Took a break from the comic book on Monday and tried to play catch up with the queries for Public and Private. Well, no surprise the three outstanding queries went unresponded to by their "expiration" date. One of them has a follow-up mechanism via Submittable.com, so I did that and on Friday, I did hear back from her. She asked me to send the entire manuscript on Submittable.com, but I think she has to open the submission for me to do that. Spent an hour or so spell-checking before I realized I couldn't submit it by myself. A bit of a disappointment, but happy that someone is asking to see it. Of course, I will update here no matter how it goes.
Made updates to my query list based on the Writer's Digest issue. Going to give a couple of agents a second try, though I'd be pleasantly surprised if the outcome was different. Decided this would be a good time to rewrite my query letter since it appears to have underperformed so far. There is actually a sample "successful" query letter in the issue, so I'm going to try to mimic that in this go around of queries.
On Tuesday night sent out my first query using the new letter. Actually sent it to an agent I had met at a Writer's Digest conference several years back and who ended up rejecting the book I pitched. But I thought it might be an opportunity to try the new format, since I'm going in expecting a rejection, based on our track record.
The Trophy Unlocked blog posted it's 700th review during the week: DmC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition. I think it's an important milestone for the blog, though without those Russian hackers our pageviews seem to be down. What have we done to upset the Ruskies?
On the subject of the other blog, Wednesday night while as I was preparing to send queries, I remembered I had to put up a post for Saturday. Even though it was already written, editing and adding photos took close to an hour. I did publish How I Won the War (1967) as this week's Saturday Morning Review.
Later in the afternoon, we published a review of Kubo and the Two Strings, which is currently out in theaters now. Interestingly, both films have a tenuous relationship to the Beatles. John Lennon stars in How I Won the War and Kubo uses a very effective version of George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps over the closing credits.
Managed to do a little more work on my review for Cafe Society, but it's going to have to wait until it's out of theaters. Also, planning on reviewing D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916) as Labor Day will mark its 100th Anniversary. Have never seen the movie and frankly I'm a little concerned about watching it, but that's fodder for a future post.
Did more follow up this week on my From Fan to Creator pitch. I know you're thinking it's been 10 months, if there was any interest I'd know by now and that's probably true. On the other hand, I get the sense I'm getting a little of the brushoff; since I'm an employee my idea isn't really being taken all that seriously. Well, it turns out with a little presistence and a lot of patience, you can get what you want. Finally able to nail the development guy down to an actual meeting, but it isn't until next week. I'll be sure to update this blog, so check back.
Thursday brought more pages from the artist on PowerSquared, layouts for pages 5 through 7. Our comments, at least we think so, were pretty minor. I'm never sure if we're actually pissing off (can I write that in a blog?) the artist or the colorist for that matter. I don't know what their expectations are, whether or not they think we should be happy with whatever it is they send us? Or are they expecting comments and feedback? There's a part of me that would like to know, but then we want what we want. I try to be nice about asking, but in the end, I am paying for it and as long as what I'm asking for isn't outrageous, I don't think I'm asking for too much.
Speaking of PowerSquared, we had a sort of a frustrating weekend. My goal is to wrap this up on Sunday and get it out, but:
My letterer's computer is in the shop, which I think we can work around, but it is an unwelcomed complication. Maybe that's the beauty of cloud-based software as hopefully he'll be able to continue making final changes on my computer.
Our colorist doesn't seem to be able to make a change we've been asking for for about 10 days now. Not sure if he's being obstenate or he simply can't make it work. We're going with the best one we have.
And the guy we gave a version to on Wednesday to give us his opinion, not only still hadn't four days later, but nearly lost the thumbdrive it was on to the FBI. Apparently they raided his home looking for pirated movies (his roommate apparently has 2000 illegal films on various harddrives). A really colorful story, but he didn't get it done. I spoke to him on Saturday after the raid and even though he still has access to a computer and knows what we're trying to do, the soonest he says he'll get back to me is Sunday night, which is too late for me. Sometimes the guy with the colorful personal story isn't the one you can rely on for help in a pinch.
All that said, we decided we'd taken this version as far as we could. With a few tweaks to the best cover, we put it to bed. Spent a good part of Sunday afternoon making pdfs out of TIFFs, again. Found a simpler way to do it, which made the pdfs smaller, but combined they are still too big to email to someone I'd like to look at it. Emailed him to see if there is an alternative method I could use that he'd be comfortable with.
So overall, I think I made some progress: got a response back from an agent, set a meeting with development on my months old pitch and finished a version of part one of the comic book. But with writing the only real progress is getting published, something that still eludes me.
Maybe next week...
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Sunday, August 14, 2016
A Week in Writing #103
Sometimes I feel like I am my own worst enemy. I suffer from insomnia and have been fairly successful of late in regulating it. But the Sunday night into Monday is always the hardest for me. I'm not sure why, but it seems no matter what I do, I can't get to sleep. Sometimes it just takes a while longer, but there are nights when it is a no-go. You can imagine work the next day is not much fun, especially since I have an hour commute each way. I try coffee to keep me going, which doesn't help when I need to get to sleep the next night. It can really be a real hellish circle.
My mind won't turn off. I'm not sure if it's because I'm supposed to have lunch on Monday with someone I haven't seen in months and haven't really talked to in years. I mean we've sent emails back and forth, but never really anything of substance. We sort of ran into each other and made the "let's have lunch" commitment. That was literally months ago and it is only now that we've been able to meet up. The last time I was going to have lunch with someone like that I couldn't sleep the night before either. Am I such a slave to routine and anything that changes that throws me off?
The worst thing is, that it affects my writing, as I don't have it in me the next night to really do any deep thinking. I'll try, I sort of have to, but that doesn't mean there will be much progress and I feel the need to make progress.
Spent most of Monday evening working on nagging coloring issues. Not sure if the lack of sleep played a role or not, but got very frustrated that we're still seeing the same issues that we've been seeing over and over again. Not sure where the disconnect is, but I started to lose it. Things weren't helped by my computer acting up on me. I kept trying to add a jpeg to an email which apparently some software didn't like. Had to take another approach, but didn't need the added frustration.
Also, did a rough sketch to try to convey to our artist what we want that we're not getting. We'll see if a picture is worth a thousand words, since I couldn't get him to understand through writing it out.
Still having trouble getting to sleep. Not sure if I'm worrying about this comic book too much, but I can't turn my brain off night two. Did manage to get a little more sleep, though.
Tuesday night went a lot easier. Overnight into Tuesday morning, the colorist submitted corrected pages 11 and 13, so was able to pass them on to the letterer. He also included a corrected jpeg of the cover, which I forwarded on to someone else for comment.
The artist submitted a better page 4, though there was still some communication breakdown with panel 3, but I think it's quickly fixable.
Tried to use Authors.me, but am frustrated by their submission process. Felt like I was always logging in, but not getting to where I was supposed to be able to. Their help is a delayed process, so I'm moving on without them.
With the comic book sort of in the background for the night, I'm able to get back to Simple Sins' revisions.
Wednesday night was slow for me. Nothing new to go over with the comic book, just waiting to get feedback on the cover. I spent what time I did on posting the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I like to do that on Wednesdays so there's no real rush to edit it before it's published. This one is about the original Jurassic Park film.
Too tired to do much else. It was one of those nights where I woke up next to my laptop. The lack of sleep, even though it's gotten better every night, finally caught up to me.
Thursday morning, I emailed our creative team, the artist about new pages, the colorist about the cover, and the letterer about the tagline we want to use. Paul is always a part of every decision and while I try to involve him in most of the emails, I wanted to get these out before going to work; never sure what anyone's work schedule will be like, especially those on the other side of the dateline.
Thursday night was mostly spent on the comic book. Hopefully, we're getting close to putting Part One to bed. Last minute edit needed to the cover and since the colorist hadn't sent it yet, I didn't feel too bad asking him to make the change, Also prepped and sent him the first four pages with hopefully a detailed description on what we wanted the coloring to look like. Would like to avoid the coloring problems we had with Part One.
Friday is traditionally not a big writing day. As a family we watch a movie and eat pizza. This week's movie was the original Pete's Dragon. Not a real winner as far as we were concerned. Not sure if it's worth writing a review about.
Saturday morning finally saw Woody Allen's Cafe Society. Rather than doing a while it's still in the theater sort of review, thought I would take my time with this one and do a more detailed write up, which I might post after the film is out of the theaters and streaming on Amazon Prime, which is its eventual destination. So far, I've written about 1500 words, not sure how long it will get. Did post a Saturday morning review of Jurassic Park, a movie we watched to prep for last summer's Jurassic World.
Trophy Unlocked is coming up on its 700th review, an honor that goes to the founder of the blog. It's his due. I'm sort of holding things up, because I'm only about half way done with reading it. Will of course, tweet out when it's posted which should be sometime this week.
Did have a chance to go through the new issue of Writer's Digest. Every so often, they have an issue about finding an agent. I went through the list and marked ones that I would add to my query list, though I didn't get around to that on Sunday, which I had hoped to do. And even though we'd planned to stay home all day, there is always something to do. Today it was taking care of some bees that appeared to have been displaced when we had a tree trimmed on Friday. Priorities.
Spent a couple of hours, it seemed, working on making .pdf and jpegs out of the Tiffs for PowerSquared. Had to use my old computer, since it still has a suite of Adobe software on it. Not looking forward to having to rent software by the month, which is where it's going these days. Trying to put together a .pdf to show people. After the first go around, the file was a gig, much too large. Redid it with a low res files, rather than high res and it's less than 600 megs. An improvement, but I'm not sure what file type to send, so I also made jpegs while I was at it. With all that, I still have to do the cover when it is finally finished.
Next week, I want to get back to the queries and spend a little more time with Simple Sins than with PowerSquared. But as always, we'll see.
My mind won't turn off. I'm not sure if it's because I'm supposed to have lunch on Monday with someone I haven't seen in months and haven't really talked to in years. I mean we've sent emails back and forth, but never really anything of substance. We sort of ran into each other and made the "let's have lunch" commitment. That was literally months ago and it is only now that we've been able to meet up. The last time I was going to have lunch with someone like that I couldn't sleep the night before either. Am I such a slave to routine and anything that changes that throws me off?
The worst thing is, that it affects my writing, as I don't have it in me the next night to really do any deep thinking. I'll try, I sort of have to, but that doesn't mean there will be much progress and I feel the need to make progress.
Spent most of Monday evening working on nagging coloring issues. Not sure if the lack of sleep played a role or not, but got very frustrated that we're still seeing the same issues that we've been seeing over and over again. Not sure where the disconnect is, but I started to lose it. Things weren't helped by my computer acting up on me. I kept trying to add a jpeg to an email which apparently some software didn't like. Had to take another approach, but didn't need the added frustration.
Also, did a rough sketch to try to convey to our artist what we want that we're not getting. We'll see if a picture is worth a thousand words, since I couldn't get him to understand through writing it out.
Still having trouble getting to sleep. Not sure if I'm worrying about this comic book too much, but I can't turn my brain off night two. Did manage to get a little more sleep, though.
Tuesday night went a lot easier. Overnight into Tuesday morning, the colorist submitted corrected pages 11 and 13, so was able to pass them on to the letterer. He also included a corrected jpeg of the cover, which I forwarded on to someone else for comment.
The artist submitted a better page 4, though there was still some communication breakdown with panel 3, but I think it's quickly fixable.
Tried to use Authors.me, but am frustrated by their submission process. Felt like I was always logging in, but not getting to where I was supposed to be able to. Their help is a delayed process, so I'm moving on without them.
With the comic book sort of in the background for the night, I'm able to get back to Simple Sins' revisions.
Wednesday night was slow for me. Nothing new to go over with the comic book, just waiting to get feedback on the cover. I spent what time I did on posting the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I like to do that on Wednesdays so there's no real rush to edit it before it's published. This one is about the original Jurassic Park film.
Too tired to do much else. It was one of those nights where I woke up next to my laptop. The lack of sleep, even though it's gotten better every night, finally caught up to me.
Thursday morning, I emailed our creative team, the artist about new pages, the colorist about the cover, and the letterer about the tagline we want to use. Paul is always a part of every decision and while I try to involve him in most of the emails, I wanted to get these out before going to work; never sure what anyone's work schedule will be like, especially those on the other side of the dateline.
Thursday night was mostly spent on the comic book. Hopefully, we're getting close to putting Part One to bed. Last minute edit needed to the cover and since the colorist hadn't sent it yet, I didn't feel too bad asking him to make the change, Also prepped and sent him the first four pages with hopefully a detailed description on what we wanted the coloring to look like. Would like to avoid the coloring problems we had with Part One.
Friday is traditionally not a big writing day. As a family we watch a movie and eat pizza. This week's movie was the original Pete's Dragon. Not a real winner as far as we were concerned. Not sure if it's worth writing a review about.
Saturday morning finally saw Woody Allen's Cafe Society. Rather than doing a while it's still in the theater sort of review, thought I would take my time with this one and do a more detailed write up, which I might post after the film is out of the theaters and streaming on Amazon Prime, which is its eventual destination. So far, I've written about 1500 words, not sure how long it will get. Did post a Saturday morning review of Jurassic Park, a movie we watched to prep for last summer's Jurassic World.
Trophy Unlocked is coming up on its 700th review, an honor that goes to the founder of the blog. It's his due. I'm sort of holding things up, because I'm only about half way done with reading it. Will of course, tweet out when it's posted which should be sometime this week.
Did have a chance to go through the new issue of Writer's Digest. Every so often, they have an issue about finding an agent. I went through the list and marked ones that I would add to my query list, though I didn't get around to that on Sunday, which I had hoped to do. And even though we'd planned to stay home all day, there is always something to do. Today it was taking care of some bees that appeared to have been displaced when we had a tree trimmed on Friday. Priorities.
Spent a couple of hours, it seemed, working on making .pdf and jpegs out of the Tiffs for PowerSquared. Had to use my old computer, since it still has a suite of Adobe software on it. Not looking forward to having to rent software by the month, which is where it's going these days. Trying to put together a .pdf to show people. After the first go around, the file was a gig, much too large. Redid it with a low res files, rather than high res and it's less than 600 megs. An improvement, but I'm not sure what file type to send, so I also made jpegs while I was at it. With all that, I still have to do the cover when it is finally finished.
Next week, I want to get back to the queries and spend a little more time with Simple Sins than with PowerSquared. But as always, we'll see.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
A Week in Writing #102
Finally got back to looking at my query list. So far only one has expired. For this agent, in particular, this is three books and no response to any query. Maybe my query letter didn't make him feel good enough about his choice of professions. Of course, not hearing back at all really makes me feel good about mine. There are three more queries that have a week to go before they're ripe. Honestly, I'm not enthusiastic about these; probably would have heard something by now if they were interested. But in the spirit of fair play, I'll let these run their course before I give up completely.
Spent a lot of time, again, this week, on the comic book, though I can actually report we're getting close to the end of Part One. Coloring has been a bigger issue than I would have hoped, but except for one page and the cover, we're just about there. Now, it's back to the letterer, who has to redo much of his work thanks to file transfers, etc. There are a few people who have asked me about the comic book and I feel sort of lame telling them that it is still coming together. Seems like I've been saying that for months, but it has only been a couple of weeks. Still, I'm anxious to get this behind us and get some feedback on our efforts so far.
Part Two, which started out like gangbusters, has sort of stalled temporarily on page 4, panel 2. Trying to get the artist to understand our vision and we're not quite there. It's not really his fault, but these images are really important to the story and were major pieces in our pitch about the project when we were attending the Comic Creator Connection workshops. Really want to nail these for that reason.
Still reading Dynamic Story Creation. My goal is a chapter a night. Haven't really had an epiphany about my writing, but it is still early.
Did manage to make some progress on the rewrites for Simple Sins. At least I got through the first section where I had to actually write new dialogue and action. That had been a hurdle too high for me last week. I finally feel like I'm getting my land legs back under me after Comic-Con. Still have work to do and I still need to get back to my editor to let him know I hit a snag. Now it's me not communicating.
I also want to follow up with the Comic-Con HQ people about From Fan To Creator. My dream has been dampened but not extinguished and I really want to have a meeting about it. Maybe it goes on the backburner, but I'd like to know the strengths and weaknesses of the pitch, seeing how it was my first.
Published a couple of reviews this weekend. The Saturday Morning Review, as I've been calling it, was Hard to Handle (1933), another early James Cagney picture. On Sunday, in an effort to stay current, published one about Suicide Squad.
Trophy Unlocked is coming up on its 700th review, which is a sort of an accomplishment. Still need to figure out a movie for the milestone review. Open for suggestions if anyone wants to leave a comment (hint!).
Pageviews have also been way up recently on Trophy Unlocked, but I suspect it's Russian hackers or some such, that are inflating the numbers. Or maybe, we've just caught on there and Russian readers have gravitated towards our unbiased reviews. Yeah, it's probably that first thing I mentioned.
Spent a lot of time, again, this week, on the comic book, though I can actually report we're getting close to the end of Part One. Coloring has been a bigger issue than I would have hoped, but except for one page and the cover, we're just about there. Now, it's back to the letterer, who has to redo much of his work thanks to file transfers, etc. There are a few people who have asked me about the comic book and I feel sort of lame telling them that it is still coming together. Seems like I've been saying that for months, but it has only been a couple of weeks. Still, I'm anxious to get this behind us and get some feedback on our efforts so far.
Part Two, which started out like gangbusters, has sort of stalled temporarily on page 4, panel 2. Trying to get the artist to understand our vision and we're not quite there. It's not really his fault, but these images are really important to the story and were major pieces in our pitch about the project when we were attending the Comic Creator Connection workshops. Really want to nail these for that reason.
Still reading Dynamic Story Creation. My goal is a chapter a night. Haven't really had an epiphany about my writing, but it is still early.
Did manage to make some progress on the rewrites for Simple Sins. At least I got through the first section where I had to actually write new dialogue and action. That had been a hurdle too high for me last week. I finally feel like I'm getting my land legs back under me after Comic-Con. Still have work to do and I still need to get back to my editor to let him know I hit a snag. Now it's me not communicating.
I also want to follow up with the Comic-Con HQ people about From Fan To Creator. My dream has been dampened but not extinguished and I really want to have a meeting about it. Maybe it goes on the backburner, but I'd like to know the strengths and weaknesses of the pitch, seeing how it was my first.
Published a couple of reviews this weekend. The Saturday Morning Review, as I've been calling it, was Hard to Handle (1933), another early James Cagney picture. On Sunday, in an effort to stay current, published one about Suicide Squad.
Trophy Unlocked is coming up on its 700th review, which is a sort of an accomplishment. Still need to figure out a movie for the milestone review. Open for suggestions if anyone wants to leave a comment (hint!).
Pageviews have also been way up recently on Trophy Unlocked, but I suspect it's Russian hackers or some such, that are inflating the numbers. Or maybe, we've just caught on there and Russian readers have gravitated towards our unbiased reviews. Yeah, it's probably that first thing I mentioned.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
A Week in Writing #101
Still recovering from Comic-Con. The experience really takes it out of you, both physically and mentally. On the physical side, we walked, according to the app on my phone, about 57 miles during the five days of the con. I think I got a case of plantar fasciitis in one of my heels as a result. It's getting better, but every so often that first step in the morning is really painful.
Mentally, it was hard to get my head back into work and by that I mean the job I do to make a living. As I wrote last time, I was creatively turned on by the experience and it was all I could do not to think about my writing during the 11 hours plus a day I spend away from home. Wrote some emails to people I'd met, but that wasn't enough.
Trying to pull together the last bits of part one of PowerSquared. Most of it is with the colorist and I know we've been pretty demanding here with his time. At the same time, the artist has started to work on Part 2, so we're having to judge coloring on one part and pencils and layouts on the other. Time-consuming on both sides, though it is always great to see progress.
Between feeling fatigued and the demands of the comic book, not much time has been left for much else this week. Did manage some work on Simple Sins, but I got to a place where I need to start doing some rewriting and I didn't have the energy to do it. And as much as I wanted to do more this weekend, I can't say I've been able to shake the call of PowerSquared to do much else. We spent several hours today going over the colored pages and new layouts from the artist, Only so much time to get too deep into anything else.
I have also begun reading Maxwell Drake's Dynamic Story Creation at night before I go to bed, trying to absorb as much as I can. Hopefully, I can take what I learn and apply it to the Simple Sins rewrites that I have to do.
Did post a Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked: Big Night, a 1996 film co-directed by Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott and starring Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Minnie Driver, Ian Holm and Isabella Rossellini. But haven't written anything new for a couple of weeks. Also wrote a somewhat belated review of Star Trek Beyond, which I posted on Sunday.
Hopefully, this next week, I can get back to other things on my to-do list, including working more on Simple Sins and updating my queries on Public and Private, which I'm woefully behind on.
Mentally, it was hard to get my head back into work and by that I mean the job I do to make a living. As I wrote last time, I was creatively turned on by the experience and it was all I could do not to think about my writing during the 11 hours plus a day I spend away from home. Wrote some emails to people I'd met, but that wasn't enough.
Trying to pull together the last bits of part one of PowerSquared. Most of it is with the colorist and I know we've been pretty demanding here with his time. At the same time, the artist has started to work on Part 2, so we're having to judge coloring on one part and pencils and layouts on the other. Time-consuming on both sides, though it is always great to see progress.
Between feeling fatigued and the demands of the comic book, not much time has been left for much else this week. Did manage some work on Simple Sins, but I got to a place where I need to start doing some rewriting and I didn't have the energy to do it. And as much as I wanted to do more this weekend, I can't say I've been able to shake the call of PowerSquared to do much else. We spent several hours today going over the colored pages and new layouts from the artist, Only so much time to get too deep into anything else.
I have also begun reading Maxwell Drake's Dynamic Story Creation at night before I go to bed, trying to absorb as much as I can. Hopefully, I can take what I learn and apply it to the Simple Sins rewrites that I have to do.
Did post a Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked: Big Night, a 1996 film co-directed by Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott and starring Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Minnie Driver, Ian Holm and Isabella Rossellini. But haven't written anything new for a couple of weeks. Also wrote a somewhat belated review of Star Trek Beyond, which I posted on Sunday.
Hopefully, this next week, I can get back to other things on my to-do list, including working more on Simple Sins and updating my queries on Public and Private, which I'm woefully behind on.
Monday, July 25, 2016
A Week in Writing #100 - Report From the Front: Comic-Con 2016
Well, comics and Comic-Con have certainly been the focus of the week. This week in writing was extremely curtailed by the prep for and the attendance of Comic-Con. I know a writer is supposed to write a thousand words every day, but there are times when even the most gung-ho amongst us don't have the opportunity. And Comic-Con is one of those times. Days start early and nights end late, so there is little time to be making edits, let alone writing query letters or writing up something new.
With the exception of some typing up on edits for Simple Sins, and I'm about 30% done with that, everything has revolved around Comic-Con. The work week even started with an update on my TV pitch, From Fan To Creator, which was certainly out of the blue. The last email had been one I'd sent two months ago, so I'm not sure what prompted the sudden response. Non-committal, of course, the email did say my idea was "fun" although it did warn "we’re not specifically looking for that kind of series at the moment." There's the vague promise to chat after SDCC, but while I'm not giving up totally on the idea, I'm not quitting my day job either. The idea has been evolving in my own head, so I would welcome the opportunity to talk about it further. As they say, you never know.
Onto Comic-Con itself. If you've read my past posts about WonderCon and Comic-Con on this blog or on Trophy Unlocked, then some of this may sound familiar.
The first thing you'll need to know about Comic-Con is that everything will take longer than you expect. For us, it started with the trip down to San Diego. Last year the trip took about three hours, this year it took four and a half, We left a half hour later, but there had to be something else going on. There were no accidents, just really slow traffic.
For only the second time since we've started attending, this year marked our 10th time in 11 years, we were able to go to Preview Night. I won't mention names, but it's nice to have friends in high places. We arrived a few minutes late, since everything was getting pushed back, but the floor was crazy in a fun way. On our only other time, it was crazy in a really bad way. Mostly this was a scope out and exclusives buying spree. I won't go into the exclusives that we purchased, which is a part of every Comic-Con, but there were some that we wanted but could not obtain.
One of the things we like to do at Comic-Con every year is to have dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and we decided to do that on Preview Night. It only took about twenty minutes to get a table rather than the hour or more it takes during the Con.
Even though we went back to the hotel soon afterward, it was a really late night. We didn't get to bed until after 2 am and got up about 4. The idea is to try to get in early once or twice to scoop up the harder-to-get exclusives. This didn't work, as even though we got to the Convention Center about 5:30 or so, the line was already about a mile long, or so it seemed. The other lesson is that no matter how early you get there, there is always someone who is ahead of you, as people regularly camp out way in advance.
While there is a lot of running around getting autographs and meeting people, for me one of the highlights was the panel: Comics PR & Marketing 101 led by Chip Mosher from Comixology. Apparently, this is a yearly panel, in which Chip and his guests, David Hyde (founder, Superfan Promotions), Hunter Gorinson (Valiant director of marketing, communications & digital media), and Hope Nicholson (publisher, Bedside Press) answer questions from the audience. While I didn't ask a question, what I learned did get me to thinking about our own comic book, PowerSquared, developments on, I'll get to later. The book itself is only part of the work that needs to be done. Anxious to get it out doesn't mean that's the best approach. I'm thinking we need to wait at least until Part 2 is completed before we start to release anything and even then, there are other steps that need to be taken to ensure it's a success. This panel really got me thinking.
Thursday night we attended some anime, which is a part of our tradition, so by the time we got back to the hotel, the restaurants nearby either had a very long line or they were expensive. We ended up at the Shakespeare Pub, which had to be the darkest place, as in low light, I can remember ever eating. Slow service didn't help either. Maybe it's me, but Comic-Con always brings out this sense that no one cares about your time. This was repeated at the Con several times when we were told to come back at various booths on the floor. As if our time meant nothing or very little to them.
The actress at one booth didn't make her call time at 10 am. "You know how actresses are," we were told, come back in half an hour. Don't professional actresses have call back times that they meet? Why not this one? T-shirts at one booth weren't there. "Come back in an hour or so, we should have them in by then." "Come back tomorrow and we'll sell you a box," the vendor at the Konami booth told my sons. But by the third day, and the third "Come back tomorrow" I told the guy we'll buy it elsewhere. In an environment like Comic-Con, where everything is pretty scheduled, being told to come back to spend your money not only throws off your schedule, but is a little insulting. Who likes hearing, "I won't take your money until later." If you want my money be ready and be nice, is that too much to ask?
The issue with Konami brings up another issue that we found happening several times at the Con. Exhibitors make promises that they can't or don't keep. Now maybe they've underestimated their own popularity, but when a booth promises some little trinket for free and then changes it to only when you make a purchase, or sells out before the morning of the last day of the Con (Fox and their Ryan Reynolds signed Deadpool Blu-Ray and VHS exclusive) then they're not planning things out very well. While that may not turn consumers off, as an example, who's going to hate Peanuts even though the booth couldn't handle their pin a day promotion, it still doesn't leave you with a good feeling about them.
One of the great things about Comic-Con is that you get to meet new people and reconnect with old ones. Spoke briefly face to face with Chip after his panel, and sort of interrupted the set up of the first Comic Creator Connection to slap a howdy on Doug Neff and Corey Rothermel, I did run into other people I knew from work and from Facebook. Really enjoyed meeting Lee Oaks in Artist Alley, putting a face to the Facebook as it were. Lee had recently finished his own Kickstarter for a comic he's doing, Thunder Monkey, so I wanted to hear more about that. Also ran into Matt Patterson from Warner Archive a few hours before he was to lead a panel on Cartoon music and on the final day ran into Gary Teetzel, an old friend from my MGM days which made the Con complete as we see him every year.
Even though we were at the convention, the duties of our comic book were never too far away, as both the artist and the colorist sent us emails and pages to view; layouts and character designs for Part 2 from the former and revised pages and a first pass on the cover from the latter. Still haven't been able to find the time to look at, let alone comment on the color revisions for Part 1, Did write back about the layout and character designs. Based on what we saw, Part 2 seems to be off to a solid start.
Still managed to post a review on Trophy Unlocked on Saturday morning: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). The title seemed appropriate since SDCC was celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the iconic TV show as well as hosting the premiere of the new film in the rebooted franchise, Star Trek Beyond. Nichelle Nichols was one of the featured signees in the Sails Pavillion and in addition to her signing a photo she was selling, also got her to sign the front cover of the Con's program, which features a drawing of Leonard Nimoy as Spock. (Signees are expected to sign the program for free.) Meeting her was definitely a highlight of the Con for me and my wife. As was meeting Genndy Tartakovsky, the man behind such animated series as Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) and Sym-Biotic Titan.
Almost as earth-changing as Chip Mosher's panel was, another one comes close to being as meaningful. On Saturday morning, Paul and I attended the The Writing a Story Using a 3-Act Structure panel led by author Maxwell Alexander Drake. While some of what Drake said I had head before, he was a very charismatic speaker and it never hurts to hear something more than once or in a new and entertaining way. Even though we had not attended the first two on Thursday or Friday, we were still able to pick up on his concepts of writing and even purchased his book Dynamic Story Creation, but also his CD presentation for The Anatomy of a Fight Scene. Even though neither Paul nor I had heard of Drake before, the panel was nearly filled. People ahead of us in line commented that people follow him. We were definitely in the minority as most, 90% plus, had seen him the two previous days. I just began to read the book, so I can't comment here too much about it, though I do like his no-nonsense approach. I think it will be helpful for both the mystery writing and for the comic book as well.
It's hard not to feel a little depressed after such an event. Let's face it, for most of us, our daily lives are anything but super and reality, given the state of the world, sucks. But Comic-Con provided more than just a break from the everyday, it reminded me once again of what I want to become. As much as I may love my job, it's not what I feel passionate about. When we left, I had to fight from literally crying as not only did I not want to go back to the humdrum, but I wanted to make a change in my life, both physically and professionally. Now I'm a man with responsibilities, so change doesn't come easily, unless of course we win the lottery, but I do know the direction I want to see my life go in and it's more than just north on the I-5 to Los Angeles.
With the exception of some typing up on edits for Simple Sins, and I'm about 30% done with that, everything has revolved around Comic-Con. The work week even started with an update on my TV pitch, From Fan To Creator, which was certainly out of the blue. The last email had been one I'd sent two months ago, so I'm not sure what prompted the sudden response. Non-committal, of course, the email did say my idea was "fun" although it did warn "we’re not specifically looking for that kind of series at the moment." There's the vague promise to chat after SDCC, but while I'm not giving up totally on the idea, I'm not quitting my day job either. The idea has been evolving in my own head, so I would welcome the opportunity to talk about it further. As they say, you never know.
Onto Comic-Con itself. If you've read my past posts about WonderCon and Comic-Con on this blog or on Trophy Unlocked, then some of this may sound familiar.
The first thing you'll need to know about Comic-Con is that everything will take longer than you expect. For us, it started with the trip down to San Diego. Last year the trip took about three hours, this year it took four and a half, We left a half hour later, but there had to be something else going on. There were no accidents, just really slow traffic.
For only the second time since we've started attending, this year marked our 10th time in 11 years, we were able to go to Preview Night. I won't mention names, but it's nice to have friends in high places. We arrived a few minutes late, since everything was getting pushed back, but the floor was crazy in a fun way. On our only other time, it was crazy in a really bad way. Mostly this was a scope out and exclusives buying spree. I won't go into the exclusives that we purchased, which is a part of every Comic-Con, but there were some that we wanted but could not obtain.
One of the things we like to do at Comic-Con every year is to have dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and we decided to do that on Preview Night. It only took about twenty minutes to get a table rather than the hour or more it takes during the Con.
Even though we went back to the hotel soon afterward, it was a really late night. We didn't get to bed until after 2 am and got up about 4. The idea is to try to get in early once or twice to scoop up the harder-to-get exclusives. This didn't work, as even though we got to the Convention Center about 5:30 or so, the line was already about a mile long, or so it seemed. The other lesson is that no matter how early you get there, there is always someone who is ahead of you, as people regularly camp out way in advance.
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| At least we were ahead of all of these people. |
While there is a lot of running around getting autographs and meeting people, for me one of the highlights was the panel: Comics PR & Marketing 101 led by Chip Mosher from Comixology. Apparently, this is a yearly panel, in which Chip and his guests, David Hyde (founder, Superfan Promotions), Hunter Gorinson (Valiant director of marketing, communications & digital media), and Hope Nicholson (publisher, Bedside Press) answer questions from the audience. While I didn't ask a question, what I learned did get me to thinking about our own comic book, PowerSquared, developments on, I'll get to later. The book itself is only part of the work that needs to be done. Anxious to get it out doesn't mean that's the best approach. I'm thinking we need to wait at least until Part 2 is completed before we start to release anything and even then, there are other steps that need to be taken to ensure it's a success. This panel really got me thinking.
Thursday night we attended some anime, which is a part of our tradition, so by the time we got back to the hotel, the restaurants nearby either had a very long line or they were expensive. We ended up at the Shakespeare Pub, which had to be the darkest place, as in low light, I can remember ever eating. Slow service didn't help either. Maybe it's me, but Comic-Con always brings out this sense that no one cares about your time. This was repeated at the Con several times when we were told to come back at various booths on the floor. As if our time meant nothing or very little to them.
The actress at one booth didn't make her call time at 10 am. "You know how actresses are," we were told, come back in half an hour. Don't professional actresses have call back times that they meet? Why not this one? T-shirts at one booth weren't there. "Come back in an hour or so, we should have them in by then." "Come back tomorrow and we'll sell you a box," the vendor at the Konami booth told my sons. But by the third day, and the third "Come back tomorrow" I told the guy we'll buy it elsewhere. In an environment like Comic-Con, where everything is pretty scheduled, being told to come back to spend your money not only throws off your schedule, but is a little insulting. Who likes hearing, "I won't take your money until later." If you want my money be ready and be nice, is that too much to ask?
The issue with Konami brings up another issue that we found happening several times at the Con. Exhibitors make promises that they can't or don't keep. Now maybe they've underestimated their own popularity, but when a booth promises some little trinket for free and then changes it to only when you make a purchase, or sells out before the morning of the last day of the Con (Fox and their Ryan Reynolds signed Deadpool Blu-Ray and VHS exclusive) then they're not planning things out very well. While that may not turn consumers off, as an example, who's going to hate Peanuts even though the booth couldn't handle their pin a day promotion, it still doesn't leave you with a good feeling about them.
One of the great things about Comic-Con is that you get to meet new people and reconnect with old ones. Spoke briefly face to face with Chip after his panel, and sort of interrupted the set up of the first Comic Creator Connection to slap a howdy on Doug Neff and Corey Rothermel, I did run into other people I knew from work and from Facebook. Really enjoyed meeting Lee Oaks in Artist Alley, putting a face to the Facebook as it were. Lee had recently finished his own Kickstarter for a comic he's doing, Thunder Monkey, so I wanted to hear more about that. Also ran into Matt Patterson from Warner Archive a few hours before he was to lead a panel on Cartoon music and on the final day ran into Gary Teetzel, an old friend from my MGM days which made the Con complete as we see him every year.
Even though we were at the convention, the duties of our comic book were never too far away, as both the artist and the colorist sent us emails and pages to view; layouts and character designs for Part 2 from the former and revised pages and a first pass on the cover from the latter. Still haven't been able to find the time to look at, let alone comment on the color revisions for Part 1, Did write back about the layout and character designs. Based on what we saw, Part 2 seems to be off to a solid start.
Still managed to post a review on Trophy Unlocked on Saturday morning: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). The title seemed appropriate since SDCC was celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the iconic TV show as well as hosting the premiere of the new film in the rebooted franchise, Star Trek Beyond. Nichelle Nichols was one of the featured signees in the Sails Pavillion and in addition to her signing a photo she was selling, also got her to sign the front cover of the Con's program, which features a drawing of Leonard Nimoy as Spock. (Signees are expected to sign the program for free.) Meeting her was definitely a highlight of the Con for me and my wife. As was meeting Genndy Tartakovsky, the man behind such animated series as Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) and Sym-Biotic Titan.
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| Genndy Tartakovsky was one of many creators doing signings at Comic-Con. |
It's hard not to feel a little depressed after such an event. Let's face it, for most of us, our daily lives are anything but super and reality, given the state of the world, sucks. But Comic-Con provided more than just a break from the everyday, it reminded me once again of what I want to become. As much as I may love my job, it's not what I feel passionate about. When we left, I had to fight from literally crying as not only did I not want to go back to the humdrum, but I wanted to make a change in my life, both physically and professionally. Now I'm a man with responsibilities, so change doesn't come easily, unless of course we win the lottery, but I do know the direction I want to see my life go in and it's more than just north on the I-5 to Los Angeles.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
A Week in Writing #99
This has been one of those weeks when it seems like all electronics were working against me. It started with my cell phone, which I thought I had repaired on Sunday, but then discovered that my menu and backspace keys no longer worked. Tried to reset the phone, after trying every other solution I could find to try to fix the problem, but that caused a bunch more troubles. Contacts went away for a few days and I had to struggle to figure out how to get email back on the phone. When the contacts did come back, they were hotmail contacts, so numbers were lost for a lot of people.
Then on Tuesday, the worst thing possible, the thumb drive where I keep what I call my IP (meaning all of my writing) died. I always like to have copies of my writng with me in case something were to happen to the laptop and vice versa. Put the drive in the USB port on my laptop at home to do some editing on Simple Sins, but my computer suddenly didn't recognize it. Luckily, I keep a complete copy of everything on my laptop. Previously, I had on occassion lost track of the thumb drive, usually it had fallen out of my pocket in the car, so the panic, while quite real, was short-lived. Having learned from that, I made an effort to keep the thumb drive and the computer in sync. I may have only lost some photos from the internet for reviews, but it still hurt to lose the drive so suddenly. Not sure what happened, but while I recovered, I'm not sure I'll ever really trust again.
A lot of this week was spent prepping for Comic-Con next week. While I'm not the main organizer in the family, I'm still part of the planning and that seems to take precedent for the entire week and days leading up to the event.
Planned out my Saturday morning review post for that day. Don't want to spoil it, but it's going to be Star Trek related, seeing how its the 50th anniversary of the original series and the weekend the new movie opens. Did post a new review on Saturday on Trophy Unlocked: Our Miss Brooks (1956), a film version of the radio and TV series of the same name starring Eve Arden.
While I did some more updating on Simple Sins, most of my writing this week was spent on the comic book. The artist finished with the cover and Paul and I and our letter went through PowerSquared looking for coloring inconsistencies. We tried to be as thorough as possible looking for errors. The cover and the comic book are now in the hands of the colorist, so hopefully soon after we get back from Comic Con it'll be ready to go. In the meantime, started the artist on Part 2, so the process starts all over again.
And that's what writing is sometimes, finishing one thing and starting another. Didn't get everything I wanted to get done, but that's writing as well.
Then on Tuesday, the worst thing possible, the thumb drive where I keep what I call my IP (meaning all of my writing) died. I always like to have copies of my writng with me in case something were to happen to the laptop and vice versa. Put the drive in the USB port on my laptop at home to do some editing on Simple Sins, but my computer suddenly didn't recognize it. Luckily, I keep a complete copy of everything on my laptop. Previously, I had on occassion lost track of the thumb drive, usually it had fallen out of my pocket in the car, so the panic, while quite real, was short-lived. Having learned from that, I made an effort to keep the thumb drive and the computer in sync. I may have only lost some photos from the internet for reviews, but it still hurt to lose the drive so suddenly. Not sure what happened, but while I recovered, I'm not sure I'll ever really trust again.
A lot of this week was spent prepping for Comic-Con next week. While I'm not the main organizer in the family, I'm still part of the planning and that seems to take precedent for the entire week and days leading up to the event.
Planned out my Saturday morning review post for that day. Don't want to spoil it, but it's going to be Star Trek related, seeing how its the 50th anniversary of the original series and the weekend the new movie opens. Did post a new review on Saturday on Trophy Unlocked: Our Miss Brooks (1956), a film version of the radio and TV series of the same name starring Eve Arden.
While I did some more updating on Simple Sins, most of my writing this week was spent on the comic book. The artist finished with the cover and Paul and I and our letter went through PowerSquared looking for coloring inconsistencies. We tried to be as thorough as possible looking for errors. The cover and the comic book are now in the hands of the colorist, so hopefully soon after we get back from Comic Con it'll be ready to go. In the meantime, started the artist on Part 2, so the process starts all over again.
And that's what writing is sometimes, finishing one thing and starting another. Didn't get everything I wanted to get done, but that's writing as well.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
A Week in Writing #98
Let's get the bad news out of the way, right away. One of my queries for Personal and Professional went unanswered and per the agency's website, the one month I would have heard from them, if interested, expired today. No big tears, I guess, but still a disappointment. But you've got to dust yourself off and get back on that horse.
Most of the week, once again, taken up with the comic book, PowerSquared. Part One is in a landing pattern, but not quite done. It seems like the heavy lifting is over, but there is still a significant amount of work to do. It's almost a little sad, but in a good way. I guess I always get sentimental when things start to wrap up. I was that way with editing Simple Sins.
But the comic book still isn't complete. The lettering is done, at least a first go; the coloring has been completed, though there will need to be corrections; and the artist is working on the cover, we finally came to an agreement on the layout. We're also working on logos: a banner for the cover and what I'm calling a "bug," a simple, hopefully distinctive, visual depiction for the book.
Sat down with the editor and letterer today and went through the book, making a few changes, but nothing too major. We may have a joke that's become dated with time, so we may need to update that and there are a few other minor changes.
Coloring will take more time to go through, as we want to make sure that it's consistent from page to page. Still have to go over it with a fine-toothed comb, so that will be time-consuming. My goal had been to have everything wrapped up by Comic-Con, but I don't think we're going to completely make that. I wasn't planning on showing it to anyone there, but I thought it would make a good deadline.
Finished revising the script for Part Two and once the artist is done with the cover, then we'll start on that.
I also began to work on typing up my edits on Simple Sins. I know there are some rewrites in my future, but I decided to do those as I get to them. Also wanted to have that done by Comic-Con, but I don't think that's likely either.
Published three reviews this week: One for the anniversary of A Hard Day's Night (1964) was what I like to call Stubs Goes Blu(-ray). My normal Saturday morning review was Movie Movie (1978), which just got a home video release in the U.S. Finally, did a review of The Secret Life of Pets, which opened over the weekend. Whew!
The week ahead promises more on the comic book and hopefully on Simple Sins. I should also make another query while I'm at it. Not sure if I need to rethink the letter or not. Writing can be so much work.
Most of the week, once again, taken up with the comic book, PowerSquared. Part One is in a landing pattern, but not quite done. It seems like the heavy lifting is over, but there is still a significant amount of work to do. It's almost a little sad, but in a good way. I guess I always get sentimental when things start to wrap up. I was that way with editing Simple Sins.
But the comic book still isn't complete. The lettering is done, at least a first go; the coloring has been completed, though there will need to be corrections; and the artist is working on the cover, we finally came to an agreement on the layout. We're also working on logos: a banner for the cover and what I'm calling a "bug," a simple, hopefully distinctive, visual depiction for the book.
Sat down with the editor and letterer today and went through the book, making a few changes, but nothing too major. We may have a joke that's become dated with time, so we may need to update that and there are a few other minor changes.
Coloring will take more time to go through, as we want to make sure that it's consistent from page to page. Still have to go over it with a fine-toothed comb, so that will be time-consuming. My goal had been to have everything wrapped up by Comic-Con, but I don't think we're going to completely make that. I wasn't planning on showing it to anyone there, but I thought it would make a good deadline.
Finished revising the script for Part Two and once the artist is done with the cover, then we'll start on that.
I also began to work on typing up my edits on Simple Sins. I know there are some rewrites in my future, but I decided to do those as I get to them. Also wanted to have that done by Comic-Con, but I don't think that's likely either.
Published three reviews this week: One for the anniversary of A Hard Day's Night (1964) was what I like to call Stubs Goes Blu(-ray). My normal Saturday morning review was Movie Movie (1978), which just got a home video release in the U.S. Finally, did a review of The Secret Life of Pets, which opened over the weekend. Whew!
The week ahead promises more on the comic book and hopefully on Simple Sins. I should also make another query while I'm at it. Not sure if I need to rethink the letter or not. Writing can be so much work.
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