Trail Talk: Letters to WWQ#9

[Susan Hillwig]

Happy Belated New Year everyone, and I hope you enjoyed the first WWQ story of 2008! Sorry it was so dang long, but you should be used to that by now. More bang for your pretend buck, I always say.

Okay, the intro's outta the way, so it's time to deliver the bad news: there will be no WWQ in April.

Hey, hey! Don't go lynching me yet! Let me at least tell you the good news: in its place shall be the first issue of the long-awaited, ridiculously-delayed SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY miniseries by Yours Truly, starring everybody's favorite Vigilante, Greg Saunders (who also appeared in our DC2 Christmas Special last month, in case you missed it), along with six other folks that I ain't gonna tell you about just yet (but if you read WWQ#6, you might get an inkling). See, isn't that good news?

What's that? You still want a new WWQ? Okay then, I guess I'll have to move on to the better news: this May will see a special 3-part crossover between WWQ and JUSTICE LEAGUE. Yeah, you read that right, the Justice-flippin'-League. I gots me a connection with the editor over there on that long-underwear book, don'tcha know. So all you cowpokes had better check out JL#15 when it hits our invisible newsstand or else you'll be totally lost when WWQ#10 comes out. Plus, SSoV#2 will debut sometime that month as well, so that's FOUR stories from me in one month! Aren't you folks happy yet?

Guess not, I still see some frowny faces out there. Well, there's only one thing I can think of to cheer you up: WWQ will be wrapping up the year with a couple of familiar DC2 names plying their handiwork on this here title. Don Walsh is lined up to bring Johnny Thunder into the WWQ fold, and David Charlton is channeling his inner Hawk-God once more to conjure up a Nighthawk story for us. That is, unless some owlhoots jump out and bushwhack the two of 'em, but we ain't gonna think such thoughts now, are we?

All right, I'm out of ways to please you people, so leave a message at the sound of the beep...

BEEP!
- Susan Hillwig

[RocketeerZ]

Woo Hoo! Firsties!

Great, GREAT story Susan. Extra sized issue it may have been, but it wasn't long enough for me! I could have gone on even longer to find out how Chris' grandparents took his return and what mayham Wise Owl will throw at Chris, Hawk, Little Eagle and the rest down the road. Any chance we'll see a follow up to these characters down the line?

Really solid progession on this tale. The journey Chris took (starting back in the last issue) was riveting. Each stage was quite the experiance.

And then there was the incindent at the Fort! Hmmm.... two strangely garbed men babbeling about the wrong time and the alamo... one calling the other Booster? Strange days indeed. I wonder... just wonder... what could that mean? Hmm... maybe we'll find out more in the upcoming months.

I was glad to see Chris finally embrace the truth... he was pretty hard headed about it, but then again I reckon most people would be.

Might Chris be connected in some way to Quicksilver? Hmm?

In any case, again... fantastic job. Just a great story and a fun read. Sorry to hear there will be no WWQ in April but I will look forward to Seven Soliders of Victory.

[Susan Hillwig]

Huh? Two strange men in the fort? A guy called Booster? I don't remember writing that! You must have me confused with some other book.

Is Chris Maxwell connected to Quicksilver? Wait a minute, I thought Quicksilver was a Marvel character. Geez, not only do you have the wrong book this time, you've got the wrong universe! Thanks for playing anyhow, now let's move on to the next contestant...

[starlord]

Once again Susan shows us how it's done, and shows me that Westerns can be fun and enjoyable.

I think Chris' journey has to be one of the most compelling that has yet been written in the Quarterly.

Speaking of which... no April?

Wait! Seven Soldiers!!!! WOO HOO!!! ;D

This was a six star book and a six star cover! A book where the pros alone are worth the price of admission.

[lissilambe]

Very entertaining. Solid history, good atmosphere, and the characterizations were wonderful. People acted according to their agendas, and not for some plot needs the writer had to have, and it all built up wonderfully. I enjoyed it greatly. Sprawling and fun and definitely worth the read.

And I was quite happy with the length, considering that it helped to mitigate the cameo by what's usually my favorite twosome. In this case though, it just really kind of interrupted a great story, and seemed jarringly out of place (and not in a good way). But with the obligatory passed by, you returned to the tale, and the endings were solid all around.

Great work, and I look forward to the crossover in the Spring. Should be great. It's a sequel to the JL Annual #2 later that summer.

Oh. How does that work?

take care
Don

[starlord]

Guess who's birthday it is!!!!

Happy Birthday to DC2's very own Annie Oakley! ;D

[arcalian]

First, hope you had a happy!

second, Wise Owl is a beleivable, but very scary villain! And Chris's doubts and deliberation were very belivable, indeed!

[Susan Hillwig]

Thanks for the well-wishes, guys. Didn't do anything spectacular except cruise around the local used book stores, then come home for a "Back to the Future" DVD marathon. Why couldn't somebody buy me a flying DeLorean for my birthday?

Indeed, Wise Owl is a scary lil' sucker, and I guarantee that he will return. If you folks have the patience, I have some very long-term plans for the character, and I hope to slip in a few surprises along the way.

Again with these two weirdos turning up in my story...I really don't know how they got in there. Listen, you future-folk have the whole rest of the dang site to play with, so stay outta my book! Don says you're interrupting the narrative flow!

Oh, wait. I've still got that JL thing in May...ignore that last statement!

[HoM]

Question! How many words do you type up for this book? I assume, as a Quarterly, you throw as much as you can in for the issue, and I'm just curious... How many words?

[Susan Hillwig]

Wow, I've never been asked that before. Honestly, I've never paid attention to word-count -- I do know that MS Word can tell me such things, but I just don't look. My gauge for issue length is actually the page count: 15 pages is the minimum, and I try not to go over 25. Issue #9 here got out of hand and ended up at 30 pages...but there was also a lot of dialogue, which means having to put in a paragraph break every time another character speaks, and that eats up page space.

Let me check through my Word files, and I'll get back to you on the hard numbers. For now, we'll just say "A lot", with possible leanings towards "Too damn many."

[Susan Hillwig]

Okay, the hard numbers from a few old WWQ stories, plus the last one:

ISSUE # - PAGES - WORDS
1 ---------- 20 --- 12,800
3 ---------- 24 --- 16,082
6 ---------- 21 --- 11,117
9 ---------- 32 --- 17,645

So you see, it's kind of random. #3 was 8 pages shorter than #9, but despite all that extra length, #9 only has about 1,500 more words. Then you have #1 and #6, which have nearly identical page-counts, but #1 still manages to be about 1,700 words longer!

Hope this answers the question to your satisfaction, Charlie. Oh, and just so you folks know, WWQ#10 will be coming in 2 weeks, and JL#15 is out right now, so go give it a look-see!