Holidays are not always the friend of the writer. I know you're thinking all that extra time, but that's not all free and clear. If you're like me, there is family and errands that take up a good deal of the "free" time you supposedly pick up. I'm not travelling or there wouldn't even be time for this. And I'm not one that wants to shirk off responsibilities with family to write; yardwork "yes," family "no."
That said, this has not been a week that has really moved the dial too forward towards my goals. I mean every week is a step, just some are more baby steps than others. Let's start with the things I haven't heard back on: any of the queries or anything more about my show proposal. With no new queries this week, the count and amount remain the same, though one is getting close to going ripe without a response. Next weeks the numbers may change; I can still hope for the better, but experience has taught me otherwise.
While I'm sort of used to the agents not getting back to me, because hey that's how it is, the latter is still new and I'm not sure what to expect; radio silence wasn't one of the options. Not sure what to make of it. With Comic-Con coming soon and the obvious channel involvement in same, I will wait until after before asking again. I'm sort of hoping I'll run into the guy at the Con and can reintroduce myself to him.
Have now finished editing Simple Sins and the script for the second part of PowerSquared, but have felt a little under the weather and haven't actually gotten to making those updates on the computer. Hopefully, I will get some of that time tomorrow, the 4th, but not counting or expecting to get too much done.
The comic book is still in the wrapping up stage. Our artist is working on cover layouts. He sent us two which we passed on and has just sent us a third. We've only started ruminating about it, so it may take a day or so to think about it further. The cover, as you can imagine, is really important. Received page 17 from the colorist, with a promise to get us the last three pages soon. The letterer continues. I hate to say it, but there will be some changes/fine tuning on both fronts when we get to the end.
Finished and published a review of Independence Day (1996) on the anniversary of its release. If the response is any indication, then I can see why the sequel isn't doing better at the box-office. 23 page views are pretty good, I guess for a holiday, though, as a blogger, you always hope for more. Hey, I'm not writing these for my health. My well-being maybe, but health no. Currently working on a review of Movie Movie (1978), which was recently, last week, released on Blu-Ray, after not being out for years for home consumption or any consumption for that matter. About 2400 words into it since watching it on Friday. (Side note: It's hard to find images for the movie. Partly it's because it's been out of the public eye for decades; and partially because any Google search brings back anything that is a movie. Similar problem looking up the title on AFI or IMDb or through a grammar check program like Grammarly; it's not a mistake.)
Looking ahead, and I'm hoping someone will care, in a couple of weeks, I will be attending the oft-mentioned Comic-Con and will write about it upon my return. It may not be a Sunday post, however, depending on a lot of factors. I know, but once you get over the shock, I hope you'll forgive me if it's a day late. And that's still "if."
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Sunday, June 26, 2016
A Week in Writing #96
Maybe it's me, but sometimes when I'm editing a book, I start to feel sad when I get towards the end. I'm about ten pages from being done and I'm starting to miss the process already. I'm going to have to do more editing, I know that, but I recognize this feeling in me, a little like getting ready to leave school at the end of the year. Of course, according to that analogy, I have to repeat it the next year. I know there are going to be problems with the book, even after I complete my editing and the rewrite that will follow.
I've been going through trying to tighten the book and fix errors. This version of the book is itself a rewrite as I've changed what had been more of a cold war style story to hopefully a more modern one. I want to say I wrote the first version about 25 years ago and updated it during my "off" work period. The revision doesn't all neatly work, but it's getting there.
Last night, I got to what I think is the best part of the book, the ending. I don't want to give too much away, but I think, even after all these years with the book, that it still works.
The comic book is moving along. The artist delivered the last pages on Tuesday so at least the pencil and inks are done. The artist has also been paid for a cover, though we haven't seen anything yet. My son and editor, Paul, is working on a logo. The colorist delivered page 14 with the promise of more, but that's as much as we've gotten this week from him. Meanwhile, the letterer is up to page 11, so he's about to lap the colorist unless things change quickly. Again, my goal, which is still obtainable, is to have part one of PowerSquared done by Comic-Con. I still think we'll make it.
One of the things that come up from time to time with the letterer is the wordiness of the dialogue. We're constantly having to revise/shorten the dialogue to fit the panels. Another reason I'm happy it's being done close to home. I tend to be wordy and it's my first comic book to write, so I knew this might be an issue. Trying to apply that knowledge, I went through Part Two and tried to see where cuts could be made. Not as painful as you might think, but I hope that it will help things go faster the next time around.
On Saturday, published a review on Trophy Unlocked for International House (1933), a W.C. Fields starrer. The real appeal though was Baby Rose Marie, who was making her feature film debut in the film, singing "My Bluebird's Singing the Blues." Rose Marie would grow up to be Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show. I also readied a couple of more reviews for cover. Part of my Comic-Con prep, so to speak. I feel compelled to publish every Saturday morning, so I wanted to be ready.
Working on a review for Independence Day (1996) to coincide with its 20th anniversary on Saturday. I'm about 1400 words into it, so it should be ready.
On the query front, still have five out and within the drop dead date, the agencies say you will hear back from them by if they are interested. (The big if.)
Had some communication this week with a former employee who now writes for Pixel. He was complaining about what he has to write and I was telling him how lucky he was to be making a living doing what he wants to do. I guess it all depends on your perspective.
I've been going through trying to tighten the book and fix errors. This version of the book is itself a rewrite as I've changed what had been more of a cold war style story to hopefully a more modern one. I want to say I wrote the first version about 25 years ago and updated it during my "off" work period. The revision doesn't all neatly work, but it's getting there.
Last night, I got to what I think is the best part of the book, the ending. I don't want to give too much away, but I think, even after all these years with the book, that it still works.
The comic book is moving along. The artist delivered the last pages on Tuesday so at least the pencil and inks are done. The artist has also been paid for a cover, though we haven't seen anything yet. My son and editor, Paul, is working on a logo. The colorist delivered page 14 with the promise of more, but that's as much as we've gotten this week from him. Meanwhile, the letterer is up to page 11, so he's about to lap the colorist unless things change quickly. Again, my goal, which is still obtainable, is to have part one of PowerSquared done by Comic-Con. I still think we'll make it.
One of the things that come up from time to time with the letterer is the wordiness of the dialogue. We're constantly having to revise/shorten the dialogue to fit the panels. Another reason I'm happy it's being done close to home. I tend to be wordy and it's my first comic book to write, so I knew this might be an issue. Trying to apply that knowledge, I went through Part Two and tried to see where cuts could be made. Not as painful as you might think, but I hope that it will help things go faster the next time around.
On Saturday, published a review on Trophy Unlocked for International House (1933), a W.C. Fields starrer. The real appeal though was Baby Rose Marie, who was making her feature film debut in the film, singing "My Bluebird's Singing the Blues." Rose Marie would grow up to be Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show. I also readied a couple of more reviews for cover. Part of my Comic-Con prep, so to speak. I feel compelled to publish every Saturday morning, so I wanted to be ready.
Working on a review for Independence Day (1996) to coincide with its 20th anniversary on Saturday. I'm about 1400 words into it, so it should be ready.
On the query front, still have five out and within the drop dead date, the agencies say you will hear back from them by if they are interested. (The big if.)
Had some communication this week with a former employee who now writes for Pixel. He was complaining about what he has to write and I was telling him how lucky he was to be making a living doing what he wants to do. I guess it all depends on your perspective.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
A Week in Writing #95
On Saturday, sat down to send some queries, deciding to go with agents using Online forms. Not sure why, but those seem to be the most forgiving. However, I managed to make the cardinal sin of querying, a mistake. I reused a query letter I had already written in one of the online forms, but didn't realize that it mentioned embedding five pages, when that's not what I was doing. Oops! Sent a follow up form email to the agent who has a contact me form, apologizing for the amateurish error, so we'll see. All the comments I read about him made it sound like he was a super agent, so I guess I'm putting that to the test.
Querying is a process I really hate, since I figure one mistake and I'm toast. Not sure if that's true or not, but I'm sure they're looking for any excuse not to read a query. "Why he's not embedding five pages" might be enough. You never know. We'll see if I get a response.
Started using a different query letter. One agency asked for specific items in their form, so I started to use that query letter. Honestly, I feel like, even though there is help out there, that I'm flying blind when it comes to query letters. I don't have enough time to personalize each one and I haven't read enough books to say "I'm a big fan of _________ __________ whom you represent". Sorry I can't make them feel better about themselves (see prior blog entry for reference.)
Found out two agents I've been thinking about querying were not right. To begin with, one that QueryTracker shows as General Fiction is in fact looking for Children's Fiction, sort of a big difference. Not really right for the murder mystery of Public and Private, so he's off my list. The other seemed to disappear. Not only is she no longer on QueryTracker, but she's no longer on the agency's website. I guess she decided that agenting wasn't the right business for her. Not enough feel good queries I guess.
I'm also giving a couple of agents who never responded to previous queries a second chance. One has ignored me twice as a matter of fact, but hey I'm a glutton for pain or else I wouldn't want to write. I hope they're giving me the same second or third opportunity I'm giving them. Make the most of it, please.
So, the count and the amount. I've not sent out six queries for Public and Private with five active, no rejections, but one Did Not Respond (DNR).
In other writing, the comic book is still moving forward. The colorist is up to page 13, the letterer is up to page 7 and the artist is just about done with his work. Signed the letterer to a contract this week, to make it all official and worked on an addendum to the artist agreement for the cover, though I haven't sent it yet. The reason is our artist sort of disappeared on us for about a week, that is we didn't hear from him after raising the concept, so I didn't want to send it to him without hearing from him. He did reappear Saturday night, so we're getting closer to wrapping that up as well.
I find that the most frustrating thing about the project is the not hearing back from people in a timely manner. I guess that's the part of the whole writing process I find frustrating; when you work with someone else, be it an agent query, or an editor, or a artist, writing to someone and not hearing back within a reasonable amount of time. Love it or hate it, but write me back.
Another case in point is the project I pitched to Comic-Con HQ, back in November. All the communication has been me writing them and then getting a response back with a vague reason why we're not talking. The last flurry was about a month ago and then the promise was after the beta launch we'll talk. Launch made, still no communication. I decided to try and different tact and called the development guy on Friday morning and left him a voicemail as a follow up and trying to set up some more definitive time to meet, even if it's after SDCC, which I'm assuming is the next hurdle to cross for them; the actual launch of the site as a paying SVOD channel. Naturally, there was no response by the end of the day. And I'm sure there are about a million reasons why I didn't, but still isn't it polite business etiquette to return calls?
Managed to get some more editing done on Simple Sins. The end is sort of in sight. I think I've got about 100 pages still to go before I sit down behind the computer with the manuscript. I try to work on it when I get a free moment.
Posted a Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked of Up The River (1930) an early John Ford sound film, starring Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart in their first credited film performances. I had written this after "Movie Day," my family's unofficial name for the day after Christmas, when we watch four to five movies. I was spurred on to finally publish it when I learned last weekend that the woman who cut my hair was the great granddaughter of the director. Small world. Also wrote a review of Finding Dory, which we saw as a family on Father's Day. Don't want to let an opportunity go by.
Querying is a process I really hate, since I figure one mistake and I'm toast. Not sure if that's true or not, but I'm sure they're looking for any excuse not to read a query. "Why he's not embedding five pages" might be enough. You never know. We'll see if I get a response.
Started using a different query letter. One agency asked for specific items in their form, so I started to use that query letter. Honestly, I feel like, even though there is help out there, that I'm flying blind when it comes to query letters. I don't have enough time to personalize each one and I haven't read enough books to say "I'm a big fan of _________ __________ whom you represent". Sorry I can't make them feel better about themselves (see prior blog entry for reference.)
Found out two agents I've been thinking about querying were not right. To begin with, one that QueryTracker shows as General Fiction is in fact looking for Children's Fiction, sort of a big difference. Not really right for the murder mystery of Public and Private, so he's off my list. The other seemed to disappear. Not only is she no longer on QueryTracker, but she's no longer on the agency's website. I guess she decided that agenting wasn't the right business for her. Not enough feel good queries I guess.
I'm also giving a couple of agents who never responded to previous queries a second chance. One has ignored me twice as a matter of fact, but hey I'm a glutton for pain or else I wouldn't want to write. I hope they're giving me the same second or third opportunity I'm giving them. Make the most of it, please.
So, the count and the amount. I've not sent out six queries for Public and Private with five active, no rejections, but one Did Not Respond (DNR).
In other writing, the comic book is still moving forward. The colorist is up to page 13, the letterer is up to page 7 and the artist is just about done with his work. Signed the letterer to a contract this week, to make it all official and worked on an addendum to the artist agreement for the cover, though I haven't sent it yet. The reason is our artist sort of disappeared on us for about a week, that is we didn't hear from him after raising the concept, so I didn't want to send it to him without hearing from him. He did reappear Saturday night, so we're getting closer to wrapping that up as well.
I find that the most frustrating thing about the project is the not hearing back from people in a timely manner. I guess that's the part of the whole writing process I find frustrating; when you work with someone else, be it an agent query, or an editor, or a artist, writing to someone and not hearing back within a reasonable amount of time. Love it or hate it, but write me back.
Another case in point is the project I pitched to Comic-Con HQ, back in November. All the communication has been me writing them and then getting a response back with a vague reason why we're not talking. The last flurry was about a month ago and then the promise was after the beta launch we'll talk. Launch made, still no communication. I decided to try and different tact and called the development guy on Friday morning and left him a voicemail as a follow up and trying to set up some more definitive time to meet, even if it's after SDCC, which I'm assuming is the next hurdle to cross for them; the actual launch of the site as a paying SVOD channel. Naturally, there was no response by the end of the day. And I'm sure there are about a million reasons why I didn't, but still isn't it polite business etiquette to return calls?
Managed to get some more editing done on Simple Sins. The end is sort of in sight. I think I've got about 100 pages still to go before I sit down behind the computer with the manuscript. I try to work on it when I get a free moment.
Posted a Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked of Up The River (1930) an early John Ford sound film, starring Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart in their first credited film performances. I had written this after "Movie Day," my family's unofficial name for the day after Christmas, when we watch four to five movies. I was spurred on to finally publish it when I learned last weekend that the woman who cut my hair was the great granddaughter of the director. Small world. Also wrote a review of Finding Dory, which we saw as a family on Father's Day. Don't want to let an opportunity go by.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
A Week in Writing #94
Well, it's one up and one down as far my queries have gone. Not that I heard back from the agent, but I didn't hear back at all within their time frame. This way, I don't know if I didn't connect with him or he didn't have a chance to read it, or, and I'm just throwing this out there, he's dead. I don't like this about the email age of queries. At least with SASE, the agent feels compelled to send you a form letter back if they do reject you.
One of things I try not to do with this blog is give too much advice on writing, I do from time to time mention something that I've found helpful or not, but I don't have any experience that other would-be authors haven't either. But there are a lot of people out there who want to give you advice. Most recently, I came across "The 5 Mistakes CausingYour Query Letter to Be Rejected". I'm not trying to advertise this, but I thought it couldn't hurt, so I read it.
I especially liked #2 on the list of five: "Imagine you’re a literary agent. You’ve just arrived back in the office from a lunch with a publisher who kept checking their phone the entire time. As you sit at your desk, you wonder if you should give up this agenting racket altogether. You open your inbox to find a new query in which the author read three other books you represented and has something that is exactly to your taste. Of course you request a sample. By querying you in particular, you feel validated in your career. You feel like you matter." I never realized agents' egos were so fragile. I'm supposed to spend a lot of time writing an agent a-you-should-feel-good-about-yourself-letter with the hopes that they might reply to me. Oh, and usually they don't, which makes me feel like I don't matter. Where's the make-me-feel-good-about-being-a-writer reciprocal? Or at least an acknowledgement that I've queried you.
Maybe it's just me, but I find querying to take a lot of time. I did do a second query on Public and Private on Friday and even though it was an online form, it still took me about an hour to do it. It's all about trying to put your best foot forward and, now of course, making the agent feel good about their chosen profession. It's all the second guessing yourself that seems to take all the time. As an example, they asked for a bio to go with the first 50 pages. I hadn't updated my bio in about a year or so, so I was concerned was it too long? Am I saying too much? Am I aging myself to this agent? Will they think that if I have a real job I should give up on this fantasy about writing for a living?
The important take away here is that I did do another query. I chose this agent because they were supposed to be building a roster and they seemed to handle the sort of genre I'm writing in. The online aspect was also intriguing. I ended up sending 47 out of the first 50 pages, since it was the end of a chapter. I'm never sure if they want an incomplete chapter or not. There are no real guides to go by, since every agent really has their own way they want things done. You have to throw yourself out there and see what, if anything, sticks.
A little work was done on the comic book. Waited all week and got two pages from the artist and one page from the colorist. Found a change I wanted the artist to make and I avoided the back and forth about paying for the change by offering to do up front. The pencil and ink differed just enough from the layout that the meaning of the panel changed. Didn't catch the change or think about it between the layout and the pencil, so it's sort of my fault, at least to get us to the end, I'll say it is.
Our letterer started and we're about four pages into the story. He's doing about a page a day, which is good. I wish the other artists were as diligent.
Still working on editing Simple Sins. I'm really shocked at how much needs to be done. A little embarrassed that it's not better than it is. It was the first of the J.D. Barrister books I had written and over time I changed the story. I've got about 140 pages still to go before I sit down and do the heavy re-writing.
Wrote and published a review over the week for the 1933 Alice in Wonderland. Originally a Paramount film, it's now available on Universal's Home Entertainment, but if you read the review, this is one you can skip.
One of things I try not to do with this blog is give too much advice on writing, I do from time to time mention something that I've found helpful or not, but I don't have any experience that other would-be authors haven't either. But there are a lot of people out there who want to give you advice. Most recently, I came across "The 5 Mistakes CausingYour Query Letter to Be Rejected". I'm not trying to advertise this, but I thought it couldn't hurt, so I read it.
I especially liked #2 on the list of five: "Imagine you’re a literary agent. You’ve just arrived back in the office from a lunch with a publisher who kept checking their phone the entire time. As you sit at your desk, you wonder if you should give up this agenting racket altogether. You open your inbox to find a new query in which the author read three other books you represented and has something that is exactly to your taste. Of course you request a sample. By querying you in particular, you feel validated in your career. You feel like you matter." I never realized agents' egos were so fragile. I'm supposed to spend a lot of time writing an agent a-you-should-feel-good-about-yourself-letter with the hopes that they might reply to me. Oh, and usually they don't, which makes me feel like I don't matter. Where's the make-me-feel-good-about-being-a-writer reciprocal? Or at least an acknowledgement that I've queried you.
Maybe it's just me, but I find querying to take a lot of time. I did do a second query on Public and Private on Friday and even though it was an online form, it still took me about an hour to do it. It's all about trying to put your best foot forward and, now of course, making the agent feel good about their chosen profession. It's all the second guessing yourself that seems to take all the time. As an example, they asked for a bio to go with the first 50 pages. I hadn't updated my bio in about a year or so, so I was concerned was it too long? Am I saying too much? Am I aging myself to this agent? Will they think that if I have a real job I should give up on this fantasy about writing for a living?
The important take away here is that I did do another query. I chose this agent because they were supposed to be building a roster and they seemed to handle the sort of genre I'm writing in. The online aspect was also intriguing. I ended up sending 47 out of the first 50 pages, since it was the end of a chapter. I'm never sure if they want an incomplete chapter or not. There are no real guides to go by, since every agent really has their own way they want things done. You have to throw yourself out there and see what, if anything, sticks.
A little work was done on the comic book. Waited all week and got two pages from the artist and one page from the colorist. Found a change I wanted the artist to make and I avoided the back and forth about paying for the change by offering to do up front. The pencil and ink differed just enough from the layout that the meaning of the panel changed. Didn't catch the change or think about it between the layout and the pencil, so it's sort of my fault, at least to get us to the end, I'll say it is.
Our letterer started and we're about four pages into the story. He's doing about a page a day, which is good. I wish the other artists were as diligent.
Still working on editing Simple Sins. I'm really shocked at how much needs to be done. A little embarrassed that it's not better than it is. It was the first of the J.D. Barrister books I had written and over time I changed the story. I've got about 140 pages still to go before I sit down and do the heavy re-writing.
Wrote and published a review over the week for the 1933 Alice in Wonderland. Originally a Paramount film, it's now available on Universal's Home Entertainment, but if you read the review, this is one you can skip.
Sunday, June 5, 2016
A Week in Writing #93
Well, not a red letter week for writing, with insomnia taking a toll. A couple of mornings this past week it was all I could do to get up let alone be creative at 6 in the morning. It was so bad that I was up at two on the first tweeting out about films that had come out on that date in the past, something I would have done later in the morning.
The lack of sleep is something that dogs me from time to time and there are definitely better days and weeks than others. This past week was not a good one for me from that point of view. And not only does the morning suffer, but so do the nights.
Unhappily, the nights have not been encumbered by too much work on the comic book. Deliveries have been slow at least from my end. That's not to say that there hasn't been some progress, but not as much as I or we would want. I sort of threw down the gauntlet challenging the artist, colorist and letterer to complete part one by Comic-Con, which is July 20th, so hopefully the pace will quicken. The downside of the artist and colorist being offshore is that it's hard to rally the troops so to speak. I can't pick up the phone and call them as an example. And there is the time difference since as I write this it is really tomorrow where they are.
Did make some progress on the rewrite of Simple Sins, meaning I've gotten through the first 220 pages with edits and I have printed out the rest, though I have yet to start into those pages as of this writing. I also started to make some notes on a new comic book based on our recent escape room experience.
No new queries and nothing new to report on the one that I've submitted. I don't know if it's too soon or the agent, a "he", doesn't like it. That's what I hate about the "only if we're interested" clause with queries to many agents nowadays.
Did manage to publish a Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked for Three Men in White (1944) and did begin work on a new one for Alice in Wonderland (1933), an early live-action version of the film.
For the coming week, I'm hoping to get my sleep in order and hopefully get more productive as a result. I need to send out more queries, as no one is going to "find" me if I don't.
The lack of sleep is something that dogs me from time to time and there are definitely better days and weeks than others. This past week was not a good one for me from that point of view. And not only does the morning suffer, but so do the nights.
Unhappily, the nights have not been encumbered by too much work on the comic book. Deliveries have been slow at least from my end. That's not to say that there hasn't been some progress, but not as much as I or we would want. I sort of threw down the gauntlet challenging the artist, colorist and letterer to complete part one by Comic-Con, which is July 20th, so hopefully the pace will quicken. The downside of the artist and colorist being offshore is that it's hard to rally the troops so to speak. I can't pick up the phone and call them as an example. And there is the time difference since as I write this it is really tomorrow where they are.
Did make some progress on the rewrite of Simple Sins, meaning I've gotten through the first 220 pages with edits and I have printed out the rest, though I have yet to start into those pages as of this writing. I also started to make some notes on a new comic book based on our recent escape room experience.
No new queries and nothing new to report on the one that I've submitted. I don't know if it's too soon or the agent, a "he", doesn't like it. That's what I hate about the "only if we're interested" clause with queries to many agents nowadays.
Did manage to publish a Saturday morning review on Trophy Unlocked for Three Men in White (1944) and did begin work on a new one for Alice in Wonderland (1933), an early live-action version of the film.
For the coming week, I'm hoping to get my sleep in order and hopefully get more productive as a result. I need to send out more queries, as no one is going to "find" me if I don't.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
A Week in Writing #92
I decided to update the blog each day to show what I'm trying to do, sort of breakdown the week as it goes, rather than trying to remember everything in a rush on Sunday night.
Monday morning worked against me as I spent about as much time in a futile attempt to screw a handle back on a kitchen cabinet door as I did sitting behind the computer.
Did notice that our colorist sent us something, but will have to look at that tonight. Did tweet out about The Asphalt Jungle being released today in 1950, with a link to the review. And did look up some information on one of the agents I'd like to query. But I ran out of time to do that.
Well, the day didn't get much better. The water heater decided it was time to break down. While the boys were home and oversaw the plumbers' installation of a new one, there were still things to take care of when we got home. Debris to sweep up, water to clean up and, of course, stuff to put away. This delayed dinner, which delayed getting to the computer, so the day ended up being a little less productive than I would have hoped for.
Paul and I did go over what the colorist had sent us, which was more of a snapshot of page 7 in progress. Not sure he was expecting comments, but we gave them nevertheless. Managed to work a little on the review I need to finish, very little, and I managed to get in a little editing on Simple Sins, very little.
Overslept a little bit so the morning became compressed time-wise. Just enough time, about ten minutes worth, to work on the synopsis for the review I'm working on. A couple of paragraphs towards the cause, but not much else.
No overnight emails from the colorist or the artist. I should follow up on this.
With no new pages to look at, I had the time, but not the energy. By the time dinner was over, I had the stamina to work on the review. Did write about a thousand words on it, but that was about all I could accomplish.
Continued to work on the review on Wednesday morning, getting another 300 words done before I had to get ready for work. Tonight, I'm anticipating prepping another review for publishing on Saturday. That's how I've been spending most of my Wednesday nights. Not sure which review and how much work I'll need to do, but that's what I think will happen on Wednesday night.
Well, there were pages to review from our Artist. He sent them to us at about 9:30 in the morning our time, which meant we couldn't look at them for nearly 9 hours after I was back home. There were five pages all in various stages: Inked, penciled and layouts. We made comments on a couple of panels and replied back to him.
Also heard from our colorist, though I didn't see the email for several hours. He's been having computer troubles, which explains why we haven't been receiving pages.
I worked a little on my editing of Simple Sins (18 pages) and manged to pick and prepare a review for publishing on Saturday, Buster Keaton's The Cameraman (1928). Working on the review made me want to watch the movie again, but that will have to wait.
Woke up on Thursday and there was an email with attachments from our artist received after midnight. As much as I hate to do it, I have to wait for this evening to get into it. No time in the morning to really get into that kind of work.
Did manage to finish off the review for My Neighbor Totoro. Still need to pull down some images that would go with the review when it gets published. Perhaps that'll be a good Friday morning task.
Our artist sent us a new layout for page 20, which we reviewed and think will work better. Emailed him back.
Did spend some time gathering photos from the net for My Neighbor Totoro, which finally finishes that review off. I like to look for photos while the movie is somewhat fresh in my mind. I've had the issue before of going to look for them later and sometimes it's hard to remember when an action happened in the film. Best to do it now.
Managed to get up through page 140 with my edits. Simple Sins is not quite in as good a shape as I remember it being. It needs a lot of work.
Friday morning did a little research on a potential agent to query. Not a lot of time. Decided to wait until after the holiday to query since no one is going to look at it until next Tuesday anyway.
Fridays have traditionally been a slow day for me writing wise. End of the week, a couple glasses of wine and a movie pretty much eat up the time. Got off early today, pre-holiday Friday, but ran some errands: recycling and took a car in for repair and smog check, spent time with the family and relaxed. Feeling guilty, I decided to do some future research on a movie I want to review this summer, D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). Not that I'm really looking forward to watching it, but I think it's a landmark film that I feel like I need to see.
Every Saturday morning, I try to publish a new review. This Saturday was no exception. I published one for Buster Keaton's The Cameraman (1928), the first film he made for MGM and perhaps the best.
Most of Saturday was spent doing things around the house, so I didn't get a lot of writing done, though did do some editing on Simple Sins. Feeling guilty about how long its taking.
Sunday I tweeted out about the release of Yankee Doodle Dandy on this date in 1942. I had two reviews I was attaching and since one included the Blu-ray from the Warner Archive, that increased the traffic on Trophy Unlocked.
The only writing I did was late this afternoon, about 3500 words on The Lady Vanishes (1938), which we watched on Saturday night after it languished on our DVR for about two years.
No new pages for a few days from the artist or the colorist, so we reached out on Sunday. The artist did not write back, but the colorist did and sent us his schedule. We're on for three days a week so we should be getting pages fairly regularly from him going forward.
Well, that was my week in writing, day-by-day. Somewhat typical, but at the same time each week is unique.
My goal for next week is to concentrate on the editing the comic book and to send out more queries.
Monday morning worked against me as I spent about as much time in a futile attempt to screw a handle back on a kitchen cabinet door as I did sitting behind the computer.
Did notice that our colorist sent us something, but will have to look at that tonight. Did tweet out about The Asphalt Jungle being released today in 1950, with a link to the review. And did look up some information on one of the agents I'd like to query. But I ran out of time to do that.
Well, the day didn't get much better. The water heater decided it was time to break down. While the boys were home and oversaw the plumbers' installation of a new one, there were still things to take care of when we got home. Debris to sweep up, water to clean up and, of course, stuff to put away. This delayed dinner, which delayed getting to the computer, so the day ended up being a little less productive than I would have hoped for.
Paul and I did go over what the colorist had sent us, which was more of a snapshot of page 7 in progress. Not sure he was expecting comments, but we gave them nevertheless. Managed to work a little on the review I need to finish, very little, and I managed to get in a little editing on Simple Sins, very little.
Overslept a little bit so the morning became compressed time-wise. Just enough time, about ten minutes worth, to work on the synopsis for the review I'm working on. A couple of paragraphs towards the cause, but not much else.
No overnight emails from the colorist or the artist. I should follow up on this.
With no new pages to look at, I had the time, but not the energy. By the time dinner was over, I had the stamina to work on the review. Did write about a thousand words on it, but that was about all I could accomplish.
Continued to work on the review on Wednesday morning, getting another 300 words done before I had to get ready for work. Tonight, I'm anticipating prepping another review for publishing on Saturday. That's how I've been spending most of my Wednesday nights. Not sure which review and how much work I'll need to do, but that's what I think will happen on Wednesday night.
Well, there were pages to review from our Artist. He sent them to us at about 9:30 in the morning our time, which meant we couldn't look at them for nearly 9 hours after I was back home. There were five pages all in various stages: Inked, penciled and layouts. We made comments on a couple of panels and replied back to him.
Also heard from our colorist, though I didn't see the email for several hours. He's been having computer troubles, which explains why we haven't been receiving pages.
I worked a little on my editing of Simple Sins (18 pages) and manged to pick and prepare a review for publishing on Saturday, Buster Keaton's The Cameraman (1928). Working on the review made me want to watch the movie again, but that will have to wait.
Woke up on Thursday and there was an email with attachments from our artist received after midnight. As much as I hate to do it, I have to wait for this evening to get into it. No time in the morning to really get into that kind of work.
Did manage to finish off the review for My Neighbor Totoro. Still need to pull down some images that would go with the review when it gets published. Perhaps that'll be a good Friday morning task.
Our artist sent us a new layout for page 20, which we reviewed and think will work better. Emailed him back.
Did spend some time gathering photos from the net for My Neighbor Totoro, which finally finishes that review off. I like to look for photos while the movie is somewhat fresh in my mind. I've had the issue before of going to look for them later and sometimes it's hard to remember when an action happened in the film. Best to do it now.
Managed to get up through page 140 with my edits. Simple Sins is not quite in as good a shape as I remember it being. It needs a lot of work.
Friday morning did a little research on a potential agent to query. Not a lot of time. Decided to wait until after the holiday to query since no one is going to look at it until next Tuesday anyway.
Fridays have traditionally been a slow day for me writing wise. End of the week, a couple glasses of wine and a movie pretty much eat up the time. Got off early today, pre-holiday Friday, but ran some errands: recycling and took a car in for repair and smog check, spent time with the family and relaxed. Feeling guilty, I decided to do some future research on a movie I want to review this summer, D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). Not that I'm really looking forward to watching it, but I think it's a landmark film that I feel like I need to see.
Every Saturday morning, I try to publish a new review. This Saturday was no exception. I published one for Buster Keaton's The Cameraman (1928), the first film he made for MGM and perhaps the best.
Most of Saturday was spent doing things around the house, so I didn't get a lot of writing done, though did do some editing on Simple Sins. Feeling guilty about how long its taking.
Sunday I tweeted out about the release of Yankee Doodle Dandy on this date in 1942. I had two reviews I was attaching and since one included the Blu-ray from the Warner Archive, that increased the traffic on Trophy Unlocked.
The only writing I did was late this afternoon, about 3500 words on The Lady Vanishes (1938), which we watched on Saturday night after it languished on our DVR for about two years.
No new pages for a few days from the artist or the colorist, so we reached out on Sunday. The artist did not write back, but the colorist did and sent us his schedule. We're on for three days a week so we should be getting pages fairly regularly from him going forward.
Well, that was my week in writing, day-by-day. Somewhat typical, but at the same time each week is unique.
My goal for next week is to concentrate on the editing the comic book and to send out more queries.
Sunday, May 22, 2016
A Week in Writing #91
Well, promise kept. I did manage to send off one query letter early in the week. Sort of painless, but still time-consuming to try and get right. As an example, I wrote out a query letter in Word that I liked, but when I copied it into Outlook and sent it to myself as a test, there were spaces between all the lines and paragraphs, the same with the sample and the synopsis.
If you're looking at this blog for the occasional drop of advice, then here it is, send the query letter to yourself before you send it to the agent. That way you'll know what it looks like and can take steps to fix it. For me, I had to re-type the query letter into Outlook in order to get it the way I wanted it to look. I was able to play around with the spacing in Word to get the sample and the synopsis looking better. If it looks really bad you can add, and I have, a sentence explaining that the formatting might be off. I have to imagine that agents who want the first five or ten pages embedded in the email must be used to seeing odd formatting as a result. No harm in trying to make it look as nice as possible, but there are sometimes limits on what you can do.
As an example, I had a query letter for A Killer Blog that had lines in the email that turned blue. And unfortunately, one of the lines had to do with my hero, J.D. Barrister, noticing the shapeliness of a waitress in an underground bar. I forgot which line, but it had something to do with him noticing her cleavage and no matter what I did, the line was always blue in color, as if to emphasize the salaciousness of the comment. And I even tried re-copying the passage from Word, re-typing the passage directly in the email, but nothing worked, it was always blue. But knowing that I could at least make mention of the formatting and coloring as an unfortunate side effect of embedding. Now, since I haven't found representation for that book, I can't say if that hurt me or not.
Did make some progress on the comic book, but it's measured. It's still cool to see the pages taking shape, I only wish we were further along. Having an incomplete work is really holding me back from trying to talk to publishers about it. "Yeah, if you like these pages give me a couple of more months to get it done." I don't think that will fly. I'd like to see if we could possibly blow out the second part over the summer, but I'm not sure if that's possible.
Still no word back about my pitch to Comic-Con HQ. I gave them a week or so after the Beta launch to respond and then followed up mid-week. But no word by the end of the day Friday. Honestly, I think it's a good idea and it should at least get some thought before they dismiss it in favor of another show about former stars who make a living visiting conventions to sell their autographs. Does that sound bitter?
Feeling like I was on a roll, I contacted my editor to see if he was ready for another book. He surprised me by saying "yes" and now I have to scramble to get something ready to send. I thought I had a book ready to go, "Simple Sins", but when I sat down to look at it, it needs some work. I'm reading it/editing it now, hoping I can turn around a draft in a couple of weeks. I feel a little foolish since I thought I was really ready to go with something. Simple Sins is actually the first book I wrote with the character, but I've reworked it entirely once already. Still, I thought it was closer than it is.
Still writing for Trophy Unlocked. Working on a review of My Neighbor Totoro for the blog and am about 500+ words into it. Did publish a review of Girl Crazy (1943). I really like George and Ira Gershwin and am somewhat familiar with the Broadway musical the film is based on. But it is loosely based and well, you can read my review here, if you'd like.
So the week ahead holds the promise of progress on the comic book and Simple Sins and I will make a few more queries for Public and Private. And oh yeah, finish my review. It already sounds like I'm not going to have enough time for it all, but we'll see.
If you're looking at this blog for the occasional drop of advice, then here it is, send the query letter to yourself before you send it to the agent. That way you'll know what it looks like and can take steps to fix it. For me, I had to re-type the query letter into Outlook in order to get it the way I wanted it to look. I was able to play around with the spacing in Word to get the sample and the synopsis looking better. If it looks really bad you can add, and I have, a sentence explaining that the formatting might be off. I have to imagine that agents who want the first five or ten pages embedded in the email must be used to seeing odd formatting as a result. No harm in trying to make it look as nice as possible, but there are sometimes limits on what you can do.
As an example, I had a query letter for A Killer Blog that had lines in the email that turned blue. And unfortunately, one of the lines had to do with my hero, J.D. Barrister, noticing the shapeliness of a waitress in an underground bar. I forgot which line, but it had something to do with him noticing her cleavage and no matter what I did, the line was always blue in color, as if to emphasize the salaciousness of the comment. And I even tried re-copying the passage from Word, re-typing the passage directly in the email, but nothing worked, it was always blue. But knowing that I could at least make mention of the formatting and coloring as an unfortunate side effect of embedding. Now, since I haven't found representation for that book, I can't say if that hurt me or not.
Did make some progress on the comic book, but it's measured. It's still cool to see the pages taking shape, I only wish we were further along. Having an incomplete work is really holding me back from trying to talk to publishers about it. "Yeah, if you like these pages give me a couple of more months to get it done." I don't think that will fly. I'd like to see if we could possibly blow out the second part over the summer, but I'm not sure if that's possible.
Still no word back about my pitch to Comic-Con HQ. I gave them a week or so after the Beta launch to respond and then followed up mid-week. But no word by the end of the day Friday. Honestly, I think it's a good idea and it should at least get some thought before they dismiss it in favor of another show about former stars who make a living visiting conventions to sell their autographs. Does that sound bitter?
Feeling like I was on a roll, I contacted my editor to see if he was ready for another book. He surprised me by saying "yes" and now I have to scramble to get something ready to send. I thought I had a book ready to go, "Simple Sins", but when I sat down to look at it, it needs some work. I'm reading it/editing it now, hoping I can turn around a draft in a couple of weeks. I feel a little foolish since I thought I was really ready to go with something. Simple Sins is actually the first book I wrote with the character, but I've reworked it entirely once already. Still, I thought it was closer than it is.
Still writing for Trophy Unlocked. Working on a review of My Neighbor Totoro for the blog and am about 500+ words into it. Did publish a review of Girl Crazy (1943). I really like George and Ira Gershwin and am somewhat familiar with the Broadway musical the film is based on. But it is loosely based and well, you can read my review here, if you'd like.
So the week ahead holds the promise of progress on the comic book and Simple Sins and I will make a few more queries for Public and Private. And oh yeah, finish my review. It already sounds like I'm not going to have enough time for it all, but we'll see.
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