A Week in Writing #493 - Let's Talk Powers Squared

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

I'm in sort of a Powers Squiared mood this week. I've been working with, meaning reviewing and giving comments to, our artist, who is working on an issue I wrote, currently called "The Great Escape". We're going two pages at a time, so two more were drawn this week and so far, I can say, I'm happy with the results.

We had a team meeting this week on our podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared. If you're unfamiliar, it's a chance to get everyone who is working on Powers Squared together virtually to talk about what's new with the book. This week, we also had an unboxing of our Volume 2 trade. I got physical copies so that we could see what they would look like when they get printed, though, for a time they are going to be exclusive to LibraryPass.

As always, you can listen to the podcast on our website or at most of the major platforms, also listed on the website. On Wednesday, the video appears on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared).

Paul and I also sat down on Friday afternoon to apply for copyrights on the next four issues that we plan to release this year. It's the final step before we start setting dates for release.

I'm also mentiong Powers Squared this week because next week is the Hound Dogs' Howl newsletter and I want to encourage/ask you to subscribe by enrolling at SRCC, which is free; plus you get a free digital copy of issue #1 as a gift.You can do this at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/srcc.

This week, I wrote a review of Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color, which came out on Friday, for Trophy Unlocked. We watched it Saturday afternoon and the review appeared today. If you've read my other reviews, this one is pretty much spoiler free; I don't want to spoil the fun when a film is still out.

The Saturday morning review was Paul's for The Boy and the Heron, which we saw last weekend. This week also saw the return of the Wednesday Game Day with Paul's review of The Last Kids on Earth and the Staff of Doom video game.

This brings me back to Skylar and while I did do some work on it, I spent some time also working on the bit I've written for the next story, in which J.D., the hero of the books, is hired to find a girl who ran away from home 15 years ago.

This coming week, I need to finish the newsletter and work more on Skylar since the path seems clear. I should also work on the next query letter, as I want to get back into that come February; I don't have enough frustration in my life.

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

A Week in Writing #492 - Working

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

I can actually report that I did work this week on Skylar. I tried to make a point of it, trying hard to get through a chapter every night. Still have more editing to go but I am working on it, so I wanted to get that out front for a change. I don't know when I'll finish but I am working on it.

Work continued this week on some edits for Issue 20. I think we're getting closer, I need to make new .pdfs before we apply for copyrights, so we're behind schedule on that, but these things need to be right before we move on to the next steps.

Meanwhile, working with our artist on pages for Issue 26, so that seems to be going along fairly well.

One last mention of Powers Squared, we had our 12th Comic Book Club on this week's On the Air with Powers Squared. Julia Canon and Rachel Wells joined Trevor, Paul and myself to discuss Bone: Out from Boneville, written and illustrated by Jeff Smith. It's always fun to have guests on the show. You can listen to it on our website: https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps (or a variety of other platforms) or wait until next Wednesday to watch it on our YouTube channel (@powerssquared) at https://youtu.be/mJwCx6pP4dc.

This week's Saturday Morning Review, was Paul's review of The Last Kids on Earth - Book One (Film), which appeared on Netflix in 2019. It served as a pilot for the other two seasons of the series. He is also working on a review of The Boy and the Heron, which we saw in the theater over the weekend.

The review I wrote this week was for 7th Heaven (1927) which was nominated during the first Academy Award for for Outstanding Picture, losing to Wings for that honor. I was surprised that there was so little information available about it, especially on my go-to website, the AFI Catalog. I was disappointed that the entire synopsis they proved was only one paragraph in length and they had very little information about the production of the film. I like the opportunity to write a better synopsis than is already available and I think I did a pretty good job with it here. I've gotten complaints before that I'm too thorough, but I figure if a film is almost 100 years old and hard to find to watch, someone should tell the story. Not sure when it will appear.

Well, more to do. So, this week I want to finish the .pdfs for Powers Squared and register for copyrights and work more on Skylar as well.

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

A Week in Writing #491 - Resizing

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

I don't normally lead with the podcast but I think the one we did on Friday might be of interest. Our guest was Doug Neff, the co-author of Epic Win! The Geek's Guide to the Journey From Fan to Creator; the book that is sort of responsible for this weekly blog. We had him on the show a couple of years ago and had him come back to talk about obstacles for creatives and solutions to work around them. If you're writing a comic book or making a video, you might find it interesting. You can listen to it now on our website:  https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps, or watch it when it drops on our YouTube channel @powerssquared on Wednesday. The link will be https://youtu.be/cR20Ghxstho. While you're there, if you like the content, you can always subscribe and ring the bell so you'll never miss a video. And a comment wouldn't be bad either.

Most of the week, or at least several hours Monday through Thursday, was spent resizing about 92 pages of future Powers Squared pages for the next four issues. We haven't set on dates yet, but the first will probably come out in March. More to come on that.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might remember that Powers Squared was going to be available on LibraryPass in January. Well, that day has come and our first trade, Volume 1, The Adventure Begins is now available at https://lpfullcontent.librarypass.com/publishers/product_lines/277.

LibraryPass is a service provided to high schools and colleges that allows readers to digitally check out books, include comic books. So, if you know someone at those levels, tell them to ask their librarian to choose Powers Squared.

On to other writing, my review of Illicit from about three years ago went up as the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. I also wrote new one for a film called Leap Year (1921). I picked the film for the obvious, 2024 is a leap year, but this was one of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's Paramount films that was shelved after he was charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of Virginia Rappe. Charges he was acquitted on in 1922, by the way. You should be able to read it on the 29th of February.

I was able to spend sometime this week with Skylar. I'm trying to get through a chapter a day with editing. So, I can say I'm actually working on it for a change.

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

A Week in Writing #490 - Getting Stuff Done

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

In last week's post, I felt like I took the week off, though not really. This week, I worked on several projects, including the newsletter The Hound Dog's Howl; a new issue of Powers Squared, a review for Trophy Unlocked, and, yes, actually work on Skylar.

We've begun work on issue #26 for Powers Squared currently called "The Great Escape". It picks up where Issue 18, "Mocha and Raven, Part 3" left off, at least as it concerns Dr. Atlas, the book's main villian. Our artist, Julia Canon, is working on the first eight pages and we gave her some feedback on the pages she had submitted so far.

On the subject of Powers Squared, I spent part of the week working on the monthly newsletter, including doing a write up about twins in the No More Heroes video game franchise, Travis Touchdown and Henry Cooldown. That's really the hardest part of the newsletter, doing a write up on twins, and usually ones I know next to nothing about starting out.

The final note about Powers Squared is my weekly plug for On the Air with Powers Squared. This week's topic was about characters, like Mickey and Minnie Mouse from Steamboat Willie going into public domain. And while we're not lawyers, we tried to dicuss some of the things you can and cannot do with those characters. There's a link in the newsletter to the audio podcast and the video comes out on Wednesday the 10th here if you can wait until 2:30 PT.

The review I was working on, and finished for that matter, is a silent film called Too Many Kisses (1925). The film had been considered lost, but a 16mm print was found and the film has been restored. I had tried to record the film when it was on TCM sometime back, but something happened to the recording, let's say I accidentally deleted it. I ended up buying the Blu-ray from the Film Preservation Society. I'm not sure when it will appear on Trophy Unlocked, but I do know that the first review this year on the blog was Paul's review of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. He had read the book recently and we were able to watch the film during our unofficial Movie Day (Dec 26).

I am happy to report that I did actually work on Skylar this week. I'm still in rewrite mode, but it feels good to make some progress on the book.

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

A Week in Writing #489 - Taking a Week Off?

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. Hope you have a Happy New Year!

I can honestly say that I did less writing this week than I had the week before. While I didn't take the week off, per se, I might as well have. Christmas was Monday and that's followed in my house by Movie Day, in which we watch movies all day. Followed by spending one afternoon putting together a 1000 piece puzzle with my family, some yard work, visiting the zoo today, etc. This week, I pretty much broke up the routine that my life is normally. So, the word count may not be great, it's good to take some time away.

My review of Wonka was the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. No new review, but I did write a highlights of 2023 post for the end of the year; all of the reviewers did. Mine is here, Paul's is here and Trevor's is here. They're somewhat similar but still different and their posts deal with video games, while mine is strictly films.

Our podcast this week was about plans for 2024. Our arists Julia Canon joined Paul and me on the show. There are four new issues coming this year, two story arcs: Mission: Istanistan and what's currently called The Parents Come for a Visit (working title). You can listen to it here or watch it on Wednesday on our YouTube Channel.

Work on Issue #26 continues, as our artists has at least sketched out the first 8 pages, with some already approved and inked.

As I alluded to, Skylar didn't get much work this week; nothing did.

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

A Week in Writing #488 - Merry Christmas

Hope everyone is staying safe, and, of course, writing. And hope you have a Merry Christmas if you celebrate.

As we get close to the end of the year, it always sees like it's time to look back at the year. That's what we did on Friday's On the Air with Powers Squared podcast. Our artist wasn't able to make it, but we had colorist Jen Moreno and letterer, and co-creator, Trevor Hankins came on the show to take a look back at the 4 issues we released and the 60 videos we put out on our YouTube Channel. We are nothing, if not consistent.

The most views we had on a video this year, unaided, was OAPS 213 Eyeshield 21 21th Anniversary with 71. We did 8 book clubs with the one with the most views was OAPS 192 Comic Book Club #7 - Made in Abyss with 41 views. We had three guest interviews on the show with OAPS 204 A Conversation with David Petersen getting the most views with 40.

Powers Squared released four issues this year: Issue #16: "Mocha and Raven Part 1" on March 15; Issue #17: "Mocha and Raven Part 2" on June 14; Issue #18: "Mocha and Raven Part 3" on Sept 6; and Issue #19: "Kamaitachi" released on December 6. All are available in digital and print through The Campus Store.

Speaking of Powers Squared, we finished work on Issue #23 and saw the first pages come into their own for Issue #26.

For Trophy Unlocked, the Saturday Morning Review was our last for the holiday season, my review of  Lady on a Train. This week, I also wrote two future reviews for the blog. One, Hell's Heroes (1929), which I watched on my laptop, will probably wait until next Christmas and the other, Wonka (2023), which I watched in a theater, will be coming out next week.

My big hope this week was to work more on Skylar. On that, I failed to get much done. I did decide to remove a section from this book and add it to the next one I've already started. If it makes sense, the situation in the next book, still unnamed, fits better. Well, that's no excuse, but it does show I'm at least thinking about it.

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

A Week in Writing #487 - Here Come the Holidays, Ready or Not

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

Christmas is almost upon us, and, if you're like me, you let yourself listen to holiday music and watch Christmas films. We did that this past Friday, and watched a film that gets listed on some drive-by Christmas film lists, You've Got Mail.  I won't spoil how I felt about it, but I did just finish a review of it for Trophy Unlocked. It might be considered a holiday film since it came out on December 18, 1998, even though the holiday only gets a passing reference. Well, you'll have to wait for my review but you can read my review of Fitzwilly (1967), which went up on Saturday morning.

Our Friday On the Air with Powers Squared was supposed to feature an interview with a comic book creator in Australia, someone we've had on the show five times previously, but he cancelled on us on Thursday. Instead, we shifted to The Last Kids on Earth, the TV series, which we had just finished watching, not on Netflix but on these things called DVDs. You can listen to our discussion here or watch it on Wednesday when it goes up on YouTube.

Did receive new pages for Powers Squared this week; three instead of four, but you got to count what you have. I had done some rather bad thumbnails for the pages, which the artist did a pretty good job of adapting. This is the beginning of Issue #26, which I wrote. It's called The Great Escape. And if all goes well, we're talking 2025 before anyone will probably see it. Talk about planning ahead.

I will admit I'm a little more frustrated with the progress of the books, which seem to be more hit and miss from art to lettering. I got spoiled when 8 pages a month was almost an automatic. Now, it takes more patience to get what we can get. I'm really not a patient person by nature. Read into that what you will.

I did have some time this past week to work on Skylar. I'm just getting to a new patch in the story. But it's too soon to get into word counts, as that number really hasn't changed much yet. But if you push me, it's north of 68,000 but short of where it needs to get. I will say that I'm enjoying working on it more and hope with time off from work, I'll be able to work on it when I'm fully awake, rather than trying to squeeze it in after dinner and before bed every night. But with the holidays, plans can go out the window.

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