Smart Podcast, Trashy Books: A Romance Novel Podcast

We’re going back to 2007 to take a look at the new releases in Romantic Times Magazine, and we’re so glad you’re joining us! We’ve got kooky books, taxidermy, chick lit, and a new entry into the character name hall of fame. Strap in, it’s getting weird.

At about 38 minutes in, Amanda’s track started having some kind of digital echo. I did as much as I could to adjust it, and I'm so sorry for t...

Adib Khorram’s new book, Isn’t He Romantic, is out this week, so of course I wanted to ask many questions about it.

This is the third in a trilogy about three queer Iranian American friends, and our conversation touches on some of the themes of the book, such as aging and ageism in the gay community, reclaiming fun games from your youth, and about trends in m/m romance currently.

You can find Adib Khorram on his w...

We’re back in the time machine to check out the ads and features from the February 2012 issue of Romantic Times.

We’re talking about Anastasia, Madame Toussauds, and how close some cover models get to showing some hog.

THEN! Then, we have about a half hour of live cover snark. I’m wondering if this video will be taken down by the Y’Tube, because these covers are…unclothed.

What was the thing ...

My guest this week is Dylan Allen, and Lucy Wilson-Tagoe, who are conveniently the same person. Dylan Allen is a bestselling author of contemporary romance, while Lucy Wilson-Tagoe’s newest book To Catch a Sinner, is out now.

It’s a mystery and a romance set in DC that focuses on art repatriation and the cultural minefield therein. So we’re going to talk about art, writing, the DC of her imagined world in the b...

This month we’re going back to September 2012 to take a look at the new books in Romantic Times magazine.

We’re talking about a very male hero, letting teens be teens, and hooray, there are dozens of terrible men to add to the pile. We also talk about our favorite Garth Brooks songs, and our go-to karaoke songs. (What’s yours?)

At about 25 minute in we talk about something rather morbid – books bound i...

Jess Rothschild is a podcaster and journalist, one of the founding writers at Autostraddle, and her latest project is a documentary podcast called Finding Fire Island, about the history of Fire Island, Cherry Grove, and the Pines. Her prior work includes The Cult of Soul Cycle, and I love BOTH of these productions. Jess has been writing online longer than I have, and we talk about internet history, the process of making a podcast d...

We are back in the early 90s, when the mullets were epic and the covers were sumptuous. Come on back to July 1992 with us as we explore the ads & features of the 100th issue of Romantic Times Magazine!

This issue contains some FASCINATING retrospective looks at romance, cover art, and more, and I think it is one of the primary sources cited for some of the more common stories I’ve heard about romance.

Were you a Bor...

Dylan MarcAurele is the writer and composer behind The Heated Rivalry Unauthorized Musical Parody, and I am extremely excited to share this interview with you!

We’re going to talk about writing musical theatre, his writing process, and how long it took him to write this musical (you won’t believe it).

He also talks about the actors and how the show came to be – it’s delightful. Musical theater and roma...

It’s RT Rewind time again! This month, we’re going back to July 1992 to check out the new releases reviewed in…the 100th issue of Romantic Times magazine! Yup, the cover is memorable, and so are the book covers.

We discuss:

• Cover models! Who would be the cover model for subgenre specific magazine issues?
• Nostalgia! Are the tag lines on the cover both references to cigarette ads?
• Reviews! There are some absolu...

The re-release of The Luckiest Lady in London has arrived, and Sherry Thomas joins me to talk about the writing of that book more than 13 years ago, how romance and historicals have changed, and how this book is a reflection and subversion of another very, very famous historical romance.

Plus, she gives us recommendations of her favorite historical romance authors and some of their books.

Note: we had some connectivity issues...

Hey, where are you going? Get in the time machine – we want to bring you back to March 2009 to check out the ads & features from Romantic Times Magazine.

We’ve got:

• Snippy letters to the editor!
• Covers that look like shaving cream ads for women
• Reading in a recession
• Folks explaining steampunk!
• Pop vs. Soda
• And you’ll find out what words are used in an acrostic of “pandemic.”

TW: In the middle...

Jo Piazza is my guest this week to discuss her new book, The Parisian Heist. This book is a dual timeline story weaving together a 1990s heist at the Orsay museum with the story of Jo van Gogh, Vincent van Gogh’s sister in law, who is the reason we know who Vincent is today.

Along the way we talk about

• DNFing books
• Stealing art
• Mythologizing artists usually men
• And how many women do nearly everything half scared.

You c...

We’re back in the time machine heading to March 2009 to check out the new books reviewed in Romantic Times Magazine.

We’ve got:

• Hot dog shrines
• Alpha heroines
• PT Cruisers
• Allegories for the siege of Leningrad
• Whore’s Dust

We’ve got some new books in the magazine that are still bangers today across many genres, alongside some books that we’re going to leave in 2009, right after we talk about them ...

A few months ago, Kayleigh Donaldson joined me to discuss Oscar predictions and other pop culture stories, and we decided to connect quarterly to discuss popular culture.

We discuss the misogyny attached to Timothy Chalamet hate, a deep dive into the public post history of Club Chalamet as indicative of larger issues in fandom behavior, Madonna’s new album, Lizzo’s new album, and the Tartan Army.

The through-line ...

My guest this week is Kirsty Greenwood, whose new book Romantic Hero is out now everywhere, all over the world.

Kirsty writes what she calls “speculative romantic comedy,” and I really loved her first book, Love of my Afterlife.

We discuss SHOCKING topics like deleting the first book she tried to write, the character journeys in Romantic Hero, dealing with writer’s block, and punching people in the face.

...

The time machine is all charged up, and we’re headed back to May 1996 to take a look at the ads & features from Romantic Times magazine. It’s the late 90s, so you know that means Incredible Cover Art.

We also discover just how much creepy stuff Amanda owns currently, debates about babies in romance, cheap conference hotel rooms, woman flamingos, and incredible women heroines.

I don’t know if you’re...

My guest today is bestselling author Ashley Poston, whose new book, The Someday Garden, is out this week.

The Someday Garden was inspired by The Secret Garden, so we’re going to talk about inspiration, gardening, fandoms, changing genres and having your readers grow up with you as a writer.

TW/CW – discussion of grief, and of suicide at almost exactly 1 hour into our conversation.

You can find Ashley Poston on ...

We love the 90s, and that’s where we’re headed this month, gazing at the impossible mullets from Romantic Times magazine.

We’re talking about the newest books from May 1996, including the second book in what is now a 15-book much-loved series, and some truly memorable character names.

We’ll investigate, “What’s wrong with this man?” We’ll have “lashings of good fun.”...

Martha Wells is back, and we are taking a deep spoilery dive into Platform Decay.I want to be clear here: if you haven’t read Platform Decay, we are about to spoil the dickens out of it. Yes, Charles Dickens is in Platform Decay, you heard it here first. We’re going to discuss infrastructure fury, trains in Japan, Honor Princess Detective, and more – and when I say we are spoiling, we are spoiling.

In other wor...