Fancy Meeting You Here
Hello, friends and former strangers. Whoever you are, it’s nice to see you.
For those who may not know me, I’m Rebecca Deniston, a wife and mother living in Placer County, California. For the last six years I’ve been blogging on my site, Taking Up Room, where I write about bad movies, good movies, books, history, and sometimes just plain old life. Writing isn’t my day job, although I’ve been doing it since I was six, but it is something that I love to do. No matter what’s going on in my life, I find a way to write something, even if it’s a line or two on Twitter or Instagram.
Other than that, I work in city government (public works) and homeschool my teenaged son. I work with children of recovering addicts at my church. And for the last twenty years I’ve been a docent with my county museums division. Oh, golly, I have stories. Just ask me.
Why does Taking Up More Room exist? I already have a blog that’s free to peruse and comment on, so what’s the point of the “more”?
Two words: Protocooperative symbiosis. Try saying that five times fast.
Anyway, I’m hoping “Room” and “More Room” will be like a clownfish and a sea anenome. Each one can exist without the other but each one also benefits the other.
While Taking Up Room is doing pretty well, if I do say so myself, I’m currently using WordPress’s free plan, and there will come a time when I’ll have to upgrade to WordPress Pro. I’m not crazy about that idea because then the blog’s existence will hinge on whether or not I can pay the bill. Writers hate to see their work go down the tubes and I’m no exception, plus I’ve become part of a community of friends and fellow bloggers in the last six years. I’d sure hate to lose that because of shaky finances.
Now I know it’s the usual thing on Substack to start out only writing free posts and then launching the paid content once there’s a readership, but I’ve kind of already done that, albeit on a different platform. Ergo, my subscription launch will come sooner depending on audience response and then we’ll go from there. I’m hoping all or at least a percentage of money I make from Substack can be used to upgrade Taking Up Room, plus readers on both platforms will have more content to choose from. I’m hoping for lots of cross-traffic.
Not only that, but it would be cool to expand my subject matter. I’ve been reviewing current movies now and then, and I’d like to do more of that because those reviews are generally pretty quick to write and don’t require as much research. The problem is they don’t fit in with Taking Up Room’s general aesthetic, which leans toward classic or older films with the not-so-occasional bad flick thrown in. While I will be posting some classics and bad stuff on Substack, most of the content will be current or current-ish films, plus some book reviews and listicles. Pretty much anything is fair game except for post-2019 Disney or any of their holdings, but that’s another topic for another day.
So far I’m thinking of publishing film and TV reviews on Saturdays and doing wild card posts on Wednesdays with at least two public entries a month, but that could change at any time. We’ll see what happens.
Thanks, all. Hope you’ll join me for the ride (and visit Taking Up Room while you’re at it)…