Donna Hoover: A Creative Journey

Donna Hoover's Journey: From Media to Music & Memoirs

In this episode of the 'Open Forum in The Villages, Florida' podcast, host Mike Roth interviews Donna Hoover, a multifaceted member of the community. They discuss her involvement in the Improvisational Theater Club, her past in print advertising and television production, her musical journey, and her current project of writing a memoir about her sister's life overcoming addiction. The episode also features insights on healthy living and lifestyle choices, as well as a special segment on Alzheimer's research by Dr. Craig Curtis. Join Mike and Donna for an engaging conversation full of inspiration and community spirit.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
02:09 Donna's Creative Background
03:14 Memorable Interviews
04:23 Musical Journey
09:23 Writing a Memoir
13:26 Television Experience
16:58 Improv and Upcoming Show
18:26 Thoughts on Aging and Healthy Living
26:14 Conclusion and Farewell

Transcript

[00:00:12] Dolores: Welcome to the Open Forum in The Villages, Florida podcast. In this show, we talk to leaders in the community, leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live here in The Villages to get perspectives of what is happening here in The Villages, Florida. We are a listener supported podcast. There will be shout outs for supporters in episodes. In season six, we will continue making substantial improvements to the podcast.

[00:00:38] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth, and listeners, I'm thrilled to share with you this podcast, which is my passion project for you. 

This podcast brings me joy, brings you knowledge, inspiration, and a lot of things that people need to know about The Villages and the people living here, be sure to hit the follow button to get the newest episode each week.

Creating this podcast is a labor of love. Even though it demands more time that I can easily spare. Now, here's where you come in. You can help us keep the podcast alive and thriving. 

How? By becoming a supporter. The easy way for you to support us is to visit our podcast webpage, openforuminthevillagesflorida. com and click on the supporter button at the top of the page or the purple supporter box on the right side of the page.

Even a small donation of three to ten dollars a month makes a big difference. And guess what? You can cancel your subscription at any time. No strings attached. Your support means the world to us. Stay curious, stay inspired, and keep those headphones on. I hope everyone enjoys today's show.

[00:02:00] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in The Villages, Florida. I'm here today with Donna Hoover. Donna, thanks for joining me. 

[00:02:07] Donna Hoover: You're welcome and thanks for having me. 

[00:02:09] Mike Roth: Now, I invited Donna on the show because she's in our Improvisational Theater Club and she's doing a lot of other things and had an interesting past. Donna loves things that are creative. She made her living before coming to The Villages in print advertising, then moved on to the world of television production, commercials, engaging her skills in script writing, shooting, and editing.

She moved here to The Villages with her husband last New Year's Eve to enjoy the warm weather. Boy, is it warm here this summer. 

[00:02:42] Donna Hoover: It is. 

[00:02:43] Mike Roth: And engage in more of what she loves doing, which is singing, improv, acting, photography, painting, nutrition, healthy eating, which I think we all should do more of. And she's also completing her first book. Donna is accustomed to being the interviewer, not the interviewee. For years, she interviewed subjects for personal interest stories and writes for a magazine in California. Do you still write for the magazine in California, Donna? 

[00:03:12] Donna Hoover: Yes, I do. I do. 

[00:03:13] Mike Roth: Okay. 

And what was your favorite interview that you had done in California?

[00:03:18] Donna Hoover: My favorite interview I did was for a man named Bill Goetz, and he was a World War Two bomber pilot and He told me he was gosh. He was close to a hundred. He was probably 98 years old when I interviewed him a couple years ago And he told me all about his experiences and obviously being shot at and shooting back, of course.

But it, it was a really insightful, amazing interview. He was 17 years old and lied to get into the service so that he could go defend his country after what happened at Pearl Harbor. And it was just amazing to be in the presence of somebody that had lived that life and had that experience. So it was a great interview.

[00:04:03] Mike Roth: Did you keep a copy of that for your interview for yourself? 

[00:04:06] Donna Hoover: Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

[00:04:08] Mike Roth: Good. I hope it's preserved on something other than VHS tapes. 

[00:04:11] Donna Hoover: Oh yeah. It was very recent and I recorded it on micro cassette recorder or, not cassette. What are those now? They're digital now.

Digital recorders. Yeah. Sometimes my age. I'm sorry. 

[00:04:22] Mike Roth: Not a problem. 

So tell us a little bit about your musical journey. 

[00:04:26] Donna Hoover: Okay. I, when I was eight years old, I thought I should sing and I didn't really, I didn't know if I could sing cause I was eight years old and I did different things throughout my life.

Joined a choir at And in high school and things like that and just had fun with it, but I didn't really arduously go after it. And so through my life, I had a little bit of exposure to I'd had some voice lessons here and there, but nothing intense. And then in 2020 I was interviewing someone for the magazine that I write for, and she was a FADO singer.

Whoa, 

[00:05:04] Mike Roth: Whoa, what? Fado? 

[00:05:05] Donna Hoover: Fado, F A D O it's Portuguese. 

[00:05:08] Mike Roth: Never heard of it. 

[00:05:09] Donna Hoover: Yeah, she's a Portuguese singer and she sings in both English and Portuguese. So I was interviewing her and not thinking about, my singing at all. It had been many years since I'd really gotten into it at all.

And and she said, Oh, and by the way, I'm a voice teacher at school of rock. And I said, I did see a van for school of rock, but didn't know what it was and found it intriguing. And she said come on down. She says, how about I'll give you a free lesson. We'll see where we go from there. So that was in 2020 and in March.

And so I went in and I got my free lesson and I was so nervous that. My voice was shaking. Are you nervous to sing in front of me? I said, I absolutely am. And she was okay. So anyway, I did my free lesson and she said, yeah, I think, you should continue if you want to. So I said, that sounds fun.

So I did. And over time my voice grew stronger and I got more confidence and they started a an adult band. at School of Rock. So they already had kids bands and they were quite talented. But anyway, so they started an adult band and so there were a bunch of us with varying degrees of musical experience and I didn't have a lot and I started singing with the band.

The fortunate thing for me was because I was, still a little nervous about all of this, it was. 2020 in July. So I was able to develop my skill more so in front of no audience for about a year and a half, which is very helpful, cause if they put you right out there in front of people right away, it's going to be more difficult.

So anyway I was with them for about a year and a half to two years, and then I decided to leave there and go sing on a church worship team. And the worship team leader had invited me to come over. And then he said, Hey, do you want to start a band? I said, I would love to start a band. And so we did.

And I was with them until I left California this past December. New Year's Eve. And then when I got here I let a few people know that I would be interested in singing if they knew anybody looking for someone. And this one band had just lost their lead singer. And I contacted the leader, Marv, and I said I'm interested in, your band.

He says come on out and let, do an audition and we'll see. I said, all and so I did, and I'm the lead singer of that band now. 

[00:07:41] Mike Roth: And the name of the band is? 

[00:07:43] Donna Hoover: The name is Just Like That. 

[00:07:46] Mike Roth: Just Like That. 

[00:07:47] Donna Hoover: Just Like That. 

[00:07:48] Mike Roth: And if one of our listeners wants to see the band live, where do you perform?

[00:07:54] Donna Hoover: Right now we are gelling as a band, I guess as you would say. And our first performance is going to be I think probably before this podcast, so it's September and let's see. So yeah. First 

[00:08:09] Mike Roth: performance was at September. Was. In September. 

[00:08:12] Donna Hoover: In retrospect, but it hasn't happened yet. Yeah, September 15th, we were doing a driveway party at my house.

And that's for the social group that we belong to. On October 5th, we have a, another party that we're booked for. I'm trying to think, future. We don't have anything booked beyond the point of the date that we're having this discussion. What they could do is go to Facebook and look for us and see, because we have a 

[00:08:35] Mike Roth: Facebook page.

[00:08:36] Donna Hoover: Yeah. And it's, it would be Just Like that Band Florida, because I understand we were trying to choose our name and I understand there's another band called just like that from. Cape Cod, which I thought was interesting because that's where I'm from originally. Anyway. 

[00:08:52] Mike Roth: And what type of music does your band play?

[00:08:54] Donna Hoover: We play a variety of music. I'd say mostly classic rock stuff. We do things from Journey Fleetwood Mac Even some older things like we go 60s 70s up to some current we've done Lady Antebellum, and we've got a little country mixed in there the Jeds We do a song by Queen Yeah, so it's all over but really I would say mostly focused in the 60s 70s Okay, classic 

[00:09:23] Mike Roth: and you also said that you were a writer of a book.

Tell us about your book 

[00:09:28] Donna Hoover: Okay what happened was, this is an actual story, so I guess you can call it a sort of a memoir, but it's more about my sister than about me. But I am in there as well, telling the story, because I'm older than she is. And the story is about my sister, who was a drug addict, she was an alcoholic, she was, she had a variety of things going on, including domestic abuse and her life was pretty messed up and she started this journey destroying herself at a very young age, about 12 years old.

So we obviously send out a lot of prayers for her and we're just really hoping things would turn around. And we did that for decades. And I think, just to talk about it the story, I think, what makes it interesting beyond, here's the story of another person who was an addict or something, is that she, her personality is very whimsical and fun and engaging and she's the kind of person Like the life of the party, the person you'd want to know in a good way.

She's very creative and very fun. And so in the book, in the story, you really fall in love with who she is or who her potential, to be her true self is, and you root for because what does this, sweet, awesome girl doing messing up her life like this. So you do really root for her.

And In the end she does turn her life over to Christ and revives her life. Toward the end of the book, I was almost done writing it, and she had a brain aneurysm. And she was only 49 years old at the time. And it was pretty severe. Yet, in the end she's functioning pretty well.

Perfectly well. I mean everything's healed. They did surgery and all that sort of thing. 

[00:11:17] Mike Roth: So is the book finished? 

[00:11:18] Donna Hoover: The book was finished last year, and then I sent it to beta readers to review it. And right now I'm working on it every day, arduously, again to try to integrate the comments and Concerns that the beta readers had many wanted more information.

So I'm re interviewing her like what was more to this story? So doing that sort of thing. 

[00:11:41] Mike Roth: Are you a member of any of the Writers Clubs here in The Villages? 

[00:11:44] Donna Hoover: Right now I am planning on, I've already contacted the Writers League of The Villages, and I plan on attending their August meeting, so that will be my first one.

I had not, I had not been working on the book for, the time that I've been here, because we've been getting settled in. So yeah, so now I'm, now that I'm back writing it and everything, I'm ready to join the club and see what they have to offer. 

[00:12:09] Mike Roth: Yeah, we've had many of our podcast guests who are members of the Writers League, 

[00:12:14] Donna Hoover: and 

[00:12:15] Mike Roth: we've talked about several of their books.

Let's take a short break and listen to an Alzheimer's tip from Dr. Craig Curtis.

Dr. Curtis, what is the biggest limitation for Alzheimer's research in America? 

[00:12:28] Dr. Craig Curtis: The biggest limitation for Alzheimer's research is our shortage of patients that get involved in clinical research trials. For example, a couple of years ago, a report came out that showed there were approximately 25, 000 open positions for patients with Alzheimer's disease to get involved in research. Yet only about 7, 000 to 8, 000 of those positions went filled for the year. So every year we run a deficit in the United States in filling these clinical trials, which in turn slows our overall ability to complete the clinical trials.

With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate the village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website, craigcurtismd.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar.

[00:13:23] Mike Roth: Thank you Dr. Curtis. I'm back with Donna Hoover.

 Donna, you've had experience in television, both on and off screen. Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about your television experience in Northern California. 

[00:13:35] Donna Hoover: A lot of it was centered around producing television commercials.

And that was fun. I was in some commercials as well, but I think it's like a two sided thing. Some of the most interesting parts of it were when I got to meet people. I did commercials with Rich Aurelia who was with the San Francisco Giants. I had CeCe Sabathia, who you might know.

You're from New York, right? Yeah. He was a pitcher for the New York Yankees. And then Huey Lewis? Yes? Come on. 

[00:14:04] Mike Roth ai: Oh yeah, Huey Lewis, yes. 

[00:14:05] Donna Hoover: All right, I got one. I got one. Yay. Okay, so I did one with Huey Lewis for Special Olympics. So that was the fun side of it. You get to be, on the in track meeting, cool people.

Yeah. But on the other hand, I was also in some of the commercials, so I got to be, a spokesperson for this car dealership or for this dentist or whatever. So there was a lot of that going on too. 

[00:14:28] Mike Roth: You were the talent. 

[00:14:29] Donna Hoover: I was the talent sometimes. Yeah. And I did a lot of voiceover work back then.

And I really enjoyed it. It was fun to learn how to shoot and how to edit. So at a certain point. I was in a one woman band, as it were, I would go out at the account executives when I was in commercial, TV commercial production, the account executives would come on and say here's our new client, whoever they were, and I would go out and meet with them, interview them, produce a script, go out and, get the talent prepared locations, everything you would do, and then go out and shoot it myself.

Bring it back and edit it. And then once it was all done, they'd take it back out and get approval for it. 

[00:15:10] Mike Roth: Good. We'll have to put you to work editing the the transcript. videos of the improv shows. 

[00:15:15] Donna Hoover: Yeah, it was fun and then, and besides the commercials we did some little local origination programming.

We did some shows and that was a lot of fun too. We did a little news program called On Assignment, so I got to interview people, about various things for that show. And then we had also, we had a, in our town, we had a parade every year. It was called Fiesta Days Parade. And it was, it's probably, it's been touted as like the biggest parade in Northern California.

It was pretty big. And so I was the MC for that for eight or nine years. And that was fun. And obviously that was televised and whatnot. 

[00:15:52] Mike Roth: So they had floats and balloons. 

[00:15:53] Donna Hoover: Oh yeah. They had everything, the, the horses, the floats, the balloons, the everything, the bands. So I did that.

And then another thing was the we had the United Way telethon would come to town. And one year I got to MC that too. And. That was fun. The fun part for me with that was they were like we want you to look really good So we're gonna send you over here and they end up getting me this dress that I got to wear for one night It was a 3, 000 dress and to me, I didn't have any 3, 000 dresses So I got to wear this gorgeous dress for one night, so I felt very glamorous but anyway, so it was a lot of fun a lot of on and off camera and then it was In the end of my career I worked for the state of California, and they ended up using me for some voiceover work, and you can go online to state of California stuff, and you'll see me there sometimes and hear my voice there, and so that was fun.

I worked for a tax department. That was a lot of fun. 

[00:16:51] Mike Roth: You worked for the California Tax Department. 

[00:16:54] Donna Hoover: Yeah, I know, right? Oh, yeah. Anyway yeah, so there's that. 

[00:16:58] Mike Roth: You're also going to be in our show on November 19th, the improv show at Rohan. That show is going to be from 6. 30 to 8 p. m. And, We're going to incorporate some music into that show, some singing, and I know we're going to have you up on stage and doing some singing.

Why don't you tell our listeners what your favorite part of improv is? 

[00:17:20] Donna Hoover: Oh it's, I'm still learning. I'm new at improv. Everything I've done in the past has been scripted. Everything's pre written, so I didn't really have to, except for when I did the telethon and the parade. I got to do a little improv there, or a lot.

So my favorite part is just every new scene is exciting, because you don't ever know what's going to happen. It's just, You've got to play off of what's going on and to interact with people is a lot of fun, to just play off of what they're doing and then that creates something new in you and things that you don't even know you're thinking about just come out.

You're like, oh gosh, wow, where'd that come from? So it's a lot of fun. 

[00:17:59] Mike Roth: And it's very funny. Tickets actually are on sale now and you can go over to TheVillagesImprov.Com And On the home page, there will be a link to the show, which will allow you to buy tickets. It's a reserved seat show, which is unusual for us.

So the earlier you go on to buy your tickets, the better the seats that you can select.

 So they better do that right now. 

[00:18:20] Mike Roth: As soon as possible. We're about half sold out now. Now, most people will be listening to this in September. 

Donna, why don't you, Share with our listening audience your thoughts on aging.

[00:18:32] Donna Hoover: I think I have a fairly unique perspective on aging, at least. Maybe not. We'll see. Anyway, I feel like age is, or I should say, I believe that age is pretty much what you choose. It's what you decide it will be. And I don't think that anybody is destined for anything in particular, as far as ailments or Oh, I'm going to gain weight or I'm going to, lose my teeth or whatever, and I think a lot of people have the mindset that, I'm older.

That's why I weigh more. I'm older. That's why everything hurts. I'm older. That's why. And I don't think that's the reason why I think that it's one. Okay. It's your choice to be more active, your choice to supplement your diet, your healthy diet with supplements. I think there are so many ways to maintain a great level of fitness and health.

Far beyond what a lot of people are willing to do. 

So you go to the gym every week? 

We go to the gym we try to go every day. I missed it this morning because I had to come here. I didn't have to come here, I got to come here. Thank you. And this is 

[00:19:44] Mike Roth: exercise? 

[00:19:45] Donna Hoover: Yeah. Yes, I'm standing up straight, breathing from my diaphragm, so yes.

But yes, I go to the gym Most days, I guess that's a fair way to say it. And I go by the 80 20 rule as far as what you should eat. 80 percent of the time, eat the good things. 20 percent of the time, hey, let's go to Kumo's for dinner, right? Or whatever. 

[00:20:06] Mike Roth: Kumo's can be healthy depending on what you order.

[00:20:09] Donna Hoover: Yes, that is true. No, actually yes. And But for me, when I go out I lose my self discipline a little bit and just have a good time. 

[00:20:18] Mike Roth: You're probably not alone. 

[00:20:19] Donna Hoover: So have a good time. So that's, I think that's the thing that people think oh, you like to eat healthy and do all this stuff.

You're boring and you're not having fun and you're not eating good things. That's not true. Or good, quote unquote. It's more of, of devoting your life to taking care of yourself and then having your fun also. Yeah, 

[00:20:39] Mike Roth: One of the advantages I find of going to Kumu at improv on Monday nights after our regular meeting ends at 8.

20, we go over to Kumu's Japanese restaurant in Lake Deaton Plaza, which is adjacent to Rohan, and we have something to eat and drink. The advantage of Kumus is they don't have terribly fattening desserts. 

[00:21:00] Donna Hoover: True, and their service is fabulous. The people there are amazing people. We used to 

[00:21:04] Mike Roth: go to an Italian restaurant that had fantastic tiramisu and other Italian Good food, really good food.

The food was fantastic. And then we're now all on a diet at Kumus. What are your thoughts on healthy living and lifestyle? 

[00:21:20] Donna Hoover: A little bit what I've touched on. I like to make things homemade as much as possible. Try not to use, refined sugars. When I'm baking, cooking, I use alternate things.

I think So you, 

[00:21:33] Mike Roth: you make those watermelon cookies? 

[00:21:36] Donna Hoover: Watermelon cookies? Sure. You mean just here's a slice of watermelon, take this? That's okay too. Ah, it's delicious. I like to 

[00:21:43] Mike Roth: chocolate chip watermelon. 

[00:21:44] Donna Hoover: Yeah of course, gotta have that. I like to 

[00:21:47] Mike Roth: Dark chocolate, so it's healthy.

[00:21:49] Donna Hoover: Yes, it's, yeah, a certain percentage, right? But I have It's I challenge myself, so if there's something that I love that's like a chocolate chip cookie, how can I make this healthier? What can I do to this? And so there are things that you can do with anything that you're eating to reduce the sodium, reduce the sugar.

Reduce, anything in it, fat, I'm, I want to take that back, fat is not necessarily unhealthy, fat can be really good actually, your brain needs it, but to reduce the bad elements. 

[00:22:20] Mike Roth: And sodium isn't necessarily bad. 

[00:22:22] Donna Hoover: It's an excess of sodium. 

[00:22:24] Mike Roth: Yeah. That is problematic. At this time of year when it's hot and you're sweating.

Even if you're sweating in the air conditioned gym, you need a certain amount of sodium. 

[00:22:32] Donna Hoover: I agree. To keep your body in 

[00:22:33] Mike Roth: balance. 

[00:22:34] Donna Hoover: You do. And I think on my thoughts on that, in particular there's a salt that I use. It's called Celtic sea salt. And you can also use, I, I think the Himalayan salt, the, you've probably seen it, the Pink Crystals Himalayan.

[00:22:47] Mike Roth: Oh, Himalayan. That's another one, the Himalayan. salt? 

[00:22:50] Donna Hoover: Yeah, I, my preference is for the Celtic Sea salt. And the reason being for that, and not to go too deep into a sidebar here on this, but, the reason being for that is that the vitamins and minerals or whatever is in that salt is fully digestible by your body.

When they take an iodized salt, like the table salt you'll see at a restaurant, for instance, or most people buy, it has had all the everything good stripped out of it. So when you're using that salt, that's what, the kind of salt that would raise your blood pressure and cause you to have, different issues due to the iodized salt.

salt me having all the good things stripped away. So when you go to a Celtic sea salt, it's left as it's, as its whole self, the way that it would be healthy for your body. So when you introduce that into your body is well able to process it. 

[00:23:40] Mike Roth: So is that the way the salt is processed or where it's from?

[00:23:43] Donna Hoover: It has to do with the processing, largely, because they're taking, if you look at Celtic sea salt, you're going to see it's like a gray color, and it's bigger, a little bit, it comes in bigger chunks, you have to grind it down, or you can get it ground, but it's a gray color versus your white.

That looks like bleached, pure. So yeah, do a little, have your listeners do a little research on that. So salt is great if you're getting the right salt. That would be my advice on that. And where do you buy 

[00:24:13] Mike Roth: your Celtic sea salt? 

[00:24:14] Donna Hoover: You can get it at I think right now I've been getting it online.

I have been getting it online. I used to have a place back in California where I can find it. Sometimes it'll carry it, say at Sprouts. That sort of place maybe at Fresh Market. I haven't asked or checked there because I already have some still so Yeah, 

[00:24:33] Mike Roth: that's good. That's good and Donna if someone wants to find out when your book is Published How would they do that?

[00:24:42] Donna Hoover: The name of the book is wandering in the shadows Wandering in the Shadows, and I guess you could just look for that name. I'll be establishing a Facebook page for that. 

[00:24:55] Mike Roth: Is it going to be self published? 

[00:24:57] Donna Hoover: I believe it is, and I want, largely because I want to retain the rights to it. 

I'm looking toward producing a film or TV show. Based on this book in, in time. So I don't want to release the rights to a publishing company and not have control over that. 

[00:25:14] Mike Roth: So are you going to almost immediately create an audio book version since you're, you've been in the voiceover business?

I'm going to. 

[00:25:22] Donna Hoover: I might do that. I hadn't really thought a lot about that side of it, because right now it's, there's so much in just getting it written. And then, I think the thing that kind of holds you back as a writer, or at least I could say for myself, sometimes you're like, okay, I'm not going to work on it.

Why am I not working on it? The, I think the real reason is, On the other side of writing it is the whole issue of how do you publish it, how do you market it, how do you do, and those are unknowns to me. And so that's why I'm interested in joining the the writers group here in The Villages to get some insight on what happens on the other side of the writing.

Because I know how to write, 

[00:25:57] Mike Roth: good, good. When this recording is finished I'll show you what my daughter has done, which has been phenomenal. 

[00:26:02] Donna Hoover: All right. Publishing. Her self 

[00:26:04] Mike Roth: published book has been at the top of her category on Amazon for the past three years now. 

[00:26:10] Donna Hoover: Wonderful. Wonderful. I'm very interested in that.

[00:26:13] Mike Roth: Good. 

Thanks for being a guest on the show today, Donna. 

[00:26:16] Donna Hoover: Thank you for having me. Good. It's been fun. 

[00:26:18] Mike Roth: Good. And everyone can see you in the November 19th production of The Improv Company Show at Rohan. 

[00:26:26] Donna Hoover: All right. Thanks a lot, Mike. 

[00:26:28] Mike Roth: Thank you. 

[00:26:28] Emily: Remember, our next episode will be released next Friday at 9 a. m. Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike at rothvoice.Com. This is a shout out for supporters Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams, Paul Sorgen, and major supporter Dr. Craig Curtis at K2 in The Villages.

We will be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at mike at rothvoice. com. We thank everyone for listening to the show. The content of the show is copyrighted by Rothvoice 2024. All rights reserved.