PODCAST LAUNCH HAS STEEP TRAJECTORY

One of the parts of my blogging job I like best is reviewing movies and television shows. In fact, if I hadn’t grown up to be an author (to the extent you can say I am), I would have worked hard to find a job as a film reviewer. As dream jobs go, that one is at the top of my list. 

In this age of the “gig economy,” I figured I wouldn’t wait to find an opportunity for someone to pay me to do what I wanted to do; I would just make an opportunity to do it myself. After all, I’m already not getting paid to write SFR. I might as well not get paid to review movies, too.

Of course, my interest in movies and television goes well beyond science fiction and SFR. I’m at the multiplex at least once a week watching all kinds of films, and my TV habits are pretty wide-ranging, too. So I’ve had to take this idea beyond Spacefreighters to another platform—this time to the brave new world of podcasting.

A podcast, for anyone who has somehow missed it, is an audio program produced on a website, with episodes that can be listened to at any time, anywhere—on your computer, on your phone or on your tablet. My podcast is called My Moviehouse My Rules and can be found here.

 

The podcast logo for My Moviehouse My Rules

The tagline for My Moviehouse My Rules is New Screen Reviews with Old School Attitude. I get tired of reading film or TV reviews that show an ignorance of film history. So many reviewers write as if they haven’t seen a movie made before 1970 or a television show before 1990. If a film is a remake, they never mention the original. If a technique or a plot device is used, they never understand who used it before, or first. It’s not that I want every review to be a lecture, but a little background is useful, especially for people who love movies, or TV, like I do.

Then there’s the problem of everyday folks who don’t have time to go to the movies at all. They have a tough choice when it comes to spending their hard-earned cash—either on date-night or for on-demand on their TVs. They don’t need a lot of blah-blah about avant-garde cinematography or directorial POV or modern angst. They just need a few simple words about character, pacing and plot. Is it worth watching or not? I have a feature on the podcast called the Lightning Round that distills the essence of my review down to a few quick minutes to help you make viewing choices for your weekend.

I have to say learning to get my point across in a podcast has not been easy. Podcasting has a steep learning curve. Who knew it took so many words to fill up ten minutes? (On the blog or in my novels I’m always cutting words!) I struggle to get the tone right. And I’ve had to become a sound engineer to make sure the audio sounds professional using the computer software it requires. Then there was the website to set up. So bear with me if there are glitches—I’m still learning!

But if you want to be a radio star, let me know. I’d love to have you on the podcast to talk movies or television with me. I haven’t figured out the mechanics of recording interviews yet, but that’s just another technical hurdle to jump. It’s my dream job, after all. Can’t let the little things stop me!

Check out my take on the Oscar nominations, my first Lightning Round, and reviews of some of the Oscar-nominated films in my first episodes on My Moviehouse My Rules, and LIKE My Moviehouse My Rules on Facebook.

Cheers, Donna

CHASING THAT DREAM JOB

In many ways, you could say I have My Dream Job right now. As a self-published author of science fiction romance, I do something I love as a vocation. My work has produced four mainstream novels (and one short story) of which I am proud, all of which have won recognition from my peers in some way. I have a voice, a platform, and a (very) modest following on social media. I set my own schedule and make my own creative and marketing decisions (for better or worse!). I’m not bad to work for, either, compared to some other bosses I’ve had.

Although I’ve been writing stories since I could hold the big pencil, I haven’t always wanted to be a writer for a living. As a kid, when I wasn’t dreaming of running like Jim Thorpe or using sign language like Helen Keller (two of my childhood heroes), I was telling everyone I wanted to grow up to be an Egyptologist. Not just an archaeologist, mind you, but one that specializes in the ancient treasures of Egypt. I was a weird kid.

By middle school, my teachers were pushing me in the direction of using what was clearly a talent for writing. But no one was starry-eyed enough to think fiction should be my weapon of choice, least of all me. I saved the Beatles (and, later, STAR TREK) fan fiction for my spare time and focused on essays for school contests and journalism as a career goal. My Dream Job by the time I graduated from high school was Foreign Correspondent, or maybe Ace Cub Reporter for a decent-sized urban newspaper.

As I planned for the right college course to land that Dream Job, I got a great piece of advice from a reporter at the Nashville Tennessean, my hometown daily newspaper, then edited by the legendary John Siegenthaler. That reporter (whose name I don’t remember) told me no one could teach me how to write—I either had it or I didn’t. But I needed to know all the other stuff about how the world works—history, government, philosophy, science. He advised me to get a broad liberal arts degree and soak up all the job experience I could in journalism. So I went for an International Relations degree, worked for my school newspaper and radio, and interned at a major religious publishing house in Nashville.

By the time I graduated in 1975, though, everyone wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein. Jobs in media were hard to get, and, in fact, I never did succeed at snagging one. I’ve often thought that was a blessing in disguise, in this time that has seen the greatest disruption of the news media since the years preceding World War II. At least I’m not scrambling to keep my newspaper job now!

Instead my “Dream Job” just kept getting redefined over the years. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer, then Peace Corps staff. A freelance editor and writer. An organic farmer. A stay-at-home mom. A community activist. A karate instructor. A taiji instructor. A wannabe romance writer. And, finally, an honest-to-God published author. At times, I’ve been all these things at once. I’ve been thankful, very often, for that reporter’s advice. My liberal arts education gave me flexibility!

I love my regular (author) job, though I could wish for the cursed Amazon Algorithm to stop throwing up outdated editions of my books when I search for my titles. And it would be great to actually get paid. Still, I have another Dream Job that hangs just out of reach. If someone would pay me to review movies for a living, now, that would be the Dream Job of all Dream Jobs. I get to do some of that here on Spacefreighters, but I’d love to have a blog dedicated just to film reviews. Or a podcast!  What about a podcast? 

Well, a girl can dream.

Cheers, Donna

NOTE: I'll be taking a break with family for the Thanksgiving holiday next week. See you all in two weeks!