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

Jen Lois, Professor of Sociology at Western Washington University in Bellingham, and Joanna Gregson, Professor of Sociology at Pacific Lutheran University, sit down with Sarah to discuss studying the community of romance from a sociological perspective. We talk about the sneers and the leers that romance writers and readers are subjected to, and the gender dynamics of the community. You’ll also hear Joanna’s cat purring near the end, which is totally excellent.

Sarah and Jane interview Julie James about her newest book, Suddenly One Summer, and about the varying pressures on authors to publish a book more than once a year, or every 90 days. We discuss beats in storytelling, reader expectations, and make some book recommendations as well.

Continuing our conversation from last week’s podcast, Jaye Wells and Sarah discuss Jaye’s MFA program, her works in progress, what happens when urban fantasy writers combine worlds, and the future of urban fantasy. Then Sarah tackles some listener email about choosing what to review on a blog, finding new releases, and finding the books you most want to read once you’ve identified your reading catnip.

At RT in May 2015, as always, I saw next to Jaye Wells during the booksigning, which is one of the best parts of RT for me. This year we had a really interesting conversation about the idea of "strong female characters," and what that means. Why do we use the word "strong?" What exactly are we describing - and how are the attributes of a character who we wouldn't describe as "strong" different from one who is? Are there not-strong characters? We also talk about feminism, raising sons who like to read all the books they can get their hands on, and many other topics.

Sarah interviews Rachel Aaron about writing fantasy, her trip to RT as a person who doesn’t write primarily romance, and about the science and data of tracking her writing process. They also discuss world building and romance authors Rachel particularly loves, and offer fantasy recommendations for the romance readers.

This week, Sarah interviews bestselling historical author Caroline Linden about her Scandals series, her upcoming book, Love in the Time of Scandal, and about her education in mathematics. We talk about math, romance novels, and the sexually explicit historical literature she read while doing research for this series, too.

We're in Dallas, Texas, at the 2015 Romantic Times BookLovers' Convention, talking about books and more! First, a micro-interview with historical romance author Piper Huguley, who answered my call in a previous podcast for three-question interviews at RT. I asked her more than three questions but I think that was ok. Then, Elyse, RedHeadedgirl, Amanda, Carrie and I discuss RT from their perspectives as first time attendees.

Just like it says on the tin! Jane and Sarah discuss the upcoming Romantic Times Book Lovers' Convention, what to do if you're a newbie who is attending on her own, and what we're looking forward to, including the Book Blogger Conference we're hosting. Plus, we talk about what Jane's been reading, and Sarah attempts to recommend a book...hesitantly.

Sarah interviews bestselling author Darynda Jones about writing paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and YA, about being an enthusiastic writer and reader, and about pets - because obviously we must discuss what’s really important. We also talk a lot about audiobooks, because Darynda listens to a lot of books and has a lot of recommendations.

Sarah interviews multi-genre powerhouse Beverly Jenkins about writing black American history into historicals, creating sexual tension without sex, writing painful history and giving characters happy endings, her appearance in the Love Between the Covers documentary, and her community of readers on her very active Facebook.

Sarah and Elyse chat about knitting, drunk knitting, yarn buying habits, book buying habits, knitting patterns, and how knitting and romance fans can have similar origin stories and similar habits. Plus, there are pets on this week's podcast! Birds AND CATS! Oh, that makes me happy.

Jessie Edwards, publicist at HarperCollins, Avon, Harper Voyager and more, to talk about being a romance fan, and a professional working in the romance publishing industry. We talk about when she knew she wanted to work in publishing, how she got there, and what she loves about her job. We also talk about competence p0rn, pitching romance releases to romance media vs. mainstream media, and what makes our community special.

Sarah has a long and goofy chat with Sassy Outwater about her life with brain cancer, and her life with two alpha guide dogs. We cover her adventures as Tumor Killer Girl, and talk about BDSM safety when you’re blind, owning your body and brain, glass eyes, diversity, music, and much more. Grace, Sarah's extremely elderly cat, makes a guest appearance - the podcast equivalent of a photobomb - around 5:30. She says hi.

Jane and Sarah have a long chat with Jay from Joyfully Jay. She answers curious questions about male/male romance, such as, is all m/m erotic? (Spoiler alert: nope!) We talk author and book recommendations, gaynesia, audiobooks, and the m/m romance community as well.

This week, we talk about the DABWAHA tournament, what books we wanted to be in the tournament that didn’t make it, and the origins of the tournament long long ago. And in a shocking turn of events, Jane and Sarah disagree about NA, YA, and Contemporary romance. We also talk a little bit about ARCs, and what Jane’s read recently. FYI, trigger warning for a discussion of rape fantasies starting at about minute 36:00.