iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Veronica California 🏳️‍⚧️ @veronicacalifornia.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Happy pride! one day they'll write song about you, keep your chin up babes!!!

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Veronica California 🏳️‍⚧️ @veronicacalifornia.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Finishing up my work on season 2 of THE DEAD (coming this summer wherever podcasts are sold) and I can't recall if I've shared this or not but here are the writers guidelines I developed for the show. Good rules of thumb for any podcast though, my two cents as a pod writer for over a decade.

IT’S NOT A MOVIE!

WRITING GUIDELINES for THE DEAD: SEASON 2

Something exciting must happen in the first 5 pages.

THERE MUST BE AN AD BREAK AT THE HALFWAY POINT WITH A ‘DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL!’ MOMENT.

Go ahead and make that ending punchy too.
These are one shots, let’s make every shot count.

Any action line that doesn't include a sound is not effective! Keep action lines as simple as possible with a focus on the audio, not the visual. The audience isn’t reading it and the visual atmosphere built in these lines doesn’t exist in podcasts.

25 - 30 pages. The tighter the better.

Respect the listener’s attention and geography.
A gang of 6 with 3 lines each is less effective than a gang of 3 with 6 lines each. Limit characters for clarity

Just call them zombies or ‘the dead’. Unless you have a very good, interesting, fresh, and narrative or thematic NECESSARY reason to find a new synonym for walking or biting, just call them zombies.
The George A. Romero Foundation has outright banned words like ‘Walker’ or ‘Zed’ from other big zombie franchises!

BEWARE OF FOOTSTEPS. Footsteps are implied. Scenes should not rely on hearing footsteps. Footsteps are added as a last resort as they can be impressively distracting and tricky to build. This is The Dead, not The Walking Dead.

BEWARE OF BACKGROUND DRONE. Scenes should not have a distracting background sound to be tolerated for 4.5 minutes. (The sound of car horns in traffic is fine for example, but a car alarm will quickly ruin a scene.)

Sound design will enhance your script like seasoning a meal, but too much salt will turn the soup.
Use it wisely. Avoid script notes longer than 5 lines per page, total. Sound design descriptors are subject to change and fluid in any podcast script, so don’t get too precious!

Target audience is 18-24 + 35-45! HORROR IS SCARY BE SCARY.

Have fun and be yourself :)

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Veronica California 🏳️‍⚧️ @veronicacalifornia.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Recording the final episode of The Follow-Up Showdown today. I've been doing this podcast with Lauren and Cool Paul for like 8 or 9 years. Pitching movie sequels where studios failed us, and the real friends we made along the way. 💜 shorturl.at/1UEWD

a pile of DVD's with a blank one on top that reads 'the follow-up showdown' written in marker

a pile of DVD's with a blank one on top that reads 'the follow-up showdown 2' written in marker

a pile of DVD's with a blank one on top that reads 'the follow-up showdown 3' written in marker

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

The original Hotel logo. I couldn't post the first episode because the image was the wrong size and in my panic I scrolled through some royalty free image sight and found our current beautiful logo. this one has a certain season 1 quality about though I think. Ted Barrow surely followed this sign.

a red neon sign that reads HOTEL vertically hanging off a dark building at night.

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Tal @starplanes.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

My book is out! It's got everything I know about making audio drama! Thinking about dipping your toes into fiction podcasting? You should! Get my book at: talminear.com#howtomakeaud... (ebook is only $7 cause it want it to be accessible)

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

We should all be so lucky. Working on S6 for youtube

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

The Auditor - 6.4 I Am Not Insignificant!

My empty landscape is peppered with goblins,

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Veronica California 🏳️‍⚧️ @veronicacalifornia.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

If you are interested in producing an audio drama I cannot recommend highly enough listening to as much as Tal has to say about it as you possibly can. I've been doing this for ten years and every conversation I've had with them still teaches me something VASTLY important and new!

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

I don't measure successful art by download numbers or dollars, I measure it in people doing stuff like this. Please burn, rip, download, beg borrow or steal this show. Tear it apart and share it with anyone any way you like. I made it for you (YOU PERSONALLY!) take it and run and don't look back.

a burned CD that reads "THE HOTEL" with the center of the disc as the "O" and "no one checks out" and "its not haunted, its not hell, its the Hotel!" all written in three different kinds of marker

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

You asked, and like 2 or 3 years later, I listened-- Now YOU can listen to The Hotel Podcast's original soundtrack and all the theme song varieties! www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmqn...

youtube.com

One Hour of Ambient Manager Music from The Hotel Podcast

YouTube video by The Hotel Podcast

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

SEASON 5 is now available on YouTube! (Season 6 available soon!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=biOM...

youtube.com

5.1 Merp & Burble

YouTube video by The Hotel Podcast

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

My so-called 'haunted house record' is up on Patreon! If access to our entire show, ad and announcement free, plus our entire soundtrack wasn't quite enough to tempt you, I am SURE this bit of spooky fun IS. www.patreon.com/c/thehotel

left: album cover depicting an ancient fortress on Mars. it reads 'Veronica California presents MARTIAN FORTRESS and other spooky soundscapes for Halloween'.
right: dusty martian landscape. it reads 'SIDE A: goblins in the sewer,boglins in the neighborhood, alien abduction, snowy mountain yeti attack, martian fortress, falling through time, losing your mind, hell SIDE B: The Long Journey'

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Judy Blashy's (potential) fate "revealed" (?) in the final Hotel Podcast bonus episode! On Patreon now!

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

TODAY ON PATREON! Season 5 is available on YouTube, fully captioned and remastered. Join today to get early access. Seasons 1-4 + the Halloween Specials are already available to the public! www.youtube.com/@thehotelpod...

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

The final postcard art for the Hotel podcast by Evulbad! The Wizard of HOZtel drops on Patreon on December 15th. Judy Blashy Returns, poor thing.

the cast of the Hotel podcast in a vibrant colorful wizard of oz setting. The TinManager, the Lionny Boy, Judy Blashy, the GlindAuditor, The ScarecrOwner, and the Bellhop all cluster at the bottom of the frame beneath the Concierge as the Wizard of Oz on TV screens

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Graham Rowat @growat.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Paranormal Appraisal 151 By Soren Narnia Now playing @campfireradio.bsky.social 🎙️ w/ Jared Rivet 🎹 @overlookhotel.bsky.social #horror #audiodrama #podcast #paranormal #investigation open.spotify.com/episode/7pbJ...

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Back catalogue, ad free, BTS, and more always available on Patreon! www.patreon.com/c/thehotel

patreon.com

Get more from The Hotel on Patreon

creating Fiction Podcasts

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

I put the final (new!) piece of music in the final episode. The Wizard of HOZtel touches down on Patreon December 15th.

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Graham Rowat @growat.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

I got to discuss recording the Scriptnotes audiobook on this week’s episode of the podcast. Listen now for some young, sexy, Ed McMahon energy. Print and audio editions drop December 2nd. #scriptnotes #podcast #audiobook #narration #screenwriting

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

the final Izzy piece for the final Moss episode! Job Swap III: The Owner IS the Lobby Boy as the Staff checks in one final guest. Available now on Patreon. www.patreon.com/c/thehotel

the Owner dressed as the Lobby Boy, clutching a feather duster. several strange and screaming pictures hang on the wall behind him.

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Veronica California 🏳️‍⚧️ @veronicacalifornia.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

eagle earred listeners will hear the Star Trek references I put in the new season of THE DEAD, but only the true devotees will catch The Hotel references.

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Hotel en español season 4 is coming, season 5 of The Hotel coming to YouTube, and Job Swap III: The Owner is coming to Patreon this weekend (with the last ever Izzy art!)

a low rez digital woman sitting lotus style against a green swirling digital house background. text reads 'have u tried speaking to the manager....within?'

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Rissa Montañez @rissavoices.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

I read the first chapter of Carmilla on Instagram Live tonight and I loved it even though I didn't get through it without fumbling several words and telling stories that had nothing to do with the book because I was SO nervous. But...I had fun. 🖤

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

the thing about archiving The Hotel years later is that it is sometimes tricky to not only see the flaws and missteps, things I would have done better (or just different). But that's what deadlines are for. I could tinker and fiddle until the decay.

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

work has officially started on getting season 5 on YouTube (as well as the season 5 companion guide!)

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Rissa Montañez @rissavoices.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

If a livestream of me reading Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" doesn’t get a lot of viewers, I hope to at least bring attention to the cause. I am a voiceover artist in Chicago & there's been no time like the present to give back to our communities somehow. 🖤 chicagosfoodbank.org

chicagosfoodbank.org

Food Depository in Chicago | Greater Chicago Food Depository

Hunger affects communities throughout Chicago and Cook County and we’re working to put an end to it. Get help or take action to support our efforts.

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Bailey Wolfe, Voice Actor and Lacticide in Progress @bbwolfevox.com · 24/10/2025

This team has been a joy to work with—can’t wait to see what Dalia’s going to find out there!!!

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Job Swap continues with The Manager as THE OWNER as the Staff checks in a guest one last time, only on Patreon! This is also the second to last Izzy 'filthyguts' piece for The Hotel ever! Join Patreon to get a postcard sent right to your home!

a severe blonde woman glowers at the viewer while her skeleton rips its way screaming from her body.

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

All 13 episodes of our Halloween specials are up on youtube! THE THEATRE OF TERROR II: THE HOTEL OF TOMORROW WE FOUND THE HOTEL THE RAVEN THE THEATRE OF TERROR V: THE HOTEL OF TOMORROW II: THE HOUSE OF SHELLEY youtube.com/playlist?lis...

youtube.com

The Halloween Specials - YouTube

From season one: The Theatre of Terror II: The Hotel of Tomorrow From season five: The Raven From season six: The Theatre of Terror V: The Hotel of Tomorrow ...

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Graham Rowat @growat.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Truly a surreal and amazing night at @yankees.com stadium, singing the Canadian and US national anthems. Thoroughly stress tested my adrenaline limits. #gojays #goyankees #gosports

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

you're never gonna guess who was singing the Canadian National Anthem when it got booed

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

The og Staff and New Crew swapping places between stories in House of Shelley compliments their rivalry fading in the final seasons storyline. This exchange however is a reference to Watership Down and it's sequel, but you really gotta want it. (Rabbits can't conceive of numbers larger than 5)

AUDITOR!SHELLEY

Every creature on the grounds here
has a heart that beats blood as red
as ours. What do you suppose the
truth is in the stories of rabbits?

BELLHOP!PERCY

Got him.

CONCIERGE!BYRON

I can't think of more than 5 rabbit
stories at the moment, so let me
amend my philosophy to the
constraints of the human heart.
Unless you had your heart set on a
story from the warrens where my
rabbits dwell?

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

My favorite part of The House of Shelley is the banter between the Staff bookending the horror stories. This bit here though is a reference to none other than Slar!

Manager!Shelley
Percy still requires a lit candle in his chamber when he sleeps after no more than a short tale I invented about a bald goblin living in his wardrobe

a bald goblin jumps out a wardrobe, startling hipster

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

To my horror it seems it's been one year since our final Theatre of Terror and tbh I don't think it nearly enough attention so I'm bumping it again this year. Rumor control. Here are the facts:

THE THEATRE OF TERROR V: THE HOTEL OF TOMORROW II: THE HOUSE OF SHELLEY

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

The Job Swap Trilogy begins on Patreon today! The final check in, the final night, all starts with the Lobby Boy as The Manager!

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

The Job Swap Trilogy is coming to Patreon.com/TheHotel with new original art by Izzy 'filthyguts' Chavez! youtu.be/1pO-HwxTe1I

youtu.be

Job Swap Trailer

YouTube video by The Hotel Podcast

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lou-ellen 🎃 @louceph.com · 17/08/2025

recreation of a song i heard in a dream

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The Hotel Podcast @thehotelpodcast.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

see THIS is Ted Barrow. idk where Handsome Ted Barrow comes from. Is it because Mark Sounds Handsome?

jack warden in 12 Angry Men wearing and old fashion hat and jacket from the 40s

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saturn 🪐 @saturnsehyoon.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

i got SO EMOTIONAL listening to this. i can't believe my favorite podcast ended this year. the hotel found me when i was still attending college, driving an hour and a half (one way) home every weekend. she (the hotel herself) accompanied me for many of those trips, [con't.]

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tonči zonjić @tozo.today · 26/07/2025

some more helpful reminders from 2016 me who knew more than i do now #reruns

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