As a child, Jamie Engel devoured Shel Silverstein's poetry and reveled in the adventures of Mary Poppins, her imagination a garden where stories grew wild and untamed. Now an accomplished screenwriter, novelist, and producer, Jamie joins us to share her evolution from fan fiction aficionado to master of the dramatic cliffhanger. Her journey is one of unexpected twists, including an impromptu dance with romance genres and the creation of 'Just Jake', a project that pirouetted from screenplay to novel with the grace of a seasoned storyteller. Strap in for a ride through the vibrant corridors of Jamie's mind, where the supernatural becomes the norm, and each page turned is a step deeper into her enthralling world.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to transition from the quiet introspection of novel writing to the collaborative cacophony of filmmaking, Jamie's tale lights the way. We'll explore the nuances of breathing life into a screenplay and the thrill of seeing it reborn as a full-bodied novel, with Jamie’s perspective as the guiding star. The conversation whirls from her self-publishing hustle to Broadway dreams of bringing a "Back to the Future" musical into the future, and the glitzy aspirations of Hollywood. You'll walk away from this episode with the infectious desire to chase your own dreams, whether they lie on the streets of New York City or within the flickering lights of a silver screen.
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As a child, Jamie Engel devoured Shel Silverstein's poetry and reveled in the adventures of Mary Poppins, her imagination a garden where stories grew wild and untamed. Now an accomplished screenwriter, novelist, and producer, Jamie joins us to share her evolution from fan fiction aficionado to master of the dramatic cliffhanger. Her journey is one of unexpected twists, including an impromptu dance with romance genres and the creation of 'Just Jake', a project that pirouetted from screenplay to novel with the grace of a seasoned storyteller. Strap in for a ride through the vibrant corridors of Jamie's mind, where the supernatural becomes the norm, and each page turned is a step deeper into her enthralling world.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to transition from the quiet introspection of novel writing to the collaborative cacophony of filmmaking, Jamie's tale lights the way. We'll explore the nuances of breathing life into a screenplay and the thrill of seeing it reborn as a full-bodied novel, with Jamie’s perspective as the guiding star. The conversation whirls from her self-publishing hustle to Broadway dreams of bringing a "Back to the Future" musical into the future, and the glitzy aspirations of Hollywood. You'll walk away from this episode with the infectious desire to chase your own dreams, whether they lie on the streets of New York City or within the flickering lights of a silver screen.
Follow us on Instagram @spacecoastpodcast
Sponsor this show
Want to watch our shows? https://youtube.com/@spacecoastpodcast
This podcast is brought to you by Place Pros Commercial and Investment Real Estate and NikoTour Boutique, your one stop shop for everything cool. I always want to play that game with, like, the duo. Like, will you know, do you know your partner? Well, Right, no, I wouldn't want to play that game. I'd be afraid I know you'd too. It took me so long to memorize my husband's phone number that I had to actually print it on a pillow. And that did it. Yeah, that did it.
Speaker 2:I got intro to a teacher group a few weeks ago and she's like I printed out your bio but I don't know what I did with it, so I'm just going to make up stuff and then you just roll with it and I'm like awesome, no, it's great. So she's like so I'd like to introduce Jamie Engel. She's a local writer, she's also an astronaut and she just kept going and then she started, she broke, she started laughing and she's like I'm kidding. Yeah, but one person did ask when the questions started. They're like so what is it like? How did you juggle writing and astronauting?
Speaker 2:Well it was great. I feel like I want that intro every time, like, yeah, make it up and we'll just roll with it and see what happens.
Speaker 1:Just pretend you pretend you're a storyteller.
Speaker 2:It's all fiction.
Speaker 1:All right. Are we rolling? All right, we have Jamie Engel with us. Welcome. Jamie is a screenwriter, a novelist and a producer. The first question I have and it's the reason why this show is here Did you grow up here?
Speaker 2:I did.
Speaker 1:You did grow up here.
Speaker 2:I've been here since second grade.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so how did you fall into this beautiful world of writing?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a great question. I started writing when I was like probably seven or eight years old.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I fell into shell. Silverstein poetry.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:Copycat. So like I just did what he did and I made up poems about foods I ate that I hate, you know, and kind of copied his style and actually my grandparents had gotten me Alice in Wonderland and I remember reading the book and then like there was this moment where I fell into the story.
Speaker 1:Literally Alice.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, and it was so deep that I remember gasping. And then I was back in my bedroom and I was like, oh my God, I want to do that for other people. That was so cool and that kind of started the bug. And then I went into the really bad poetry and I did a lot of fan fiction. I like to say I invented it because I took Murray Poppins and Jane and Michael on adventures.
Speaker 1:Oh, really. So you would take characters that were already created and make a new Make up stories, oh wow, and I think what that?
Speaker 2:what it did for me is it was a lot easier to take one aspect of a story at a time, so I knew the characters very well. But I could, you know, take the characters and then write a fantasy and work on, you know, the adventure part, the actual story. How did you know to do that? I don't know. I mean, I did a lot of things just like innate.
Speaker 2:Yeah like that, my grandfather. He used to tell me Hulk stories. I would sit on this lap, my mom tells me. I barely remember. But she said I'd sit on this lap and he'd make up these Hulk stories about the orange Hulk and the yellow Hulk and the purple Hulk. And I just sit there like wide eyed and he'd finish and I'd say tell me another one, pop up, tell me another one. And I think that was teaching me like, like the pacing of a story and where people lean in, and why? Because I would lean in you know and you noticed that.
Speaker 2:Well, looking back, yeah, not then, but looking back at all the things I did, I was like okay, that that really makes sense, that that was teaching me, you know, like where to do the cliffhanger you know like things like that, that I just I just do. I don't think about it, I'm just like you know. I write it and I hear oh my God. I just know. That's where the chapter break. Right, or that's where the super interesting.
Speaker 1:What school did you go to? Did you have any influence there?
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I went to UCF I for English. I was going to be a novelist. That was the goal. I was like, how did you feel to be the first time around? And I had a teacher tell me that I was a romance writer and I was like how dare you, I was so mad.
Speaker 1:Why do you think she?
Speaker 2:felt that way Because I am, I mean, I just I mean I write fantasy and horror, but I always have that like that relational redemption storyline underneath it. You know and that, just that moving moment in the story. So it is very driven by a romantic element whether it's a father, daughter or husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, like just that, that romance of relationship. I have that built into my storytelling.
Speaker 1:Super cool, oh, but, but you didn't like that.
Speaker 2:No, I was very mad at her.
Speaker 1:And what did you see yourself as?
Speaker 2:Like Stephen King's prodigy, you know, obviously like horror and fantasy and like magical realism, and that's mostly what I do, right? But okay. So just Jake is my first movie and it's a rom-com.
Speaker 1:It is a rom-com.
Speaker 2:The first book I have traditionally published is a rom-com.
Speaker 1:Wow, so she was right. Yeah, that's good. So let's talk about just Jake, because that's turning into a movie Done, done. Yeah that's all done, can you? Hold up the book. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, did the book come first or did the screenplay come first? The screenplay?
Speaker 2:came first. I like to do things the wrong way and make up rules. I wrote the script and it got picked up, and when we were contracting I asked if I could retain the book rights to exploit on my own, and then we would work out a deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I knew they weren't going to publish a novel. They're filmmakers. That wasn't in there. Right, and I knew they were also going to change the script, because it's a collaborative process and it's going from you know words to pictures. So I knew if I retained the book rights I could always tell the exact story I wanted to tell. Yeah, and then I had to have another product to sell to another audience.
Speaker 1:How did you hook up with the filmmaking industry?
Speaker 2:Ironically, I was working at the Space Coast Association of Realtors, running the social media and doing the website for new realtors. We had a new realtor day every month and I was teaching the website portion and I laughed and this gentleman followed me out and he said I'm a new realtor. Could you help me with the website? I'm a little confused. I just moved here from LA. I've been in the film industry for 30 years but I felt God leading me to build affordable housing in Cocoa Florida.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's quite a request and I said I know and I said, oh well, I have. I'm an author and I've always wanted to write movies. And he said, oh well, let me connect you with my bestie. He's an entertainment attorney in LA who happened to work on Sin City and the Kill Bill Volumes and the recent Apple TV show, the Banker. He's definitely a legitimate attorney and I was like what is happening?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what is happening? Because growing up here we don't get that. We did it. When, I think, we grew up here, there wasn't a lot. You were either going to be a doctor, a nurse or a teacher. So to have those opportunities is like wow.
Speaker 2:It was crazy. It's like a typical Hollywood story.
Speaker 1:It totally is.
Speaker 2:I met a guy who knew a guy and then you made a movie.
Speaker 1:How crazy is that? And it was just like happenstance, because real estate, I mean, you weren't there to write or sell your product, it was just, I'm pivoting, I'm doing something different, but during that time you had already been a novelist. Ok, and how was it going from writing books to writing a screenplay? Because it's a completely different wheelhouse.
Speaker 2:It totally is. I mean, it's the same storytelling craft but it's delivered in a completely different way. So I mean, basically I had no idea what I was doing. In December he reached out to me, the attorney, and he said hey, do you have any rom-coms? Think Hallmark, strong Female Lead. And I had never written a movie in my life. I write about supernatural demons, monsters, magic. So I told him yeah, let me just see what I have, because I'm not going to say no.
Speaker 2:Exactly Google. And I called a friend in LA who I knew wrote rom-coms and they said I don't know what to do. And he said oh well, the Hallmark execs are teaching a class this weekend on Zoom through a school called Story Summit, and I have a coupon code. You should totally go and I'm like OK, yes, please.
Speaker 1:Oh, my god so.
Speaker 2:I went and I took the class. It was between Christmas and New Year's.
Speaker 1:Perfect time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, and I wrote two screenplays in January. Wow Sent them both to the producer and mid-February they said we want this one.
Speaker 1:Holy cow.
Speaker 2:And it took a year and a half to get the contract. But I mean that was a year and a half for the contract.
Speaker 1:What, why, why did it take so long? You're like that's my question. Everything takes so long Because you guys are just negotiating back and forth.
Speaker 2:There's negotiating, there's timing, there's the film credits. So you have to do a lot of ducks in a row to get the state to give the funding back and the investors to see that they've got this amount dropped already. So there's a lot of that. That goes on.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean obviously the stuff that you think of on your own, like location scouting and casting. That obviously takes some time too, but there's a lot of that. And then they were also in production on other movies that they were wrapping on and editing and marketing and all of that.
Speaker 1:And the whole time where you like this is going to fall through, or were you confident?
Speaker 2:Yes, and three rou��, larger than three, because I didn't know who these people were and if they were real. So I, like I Googles, I went to the California like Sunbiz in California, to find their corporate name. I found like an investment firm, I found one of the names.
Speaker 1:So I mean I was like yeah, I was on a mission and I did find everybody and it all worked out it was all good oh my God, crazy, and so, but before that you were writing books. How lucrative is that?
Speaker 2:I mean in children's books. It's a lot of hustle because you're either with Scholastic and in the school system and getting recommended for the AR, like the accelerated reader program where the kids get points for reading, or you're in the Scholastic Book Fair or you're in the library system. So as an indie author it's harder to get into those places. So there's a lot of hustle. So I, you know, did a lot of door knocking at schools and school visits and, you know, talking to kids about social issues and writing and bullying.
Speaker 1:So are you still self publishing, are you self?
Speaker 2:publishing I am still self published. Except for the just Jake novel I went with a publisher.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, that's great Cool. You've won multiple awards and you say it's stories with a magic touch. Tell me about that. Yes.
Speaker 2:I guess it's twinkle.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I want my brand to be cohesive and if I'm writing about demons and romcoms for hallmark, then there has to be something cohesive, and so I think there's magic in love, there's magic in supernatural, there's magic and magical realism, there's magic in historical fiction. You know, magic can be defined in multiple ways, so for now that's the brand that kind of encompasses the magic most of my projects, because that can be both. Yeah, it sort of can go back and forth in all of those different projects. Ok.
Speaker 1:Tell me why the demons Tell me more about that. How did that come about? Because you said you didn't want to be known as a romance novelist, but so there's this other side of you. Tell me about that. How did you get into that?
Speaker 2:I really like supernatural stories. I think it's just really fun to reinvent what could be going on that we can't see. So it just fascinates me Angels and demons and werewolves and vampires and all of those goolies and ghosties. They're just interesting.
Speaker 1:They're totally interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's just a lot of really cool lore out there in different cultures. There is yeah, so it's just fun to mess with it and just see what you can come up with.
Speaker 1:That's super interesting. I was listening to another podcast that she was like a historian, a religious historian, who looked at all these texts about angels and stuff and then she sort of somebody invited her to a UFO convention and then it clicked for her. They're talking about the same thing. That's awesome. Have you ever thought about that?
Speaker 2:Not that particularly, but I mean, yeah, I do see parallels in things that I just find interesting and who's to say, no one will ever know until the end when we get to ask questions to somebody. It's fun to speculate, like the Marshall Law series is about a demon cowboy. That's what I thought he is.
Speaker 1:The demon cowboy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's a fallen angel, he's vengeance.
Speaker 1:But he's your hero.
Speaker 2:He's my hero. Yeah, he's like an anti-hero, like a venom character, but so he's read in the scripture that God said vengeance is mine and he's the angel of vengeance. So he takes it personally and he thinks that with enough good deeds he can earn his way back into God's good graces.
Speaker 2:So he is being tasked to lead the end time witnesses through Dante's Inferno, through the nine circles of hell to witness all of man's sins, so that they can come back to earth and kind of proclaim y'all are messed up and you're going to be in trouble, and so that's his thing, wow.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's so interesting. Yeah, like side by side with the just shake Sure and just Jake, there's a cowboy on the cover, yeah, ok.
Speaker 2:Purely coincidental. What do you mean, demon cowboy?
Speaker 1:Oh right, romantic cowboy, cowboy, cowboy, good cowboy and a bad cowboy Maybe it's not.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's subliminal, because I always tell my husband that if I could pick where I was supposed to be alive, it would be like the 1880s.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:The old West yeah.
Speaker 1:Why does that draw you no idea? I just feel like Maybe a past life or something.
Speaker 2:Maybe, and I think like I wish I could go back with the knowledge I have now, because I would be like the biggest, baddest bank robber in the old West oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:And maybe you were.
Speaker 2:Maybe I was.
Speaker 1:That's really interesting. So do all your novels have like a religious undertone?
Speaker 2:A lot of them do. It's not preachy, there's no preaching, but I do have a strong faith and it does work its way into my art, but in a way that most people have no clue.
Speaker 1:OK, yeah, yeah, ok, that's good. I do both sides. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I play all the angles and try to keep it true. Like one of my series. Dreadlands is Norse mythology, vikings, werewolves, and the lead boy is questioning their gods and he's saying maybe there's one god and that was historically accurate. So I just kind of play with that and that's it. There's like one conversation. It's not anywhere else in the story, but it's just one little conversation, so do you always go back to lore and mythology?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's my favorite. If I could just live in like a magical realism, historical mythology writing world and that was all I ever wrote, I would be very content.
Speaker 1:Interesting, and so when you're thinking about your next book, is it an idea that pops in your head, or do you have things lined up that I want to do this? I want to explore this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's both. I mean, a lot of times I have ideas of what I'll work on next, and then I might have an idea that kind of infiltrates and takes over, and then so I have to decide am I going to do this book or am I going to write this movie, or am I going to outline this new idea and balancing that.
Speaker 1:Are you continuing to write movies now, then, now that your foot is in the door?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a couple that are optioned in shopping agreements. Martial Law is actually one of them. It's a. It's currently in a TV show format, but it's being optioned for development into a feature film with the producer of Stephen King's Thinner and the Stand and the producer of Creep Show. Very nice, yeah. So that one like lots of fingers crossed. And then I have a couple other TV shows and movies that are optioned. Are they animated?
Speaker 1:or real?
Speaker 2:One of them is animated. We haven't gone out with that one yet. That one I just finished the script, got my notes back from the executive producer, so this is my week to make all those changes, but that one is. She's a monster producer. She's worked on tons of huge IP like SpongeBob and Ren and Stimby. Oh nice, she knows what she's doing, yeah yeah, she's a pro and she's very connected and we've just worked so well together and just hit it off.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful. Yeah, she's amazing. Sometimes those executive producer notes can really kill you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, and you have to make a decision. Is this worth losing the deal over?
Speaker 1:Yeah, how important is it? Most of the time it's not right.
Speaker 2:I mean, you ask, everyone has their own opinion. For me, I just feel like if it's going to get the deal closed and get onto, the next project and give me some credit and some cash, then why would I say no?
Speaker 1:Right. Right because you're a storyteller and you can pivot right. Interesting. You've written 15 books and they're all in this genre the magic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mostly the magical realism, historical fantasy, just that kind of mashup, and is it for kids, for teens, for young adults? Yes yes. I mean, I think my audience is generalized to like fifth and sixth grade or fifth to eighth grade.
Speaker 1:That's my sweet spot.
Speaker 2:But it's also for adults who like those books, like I, basically only read middle grade books or books by authors. I know, yeah, what do you read. Yeah, like I can't think of a single book right now. But you can go to my Goodreads. I post everything I'm reading and every day I update the page of the book that I read. Like I read 3% today and this is my thoughts on it so I just like to.
Speaker 1:You'd be like a wonderful host for a book club then.
Speaker 2:I would love to do that you maybe should. I even have some books, I can I know let's read my book this week.
Speaker 1:Is that wrong? No, no, you're an expert in all things storytelling. You've been in nationwide conferences. You go to schools and state libraries Talk about that. So when you are an author, you get speaking engagements, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you have to kind of go out and find them.
Speaker 1:You do.
Speaker 2:But now they're finding me, which is nice yeah that's nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a big one coming up. Actually, I mean, by the time this airs it'll be over A big zoom through the Story Rocket group and they're amazing. They have a platform where you can upload your book synopsis and your log line and parts of your story and your Dreamcast for the movie. And if you have a script, you can upload a few pages and they make it all seamless. So you can talk to a producer and say, here, go to this link, and it has all my stuff, wow. And you can just see it.
Speaker 2:It's a really cool idea. No one else is doing anything like it.
Speaker 1:Wow, and do producers go to these things to find people?
Speaker 2:like you they do. The owner is a producer. She's produced for a long time and yeah, and she brings in people and they reach out to her.
Speaker 1:And you're a producer too. Tell me what are you producing. Or is it because of Just Jake?
Speaker 2:Right now, it's because of Just Jake, I'm on that movie as a co-producer. Yeah, it was great, very nice. The idea was mine. So, that plays into that.
Speaker 1:Do you have any creative decision-making to do, or are you just credited?
Speaker 2:Just credited On that movie. It was just credited. And I think it was, because if you write the idea on spec and they buy it, then it's your movie, versus like I'm working on another movie where they reached out to me with the idea and they hired me to create it, so I wouldn't go on as a producer in that regard. Yeah, because all I did was write their idea. But I think when it's your idea, then you're, you're. You brought the project to the team. Yeah, which is what producers do.
Speaker 2:I mean one of the things producers do.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:As you know, yeah, so I. They listed me on there as a co-producer, which was wonderfully awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is wonderfully awesome. So do you want to keep doing that? Are you going to put novel into the side, or you know?
Speaker 2:I don't want to, but I already have like my next step plans lined up. I've already talked to a couple of writers that I know, whose work I love, and said hey, would you be interested if I gave you the synopsis, writing the book, and then I would come in and edit it, like James Patterson, and then we would just split it. And so I have a few writers that are like, oh my gosh, I love that. So that's incredible. Yeah, or some of my movies, like some of my rom-coms that have been optioned, I would like to have books to go with them. So I have a writer that I'm like, if I gave you the script and you had like free reign from there, like the script will be like you know three quarters of the story and you need to fill in all the thoughts and the backstory and the history Would you be interested in?
Speaker 1:so I mean, there must be like because usually a writer would be like this is mine, like there's ego involved, which you clearly don't have. You are just going down this path. That is like illuminating itself along the way, and you're just like, yeah, yeah, let's go. Yeah, I mean I.
Speaker 2:I just love storytelling and I like helping other people and if I can combine that that's a win. But I just want to get in the business. Like, I have a movie made on TV which is like incredibly insane, right, but I'm not like on Loki writing, I'm not, you know, getting calls from Spielberg Like these are the things I want.
Speaker 1:Maybe someday.
Speaker 2:Some mech is we're. Yet I'd like to do back to the future, for, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, have the idea you do. Yeah, he doesn't want to do it.
Speaker 2:I mean not that I know personally, but I mean they're not doing anymore.
Speaker 1:But yeah, they're doing the musical though, so that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Back to the future musicals on Broadway, so that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I wonder what that would be like.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, is it? Is it playing now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, you got to go up there and watch it. Yeah, do you?
Speaker 2:ever go to New York? No, I will. My cousin lives up there and we were just talking about it. She's like you need to come up and see the two time Back to the future musical and I'm like set it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you're like all Hollywood, now you gotta get out. You do Very cool.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of. I'm kind of afraid of airplanes. So tell me about it this is my year to face the airplane.
Speaker 1:The year of the opening door mid-flight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's do it Because I'm telling you like COVID, like COVID allowed me to say, it's okay to be ridiculously insane and fearful. It's okay, yeah, everyone is everyone. We all did it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it was also a year to be like I might not have that much time left on this earth. Right, let me do everything I ever wanted to do In a mask. In a mask or a scarf. I bought a whole bunch of scarves, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like moving out of that has been hard Getting like going out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And not being like well, do we want to go or do we just stay home?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We'll just watch it on TV. We don't have to go to the theater. You know, just getting out of that mindset has been very difficult.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, the drive up there isn't so bad either.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:But I mean statistically, yeah, that's the worst option On a plane.
Speaker 2:Do it the year.
Speaker 1:When was the last time you've been on a plane? I?
Speaker 2:don't remember. It was a few years ago, it was before COVID.
Speaker 1:Okay, long enough yeah.
Speaker 2:I think we went to Montana to go visit family.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, the last time I was on the on a plane, the engine sparked and popped as we were landing and I just like froze and went comatose and my husband's like come on, let's go.
Speaker 2:We're on the ground, it's okay.
Speaker 1:I'm like it almost felt like we died and like, yeah, the, the parallel split, and we're still living, but in the other one we died. Right, that was freaky. Yeah, but you'll be fine, I will be. Take a pill or something, take a lot, yeah. So when you go to schools to talk to kids, what is that like? Because I think I shared with you when I was a kid in D Atlantic Elementary, they brought in with a storyteller yeah, and it stuck with me, and now being in television and telling reality TV stories, like I think about that and I think about how it impacted me. So you're doing that to other kids though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's awesome, I mean it's so. It's so fun to go into a room and you know kids are like yeah, yeah, old people like you know you're going to see it and then just start talking and letting them see that you know. I get that, yeah, and then just saying one or two things that connect with them and then by the time they leave, that they just they take something with them, you know.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Some social issue that they can handle a little better. You know, or or something about writing. I could talk to some writers groups and those kids just feel really excited when I read their work and go, hey, this is so good If you, if you do something like this here, then that'll help you.
Speaker 1:Oh cool Nuggets. So you do. She talked about like bullying her or you have a social aspect to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a couple my Clifton Chase and the Arrow of Light series. There's two books in that. It's about a boy from Melbourne. He finds a magic arrow and time travels Get out. Yeah, he found it in Wickham Park, wow, so you're using Melbourne as a backdrop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing, jamie, it's fun.
Speaker 2:I love it. That was my first series and you know he goes to Dolora Middle School where he's dealing with a bully, and the princes in in history that he goes to help were bullied by their uncle. And my son was bullied when I wrote it. So we homeschooled and did archery club at Wickham Park, which is where the whole story came from. So, yeah, so I built up a package and then for years I've gone to schools and talked to kids about bullying and empathy and you know the power of their words and yeah being the voice for somebody when maybe they can't be, and yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that's been like really rewarding. And then I decided to try it again with another story with Metal Mouth. She's a she's a teenager, she also lives in Melbourne, and she starts hearing a boy's voice in her head after she gets struck by lightning. Her braces are transmitting it and she doesn't know if he's real or, and if he is, why did the universe bring them together?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So she's trying to figure that out and with that one, because it's about voice and like finding yourself, finding your voice. I just talked to kids about social media and how? Like you know, you can't. You can't rely on likes, you can't look at your circle, you can't look at the filters, you can't compare. Yeah, you have. Like you know, we are built for the opinions of maybe a hundred people. That's it, and that's like our far reaching scope. It's really like three, like I have three close people.
Speaker 1:You know, maybe five handful. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everyone else it's like yes, and the the opinions beyond that. It's like I really don't care, and and and. They're just like obsessed with it, and and they I can see it on their face. It's like I'm so glad someone told me that.
Speaker 1:Like it's like a release, yeah, yeah. Yes, we were talking to this about. We just had a guest, nila Lois, and she's a 17 year old girl. She came in with her mom and she said the same thing. Like once they got the phone, it went downhill from there and I mean, you have two sons, how have you been navigating that?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I have boys, so boys are just built different. They totally I mean I'm allowed to say that in this day and age but I am. But from my experience with my friends who have daughters and my friends who have boys, boys handle it differently and not to say that some boys aren't overly affected. I might order.
Speaker 2:some was bullied. He's more sensitive, he definitely internalized things more Right. But my younger son, he's, he's a football player. Both of them, as are in Anderson, their football players. You know they. They just take the social media. Their problem is they post things that they shouldn't Like, things that we all did and said.
Speaker 1:Well, we were there out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm like how are you ever going to be president? Like, come on, you got to think about these things. Get that off of your snapchat.
Speaker 1:Is that where they're at these?
Speaker 2:days, snapchat and.
Speaker 1:Tik Tok and you let them have their own handles and everything.
Speaker 2:I do. I try to follow them, but then they like create. You know they create fake accounts, apparently. But my older son, who's 23. He's friends with him, so he'll be like hey, mom, yeah, so that's wonderful. I mean, that's not true, just kidding, just kidding, it doesn't happen. Never happened. Now, I mean only if it's bad stuff, you know, like if it's really something I need to know about. But yeah, I mean we, we talk to our kids about everything.
Speaker 2:I think that's another difference from our parents 15, 16 and 20, sorry, 16, 16 and 23. We just had a 20. No, we just had a birthday.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:That's still weird, as returned six 17 in May and Anderson just turned 16 in February.
Speaker 1:So your pregnancy was short.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, he's my, he's my, my foe, son.
Speaker 1:Oh OK, yes, he's my adopted love OK. Makes more sense. My unofficially unadopted second third child Very nice, okay, cool, and how is teenagehood going for them?
Speaker 2:They're having a blast. They're really good kids. They're crazy. Sometimes they're a little obnoxious and even borderline vile.
Speaker 1:But they make me laugh.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, they do smell, but they're mouths Some of the things. I realized it's our fault, our generation, because we were the generation that required the explicit language lyrics, but we only had three bands that had explicit lyrics. That was it Two.
Speaker 1:Rive.
Speaker 2:Crew. That was it, and now we accepted that as normal music. So when they listen to stuff or watch TikTok, and everyone's language is awful, I'm just kind of like can you not say that around me? I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it coming out of your beautiful lips those foul words Do what you want.
Speaker 1:But you can't punish them for using language.
Speaker 2:It's the world that we live in and it's funny because it doesn't bother us. Like us Gen X parents as much because we were the ones that brought it into mainstream.
Speaker 1:But I think it's more of like you don't know what your employer's going to be like. You need to tone it down, tone it down and they need to button up in certain occasions.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I feel the same way. I feel like it's more of a different kind of communication.
Speaker 1:I feel like a little bit opposite. My daughter, I have a potty mouth and she somehow just knows not to use it. Or maybe she sees me and she's like what a weirdo. I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a little bit of a. I wanted to make a t-shirt that says I love Jesus and F-bombs, just so people know what they're getting into. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right off the bat, that's so you, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's do that Sell those. You were on a TV show as an alien. I was Tell me about that.
Speaker 2:I was an alien on a show called Sea Quest in the 90s when Orlando used to be very active for film and television production, so I did a lot of commercials and television shows and a lot of work out there. I had an agent, brevard Talent group. They're in Orlando now but they still work with locals.
Speaker 1:Okay, so like your dip into Hollywood isn't new.
Speaker 2:No, no, I got bit a long time ago.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I just wasn't a very good actress.
Speaker 1:But you played an alien for several of the episodes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was in like a full body suit and they zipped up the back so like, did you have lines? No, I didn't say anything and I didn't like. I remember I couldn't like eat or drink like the whole time because it was such a pain to zip and unzip. So I mean that it was a wreck. Like when I got home. I remember waking up in the middle of the night, panicked because my pillow was on my face and I thought I was back in the mass.
Speaker 1:Like it was dramatic, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:But I did meet Jonathan. Jonathan Landis is at his name.
Speaker 1:I used to have a crush on him. Everybody did yeah, he was so cute. Well, he hit on me.
Speaker 2:We were at the craft services table Get out of town. I didn't know who he was, I was just hungry and I mean Jesse knows me, I'm food focused and like I'm sitting there trying to eat and he's like hitting on me and I'm like bro.
Speaker 1:Trying to eat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was like the teen pop idol of everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was like but now he's like acting in TV.
Speaker 2:No, no, I think he like, I think he passed a while ago yeah. Under bad circumstances.
Speaker 1:honestly, Like the, I was just watching something like about the two quarries.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a different podcast.
Speaker 1:It is yeah.
Speaker 2:But Jonathan is like the Leonardo DiCaprio, yeah, yeah. And then Leo. And then Leo came around and stole our hearts, stole everybody's heart.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, but you're not acting anymore.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I would like to. It was. It was recommended to me that I'm not bad looking. Yeah, beautiful, not bad looking. So you should negotiate in your future contracts a very small speaking role you should totally do that. That's what I said. I'm like that's a great idea Good idea.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I'll take that. That's the theater, correct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my oldest son, lucas, works in Sarasota at the Florida Theater Studio in downtown.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:He has his degree in theater and is minor in theater management.
Speaker 1:Wow, so you're taking it to the next generation. Yes so is he in place?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he is in place there and then he's always auditioning because it's a contract, so it's going to expire at some point.
Speaker 1:Why Sarasota?
Speaker 2:That's just the theater that that picked him up.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:He's been in a bunch of places, even locally. Well, he's worked at Hanna Gurie. He's worked at Ty to Spill. He's done both of those for years throughout high school and what kind of roles did they get? Mostly he is in the um, um the singing and acting and dancing like background.
Speaker 1:He's got a chorus.
Speaker 2:That's not called a chorus, but I can't remember what it's called right now. But um, he's probably yelling at me listening to this like mother this called the, and he's had small speaking roles. Um, he, he doesn't really care about being the lead Like he who wouldn't want to be but in the same sense he's like. You know, I just like being on stage. It's a lot of lines, it's a lot of commitment.
Speaker 1:So he's understudying.
Speaker 2:Right now he's learning that. Um, he's learning auditioning, because it's like a paid internship, oh wow. So they're teaching them all of those aspects of theater, not just the. You know. Get on stage like you've already done before, right, so he's enjoying it Very nice.
Speaker 1:It's a lot. I mean, does he see himself going up to Broadway someday? I mean he was love.
Speaker 2:That Okay, but um, I don't know how that looks. I don't know what that path looks like.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's just put your clothes in a bag and go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's got to be a really hard door to bust in.
Speaker 1:but no, but it's not, though, right. I mean it is because we're conditioned to think that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe that's it.
Speaker 1:But if you, you know, if you would have never followed your dreams if I would have never packed my bags, I wouldn't be here either. I would be a nail tech down the street, which is I'd hire you Totally.
Speaker 2:I was the worst nail tech in the world.
Speaker 1:Man, I actually did that. I graduated high school and got my nail tech degree like at the same time, and I used it in college, but I always wanted more you know and I just think, growing up here you weren't fed that. So I love meeting someone that found their way and is passing it along to their kids.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, like you could do that here as a side hustle, because this is really all you do with clients when you're doing their nails. It's just chit chat, just chit chatting. So you could like add that Um, we'd like you'd like to do an interview. If you want to add $40, you can have your nails.
Speaker 1:You can put it on live. Oh my gosh, but I was a terrible nail tech. I couldn't do it. But it took me going to New York, cause back then you couldn't get a peep out of me Right when I was actually doing nail tech.
Speaker 2:So I think you have to go out into the world. You know, get your hustle on yeah, he's, he's starting, he's starting his hustle, and so we'll see where it goes from here.
Speaker 1:But you're saying, um, you don't, you used to go to Orlando. Do you think that it's sort of fallen off a little bit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they left Orlando years ago. We're working to get the film incentives back, like the breaks for the investors. John Lux is the um executive director of film Florida and I'm on the legislative committee with that organization and, and you know, just trying to get the all the legislators to see that all of these other states are making money off these tax breaks by bringing in these film companies who are hiring um dry cleaners and restaurants and hotels and they're they're spending and catering.
Speaker 2:They're spending all this money in the cities and states because they get tax breaks and Florida doesn't have that anymore.
Speaker 1:So why not? What happened?
Speaker 2:I have no idea. So it used to be here. Used to be here. They were like literally moving LA to Florida like getting out of LA, and then it was over weird.
Speaker 1:Did that coincide with COVID, or no?
Speaker 2:no, this was like late nineties early 2000s at the most.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I have no idea.
Speaker 2:Yup, so we're, you know, I mean Atlanta has a booming film industry. North Carolina, I mean a lot of places that film in Florida on on their um scenes. They're not shot in Florida.
Speaker 1:I mean well, didn't Brad Pitt just come to down here to to film?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, like in Tampa. I think that's what I want to say.
Speaker 1:No, we had gone there on a girls weekend, the that either the day before he came for something Whoops.
Speaker 2:Where the heck did I go? I was like I'm not playing that wrong?
Speaker 1:I can't think about it. I know, right, Although like I don't know. After, after the Angelina scandal, like you're kind of a creep, I guess.
Speaker 2:Right, they still some eye candy, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And he did something to his face, where he looks brand new.
Speaker 2:Yeah, listen, why not? You gotta do what you gotta do, you can do his nails on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Done with that job, jamie.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I really want my nails done. Oh my God.
Speaker 1:I'll treat you to a mani putty.
Speaker 2:We'll go get it done. So you had said earlier about awards Awards. And I think I can announce this now, because it's going to be like out then. But there is a podcast called the swing my heart podcast and they are, like all hallmark romance rom-coms, a good hallmark movie.
Speaker 1:They capture you like none other.
Speaker 2:Yes, they're yes, so they. That's what they do. So they interview the stars, they interview the directors, and I was a guest you know for, as the writer, and anyway, they do an annual contest. You know people's choice, and just Jake won for best non-hallmark, non-christmas movie. Oh, my goodness, because it's you know most of the time it's a hallmark Christmas movie.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so you need a new category.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. But there was a lot of other movies that weren't Christmas, weren't hallmark, and out of all those movies we won, oh my gosh, congratulations, and where can we see your movie? It's on up TV faith and family network. So if you go through like Amazon and you type in just Jake, like your Amazon Prime, it'll take you to download this app. Five day free trial usually.
Speaker 1:You know how they are.
Speaker 2:And it's a lot of like family friendly programming, like sweet and comfortable program, not family friendly, like let's watch Sesame Street together.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. And then there's the old school house on the prairie and you know the old school night, yeah Full house those kinds of shows. I miss those. They don't make those anymore. Full house, fuller house, I know.
Speaker 2:But it wasn't the same. Sorry guys, it was the same. We appreciate it, I know.
Speaker 1:I'm not without the Olsen twins. Yeah, they're too good for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, on the younger sister, we gotta wear their clothes now.
Speaker 2:Yes, and the younger sister of the Olsen toys blown up?
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally, but she'd blown up, she's awesome, yeah, yeah, yeah, she's got that Olsen. Look to her. You like to kick box?
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:Where do you do that at?
Speaker 2:At Soft Beach Fitness I do their Les Mills classes.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:So I kick box like three times a week. They call it body combat. Cool and then I do their. They have like a mix of Zoom. I'm not Zumba, sorry. I do that too. I do that three times a week. They have a mix of like Tai Chi, pilates and yoga. Oh yeah, I do that like three times a week too, and it's keep you in shape, and can you kick someone's ass? If there's music playing, I always say only attack Jamie if there's music?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I told my husband I go. You know it's going to happen. Is someone's going to like jump me? And I'm going to be like did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it did, it did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, and they're going to run because they're going to be like this way. Yeah, I messed with the wrong lady. That's so funny.
Speaker 1:The plan, but what a good thing to have under your belt. And you also like to bake. I do. What do you bake?
Speaker 2:I bake weird grain free treats. How?
Speaker 1:do you do that.
Speaker 2:Nobody in my house eats but me, and it's fabulous.
Speaker 1:Do you sell them anywhere? No, my mom says I should and I'm just not ready. People want the grain free.
Speaker 2:They're delicious for me, like if you bite into an Entomans chocolate cake donut straight out of the freezer and it melts in your mouth. It has a little chemical aftertaste and you're like this is so good. And then you bite into my chocolate donut. You will spit it out If you just bite into mine it'll be fine, it's just like a chocolate Entomans donut. That's the key.
Speaker 1:But it's almond flour. I have all kinds of flowers.
Speaker 2:I have a whole pantry.
Speaker 1:Who knew there was so many flowers out there. I like the coconut flower.
Speaker 2:I bought a cookbook and it breaks down all the different flowers and what you should use and when and why your bread sucks because you're using the wrong flower.
Speaker 1:That is a whole other. Wow, it's a whole thing. It's a whole thing, but it's your side passion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I like left it the week of Christmas cookies this year when my mom came over and we made the just Jake cookies that are in the book. That's what I was going to ask you.
Speaker 1:Do you put your baking knowledge into your books?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the, just Jake, one has the. There's a QR code in the back of the book that takes you to my website and you can download the cookie recipe.
Speaker 1:You can see all I could Jake made them.
Speaker 2:They're in the book. Yeah, the mom, like it's. Their family traditions are family traditions.
Speaker 1:Of course it is.
Speaker 2:Yes, I put my great grandmother's cookie recipe in there, oh my gosh. And then we have behind the scene photos from the movie and you can click a link to buy the theme song that Rob Mays wrote, who played Jake. So there's all kinds of cool stuff you get when you buy the book, but yeah, so this year we made those cookies and I haven't really stopped since, like breaking, breaking the sugar in the flower thing.
Speaker 1:Can you do cakes I?
Speaker 2:can do anything. Oh, yeah, yeah, you can do anything.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And I can do anything I want, I can eat anything, I'm not allergic. But I just find that like I feel different when I eat regular flour, like yeah, I think it's straight. The thoughts from the head to the mouth don't come out as well. I'm sleepy or I don't sleep. At night it's like, yeah, yeah, a lot of things I was such a junkaholic like just junk food all the time.
Speaker 1:My favorite treat was like McDonald's, like a breakfast big breakfast and then around COVID time I was like let me rethink just about everything in my life and I stopped eating all that stuff and it just doesn't appetize me anymore. No, like even when you're talking about the donut like oh, I'd rather not, yeah, yeah. So my daughter's always asking me to take her to McDonald's. I'm like do you know what they put?
Speaker 2:in the food. Do you want to really go there? Yeah, no, I won't take her there.
Speaker 1:I'm the worst mom ever. I don't have cereal in the house.
Speaker 2:I don't want to have cereal in the house, but I don't take my kids to McDonald's ever.
Speaker 1:I tell her I'm like what, why would I want to poison you? I don't, yeah, I haven't eaten.
Speaker 2:Nothing against McDonald's, everything against McDonald's, but everything against McDonald's. I haven't eaten McDonald's since I was like 18 years old. Yeah, it's been a while.
Speaker 1:But for the good, I feel good. I feel good I feel good about it and then when you do actually eat something in that realm, like we went to Chick-fil-A, the other day and my stomach's like what the?
Speaker 2:fuck are you doing to me? Yeah, it's not good. Yeah, it's not good, it doesn't work anymore Because you've got different bugs in there now and they're like we don't want that. We don't want that yeah.
Speaker 1:So good, good good.
Speaker 2:What else?
Speaker 1:What else do we not know about you?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I mean, I just celebrated a birthday.
Speaker 1:Oh, happy birthday oh how are you liking this age of truth?
Speaker 2:You know, I don't know, I don't know anything about it.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're not into it.
Speaker 2:No, but I think it's appropriate that I'm an Aquarius and I don't like the water, I don't like the ocean. I don't like it either Sharks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's too wet out there.
Speaker 2:I just feel like if God wanted me in the air or the water, he'd have supplied me with different things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so no planes, no boats.
Speaker 2:You ever go on cruises? I'm the dog sitter.
Speaker 1:Oh OK. Oh OK, now I know who to call. Yeah, although I never leave anyway, yeah, Do you have any dogs?
Speaker 2:I have two dogs. What?
Speaker 1:kind of dogs do you have.
Speaker 2:I have a hound mix. She's an old lady named Ahsoka.
Speaker 1:Oh, where'd you get that name from? From Star Wars?
Speaker 2:Oh, OK, yeah she has her own show now. And then we just got a new puppy. She's a Boston Terrier and she was Anderson's litter, one of the puppies in his litter, my new son Anderson. Oh, and her name was Fart, because she was like two inches and she looked like a turd, like a little turd. And they would send me videos of Fart outside.
Speaker 1:Not that she Farts.
Speaker 2:No, and she was the cutest thing I ever saw and she's like white and she's got like brown spots and she looks like a cow and I'm like that's awful. Her name is Little Mew and I mean I want to meet Little Mew. I want her to come see me and then as so, this is me they're harassing me with these fart photos. And then Ezra goes to my husband. You know, mom really likes this dog. I think it might be a nice gift for Christmas.
Speaker 2:And they did it Not this past Christmas, but the year before. So he totally used both of us to get this dog in our lives. But you wanted that dog, I didn't. I did not want another heartbeat in my house. However, I would kick everybody out for her.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2:I will say it to the camera. She is my favorite angle Watch out kids. Oh they know, Watch your step. We have a very unhealthy relationship. I'm not. I mean, that's the healthiest guy. I'm not. I'm that lady now that I used to make fun of with the little dog. Oh yeah, yeah, I am her.
Speaker 1:I don't know how Do you have a purse?
Speaker 2:No, no, any clothing, okay so you need to step it up, Jamie.
Speaker 1:Okay, you need some clothing for that dog.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, she has like a puffer jacket. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:You got to get them their own wardrobe, although it's hot here in Florida.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:My dog just celebrated her birthday yesterday. We just got her a bunch of clothes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got to step it up.
Speaker 1:Super cool. Well, how can we find you online?
Speaker 2:Um, I am everywhere. At Jamie Ingle rights on social media Um. My website is Jamie Inglecom.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I am most active on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And YouTube. I am building my YouTube channel.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I'm inviting everyone to come. I post um on Tuesdays. I try to do a nice long form video on Thursdays. I try to do a throwback Thursday, like from the just Jake film set.
Speaker 1:Oh, wonderful.
Speaker 2:Little video and every Friday I do my Friday wins for the week dance.
Speaker 1:Oh it's taken off.
Speaker 2:I've tried to stop. I've gotten yelled at by people I don't know, so naturally I will continue to do it. Exactly. Uh, it's my thing. It inspires people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just, it's hard being a creative. Yeah, it is a long journey before you see anything growing from that seed you planted, and half the time it's half dead.
Speaker 1:Look at you.
Speaker 2:So that is what I do I dance, and I point and I write in words of all my wins for the week to say hey listen. This week I wrote every day. This week I had a producer meeting this week. I was on the space ghost podcast.
Speaker 1:You know any tips for young budding writers or old writers that just decided to do it?
Speaker 2:Um go to my YouTube channel because there's lots of free videos, but um just write, just write and don't judge what you're writing. Yeah, I've heard it said by several people now, but don't judge your beginning by someone else's middle.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's really easy to do that.
Speaker 2:It's really easy to read a book and be like I can never write like that. No, you can't.
Speaker 1:You would five years, yeah, or you with an editor can yeah.
Speaker 2:But you can't, so just write what you can.
Speaker 1:Okay, very good, and are you doing any workshops or anything? Do you do that?
Speaker 2:Yes, I have tons. I mean, like I said, I've got one this weekend, but this will be past tense by the time people are listening Right, but you've got future ones, yeah, yeah. If you go to my website, um, I'm always somewhere doing something. Um half of them are free, open to the public. Um, so yeah, I just I post everything where I'm going to be very, very cool and very inspiring.
Speaker 1:Thank you for coming. This was so awesome.
Speaker 2:It was fun.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me Anytime Come back if you ever need to promote something.
Speaker 2:I will, or if I need my nails done.
Speaker 1:I'll bring my kit next time. Thank you so much, jamie. Yeah, thank you for having me. You too, yay. To be a sponsor or nominate a guest, hit us up on Instagram at local underscore celebrity underscore bravard. Until next time, goodbye, bye.