Newsletter 3 May 2020
- Rule of Five episode 2.20 now available for Patreon supporters
- New paperback edition of Weaving the Web of Days
Last night I finished up and posted episode 2.20 of The Rule of Five. Hands down, this project is the most fun I've had writing in a long time. The first two years (season one) Melissa and I spent a lot of time setting up the universe, the characters, and the many plot threads. With the climactic episode of season one, we were able to start bringing all those elements together, tying up some of the threads and moving characters away from their silos.
Now season two (years 3 & 4) is approaching its own climax (4 more episdoes lef). This season has all been about slowly revealing the main conflict of the series—this is a Russian nesting dolls type of story, where each problem opens up to reveal a deeper, more fundamental proglem. From the beginning we built in a number of surprises, and season two has given me the opportunity to spring some of them (there's a biggie coming up in 2.24, the season ender). That's been pure joy. You know the triumphant feeling when a plan comes together? It's that sort of joy.
At the same time, I'm fully comfortable with the characters—each has their own voice, their own motivations and desires, their own relationships with other characters. There are dozens of characters, providing a huge, diverse canvas that's interesting. Some writers refer to this stage as "characters coming alive" or "making their own way in the story." With me, it doesn't exactly work that way. I think that's because I'm fairly flexible about plot: my scene outlines sound like "Accursius and Nalani get out of jail" instead of a detailed plan for exactly how they accomplish it. So in a way, my characcters are always "alive" and surprising me. (Yes yes yes, it's all subconscious thought, part of my mind play-acting, I don't mean to suggest that I acftually beleive my characters exist in the real world.)
Season three, which commences in October, promises to be even mroe fun. And then, two years alter, it will all come to a satisfactory end (I hope).
You can sponsor The Rule of Five from our Patreon page. If you want to catch up on the series, start with Five Planes (season one), continue with The Rule fo Five: Year Three (first half of season two), then Quarterly #13 (episodes 2.13 - 2.15) and Quarterly #14 (episodes 2.16 - 2.18). The next Quarterly, with episodes 2.19 - 2.21, should be available in July.
- Legion of Super-Heroes website: Completed cataloging comics from the year 1996
- Scanned 20-odd books
- Finished & posted Rule of Five episode 2.20 (2100 words)
- Transferred 10 DVDs to mp4
Snack time!
-
Who Pays For This? (a great explainer of the non-intuitive issue of deficit financing & the national debt
-
Trump Told America’s Governors They Were On Their Own. So Maryland’s Larry Hogan Is Taking Charge
The Stunt Man (movie)
Jimmy Dean sausage, egg, & cheese breakfast sandwiches (not the healthiest breakfast, but wow do they taste good)
Thanks to a new hard drive, I've been able to start up an old project. For about 30 years, Thomas and I recorded approximately 2500 videocassettes and DVDs from live tv. Over time, we transferred the vast majority of cassettes to DVD. Still later, we started ripping those DVDs to mp4 files, stored on our iMac and managed by iTunes and AppleTV.
After a few hundred DVDs, we amassed over 4 terabytes of video and had to suspend the conversion project because we ran out of hard drive space. (In addition to the videos, we run two backups—one kept offsite—so we need at least three drives of 4 TB or more...and we're poor. We scraped together one drive each of 4, 5, and 8 TB.)
Recently, the price of larger-capacity hard drives came down to the point where we could afford a 12 terabyte drive (under $200 on sale). After juggling then other drives, we have lots of room. There's not enough room for all of the remaining DVDs, but enough to re-start the conversion process.
My goal is to rip at least 1 DVD a day. I'll keep you posted here.