Adventures at the Fabled Fantasy Romantasy Book Con

Send us a text

Ever wondered how literature can unite communities in times of need? Join us on an uncharted adventure at the Fabled Fantasy Romanacy Book Con in Orlando, where we explore the vibrant world of books and the heartwarming initiatives supporting hurricane-affected areas. Our journey uncovers the magic that happens when literary enthusiasts come together. From panels to vendor stalls, our first book-focused event is a whirlwind of connection and discovery.

We reflect on the intimate charm of the convention and its standout moments, like the spirited panel on monster romance. Meet the captivating storytellers who transformed our experience, including Rose Centuriello, TB Wise, Emma Hamm, Juliette Cross, Kendare Blake, Lish McBride, and more! Amidst the camaraderie, we humorously recount the need for a book rolly cart to manage our purchases and the not-so-necessary airbrush kit we couldn't resist. Our enthusiasm for future events is palpable, as we anticipate forming even deeper connections with authors and fellow book lovers.

Links from the News Segment and Show:

•  Hurricane Relief
  • Red Cross - redcross.org
  • World Central Kitchen - wck.org
  • For book specific: BINC foundation, Book Industry Charitable Foundation - bincfoundation.org
  • Libro.fm - for audiobooks but you can pick an indie bookstore to support in an affected area.
• Fabled Fantasy Romantasy BookCon event
  • Official Website
  • What were our expectations?
  • Our thoughts of how it went
  • What we’d like to see/do next year?
  • Tickets for 2025 on sale now!

Follow us:
Instagram - @ofswordsandsoulmates

Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/ofswordsandsoulmates

Episode Transcript

Ashley (00:00):
Views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the
participants.
The hosts make no claim to beliterary experts and their
opinions are exactly thatopinions.
All creative works discussed orreviewed are the intellectual
property of the creators of saidstories and is being used under
the fair use doctrine.

Mari (00:32):
Hello and welcome to Swords and Soulmates, a podcast
where we read, watch and discussromanticist stories.
I'm one of your hosts, mari,and with me I have Kelly.

Kelly (00:37):
Hey everyone, it's Kelly.
We also have Ashley.

Ashley (00:40):
Hi, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.

Mari (00:43):
What's up?
It's JP?
Hi, it's Ashley.
We also have Jonathan.
What's up?
It's JP.
So today we're not reallyreviewing anything any book.
We're not really talkingspecifically about a book.
We just thought we would gettogether and share with you guys
a little bit about theexperiences that we had at the
Fabled Fantasy Romanacy Book Conevent in Orlando that happened

(01:03):
earlier this month.
We were all there, so it was anevent that happened on Friday
and Saturday.
Kelly and I were there Fridayand Saturday, and Jonathan and
Ash came on Saturday.
We all went to panels.
We all did the day stuff, likethe talk to the vendors and, you

(01:24):
know, walking around and seeingeverything.
We did not do any of thenighttime activities, so we're
not really going to talk aboutthose because we didn't have any
real firsthand experience aboutthat.
I have heard good things aboutit from people who've gone, but
none of us went, so I don'tthink it's fair to necessarily
talk about that.
Before we get into that, though, I did just want to say it's

(01:44):
hurricane season.
Hurricanes have been affectingthe Georgia, florida, south
Carolina, north Carolina, allthese areas, in addition to
maybe other places that you'reused to.
If you wanted to donate or helpthere's, you know, red Cross is
always a good one, worldCentral Kitchen, wckorg, is
always a good one.
There are a few like bookspecific charities and

(02:06):
organizations that I've heardabout that if you're interested
you may want to look into.
First one is called the BINCFoundation.
It's B-I-N-C that stands forBook Industry Charitable
Foundation, and they basicallyhelp out booksellers, comic book
stores, book vendors, that kindof thing who've been affected
with emergencies and they havehelped people in situations like

(02:32):
this.
We found out about themactually at the con from Lish
McBride, one of the authorsthere.
She had been helped by thatorganization back during Katrina
when she was in New Orleans andI know that the Bink Foundation
is helping people in likeAsheville Florida area.
So that might be a way ifyou're looking to, if anyone is
looking to donate to help out.

(02:53):
The other one that I heard about, also from Lish McBride, it was
a video she did today.
It was an interesting idea.
It's Librofm, which some peopleuse for audiobooks and
listening to books, and you payfor the books and everything
there, just like you would withAudible, but you can choose a
local bookstore to support.
She was saying if you wanted tohelp one of the bookstores or

(03:16):
vendors in affected areas.
You could always switch out thebookstore that you're
supporting to one in an affectedarea for the month and then
switch it back to your local oneif you wanted to, which I
thought was an interesting idea.
I hadn't heard anybody suggest,and then the last thing I saw
was and this is an Instagramaccount it's a charity that
several authors are looking toget together.

(03:37):
It's called Romance for Floridaand it's romance authors and
they're accepting donations for,like, signed books and limited
edition things, and they'reaccepting donations for signed
books and limited edition thingsand then they're going to
auction it off and the money gotowards helping people in the
Florida area.
So if you're interested infinding out more about that, the
Instagram account is Romancefor Florida all one word, and it

(03:58):
seemed like they had someinteresting things they were
trying to do.
They're going to be acceptingsubmissions from October 16th, I
believe, through October 25th,but look at the account and get
the full details from there.
If you're interested, All right.
Anything else about that beforewe get into the con?
No, I think you covered it Allright.

(04:18):
So Fabled Fantasy Romanacy BookCon event.
I know it was my first bookconvention book con, I think.
Has anyone else ever been toany BookCon before?

Jonathan (04:29):
No, no, I'm not, this is my first as well.

Mari (04:35):
Okay, so I thought maybe we would talk about what our
expectations were and then whatwe thought about it in general.
So I mean, whoever, whoeverwants to go first, I mean I'll
go first.

Ashley (04:45):
I couldn't be really honest.
I wasn't expecting nearly asmuch as it was.
I actually regret that weweren't there for Friday, as we,
as mentioned, none of us havebeen to a book con before.
I've been reading books.
You know my whole, what feels,like my whole life.
So this was a really fun event.

(05:06):
I think I was just expecting, Ithink I was only expecting,
like the panel part of it, causethat's really how the app
that's really the only noticethe app gave us.
You know what I mean theadvertising for it, the links
for it, the app for it was notvery like intuitive.
So I wasn't, I'm going to behonest, I wasn't expecting much

(05:28):
out of it.
I thought it actually might bea little boring.
I thought we might cut outearly.
I was certainly hoping for itto be, you know, as as great as
it ended up being, but I Ididn't expect it to be as cool
as it was yeah, now I agree Ididn't know what to expect.

Mari (05:45):
The only convention kind of things I'd done before were
sci-fi, fantasy type conventionsand mega cons or maybe comic
book and heavy cosplay and thosesorts of convention-based
things.
So I wasn't really sure what toexpect out of a book convention
.
And I know this is their firsttime hosting this event and so
it's not like there was a lot ofhistory that we could look up

(06:05):
and see what other peoplethought of it or anything.

Ashley (06:08):
I was expecting?

Mari (06:08):
yeah, I was expecting like you.
I was expecting panels andmaybe like a little vendors area
with like nothing major.
I wasn't really sure what toexpect out of it, but I I was
definitely pleasantly surprisedby by what it ended up being
versus my expectations.

Jonathan (06:25):
What'd you guys think?
I thought it was okay.
I was in that same boat where Iwas not sure what was going to
happen.
When we got there.
I wasn't sure if I was walkinginto a very small, poorly
managed venue or if I was goingto walk into a very, extremely
large operation.
I really didn't know what toexpect and I was.

(06:47):
I was surprised.
My convention experience isoutdoor sports related, so it's
like huge, lots of equipment,lots of vendors, so, and you
need like a roadmap to getaround.
This was a little more intimate, but it was.
It was definitely day and ahalf to two day kind of
convention.

(07:07):
For sure, if I had to likebreak it down in regards of that
, in regards like that it was,it felt like if I had gone to
the panels, I would not have.
You couldn't, you couldn't doboth the panels and conquer the
expo area in one day.
So, yeah, it was like pick,pick and choose, although I did

(07:30):
see some videos from the balland that looked interesting yeah
, what do you think?

Ashley (07:36):
does that mean it was not a no for you?

Jonathan (07:38):
the ball, the ball.
I'm not ball ready not ballready yeah the ball the ball
still up.

Kelly (07:45):
There has not dropped down yet it sounds like it
should be a warning sticker, notball ready not ball ready not
ball.

Jonathan (07:53):
I'm not ball ready.
I could be ball ready.
I think it would take me liketwo years to get ball ready.
Or I would be like a like hideout in a corner for a little bit
and then like, maybe, slowly, Imight need some liquid courage.
You know, you know when you getto the end of a of an of an
event, and if you would havetold me that the videos would

(08:14):
have hyped as many people beingin that that ball as there were,
I would not have guessed that,because as the event starts to
close, people want to get out.
They don't want to stay longerand it kind of it felt like it
was like a 180, like people werejust like it's over, yay, let's
celebrate.

Kelly (08:34):
You know, let let your hair down, put your dancing
hooves on and go to town yeahwell, I mean that's a common
sentiment at conventions I'vebeen to in other fields is that
there's usually like some kindof party on the last night or
whatever.
But the conventions I've beento like in the medical field
there's usually like big partiesthat are sponsored by some big

(08:57):
company or vendor or merchant orwhatever.

Mari (09:00):
So what were your expectations of this con before
you went, kelly or whatever?

Kelly (09:04):
So, what were your expectations of this con before
you went, kelly?
I mean, I've been to a lot ofdifferent conventions related to
fantasy, sci-fi gaming andstuff like that.
I've been to small regionalgaming conventions.
I've been to Dragon Con.
I've been to Dragon Con backbefore it was even called Dragon
Con.
I've been to Games Day.
I've been to all those kind ofbig conventions, never really

(09:26):
like a book-specific convention.
It's always been more of likejust general fantasy, general
science fiction, whatever typeconventions.
So I didn't really have a hugeamount of expectations as far as
going in.
I did think there was going tobe.
I thought there would be morevendors that were selling book
merchandise.

(09:46):
There were some, but I thoughtthere would be a lot more.

Jonathan (09:50):
Honestly, when you say book merchandise um, could you
elaborate?

Kelly (09:55):
well, like book at.
J's not selling booksthemselves, necessarily, but
like book adjacent stuff, likethere were some that we saw that
were selling.
We had the people that wereselling coffee that was inspired
by some of the books orwhatever.
I expected to see a lot moremerchants like that, selling
book dust covers, bookmerchandise official and

(10:18):
unofficial merchandise, homemademerchandise, all that kind of
stuff.

Ashley (10:23):
More trinkets.

Kelly (10:24):
I really, yeah, I really expected to see like 10 booths
of 10 or 12 booths of peoplejust selling t-shirts, accurate.

Jonathan (10:33):
Yeah, I would say that that was a.
That was probably a very goodassumption, like I feel like we
should have seen a similar thingFrom what we saw.
I was excited about it.
Did you get good vibes fromwhat you, from what we saw?
I was?

Kelly (10:45):
excited about it.
Did you get good vibes fromwhat you saw, kelly?
Yeah, I mean, I think that itbeing fairly small, but then
again my comparison is to largeconventions like Dragon Con and
stuff where there's thousandsand thousands of people.
So even though there was a goodbit of people there, it was
still small enough that youcould go up to the author's
table and actually have a youknow, interaction with an author

(11:07):
, which was really cool.

Mari (11:09):
I agree, I think that was like the coolest thing for me,
because my expectation was thatit would be like a lot of other
like sci-fi, fantasy, con stuffyou go to, where if you're going
to have any kind of interactionwith and I'm doing air quotes
here the talent which you knowwould be like the artists, the
illustrators, the celebrities orwhatever it's some it's behind

(11:30):
you know, a big line or apaywall or a big scheduling
thing.
We have to schedule thingsahead of time.
But this wasn't like that, likeyou would just walk up and talk
to the authors, either the onesthat you, you know, have read

(11:51):
about and you've heard about andyou enjoy and you can tell them
about that, or ones you'venever heard of and let them tell
you about what they have.
And that was really neat.
I know that I feel like all ofus probably discovered some new
authors and maybe got interestedin some new books to add to the
TBR.
Because of that, because wewere able to have these
interactions, tbr because ofthat, because we were able to
have these interactions, and Ithink that because it's authors
and you're talking to them likethat, it works well, that it's a
smaller expo area, smaller thanyou would have at something

(12:13):
like DragonCon, because we werethere two days and we did most
of our time in the expo vendingarea.
I mean, we did a few panels,but the majority of our time was
spent talking to people and westill didn't get to talk to
everybody.
Yeah, it was cool.
I thought it was really neatthat you were able to have that
personal interaction with theauthors.

Jonathan (12:31):
Is there an author that you would not have been
turned on to that?
Through that interaction, youfound yourself saying you know
what I think?
I want to read this author.

Mari (12:41):
Yeah, I actually have four in mind what I think I want to
read this author?
Yeah, I actually have four inmind.
The first one was RoseCenturiello.
She had the little monsterlycute stuff.
So her books basically had,visually, as you walk by, it had
a cartoony kind of covers onthere and it reminded me of like
Legends and Latte, so it wasthat kind of vibe.

(13:02):
And so she does like monsterromance, but like cute monster
romance, like Legends and Lattes, but she does LGBTQ plus
stories.
Yeah, I ended up getting one ofher books and I'll probably end
up reading all of them, but Igot one of them.
It's the series is called theAugury University series.
So she, that was kind of neatgetting to interact with her.

(13:25):
Oh, and she and I both havePrincess Leia tattoos, so we
bonded over that.
And then TB Wise has a monsterseries that I had not heard of.
It's called Monsters of theDivide and I believe you got her
book too, jonathan.
She has like the holidaymonster books.

Jonathan (13:49):
Oh, I think I did.
Is that like Pain something?

Mari (13:54):
Pain for the Holidays or something like that.

Jonathan (13:56):
Yeah, I did, I was like that.

Mari (13:58):
Yeah, I'd never heard of her before and so now I've got
her books I'm interested inreading that.
Emma Hamm I had kind of seen onTikTok but the big book that
she's pushing is her most recentbook is the Whispers of the
Deep, which is like it's like amonster romance, whatever.
It's like a mermaid kind ofthing, which I'm generally not

(14:19):
drawn to, mermaid stories justin general.
Not that I'm against it, theyjust don't necessarily pull me
in.
But she also has like a SevenDeadly Sins series which is an
older series and I bought two ofthose because they look pretty
interesting.
And then Lish McBride, which wehad a really good interaction
with.
She was upstairs, she has aninteresting sense of humor, she

(14:42):
was in the witch panel, theSpicy Spells and Sultry Tales
and I bought her Hold Me CloserNecromancer book purely because
of the cover and the title.
And then we had a conversationand I think that's going to be
interesting.
She seems to have aninteresting sense of humor in

(15:03):
her books, conversation and Ithink that's going to be
interesting.
She seems to have aninteresting sense of humor in
her books.
So I hadn't really heard of anyof those and now I've got books
from all of them to read.
What about you guys?

Jonathan (15:13):
Ash, how'd you make out?

Ashley (15:15):
I'm actually more impressed by the entire shelf of
books that Jonathan has nowaccumulated in the last week.
I'm not sure where they allcame from.
He came home with almost asmany books as I did, so that was
fun for me.
That part was really fun for me.
I think I bought a lot of newauthors and that was a conscious

(15:36):
decision right, and I think youknow the intimacy of the space
really allowed for us to havethat you know, one-on-one
interaction and it really waskind of like a sales pitch and
they were like, well, do youwant to hear more?
And I was like, absolutely,sign me up, is there a book club
Like?
And you know even the panelstoo.

(15:57):
I think I was so impressed byMolly Tullis, just like as a
human, in the way that she, youknow she presented and
communicated and, you know,really engaged on that panel.
I'm I'm a fan of her, just asas a person.
Although I will very much readher books.
She's on Kindle Unlimited, soI'm excited.

(16:17):
I I was not emotionallyprepared for the amount of money
that I spent on books there.
Pleasantly surprised, yeah.

Kelly (16:27):
I'm just saying there's an opportunity for a bank or a
credit card company to offer acredit card that is for book
lovers, that gets you a 3% cashback when you buy stuff at a
book convention.

Ashley (16:38):
I would have signed up like a sucker Absolutely Sucker,
pack me all day.
I would have signed up like asucker, absolutely Sucker, pack
me all day.
Target audience yeah, I'll tellyou what I you want to know.
What I learned, however, isthat I need a book rolly cart.
Yes, yeah.
I didn't know, I didn't know, Ididn't know.
That's what we needed.

Kelly (16:59):
You guys, when we were there Friday, before you guys
got there, I had a shoulderstrap tote and Mari filled it
completely up with books and Ihad to take it out to the car
and put it in the car, gosh,instead of carrying it around

(17:19):
the rest of the day had tounload, yeah, and then she
filled up half of another totelater that day she's an
overachiever.

Mari (17:25):
I just have a hard time saying no and I'm just like this
is completely going against mywhole trying to work through my
physical TBR.

Ashley (17:38):
So yeah, Not today.

Kelly (17:40):
I'm surprised my credit card company didn't call me and
be like hey, I'm seeing chargeafter charge after charge in the
same area of Florida.
Is your credit card okay?

Ashley (17:56):
No, Kelly, they've seen you drop money like that in
Orlando before that's true, thatwas not a suspicious area.

Kelly (18:01):
I guess not.

Ashley (18:02):
They were like, we see you.
So I was surprised to see theairbrush people oh, gosh
everybody please so then I theamount of hobbies this man came
home with so yeah, so yeah I'mproud to say that I am now an
airbrush owner.

(18:22):
It almost beat us home, youguys Wow.

Mari (18:26):
He had ordered it before he left the building.
Yeah, so do you guys plan ongoing next year?
I think so.

Jonathan (18:33):
Yeah.
I had a good time I had a goodenough time to want to go back
for two days next year.

Ashley (18:36):
Yeah, we were talking about it.
We haven't booked anything justyet.
I'm not convinced that thehotel dates have dropped just
yet, because usually those areonly a year out.
But some websites show sold out, some don't, so I'm not sure.
But it's later in the month,right?

Mari (18:52):
Yeah, it's like October 25th next year, whereas it was
like October 3rd this year, soit is towards the end of the
month.

Ashley (19:00):
That means it'll be busier.

Jonathan (19:02):
Full-on Christmas season then, huh.

Ashley (19:04):
No, you wish.
But they're probably trying toavoid the intensity that is
hurricane season.

Mari (19:12):
We're lucky that it was last weekend, actually, right,
they probably would havecanceled yeah yeah, I, we booked
out for for next year, so we'regonna go um friday and saturday
.
I agree, like I, I want to havelike some of the books I have
from these authors that I wantthem to sign.

(19:33):
I'm gonna remember to bringthem because I like I had a
grace draven book I wanted toget signed.
Um, and she had the same bookthere.
But I'm like I'm going to buyanother copy of the same book I
have at home.
I'm just not.
So I got like another randombook of hers, like the second
book in another series of hersthat I haven't read, but I will.
I got that and had her sign it.

(19:56):
Yeah, so I would say for anyoneplanning to go next year who's
never been to a book con eventor has never been to this one, I
would say, basically, it's in ahotel, it's very like enclosed.
So once you get into like thecon area, you're in romantic-y
book land.
Everyone there is there for thesame thing you're there for.

(20:18):
I thought the registration wassuper smooth, it was very easy.
I was anxious ahead of time ofhow that was going to go, but I
thought it was super smooth, itwas very easy.
I was anxious ahead of time ofhow that was going to go, but I
thought it was super smooth.
I would say bring the littlerolly cart with whatever books
you may have from these authorsthat you want to get signed,
because you're going to be ableto most likely walk up to them
and talk to them and get them tosign it.
But they will also have booksthere that you can buy and have

(20:42):
signed.
And yeah, I think the balancingact is like looking at the
vending area and the books andthe authors with, like, the
panels you want to take anddeciding where you want to go.
I would say one thing I wouldlet people know about the panels
is I know that ahead of time,some of those panels were like
sold out or booked out, but ifyou just wait till right before

(21:03):
the event, there were severalempty chairs and so I think once
they had everyone go in thatwas going to go in, you could,
you could walk in.
There were several panels wewere at that were supposedly
sold out but they were emptychairs there so they were
letting people in.
You know, like last minute,once it started, you could like
walk in and get a chair.
I don't think there wasanything where they were turning
people away from any panelsthat I saw?

(21:24):
Yeah, I didn't see it.
What did you guys think of thepanels?

Jonathan (21:28):
I could have passed on them.
I'm not going to lie.
It was good in the beginning ofthem where it was like, hey,
I'm so-and-so and this is what Ido, but then it was more like I
thought we'd get to the firstone that we all went to as a
group.
There was one question that wasfrom the crowd, but that was

(21:52):
the only one I heard throughoutthe panels.

Ashley (21:54):
Yeah, they all ran long.

Mari (21:56):
Yeah, I was hoping for more audience interaction, faqs
kind of thing, too right, whereyou could ask questions.
Is that what you're thinking?
Yeah, yeah, I think that wouldhave been good too.
I'm about 50-50.
I think about half the panels Iwent to were interesting and I
would do them again.
The other half I would skip.
I think that that happenseverywhere and that I will say

(22:19):
it's completely okay to get upand walk out of a panel, like
nobody takes that personally.
They don't know why you'releaving.
You may have a phone call youneed to take, you may have
something else scheduled, youknow.
Whatever, as long as you don'tmake a big production of it,
there's nothing wrong with youknow getting up and leaving if
that panel isn't serving you,what you were there for.

Ashley (22:38):
And you could do something else with your time.
That's a wild thing to say,Mari.
I couldn't.
I had trouble walking away froma table, you know.
Walk away from a panel of sixor eight young, you know, women
in their element, describingtheir life's work.

Mari (22:55):
I challenge you.
I challenge you to do that nextyear.
If there's a panel, you're not.

Ashley (23:00):
I would sit there and suffer, I mean and it wasn't
suffering for me, I think it wasone and done for me they kind
of both felt the same, eventhough they were titled
something different, and I thinkwe got different things out of
it.
But I don't know that either ofthe things that we got were
what the panel was supposed tobe about as advertised yeah

(23:24):
about her title as advertised.
Yeah, so I mean it was a nicetime.
I think, personally, I wouldhave enjoyed exploring the
market a little bit more,although I think you know the
other stuff that they were doing.
You know, like the workshopsand such were probably really
great for the people who wantedto do it.
I didn't have a desire to do it.
It was interesting.
I would not do it again.
I just it wasn't my cup of tea.

(23:44):
I'm not going to be a writer,I'm a reader, yeah, um, and I
don't think we got anything outof them as as readers, other
than to learn about some ofthose authors themselves, and
you know their, their practicesor you know their experiences,
which is great.
It just it wasn'toverwhelmingly for me.

Mari (24:03):
Yeah, anything else.
Anybody want to talk about thecon before we maybe good reason
are using the little book rollercarts.

Kelly (24:27):
It does make it difficult to maneuver through the aisles
when people are stopping attables and they have their
roller carts and stuff like that, so wider aisles would probably
be a very good idea yeah, or ifthey can't do wider aisles,
because if that's the only spacethey have, then maybe have the
whole one direction.

Mari (24:44):
You can only go this direction in this aisle, so it's
a one-way thing.
So it's a little bit less of acluster.
People aren't trying to turnaround and go two directions at
the same time.

Jonathan (24:57):
So I think they had the space, they just didn't use
it, the, the in that way.
So on either side, oh yeah, theaisles.
Uh, towards the end was a emptyspace, right, yeah, I agree
they could have just you.
You know you don't have to havean extra aisle, but if you would
have given every row everyaisle, if there were four aisles

(25:17):
and you gave them each 25 ofwhatever was not used, a little
more, it would have made thingsjust wide enough to avoid doing
the the butt brush with theopposing traffic, you know that
was my favorite part.

Ashley (25:31):
Yeah, I had a great time .
Listen, I'm not a super bigpeople person.
I everybody was so pleasant.
I didn't have one complaintabout that.
And I've heard some horrorstories about you know book cons
and stuff before.
There was something thathappened out west last year that
wasn't a complete and utterdisaster people fainting from
the lack of you know availablewater yeah, like that kind of

(25:54):
stuff that was a taylor swiftconcert.

Mari (25:55):
No, it was a book con yeah , it was like some really big
one and it like people had to bein line forever and yeah, I
heard really bad things aboutthat it was, the authors had no
assistance, like again, therewas like limited to no
accessibility.

Ashley (26:10):
Um, you know, for people who needed it it was a real big
.
It made the the rounds on thesocials really really bad, like
off.
Big.
Big authors like rebecca yaroshad really awful experiences
that you would hope that no onewould go through much less.
You know these people who arejust trying to make you know to
do something for their fans,right?

(26:32):
They?

Jonathan (26:33):
didn't need to be there, it didn't feel
underproduced, it felt maybe Ithought it was very polite
Adolescent.
Yeah, it's not a mature eventyet, and by mature I mean like
it.
It's not.
It hasn't reached its fullpotential, right?

Ashley (26:46):
yeah, yeah, I could yeah , I agree, but like also in the
best way, like I thought it wasso humble and again just so
accessible.

Jonathan (26:54):
I was not expecting that and it really was my
favorite part, I agree it's oneof those events that, like next
year, we could be leaving itwith a totally different outlook
yeah and saying, man, I wish itwas as intimate as it was last
year.

Ashley (27:06):
Oh, don't say that, I'll be sad.
Oh me too Sorry.

Jonathan (27:11):
Fabled fantasies if you're listening.

Ashley (27:13):
Don't screw it up.

Jonathan (27:14):
Maintain that intimacy no pressure.

Mari (27:16):
That we're able to enjoy.

Jonathan (27:17):
You know, use the available space that you have
Awesome available space that youhave awesome and we're hoping
for for more.
I didn't.
I'll tell you what.
I got confused by the upstairsme too.

Mari (27:26):
I didn't realize there was upstairs until uh, our friend,
my friend rachel, who was there,like randomly mentioned that
there's an upstairs.
I'm like, oh, there's more.

Kelly (27:35):
Yeah and apparently the tattoo people that were there
were booked the entire time, somaybe they should have more
tattoo people.
I don't know yeah interesting.

Jonathan (27:46):
I would rather have the panels upstairs and the
expanse I would rather theexposed space, yeah, it got a
little confusing where to go.
That's a good idea yeah, roomsand places to go for the,
because then the panel wouldbecome more intimate.
If you were, you know.

Kelly (28:00):
Yeah, right, we all signed up for a panel and got
there and 30 of the seats wereempty yeah, it's hard to know,
though, like with the layout ofthe hotel and because you know
there was another conventiongoing on in the same hotel, it
looked like like a tech you knowtech industry type convention
or something.
I bet they were surprised.

Ashley (28:21):
Oh yeah, are there wings and fairy ears here today?

Kelly (28:24):
Yeah, I'm sure the cyber security people showed up and
were like oh my gosh.

Mari (28:31):
I mean, you never know, we might have rocked their world.
They might have, you know, comehome and now be Romanticy fans.
You never know what a fun time.

Kelly (28:39):
What a time to be alive you guys, Right, I mean, I will
say we did learn something veryimportant and that was when we
were at the panel about monsterromance and everyone got into
the divergent talking pointsabout monster anatomy.
Apparently the crowd went wild,the entire panel people that

(29:00):
were there for the panel wentwild when they started talking
about characters with two dickslike yeah, like all the
different, like appendages.
So yeah, they were talking aboutpeople started standing up and
whooping and cheering andclapping and I was just like
what is going on here?

Mari (29:18):
it's a fun time yeah, I mean you, these authors are
writing all these monster.
You know characters and andsome of them are, you know, have
been done before or whatever,but some of them they're like
brand new characters they'remaking up.
So they they were talking abouthow they like their search
history.
They're looking up like these,you know animal penis and
getting inspiration.

(29:38):
Uh, it was a good panel.
It was called monster in my bed.
I want to say kendari blake wason that, and emma ham and rose
centriello and tb tb weiss Ithink, and if I missed somebody
I'm sorry, but they all werereally interesting and like
talking about how they come upwith things and the different
things that they would run intoand not even use in their books
because they're just weirdthings.

(29:59):
For those that didn't know thatthis, this, this whole con, is
18 plus and it's a strict 18plus, no kids, oh yeah no, not
even the littles like the oneswith barely any hearing,
cognitive nothing, yeah all inall, it was a good time.
We definitely want to go again.
So what we did?
Um, as best we could, becausewe did not get a chance to talk

(30:20):
to everybody, but we were tryingas best we could.
Because we did not get a chanceto talk to everybody, but we
were trying as best we could toget little snippets audio
snippets from as many of theauthors and tables and vendors
as we could.
So we went around and gotlittle snippets from people.
We asked them a little bitabout themselves and then we
asked everybody what theirdefinition of Romanesie was,
because this is RomanesieCon.

(30:41):
So I was thinking we couldmaybe talk about some of those.
I know you guys were there forsome of those on Saturday, but
some of them were just Kelly andme on Friday.
Do you guys want to go throughsome of those?
Heck yeah.

Jonathan (30:52):
Absolutely.

Mari (30:53):
We were able to talk to Abigail Owen.
She wrote the Dominion serieswhich we reviewed earlier this
year, the Liar's Crown, and thenshe has just released the Games
God's Play, which is the bookthat you guys bought third
version of, and the third bookin the Dominion series is coming
out November 12th of this year.

(31:14):
So we were able to talk to herand get her to do a little spiel
about herself and then ask herwhat Romanticy meant to her.

Abigail Owen (31:22):
Hi, I'm Abigail Owen.
I write Romanticy andParanormal Romance.
I am the author of the Game'sGod's Play, as well as the
Dominion series and the InfernoRising series.
You can find me on my website,abigaileowencom, and from there
that takes you to all thedifferent places to buy my books
.

Mari (31:38):
How would you define Romantasy?

Abigail Owen (31:40):
That is a really hard question because I came up
through Paranormal Romance,which is to me a different
couple for each book, and youget your more traditional
paranormal creatures thewerewolves, the vampires, etc.
Romantasy to me started outreally more as high fantasy
mixes with romance.
But I think that is expandingand so we're getting a lot more

(32:01):
real earth.
You know, gods, for instance,my book, the Games Gods Play, I
would say kind of fits bothbecause it's set in a
contemporary world but it's godsand so and the world building
is more, I would say, epicfantasy feelings.
So I think they cross over.

Mari (32:17):
And for those of you guys that recognize her name.
She is the author of the Liar'sCrown that we reviewed.
Way, way, way towards thebeginning of our podcast days.
All right, Thank you.

Abigail Owen (32:28):
Thank you.

Jonathan (32:29):
All right On day one did she wear as fancy a shirt as
she did on day two.

Ashley (32:34):
She did.

Jonathan (32:35):
I think, I think that's her go-to uniform I've
been looking at I don't rememberI knew.

Mari (32:40):
I do know she got super, super flashy the second day.
It was very sparkly the secondday, I know I was very
overwhelmed, like going therethe first day where it was like
first day, new hotel, new con,new place, new event, and I had
to like it was funny because Iwas telling kelly I was like I
have to sit here for a minute,I've got to turn my extrovert on

(33:01):
, I've got to turn the switch totalk to all these strangers.
So to be honest, I know I was alittle overwhelmed the first
day for sure, so I could nottell you what she was wearing.

Ashley (33:11):
That's exactly what it was.
I was not, again, emotionallyprepared for that.
That was the most talking thatI had done in days, in weeks,
but again in the best way.
Everybody was just so fun.

Mari (33:25):
Yeah, very sweet, very kind, very welcoming and not
just like in a smarmysalesperson way, Like even if
you didn't buy their stuff, theywere just happy to talk to you
about stuff.
They really were.
Another author that we talkedto was Emma Hamm and she's
pretty active on TikTok rightnow Because, like I said, she's
got that Whispers of the Deepbook that's out and she was on

(33:47):
the Monsters in my Bed panel.
If you want to cue up herlittle snippet, kelly.

Emma Hamm (33:51):
Hi, I'm Emma Hamm.
I write monster romance andfantasy romance.
If you like two dicks andfishmen, that would be me.
You can find me on Instagram,TikTok, Facebook, pretty much
anywhere.

Mari (34:03):
This question is going to be, if you feel like answering
it.
What would you say romanacymeans to you?
How would you define romanacy?

Emma Hamm (34:10):
Romanacy would be for all the little girls who are
obsessed with Beauty and theBeast that it's the best place
to be accepted, because nobody'sgoing to judge you for whatever
your kink is.

Jonathan (34:20):
Thank you, thank you hell yeah, I'm a ham right I've
been thinking about this, uh,for the past like few days, like
the whole of disney is romancyyeah, I'd say a lot of disney
Romanacy.

Mari (34:36):
Not all of it, but a lot is.

Jonathan (34:37):
Correct, correct.
Yeah, it was just aninteresting realization.
Like somebody turned the lightswitch on for me, I was like, oh
, okay, I guess Romanacy isn't.

Ashley (34:47):
So what you're saying is that we were conditioned to
love monsters with two dicks andfish bodies?

Jonathan (34:51):
I'm going to be honest , the beast only has one dick.
Are bodies?
I'm gonna be honest, the beastonly has one dick.
Are you sure you know that?

Mari (34:59):
100 yeah I'm 100 sure I've seen a bull.
You're convinced that he's abull.
I don't know that he is he'sgot horns.

Jonathan (35:05):
He's furry, looks like a bull.
He's got he's got.

Ashley (35:08):
Didn't we talk about this last time we did?
He could have been a minotaur.

Jonathan (35:11):
I hope he kept.
I hope he kept complementaryelements.
It'd be hard to have a, hard tohave bull cock and not and they
go to human cock.
You know what I'm saying AndyFiniekel, finitial.

Mari (35:37):
I'm sorry if I'm butchering her name.
I did not recognize her by nameand even when I walked up to
her booth, like a lot of thebooks I was looking, I didn't
really recognize them.
And she was telling me aboutherself and her books and what
all she writes.
And then she mentioned themanicure's mate and I looked
down.
First of all I gave her thisweird look.
So I'm like I've read aManticore Romanticist romance
book before and I was sittingthere trying to remember if it

(36:00):
was the one that she wasdescribing, because you know,
memory sucks.
And then I looked down and itwas like, oh my god, I read this
book.
I remember it, I enjoyed it, itwas a fun book.
So she wrote the Manticore'sMate.
She wrote a bunch of otherbooks monster romance, romancy,

(36:20):
paranormal fiction etc.
And I think she also writesstandard romance and historical
romance.
But I ended up getting theManticore's Mate book from her
signed, which I completely didnot realize that she would be
there, just happened to walk upand talk to her and then
realized that book that I'd read.
I think we have a littlesnippet from her as well.

Andie Fenichel (36:40):
I'm Andy Fenichel.
I also write as AS Fenichel.
Andy Fenichel name writes shortmonster romance and AS Fenichel
writes paranormal full lengthdemon hunters and witch romance.
And oh, you can find me atasfenishallcom and, if you're

(37:03):
comfortable with this.

Mari (37:04):
What would you say?
What would you defineromanticism as?
What is romanticism to?

Andie Fenichel (37:09):
you.
So I think romanticism isotherworldly romance in my
opinion and I'm borderline, notromanticy, more paranormal, but
it's more like alternate history.
Especially the AS Fenichelbooks are kind of alternate

(37:31):
history.

Mari (37:33):
I would say there's definitely some overlap in a lot
of these genres.
We have kind of tiptoeing toboth.
It kind of can be multiplegenres.

Andie Fenichel (37:41):
I think the readers are mostly read both.
So yes, thank you, thank you.

Mari (37:49):
Yeah, so that was that was fun, that was unexpected, just
because you know, like what youwere saying earlier, jonathan,
you read these books and it'snot like you look at the
pictures or even really look indepth into the authors of every
book you read.
So it was interesting seeingsomebody there.
I wasn't expecting to see there.
She also writes a series calledthe Witches of Windsor, which

(38:10):
sounds a little bit like itmight have some touches of like
stay a spell, but, but it's inLondon, in Windsor area.
It's like a little historical,romantic-y kind of vibes.
Have not read them but theyseem intriguing and they're on
Kindle Unlimited.
Rose Santoriello is one that wetalked to.

(38:30):
That was like she was off inthe corner and she's the one
whose covers caught my attentionbecause they looked like ledges
and lattes.
They were, they were cartoonsand it was like, um, it was a
sapphic romance.
That's the cover I saw on thefirst book in the augury
university series and it waslike an orc chickie.
So we talked to her.

Rose Santoriello (38:50):
if you want to cue that up, kelly I am Rose
Santorello and I write queermonster romance.
That is monstrously cute.
And where can people find you?
You can find me at RoseSantorello on TikTok and
Instagram, as well as threads.

Mari (39:09):
And what would you say?
Romancy means to you, or what?
How would you define romancy?

Rose Santoriello (39:15):
I mean, the most simple definition would be
obviously romantic fantasy, butI think it is romance that uh
surpasses the regularconventions of a contemporary
setting and has magic andbeautiful settings and elves and
fae and all kinds of wonderfulfun creatures that make it extra
special thanks.

Mari (39:34):
We're good.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.

Ashley (39:37):
I like her.
Yeah, I didn't get to meet her,but she sounds like a fun time.

Mari (39:42):
Yeah, I think she seems pretty cool.
I got her first book andthere's several of these authors
that I've talked to about maybedoing interviews with us, so
she's one of the ones who wouldbe open to it.
So if we want to end up readingone of her books down the road,
I think it'd be interesting totalk to her.
I think she was in I can'tremember if it was one or two, I

(40:03):
think it was just one.
She was in the Monster in myBed panel that we went to and
she seemed entertaining.

Jonathan (40:11):
Any two dicks in there .

Mari (40:14):
Oh, she does.
Yeah, I think so, because oneof her characters is a Naga,
like a snake person.
She's, I believe, of MiddleEastern descent and I think she
said that her Naga character hassome of those desert Middle
Eastern descent kind of vibes.
Like I said, I haven't readthem yet, but that's just from
her talking.

Jonathan (40:30):
We may have to explore some double dick books.

Ashley (40:34):
Not the snake dick books , that doesn't do it for you.

Mari (40:38):
I'm just checking Sometimes some of the snake ones
, like the Naga ones and some ofthe dragon ones, tend to have
double appendages, yeah.

Ashley (40:48):
Tentacles and there's tentacles.
Two takes is okay, but nottentacles yeah.

Mari (40:57):
Is that your hard line there?

Jonathan (41:00):
There's a boundary guys, there's a boundary.
Sorry, that's our safe word.

Mari (41:07):
I didn't know we needed one, so you would be a hard no
to Ursula, then Ursula would belike no for you.

Jonathan (41:13):
Ursula might be the exception.

Ashley (41:15):
Oh, he loves, ursula.
I feel like.

Jonathan (41:18):
Ursula got wronged in that whole story.
She got the shitty end of thestick.

Mari (41:24):
She's got tentacles.
That's all I'm saying.

Jonathan (41:27):
There's definitely a contract in place.

Ashley (41:28):
Oh, so I think, female tentacles might be okay for him,
just not male tentacles Okay.

Jonathan (41:35):
Most tentacles.

Ashley (41:40):
Do they?

Jonathan (41:40):
remind you of toes.
Is that what it is?
No, they're.

Mari (41:42):
I just think I don't like octopus uh, another interesting
author we talked to was lishmcbride.
She's the one who told us aboutthe the bink foundation.
She's got a book that justreleased called red and tooth
and claw.
It's Western horror, that's howshe was describing it, and she
was at the Spicy Spells andSultry Tales panel and her and
Juliet Cross was also at thatpanel.

(42:03):
So her and Juliet Cross werelike bonding about their New
Orleans days, which is kind ofinteresting, if you want to cue
her up, kelly.

Lish McBride (42:10):
My name is Lester McBride.
I write, I read a little bit ofeverything.
I have trouble staying in myown lane.
So I have books that arecontemporary fantasy romance.
I have a book Curses.
It's a gender-swapped retellingof Beauty and the Beast.
It's like a fantasy romp.
Then I have the books like HoldMe Closer that are more kind of
urban fantasy horror vibes, andthe one coming out on Tuesday,

(42:32):
redding Tooth and Claw, is afrontier era kind of like
western horror with a romancethread but set with a fantasy
element to it.
So it's not set in our world.
So again, I'm a little over theplace.

Mari (42:48):
Where's the best place for people to find you as far as
like social media and what?

Lish McBride (42:51):
not.
I'm the most active on, I think, instagram and Blue Sky, but if
you google Lish McBride becausethere's only one of me, it's a
weird name, it works well youcan find me on whatever social
you're on.
I'm not on threads, but I'm onpretty much everything else.
And how would you defineromanacy?
To me, romanacy is romancefirst with a fantasy element,

(43:14):
whereas a lot of us read fantasywith a romance element and sort
of decided that those are thesame thing, but the romance is
forefront and then the fantasyis.
You could take the fantasy awayand it would still be romance,
that kind of thing.

Mari (43:27):
Yeah, so it was interesting seeing people's
different definitions of romanceand how they went about
defining it.
She had some interesting booksthat curses books that she
mentioned is a gender swappedbeauty and the beast.
Where she's the beast and he islike this super charming, like
prince charming kind of beautyinteresting and then she had the

(43:53):
other one that she talked abouthold me closer, necromancer.
I bought it.
It looked interesting.
I'll let you know if it's anygood, okay, yeah, give me posted
on that yeah, oh, we also gotto talk to kandari blake, who we
read her three dark crownsseries.
We've done a episode on that.
We got to talk to her a littlebit and do a little mini

(44:16):
interview with her.

Kendare Blake (44:23):
Hi, I'm Kendara Blake and I write dark fantasy
with a little bit of romance andalso some very bloody books
about murder.
You can find me anywhere online, but mostly Instagram and
Facebook.
I'm on Twitter, but only if youadd me at Kendara Blake and
what's your definition of?
Romance.
So my personal definition ofromanticism is any fantasy with
some heavy romantic elements.

(44:44):
So where the romance drives,the fantasy plot as well doesn't
necessarily have to be the onlydriver, but it has to be one of
the main ones.
Thank you so much, thank you.

Kelly (44:58):
Yeah, she was pretty cool to talk to yeah.

Ashley (45:01):
I didn't get to meet her .
She wasn't at her table when wepassed by on day two.

Kelly (45:05):
Yeah, that was one of the things we didn't get to talk to
all the authors is because itseemed like when we would make
our rounds, a lot of the authorswere gone from their table.

Mari (45:20):
And then if we came back, they may be there, but then some
other ones were gone, so it wasdefinitely tough.
Yeah, you had to do multiplepasses and because some of them
are doing panels, some of themare doing like signings and some
of them are just like makingtheir own rounds and talking to
people, so we got to talk toJuliet Cross.
Actually talked to her twice,because she was the first author
that we talked to on Fridaywhen we first got there and my

(45:42):
extrovert hat was not quite onyet.
And so I was super shy, I gother to sign, or I bought a
signed version of her WraithKing book, which I'm reading now
.
I'm like 80% through it.
So I was very excited to dothat because I wanted to do that
, first off because I knew shehad said she had a limited

(46:04):
amount of them.
Julia Cross is, you know, likewe all know, but for listeners,
she wrote Wolf Gone Wild that wereviewed earlier this year and
liked the Stay a Spell seriesand we'll have a book coming out
, a sequel to that series calledSouthern Charm Books.
Rebel Without Claws is thefirst one, but her newest book

(46:26):
that's out right now is theWraith King series.
Oh, I keep calling it theWraith King series.
The first book is called theWraith King, the series is
called the Rise of North Gulland she was at the Spicy Spells
and Sultry Tales panel, if youwant to cue her up, kelly.

Juliette Cross (46:41):
Hi, I'm Juliette Cross and I write paranormal
and fantasy romance and I writelight stuff, dark stuff, spicy,
all spicy, and, yeah, that isbasically what I write.

Mari (46:51):
And for people who have listened to us, she's the author
who wrote the Wolf Gone Wildthat we raved over a lot.
So, Juliette, what would?
How would you define?

Juliette Cross (47:00):
romantasy.
For me, romantasy is both anescape from reality, but also a
way to even enjoy I don't knowhappiness and love in a
different way, in an excitingway, and it also does touch on
reality and just offers it indifferent, different environment
, if that makes sense.
Escapism is my favorite.

(47:23):
Yes, thank you.

Mari (47:24):
Thank you so much you guys have to talk to her too, right
didn't you?

Jonathan (47:29):
yeah, she was pretty much sold out like she was, I
think I.
I think did we catch herassistant going to Barnes Noble
or something like that to re-up.

Ashley (47:39):
Oh wow.
So yeah, Julia Cross wasactually, I think, one of the
first tables when we walked in,Stuffed in a corner.
Yeah they stuffed her, they didher dirty on day two, but she
made the best of it and she hadquite a lot when we started and
I was like I like you, like myextrovert hadn't kicked in, so
we passed by very quickly and Ithink that's when you guys did

(48:01):
the interview.
We circled back much later,like maybe after the second
panel.
She didn't do any panels whilewe were there, but she was
almost completely sold out andso Jonathan really wanted, you
know, something signed by her.
So I, you know, I started upand I was like, hey, you know,
we love you so much and myhusband sent me over to get a

(48:21):
book.
And she's like your husbandreads my books.
And we all collectively laughedabout it and I said, oh yeah,
he's, you know, we're both bigfans.
He's a big fan and she goes,can I meet him?
And so I had to drag him overso that they could chat.
And she did, she very kindlysigned a book for us and it was

(48:41):
a very pleasant and happyexperience.
I was a little starstruck, Ithink, because she was the first
table we passed by.
Aside from my extrovertism, Iwas a little starstruck because
we loved her book so much.
I devoured that whole series.
So, yeah, it was such a niceexperience and she was so sweet
and she, they, they did laughwhile we were there about her
being sold out, and I think whatthey mentioned was that she had

(49:03):
some of the books in the giftshop and I think as we were
leaving, we saw someone with usI don't know for sure, they were
a stack of her books, but itlooked like the colorful books
that were her stay spell seriesand so I was like, oh my god,
did they have to go to the giftshop of the hotel to buy her
books?
Oh wow, to bring them to theconvention?

(49:25):
It's very unconfirmed.
It was something you know thatwe laughed about in the best way
, right, because we were bigfans and I would have liked to
buy more of her books.
But she was sold out of theWraith King by the time we got
there and most of the Stay aSpell series was sold out by the
time we got there.
Oh wow.

Jonathan (49:45):
One thing I did learn from her is they read well as
standalone books, so you don'thave to read them all in a
specific order.
You don't have to read them allin a specific order, which
makes me delighted for herholiday book.

Mari (50:02):
Oh yeah, you can definitely like.
I think you get enough out ofhaving read maybe even just the
first book that you would stillenjoy the holiday book.
It's short, it's like a novellaand it's little, almost like
short story vignettes of thedifferent characters.
It's a good, easy, little funread.
Yeah, it's a good holiday readfor sure.

Kelly (50:25):
So one of the authors that we did get to talk to was
RL Perez, and we had the burningquestion that had been
bothering some of us since weread Ivy and Bone.
Ivy and Bone, and the listenersmay remember, the main

(50:48):
character was half covered intattoos, which prompted Jonathan
to wonder Some of us, yeah,some of us to wonder did that
include everything?
So here's what she had to say.

Mari (50:56):
And this is a spicy question, okay, okay.
So because we've got there'sfour of us on the podcast, it's
two married couples and the dude, our friend, was like I need to
know when you say he was tattedall the way down, is he tatted
all the way down?
Is it?
Halfway.

RL Perez (51:17):
He's.
He chatted all the way down.
He's in half way.
Yes and no.
Not on like the appendageitself, but yes, on, like all
the leg and the rear andeverything.
Yes, yes, you guys heard ithere.

Mari (51:32):
We got it from the source.
We have our questions answeredyeah.

Kelly (51:37):
That sounds like a no, that he does not have a tattooed
dick Right, not on the member.

RL Perez (51:41):
Yes, because I truly would have noticed, would have
been like huh, it would havebeen brought up.

Ashley (51:47):
Yes, yes, got it, got it .

Kelly (51:49):
So straight from the author's mouth, Jonathan.

Jonathan (51:53):
I'm not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed.

Ashley (51:55):
You were hoping for the tatted dick.

Jonathan (51:57):
Yeah, I'm going to have to go and take.
I have to go scrub it off now.
I thought we had something incommon.

Kelly (52:03):
You guys know, Sorry, Jonathan, you're going to have
to retroactively lower yourrating on Ivy and Bone now.

Jonathan (52:09):
No, I'm going to leave it the same.
I still enjoyed it.
I do wish it was there.
You know what there's hope fora tactic in the future Like it?
Just because he doesn't have itnow doesn't mean they can't
have it tomorrow.

Mari (52:22):
So there's hope for Cyrus.

Jonathan (52:24):
Yes, 100%.

Mari (52:26):
Another one of the authors we talked to is Grace Draven,
who wrote the Radiance, a bookthat we just reviewed.
Her and her husband were thereand we got to talk to them a
little bit and tell them youknow, we just reviewed the.
Her and her husband were thereand we got to talk to them a
little bit and tell them youknow, we just reviewed the book,
the podcast and everything.
But I think we got a littlesnippet from Grace Draven as
well too didn't we, kelly?

Grace Draven (52:45):
Hi, my name is Grace Draven.
I am the author of FantasyRomance.
Probably my best known book andseries is Radiance, which is
the first in the Wraith Kingseries, and you can find me on
most of the usual spots, soFacebook, instagram, the grocery
store.
So come by and see me, even atthe grocery store.

(53:07):
Bye.

Mari (53:09):
That sounds like an invitation to come and stalk you
.
So, we may take you up on that.
How would you define romantasy?

Grace Draven (53:17):
I think it's a marriage between fantasy
elements and world building and,of course, the romance between
the couple.
And I think if you can do 50-50, you know, between the fantasy
and the romance, where you canjust hit that sweet spot,
because those of us who lovedfantasy want to have that
additional couple interaction,and then those of us who love

(53:40):
romance love the whole alterreality kind of thing, these
wonderful fantasy worlds we canescape to.
So I think it's this perfectblending of these two genres.

Mari (53:53):
Yeah, so there were several other authors we talked
to.
We obviously didn't get to talkto every single author and we
also got to talk to severalvendors, which was interesting.

Kelly (54:02):
Trim up all of these little interviews we had and
we're going to attach them tothe end of this podcast so you
can listen to all of them.
Most of them are short, about aminute or so, so it doesn't
take too long to listen to allof them.

Ali Stuebbe (54:15):
Hi, I'm Allie Stubbe.
I have a duology called theDivide Duology.
First book is Blood ofDesiderium.
Second book is Soul ofSalvation.
You can find me on my socialmedias at Book by Allie.
Basically it's a fae princesswhose father took her power and

(54:36):
kind of keeps her hidden and shefinds a way to break free and
realizes there's all these liesand twisted truths and she
doesn't know which way, likewhat is right and what is wrong.
She stumbles upon a vigilanteand a dark prince comes into
play and she realizes there isthese things called the
corrupted that are trying toconsume the land and she has to
try and save her people andherself from this darkness.

(54:59):
And yeah, it has a happy ending, I promise.
Okay, that's also very good.

Mari (55:06):
And what is your definition of Romanes?

Ali Stuebbe (55:21):
of Romanesie is a very magical outlook on love and
everything that kind of makesyou feel warm and gushy inside,
very nice.

Fabled Grounds Coffee (55:24):
Yes, I have a small business called
Fable Grounds Coffee.
It is all book-themed coffee,fresh roasted in small batches.
We have all of the I don't knowall the different, like
flavored coffee, non-flavoredcoffee, whole bean, decaf,
everything.
And we also do handmadestoneware mugs based around

(55:47):
books.

Mari (55:50):
And what's the best place for people to find you?

Fabled Grounds Coffee (55:52):
On our website fablegroundscoffeecom.
We are solely e-commerce.

Mari (55:58):
And how would you define romantasy?

Fabled Grounds Coffee (56:02):
I personally define it as fantasy,
where the main plot point isromance.
Thank you so much You'rewelcome.

Mari (56:13):
Thank you guys.
Thank you so much, you'rewelcome.

Haus of Fables (56:17):
Thank you guys.
Hi, we're House of Fables.
We've come here all the wayfrom Australia and you can find
us at houseoffablescom, andwe've got some bookish merch.
We've got a lot on pre-order,including some officially
licensed.
When the Moon Hatched.
Designs.

Mari (56:34):
We've got a great book club as well, so check us out.
And then this part is voluntary.
You can answer it or not.
Um, what would?
How would you define romancy?
What do you think romancy is?

Haus of Fables (56:42):
I'll give you this one sam is so the right
person to answer this question.
I know she's the best for thisone yes, I think romancy is the
perfect blend of a fantasy plotin a fantasy world, with
achingly beautiful romance thatbrings it all together and gives

(57:05):
the plot so much purpose andheart.

Mari (57:07):
Beautiful, beautiful.
And then just to reiterate wherepeople can find you it's at
House of.

Haus of Fables (57:11):
Fables.
Yeah, so at HouseofFables.
Underscore PR at Instagram andTikTok.
Yeah, and I think there's aperiod between house it's like
houseoffables underscore PR.
You'll be able to find us, thankyou very much.

Mari (57:30):
Thank you so much Anything else about the con.
Anybody wants to say orthoughts or anything.

Kelly (57:36):
If you're interested in going, I would say think about
booking your tickets soonerrather than later, because it
did sell out pretty early theone we just went to, so I don't
know when this one will sell out, but it could sell out within
the next few months, since thetickets are already on sale.

Mari (57:54):
And also pay attention when you're buying tickets,
because the same company FabledFantasy Events.
they do an Orlando event andthey do a Los Angeles event, so
make sure you're buying ticketsfor the one you want to go to
for the coast that you're goingto be on.
Thanks for listening to OfSwords and Soulmates.
Before we go, make sure tocheck the show notes, rate

(58:17):
review and subscribe to us onyour podcast app of choice.
It helps others to find us.
Follow us on Instagram at ofswords and soulmates, or join
our Facebook page of swords andsoulmates, or check out our
website of swords andsoulmatescom.
We're also on YouTube and TikTOK all same username everywhere
.
You can follow us on Goodreadsand, if you'd like to offer a

(58:42):
suggestion for future, readfuture rapid fire question.
If you want to agree withsomething we said, disagree with
something whatever, if you wantto interact with us, please
feel free to reach out to us atany of those options.
We hope you'll join us for ournext episode, where we're going
to be talking about A Diary ofBlood by ST Gibson.

(59:07):
Bye, thank you.