Spaaaaace Mantis!

Hobby Blog Part 3 was supposed to be for graphic design, but then Covid-19 upended everything, and I forgot I had a blog. Long story short (?), I took some online classes on how to use PowerPoint and was gifted an old copy to play with. I realized pretty quickly that just because a person CAN throw pictures onto backgrounds and change colors willy-nilly doesn't mean that person SHOULD, so I took more online classes about the fundamentals of graphic design, like typography, color, and whatever category the rule of thirds and that spiral fall into. Drawing and graphic design complement each other nicely, so that helped. I learned a lot about choosing a focal point and really directing people toward what I want them to look at. Can I always execute this? No. But I do know I should be trying to think about it, and that's a start.

Phew, blog part 3, done.

Now forget all that, because this blog update is about the Space Mantis Podcast, written by my co-writing pal Laura Morrison and voice acted by a big group of our writing buddies. Space Mantis started as a fictional space opera from one of Laura's novellas, Come Back to the Swamp. The fake show quickly took on a life of its own, making its way into other books we were writing. Laura even started working on scripts that incorporate her Come Back to the Swamp character into the show. (For the 2 and a half people reading this the day I hit publish, that's technically still a spoiler).

The premise is that a Space Mantis superfan receives a box of DVDs after her favorite show is cancelled, and she starts a podcast to share the audio of those DVDs with the Mantis-starved fandom. Pretty quickly, she gets a little more involved in the story than she was expecting. I got to voice act that Narrator character, which was a blast, (even for Episode 11 where I think she talks for 10 solid pages). Our writing group divvied up the parts of the regular crew, and Laura took her Come Back to the Swamp character.

The production quality of the episodes is mind-boggling to me. We have a lot of talented people pitching in their time and effort. There are sound effects, and the dialogue sounds like...I mean, dialogue. Considering we recorded separately and in pieces across the span of years, that feat alone is incredible.

I may say more in the future about the ins and outs of recording such an involved podcast, but there are a few episodes already released, so you should definitely go listen to one. You can listen to them on YouTube or any podcast app.