The Hopeless Romantic

The Hopeless Romantic

Amanda Jean delights in wrestling manuscripts for her day job, worships at the altar of tropes, and has never met a villain or sexy alien she doesn’t like. Austin Chant writes books about gay magic and toxic masculinity, likes his queer stories with a slice of anguish, and kinda wants to be a pirate. Together, they discuss queer romance fiction and the broader world of queer media.

Episodes

Episode 40: Thanks for Coming to Our TED Talk

July 3, 2018 • 72 mins
**Content warning: This episode contains spoilers for the movie *Annihilation* (as well as some spoilers for the book it's based on). The ending is in no way spoiled, but some plot elements are laid out. There are also spoilers for *The Picture of Dorian Gray*. Also, suicide is mentioned.** After two and a half years, forty episodes, many arguments with Skype, and lots of Overwatch references, The Hopeless Romantic is closing its ...
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Episode 39: What's in a Pen Name?

June 12, 2018 • 76 mins
**Content warning:** This episode mentions the *Killing Stalking* manhwa, discusses problematic elements of dramas (such as non-consensual grabbing, stalking, kidnapping, and misogynistic behavior), mentions drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, fictional suicide in *Orphan Black*, underage relationships with regards to *Queer as Folk*, microaggressions and exclusionary behavior re: Pride events, fake suicides and hate crimes, an...
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Episode 38: Problematic Gay Stuff

May 29, 2018 • 77 mins
**Content warnings: This episode references potentially triggering topics, including abusive relationships, gaslighting, murder, cannibalism, sexual assault, violence, incest, Real Person Fan Fiction, and age differences--a lot of triggers that constitute "dark" or "problematic" fiction. While we don't dwell on many of these subjects, they are referenced, and people may want to protect themselves accordingly. Also, there are mild ...
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Episode 37: Meet Nasty

May 15, 2018 • 69 mins
**Content warning: This contains a trigger warning for a dead dog in Killing Eve and also mentions mild spoilers for the endings of *Time Was* and *Person of Interest*.** After repeated technical failure, Brooklyn Wallace finally manages to chat with Austin and Amanda about her upcoming black F/F romance *Sugar and Ice*. Predictably, the group is sidetracked by Cockygate, bad 1920s New York accents, Smokey the Bear's racism, and m...
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Episode 36: Chekhov's War

April 10, 2018 • 74 mins
**Content warning: We discuss (though not in any detail) Amanda's current ear infection and a staph ear infection Austin had a few years back, as well as general health/medical stuff. Skip to 9:38 if this is a potential trigger or squick for you. There are also some spoilers for *The Ring/Ringu* and the video game *Until Dawn.*** (First off, apologies for Austin sounding like he recorded in a toilet. Podcasts are hard.) This epis...
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Episode 35: The State of Things

March 27, 2018 • 63 mins
**Content warning: This episode references sexual abuse and harassment, and generally a lot of toxic behavior and boundary crossing. None of it is explicit, but please take care of yourself if you might be triggered.** Austin and Amanda get serious and address racism, gatekeeping, abuse, amateurism, and other broken elements in queer publishing. Another major problem discussed is how a lack of boundaries can lead to those in the i...
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Episode 34: Manic Pixie Scottish Banana

March 13, 2018 • 71 mins
At the top of the episode, Austin and Amanda briefly address the ongoing revelations of misconduct and abuse within queer publishing. We stand with authors. Austin and Amanda go digging for comedy gold in ancient Harlequin blurbs, then get serious and talk about how damn hard beginnings can be. Amanda talks about what she typically finds missing in beginnings as an acquisitions editor. The hosts take a moment to address the divers...
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Episode 33: If I'm Wrong, @ Me

February 27, 2018 • 70 mins
**This episode contains spoilers for God's Own Country.** Celebrate Valentine’s Day two weeks late with the always-prepared THR! Amanda recommends a podcast and tells a story about how she wins friends and influences people, which is followed by the hosts struggling to contain laughter over romance titles generated by a neural network (the punishment for laughter is blurbing said titles). There's discussion about the emotions, aut...
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Episode 32: Waiting for My Emotions to Run Out

February 13, 2018 • 72 mins
**Warning for very mild spoilers for The Adventure Zone podcast. We warn in-episode and it's nothing earth shattering.** Austin and Amanda reminisce about their experiences at Read With Pride, which recently announced its end, and try to describe the Lynchian quality of the Seattle Public Library's fourth floor. There's also discussion of New Adult stories and how aromantic and asexual people may feel alienated by the levels of se...
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Episode 31: A Peach by Any Other Name

January 30, 2018 • 75 mins
**Content warning: part of this episode discusses a fictional relationship between a 17-year-old and a 24-year-old.** THR returns with a semi-revamped format! Austin and Amanda talk about the future of the show, delve into some of the realities of freelancing from their own experiences, and spend the last two-thirds of the episode talking about *Call Me By Your Name* and their wildly disparate reactions to it. (**Warning for book ...
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Episode 30: Beefman

November 21, 2017 • 72 mins
**Content warning: Austin and Amanda are tipsy/drunk in this episode again. Weird stuff happens. If drunkeness or people talking about being drunk (and hungover) bugs you, take care to skip this ep and we'll be back with another regular one soon.** THR celebrates its second anniversary with another infamous drunk episode! Or that was the plan, anyway. Austin and Amanda got a little too drunk and the material ranged between boring ...
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Episode 29: Machines Fueled By Spite

October 16, 2017 • 76 mins
**Content warning:** There's two pejorative terms/slurs for a promiscuous person (and a sex worker) mentioned in the episode. This episode tried its hardest to foil us: between meowing cats, barking dogs, ambient rain, and Amanda's recording mysteriously stopping at four minutes and forcing her to rely on a shoddy recording of the Skype call, it's a miracle we made it to the end. Our $10 Patron, Silas, prompted us to talk about ...
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Episode 28: The Long Con

October 3, 2017 • 76 mins
Ginn Hale's newest book, *The Long Past*, is out as of 10/3/17! She joins THR to talk about writing and researching alt Westerns, world building, avoiding the whitewash of history, and also chickens. The episode has a chicken thing. Also discussed is the miracle of modern plumbing, writing religion when you grew up outside of religion, and yet more chickens.
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Episode 27: Hopeless After Dark #2

July 18, 2017 • 58 mins
**Content warning: this episode contains references to fisting, actor Kim Woo Bin's cancer diagnosis, and our typical NSFW irreverence.** Austin and Amanda bore the heat of summer in an enclosed space to bring you this episode of Hopeless After Dark. Hear them talk about Kdramas, deadlines, Doomfist, that time Amanda touched Harry Shum Jr but not in a weird way, and what books they've been reading lately. And check the full descri...
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Episode 26: Gay Elves and Sexy Lizard People

June 27, 2017 • 58 mins
Fantasy and speculative fiction is the topic of the day! Austin and Amanda throw around some loose definitions, give examples of their favorite queer fantasy (send Amanda more gaslamp manuscripts!). and writing fantasy with romance in it vs writing romance in a fantasy setting. They answer some questions from Twitter and wonder why people bother to transplant real-life oppression into fantastical settings. Austin and Amanda are b...
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Episode 25: Avon & Roan

June 13, 2017 • 48 mins
Co-authors of the upcoming *Heart of the Steal*, Avon Gale and Roan Parrish, join THR to chat about their cowriting process! They also talk about working with an agent, hideous hotel breakfasts, and how they got their starts in the queer romance industry. Amanda reveals she cries at every episode of *Friday Night Lights,* Roan is not a food snob, no one really knows how to write serial fiction, and we had to cut twenty minutes of ...
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Episode 24: Hopeless After Dark #1

May 1, 2017 • 38 mins
**Content warning: this episode (briefly) mentions fisting and choking, calls certain Overwatch characters Daddy, and generally features a lot of irreverent filth.** Welcome to Hopeless After Dark, a new subset of THR that isn't exclusively dedicated to queer romance. We reached out to Twitter to ask some of our listeners what they'd like to hear us talk about, and we tackled Overwatch and Austin's burgeoning obsessions, AUs of *P...
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Episode 23: Amnesia and Peril and Cowboys, Oh My

April 4, 2017 • 75 mins
**Content warning: There are a few mentions of racism and a mention of rape in this episode.** THR talks tropes! From their favorites (ask about Austin's love for cowboys and Amanda's for arranged marriage) to their least favorites, when a trope can be neutral, and when it can be potentially harmful. They also cover some tropes that intersect with or differ from those in fan fiction. Also, for some reason Austin attempts to say ...
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Episode 22: Kill Your (Peter) Darlings

March 21, 2017 • 100 mins
Co-host Austin Chant's novel *Peter Darling* was released in February, and Amanda and Austin break down the editing process over many months and three recording sessions. Hear them stress over deadlines, complain about talking whales and Hook's outfits, give props to the *Captive Prince* trilogy for various inspiration, discuss the versions of the book that weren't, and totally contradict themselves from session to session! The ep...
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Episode 21: Some Sort of Sad Dragon

March 7, 2017 • 39 mins
Megan Derr, CEO of Less Than Three Press and a prolific author of high fantasy and spec, covers world building, including where she starts, info dump, winging it, dialog, and languages. She also talks about ace rep, including what she's looking for at LT3 and as an ace reader. The group also discusses how Amanda's got a ton of unread books on her Kindle, but Megan's seated atop a mighty hoard of books and definitely has her beat.
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