DWM Newsletter #1

Hello everyone!

We’re trying something new, as we prepare to resume our third season of The Hidden People. As such, welcome to our new Dayton Writers Movement newsletter! We hope to be sending our news out to the world every other Thursday on the weeks when we’re not releasing an episode.

Latest from The Hidden People

If you can think back to March 17th, and the end of the first half of the season, you’ll remember that we finally found out the identity of that strange voice we kept hearing: Mimir, the figure in Norse mythology known for knowledge and wisdom.

Now (according to Wikipedia, anyway!), Mimir was beheaded in the Aesir-Vanir war and Wodan(/Odin) preserved and enchanted his head in order to preserve Mimir’s wisdom and to benefit from his counsel.

You’ll perhaps not be surprised to hear – if you have listened to any of our cast and crew commentaries on Patreon, anyway – that our own Chris Burnside’s imagined version of Mimir’s origin story, as relayed to me (Katie – hello!) when we worked on his character’s theme music, is a little darker than this. Chris says:

“His headcanon backstory is that he was once a quiet scholar who hid from people because they always wanted his knowledge of the future. Wodan spent years slowly gaining his trust. Mimir thought he finally found a true friend. But Wodan betrayed him and beheaded him for his knowledge, ironically binding them for eternity.

“Ha. ‘Headcanon.’ “

Whatever we make of that little piece of heart-rending tragedy, it would seem that Mimir is not unfriendly to our heroes at all – in fact, he seems to be an ally. I don’t know about you, but it was a relief to me to finally get some good news in this season! Anyway, we’re all looking forward to you learning what his little hints to Mackenna and Alfie will mean as the story goes on.

Latest from DWM

In the past months, the following has been happening:

· DWM’s dialogue editor McKinney Botts and I (sound designer, composer, season 3 mixer) have been turning the recordings of the second half of season 3 into episodes for you.

· DWM writers have written the first season of a new DWM show…

· …which was recorded this summer, with Darlene Spencer (of Liliana fame!) directing. McKinney is now working with Darlene on the first edits of the voices for that, and it will be released after THP season 3 is done. More on this in due course.

· Work has begun on further DWM shows, some of which the writers are already writing as I, er… write. (And I’m glad that they’re more elegant with their words than I am!)

Fan Art of the Week!

We do so love seeing the fan art, fan fiction, Hidden People memes, cosplays, and other reflections of the story out there, so I want to showcase someone’s work each time I write one of these newsletters.

This week’s featured art comes from THP fan Anne. Check out Anne’s Tumblr, too.

Here is Anne’s take on Goth Mackenna!

And here’s a sketch of the night that Mackenna, Nissa and Alfie met Shaylee in season 1, episode 2, which Anne associates with the Goth Mackenna picture because of the contrast between the Mackenna of Shaylee’s imagination and the real-life Mackenna!

Our Latest Episode

For a bit of a teaser from the most recent episode, check out this version of the Hidden People theme tune, which I produced a while back, especially for the last episode. If you haven’t listened yet, I’ll leave it to you to imagine why we might need such a thing…

And that’s it for now! It’s great to be back. Thank you all so much for your ongoing support of our work – we genuinely couldn’t do it without you.

Katie and the DWM creative team

In case you want to have a listen to our latest episode, here it is:

The Hidden People, season 3, episode 12: “The One with the Fetch”

Written by Chris Burnside
Directed by Chris and Megan Burnside

A woman adjusting to life outside of Arcadia (and prison) navigates job interviews and saving the world. Her kooky band of buddies tags along for the ride. Transcript.