A Week in Writing #578 - Never too Late

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

Just to show that it's never too late to hear back from an agent, I received an email on Monday, September 8, for a query I sent on May 8, and which I wrote off as DNR on July 8. But that doesn't mean the agent was done with me. It should come as no surprise that it wasn't a request for more pages or even a personalized rejection. Just a form response:

"Thank you so much for giving me a chance to consider your work. Unfortunately, I don’t believe I’m the right person to represent it effectively. Publishing is such a subjective industry; so, please don’t be discouraged. I wish you the absolute best of luck finding an agent who can represent your work with the enthusiasm it deserves."

Not necessarily worth waiting for, but it does show some agents do respond, it's just not in a timely manner.

No queries this week, again. I'm hoping to learn some things soon and will get back into the query game after that.

I did work some on Blackmail this week, though I'm rewriting the newest chapter I'd written, and I've added a few things in what I had already written. One of the things I like about writing is seeing something current and make it relate to what I'm writing. I came across such a story this week, and while I won't name names, it involved two atheletes, from different sports, who had a relationship. It was some of the things the woman said about the man fit in with my book, so I made a point of using the spirit of how she described it, though I made sure not to quote her. So, the word count is now over 56,000, but I am making progress.

Had a little issue with the next issue of Powers Squared. We got back a proof and there was dialogue credited to the wrong character, an easy fix, and why you get proofs, but I wasn't sure if I should delay the issue by a month. I changed my mind this week and it may not be available everywhere on the first day, but that's life.

So, there'll be two issues coming out on the 24th: Issue #7 of The Blade of Miracles and #26 of Powers Squared. I had intended to release four issues of Powers Squared this year, but production issues with #29 have me rethinking that.

Trophy Unlocked hit 1700 reviews this week, with Trevor's review of Look Back having the honors. On Wednesday, Paul put up a review of ENA: Dream BBQ Chapter 1 - Lonely Door. Saturday night was upheaved this week because Paul was judging at a Yu-Gi-Oh! Regional, but we went to see a 60th anniversary showing of The Sound of Music today, and I'll probably be the one reviewing it.

Speaking of Paul's judging, our Friday podcast was about his previous experience with doing that at a previous Regional. I know I learned a few things during the show. You can listen to it here, watch it  on our twitch channel for a few more days, or watch it on our You Tube channel (@powerssquared) here Wednesday after 2:30 pm PDT.

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

A Week in Writing #577 - And now Football

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

I am not the type of guy that watches college and pro football from Saturday morning until Monday night, but I do find the three hours a week I spend watching games can seem like a real waste of time, especially if the team loses and I've done nothing else while watching. By the way, I follow only one team, the Dallas Cowboys, which is where I'm from, and that's about it. I'll watch the Super Bowl, but  I'm not watching every other game and on weekends when they're not playing, I think of as a gold mine of time.

So, that's a way of saying I didn't send a query out on Thursday because the team was playing, and losing. I can do things while I'm watching the game, like work on the newsletter, but I don't think it would be a good result to work on a query letter part-time. I know I said I'd start sending them again after Labor Day, but I didn't this week.

Speaking of the newsletter, that went out this morning. Again, I would encourage you to sign up for it. If you're thinking it's the same as this blog, it isn't. We cover some of the same ground, but it is more focused on the SRCC Press universe than this is. You can sign up, its FREE, here. If you've ever been curious about this Powers Squared I keep writing about, you'll get a free digital issue for your trouble. End of plug.

I did work on Blackmail this week. That chapter I'd been wanting to write got written and I was able to sprinkle a few updates I had been thinking out. I find the drive to and from work provides a certain amount of time to think about the story, the only problem is I have to wait until the end of the day and after dinner before I can implement any of it. Somehow, in the hours in between, what seemed focused in the morning gets a little less so twelve or so hours later. The word count is now 54,419. I think I'm about 25,000 words short so far.

My review of Thunderbolts* was the Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked. I know you're thinking that came out in May and it did. And we just watched it recently on Disney+. In retrospect, it would probably have been worth watching in the theater but at the time, it wasn't considered so. I've also just finished a new review of Tight Spot, a 1955 film noir I've had on the DVR for years and finally watched. As always, no idea when it will appear on the blog.

The podcast this week was the three of us, Paul, Trevor and I, talking about the Fourth Doctor (Dr. Who for the uninformed). Yes, I know it's over 50 years old, but we had been watching the Tom Baker years for a while and thought to talk about it while it was still fresh on our minds. We're still waiting for the BBC to release season two, but that's not until next year and we had a podcast on Friday. We're still reaching out a second time to creators we met at Comic-Con to appear and we have issues to discuss, so OAPS isn't going to turn into us discusccing old British Sci-Fi. You can watch it here now, and for a few more days, or here on Wednesday after 2:30 pm PDT, or listen anytime here. (And if you don't like our website, there are links to the other platforms where the podcast appears.)

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

A Week in Writing #575 - A Few Setbacks But Getting There

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

A few setbacks this week and it's really no one's fault but mine. Let's start with the query letter. Yeah, that's right no queries again this week. Partly it's because I was still messing around with the synopsis in the query letter. I'm trying to condense, what I think is a complicated plot, to as few paragraphs as I can, while still getting the main parts of the story across. It's still six paragraphs long, so I need to keep working on it. I've also decided that with summer coming to an end, I'm going to put off more queries until after Labor Day. It'll give some more time to work on the query.

The other setback has come with the pages of Powers Squared that I spent several hours reshaping. I decided on my own that I had set the margins too wide, so I'm going back and trying to amend them each slightly, about a quarter inch on all four sides. I know I'm putting off the query to the distributor but I want to put the best foot forward since I may only get one bite at the apple.

On the subject of Powers Squared, some progress but no new pages since the last batch last month.

Our podcast this week is a preview of Trevor's 6th issue of The Blade of Miracles, which is dropping on Wednesday, August 27. Due to delays, I'm not sure if the print option will be available when we want it to be, but I don't think it could be helped. We didn't even have a copy of the book when we did the podcast, which I think is the first time ever for On the Air With Powers Squared. You can listen to it here or watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT here. The book will be availbable through The Campus Store on our website, where all the previous issues are available as well. (Yes, that's a hint)

Coming up soon is the next newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, but I believe I've got another weekend to go before that's due. We publish that the first Sunday in every month, so I have until the 6th of September, but I should probably start on that soon. But there will be a Bark heralding the new release.

My review of The Fantastic Four: First Steps was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. It's about a month old by now, but we've got to slot them in when we can, including going to the movies. Even though we had watched the other films, this version came out the weekend we were tabling at SDCC, so we had to put it off.

I also finished a review for Smart Blonde, the first in the Torchy Blane series from Warner Brothers from 1937. It was on TCM recently, so I recorded it. When I told a co-worker about our DVR he sort of looked at me like I was a dinosaur, but it's a usually reliable way to record movies, etc., that you're not going to see live. Draining it is another story, though.

And finally, Blackmail the current book I'm working on. I'm having a little trouble picking it back up again. It's not writer's block, but rather rethinking how I want to pick up on the story. I've started it a couple of times but end up back at zero before I get too far. I think though I know how to get it going again, so hopefully more to report next week.

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

A Week in Writing #567 - Three Down (Well Almost)

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

The three down are in reference to my queries for Past Present. One rejection came in this week, ironically, the last query I sent out was the first rejection I received. I won't go into what it said, but safe to say it was a form letter; what else do you expect these days from agents, other than no response at all? I wonder how many form letter emails I'll receive which will include "...please forgive me for responding with a form letter."

The first one I sent, in late April, has over-ripened into a DNR, as it's been two months. And the second one I sent is a few days away at best from spoiling as well.

And, to top it off, no new query this week. I spent most of Thursday night either getting ready for the trip I mentioned last week, or waiting to talk to the artist who did our podcast this past Friday.

Speaking of On the Air with Powers Squared, Julia Canon, our artist/colorst, hosted the show, bringing in her own guest, Kevin Krust. If you have a good memory, you might remember that we had Kevin on as a guest many moons ago, OAPS # 231 - Attempting to Impart Wisdom, She brought him back for OAPS #305 - The Return of KevinKrust...Hold the Krust. You can listen to it here, or watch it on YouTube on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT. And, if you act fast, you can still catch it on our twitch channel but only until next Friday.

Despite being out of town, there was a new review on Trophy Unlocked, Trevor's review of to a T. Since we weren't home, no Friday night movie, no Saturday night movie and no new review from me. We'll have to correct that in due time.

Even though I was away for part of the time, I'm now up to over 47,700 words on Blackmail. I did have an idea for it, so I'm going to add a bit at the beginning of the book to, hopefully, set up the subplot of the book. So for a short week, I managed to write nearly 4000 words. I'm impressing myself with that.

For the coming week, I've got a newsletter to write and a new query to make. I'm also having an issue with the copyright office, which I need to address. Oh, the fun never stops.

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

A Week in Writing #566 - Gearing Up for Summer (New Issues)

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

By gearing up for the summer, I'm not talking about repacking the tents but rather working on what needs to be done during the summer months ahead. We took a step in that direction this weekend with some podcasts we shot.

Our ode to the start of summer was the Friday podcast, or "Jaws 50th Anniversary Sharktacular", that we did on Friday night. With the official start of summer comes the summer blockbuster and many credit Jaws with being the first. Paul, Trevor and I spent the time talking about the film, and our impressions, etc. You can listen to it here or wait to watch it on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 PDT here (more podcasts below).

Separate from that, but connected, was a special Friday morning review of Jaws by Paul on Trophy Unlocked published to commorate the anniversary. And even the Saturday Morning Review was Jaws-themed, with Trevor's review of the game, Jaws Unleashed (2006), in which you are the shark.

And if that wasn't enough, we shot two more podcasts on Saturday afternoon with Julia Canon. The first one we did won't go up until the 4th of July. We do an occassional Comic Book Club and not everyone could make the meeting. The four of us discussed Usagi Yojimbo Volume 39: Ice and Snow by Stan Sakai. So, forget about that one for a couple of weeks.

It's the second one that will go up immediately; a preview of the two books SRCC Press is releasing on Wednesday, Powers Squared Issue #25 and The Blade of Miracles #4. Julia was part of the former but not of the latter, so there are really two podcasts put together with some clever editing by Paul. It's called: "[Secret Episode] OAPS #304 - SRCC Press Double Feature! PSQ #25 + TBOM #4 Preview". This is also available to listen to here and will also be available on our YouTube channel on Wednesday but at 2:31 pm PDT.

I would be remiss not to talk more about both issues. Powers Squared #25, "Yuki-Onna" was written by Paul as a companion to Powers Squared #24, "Gashadokuro", which was written by Trevor. Just as that first issue dealt with Eli on his own fighting an evil yokai, "Yuki-Onna" finds Marty in a life or death battle with a yokai known to suck the life force from her victims. The artwork was by artist Julia Canon, colors were by Jennifer Moreno with Trevor doing the lettering.

The Blade of Miracles is Trevor's 12-part epic adventure loosely based on the Arthurian legend. In the fourth issue, "The Black Knight, Part 1," Lancelot returns to his hometown of Benwick in search of Excalibur, only to find it in ruin. Who would commit such a terrible deed and why? In addition to writing, Trevor also illustrated and lettered the issue with Paul serving as editor.

Both issues will be available starting on June 25 through The Campus Store in both print and digital formats.

No new review from me this week. On Friday night, we watched Mission: Impossible 2, which I wasn't going to review, but because there was a lot written about its similarities to the Alfred Hitchcock film, Notorious, we rewatched that film. I had reviewed the film on the blog about 14 years ago, and I'll stand by what I wrote at the time. I did go back and add some images that we weren't adding to reviews at the time.

About 1500 more words this week on Blackmail, so for anyone counting, it's up to 43,806 words.

One new query this week, and while none have come back as rejected, one is about to DNR itself in a couple of days. They all go ripe after 8 weeks and this one is about to hit that mark. Would love to hear from an agent out there.

Well, that about does it for me. One note, I'm spending time with my wife's family this weekend, so next week's may be delayed a day, so bear with me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here 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 #563 - OAPS Celebrates #300

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

On the Air with Powers Squared, the weekly podcast that mostly Paul and I host, has hit a new milestone with our 300th show. As I wrote last week, we used a pre-recorded interview we did back in March with Eric and Julia Lewald, animation writers and showrunners, perhaps best known for their work on X-Men: The Animated Series. You can listen to the 300th podcast here or watch it on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PDT here.

I think 300 speaks to our consistency as much as anything. And it is not something we could do alone. To start, I wanted to be sure to thank Paul for being there week after week and Trevor for his participation. I also wanted to thank our colorist/artist Julia Canon, who has picked up the slack when we weren't able to do the show. It takes a village, as they say. Thanks to our guests, everyone involved with Powers Squared and to anyone who listens or watches.

Not much on the Powers Squared front, 'cept Trevor finished lettering what he has for issue #28. That doesn't mean there won't be a new issue this month. That's coming this month, "Yuki-Onna" written by Paul. There will be more about that as time goes by.

It was newsletter week, and the 89th The Hound Dog's Howl went out this morning. You can get your own copy by enrolling at SRCC, here. It's free and you receive a free digital copy of Issue #1 to get you started. We send out one newsletter a month and The Bark when an issue of either Powers Squared or The Blade of Miracles is released.

No new review this week from me. We mixed things up on Saturday. Last weekend, we saw and I reviewed, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Since the film harks back to the first movie, on Friday night we watched the film Mission: Impossible, and on Saturday night watched an episode from the original series; Season 2, Episode 1, since that was the first season with Peter Graves as Jim Phelps. I'm not sure who will be reviewing the first Mission: Impossible.

The Saturday morning review this week on Trophy Unlocked was Paul's for Kronk's New Groove, a direct-to-video sequel to The Emperor's New Groove. Wednesday was GameDay with Trevor's review of the mobile game Very Little Nightmares.

Sent out my weekly query on Thursday. This agent wasn't very specific on what they wanted outside of a letter, which is what I sent. Still haven't heard back, good or bad, from anyone, though I suspect we'll start DNRing some if I don't.

More work on Blackmail this week, though not much to show, less than 1000 words, though that does include editing. The count is 37,633. More to come.

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

A Week in Writing #562 - Where Did the Week Go?

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

Some Sundays when I sit down to write this blog, I wonder what happened to everything I planned to do during the past week. For some reason, this doesn't feel like an overly productive one, though we'll see when I'm done.

Let's start with Powers Squared, since we haven't in awhile. Not a lot to report here. Our artist and I have come to an agreement on fewer pages a month, I just haven't seen any since. Her real job seems to be demanding, so I'm trying to play ball but I do want to keep the comic book moving forward.

Our corresponding podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, was a short one this week. We previewed issue #3, "The Lady Guinevere", of Trevor's book, The Blade of Miracles. You can watch it now on our twitch channel, twitch.tv/powerssquared, listen to it here or wait until it hits our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm. This new issue will be available on May 30, through The Campus Store on our website. You can also learn more about the series here.

Next week will be our 300th podcast, and we're premiering our conversation with Eric and Julia Lewald from a couple of months back. We had to pre-record it to work with their schedule and we decided the 300th podcast would be a fitting occasion for it.

I hate to admit it, but I'm still not done with my I Wake Up Screaming review, though I'm close. My review of When Worlds Collide was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. On Friday afternoon, we rewatched Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part 1, and on Saturday morning, and I mean at 8:45 am, went to see Mission: Impossibe - The Final Reckoning, which I also reviewed and it went up this morning on the blog.

I did some work this week on the newsletter, which will be coming out next Sunday. I wanted to strike while the iron was hot, so to speak. I like to get as much of the heavy lifting out of the way as early as possible. If you'd like to get your own copy, of course, you can join the mailing list by enrolling at SRCC, which is the fictious college where the story takes place. And, of course, it's free.

Sent out my fifth query this week for Past Present. Of course, I've received no rejections or requests for more.

I did work some on Blackmail again this week. Not sure if I moved the word count very much higher. It stands now at 36,665, which is about 2500 more than the week before. Remember, 1000 Words A Day is a goal.

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

A Week in Writing #561 - Three Videos and a 4th Query

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

Ever had what feels like a busy week but you're not sure what you've accomplished?

Let's start with the good. Busy YouTube week, shooting three podcasts. For our usual podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared featured an old friend, Josue Kure, as well as his writer Tim Gomez. I had met Josue online in a Facebook group called List Launch, and we had him on the podcast in December 2011, #63 if you're keeping track. He was on, then, to promote a comic book he and Tim had written called Reaper Rules, and this time, he was on to promote Super Foods, and their upcoming Kickstarter. You can listen on our website here, or watch it on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 pm PDT here.

Or, for something you can watch now, try our videoblog, What's in My Bag? FCBD 2025, Part 2. As no surprise, this is a follow up to our What's in My Bag? FCBD 2025, Part 1, from 2 weeks ago. In that one, Rachel Wells, Paul, Trevor and I talked about the books we'd picked up at our local comic bookstore on Free Comic Book Day. In this one, we actually discuss the books we'd read, which can be the more interesting part. You can only watch it on our YouTube channel, here, or on twitch.tv here for the next few days.

On, if that weren't enough, we also pre-taped a preview of Trevor's next book, Blade of Miracles Issue #3, but you'll have to wait to see that. Ths issue drops at the end of the month. I also did a peek-of-the-week about it too, which you can see here. When the book drops on the 28th, you'll be able to find it on our website in The Campus Store.

I sent out my fourth query this past week. So far no rejections (they're no doubt coming) and no DNRs (they're coming as well). But I'm trying to be consistent and get them done.

The Saturday Morning Review this week on Trophy Unlocked was Paul's review of Moana 2, the sequel to Moana, which Trevor reviewed last week. I'm currently working on a review of I Wake Up Screaming (1941), which was another of our draining the DVR. I believe this recording was about 5 years old. I had another one I wanted to watch, A Lady of Chance (1928), but TCM sort of screwed up the recording, since it cut off the first few minutes, meaning they went ahead of schedule. But the other got the job done.

I worked some this week on Blackmail, though I think I'm more in an editing mode with it at the moment, so the word count didn't really grow; 34,157.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you 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 #559 - Two Down More to Go

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

My big project this week was the Powers Squared monthly newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, which went out this morning. While it's not hard work, it is time consuming. There are three sections that I actually have to write: The introduction, the Heard Around Campus section, and the spotlight on twins. The rest of it sort of follows a format. My biggest complaint isn't the work, but the platform we use. For some reason Mail Chimp, which we've been using since the beginning, and I have different ideas on punctuation. I like the period at the end, but it likes to have it at the beginning of the last line. At least, that's been my editing challenge the last few times. Maybe there's a simple fix but maybe, as Paul suggested, we have to burn the format to the ground and build it back. Anyway, if you're interested, you can read it here. Of course, I'd appreciate it more if you'd subscribe.

It's been a busy week with videos. Two videos went up on Wednesday, last week's OAPS podcasts (see last week's missive for links), then on Thursday, Paul's Ruffles vs Lay's All Dressed Taste Test went up. We used a pre-recorded Comic Book Club for Friday's OAPS. Back in April, we got together with artists Julia Canon and Rachel Wells to discuss The Sculptor by Scott McCloud. You can listen to it here or wait until Wedneday at 2:30 pm on our YouTube Channel. And, if that wasn't enough, we did a live podcast with Rachel, our annual Free Comic Book Day "What's in my Bag? Part 1". We discuss the pulls we made at our local comic book shops for FCBD. Next week, we'll discuss what we read. You can watch the first part here.

A bit of good news, we got pages from our artist this week, so things are, at least, for now all good. Now the final pages for Issue #27 are ready for coloring.

My review for Blade went up on Trophy Unlocked, as the Saturday Morning Review. We decided that since it was one of the earlier Marvel Comic movies, it was fitting given it was also Free Comic Book Day. I also finished a review of Isle of Fury, an early Humphrey Bogart film that I came across on TCM. No hurry to get that one up, if you know what I mean.

Another query went out and I was surprised to recieve a response back. Not a rejection or an ask for pages but rather a "we got your query" email and to set my expectations. If I don't hear back in 8 weeks, it's a pass. So far, we're two in and no rejections/DNRs yet.

Not much happened this week with Blackmail, not that I don't have an idea where to add to the story, but I ran out of time this week. So, with some edits, I only pushed it to 28,966 words; so far to go. But that will have to wait until next week.

That does it for me. Keep writing, and I'll see you back here 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 #545 - First Stage Query List Complete

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

My big accomplishment this week is finally compiling a first query list for Past Present, the book I'm looking to try to find an agent to represent. By that, I mean, I went through QueryTracker, a site I've used before, searched for agents that handle Crime/Police and Mystery genres. With that list, I limited my list to Agents in the US who were open to queries. That has given me a list of 227 agents; there may be multiples per agency. I'm tracking agent's name, agency, what forms they want to receive queries (post, email, form, Query Manager), email (if that's how they want to receive them), website, what they want, and dates. I haven't gotten past websites at this point.

Using the comments from other queriests (my word), I marked most (172) as yellow or normal or the kind of comments you'd might expect to see. Some were red for bad, a few green as in good, and some (40) red as in bad, or as Monty Python would say to "lay down and avoid." Reds go to agents who have not responded in a long time (years), or have really bad comments, or want "clean reads" (i.e. no sex no cursing). 14 were Green meaning good. These were agents who seemed to give feedback rather than form letter rejections, or people really liked working with even if they didn't take them on as a client. One agent was new and had no comments, yet.

Now, this was a first run through. I will most likely avoid the reds, but I'll do more research on the yellows and greens. While QueryTracker is a good site for research, I have found in the past that just because QT says they handle a genre doesn't mean the agency/agent actually handles that, or maybe only handles say Cozy Mysteries. And, also what does the agent want to receive.

While post only agents might be ones to avoid, I do prefer emails, rather than Online Forms and Query Manager, which, if you didn't know, is a database many agents are using. But we'll see as the research continues. I don't plan to research every agent before querying, but I may want to find an agent I want to query before starting the process.

I hate to say it, but I've thought of another story for my private detective stories. I wrote out a brief synopsis for myself. So, that's two stories I'll be working on for that character. I hate to say it, the second one intrigues me more at this point.

Last weekend, I submitted the next two issues of Powers Squared to get proofs made. Got feedback on one cover that seemed to have some pixelation. I was able to fix it, having been able to recover my version of Photoshop Elements. Not sure what happened the first time, but it's good now.

We had a Comic Book Club meeting on our podcast this past Friday. Artists Julia Canon and Rachel Wells, join Trevor, Paul and I to discuss Rooster Fighter Vol. 1 written and illustrated by Shū Sakuratani. You can listen to it now here or watch it when it comes out on our YouTube channel on Wednesday at 2:30 pm, here.

Next Sunday is the first of February and the latest issue of The Hound Dogs' Howl will be coming out. Be sure to sign up to receive your copy at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/srcc to join the mailing list.

This past Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked was my review of the silent film The Johnstown Flood. I figured since L.A. is living through one natural disaster, why not look at how one of the first in the U.S. was handled on film.

My review this week was Blackmail (1929), but the silent version. This is not an all out review, but more an addendum to the one I wrote about the sound version. As always, no date for pub yet.

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

A Week in Writing #544 - The Excitement of an Excel Spreadsheet

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

Now that I've finished the rewrites on Skylar, and I'm putting together a list of agents to query for Past Present, I still find myself tweaking. Has this ever happened to you: You're alone and you start to think about something you've written and suddenly an answer comes to you or a better way of saying something. Well that happened to me with Past Present. It was a bit of dialogue that I thought should be proached between characters. So, went back into the book and added it. It doesn't change anything as far as the story goes, but I think it fills a hole, so to speak. Something, as a reader, I'd want a character to ask another.

I'm also working on my new story idea, which so far doesn't have a name. I've been trying to be good and work on the query list, but there is only so much excitement you can have with an Excel spreadsheet, so I'm drawn to working on the story. I had one of those moments with this book that I wanted to capture and once I'm in it, I keep wanting to work on it. I know the premise and how I want the book to end, so it's just filling in all the rest.

This week's podcast was our January 2025 Team Meeting, minus one. Our current artist, Jen Moreno, couldn't make it for reasons I was never told, so we carried on as a quartet with Julia Canon, Trevor, Paul and myself. However, some months there isn't much going on, so this is a rather short podcast. You can listen to it here or wait and watch it on Wednesday after 2:30 here. The apt subtitle is "A Quick Update."

I'm trying to get serious about WonderCon, as it is screaming up in a little more than two months. The banner and table runner we ordered came in ahead of schedule and they look pretty good. Now, I need to worry about the number of books and order some of Trevor's book, The Blade of Miracles, so we have some for the Con. More on that as I know them.

My review of The Red Badge of Courage went up on Trophy Unlocked as the Saturday Morning Review. I also wrote a new review of Blackmail (1929), at least the sound version. This was on TCM recently, along with a special about the importance of the movie in shaping director Alfred Hitchcock's legacy. That special was sandwiched between the silent and sound versions of the film. I recorded both, but only had time for one, and chose the sound. I'd like to watch the silent version and update the review accordingly. But that's for another time.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but that is about all for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #470 - Just Add Water and Stir

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

This post comes during a very weird time in Los Angeles, where I live. Not only are we having a tropical storm roll through here for the first time in over 80 years, but we also felt the earth roll as we had an earthquake as well. As someone said on the news, L.A. is the country's disaster theme park. I know you want to know but except for some minor flooding in our garage, we're doing just fine. We sort of thought we had until winter before we had to worry about rain and the flooding but who knew we'd have rain in August?

Well, I know you're not reading this for the weather.

I'll save you some time, no new queries this week, no overt rejections either and very little writing, except for the idea I had for the comic book. I managed to do four drafts of a two part script, 5295 words. It started with one idea and ended a different way. I gave it to Paul to look at today. Even if it doesn't become a comic book, I still enjoyed writing it. It's been a long time, it seems, since anything I've written has been made into comic book form.

It wasn't my plan to spend the week on it but it started to roll and I just went with it.

Because of the pending storm and the possibility of a power outage, I didn't want to be working on a new review this week. So, instead, we watched the first episode of the MST3K season 13, a Kickstarter we backed in 2021 but for which, after paying for shipment on top of the Kickstarter, just received this week. One of the more botched Kickstarters I've been a part of and probably the last one I'll do for MST3K. The episode wasn't very funny and seemed sort of high budget cheap, if that makes sense. The original was made on a shoe string but it was way better than this version. The short we watched was funny, but that doesn't make up for everything else.

Because of the possible power outages, I also moved some of my normal Sunday morning social media stuff to Saturday night, including uploading our Friday On the Air with Powers Squared up to YouTube and scheduling posts for later in the week. This past Friday's podcast was mostly Paul talking about Metalocalypse and Dethklok, the fictional but still real band featured in the series. That goes up on Wednesday or you can listen to it here.

Even though I didn't write a new review this week, my review of  Nancy Drew. . . Trouble Shooter (1939) was Trophy Unlocked's Saturday morning review. We decided the review was our salute to the waning days of summer. The Wednesday Game Day review was Paul's for Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach – Ruin (DLC).

Just to give everyone a head's up, next weekend gets sort of discombobulated with Metallica coming to town for two shows, Friday and Sunday night. OAPS will be hosted by Julia Canon and will be another Artists Takeover, which I encourage everyone to support. It should be Live at 6 pm PT, so please watch. And, because the concert is also on Sunday night, this missive won't come out until Monday.

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

A Week in Writing #468 - Starting to Feel Normal Again

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

Well, two weeks out and I'm starting to feel normal again after Comic-Con. I hate the expression "getting back into the swing of things", though I'm pretty sure I've used it before. Let's just say I'm starting to feel normal again, good or bad, for what it's worth.

After writing last week that I hadn't worked on either Skylar or my new idea, I sat down and started working on a chapter for the new story. It's a bit of a fantasy chapter, so I don't think it will make it whole into the finished work but it was an idea I had to write down nonetheless. I worked on it off and on throughout the week and ended up writing about 3200 words. I may do another round of cleaning it up before getting back to Skylar, which I know I need to finish.

I also worked on the latest edition of The Hound Dogs' Howl and writing a piece on the M-Twins from the Marvel universe. Again, it's only available to enrollees at San Romero Community College, which you are free to enroll in.

I'll admit I was getting frustrated with the slow pace of pages for Powers Squared, but our artist turned in 7 and our colorist 8 this week, so I'm feeling a little better about things.

I've been reading Mouse Guard by David Petersen, as he will be our guest this Friday on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squard on twitch.tv/powerssquared and later on YouTube. If you've never watched or listened to the podcast before, this might be one you don't want to miss.

Rounding out the updates on Powers Squared, I got feedback on the script and there is a lot to be done to make it better. Something else I want to look at this coming week.

For Trophy Unlocked, I'm currently working on a review for Blondie (1938). We haven't decided yet who will be writing it but we have a review to do for Barbie. Next weekend, we're finally going to see Oppenheimer so we want to do our own version of Barbenheimer when we do. Comic-Con sort of got us off as far as seeing movies when they first come out. I wanted to see Oppenheimer in IMAX and it wasn't until next weekend that opportunities and times worked out.

That may explain why my review of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One didn't appear on the blog until Saturday morning. Sunday saw Trevor's review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, a film we managed to see close to it's original release on Friday afternoon. The first review last week was also Trevor's Game Day review of Tron: Identity for the PC.

To round things out, I did manage a new query this week. I'm down to four "active" queries, which may lead me to redo the synopsis on the query letter and maybe even rewrite the start of the book to bring the action more to the forefront.

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

A Week in Writing #467 - Blame Comic-Con

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

I'm coming to you this week with hat in hand. This week didn't go as planned. I'm blaming an SDCC hangover, but I never seemed to get into the groove this week on practically anything. My brain would get pretty much instantly foggy when I got around to writing so rather than wear down the battery on the laptop, I put it back and sat in near inert stupor. Not a pleasant sight, let me tell you.

No surprise, there was no work on Skylar or even the new story idea I had.

By Thursday, I was awake enough to do some work on queries, including more research on possible agents; closing down three that had past expirations and managed to send one out before calling it a night. So far, no outward signs of rejection, so I'll take that as a maybe.

On the Powers Squared front, little has been happening. Our artist and colorist are supposed to turn in their work for the month on Monday, so nothing, thankfully, to review. We're several issues ahead on the writing so there's not much to do there, so there's a lot of waiting around.

We did talk a bit about SDCC during our Friday OAPS podcast (audio, video) in addition to catching up on the book. Paul also posted a video about the exclusives and signings, called SDCC 2023 Haul.

Speaking of podcasts, we've lined up David Petersen, the artist and creator of Mouse Guard for our August 11th show. We go live Fridays at 6 pm at twitch.tv/powerssquared. That might be one you'll want to see.

Actually wrote a new review for Trophy Unlocked: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Blame SDCC but our movie watching has been thrown off so we're sort of behind on new films. We're playing catch up. We haven't scheduled Barbie yet but the first showing we could make to Oppenheimer in 70mm IMAX isn't until 8/12 and then there's TMNT coming out this week as well.  Not sure when the MI review will come out but probably this week. And the DVR just gets fuller with B-movies.

The Saturday Morning Review was Trevor's for Alice in Wonderland (1951); we were a couple of days off of its New York premiere date which is why it seemed like the right time to post it.

I will have to do better next week.

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

A Week in Writing #463 - Pilot Scripts and Newsletters

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

My writing this week took a different bent. I started working again on the pilot script for our proposed series based on Powers Squared. It's something that we've been kicking around for a while now and I finally got back into it. If your curious, there are some subtle changes between the origins of the story in the comic book and what will be in the pilot. I won't go into details but the same basic story will get told but in a slightly different way based on some feedback we've gotten on the idea. I had been trying to work on one scene a night so I'm only about three into it. This is a first draft, mostly for myself, so it won't be the one that sees the light of day.

Just in case anyone thinks differently, I am not a member of the WGA nor am I trying to show this to anyone prior to the end of the current strike. This is, at this point, for myself and Powers Squared. I support the aim of the strike and want all writers to get fair pay and compensation.

To cover it, while I did some work on my new idea, I didn't, this week, work on Skylar. It was more down to time and what I spent it on, which was the script.

Our latest newsletter came out this morning with the usual news about Powers Squared. If you're interested in reading The Hound Dogs' Howl, I encourage you to join the mailing list by enrolling here: https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/srcc. For those of you unfamiliar with it, SRCC stands for San Romero Community College, which is where the story is based. In order to get on the mailing list, you enroll at the school. SRCC is not a real school and there are no fees attached with enrolling. All "classes", such as there are, are free. The only thing that costs are the books and merch. End of ad.

There is currently some momentum on the new issue as our artist dropped the last four pages of the month and has already made the edits Trevor requested. It is his story after all. We're about a month away from starting on its companion issue, written by Paul.

I'm also thinking seriously about a new Kickstarter next year, promoting these new issues as well as a new trade of issues 6 through 9. Stay tuned for that.

No new review for me this week. We ended up watching a movie we had seen before, thanks to my confusion. I had originally written the review for Their Own Desire back in 2019, but it hadn't yet been published. I must have forgotten the title and when looking ahead at TCM last week, the logline sounded more salacious pre-code than I remembered. But seeing it again did help me with putting the photos I'd downloaded with the story, so it is now at least in draft form on the blog.

Three new reviews on Trophy Unlocked this week, though none of them mine. Monday started off with Paul's review of Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, which has proven a very popular post with over 100 hits so far. Wednesday's Game Day review was Trevor's for We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie and the Saturday Morning Review was Paul's for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, an MCU title we did not see in a theater.

One new query this week to round out the checklist and I DNR'd a couple that have spoiled on the shelf. They're the "No Word means 'No'" sort of agencies.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you again next week. And, have a Happy and Safe Fourth of July.

A Week in Writing #462 - And the Rejections Keep Coming

 

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

In not so good news, the rejections keep coming. 

Received this one on Thursday, which was nice but I had already DNR'd the request since I had sent the query in January and they had a six week turn around. So, that took some of the sting out of receiving the official notification five months later:

Dear David,

 

Thank you for your interest in our agency. We have reviewed the material you sent regarding your manuscript and are sorry to report to you that we will not ask to consider the work for representation.

 

Please understand that we are a small agency and take on very few new clients. With limited time and personnel, we've learned to trust our instincts about whether there would be a good fit between a particular writer and us. We certainly recognize that we might well be passing up a good opportunity.

 

We wish you the best of luck in placing this with another agent and ultimately, a publisher.

 

Sincerely,

While I was at it, I decided to DNR another one that I had sent on 3/30. It had apparently gone past their response time, too, so I took it as a pass. But maybe it a few months I'll hear it officially.

On the subject of rejections, I mean queries, I sent another out on Thuirsday. This one was interesting as the agent want page, synopsis and then the query letter, in that order. I sort of had to try, since that was so different. So far, no rejection yet.

My review of The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. The Wednesday Game Day review as Trevor's for Katamari Damacy Reroll (PS4). I'm currently working on a review of Bombshell (1933), the Jean Harlow starrer.

It's sort of been quiet on the Powers Squared  front. Our artist had a family crisis and has been pulled away for the time being, so new pages for our new colorist to work on. Hopefully, the pages are coming soon but family does come first.

I decided to make some updates to the website and especially the page on SRCC (San Romero Community College). I'm trying to update the class list on the page, so it's a WIP as they say. I'll be sure to let you know when it's safe to look.

I also worked on the newsletter for next Sunday, today. Not hard work but there is stuff to do to get it ready.

Our latest podcast was our comic book club, our 9th meeting, discussing the Bernie Krigstein book, Master Race. It supposed to be a very influential comic book and if you watch the video, there's a link to where you can read it for free. It goes up on Wednesday on YouTube.

In the meantime, we put up the fifth and final taste test video on Sunday, Multiflavor Blowout | Taste Test #5. It was recorded in February but with summer approaching, I thought it might be  helpful on what to drink and which ones to avoid.

This might be a good place to come clean about something I did. When we put up the video OAPS #195 Issue #17 Preview I paid someone to boost it. I have boosted previous videos on Facebook but my hope was that since it was basically a commercial for the issue boosting it might lead to more readers. I don't believe there were necessarily bots involved but we hit an abnormally high views (1K). I didn't clear this with the others involved, especially my son Paul, who is my co-host on the podcast. In the long run, I don't think there was any real harm done but I don't think it necessarily led to more readers. I want to apologize here for my actions. My intentions might have good but it was not a good thing to have done.

More writing on Skylar but I'm sort of in limbo at the moment. I did have the opening idea for the next book, so I've written about 2300 words since Friday.

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