Smart Podcast, Trashy Books: A Romance Novel Podcast

One of Chelsea Devantez’s listeners connected her to my show after my interview with Joanna Shupe.Meanwhile I’d been working up the nerve to ask her onto my show, and then the universe intervened through this lovely person. Thank you!

I recapped Danielle Steel’s dog memoir on her show, and now, she’s in the guest chair on mine.

We talk about her memoir, I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This (But I’m Going to Any...

At the suggestion of some listeners, I split the Ads & Features into two parts, in part because it was very long, and also because there are 5 Fridays in May. Woot!

You can find Part I here  (or in your favorite podcast app).

Part II of the Ads & Features from February 2015 features HelenKay Dimon just dropping all sorts of information left and right.

We talk about:

• How many romantic suspense covers look the s...

Inspired by a recent episode of The Sam Sanders Show, Amanda and I are sharing our own hot takes and possibly controversial opinions about romance.

We’re talking:

• Third act bleak moments!
• Transcending the genre!
• Rom coms!
• Cozy things!
• Conferences and gatherings!
• Accessories for Readers!

TW/CW: We take a brief side trip into parental estrangement and emotional abuse.

...

Our midroll ad was for The Historica...

We are back in the time machine with HelenKay Dimon and Darby Kane, who are thankfully one person so we have extra room in the cabin for snacks. And we are headed back to February 2015 to take a look at the ads and features in RT magazine.

We talk about writing, RWA history (HelenKay is past president, immediately before the fuckery) and what specifically was lost when RWA’s position in the community was destroyed.

This is a ...

We were supposed to record an episode, but we started talking about romantic suspense instead. We talk about what inspired me to start the RT Rewind series, and start talking about the cover…and then we talked about changes in the mystery and romance genres, writing styles and techniques, the amalgamation of mysteries, coziness, and the vestiges of chick lit - and a whole bunch of other things before we get started on the magazine.

We are traveling back to February 2015 to take a look at the new releases in RT magazine, and my guest is the cover author, HelenKay Dimon, who also writes thrillers as Darby Kane.

This was VERY fun because HelenKay is an author, so she has a different perspective on the magazine, the convention, the reviews, and the way different genres have changed. We cover how HelenKay discovered romance, and how her career has evolved over ...

Alexandra Vasti is the author of Earl Crush, Ne’er Duke Well, and the Halifax sisters series, and she joins me to talk about activism in history and about haunted houses, historical lesbians, and historical erotica.

A Housekeeping Note: I recorded this several months ago, and due to a bunch of file corruption and restoring backups, this episode fell out of my workflow. My apologies to Alexandra, and to you, for that mishap.

Y...

The ads and features from the July 2000 issue of Romantic Times are a treasure trove of wtfery! It’s PEAK stepback era.

Readers have been introduced to Half.com for selling their old books, and they are very excited about it – to say nothing of People.com and EW.com. We get a peek into the Romantic Times and Lady Barrow BookLover Tours – the prices made me very envious.

We also spend some time talking about Monica Jackson, wh...

What happens when a bestselling and award winning author of historical inspirational romances decides, after a break of a few years, to write spicy contemporary?

If you’re Deeanne Gist, you start over from scratch as Dakota Lacoy.

Amanda and I were just asking recently what had happened to Deeanne Gist, who wrote some SBTB favorites like Tiffany Girl and Fair Play. Well, as Dakota Lacoy, she’s been busy setting up a series of...

We’re heading back in time to July 2000 to check out new releases in Romantic Times Magazine!

Highlights include:

• Amanda’s memories of reading Daughter of the Forest, one of her all-time favorite books
• A surprising number of 2- and 1-star reviews
• A heroine obsessed with pirates!

Question: Did you read ebooks before the Kindle was released? What device did you use, if any?

Visit the covers and the cool eReader at the ...

Remember digital first novellas?

Websites for an entire fictional town?

When Indie publishing was talked about with the same language as MLMs?

We’re going back to peruse at the May 2015 Romantic Times Magazine Ads and Features. It was a time!

We also mentioned:

• Susanna Kearsley’s book page with all the covers 
• The muscular dudes fabric
• The Cover Model bag
• The Jezebel article on writing Bigfoot erotica 

Today brings a vulnerable and honest conversation about the prevalence of penetrative sex in romance, and what happens if a writer decides to create a character with pelvic floor pain, for whom that kind of sex isn’t possible? Let’s find out!

Jane Buehler’s new book, The Fire Apprentice, is out this week, and we’re going to talk about the book, and the series. But we’re also talking about the asexual spectrum, body changes from ...

Amanda and I have loaded the time travel machine with snacks and bubbly beverages. We’re headed back to May 2015. Some major books were released this month along with some we’re very happy to revisit.

We’ve got answers to the following questions:

• Are there Amish Inspirational romances that have too much sex in them?
• How many garage freezers would a crime family need?
• How many stars did A Court of Thorns and Roses get?
...

Once Upon a Time, Princess Mabel van Oranje, founder Vow for Girls, an organization dedicated to ending child marriage, met Stacey Abrams, author and the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives.

They hatched a plan to unite the romance community with Vow for Girls, which led to Every Girl Deserves Happily Ever After. Today, Princess Mabel and Stacey Abrams are here to tell us all about ...

It’s time for the ads and features of the October 2000 Romantic Times magazine, where they’re both talking about new releases AND celebrating their 200th issue.

What did we learn?

We learned about waxing, magazines, and galleys, but not about skin care, gun parts, or boats.

We’ve got Extreme Troy, everyone. Grab a drink and come hang out with us.

And don’t miss the visual aids!

WE HAVE LINKS.

• The Angelfire sit...

Kimberly Lemming’s new book, I Got Abducted By Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in A Rom-Com is out this week.

What’s inside? A fantasy world with underfunded researchers and mishandled animal restoration caused by fiscal irresponsibility, academic malfeasance and nepotism.

And talking lions and fire breathing aliens powered by garlic bread.

Music: purple-planet.com

You can find Kimberly Lemming at her website,...

RT is celebrating their 200th issue, and we’re celebrating, too!

We’ve got the OG Monster Schtupping book, a guy whose arm appears to end in a ham, and some incredible covers. You know I’m going to tell you not to miss the visual aids, but I mean it.

There’s a series where the focus of every cover illustration is someone's backside? It's wild.

You can find all the visual aids here.

We also mentioned:

• Tazo Glazed Lemo...

My guest today is Candy Tan, who 20 years ago co-founded Smart Bitches Trashy Books with me. Yay!!

We’re looking back at the founding of SBTB, about her reactions to Bridgerton, and her perennial favorite romances. We talk about different ways that romance has changed since 2005. Then I show Candy the casting photos for the Black Dagger Brotherhood adaptation.

You can find Candy @BeautifulDuckweed on Bluesky, on AO3...