Smart Podcast, Trashy Books: Reviews, Interviews, and Discussion About All the Romance Novels You Love to Read

Sarah interviews debut author Anna Bradley, who, prior to becoming an author of historical romance was a curator and librarian for the Chawton House Library. She specialized in acquiring rare books by women writers published between 1600-1830 for Chawton House - which is way cool. We also talk about which is better: old book smell vs new car smell, vetting old books, meeting authors you admire, and whether “to librarian” should be a verb. (Spoiler alert: it should). And of course we talk about her upcoming debut, A Wicked Way to Win an Earl.

In this episode, I interview Caryn Radick, who is a Digital Archivist in the Special Collections and University Archives at the Rutgers University Libraries. We discuss library archives and what they do - and what’s in them. Plus, Caryn has been working on a research project about how romance writers use archives, and is very interested in depictions of archivists in fiction - romance and other genres. She has a number of recommendations for anyone who is looking to do archival research of their own, too.

First, this is a NSFW podcast in the middle, so wear your headphones! Once you hear mention of chocolate pie, grab those earbuds. No lie. Meka is a longtime romance reader, and we talk about everything in this episode: reading nine books a week, talking to your coworkers about danger boner (Spoiler: don’t), technology advances for blind readers, and her introduction to romance, which involved a mistake and the word “wench.” We also discuss crimes against dessert, diversity in romance characters, and alternate book signing options for blind readers. NB: This episode was almost titled, “Ok! Chocolate pie!”

On my way out of the hotel after RWA this year, I rode the escalator with Esi Sogah, who is a senior editor at Kensington. Esi has been working on romance for her entire career as an editor, and I thought she’d make a great podcast guest - I hope you agree. We talk about her Romance 101 conversion kit, diversity in romance publishing among professionals within the industry and in the books being created, and what she’s reading, editing and recommending. A special bonus at the end: what the musical Hamilton can teach the publishing industry.

Sarah chats with Ashleigh Gardner, who is the Head of Content at Wattpad. You may remember that Wattpad sponsored the podcast transcript recently, and while emailing with them about it, I learned about some of the trends and popular stories they're seeing among their writers in the romance section. Ashleigh and I talk about how Wattpad works, and about some of the international communities that have embraced it very eagerly. We also discuss trends, recommended stories, and more. And then I answer some listener email about historical cover art.

Sarah and Jane chat with bestselling author Susan Donovan about her writing process, her contemporary series, and writing character driven romance. We also discuss cover art, “gentle fiction,” how her illness affected her writing, and we get some surprise information about dinosaur holiday anthology.

This week, Sarah chats with Sonali Dev, and her dog Simba, about romance reading, romance writing, increasing the diversity of romance in just about every respect, applying Bollywood film structure to romance, and we get some in-depth knowledge about her series. Do not miss her theory about publishing your first book vs. your second book.

Continuing our series of reader interviews, Sarah chats with Tina Chaney, a longtime romance fan, about discovering romance, mystery favorites, living in Kentucky, and reader shaming. They also talk at length about Tina’s favorite books, and about pet peeves like “danger boner.”

This week, Sarah chats with writer Kelly Faircloth from Jezebel, who has authored several kicking articles about the romance genre. They discuss writing about romance from a journalism perspective, the purposes of sexuality in romance, the shame visited upon romance readers, and the history of some of Kelly’s articles, as well as the cool research.

Sarah talks with Petra Mayer, one of the NPR Books editors and chief wrangler of the NPR Summer of Love romance 100 list, which Sarah helped select. This was recorded before the release of the full list, however. They discuss discovering romance, forbidden books, cartoons, fantasy and science fiction romance, and how books are selected for coverage at NPR.

Sarah sits down with Lauren Willig to talk about her book releases. Plural. That’s two books releasing in two weeks - no big deal! They also talk about multi-genre books which blend mystery, romance, and historical fiction. And we discuss what happens when you read historical gossip, the fashions of the 20s, the changes brought about by women working during WWI and WWII, and what romance as a genre owes to Napoleon.

Sarah and Jane chat with Elizabeth Lowell about her writing process, all the genres she’s written, the different careers in science that she almost pursued, and how the romance genre has changed from her perspective as a writer. We also discuss her newest book, Perfect Touch.

Sarah gets an update from Sassy Outwater on how her surgery went (spoiler alert: she’s doing good and the doctors seem to have removed ALL the cancer - woo!). We talk about her reading during her recovery, therapy to help her brain rewire itself, and disabled characters in romance. We also get a sample of what books sound like for blind readers.

Sarah chats with Gloriamarie Amalfitano, a lifelong reader of romance, and self identified Christian feminist. We talk about feminism, Christian scripture and history, and, of course, romance reading recommendations.

RedHeadedGirl and Sarah talk about Grey, Roman appetites, historical food and recipes, historical re-reads, Poldark, and books and tv shows that scare us.