Smart Podcast, Trashy Books: A Romance Novel Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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, and on Tumblr.

We also mentioned:

• MrsGiggles.com
• Layla F Saad
• The Reddit thread with all the images of the Black Dagger Brotherhood casting.

Music: purple-planet.com

Check out the Fits Everybody Collection at https://www.skims.com/sarah #skimspartner

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Savannah Carlisle is the author of The Library of Second Chances and is a sports business reporter and nonfiction author under the name Kristi Dosh.

Her romance centers on a Little Free Library, so of course we are talking about that. We also discuss the difficult economies of small coastal towns, and the ways that memories can be attached to a place. Then we talk about sports romance – and why she doesn’t want to write one.

CW/TW: At about 18 minutes in, we talk about online harassment Kristi faces and some of the comments fans make about her. If you want to skip that part, move ahead 2 minutes.

You can find Savannah Carlisle at her website, SavannahCarlisle.com. She’s on Instagram and TikTok @SavvyCarlisle.

You can find Kristi Dosh at her website, KristiDosh.com, and on socials @Sportsbizmiss.

We also mentioned:

• The Montgomery Biscuits
• The Jersey Diners
• The Rocket City Trash Pandas
• The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp

Music: purple-planet.com

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Sophie Vershbow is a freelance journalist who writes a lot about books, reading, and the publishing industry. You might have seen her article about celebrity book ghost writers and about DNFing without guilt.

We talk about her experience with social media strategy for authors and publishers, and with writing about publishing. We also discuss how much book publicity has changed, so stay tuned for extremely good advice for managing social media for book publicity.

Then, naturally, we turn to reality tv and shopping!

We have SO MANY LINKS. Get ready!

You can find Sophie Vershbow at her website, on Instagram – and don’t forget her dog, Simon!

We also discussed:

• SBTB: When do you DNF a Book and Why, inspired by Sophie’s article below
• Sophie in The Atlantic: When Is It Okay to Not Finish a Book?
• Sophie in New York Magazine: Who’s Really Writing Celebrity Novels?
• Sophie in Esquire: The Murky Path To Becoming a New York Times Best Seller
• All of Sophie’s bylines in Esquire
• Sophie in Esquire: Behind the Scenes of Barack Obama’s Reading Lists
• Sophie’s favorite piece that she’s written: The Cousin I Never Knew
• Shopping links!
• Off Fifth
• Nordstrom Rack
• Sezane
• Gap
• Everlane
• Cos
• Marine Layer
• Staud
• Reformation
• Beni – browser extension that searches second hand platforms for items on screen
• Rakuten – cash back for shopping through their platform (Affiliate link gets you $30 bonus when you spend $30)

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Kelly Farmer is the author of the Out on the Ice series of hockey romances, including her latest, Calling the Shots, and a former improvisational actor. We talk about cover artist magic, her series, and identify a few reason why hockey is such a popular setting for romances.

Then we talk about how improvisational theatre exercises and techniques influence and improve writing. So if you’re stuck in your writing, maybe this will help.

I also finally learn to say Megan Rapino’s name correctly. WIN! 

...

This is one of the episodes I didn’t run due to the HarperCollins Union strike. Kelly Farmer and I recorded this episode in October 2022 in anticipation of her book Calling the Shots. 

I want to thank Kelly for her understanding and for her support of the strike. I’m very happy to share this episode with you now.  

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Music: purple-planet.com

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Not all contemporary romances are romcoms, but many are, and Melonie Johnson joins me this week to talk about both, and about her new romcom, Too Wrong to Be Right. 

She too wrote a character who works in the funeral industry, so we talk a bit about that, too! The talk about different burial options and discussion of the funeral industry starts at 14 minutes in.

We also touch on burnout in the publishing industry, and grieving the professional relationships that are lost.

Music: purple-planet.com

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I connected with author Helena Greer, who wrote Season of Love, which you might have heard me talk about, because I liked it a LOT. And I also connected with Sam Brody, the acquiring editor at Hachette who worked on the book with Helena! So we talk about behind the scenes details of writing and editing, and how this book came to be.

There are a few audio skips or what I think of as sound bubbles, and my apologies for that.

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Music: purple-planet.com

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Welcome to Part II of our Heaving Bosoms Crossover! Some of our most popular episodes in our archive are our crossovers with Heaving Bosoms, and we have a new one for you!

If you tuned in to the Heaving Bosoms episode this week for Part I, you’ll know that we are discussing and recapping The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley. Originally published in 2009, this book inspired So Much Discussion when it was first published.

You can find part one of our conversation at Heaving Bosoms: https://bit.ly/HBXoverPart1

And let’s get started with Part II!

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Music: purple-planet.com

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Melissa Blue tweeted that she wanted to talk about Spare.So did I! So, we did!

We talk about the book itself, but we also look at the book from our perspective as romance readers and writers, and also as a larger narrative about dismantling propaganda. As Melissa points out, narratives constructed around Meghan and Harry echo narratives we’ve seen about other people, especially women, in public life who are subjected to propaganda to undermine them.

I talk a lot about how dismissing romance ignores a lot of what romance says and does, and what it represents about people, about sexuality, and about relationships. I think the same is true about celebrity narratives: the public narrative, or the approved narrative, is also very distant from the messy, complicated reality, and this particular set of stories gives us a lot to think about and discuss.

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Spice things up this Valentine's day with the game Let's Get Deep from the creators of What Do You Meme? and get 20% off with promo code SARAH at whatdoyoumeme.com/letsgetdeep.

Music: purple-planet.com

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Emily Nagoski has a new podcast, Come As You Are! If you’ve read her books, you know what this is about. We dive right into questions of consent and enthusiasm, the way the ace/aro community has developed conversations about sexuality within the field of sex education, and how the pandemic has affected sexuality. So much of her show and this conversation center on how to address sexual satisfaction in your own life.

We also talk about her next book, which is about how couples sustain sexual attraction over the long term.

Music: purple-planet.com

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This episode was recorded on Monday 23 January 2023. On Thursday, 26 January, the HarperCollins Union announced that HarperCollins has agreed to enter mediation.

In this interview, we go over the breakdown in negotiations that led to the HarperCollins Union strike, and the demands of the union.

Thank you to Barb, Bransler, Clay, Agnes, and Susan for the questions and to the Patreon community for the enthusiastic support and encouragement for this interview.

Music: Purple-planet.com

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