Can a spinoff actually be BETTER than the original?

This week on Life According to Lisa (and Jim too!), we're talking about the television characters who were so good they got another chance to steal the show!

It all started with Reacher and Neagley.We both enjoy Reacher, but could it be that Neagley has an even better story to tell?

From Cheers and Frasier to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Lou Grant, The Jeffersons, Young Sheldon, and The Simpsons, we're revisiting the television shows that gave us some unforgettable spinoffs.

And what about the ones that didn't quite work? Remember Joey, The Golden Palace, and Joanie Loves Chachi?Sometimes being a great supporting character doesn't guarantee a hit show!

We're also talking about prequels, television family trees,and the stories that keep growing long after the original series ends.

And because we can never resist bringing books into theconversation, we'll explore a few familiar literary worlds and wonder whether someone from The Brooklyn Witch might someday deserve a story of their own.

So grab your popcorn and join us as we revisit the shows weloved, the characters we couldn't get enough of, and the spinoffs that made us say, "Wait...they got their OWN show?"

🎙️ Season 2, Episode 28: Second Time's the Charm (Part One).

Stay tuned for Part Two, when we ask what it reallytakes for a supporting character to become the star!

📖 Lisa is the author of The Brooklyn Witch: The Battle forBrooklyn, where Brooklyn attitude meets witches, faeries, mystery, and a little organized crime.

🌐 www.thebrooklynwitch.com

✨ Take the Cannoli and Leave the Magic!

#LifeAccordingToLisaAndJimToo #SecondTimesTheCharm#TVSpinoffs #TheBrooklynWitch #Podcast

Remember when the telephone rang, and everybody in the house yelled, “I'LL GET IT!”

You had no idea who was calling. No caller ID, no texting first, and absolutely no privacy if your little brother decided to pick up the extension!

This week on Life According to Lisa and Jim too!, we're taking a trip back to a time when the telephone was attached to the house, phone numbers had names like Cloverdale and Esplanade, and you could spend half the night talking to someone without ever running out of things to say.

We're remembering those ridiculously long telephone cords, busy signals, operators who could interrupt a call, payphones, the Yellow Pages, long-distance charges, and the excitement of coming home to a blinking answering machine.

And then came call waiting, three-way calling, cordless phones, and eventually cell phones. Suddenly, everything changed.

Lisa shares some of her own telephone adventures, from personalized answering machine messages and her beloved Princess phone to finding creative ways to get a little privacy. And Jim remembers when your brain was your contact list!

Remember when a phone call was something you looked forward to?

Today, when the phone rings unexpectedly, we stare at it and wonder, “Why is somebody calling me?”

We're laughing about how much has changed, what we don't miss, and a few things we just might.

So pick up the phone, settle in, and join us for Hanging on the Telephone!

📖 Learn more about The Brooklyn Witch:
https://www.thebrooklynwitch.com

📚 The Brooklyn Witch: The Battle for Brooklyn
By Lisa Dolan

✨ Take the Cannoli and Leave the Magic. ✨

#LifeAccordingToLisaAndJimToo #HangingOnTheTelephone #Nostalgia #RetroMemories #TheBrooklynWitch

You wrote the book. Congratulations! Now what?

In Part II of So, You Want to Write a Book?

Lisa and Jim move beyond the writing and into the part nobody really talks about: turning that manuscript into an actualpublished book.

Paperback or hardcover? Or both? What about an e-book? White paper or cream? Dust jacket or no dust jacket? Who designs the cover? What goes on the back of the book? How do you write a blurb about a story that took you hundreds of pages to tell? Writing your own bio!

And then come the acronyms and numbers.

ISBN. LCCN. Copyright. Distribution. Print-on-demand.

What do they mean? Which ones do you need? And where do you even begin?

Lisa shares what she learned while independently publishing The Brooklyn Witch: The Battle for Brooklyn, while Lisa and Jim talk about the decisions, surprises, mistakes, and technical details that come after you finish writing the book.

Because apparently...

Writing the book was only the beginning.

Resources We Talk About in This Episode:

IngramSpark: Self-Publishing, Printing & Distribution
Paperback, hardcover, jacketed hardcover, e-books, print-on-demand and global book distribution. IngramSpark says its network provides access to more than 45,000 retailers, libraries, and other outlets. IngramSpark Website

Bowker: ISBNs for U.S. Publishers & Authors
Bowker is the U.S. ISBN agency. Remember that different book formats may require separate ISBNs. Tip: buy in bulk!

BowkerPublishing Services
Library of Congress: Preassigned Control Number (PCN/LCCN)
Eligible U.S. authors and publishers of forthcoming books can apply for a preassigned Library of Congress Control Number. The Library of Congress notes that this needs to happen before the eligible book is published. Library of Congress
Library of Congress PCN Program

U.S. Copyright Office: Register a Literary Work
Official information and registration for books and other literary works.
U.S. Copyright Office — Literary Works

One thing to remember: an ISBN, LCCN, and copyrightregistration are three different things. The Library of Congress does not issue ISBNs; in the United States, ONLY Bowker administers those. Also, purchase your own ISBN. You will be happy you own it and proud too!

Learn more about The Brooklyn Witch:
The Brooklyn Witch official website

The Brooklyn Witch: TheBattle for Brooklyn
By Lisa Dolan

✨Take the Cannoli and Leave the Magic.✨

#SoYouWantToWriteABook#SelfPublishing #IndieAuthor #WritingCommunity #TheBrooklynWitch #authors #writing #WritingABook #IndiePublishing

Episode 26, Part 1: So, You Want to Write a Book? Here’s What Nobody Tells You.

Everybody has a great idea for a book.

Then you actually have to write it.

This week, we're doing something a littledifferent. We're taking you behind the scenes of what it really takes to turnan idea into an actual book.

Because writing a book isn't just sitting down at a computer and waiting for inspiration to strike.

There are about a thousand decisions nobody tells you about.

First person or third person? Who's telling the story? How long should a chapter be? Where should it end? How much research do you really need? And what happens when the characters YOU created suddenly start telling YOU what they would and wouldn't do?

And then there are the opinions.

The minute you tell people you're writing a book, everybody suddenly knows exactly how you should write it.

Some advice is wonderful.

Some of it makes you think... Absolutely not.

We're talking about how The Brooklyn Witch: The Battle forBrooklyn went from an idea to a finished novel, what I've learned while writing Book Two, and what Jim is discovering as he gets closer to finishing his own first book.

We'll get into character development, protagonistsand antagonists, chapter endings and cliffhangers, world-building, research, creating rules for magic, deciding whether you're writing one book or an entire series, and why sometimes you'll spend an hour researching something that becomes one sentence in the finished book.

And eventually, after all the writing, rewriting,researching and second-guessing...

You type:

THE END.

You're finished!

Right?

Not exactly.

Because writing the book is only the beginning.

Next week, Episode 26 continues with Part 2: You Wrote the Book. Now What?

That's when we get into the things nobody thinksabout when they dream about writing a book: publishing, copyright, ISBNs, covers, paper, pricing, distribution, marketing, and everything that happens after you type THE END.

📖 Learn more about The Brooklyn Witch:

www.thebrooklynwitch.com

📚 The Brooklyn Witch: The Battle for Brooklyn
By Lisa Dolan

✨ Take the Cannoli and Leave the Magic. ✨

#LifeAccordingToLisaAndJimToo
#SoYouWantToWriteABook
#TheBrooklynWitch
#Writing
#Authors

How long did it take you to decide whether to keep reading this?

Scroll. Skip. Swipe. Repeat.

We skip the intro. Fast-forward the commercials. Scroll past anything that doesn't grab us immediately. And God forbid we have to wait an entire WEEK to find out what happens next.

But here's the funny part...

We'll also sit on the couch and binge six episodes of a television show.

So are our attention spans really getting shorter?

Or have we simply gotten much quicker at deciding what deserves our attention?

In this episode, we're looking at how the way we watch, listen, read, and even wait has changed.

Remember when a television cliffhanger meant you actually had to wait until next week? When missing an episode meant you might never see it? When the commercial break was your chance to run to the bathroom?

And remember being bored?

Waiting rooms. Long car rides. Standing in line. Looking out the window. Daydreaming. People-watching. There wasn't always something in our pocket ready to entertain us every second of the day.

We're also talking about the Skip Intro button and the television theme songs everybody once knew, listening to an entire album instead of skipping after ten seconds, movies that take a little time to get good, and what happens when every book, song, show, article, and video is competing for our attention.

Then there are Shorts, Reels, TikTok, and the newest twist: scripted microdramas designed to be watched vertically on our phones in tiny episodes.

We've gone from:

Tune in next week...

to: Just swipe for the next one.

But maybe our attention spans aren't broken at all.

People still read enormous novels. We listen to hours-long audiobooks and podcasts. We watch three-hour movies. We binge entire seasons of television.

Maybe the real question isn't how long we can pay attention.

Maybe it's: What are we willing to give our attention to?

🎙️ Season 2, Episode 25: Scroll. Skip. Swipe. Repeat.

📖 Learn more about The Brooklyn Witch:

www.thebrooklynwitch.com

📚 The Brooklyn Witch: The Battle for Brooklyn
By Lisa Dolan

✨ Take the Cannoli and Leave the Magic. ✨

#LifeAccordingToLisaAndJimToo
#ScrollSkipSwipeRepeat
#Podcast
#PopCulture
#TheBrooklynWitch

Remember when you could just do something without downloading an app first?

In this episode, we’re talking abouthow apps have quietly taken over just about every part of our lives.

We use them to order dinner, make restaurant reservations, get directions, call a car, buy tickets, bank, shop, listen to music, watch television, make appointments, pay for parking, find adate... and sometimes do things that were perfectly easy to do before someone decided they needed an app.

Remember hailing a cab? Calling a restaurant? Buying a ticket at the box office? Feeding a parking meter? Walking into a bank?

Now there's an app for all of it.

And that got us wondering...

Do all of these things really NEED an app?

We're looking at the apps that genuinely made our lives easier, the ones we can't imagine living without, and the ones that make us ask:

“Did This REALLY Need an App?”

Because somewhere along the way, our phones stopped being phones and became our maps, wallets, cameras, televisions,radios, calendars, banks, shopping carts, menus, boarding passes, and just about everything else.

So which apps could you absolutely NOT live without?

Which ones drive you crazy?

And have apps simplified our lives...or have they somehow made simple things more complicated?

Apparently, whatever the problem is...

There’s an app for that.

🎙️ Season 2, Episode 24: There’s an App for That

📖 Learn more about The Brooklyn Witch:
www.thebrooklynwitch.com

📚 The Brooklyn Witch: The Battle for BrooklynBy Lisa Dolan

✨ Take the Cannoli and Leave the Magic. ✨

#LifeAccordingToLisaAndJimToo
#TheresAnAppForThat
#Podcast
#PopCulture
#TheBrooklynWitch

What if the internet disappeared tonight... and didn’t come back for seven days?

No Google. No GPS. No Amazon. No streaming. No social media. No online banking.

Welcome to Seven Days of Dis-May! 📵

In this episode, we’re imagining what would happen if the internet suddenly disappeared for an entire week and realizing just how many ordinary things we no longer remember how to do without it.

How would we get somewhere without GPS? Make a restaurant reservation without an app? Check the weather? Pay a bill? Buy something? Look up the name of that actor who was in that movie with that other guy?

And what happens when there’s no Google to settle an argument?

We’re going back to paper maps, phone books, radios, handwritten directions, checks, DVDs, CDs, newspapers, and actually calling a restaurant to make a reservation.

But then we started thinking about something else.

What would we get back?

Maybe we’d call someone instead of liking their post. Read a book. Play a game. Have a conversation. Go outside. Be creative.

We might even have to be... bored.

We’re also looking back at our own experiences during real blackouts, including New York in 1977 and 2003, and talking about television shows and books that imagined what happens when technology suddenly stops working.

Could we actually make it seven days without the internet?

What would YOU miss the most?

And did the internet simply make our lives easier, or have we built our lives in a way that makes it almost impossible to function without it?

Maybe the real question isn’t what we would lose.

Maybe it’s what we would get back.

🎙️ Season 2, Episode 23: Seven Days of Dis-May!

📖 Learn more about The Brooklyn Witch:

www.thebrooklynwitch.com

📚 The Brooklyn Witch: The Battle for Brooklyn
By Lisa Dolan

✨ Take the Cannoli and Leave the Magic. ✨

#LifeAccordingToLisaAndJimToo
#SevenDaysOfDisMay
#Podcast
#PopCulture
#TheBrooklynWitch

Before there was a “Skip Intro” button, there were television openings we couldn’t wait to watch.

Here’s the story... 📺🎶

In this episode, we’re talking about the opening credits, theme songs, narrations, and movie openings that became just as memorable as the shows and movies themselves.

Some told us the entire story before the episode even began. Some introduced us to the characters. Some set the mood with nothing more than a few unforgettable notes.

And some had us singing, clapping, snapping our fingers, or whistling along.

We’re revisiting classics including The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Odd Couple, The Addams Family, Cheers, Taxi, Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford Files, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and more.

We even head to the movies to talk about James Bond and those unforgettable opening sequences and theme songs.

Why can we still sing television theme songs we haven’t heard in decades?

Did television stop writing memorable theme songs, or did the way we open a story simply change? Which opening would you NEVER hit “Skip Intro” on?

Because sometimes the opening wasn’t just the beginning of the show.

It became part of our lives.

🎙️ Season 2, Episode 22: Here’s the Story...

📖 Learn more about The Brooklyn Witch:

www.thebrooklynwitch.com

📚 The Brooklyn Witch: The Battle for Brooklyn
By Lisa Dolan

✨ Take the Cannoli and Leave the Magic. ✨

#LifeAccordingToLisaAndJimToo
#HeresTheStory
#Podcast
#PopCulture
#TheBrooklynWitch