Milwaukee’s Lisa Kaiser Debuts Podcast

Expand

Photo courtesy of Lisa Kaiser

Lisa Kaiser

Lisa Kaiser

Lisa Kaiser has been living with Maggie Morgan for a long time. In 2018 Maggie was introduced as a former rock star in the first of book of Kaiser’s trilogy, I Never Wanted To Be a Rock Star: A Novel.

“I wanted the main character, Maggie Morgan, to grapple with the tension between her life as a 1970s rock diva and her true nature—shy and risk-averse,” Kaiser said. “How does she reconcile those opposing sides of herself? And what drives her to keep stepping into the spotlight when most shy people would run the other way?”

In 2024 Kaiser began working with Voyage Media to develop a script for an hour-long TV pilot episode based on that first book. Kaiser would then pivot and create the script for a

Chasing the Furies Audio Play is Here! | Lisa Kaiser: The Writer

podcast.

That chapter provided yet another writing challenge: telling the story only through the spoken word, music, and sound effects.

Kaiser recently took time to describe her and Maggie’s journey.

Was it a challenge distilling the backstory for the episode from the books? There were a few “flashbacks” that did a cool job of connecting the dots.

It definitely was challenging. The books and the podcast tell the same story, but I had to adapt the material for a medium that seems limiting but also opened up new storytelling opportunities.

For the podcast, I needed to distill the essence of the first novel into a half hour plot, only use audio, and feature fewer characters. In a sense I had to do more with less. It seemed natural to place Maggie front and center so that the listener follows her life journey from her point of view—all of the drama that went down in her rock star past and how and why she reinvented herself in the 2000s as the suburban mom next door. Most of the podcast is new material, but it stays true to the original story.

Did you have any input in choosing the voice actors?

Yes—and that was really cool! The podcast director, Dan Benamor, sent me samples of actors he thought would be good for the roles, and I made my picks. I'm really happy with how they inhabited the characters and brought them to life in their own ways.

I get the impression the podcast idea is kind of a pitch to branch into a Netflix-type series?

We developed the podcast as a way to create an audience for the novels—and, for me personally, to learn how to write for a new medium. If that piques the interest of people who would be interested in reading the TV pilot script and potentially developing it into a series, I would be thrilled.

 Do you have a long-term plan if things fall into place?

It would be amazing if this turned into a series, but that's not the only way I would define success. Success to me is being able to stretch myself creatively and to find opportunities to work with people who are invested in their own creative growth.

In the podcast, Maggie travels from suburban Chicago to an alternative lifestyle community in rural Wisconsin to track down her son. The community’s leader is her ex. I’m guessing the commune is located in the Driftless region. Is there a significance to that?

I absolutely love the natural beauty and vibe of the Driftless region. I set some of the story there as a counterpoint to the characters' wild rock star history and Maggie's rather humdrum life in the suburbs. I wanted to create a utopian environment for them so they could let it all hang out. A retreat center off the grid in western Wisconsin seemed like the perfect place for them.

Is music going to be a challenge? Do you have to create originals based on song titles in the books or will you license some music?

The books include song lyrics that help to tell the story. If at some point I'm lucky enough to need to turn the lyrics into actual songs it would be awesome to work with a songwriter who gets the 1970s vibe.

Were you ever in a band? Do you extrapolate situations from experiences you have lived or know?

I was never in a band, and I have absolutely no musical talent. That said, I've been a huge music lover since I was a kid. I was raised on 1970s radio and my older siblings' record collections. I loved the way that singer/songwriters could tell vivid stories and express a whole range of emotions that I didn't always understand.

The ones who I connected to the most were the female artists who were in a relationship with a fellow musician—most obviously Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, and Carly Simon and James Taylor. When I was writing the novels I read a lot of biographies and watched far too many rock documentaries, but that allowed me to humanize these larger-than-life rock stars.

I leaned into the natural conflict between living a hedonistic ‘70s rock lifestyle while being partnered up with someone in your band. Plus, the drama—or maybe trauma-of having to sing really intimate lyrics night after night, long after the relationship crashed and burned, with your ex right there, and your fans keeping you stuck in that dynamic far longer than is healthy. And then you have to figure out how to live a real life offstage, on your own terms, without being defined by your previous relationship.