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The Premonition: A Pandemic Story

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For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19. The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected. A thirteen-year-old girl’s science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control. A local public-health officer uses her worm’s-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society. A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: br...
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Thyme in a Bottle

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What kind of video can you create that will fit in 31 seconds? One like this one for starters. I had a thought, slapped my trusty Flip Video Ultra on a tripod and was able to put this together from start to finish in about half an hour. Creating videos is now on par with sketching pictures in both speed and simplicity. The new compact camcorders are now on par with pencils and paper.
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Oddities in the YouTube Section of Cyberspace

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Several months ago I posted a video contest entry on YouTube--it didn't win. The video sat for about three months, gathering around 600 views, until last weekend when interest in the video exploded. It is now up to almost 8,000 view, 14 comments, and seven rating and I am not quite sure why. The real interesting thing, though, is the comments and where they are from. So far, and assuming that the information in the commenter's profiles is correct, I have gotten comments from Great Britain, Romania, Norfolk Island, Brazil, New Zealand, Germany, and the United States. Some of the comments have been positive and others negative. The major problem that commenters seem to have is that the trailer doesn't tell what the story is about. I always thought that trailers were marketing tools whose soul purpose was to entice people into spending hard-earned money for the chance to see the movie. Whether or not the trailer tells what the story about is moot if it, the trailer, gets...
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Wormwood

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Now that the television and film writers are on strike, we are all looking at the possibility of a dearth of narrative fiction in the form of television and film, so I thought I would mention a viable alternative: podcasts. Ah, but not just any poscasts. The ones I refer to are top-shelf, professionally produced serials in the true tradition of old-time radio shows like The Shadow, Buck Rogers, and House of Mystery--shows that whet your  whistle and cause you to wait with bated breath for the next installment. The first of these I will discuss is Wormwood . Wormwood , produced by Habit Forming Films, LLC , follows the adventures of Dr. Xander Crowe , psychologist turned occult investigator, as he investigates the town of Wormwood and searches for the truth behind his vision of a drowning woman. Wormwood is not your typical small town as it is plagued by mysterious murders and disappearances, many of which may be tied to a creature called the Muddy Man. Oh, did I mention that...
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I wish you could have seen it.

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As a joke, I pulled a bunch of short clips from the raw footage we shot for my daughter's instructional West Coast Swing DVD set (promo here). The gist of it is that there are about 20 or so 1-second shots of the kids saying alright and OK when segments start. My wife thought it would be great to set it to Kenny Loggins' Theme from Caddyshack (via his Greatest Hits Album), which I did. To say the least, it is hilarious. Now the sad part: you will never see it. I don't have the time (months, maybe years) or the money (hundreds, thousands, maybe tens of  thousands of dollars) required to license the music properly (assuming I could even get all of the licenses,) so you will never see my masterpiece. Now, you may suggest that I just put it out on YouTube--no one will know, right? Wrong! I have better things to do then respond to removal notices from law firms or lawsuits by the RIAA. Your loss. Sorry. Technorati Tags: filmmaking
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Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 11...

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Finis All good things must come to an end, and so to this missive on publishing a book. Synopsis: Determine your audience. Determine a publishing model. Create a marketing plan. Write a darn fine manuscript. If you plan to traditionally publish then find an agent and or publisher. If you plan to vanity publish then research, research, research before signing anything (this also means you probably want to get a lawyer.) If  plan to self-publish then create a business plan that outlines who does what. Once you have a business plan, then create a financial plan. Be realistic! It is a business and you can seriously lose your shirt! If you plan to use LuLu.com or blurb,com , then make sure that you have completely and thoroughly edited and corrected the manuscript. People really dislike typos and grammatical errors. Remember: you have a marketing plan, so follow it. There are no guarantees. The best you can do is maximize your chance of success, not guarantee it. Good luc...
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Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 5...

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...Options. An author has options for getting their work published. As you read what follows, keep in mind what has been presented to you in previous posts. Traditional publishing - This is the Holy Grail of publishing--someone actually pays you, the author, for the right to publish your work. Now, since they are paying you for this right, they will have some (a lot) of say in what is actually published (remember "content editing") and how it is published. But, they do take care of all those other tasks (sometimes they even let you input your own thoughts.) The biggest problem is just getting a publisher to look at your stuff, which is why many authors search out the services of an agent. Of course, finding an agent (especially if your are unpublished) is probably as hard as finding a publisher, but no one said this would be easy. Now a brief word about financial side of selling a book: Traditionally, books are published with their price printed on the cover (sometimes it...
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