A Week in Writing #463 - Pilot Scripts and Newsletters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

In not so good news, the rejections keep coming. 

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

Dear David,

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Sincerely,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Week in Writing #461 - Quick Turn Around

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. And, hey Happy Father's Day to everyone that applies to.

Well, I got one of the quickest turn arounds on a query this week. This was an agency that just wants a letter, so I sent one on Thursday night at 10:32 pm PT. And less that 14 hours later, I received this following rejection at 12:10 pm the next day:

Dear David . . . Thank you for your query for BROKEN PEOPLE. Unfortunately, I'm unable at this time to consider representation, but I wish you the best with your project.

Short and not so sweet from my perspective but at least it's definitive. I will say I've had one rejection sent even quicker like first thing the next morning but this is pretty quick. Of course, nothing to be learned from the experience except the agent is quick.

Moving on -

This past week saw the release of Issue #17 of Powers Squared: Mocha and Raven, Part 2. If you've never done a comic book, there is a lot of work that goes into one and you really want people to read it. Still waiting for it all to someday pay off. We' re half way through with our releases for this year with the next one, which ends the story arc comes out in September.

This morning marked a new round of peek-of-the-weeks for that issue. It's a weekly feature on the website, Instagram and Pinterest. I try to spotlight one panel or image and show its progression from thumbnail to finished work.

I would say we introduced our new colorist, Jen Moreno, on our Friday podcast, but it was more like we met her for the first time. You can listen here or wait until Wednesday to watch it on YouTube.

Adding her to the group reminded me that the SRCC page on the website needs some updating. We're trying to, in a small way, emulate a college catalog so we need to update courses and professors to go along with our new creative team. I have ideas but I want everyone to agree before I implement anything.

Getting some work in on the books. Trevor finished work on Issue #22 and Julia's turning in pages for Issue #24. Since its Trevor's script, we're giving him final approval over the art.

Finished another draft of the Pilot script outline and waiting for feedback. I'd like to work on this project this summer.

Wrote a new review for Trophy Unlocked, this time about The Flash. We squeezed in a showing of it at 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon and I wrote the review that night with some more wide-eyed edits the next morning. It was my idea to go so I thought I should write the review. The post went up on Sunday. 

I was all set to write another one, this time for Armored Car Robbery, part of the drain the DVR, but the recording ended before the movie was over, so I haven't seen  how it ended, so that's one for a later time.

Busy week on the blog with five reviews coutning mine for The Flash. There were three game reviews by Trevor all from the same series Bluehills County Stories: Parsnip (on Monday), The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith (on Wednesday), and Three Lesbians in a Barrow (on Friday). The Saturday Morning review was Paul's review of Ratatouille; sort of our way to acknowledge that Pixar has put out a new movie, but one we're not planning to see in a theater.

All that and some work in the early part of the week on Skylar; finished a chapter but thinking about where to go next with the story.

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

A Week in Writing #460 - New Issue Dropping

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

This is really a week that Powers Squared has dominated. We have a new issue dropping next Wednesday, Issue #17 Mocha and Raven, Part 2, so I've been busy with that project this week. I sent out a press release to about a dozen outlets and as far as I know, the only one to post it was First Comic News, which has been friendly to us since the beginning. With a few exceptions, they've been our main outlet in the comic news forum and they've also reviewed all of our issues. The latest review came out this week. You can read it here if you want. It wasn't quite as positive as I would have liked, but beggars can't be choosers, I think the saying goes.

There's also been the fun of getting a correction page submitted for this issue. While we can control what's on GlobalComix and Kindle, the other plaforms are not the same. We managed to get Artithmeric, our British-based platform, on board but I'm not sure about IndyPlanet. My panicked messages, I don't believe, have been answered, so while it may very well appear on their site on the right date, I don't know if it will have the corrected page or not.

We're also onboarding a new colorist, Jen Moreno, whom we plan to introduce on our show next Friday. Our artist, Julia Canon, has been helping getting her onto our Discord group and attached to our Dropbox. I was also trying to make available to her the 17 issues we've released, so I had the pleasure of making new .pdfs of some of the older ones that we've updated since. Not hard work, but time consuming nonetheless. But it had to be done.

Our OAPS podcast this past Friday was all about the book, with Rachel Wells and Julia Canon joining Trevor, Paul and myself to discuss. The idea is that the video of our show will drop on the same day as the issue, Wednesday. If you can wait, you can watch it here on Wednesday.

In the meantime, we released the fourth Galco's taste test video. In this one, Paul reviews some Japanese drinks that we bought there. That's up now and available on our YouTube channel.

Trophy Unlocked was particularly busy this week with four, starting with Trevor's second look at Transformers: Age of Extinction on Monday and his second look at Transformers: The Last Knight on Wedneday. Both were our way of leading up to Thursday's was his review of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the new film which we saw at a preview on Wednesday night. Number four was a major change of direction; the Saturday morning review was mine of Julie & Julia (2009).

I've written a new review this weekend for One Way Passage (1932), a William Powell - Kay Francis pre-code comedy/drama. Part of draining the DVR with no date set for when it will be released.

No new rejections, at least that I've been made aware of, this week and I did send out a new query per the schedule on Thursday.

While Wednesday was fun, it's all about time as that night was pretty much gone by the time we got home. Not that I didn't enjoy the film and being out with the family, but there are only so many hours in the day and something has to give. I'm sorry to report that Skylar is what got squeezed out; sorry.

Next week, besides Skylar, I want to get back to the pilot outline. But, of course, there will be a lot of updates to the website and social media posts during the week leading up to the release of "Mocha and Raven, Part 2".

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

A Week in Writing #459 - A Pretty Busy Week

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

A lot happened this week, so, let's get to it.

I guess the big news is that we hired a new colorist for Powers Squared. Our current artist, Julia Canon, was handling both the art and the coloring, which proved to be too much. She suggested three people that she had worked with before who were possibly intersted in the position. I sent them a test, a page from a future issue and gave them ten days to complete it. Two did and on Friday's OAPS, we sat down with Julia, Rachel and Trevor to decide which of the two to go with or if we would still need to keep looking.

Well, the group voted and we chose Jennifer Moreno as the fifth colorist on the book. Actually, she's the sixth but that's a tale for another time. We're going to introduce her on our June 16th OAPS, but you're among the first to know.

I also wrote the Powers Squared newsletter, The Hound Dogs' Howl, this week and sent that out this morning. Since it's a wrap up the month of May and the hiring took place in June, the new hire isn't mentioned but will be featured next month. I've given up asking you to sign up for it, as that doesn't seem to work.

We are having a new release on June 14th, Mocha and Raven, Part 2, our 17th issue. You can find where to buy it at The Campus Store, if you're so inclined.

For Trophy Unlocked, I wrote a 2000+ word review today for Anna Karenina (1935). Don't know when it will be published. Busy week on that blog with Paul's review today of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, a movie we watched at 9 am on Saturday.

The Saturday morning review, was mine for Five Star Final. And if that wasn't enough, there was a Wednesday is Game Day review of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake written by Trevor.

What would a busy week be without news on the query front, and, well, bad news at that. I didn't have to wait long this time. The query I sent on May 25 was answered on May 30th. Not suprisingly, the answer was "no".

Thank you for your query letter.

I'm sorry not to offer to read more of your work or offer to represent you, but it doesn't sound like a good fit for my list.

Publishing is very subjective, and this is just one opinion. I encourage you to get other opinions.

Best of luck in all that you pursue.

It's always appreciated when they tell you "no" and not make you guess. That said, I sent another one out.

And let's not forget about Skylar, I actually did about 1000 words on that as well this week. Can't not work on it.

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

A Week in Writing #458 - Another Setback

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

What's a week without a setback?

I can't confirm it, but I think the panel I proposed for San Diego Comic-Con is a no-go. I don't know that for sure but all signs seem to point to it. I was basically proposing the same panel that I did at Los Angeles Comic-Con, but I'm guessing there is more competition with SDCC. The reason I don't know for sure is that it appears you only hear back if they accept your proposal and people have started to hear back last Thursday and Friday.

Speaking of not hearing back (see the seque there), I had to DNR a query that I sent on February 9th, as the 90 day window to hear back from the agent had expired. I spent a little time last week looking up other possible agents on my list and I found a new one to query.

I overslept today and spent the morning playing catch-up. On Sundays, I post a new peek-of-the-week and upload the video from Friday night, update the website, schedule a couple of posts for later in the week, and update Pinterest as well. Well, today, I had two videos to upload (our Friday OAPS for Wednesday and our third taste-testing video; Cherry sodas from Galcos) and, in addition, a new post on Trophy Unlocked to promote (we'll get to that in a minute) and then some anniversary posts for Twitter for movies and games released today. Normally, I get through those in about an hour but this morning it took like three. That's what you get for sleeping in, which is something I rarely do.

I need to work on a review this week for Gold Dust Gertie, a film we watched on Saturday night. This morning's new post on the blog was Trevor's second look at the Super Mario Bros. movie to coincide with it's 30 anniversary. Speaking of movies based on games, the Saturday Morning Review was Paul's review of the original Dungeon & Dragons movie.

The news on Powers Squared is that we had our May Team Meeting on Friday night, with the big news that we're looking to hire a new colorist. Their first work will appear on Issue 24, "Gashadokuro", which Trevor wrote and is also Julia's first as artist.

Later that night, Paul and I did an unboxing video of the three new issues; the earliest of which, Issue 17, "Mocha and Raven, Part 2", drops on June 14th. This prompted us to change the cover on the Ka-Blam versions. I had added a border which didn't seem to look as good as the ones without one. Not sure if that's going to complicate the release on their platform, Indy Planet, or not. I'm hopeful but cautious.

As always, did some work this week on Skylar but, as usual, not enough to share.

This coming week, I also need to work on the next newsletter, which will go out next Sunday. Never too late to sign up; enroll today at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/srcc.

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

A Week in Writing #457 - What's a Week Without a Rejection?

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

What else is new but another rejection. This is a query I sent on March 23rd with a 4-6 week window to hear back. I kept it active until, of course, I received the rejection:

Thank you so much for your query! I have had an opportunity to review your query, and although intriguing, I'm afraid it's not quite right for the list I'm building at this time. Since it is so vital for an agent to be just as passionate about your story as you are, I feel it best that I bow out at this time.

I welcome future queries on exciting new projects from those who have submitted to me previously, so please keep me in mind. Otherwise, I definitely encourage you to continue submitting to others, as what may not work for one person may work perfectly for another. Out of all the wonderful agents you could submit to, I thank you so much for trusting me to look at your work, and thinking of me for representation. I wish you the best of luck in placing this with another agent.

Kindly,

Is it just me, or do all rejections sort of sound the same. "Thank you for your submission", "not right for my list", "best of luck" I feel like I've read those before. There is never anything deeper than that. I've had a few in the past that I was close on and they gave more feedback but lately they sound pretty much the same. But maybe I'm just thinking about the bad news aspect. And I do want to give this agent credit for actually writing back. Most just sort of ghost you with their rejection.

I did send a new one out, so fingers crossed and all that.

My review of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. Spoiler, I've played the game a couple of times but I really enjoyed the movie. I'm working on a review of What! No Beer? but I had hoped to do one on Too Many Kisses, a film I had caught on TCM but somehow the recording got erased before I could.

It seems like every week I'm having some new internet calamity; the website has had issues, etc. Well, this week, the entire internet became a problem as my laptop stopped connecting, at least through wi-fi. I had two virtual visits with Geek Squad but the issue wasn't resolved. Now I'm using a 50-foot ethernet cable while waiting for an in-house visit later in the week. I'm not sure what caused it to stop working and I don't know what the agents fixed or didn't fix, as they tend to disappear into the ether after the computer reboots.

That said, we did do a podcast on Friday, a comic book club meeting to discuss Made in Abyss by Akihito Tsukushi. You can listen to it here or wait for the video on Wednesday.

Next week will be a Team Meeting and things seem to be back on track with Powers Squared. After some discussion, our new artist, Julia Canon, decided that she couldn't handle both the art and the coloring, so we're looking for a new colorist. She suggested three people who were interested, so we sent them a little test page to color.

Paul and I sat down this week and submitted issues #17 and 18 to Kindle. In their infinite wisdom, 18, which comes out in September was the first to get cleared. Haven't heard yet about 17, which comes out in June. If you're curious, you can see a preview here. If you do look, and you should, you'll see that the cover is four thumbnails. That goes along with the new peek-of-the-week.

When I can, I've been working on Skylar, the little project that gets no respect. There's always a time crunch and that book gets the short shrift.

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