Tag: Confessions of a Podcast Goddess

Is your Podcast Alive with the Sound of Music?

by Jina Bacarr

Jingles. Theme music. iTunes. Music is to podcasting what a pair of high heels is to that little black dress. It sets the mood. Slip on a pair of stilettos, you get sexy. Pull on a pair of cowboy boots, you get country. And that’s exactly what I wanted for the background music for my “Jina does Dallas RWA” video blog series. I chose “Honey Rose” from B&H Gold Music to “sweeten” my video podcasts about the RWA Dallas conference, including the video podcast included in this month’s blog with bestselling author, Lisa Jackson.

Sounds easy, right? Download your fave country tune…and then what? How do you add music to your audio and video podcasts? Let’s take a look at the Dos and Don’ts of Podcast Music:

DO have an idea of your theme, tempo, and rhythm before you go looking for music. Most music sites allow you to search by genre, instrument, tempo, etc. Listen to previews on several sites [links included at the end of this blog] and bookmark the links of the music you like so you can find them again.

DO use only Royalty Free podcast safe music. Wikipedia does a good job of explaining what Royalty Free music is. Prices vary for use of the music. You can buy individual music tracks for a median price of $10-30 or CDs with several tracks for $79-$199 average.

DO buy editing software to help you edit the music, then learn how to use it in your movie-making program. Muvee is a great program for editing video podcasts, adding photos and music. It allows you to drop in a piece of music and it adjusts the length of the piece to fit your video and/or photos.

DON’T let the music overpower your video or voiceover. Adjust the volume accordingly if you edit the music yourself.

DON”T use any music you’ve downloaded or taken off a CD without checking with the artist/band/recording company for permission. Use only Podsafe music.

DON’T be afraid to experiment with unusual music for your podcast to create an eclectic piece.

Ready to meet New York Times bestselling author, Lisa Jackson? She was one of the afternoon speakers at our March 8th meeting. I had the opportunity to interview her at the RWA Conference in Dallas. Here is LISA JACKSON

Best,
Jina

Royalty Free music sites:

B&H Gold Music

Partners in Rhyme with sound effects

Incompetech.com

Stock music store

Stockmusic.net

Jina Bacarr is the author of The Blonde Geisha , Naughty Paris, Tokyo Rendezvous, a Spice Brief, and my new erotic spy thriller, Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs. Check out my MySpace page and meet Breezy Malone, the heroine in Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs.

“Get Caught in the Act!”

Today is “Work in Your Bathrobe Day”

by Jina Bacarr

If you’re like me, you’re reading this blog in your bathrobe. We’re not alone. February 11, 2007 is the sixth annual “Doing Business in Your Bathrobe Day,” a time to celebrate the freedom of working at home. According to a press release from Webmonz.com, more than 4.5 million home business owners have waved goodbye to the pressures of the corporate rat race and have settled into a more balanced and better quality of life…working from home.

I’m one of them. I spend my workday in my bathrobe in front of my computer writing hot sex. It sure beats hitting the freeway. And my coffee never gets cold.

It’s not just we writers working at home. Kristie Tamsevicius, co-founder of Webmomz.com, a site that empowers women who have chosen to work from home, views having a home business as the ultimate life balancer. “Some people may think that living and working under the same roof creates more stress, but in fact, just the opposite is true. Working from home gives you the freedom to schedule your work around your life, rather than the other way around. That way you can create a life that you truly love.”

I’d like to take her philosophy one step further. Many working women often have trouble fitting sex into their schedule, but I’ve discovered that writing about sex is like having foreplay eight hours a day. And after work? Doing research is part of the job. Does it get any better than this?

So take Kristie’s advice and celebrate your entrepreneurial spirit by mapping out a new business plan—one that makes the bathrobe your power suit. Or in the case of my characters, your birthday suit. They often spend the day not wearing any clothes. I, on the other hand, have no intention of giving up my bathrobe.

What are you wearing while you’re reading this?

Inquiring OCC minds want to know…

Check out my video podcast in my bathrobe:

Webmomz.com will hold a random drawing for a $50 gift certificate for a bathrobe from Victoria’s Secret, as well as for a host of other prizes.

Register online at WebMomz.com.

Best,
Jina

Jina Bacarr is the author of The Blonde Geisha , Naughty Paris, Tokyo Rendezvous, a Spice Brief, and Spies, Lies and Naked Thighs, an erotic spy thriller, March 2008. Check out my MySpace page for Breezy Malone, the heroine in my spy thriller.

“Get Caught in the Act!”

Jina does Dallas RWA

Part 1: Going to Dallas

by Jina Bacarr

Are you going to the RWA Conference in San Francisco this summer? Not sure? It’s a fabulous way to get together with your fellow romance writers, meet editors and agents, and those parties…

Well, what happened in Dallas at the last year’s convention doesn’t stay in Dallas because I’ve got it all on video.

So for the next few months I’m going to put up my video blog with podcasts from last year’s RWA convention at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dallas, Texas, including several with your favorite authors and OCC members!!

First up is Going to Dallas with the OCC gang. I shot this video blog on the Super Shuttle going to the airport than later at the terminal while we were waiting for our flight to Dallas.

What is video blogging, you ask? Video blogging is an interesting, spontaneous, and fun way to capture those memories when you’re “in the moment.” You don’t have to shoot a long, continuous stream of video. You can edit several scenes and/or photos together to create your video blog. Short videos work best. Going to Dallas is just over a minute and a half long including credits.

How do I get started? you want to know. It easy. You can put all your video and your photos into a free program like Windows Movie Maker (included with Windows), split the clips where you want to cut them, delete, then add fun transitions and/or fade in/fade outs. Adding music can be trickier and we’ll discuss that next month.

If you want a program that chooses the shots for you and adds the special effects you specify from their “styles” packages, then I recommend Muvee. This is an expensive program ($129.95), but you can download it for 21 days and try it for free to see if it works for you.

So sit back and enjoy Going to Dallas RWA.

Best,
Jina

Jina Bacarr is the author of The Blonde Geisha , Naughty Paris, Tokyo Rendezvous, a Spice Brief, and Spies, Lies and Naked Thighs, an erotic spy thriller, March 2008.

Jina writes erotic adventure for Spice Books.

“Get Caught in the Act!”

Malibu Christmas Play Podcast

by Jina Bacarr

Getting a new camera for Christmas? Taking lots of pictures and videos?

Turn your photos into a video podcast for your family and friends. Several programs exist on the market but if you use Windows, you should already have Windows Movie Maker installed on your computer.

Muvee is an affordable, easy-to-use program perfect for both video and photo podcasts.

We’ll be discussing these programs more at length in 2008. But since it’s the holidays, here’s a special Christmas Podcast called “The Christmas Piano Tree,” my one-act play that was produced in Malibu at the Malibu Stage Company Theatre.
I filmed the play during a performance, then I shot frames from the play off my TV screen using my digital camera; next, I recorded an audio track with my voiceover (I acted as the narrator and the two female characters in the play) and sweetened it with music.

The Christmas Piano Tree is based on my family tradition of decorating our old upright piano like a Christmas tree.

Happy Holidays!!
Best,
Jina
Jina Bacarr is the author of The Blonde Geisha , Naughty Paris, Tokyo Rendezvous, a Spice Brief, and Spies, Lies and Naked Thighs, an erotic spy thriller, March 2008.

Jina writes erotic adventure for Spice Books. “Get Caught in the Act!”

A Veterans Day Memory…

by Jina Bacarr

On this Veterans Day, I’m reminded of a cold, dreary January morning when I wandered over the frozen ground in a forest in Luxembourg, the hushed voices of fallen soldiers whispering in my ear, begging me not to forget them. An unbearable chill settled into my bones, a shiver striking me between the shoulder blades when I heard the crunching sound of iron-shod boots behind me. Heavy boots. The same sound an American soldier would have heard during the long siege of the Battle of the Bulge that took place here during the freezing winter of 1944-45 in World War II.

The enemy. Ready to strike him down.

Was there no greater fear?

But today the boots belonged to my guide, a wizened old man with a pipe settled between his thin lips as he pointed out where different parts of the battle took place. I never forgot my tour of the battlefield then later the memorial site, where rows of white crosses mark the graves of fallen American soldiers, as well as the gravestone marker where General George S. Patton is buried. I also visited a similar field down the road where wooden German crosses mark the burial place of their dead. Snowflakes drifted down from the gray sky overhead in a peaceful pattern, scurrying from one marker to another before settling on the graves. It made no difference whether those graves were Allied or Axis. They were fallen soldiers.

War is hell.

Our military men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan know that same fear, day in and day out. No wonder when they have a few moments to relax, they catch up on emails from home. They also like to read. Books have a way of taking the soldier’s mind off from his fear, his pain, his loneliness. And that’s where we can help. Send books to our fighting men and women overseas.

Best, Jina

Jina Bacarr is currently working on an erotic fiction novel set during World War II about a cabaret dancer who becomes a spy.

She is the author of The Blonde Geisha , Naughty Paris, Tokyo Rendezvous, a Spice Brief, and Spies, Lies and Naked Thighs, an erotic spy thriller, March 2008.

Jina writes erotic adventure for Spice Books. “Get Caught in the Act!”