Episode 1 - Vampires & Werewolves - Smut Tea Stories

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Buckle up, but her cup,there's fuckery to discuss. A writer,
an editor, and a reader walkinto an indie bookstore and start an unhinged
indie monster an alien smud podcast,because why the fuck not? Hello,
and welcome to Smuddy Stories Podcasts.We're three trash cats in a trench coat,

(00:21):
and I figured we would start offwith our origin story so you understood
how all of this came to be. So to preface, Jersey and I
have been friends on TikTok for quitesome time. She bade her read Thorne's
Dove for me and has been anawesome friend. We've sent lots of tiktoks
to each other completely. She's awesomepeople and would spend her summer's growing up

(00:48):
at her great on Spider Bob.Jena started reading smutty books this year and
had put out a call on TikTokthat I saw for some recommendations for some
alien smut and I had provided Thornestuff and it was the first one she
saw. She read it, andI guess I really loved it because they
kind of stalk it a little bit. I figured she'd be excited about Ruger's

(01:14):
Pearl, so I asked her shewanted to beta read, and I got
a very enthusiastic yes, so thata few months ago, Jen admitted to
me that she wanted to start editingsmut and I encouraged her to do it,
and she took the plunge in lessthan a week. So she started
editing, beta reading, arc readingbetter. Website up and running, and

(01:37):
Jersey is looking into beta and arcreading for authors too, so if anybody
needs some beta or arc readers.And then I ended up asking them both
if they wanted to like connect withme on Instagram we can have like our
own joints chats and they said yesand yeah, because I mean, Jen's

(02:02):
my editor and you know, Jerseyis my my primary beta reader, and
it kind of just went whoa,hey, here we are. Yeah.
I often mentioned after being on Boobiesand Newbies. Hey, I mean we
could do a podcast. I mean, if if we had the white man

(02:23):
named Chris, we could do it. To the three of us, we
make one professional person, um,this one, just one, just one,
just one. Um. So wecall ourselves three trash cats and a
trench coat. Jersey is a raccoon, Jen is a skunk, and I
am the apostle, and I evidentlyconvinced these two to join me on some

(02:46):
trash cat insanity because it's trash canon trash cannot and we are now going
to fly off into the night asa cackling coven of critters. I'm Jen
and I am the newbie of thegroup. I have only been reading Monster
and Aliens smut um since like aboutMarch. UM. So I am a

(03:07):
brand new baby bird. And thereare some things that we as lots of
lots of googling of terms um thatare new to me, UM, lots
of messaging what does this mean?Um? And so I have been having

(03:32):
an amazing time getting plugged into thebook talk community. And if it weren't
for Carlotta and Jersey, I probablywould be lost. UM. So yeah
that's me. UM. My humanjob is UH is teaching UH and I
live on the West Coast. Umfor me, I'm I'm j I'm weird,

(03:57):
UM, I am for just humaneveryday stuff. I'm of two crash
goblins under the age of five,which is all kinds of fun. And
I am the raccoon because I alwayshave the dark circles because they never let
me sleep. I've been reading TheMonster and Smunniness, probably longer than I
should have. I kept borrowing booksfrom my mother's bookshelf at a very young

(04:23):
age and very am today and I'mreally happy about it. I am so
grateful for these two crazy hooligans doingthis with me because I need socialization do
They live on the West Coast andI'm buying myself in the Midwest, surrounded
by corn and not the fun time. It's cord sorry every time, every

(04:50):
day of time. Yeah, I'mnot gonna think of anything else. When
harvest happens. That's one creamy harvest. Yeah, that'll be real dusty too.
Oh Hi, I'm Carlota. Iwrite Spicy Scottish Space orcs. Um.

(05:12):
I'm good at it. Oh thankyou? Yeah, Okay, I
mean she's the first author I've stopped, so I mean, of mini,
but she's the first. Doesn't knowhow to handle this, okay, Um,
I'm about to launch Ruger's Pearl andI am. I am the apostim

(05:38):
because obviously I make all the weirdfaces and I too. You know,
some are loving Heaven so fast,some are loving I scream at old ass
so and I don't know what Iwould do without Jed or Jersey because they
have very quickly become my best friendsand they make every day so much brighter

(05:58):
and happier and full of after andI love them. We love you.
Oh. I guess I should sayI'm the skunk because I'm socially awkward and
would like to keep everyone away fromme, and what better than a skunk
to do that? Obviously, um, as a teacher and a mother of

(06:18):
small children as well, I needmy uh, I need my space,
So I am the skunk. Ishould We should also mention that we are
pretty recording this. This is notlive, and we are doing that because
we all have a sheer, highoctane dose of generalized anxieties. Yes,

(06:44):
yes, eventually this will be livemaybe super However, this is where we're
at right now. We're just havinga great old time. Yeah. Uh
So we bonded over the love ofmonster and alien romance, which we are

(07:04):
including aliens in the Monster. Wehad some concerned authors that weren't going to
make the cut because they write aliens. Yes, aliens make the cut.
Basically anything human yes, anything nothuman, And we we vary in our
interests. I tend to like moreof the humanoid aliens. Um, I'm

(07:26):
still a little scared of tentacles.I'm going to get there. I'm new
okay. Um. So we havea broad range of interests when it comes
to the monsters. So this isa monster focused um smuddy podcast. Um
um. Also, we are onlydoing indie authors. UM. So if
you're out there, um, bigtime author, sorry, this is not

(07:48):
for you, love you, butum we're only doing indie authors. Um.
And that's honestly one of the reasonsthat I got into this is,
Um, I didn't even realize indieauthors existed up in until March. So
what is an indie author? Idon't know. So we are going to

(08:09):
do this monthly for now because weare starting in a way that we feel
is feasible for us for our schedulesand everything. So we are going to
have themed months, and we arestarting off with Jersey. Why didn't you
explain the theme of this month?So because the first episode, Hello,

(08:31):
the first episode is going to bereleased on folloween, we figured what better
way to start than vampires and werewolves. Typically for our podcast, we're going
to try and make it so it'sjust one monster every month, but this
is the first one. So let'sjust dive in with multiple because why not
we're crazy and hell yeah, andvampires and werewolves. Who doesn't have a

(08:52):
good vampire and a wearawolf story.So here we are. Let's go a
couple other things we're probably gonna endup doing, not just by the type
of monster is tropes and book reviews. So we're basically, over the course
of the month before we record ourepisodes, we're going to be reading a

(09:13):
bunch of books and we'll be postingabout what books we have read and um
on our Instagram and stuff and TikTok, and then we will talk about them,
give our reviews with our nom nomsand if it if it's spicy enough,
it will get the bucket O comeum, and then try to do
something someone did get Yeah, someonedid get the bucket O come this month.

(09:37):
Um. But yeah. So oneof the reasons that we're doing this
is that it's a writer and editorand a reader, and so we want
to be able to provide some educationalbackground about Carlotta is going to be providing
us with some information on like selfpublishing and how she's gone about that.

(10:00):
And then I'm going to try andyou know, hit UM editing and how
that's been working for me. Thatthat started very small with like someone offering
me and our create and me losingmy mind too. Now I've been like
inundated with like alien dick, andI'm like so much alien dick. Um.

(10:22):
No complaints, No complaints, UM, I just have to sleep every
once in a while. So andthen for the reader's side of things,
Jersey is going to be talking aboutwhat the experience is like as a reader
eat reading indie authors and UM,what that's like to support indie authors and
what this community has done for forindie authors and for all of us in

(10:43):
our kind of different lanes. Dowe want to start with UM books?
You know what we talked about doing, which I would love to do,
is what was our first smuddy book? UM? Because maybe I I we've
talked about this and I know mine. I don't know the title, but

(11:03):
but I know what it is.Jah, I think you might be the
only one out of the three ofus who can remember which one that is
because I'm at a loss. Imight know the author. I mean,
I know the first book that hadsex in it, but not so so
my first I do. There wasan elder at my church that used to

(11:30):
lend me what she called historical fiction. And I don't think that she read
it. I don't Maybe she did, maybe I don't know, but she
lent me a book. I don'tknow. I couldn't tell you the title.
Um I know that it was aWestern and the one line I remember
was him saying he needed to puthis penis in every hole that she had.

(11:54):
And I just remember, as ana twelve year old, thinking can
you put penises and ears? Andthat's where I went, Yeah, how
does that work with the ears inthe nose. So even though I'm new
to the book talk community, Iguess I'm not new to the muddy community.
I just didn't know what was happeningbecause I was eleven. Um So

(12:20):
books have always been an escape forme, and I did not know that
you could give books with sex.I always thought romance books were like walking
on the beach with sand, whichdidn't sound that great. Sob Yeah,
So when I opened, um,A Ruby Dixon book, I was like,

(12:43):
this has been here this whole time, this whole time. Um So
that was my adult introduction to smutwas Ruby Dixon. So yeah, I
think for me, I could bevery wrong, because I don't remember.
I read a lot as a kid. It might have been Christine Freehan.
My initial introduction to anything smutty,and that was either the Carpet Carpathian however

(13:07):
you say it series, or They'reThey're Vampires, that being vampires like the
precursor. It was that it wasone of her Leopard books. I don't
remember, but it was probably her. That was my initial introduction at like
eleven, twelve thirteen. Hey it'son mom shell must be good. The

(13:30):
first book that I ever read wassex in It. Uh, this actually
appears Anthony book and the Zant series, which I found three of those books
at the library and they're there,they're selling off section and I liked the
artwork on the front, and soI took them home and I read them.
I was like, oh, they'resex in here. And I must
have been like eleven, and Ilove them anyway. It's my mom kept

(13:56):
buying them for me. She thoughtthey were just straight famousing, well done,
well done, mom. But thenthe first really spicy one was Cushiel's
Dart, and I like perspective.I went from reading The Box Car Children
right to reading Here's Anthony to readingthe Cushilin series by Jacqueline Kerry, which

(14:16):
there's the Houses of Spicy Time anduh whole buddy. That was that was
an education very early on while Iwas reading this in Catholic school. Was
that like zero to one hundred reallyreally quick? Yeah, I mean that

(14:37):
was over the course of like twoyears. That was oh there you go,
okay, turnaround. Yeah yeah,And we should probably say that all
of us have religious trauma. Somuch religious trauma, yes, yeah,
yeah, yeah, so experience forus talked about this extensively. I am

(15:05):
a churchgoer growing up and currently anatheist, pretty committed to that. So
for me, on and off churchgoeras a kid, depending on how my
parents were feeling. And pagan nowso yeah, um, Norse pagan specifically,

(15:30):
but yes, I grew up ina very Bible thumper household. Two
of my uncles were pastors, andI went to Christian school and Catholic high
school. And now I am theeccentric one in the family who draws alien

(15:52):
dick, writes porn, and isa Celtic in Norse pagan and manipulates others
to join her hellish crusade. Somehowbecause I have managed to become the empress
trash cat. You should mention thatyou illustrate all of your books as well,

(16:15):
and that's something a beautiful work.It's her in a gorgeous I go.
Yes, I'm an illustrator first andforemost. I went to school for
art and art history, and I'vejust been writing and drawing that. They've
been my outlets since uh two thousands, so it's been it's been a couple

(16:37):
of decades. A minute, it'sbeen a minute. And I think neurospicy
with the ADHD in a touch ofthe tism, and those were my stems.
So now this is right, andI have generalized anxiety disorder and so
UM, I started reading smut asan escape, and um it has been
an excellent ape, very very goodfor my mental health. And I've got

(17:04):
anxiety and depression and a variation ofADHD and it all plays together. Be
honestly, it's I'm either doing allof the things or I'm having an existential
crisis. All the depresso espresso.Yeah. So the fact that we all
showed up here on time, umand ready to go is kind of a

(17:26):
small miracle, really, it reallyis. I mean yes and no,
because we're all like hyper anxious talkingto each other before this happened, so
not really surprised, to be fair, because we all have the anxiety and
we're all like, oh dear God, this is happening. What, oh

(17:47):
God, we don't even go andtoday we were all early. So we'll
see how this goes. Hopefully thatfriends sticks. There's one thing that I
do want to talk about real quickbefore we start getting into our books that
we read. There is a charityanthology that is coming out November first.

(18:11):
I have a shortened there and JerseyJersey Beta Red and Jen was the editor
for my short story and a bunchof other ones. And it's called I
Am the Fire and it is spearheadedby Chloe Parker, who is an awesome
author, and it's for charity,so all of the proceeds will go towards

(18:34):
the National Network of Abortion Funds becauseyou know, rope Wade and excuse me,
reproductive ricks. So there's gonna bethirty three stories in there, and
they're all different. They cover everythingfrom which is to shifters, to aliens,
to orcs to whenever your little monsterfucker hard desires tentacles. There's a

(18:57):
tentacle one tentacles, Yeah, don'tforget that. So as the I edited
a chunk of these and it's areally good way to experience different authors.
Um if you are like, hmm, I don't know if I'm gonna like
this author. Um. Uh doingan anthology was a great experience. Um.

(19:18):
And I also doing the editing,I didn't get the blurbs, so
it was kind of like Russian Rouletteof like what's what's it gonna be?
Is it gonna be a bear shifter? Is it gonna be a witch?
Is it gonna be tentacles? Who'sto say? Um? And it was
it was a fun experience to editand uh that Yeah, that'll be out
in November first and uh if youcouldn't tell by now where you are pro

(19:41):
body autonomy for all people. UM, so definitely UM picked that up.
It's gonna be available on Ku.Yes, Ku. Yeah, it's gonna
be available Ku. And it's alimited run so it'll be live through uh,
which I MNA call it the endof ding worrying, So snigger while
you can, and you can purchaseit as an ebook or just read it

(20:04):
on Ku. Do we want toget into the books. I mean,
sure, sure, all right,all right, who wants to go first?
Sadly, I only agreed one bookthis month, just because life went
thank you for me. I readDirty Wolf by Addie Award and I enjoyed
it. I really did. It'sa little over one hundred pages e book.

(20:27):
It's a town that's got a weirdpopulation, but of course the humans
don't know that, and they're allRussian, which really helps with the mental
image and all the accents that youcan imagine all kinds of yummy. It's
a woman who just got home fromcollege. She's moved back home with a

(20:52):
couple of friends of hers, andshe runs into her old high school crutch,
who apparently had a thing for her. Well, the way they go
about it, it very much seemslike it should be mafia, but it's
it's, you know, the politicsbetween the different packs and what's going on
because they're There's Are they're Russians,so There's Are was recently killed. They

(21:14):
gotta figure out who's gonna be thenext head han show, and whether or
not they should be allowed to matewith the humans or if they should just
stick with the other wrelwolves. It'sit's good and there's some beautiful spiciness to
it. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Okay, how would you name it
for numb numbs? How many numbnumbs? I have to not think of
your writing, Carlotta, I reallydo. I would probably say about three

(21:38):
or four numinums. As far asthe spiciness, it was good. It
was good. Again, it waslike one hundred pages, so I would
have been happy a lot more.But for the length of the story,
I really enjoyed it. It wasvery good. Um. But yeah,
about three or four numinums. Andit was the spiciness that was in there
was just it was nice and Iwas very grateful that my husband was nearby.

(22:06):
I'm just saying I Okay. SoI read three books, which,
before you come at me for beingan overachiever, two of them were novellas,
so they were very, very small. So we will start with I
have never read ACM. Nas Costabecause I am new to book talk and
all of that. One of herfirst books was The Morning Glory Milking Farm,

(22:30):
and I just was not sure Icould get on board with a cow.
I just didn't know there's a specifichow you wouldn't like but the main
guy. Yeah, So I justwasn't sure about that. So I never
read Morning Glory Milking Farm. Butthen Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic came out,

(22:52):
and since our assignment was werewolves,I was like, let's go. I
was not prepared for the amount ofspice that cmnas Costa puts in her books.
And when I say I was notprepared, there were times I had
to be like, oh, okay, I was. I was also definitely

(23:15):
happy that my husband was around UMfor this situation. UM. So this
is a human female who is havingtrouble within fertility. UM, she's actually
gotten a divorce UM, and soshe's like, let's give it one last
shot, UM and try UM awerewolf breeding clinic, which, in order

(23:37):
to be effective it needs to beactual sexy time, not artificial insemination.
And without giving too many spoilers,it goes from there. Obviously we have
the werewolf who we're having actual sexhere, so it's not going to be
a long time before they realize thatthis is going to be more than just

(24:00):
a transactional situation the spice UM onthe non non scale, this is gonna
be the bucket to come UM.For sure, for sure, UM,
I will be reading more of cmnasCosta. Like I said, UM,
just the the creatures she chooses.I as a as a newbie, I've
been kind of hesitant to go allin on the monster fucking c MNAs Costa

(24:23):
has got me all in. I'mall in for it now. And the
main characters. UM. On topof this is her cambric creek. UM.
And everybody talks about how adorable umit is aside from the just like
insane sex, and it is.It's adorable. Um that you love the
relationship between the main characters. They'resweet, Um, you're rooting for them,

(24:45):
and you're also And this was alsoup until a couple months ago,
I was afraid of nodding. Idid not understand what nodding was. If
you don't know what nodding is,well, me being the baby bird that
I am, I thought it hadsomething to do with tying penises together,
which I was not interested in.Uh uh, why don't Charlotta you go

(25:11):
with the nodding as an orc asa purveyor of orc porn. Okay,
UM, essentially nodding, it's usuallyum in the animal kingdom. The most
common is canines. Uh. Butessentially it's a swell in the uh,

(25:32):
the shot of the penis that getsso swollen that after it's been inserted,
it can't come out until the ejaculationhas all happened. And um. This
is to ensure that that particular jizzwill be the one to inseminate the egg
and so consequently you're locked together forsome time and the lot of spicy stuff

(25:57):
can happen. So, yeah,that's nodding. If you have a breeding
kink. Um, nodding is theway to go, um and um a
breeding thing. Um. Ruby Dixonis the one that made me realize I
have a breathing think for CM discostasUm, we've we've we've got nodding,

(26:19):
and we've got breeding, hardcore breeding. We've we've got a werewolf main character,
and he's definitely like a cinnamon rollplayboy type of vibe. I think
it's monster fucking. I don't thinkthere's any other specific trigger warnings that you
need to be aware of other thannodding of penises does not mean nodding penises

(26:42):
into an We're not gonna fine himat a bow tie. That is what
I was picturing. I I yousee a word you don't know, You're
like, well, I didn't knowwhat sword crossing was. I was like,
are the men fighting with swords?I don't know things I have googled.

(27:03):
So that was one of the booksso I did. Taken by the
Leccnthrope by Chloe Parker. Chloe Chloeis one of my riding buddies and I
loved her and um okay, Ilove her imagination because essentially you think post
apocalypse apocalypse basically, and the HeavenlyHost you can totally tell. There's so

(27:25):
much religious trauma being worked out inthe series, and I love it.
The Heavenly Host is really aliens andthey're basically le Canthropy comes about because they
bless certain people and then they getthe lect aanthropy and it's about There's two
main characters. So the main malecharacter, he is a priest and he

(27:48):
is an trime so he is thehead hot show and he has had taken
a vow with celibacy is having avery hard time with it. Every month.
That's one would as one would.And then the female character, she's
like, my sister needs insulin.Oh, doesn't that sound familiar? American

(28:08):
medical system, and she's like,if I bring so I bring this alphaprens
it to the aliens, it willgive me the insulin. So she goes
to save her sister, and uh, it goes south. And then of
course, as it does, otherthings went south. But um, so

(28:32):
much going south, so much goingsouth. Uh. But it's really interesting
watching the priest having a very hardtime and their interactions and alter scene and
nodding, yeah, nodding and breadingand m hmm because their mates, and

(28:59):
he gets smelling it at least Iwas like leather and blackberries, and he
actually semi turns her and discover she'shis omega mate. So it's an omega
verse also. So yeah, andthere's a blackberries that sounds like it smells
really good. I know you shouldmake that as a candle, so just
in case everyone's just so everybody's aware, Jessie wants to start a candle business

(29:22):
and make all of the candle smelllike the books. Yes, I am
working on my candle business. Andcurrently the first person that I'm trying to
get fragrances for is missus Carlotta.Hugh's here for her stories and hopefully hopefully
they work and I can send themto her. We get down hopefully they

(29:42):
work and she lets me know whetherthey're not they're good, and if they
are that I'm going to try andreach out to more people. It's like,
hey, do you want anything thatsmells to the person or a place
in your story? And it's hereyou go, thank you. I would
buy a candle that smelled like Rugerspearl um so yeah, um, I

(30:06):
was baber reading it, going throughsome of it the day, like every
other chapter like that was spell good. That well, Bruger smells like sweet
pomegranate, leather and spice. Thereyou go. I would buy that.
I need I need this as acandle, very numb, numb. And

(30:29):
that's what my boyfriend's was like,maybe when I get you the candle,
you can tell me whether or notit actually is true to form. When
you get to meet Tim, Iwill let you know. He's in the
UK and I'm here on the Westcoast, so it's yeah, well I'm
just insects anyway. Moving on,So, for someone who's never read an

(30:52):
omega verse, what what does thatspecifically mean? And by somebody who's never
read an omega verse, I meanmyself. So omega versus still breeding,
and it has to do there's alot of breeding. It started, I'll
tell you this because I freaking loveit. It started because of Supernatural.
Yeah, okay, and Supernatural startedback in two thousand and five, so

(31:17):
this has been around for a hotsecond, and um it was a way
for fan pick writers to create alternatereality variations of the story while having wonderful
kinks and having it be modulated.And it just kind of blew up from
there, and it's very much You'vegot the people who you're born at an

(31:41):
alpha or you're born as an ohmy god, and the omegas are the
ones that deal with the consequences ofthe breeding kink. And it doesn't matter
if you're maale or female. Thatpart doesn't matter at all, because there
could be female alpha's, there couldbe male alpha's and vice versa with the
omega's. Um it just and whoever'sthe alpha is the one who's the dumb

(32:04):
of the relationship. Okay, Okay, all right, So I yeah,
I've never read an Alpha Mega onceagain because I have a lot of misconceptions
that make me scared of books.I because I have anxiety, which I
did not. I didn't even realizegoing into romance that as a romance book
it should be guaranteed happily ever afteror a happily for now, which Carlotta

(32:25):
likes to do. To us,Carlotta, I'm looking at you, Hey,
it gets resolved. Excuse you,m so um. And that's why
sometimes twenty years a minute, youknow whatever. Um. That's one of
the reasons why romance works so wellfor me is because I'm assured that I'm
not going to be left on likea are they okay? I need that.

(32:49):
That's one of the reasons why I'vestuck around. I just I just
realized something that you both do.And it's like, on one hand,
there's the praise I've got a pricekick, and then there's the degradation,
and I'm like, I don't reallyhave a degradation king, but it's gonna
it's gonna be super imposed eventually.I guess. Oh, I should say
before Taken by the Light Handthrope definitelydefinitely a nice four and a half out

(33:14):
of five nominals. Pretty that justa wee bit more. Okay. So
I've read Jillian graves novella Blood Moon, so Jillian Graves came out with Titan
this spring, and then she cameout with a Blood Moon m October eighteenth,
and it's a witch in vampire novella. UM. And I hadn't read

(33:38):
Titan because I was in the middleof a different series when it came out.
So this is my first Julian Gravesum. I. And she's a
new author. This is only hersecond book, and I loved, loved
it, loved her writing style.UM, I love it was totally outside
of what I've been devouring since March, which is basically alien smut. This

(33:59):
was a witch and um a vampireand UM spice level I would say four
because it's a novella like it's Itwas short and sweet and spicy, UM
not not a lot of angst,which I don't like anyways. UM.
And the relationship, UM, it'sa h one night stand when then they

(34:22):
feel out, then they find outtheir rivals to so kind of like enemies
to lovers a situation and UM we'vegot some plus size um um representation and
UM I I really enjoyed it.I will be signing up for U her

(34:45):
all of her books going forward.We got some blood play because it's a
vampire. Uh, we've got adegradation kink, we've got a mirror play,
we've got voyeurism, We've got um. This is one of the ones
where you might want to check herweb site. Julian Graves is very good
about breaking down your tropes and yourkinks and um, I would highly recommend

(35:08):
this. It's a it's a onehanded and a one one's seated. Read
like you could finish it in ina couple hours. And uh, and
it was one I really enjoyed.And what was the number on that one?
Oh four? Would have been fiveif it was a full length I

(35:29):
would have read a full length one. I've seen rod TikTok and I've wanted
to read her stuff. I justhaven't gotten to yet, So that is
good to know. Yeah, thethe TBR list that I have has become
astronomical. Book talk has killed myTVR list. My TVR list hates me
so many books. It's so manytime. Once I started saying that I
would arc read for people, Imy TVR list got to the point where

(35:52):
it was just like, Uh,if I don't have a relationship with you,
I can't read your boat because Idon't have the time. Um,
I think I'm three arcs behind rightnow. And so I just got another
one last night and I was like, um, I have to I have
I still have to have an adultjob that I do from time to time.

(36:16):
It's okay to say no, It'sokay I And that's something we can
talk about as an ARC. Ina beta reader, I am learning how
to say no in UM in apolite way and in a way that isn't
dismissive. Um, I've said noto things that are not in my wheelhouse.
Why choose is not in my wheelhouse? Um, I've I've learned that

(36:37):
accidentally because I don't read trigger warnings. No, Also, you don't read
that There's there's actually an entire pronunciationguide in the back of the book.
Right. Yes, we learned thenby accident as well. I'm one of
those people that just reads the book. So Carlotta's book has a lot in

(37:00):
Gaelic, and I'm just like sittinghere being like, is this pronounced?
I don't know, I'm but you'realso talking to a girl who mispronounced half
of the Harry Potter names for mostof her life. So that's fair that

(37:22):
I always thought it was Hermoan andnot Hermiany. I thought it was Hermoine,
which is terrible. None of themare great. Honestly, I thought
it was French. I think J. K Rowling just made that one up,
honestly. UM many other things.Yeah, I am getting better at

(37:47):
making sure that I read the triggerwarnings and the tropes before I get into
a book, so I don't accidentallyscar myself or get myself into something that
I'm not actually interested in. Andthat's kind of a boundary I started to
set as I arc in beta readis it if it's not something that is
in my lane. I am workingon making a network of people that I

(38:07):
can refer other them to other editorsor other beta readers, so that I
am reading books that I enjoy andnot making this a something that I have
to do, because then you're notgoing to give a good review if it's
something you have to do. Iread all these books because I wanted to.
And it's also once it really becomesa chore, you don't want to

(38:30):
do it, and then it's asbeing fun in an outlet and you know,
a creative safe space, So keepdoing much comfortable and of course explore
but you know, and don't makesyou happy. Yeah, I wouldn't have
found out. I wouldn't have foundout that I was interested in nodding had
I not taken the plunge. Thisis true, that's what she said.

(38:55):
I was just gonna say, justso everybody is aware, we all have
like the sense of humorful fourteen yearold boy. So yeah, yeah,
that's pretty much interesting. Pretty much. I teach high schools, so I
have to have the sense of humorof a teenage boy. And I also
like tail play was one of thosethings that I was like, that's a
no um and turns out it's not. Who knew so many It's one of

(39:17):
those things where I'd say, youknow, it's like, tried any as
far as reading, try anything once, and if it's still an ogo,
then it's an ogo. If youfind out it's like, hey, this
is interesting, man, read onthat. Well. There's also the thing
that different authors wrote things different ways, So what maybe a nogo with one
author and how they wrote it,and you might like it with a different
author. You never know those areyou just listening to the audio? My

(39:42):
cat knocks behind me is very interestedin what is happening right now, I
can get to my last book,which it was a very shortened, spicy
um. It was Bound by theAlien King by Sarah Ivy Hill. If
you don't know about Sarah Ivy Hill, her first me series is Warrior Kings
of Alioth and I love that series. That's going to be easily my top

(40:07):
of the year reading that series.And so this was just a little short
and spicy novella. It's um.I was talking to her about it and
she's like, he's not technically avampire because he's not immortal, but he
definitely has vampire vibes. And wehave a female main character who is just
the patriarchy. She lives in asociety where like her virginity is prized over

(40:34):
everything, and she's going to besold off to a cousin so that she
can be married, and she decidesto escape no matter what, and she
ends up in the hands of whatshe thinks is the enemy, which is
a vampire king. Turns out notthe enemy, not the enemy, So
we kind of got a little bitof enemies to lovers. We've got we've

(40:55):
got blood play, we've got aphrodisiac, we've got but her finally realizing that
her value is not tied to hervirginity, which was a big win for
me in that book. I reallylike that one. I really like Sarah
Ivy Hill's writing. I really likethe way that she does spice and the
way that she does characters. Um. One of the things I really liked

(41:15):
about her Warrior Kings of Aliouth isthat it's it's always an adventure, like
the two main characters are generally aloneand on an adventure together, and I
am that. I guess that's whatI like. Is like, I love
when the two main characters are likeon a quest and there's sex. So
I guess my D and D childthat's what I needed was a sexy quest.

(41:39):
Yeah, and skill oh four anda half. So the last book
on our on our thing is Feralby Tritish him right, So I started
to read it. I was finishingup the I feel that I'm sorry Tritish,
I didn't get it. I didn'tfinish reading it. Oh, between

(42:00):
finishing up those short for the Eyein the Fire anthology and trying to wrap
up Ruger's Pearl and a bunch ofart stuff or I Am the Fire,
I my time was short, butI'm loving it so far as nice.
I like it because it has todo with like humans and werewolfs aren't really
supposed to mix. But this werewolfhe uh, he got his heart broken

(42:25):
in the past and now he's like, uh, oh no, I'm calling
for this human and oh she's mymaid, and I gotta pretend like it's
she's not affecting me, and Ihave to fake because he's on a quest
to get this thing for for hishis clan and stuff. And so I
am not describing this very well,but I love the fact that the female

(42:47):
main character is like a bookworm.It's like, yes, thanks you,
because we're all books at heart.Um, I just like the whole The
one thing that I just eat upit's like them is when the main male
characters like I have I must resistmy masters so petty. I hate her

(43:10):
so badly, but I must resist. It's cute. It's cute. It's
just like, oh you sweet meanis it one of those oh god,
no, fuck, I can't bedoing this. No, no, yeah,
it's situations. I'm gonna let hergo because I'm also like pulling off
of the because I I what Iread. But then also so I can

(43:31):
give you guys an overviews from thefrom her blurb, but it's like he
haven't at least like I must lether go. It's like, you,
dummy, that's not how that's gonnawork. I haven't even read at the
end, and I'm like, it'sprobably not gonna work like that. That
sounds very similar to um Ruger's Pearlcharacter. Yeah, I may have lived

(43:53):
with for the last two couple ofmonths. M hmmm. Uh yeah,
I love that trope. Obviously.I have a book that I'm about to
launch with that and it's two hundredand thirty two thousand words so far.
Huh. And it's not done yet. No, no, not quite yet.

(44:16):
I had to take the hiatus towrite Charance Honeybee. Mm hmm.
It's done. That's done though.Yeah, well I'm back. I'm back
on Urgers Pearl. Yeah, yeah, at a day in reading it so
I can make sure that I tieup all the loose ends of the story,

(44:37):
and um, you tie them togetherso they could fuck some more.
Um, there's gonna be more,I quite possibly. Oh yeah, just
like did I did at Turney Rather? Is that what I thought we were
done with? The six? Okay, so for those of you, we

(45:00):
have been editing in beta reading thisbook with her since since the beginning of
the very first line she wrote,Yes, and we have. We've both
been there with her for the entireprocess. We've absolutely fucking loved it.
And um, there was a littlebit of time where she just needed to
step back, like a mental break, and she she didn't write for a

(45:21):
while. And now Jenna and Iare like, excuse me, rest,
but it's because one we love her, and two we really love the story
and are dying to know what thefreaking conclusion is. Hide we can still
see you. Also, this isa podcast that they can't even tell if

(45:45):
you're hiding. Uh, well youguys. Um, But to rewind just
a second, Farrell, like,I haven't gotten all the way into it
yet. I will post when I'mdone reading it what I thought. Um,
but so far, I'm really likingit. I can't really give it

(46:05):
a score other than like four sofar, just because I love the story
so much. But like, yes, I'm yes, all right, I
excited to finish up. That's whatshe said. Well, yeah, hello,

(46:27):
just so you're aware, I unintentionallydropping your window constantly, So that's
something to look forward to. Andthen I catch, oh that wrong right
looking at my backdrop, which wewill be releasing this eventually visually, it
looks like I don't even know whata book is. I'm gonna I'm gonna

(46:51):
work on that. So those werethe books that we've read for this month.
Um. Going forward, we aregoing to be taking um suggestions and
author requests. Absolutely. Um,we have already decided that we are going
to be doing. Are we doingbear shifters or shifters in general for November?

(47:13):
Well, there's so many bear shifters. It's like that are coming out
all at once. I'm like whenYeah, these the bear shifters just for
lack of a better term, kindof exploded and I haven't gotten to read
one yet, and I'm kind ofcurious. It's like, hello, lumber
snack daddy, dad boy. Soyou said that, And then I thought

(47:38):
of the Thor from TikTok who justpopped in the forest. Yeah, Thorn
Bradley. Yeah, I know fora fact there's a bajillion different either fan
fixed or actual books written about thatman. Because oh, are we talking
about the man and the suspenders?Yes? Okay, says good girl too.

(48:01):
When it splits how he wants itto beautiful tattoos. It is occasionally
just hanging out in a river.Yeah, and he's actually that was supportive
of the book community. So ishe breaking fantastic? I adore him as
a person and he is so muchfun to look at and know that and
using it against us. He's oneof the first book talk book talks that

(48:27):
I saw that. I was like, what, there's no books here?
What's what's? Oh? What's hap? What? Why are Okay? It's
like the first time I saw aman crushing a watermelon with his thighs.
I was like, I don't knowwhy this is on book talk, but
I guess I'm here for it.I don't sorry, you just my brain.
So okay, no, okay,no, no, I need,

(48:52):
I need. I need the boyfriendto send me the video that he promised
of him like shoving his fingers intoa pumpkins living in For those of you
listening right um, Miss Carlotta herehas has an adorable man over in the
UK who on occasion reads some ofher story, which she then uses the

(49:15):
audio for to post on TikTok andInstagram, and he has given all us
the problems and Daie Yeah, yeah, I mean I don't want to him
all the time, and he givesher far more of the problems. These
two haven't heard him grow yet.I'm just true, this is true.

(49:40):
I mean, yeah, I don'twant to promise anything, but maybe we
could get like we could share someaudio at some point on the podcast,
and maybe maybe just reading a recipelike start low level. I mean,
this man could read me like thetax code from the year I was born
and I would be alled. Soyeah, because he's got he's got a

(50:02):
fantastic voice. He does not believe, so no, no, we are
here to tell him otherwise. Yes, and will I believe all the time?
Darling Pudding Pop you know who youare. You do the things,
You can narrate books, spicy audiotime. You could even do it only

(50:25):
fans and you would make all themoney we need. The kids from Shack
either are Um? Okay, allright, let's wrap for November. What
did we want to do a specifictype of shifter or did we just want

(50:45):
to say shifters in general and justhave a full spectrum and we can do
more shifters later. Well, Iknow that the ones that I wanted to
read next month. Um, arebear shifters, so we can stick with
just the bears for a little while. Oh, that's not a problem with
me because I know when uh,I am the Fire anthology, there's what's
a couple of bear shifters. Theywere my first bear shifters. They were

(51:08):
my first shifters. And I,like I said, with I Am the
Fire, I didn't get any blurbs, so I was just like, oh,
end it's a bear. Um,sue. This is a lot of
how my book talk experience has beenhas been like oh they said that ice
Planet Barbarians was good? Whoa whatwhat? Ok? Yeah, and so

(51:34):
it has all been like a delightfulsurprise. Um yeah, that's um.
And I am also like unabashed aboutlike reading my kindle in public and just
like straight facing it. Um soromance and smart reader can do very well.
It's just the straight face in public. It's so fun watching men read
it though it is their faces.How do you read this without crack a

(52:00):
smile? Like, we don't cracka smile at the smody stuff, a
smile at the adorable cute funs.That's when we throw the books is when
it's too cute to handle. We'relike, I'm a feeling Yeah. No,
I've had my husband read spicy scenesand he's like, you can read
this in public and I'm like,yeah, you can't. You know what,
that's the patriarchy. We get that. Yeah, you get to pee

(52:20):
standing up. Okay, okay,But what I was gonna say is we
should talk about like going forward,not just like that we're going to do
Shifters in November, but like theother things that we want to cover because
they're you know, of podcasts,you have plenty to choose from. We
wanted to talk about how like specificallyCarlotta has a ton of experience with self
publishing, illustrating and even like breakingdown the costs of how to get a

(52:45):
book out there. Oh okay,sure, um. I have no problem
talking about softwares that are available thatyou can use websites for resources, including
like premade book covers, no problemtalking about any aspect of the book publishing
world that have come across so far, even where to get marking materials and
merchandise made and expensively or have merchshops integrate with your websites, basically any

(53:12):
any of it, and like whereyou can get ISBNs and stuff. I
have the tism and I have doneso much research. Yes, yes,
all the all the things, allthe years, and I mean I don't
mind talking about artwork either, whereto find artists and stuff like that if

(53:34):
you want to, if you wantto, um, not just get a
pre made cover, but one thatwas actually illustrated by an artist. So
I think that's something that's really importantfor indie authors, is that getting good
cover art can be something that canseem daunting, especially if you're like not
artistic in any way, shape orform, like not even going where to

(53:55):
start to get cover art. Andwe all know that cover art makes a
big difference. It does, andso huge, huge and so costly.
So yeah, but it's the firstthing that your readers are going to see,
and it's going to be the thingthat either draws them in or pushes
them away. Yeah. Yeah,So we really want this to be kind

(54:19):
of like educational in the way oflike what we know and what we do.
Like just me in editing, mybackground is in academic writing, So
switching to fiction editing and the softwareas I've used and kind of what I've
learned along the way switching from academicediting and academic writing into fantasy and romance

(54:42):
has kind of been a learning curvefor me. So we'd like to share
that because we do not want tobe gatekeepers in any way. No,
for me, I didn't realize thatbeta reading was a thing until this year,
and I was very grateful that acertain someb who write orcs mud was
willing to let me batter read herstuff. And I've gotten new in our

(55:07):
creed and another batter read since then, and I'm loving it. And what's
fun for me is just not notonly telling the author what I think about
the story in general, but alsoI leave fun comments throughout with sarcastics undertones.
Yep, what is the fun ofjust sitting there and reading the story?

(55:31):
It's like, yeah, okay,so you can mess with this or
mess with that, and then thereyou go. No, I personally like
to put a more fun spit onit and tell you how I feel throughout
the story. He was like,Oh, this person's in trouble and it
makes it gense for me. Iwould say that gives the author a little
bit more like ego boosts a littlebit, and you know, just sleep,

(55:53):
you are doing good. This isjust my way of saying that I
love that. That has actually beenso beneficial because you guys help me make
sure that I'm on track. Thestory makes sense although you both have yielded
me so much about Thorne. Dude, Thorne needs to be punched. He

(56:15):
does. He went from like thelove of my life and the first one
too, Like dude, you needto get punched in the dick right now.
But what I love them all dearlyin different ways we've fee alone.
This is how my brain works.Okay, Thorne was my first orc so

(56:39):
yes, uh Thorne. He mighthave been my first nodding as well.
Oh lots of first with Thorne ora little baby. I know, I
know, um. And the collaborativeprocess for all three of us, for
like what we have our hands inis one of the reasons why we've built
this relationship that we have, becauseit is not uncommon for us to go

(57:04):
down a rabbit hole of just likewhat is this and how does this work?
Do not Google on your work computer? That is the lesson I have
learned that. That is definitely somethingthat Jen has learned because of us recently.
You work, you Google on yourphone and do not connect to that
wi fi. Um no, no, I've had to google so many different

(57:29):
things that I like. Like Isaid, I was brand new. I
didn't know what happily ever after likeHIA stood for. I didn't know what
happily for now stood for reverse harem, which is now we've gone to why
choose? Like I knew nothing.I just was like, these aliens seem
nice. You're here. I am. She was snow and she she's she's

(57:53):
working on not being that anymore.We're we're helping her, or we can
and breaking her brain or we can't. I just I just dive in with
both feet and I'm here to party. I can't tell you how freaking proud
I am of you because you justlike she has blossom so much since she

(58:15):
first started just reading, and it'sallays been this year, Like within the
last few months, you've blossom somuch, and you're wow, hello puberty.
My voice cracked. Um, you'reyou're you blossom so much and you've
you've just been going for it andI love it. It's awesome. Go
bigger, go home, except forme, go big well at home.

(58:39):
Yeah, pandemic taught us how todo that. Yeah, there you go
there you go. I was justgonna say we're gonna be doing that a
remo next month, right, Yes, yes, because Carlotta is very good
convincing us to do things, andI guess I can um, So you

(58:59):
know, go bigger, go home. I can't announce that one of my
secret side projects that I am workingon is realized. My favorite is orcs
um and there need to be moreorcs in this universe. So um.
With the encouragement, the extreme encouragementof Carlotta and Jersey, I am about
fifty pages into my first book andit's gonna be orcs and there's gonna be

(59:22):
nodding. I am doing an orimoum to kind of hold myself accountable to
that. That's not something I've announcedanywhere else. So if you want that
top secret information from me, yougot to listen to the podcast and make
it all the way to the end. So um. But I'll be announcing
that on my platforms on the firston the first so um. But as

(59:49):
as this is our first time doingthis, I have no idea how to
wrap up. Should we pray?And I don't mean to cackle court power,
just should we? Sorry? Religiousdrama let's pray at the end of
our be with you and also withyou. Sorry, probably a little Star

(01:00:12):
Wars in there, so we don'thave the exact date. Um, it'll
be towards the end of the month. For I would probably say like the
day after Thanksgiving for um, forour November, we're still working on two
time zones. Small children all thatsort of thing. Abody, we'll have

(01:00:34):
tripped to fan in them, sothey'll need a you know, a nice
monster trip. So yes, yeah, yeah, But when we post this,
if you have a bear shifter thatyou would like us to read,
um, we are happy, happyto take those on. And um,
this will be available um on rightnow, it's available on Spotify, Apple

(01:00:59):
and I Heart Music and Spreaker andUM I had to give my soul and
my blood and my Social Security numberand my tax information to get this on
Apple. So I hope you appreciateit. Um, we're working on getting
it available follow Yeah. I don'teven believe in souls, but I don't

(01:01:21):
have one anymore, so UM,I hope you appreciate that I got it
on Apple. Um, but uh, we're gonna need to come up with
a funny tagline to wrap up.I don't know. Trash cats out.
I guess, I guess trash catsout, but trash cats out. Before
we go, just a quick reminder, UM, I have the fire launches

(01:01:43):
on November first, it's five ninetynine. All the proceeds go to the
National Network of Abortion Funds. Andthere's story three stories in there by a
whole bunch of indie authors. Ummy book Greeker's Pearls launching at the end
of the month and in October.Um and you can follow us on TikTok
and on um Instagram, yep,and also in all the screaming service.

(01:02:06):
All right, so her rash catsout, srash cats out. Mm hmmm h

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Episode 1 - Vampires & Werewolves

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 1 - Vampires & Werewolves