched it. Not much more than that I'm afraid.

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

A Week in Writing #404 - Plowing Forward

Hope everyone is well, and, of course, writing.

I'm sure you get tired of hearing this, but a lot of the week was taken up with Powers Squared. To begin with, there was new artwork for Issue #21 from our artist, Rachel Wells, to be reviewed. Maybe that wasn't the first thing but it is the most important thing to review. We had some back and forth on the cover earlier but that seems to have been worked out. We're going for a Metal Gear vibe with the cover.

We had two shows this weekend, one with the entire creative team, our monthly team meeting. If you didn't catch it live (and I'm betting you didn't) it'll go up on YouTube on Wednesday at https://youtu.be/fGZ8_vs0wWg. We sort of had a discussion about what to do if Twitter goes weird (weirder?) after Musk's proposed takeover (Is it back on or still on hold?). I was on it before and still am, but I'm concerned about what could happen to it in the future. Is there an alternative?

We did another show with Rachel on Saturday morning (LA time), wherein we discussed the books we had all picked up on Free Comic Book Day, which was last week. We did that live, as well, on twitch.tv/powerssquared and also posted it that day on YouTube at https://youtu.be/1SEHw-o8adA. That's available now.

Next the fun of submitting proofs. Ordinarily not a hard process. We use two on-demand printers: Artithmeric (our partners in the Kickstarter) and Ka-Blam in Florida to provide a domestic source. Both have different processes for submitting and neither is as easy as you'd want.

We're still waiting for the fine art prints to sign. I've been told they've been sent but I don't know when to expect them or how to send them back once we receive and sign. I did receive my share of the cut from the Kickstarter, which wasn't really all that much. However, I'm prepared to move forward on the translations.

We did a table read of the pilot script, a real family affair with my sons, my wife, and I each taking parts. Read pretty well and with a few minor changes, we should be good to go with it.

Had one of those going to sleep thoughts about the next scripts for the comic book. I had written one with Marty and Eli's parents coming for a visit. In the first few versions, it was coming for a Parent's Day at the school but I didn't really like that. I set it at Christmas and we were going with that version when last night it hit me that the prior issues (20 and 21: "Mission: Istanistan") take place at Spring Break and I didn't like the time skip implied.

Did a rewrite today taking out the Christmas references and I think it still works. The holiday wasn't so important to the plot as a nice backdrop and a chance to get some Christmas stuff for the comic book. I guess that'll have to wait.

I also tried my hand at a script explaining Jennifer Perry's past. For those of you unfamiliar, Jennifer is Eli's girlfriend in the comic book. When we did the first go-round of the Pitch Packet, we got surprisingly negative reviews on Jennifer, which we tried to fix by giving her a backstory that still fits with the book but gives her more depth. That was the script I was working on. I haven't given up but it seems to be harder than I thought to make an issue out of it.

No new reviews from me this week, though I will be working on one for The Killer is Loose, which I saw on Saturday night after watching the Amphibia finale (and no, I won't spoil it).

Only one new review on Trophy Unlocked this week. Paul's Saturday morning review of Wonder. My review of Our Town will follow next Saturday. If you've seen Wonder, it makes sense.

More writing on fka Skylar but never enough to take note about.

And I did manage one new query for Broken People on Thursday. So far nothing back on any of the others, which in this day and age means an eventual rejection when the clock runs out.

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

A Week in Writing #317 - Venting Some Frustrations

Hope everyone is staying safe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #315 - That Frustrated Feeling

Hope everyone is staying safe and continuing to write.

Before I sat down to write this entry, I was feeling pretty frustrated as everything I've tried to do today hasn't worked or at least worked easily. I was hoping to spend part of the weekend working on things Powers Squared and even though the weekend isn't technically over (Labor Day), I don't think I'm going to get everything done.

My frustration has nothing to do with the people I'm working with on the project, they're all great. But I was hoping to do some preliminary work on Issue #10, which we want to get out in the next month or so. It feels like it is overdue.

I wanted to get some proofs made. We use two different print-on-demand services, one in the US and one in the UK. Our US one won't let you upload your files until after you've paid, which is all well and good, but you can't pay the invoice generated on the site until they send you an email link, which is a bit frustrating. To their credit, they did check their messages on a Sunday afternoon and sent me the invoice, so I was at least able to get that part done.

With the UK one, which also does t-shirts, I wanted to get a couple proofs made, but could only get one done. Again, not their fault, but one of the two images needs to be altered in a way that is above my limited Photoshop skills. I've contacted the original colorist to see if she still has the layered tiff file that would make the change easier to make. If not, there are other options, but it means it won't happen this weekend.

When I tried to upload the comic book to that site to get a proof made by them, I got an error message I can't get past, so I have to wait for them to get back in the office. Again, I'll probably be able to do it tomorrow, but that's not what I was planning to do then.

Otherwise, things are going well with the book. We have a great team and we've started a new issue this month, our 16th (part of the reason 10 seems to be late). Paul and I had Rachel as a guest on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, and she discussed character design and turning the script into thumbnails. You can watch it on our YouTube channel if you're interested.

In other writing, I finished my first round of research on agents. I decided to wait until after Labor Day to send out my first queries. I will admit to being nervous. I researched about 95 agents. As I discussed last week, I've grouped them into three color categories: greens are the best bets (44); yellows are secondary choices (40) and reds are not to query (11). You sort of want to test a few to see if it's the query or the agent, so I'll take it slow.

I did some more writing on Skylar, but not really enough to have more than this much mention here.

For Trophy Unlocked, I worked on two reviews, one I've completed for Old Yeller (1957) and one I'm still working on for Three Men On a Horse (1936). Again, I don't know when they'll see the light of the internet. This week and next have been pretty much dedicated to Tony Hawk, with reviews this week for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS1), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (PS1), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS2), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (PS2) and Tony Hawk's Underground (PS2). The Saturday Morning Review was Mulan, but the 1998 original and not the one on Disney+ (see what we did there?)

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

A Week in Writing #299 - New Issue Released

Big week for us at Powers Squared in that a new issue was released on Wednesday, which is traditionally New Comic Book Day. It was our 9th issue and the conclusion of the Mathemagical story arc. I mention this, since as a writer, this is something I've worked on which could (the keyword here is could) earn me money. Everything else is either free (Trophy Unlocked) or more theoretical in nature, the books I'm writing such as The Runaway.

I would appreciate it if, as a reader of this blog, you would buy the book and/or recommend the series to someone. Should you decide to, I don't know, buy the book, you could look here if you're so inclined.

On the subject of Powers Squared, Paul and I attended a Zoom call with the staff and some of the creatives from the Artithmeric platform. They are our primary print-on-demand and Merch providers. It was kind of cool to be part of a community. We were there to discuss how we and Artithemeric can grow. I'm hopeful that Powers Squared will be prominent in that growth.

On the theoretical side, I got an update this week on a query I submitted back in August for Broken People. That's right, August, as in nine months ago. And was it worth the wait? Unfortunately, no, a form rejection letter:

"Dear David,
Thank you for sharing your query with me, which I’ve now had the chance to review. After careful consideration, I’m afraid I didn’t respond with the intense enthusiasm which I feel is necessary for me to take on a new project. But this is just one person’s subjective opinion, so please accept my best wishes in your search for representation!"

I'm not surprised. If it took them nine months to read my query, then I'd be shocked if they were enthusiastic about it.

Quite frankly, it had been so long that I had forgotten I had queried them but I made sure to note it on the big agent spreadsheet I keep, so as not to bother them again. I will give them credit, they actually wrote back, which is more than I can say for most of the agents I've queried recently. I can't remember if there was some note on their website, which other agencies have, which states something to the effect that if you don't hear back from us consider it a pass. I mean it took nine months to get a "no", how long are you supposed to wait to hear back if it's a yes?

It's possible that this could have been a "yes". It could have read:

"Dear David,
Thank you for sharing your query with me, which I’ve now had the chance to review. My sincere apologies for taking so long to get back to you. I was about to write you back when I caught COVID-19 which put me out of commission for the last couple of months. I'm just getting my life back in order and am very enthusiastic about your book. If you haven't already found representation, I would really like to read more. Please send me the next 100 pages of Broken People and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible."

I'm not wishing COVID-19 on anyone, but that would have been an acceptable excuse for taking nine months.

The kicker is, I've got more of that to look forward to. I'd say in the near future but if they're all the same as this one, it may be next year before I hear back from everyone.

Speaking of writing, I am getting closer to the end of this draft of The Runaway. I've written the conclusion of the story and I'm writing a final follow up chapter. I've been thinking about what I've written and may need to do some editing on the ending before I put the book down and get on with query hell.

Wrote another future review for Trophy Unlocked this weekend. In our Saturday night clear off the DVR night, we watched THX 1138, the first George Lucas film. I don't recall really loving it, but I thought my sons should see it. You'll have to wait for the review to be published to see what I thought of it.

You can find out what I thought of Scoob!, which came out on Friday. Paul, Trevor and I discuss the film on our A Week in Powers Squared video on our YouTube channel. You can also read Paul's review of it on Trophy Unlocked. There's been a lot of Scooby-Doo lately, as the Saturday Morning Review on the blog was Paul's Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur.

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

A Week in Writing #241 - Short Trips and the Effect on Writing

It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that travel and writing don't always go hand in hand. Case in point, my own recent trip this past week to Texas to attend my mother's 95th birthday party.  Not only is there some prep time required, but there is also the travel part. I don't know about you but I can't write on an airplane. Not that I couldn't think of something to write, but the small trays they give you don't really allow you to set up any sort of laptop on them. I may be a pantser, but I need a computer to write on.

While visiting family, writing is never on anyone's mind but yours unless you come from a family of writers and I'm sure even then there is the general sense that you're supposed to put your writing on hold. If you ever get the time it's doubtful there is any place to actually do the work. That's certainly the case when we go back to visit my mother. When there is time, there is no place to actually do it, unless of course, you can use the edge of a bed for a desk. (Hint: I can not.)

All of this is to explain the rather small output this past week from me.

I might have managed maybe 250 words on The Runaway, which is negligible, especially for a blog called 1000 Words a Day, but that's all I had time for, I'm afraid. And, of course, no word on Familiar Stranger. No new queries and no new rejections, so there are still two out there but I need to do more.

This week, no new reviews from me but that does not mean there was nothing up on Trophy Unlocked. Trevor wrote an April Fool's review for Sly Cooper and the King of Thieves, a long-awaited, though never released, sequel to Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. We also published his real review of Shazam!, a film that we saw a couple of weeks ago at a preview screening; one that we paid to attend.

Of the time I had for writing, Powers Squared seemed to take most of it. The night before we were going to leave, I spent most of the time adjusting the DPI on two issues, #6 and #7, that I had submitted to Ka-Blam. Apparently, when I shrank them to fit the printer's template, I also managed to reduce the DPI to 72 when it should be 300. After figuring out how to make that adjustment, I updated about 44 pages and resubmitted the two issues. Still waiting on the printing, but I'm going to have to reorder more, possibly before I know how well it came out, so I can get them ready for our scheduled signing on May 4th.

Wrote a press release during the week to send to the colleges the boys attended, Pierce College and CSUN, that are also nearby Galaxy of Comics, where the signing will take place. We also want to see if Warren at GOC would want to add to it or not. We'll have to approach him later in the week.

Despite our travels, Paul and I did our usual weekly vlog on our YouTube Channel. We're tired, but the show must go on, as they say.

Rachel also sent us thumbnails for the first 8 pages of Issue #11, so Paul and I spent part of Monday night going through them, choosing A or B versions as we did. This is the second issue in the story arc and as always, it's really great to see the story come to life through her drawings.

We also encouraged her to help us with adding names to our mailing list. Not sure if she's done that yet. One of the things we did back in Texas was to ask some of our relatives to sign up for the mailing list. So here comes the pitch to you, the reader. We would like you to sign up as well on https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com. It will be the usual stuff about the comic book, but it will be mailed to you with links. Hope you sign up.

A Week in Writing #237

Quite a week when you consider that two new issues of Power Squared dropped on Wednesday. For the first time since we started producing issues, we published in both digital and print-on-demand. That same night, we made an unboxing video of the first five issues which arrived in printed form from Artithmeric that same day.

Our March 6th unboxing video.

Paul and I have been making weekly videos for the past 6 months and we usually average anywhere from 0 to 2 views, which I've written about before is kind of depressing. Our unboxing video, for us, went viral, as we had nearly 50 views as of Sunday when we posted our 24th A Week in Powers Squared videos on our YouTube channel. Our subscribers have more than doubled to 7 and our Twitter feed is growing as well. I won't say we're on our way but the trend is up. Please keep it up.

I find publication day a little anti-climatic. My expectations are too high, I guess. I think people at work are going to come up and congratulate me on the new issues. In truth, most people don't know and even fewer even care, so while I'm all excited, it's a work day as usual. Receiving the printed versions add some anticipation to the day, which was cool.

Cool to finally find our listing on comixology, too bad it's the wrong issue.

Comixology didn't do us any favors, again. While last time they arranged for some release publicity, which resulted in sales (?), that was more making up for the lack of doing anything the first time around. Even with some publicity, getting noticed on comixology is akin to being some show on Netflix. Someone has to know you're there and then search for you. While you can search for Powers Squared on comixology and find the issues (go ahead, I'll wait while you look...and you'll want to hit the add to cart button...good, now the other one...good, now pay...good. So we're back.), I wanted to see if you could find us through the multitude of new releases that day. There were 45 pages of digital first releases that day and while I did find a Powers Squared issue on page 30, it wasn't one of the new ones for some f-ed up reason. It was Issue #3, which came out last summer, you know one of the ones with some pre-release publicity.

I'm still exploring other formats but they each require their own amount of extra work to get done, as they either have their own templates or they have limitations on how much can be uploaded at any given time. That takes time, so I do them as I can. The latest one I'm trying is Kindle Digital Printing, which, while an Amazon company, like comixology, has it's own software that you have to use to build your book. When I tried it for the first time, it took about ten tries to get it to build the first issue. It kept crapping out when I added the last page of the issue, totally closing out and making me start again. Very frustrating.

In a bit of crossing the streams, in our latest weekly video, Paul and I discussed the recently released Captain Marvel movie, which we had seen on Saturday morning and which was also reviewed by me on Trophy Unlocked. (See how I made a transition there.) Sort of a busy week on the blog as well.  On Saturday morning, we published my review of Bohemian Rhapsody. On Friday, Trevor published a review hub for the Devil May Cry videogame series in honor of the release of the 5th installment. On Thursday, Paul published a review for the videogame Bendy and the Ink Machine.

I'm also working on a review for Gone With the Wind. I'm about 2700 words in and probably have that much to go. Sometimes big movies take longer because there is so much to stay and, frankly, after 80 years, I'm not worried about ruining it for someone.

In what has become a backburner project, I haven't had much time for The Runaway or anything to do with the J.D. Barrister series. No new query letters, I'm sorry to say. And no word of any kind from the editor on Familiar Stranger. Hard not to feel ignored!

So, this upcoming week, I'm hoping that the time change won't take it out of me too bad. I'm hoping to finish my review of Gone With the Wind, work some more on new platforms for Powers Squared, and get back to actually writing. A stretch goal would be a query letter or two. Boy does that make me nervous to even write that.

A Week in Writing #236

This was another week of writing where it was once again dominated by Powers Squared. A lot of time was spent not on writing but on creating uploadable files for various outlets. Each platform has its own limitations and requirements so I spent a good deal of time making files or renaming existing ones.

While we now have a print-on-demand version, through Artithmeric.com, we've been trying to branch out to more outlets as well, including other digital platforms and perhaps other print-on-demand websites. I've been renaming files and making multiple .pdfs for one issue as required by another digital platform. I regret that I haven't yet uploaded files to that new site.

Earlier this week, I was surprised when I opened the Powers Squared twitter account @Martyand Eli, and saw images of a printed version of our comic book and the following comments:

Super cool. And I was a little jealous since I'm still waiting for my issues to arrive.

It was really cool to see such a great reaction from anyone.

That same day, I received notification that our new issues were going to drop on comixology.com on March 6th. It seems like forever since these issues were finished but I always want to have some in reserve. We also decided to make them available day and date on Artithmeric, so we've uploaded the files (more uploading), but it will be really cool to see them. I still have to order them myself.

I'm exploring another print-on-demand site as well, looking for a possible tier gift for our Kickstarter. I said I wanted to do it in February but that's now gone by the wayside. I want this to work so I'm trying to make sure we have good gifts if we fund. Printed versions would make a good alternative to a digital-only release.

I notified First Comic News about the date on Thursday and on Saturday, their reviewer published his reviews. I can't say that I wasn't a little disappointed at his 3 out of 5 ratings for both and no mention of the new look, but there is nothing wrong with getting some advance publicity. Sometimes, you have to move on. I'm more interested in getting the publicity than the exact review I'd like.

With the new reviews, I had to make more updates to the website to accommodate them, which is more time spent on things other than writing. All necessary but all time is precious and fleeting. I do that and I'm not writing.

On Friday, Rachel sent us thumbnails for the last four pages of Issue #10, as well as possible covers. Paul and I didn't sit down until Saturday, but we managed to go through them and give her our feedback. For the most part, we picked one set for each page, though we did have some exchanges and comments on Panel 5 on three of the pages, which is more of a coincidence than anything else.

Nina is busy prepping for her first Artist Alley appearance at The Atlanta Sci-fi and Fantasy Expo next weekend, so the coloring can wait for a week or so. If you're at the Expo, please drop by and support her.

In other writing, I did finish my review of Bohemian Rhapsody but that was not Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review. That belonged to Paul's review of Kingdom Hearts III, which is a game he's been waiting for 13 years to play. Patience finally paid off so it was fitting he got to review it and that it would the 925th on the blog he started.

I did manage to squeeze in a little more work on The Runaway but that was fleeting and on only one day.

As promised, I did reach out to the "editor" on Familiar Stranger. I'm assuming he's still alive but, as per the usual, no reply to my email. I can't help to feel a little insulted and very disappointed in his lack of response. We are coming up on a year since I sent him the manuscript. I don't know what possibly could be delaying any response from him. How hard is it to return an email? Well, if he's been any indication, very hard indeed.

Well, that's this week. I imagine next week will also be a lot about Powers Squared, so stay tuned. Would really appreciate it if you could take a look at the new issues and even tell your friends. If one of them is my editor, tell him all will be forgiven if he just writes back.