Dear Bitches, Smart Author Podcast, April 8, 2016

 

[music]

Sarah Wendell:  Hello, and welcome to episode number 188 of the DBSA podcast.  I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.  With me today are Bea and Leah Koch from The Ripped Bodice.  It’s been just about a month since the grand opening of their romance-focused bookstore, and I backed the Kickstarter for the foundation of this store, and I am super nosy, so I asked if they would be willing to do an interview, and I wanted to find out what they’ve learned, what they’ve got planned for future events, and what they’re reading.  It can be a little bit difficult to tell their voices apart, so the transcript may not be 100% accurate, and if there are errors, I apologize.  They themselves know they sound exactly alike, so, you know, they just talk for each other.

And I do have news!  I have news!  The podcast has a Patreon!  Yay!  Thanks to your encouragement and in some cases some very exclamation-filled demanding email messages from some podcast listeners – thank you – I have set up a Patreon campaign.  Patreon is a little like Kickstarter, but instead of crowdfunding for a specific project, Patreon allows you to support the continued development and production of something that you already like, such as this podcast, and the person who’s hosting the Patreon – that would be me – can set goals for what they’re going to do with the monthly pledges.  My goals include updating the equipment that I use for onsite interviews so they don’t sound as if I’ve recorded that interview in a room filled with 7,000 people, and I also want to make sure that we have transcripts for all of the episodes.  There are about seventy in the archives that don’t have one.  You do not have to support the Patreon campaign.  The podcast is not going to change.  It’s still going to roll out every Friday, but if you’d like to have a look you can become a monthly supporter of the DBSA podcast for $1 a month or $3 a month, $5 a month, whatever you like!  There are rewards at each level, including online hangouts, personal thanks by name with random compliments, stickers and other things.  If you’re a fan of the podcast and you don’t want to contribute, that is totally cool.  The podcast will still arrive on Fridays with romance information for your eardrums, but if you’re interested in becoming a sponsor with a monthly contribution, you can find our page at Patreon.com/SmartBitches.  That’s Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash SmartBitches.

This podcast is brought to you by J. Kenner’s Dirtiest Secret, published by Bantam Books, available in paperback and eBook.

It was wrong for us to be together.  It was even harder to be apart.  The memory of Dallas Sykes burns inside of me.  Everyone knows him as a notorious playboy, but to me, he’s still the one man I desperately crave, and yet the one I can never have.  We’ve tried not letting ourselves give into desire, and for so long we’ve told ourselves no, but now it’s finally time to say yes.

You can find out their Dirtiest Secret with J. Kenner’s new SIN series, on sale April 19th.

The music you’re listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater.  I will have information at the end of the podcast as to who this is, and as always, I will have links to all the books we talked about, plus information about the bookstore, should you wish to visit, in the podcast entry, also known as the show notes, on smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.

And now, without any further delay, let’s do an interview!

[music]

Leah Koch:  This is Leah!

Bea Koch:  And this is Bea, and we sound very similar, so if you want, we’re happy to identify ourselves before we talk.

Sarah:  You know, I will probably be able to tell the difference, but I, I can just picture our transcriptionist listening to this file and going, oh, my God, Sarah, what have you done?

Leah:  Yes, let’s not make it more difficult for that poor person.

Sarah:  [Laughs] So you, you sound alike, and you’re related, and you’re running a business together.  Does that mean that one of you can just cover the other at any moment and answer the phone and be the other person?  It’s like having a clone?

Leah:  Well –

Bea:  We do that!

Leah:  We do do that.

Bea:  With our dad.

Leah:  Yeah.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  ‘Cause we’ll answer, we answer the other one’s phone and see how long it takes for him to figure out that it’s not the person that he thought he was calling.

Leah:  He, he got really mad at us yesterday.  We, like, really pulled one over on him, and he was –

Sarah:  Oh, no!

Leah:  – not pleased.

[Laughter]

Sarah:  So, it’s so similar that your family can’t tell you apart.

Bea:  Yeah.

Sarah:  I think that could be very handy.

Bea:  It is.  It’s actually –

Leah:  But we don’t look alike!  We could never do –

Bea:  Right.

Leah:  – like, a stand-in for the other one kind of thing –

Bea:  Right.

Leah:  – ‘cause we don’t look alike.

Sarah:  No, one of you has curly hair, one of you has straight hair, one of you is taller?

Bea:  I’m, like, a good – I’m Bea, this is Bea – I’m a good foot shorter.  [Laughs]

Leah:  Yeah, she’s very tiny.

Sarah:  Well, sounding alike, though, that’s pretty useful.

Bea:  It is pretty useful.  We, we always wanted to be Mary Kate and Ashley, and we could never quite pull that off.

Leah:  Yeah.

Sarah:  You can on the internet!  All you need is your own podcast.  [Laughs] You could be the Mary Kate and Ashley of Audible.

Bea:  Exact – [laughs] – great!

Sarah:  So congratulations on the opening of the store!

Leah:  Thank you so much!

Sarah:  It’s a month old!

Bea:  It’s a –

Bea and Leah:  Saturday is our one-month anniversary.

Sarah:  Yay!

Leah:  Very exciting.

Bea:  We’ll probably get a cupcake and put a candle in it, ‘cause we’re lame like that.

Sarah:  No, you should absolutely celebrate that, no question.

Leah:  Yeah.

Bea:  We’re, we’re pretty excited!  We’ve definitely learned a lot in the first month, but it’s been also so, so amazing.

Sarah:  So how has the first month been?  And are you guys using a computer or a – okay, wait, now it’s gone, okay, ‘cause I heard a, I heard a repeating echo, and I was like, oh that’s going to be hell to edit.

Ms. Koch:  I’m sorry

Sarah:  That’s okay!  Good, all good now.  So, how has the first month been?  Has it been good?  Have you been like, whoa, what did we do?  Or has it been, sort of been like, this is awesome!  I’m so stressed!

Leah:  I would say the latter.

Bea:  Yeah, I think both have been –

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  – a good description of our –

Leah:  Totally!  [Laughs]

Bea:  – current state of mind.

Sarah:  ‘Cause you know, opening a brick-and-mortar bookstore is not a thing that happens a lot.

Bea:  That’s true!

Leah:  Very –

Sarah:  Particularly one devoted to romance, which I, of course, am all in favor, but I’m, of course, on the wrong side of the country to, like, come over every day and be like, whatcha got?

Bea:  Well, the, the interesting thing is that opening a bookstore requires all these tiny little tasks, and so figuring out all the tiny little tasks was kind of a, a bit of a, a fun game.

Sarah:  Oh, yes.

Bea:  [Laughs] Like figuring out all the stuff we needed to do and then also factoring in all the stuff we wanted to do, and then kind of coming up with what we could actually do.

Leah:  That seems like a good description.

Bea:  This is that kind of way.

Leah:  Yeah, but I, I mean the first month has been, it’s so, we so feel like we’re playing store?

Bea:  Yes.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  Definitely.

Leah:  It’s like, oh, let’s go to our, like, cute make-believe job where we sell people things.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Our store seems to be real, but it’s still really fun.

Bea:  Right!

Leah:  Yeah.  Yeah, and it’s crazy.  I mean, and now that we’re a couple weeks in, we’re starting to get repeat customers, we have regulars that we know by name, which is –

Sarah:  Ooh!

Leah:  – crazy!  [Laughs]

Bea:  I think something we didn’t anticipate was how much we were going to enjoy being a part of the small-business-owning community in Culver City?

Leah:  Yes, that’s true, which is just –

Sarah:  Was that Leah who’s speaking?

Leah:  Sorry, that’s Bea.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  You’re Bea, that’s Leah, okay.

Bea:  I’m Bea, yeah.

Leah:  And it’s, it’s just delightful.  Some-, someone, a customer the other day said it’s kind of like Stars Hollow-y.

Sarah:  Oh, huge compliment!

Bea:  I, I mean, it was amazing!

Leah:  But it, it – this is Leah – it is, Culver City’s a really tiny little hamlet in Los Angeles, and we’re in the downtown area, which is, like, three blocks long, and the other day I, like, went across the street.  The guy who own the antique store is like, oh, hello, Leah!  How are you?  And then I went into the pizza place, and the guy was like, oh, two slices of cheese to go!

Bea:  [Laughs]

Leah:  And I was like, this is amazing!

Sarah:  [Laughs] That’s one thing, I think, that a lot of people who don’t live in or around cities don’t realize is there are tiny little neighborhoods and tiny little communities inside them –

Ms. Koch:  That’s true.

Sarah:  – and it’s so cool that you found yourself in the middle of one.

Bea:  That, I mean, that’s why we picked Culver City.  It’s, people, most people not from L.A. would have no idea where Culver City is, but it is this, like, little – and it’s its own city.  We are a self-contained city surrounded by Los Angeles –

Leah:  Right.

Bea:  – which is weird, but it really is this amazing little community, which we feel, and we live here too, so we feel very lucky to be Culver City-ans.

Leah:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  That’s excellent!  So what are some of the things that you mentioned you’d learned a lot?  What are some of the things you’ve learned?

Bea:  Sure.

Leah:  Ah, this is Leah.

Sarah:  Thank you.

Leah:  [Laughs] It is very, most of our job is saying no to people.

Sarah:  Aw, man!  Like, what –

Leah:  And last time –

Sarah:  – do you have Ray Bradbury?  Do you, people come in asking for things you don’t have?

Leah:  – kind of a bummer.  I think –

Sarah:  It’s totally a bummer.

Leah:  – and I think, I think we’ve gotten a lot better at it, and you just don’t realize if you’re not a business owner how – and it’s, it’s far-reaching, so yes, people come in and ask for books that of course we don’t carry.  But, you know, it’s just being a business, and there’re so few retail stores where we are, that, you know, people come in and want to do events that have nothing to do with our store, or want us to carry their book, and they write, you know, mystery cookbooks or, you know, something that has nothing to do with what we’re doing.  So we’ve definitely gotten better at saying no to people.

Bea:  And then the other part – this is Bea – the other 90% of our business is taking things in and out of boxes.

Leah:  Yes.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  Which is, if you come into the store, you will inevitably see us carrying boxes back and forth, back and forth, unpacking and repacking and unpacking and repacking.  [Laughs]

Leah:  We should have – this is Leah – we should have, like, worked out before opening the bookstore, like, I would recommend –

Bea:  Oh, my gosh, yeah!

Sarah:  Well, now you’ve got biceps!

Leah:  – I would recommend that future bookstore owners, like, start working on their upper body strength.

Sarah:  [Laughs] Well – this is Sarah – and I just moved three months ago, and I have a very, very close relationship with my box cutter that I’ve been using to unpack my house, so I imagine you guys each just, like, wake up, okay, ID, phone, box cutter.

Leah:  Yeah.  [Laughs]

Bea:  Box cutter!

Leah:  We probably ask each other, we pass the box cutter back and forth a hundred times a day.

Sarah:  Oh, yes.

Leah:  It is our most-used item!

Sarah:  And the thing that makes me nuts is that, like, I wear a lot of yoga pants, ‘cause I’m a blogger and that’s our uniform?

Bea:  Yes, that’s cool.

Sarah:  And yoga pants don’t have pockets?  So I had to go get –

Bea:  Got it!

Sarah:  – like, a little, like, a little Home Depot apron to put on just for my, my, my box cutter.

Bea:  Okay, hot tip:  there are some yoga pants now that have, like, a little built-in slot for your credit card.

Sarah:  Ohhh?

Bea:  As though, like, you’re running and you need, like, one piece of ID or one, something to pay with.

Sarah:  Who is, who, who does, who does that?  I, I –

Bea:  I, I think mine are from Target.

[Laughter]

Bea:  As, as is every good thing in my life.  I’m pretty sure they’re from Target.  I’m pretty sure they’re Champion brand.

Sarah:  Nice!  And the box cutter will fit in that pocket?

Bea:  The box cutter, you can kind of, like, stick it in there.

Leah:  Smoosh it in, smoosh it in!

Bea:  And it’ll hold it in place!

Sarah:  Okay, this literally is changing my life.  Like, I am not using literally facetiously here.  I, I am on Target looking for these website –

Ms. Koch:  Yes!

Sarah:  – looking, on the website, looking for these pants right now.

Bea:  Do it now.

Leah:  Little pocket.

Bea:  Little pocket!  I don’t even know what they’re –

Sarah:  For you box cutter.

Bea:  – like, called, but they have a little interior pocket in the waistband!

Leah:  Yes.

Sarah:  Amazing!  So I’ve seen some of the pictures of your events online, and they have been so cool.  How much fun was it to have all these people just squeeing every two feet in the store?  Was it, like, everything that you’d hoped it would be when you started the project?

Bea:  Yes.  In a single word, yes.

Sarah:  Yay!

Leah:  It, it was like Christmas and Hanukah and every holiday that we don’t and do celebrate all rolled into one.  It was –

Sarah:  Yay!

Leah:  – it was crazy –

Bea:  Yeah.

Leah:  – and it was just, it was so weird to see the store all filled with people because it had been empty for so long, and it, it’s, it was so – ‘cause at our opening we had a lot of authors there, and we were, like, every ten minutes you would hear somebody squealing once they found their books on the shelf, and that still happens when authors come in, and that’s so fun.

Bea:  It’s, it’s the best.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Is it, is running the store exactly like you thought it would be, except for the part where you say no and there’re lots of boxes?  Were you sort of accurate in your predictions of how it would be?

Leah:  Huh!

Bea:  Hmm, that’s a –

Leah:  That’s a good question.

Bea:  Yeah, that is a really good question.

Sarah:  It might be too soon to answer.

Bea and Leah:  Yeah.

Leah:  I don’t know – this is Leah.  I don’t know.  I am actually the one of the two of us who’s worked retail before.

Bea:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Leah:  So I was more u-, I’m more used to, like, a retail day, in which, like – especially on weekdays, we’re pretty busy on the weekends, but on, like, Tuesday morning, you know, we’re not, like, inundated with customers – so it’s kind of nice to get, we actually have time to read again.  Like, we’ll read for a couple of hours in the morning when it’s slow, which –

Sarah:  Oohhh!

Leah:  – is great.

Bea:  Yeah, that part is really – [laughs]

Leah:  Because we, like, didn’t read for six months while we were opening.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Leah: Bea’s never had a retail job –

Bea:  I’ve never worked retail, and most of my jobs have been, like, in libraries or in academic settings, so it is very – I wasn’t expecting the incredible amount of energy that we expend during the day.  We just, it’s so exciting when someone comes in and says, you know, I’ve waited my whole life for a store like this, and we feel their excitement, and we also are as excited as they are!

Leah:  Yeah, we get super excited, like, ten times a day.

Bea:  Right.  So we’re, like, kind of squealing all day long.

Leah:  And then the end of the day comes, and we come home and collapse.

Bea:  And we crash so hard.

Leah:  Yes.  It is very, it’s surprisingly exhausting, which I, we, we’ll get better once we –

Bea:  Yeah.  [Laughs]

Leah:  – are more used to it.  We are also very, both very introverted –

Sarah:  Yes.

Leah:  – and so it’s, like, a lot of energy for us.  We love talking to customers, like, that’s our favorite thing, we love recommending books to people, but it’s, like, that’s, like, a tremendous output of energy for us?

Sarah:  Oh, yes.

Leah:  So then we, like –

Sarah:  I completely understand.

Bea:  Yeah.

Leah:  – both sit in the back room in the dark and, like –

Sarah:  Maybe you need, like, a, like, a, like, an introvert recovery corner.

Bea:  Yes!

Leah:  Yeah, in our back room we have, like, a couch where you can just go sit and power down.

Sarah:  [Laughs] Okay.  So what events are you going to be holding in the store over the next few weeks?  And are you, are you able – forgive me, I live on the east coast, and all of our states are mostly kind of small and squished together – so is there any way for you to interact with RWA in San Diego, or is that just, like, oh, my God, that’s, like, twelve hours, you’re nuts?

Leah:  No, it’s, it’s actually really close.  San Diego is about an hour and a half from L.A.

Sarah:  Totally doable!

Leah:  Yeah, it’s not bad at all.  We, we have seen various people on Twitter planning to drive down.

Sarah:  Yay!

Leah:  We are very excited about RWA.  We honestly have not thought quite that far in advance.

Sarah:  Well, you did just open, you know.  All that, all those little tasks that you have to do had to get done.

Bea and Leah:  Exactly!

Leah:  But yeah, we are planning to do, I think – are we having a party?

Bea:  Yeah, I think we’ll definitely have a FOMO party, yes.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  We so wish we could be in San Diego and instead are just watching our social media feeds jealously.

Leah:  Yes.

Sarah:  I think that’s a brilliant idea.

Leah:  But we’re, we’ve gotten a lot of stuff scheduled for the next, like, two months.

Bea:  Yeah.

Leah:  We’re starting up, the third Thursday of every month is romantic comedy night in the store, which is a night of stand-up comedy.  It’s free of charge.

Bea:  It’s hosted by Erin Judge, who is a wonderful local comedian.

Sarah:  That is brilliant!

Leah:  We’re very excited about that.

Bea:  We’re very excited!  [Laughs]

Leah:  The first one is April 21st at eight o’clock, and it’s free.  And then we’re also starting our drop-in community book club –

Bea:  Mm-hmm.

Leah:  – which is a book club that you do not have to be a member of.  So there’s no, we find that people have fear of commitment, so there’s no commitment.  You show up once, or you show up every time.  You can bring friends or come alone, and it’s very casual.  There’s time for chatting and drinking, and then we only choose books where the author can interact with us in some way?  So our book for May 5th is A Bollywood Affair, and Sonali Dev is going to be Skyping in with us to answer questions.

Sarah:  Oh, awesome!

Bea:  We’re so excited!

Leah:  We’re super excited!  And then the book for June is Eva Leigh’s new Regency, and she is an L.A. author, so she will be there in person!

Sarah:  Brilliant!

Leah:  We’re very excited about that, and that’s the first Thursday of the month.  And we have signings coming up.  We have two signings scheduled for Pride in June with a bunch of great LGBTQ authors, and once our brand-new fancy website is up, all of this information will be online.

Bea:  Yes!

Sarah:  I was just about to ask you about that.  How can people who aren’t in the L.A. area interact with you and shop with you?

Leah:  On our fancy new website that will be up –

Sarah:  Yay!

Leah:  – any day!

Bea:  Yes.

Sarah:  Having, having built and launched several of those, I know your pain.

Leah:  Oh, yeah.

Bea:  Oh, thank you so much.

Leah:  We have a great web designer, but there are a lot of moving pieces, and we stopped telling people that it was going to be up, like, in three days –

Bea:  [Laughs]

Leah:  – because we said that, like, 700 times –

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Leah:  – so it will be up very soon, we promise!

Bea:  We’re trying to be very Zen about it.

Sarah:  Yes.  You, you kind of have to be with anything having to do with the internet –

Leah:  Right.

Sarah:  – ‘cause you’re just not in control of so many parts.

Bea:  Exactly!  Oh, these control freaks have given up control, and we are not happy about it.

Sarah:  No, it, it’s very difficult.  I completely understand.

Leah:  But it’s going to be beautiful and wonderful and worth the wait!

Bea:  It’s going to be – [laughs]

Sarah:  So you’re going to have online shopping?

Ms. Koch:  Yes.

Sarah:  And orders?

Bea and Leah:  Yes.

Sarah:  Yay!

Bea:  Oh, yeah.

Leah:  Yes, you will be able to buy pretty much any book you can think of, from –

Bea:  Well, a, a romance.

Leah:  Yeah.  That was a given.

Bea:  The, the romance, I hope, is a given.

Leah:  That was a given.

Bea:  But not for our website designer.  [Laughs]

Leah:  Yes, and we’re very excited to send books to Vermont and Ohio and Louisiana.

Bea:  We’re also very excited that we’ll be the hub for several authors’ signed books.

Leah:  Yes!

Sarah:  That is so cool!

Bea:  Yeah, very –

Sarah:  Whose, whose books are you going to have the biggest collection of signed?

Leah:  I believe right now it’ll be Emma Chase.

Sarah:  Fabulous.

Bea:  Yes.

Leah:  Yeah, and we’ll hope other authors will sign up to do that with us, ‘cause it takes the burden off them.

Sarah:  Having a bookstore be your signed book hub is very smart.

Bea:  And we’re happy to take it on!

Leah:  Yeah.

Bea:  ‘Cause that’s what we do!

Sarah:  That’s your job.  Are you going to be able to buy print and eBooks from your store or just – on your on-, online store – or just print or just E or both?

Leah:  For now, it’s just print.

Sarah:  Right.

Leah:  It, we hope to do eBooks as soon as we can.  The –

Sarah:  That’s a more complicated set of moving pieces.

Bea and Leah:  Yeah.

Bea:  It is another –

Leah:  It’s like a whole third business.  We, we will do it, and we’ll do it soon, but it, we’ve got to get the print going first, and then we’ll get to that.

Bea:  Yep.

Sarah:  So I noticed in many of the pictures you have, in addition to books, which is rad – and by the way, I am not exaggerating, when someone tweeted me, or no, when you guys, on Instagram, posted a picture of my novella in print on a shelf, that is the first time I’d ever seen it in print.

Leah:  That is the best thing to hear!

Sarah:  Seriously.  Like, I was, I, I was sitting in my office, and my eyes are open, and my mouth is open, and I’m like, oh, my God, and my husband comes in, he’s like, what’s wrong with you?  And I’m like, look!  Lookit!  Lookit!  Lookit!  Lookit, look at the screen.  Lookit.  He’s like, is that your book on a shelf?  And I’m like, YES!

Leah:  Oh, that’s so cool!

Sarah:  The, my kids came running in, and I’m, and they’re like, Mom, why are you crying at Instagram?

[Laughter]

Sarah:  And I’m like, you just don’t understand, kids.  I seriously am so excited.  Thank you, by the way.  Thank you for having my books.  That’s, like, the biggest, fattest compliment.  I’m really appreciative.

Bea:  Oh, my gosh, we love having them.  Our customers love them.

Leah:  Yes, because –

Bea:  They are bestsellers.

Sarah:  Yes!

Leah:  First of all, like, you’re one of two Hanukah books that we have.  [Laughs]

Bea:  Yeah.

Sarah:  Well, you know, there are so many.

Bea:  I can’t wait for December when we can have a huge Hanukah display for two books.

Leah:  We do explode with Hanukah.

Sarah:  Y’all are my, seriously, my favorite Koch siblings.  It is [cotch], right?  Not [coach]?

Bea:  Yes, it is [cotch].

Sarah:  Okay.  You’re my favorite Koch siblings, just please know that.

Bea:  We have a few customers brave enough to ask if we are in any way affiliated with the other –

Sarah:  Koch siblings?

Bea:  – Koch siblings, [coke] siblings.

Sarah:  No.

Leah:  Thank God we say it differently.

Bea:  Yeah.

Sarah:  Yeah, no kidding.

Bea:  We, we are not.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Okay.  Good plan.

Bea:  Just to clear it up.

Leah:  Yeah.

Sarah:  So one of the things I noticed before I totally derailed myself and was like, you have my book, oh, my God!  Squee!  You have really cool stuff in addition to the books.  Where are you finding all of this rad stuff?  You have cool greeting cards and little tchotchkes.  I mean, where are you finding all this awesome stuff?

Bea:  It is, I mean, of all the most fun things that we get to do, it is one of the most fun things.

Leah:  Yes.

Bea:  We love picking out, we call, it’s our sideline inventory, so anything that’s not a book.

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Bea:  We use Etsy wholesale for a lot of it.

Sarah:  Very smart.

Leah:  It’s, like, the greatest invention.

Bea:  It’s incredible.

Leah:  Those people are geniuses.

Bea:  Yeah.

Leah:  It’s, it’s set up so all the cool Etsy vendors that you buy, you know, one necklace from, people who are set up and have the mechanisms to do wholesale, we can order directly from them, and Etsy takes care of all the invoicing and payments and everything, and it means that we can carry all these beautiful small producers from all over the world, and it completely takes the hassle out of it for us.  So we don’t carry anything by any large company.

Bea:  Nothing mass produced, other than the books.

Leah:  Yes.  And, yes, I agree with Bea.  It is so fun –

Bea:  [Laughs]

Leah:  – to pick everything out.  We, ‘cause we’re basically just, like, shopping on a very large scale.

Bea:  Yeah.

Sarah:  Oh, when I do the annual gift guides for the, for the website beginning, like, right around early November, right after Halloween, ‘cause that’s when the holiday season starts –

Ms. Koch:  Mm-hmm.

Sarah:  – I get to shop for everyone who’s, who reads the website.  Like, I get to shop for the whole internet community, and it is the most fun, so I –

Leah:  It’s so fun!

Bea:  So awesome!

Sarah:  It’s like, I know someone who’d like that!  And I know someone who’d like that!

Bea:  Exactly!  It’s like, oh, I know that a certain group of romance readers would really like this necklace.  Like, that’s so fun to, to think of that kind of stuff.

Leah:  Yes.

Sarah:  So you get to shop for everyone you might possibly one day know –

Bea:  Yes, exactly.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  – on Etsy.

Leah:  We’ll never have to buy gifts for anyone –

Bea:  Nope.

Leah:  – we can just shop in our own store when we need a card or a present for somebody.

Sarah:  That’s just awesome.  So really, this is all an elaborate operation so that you never have to leave your store for the things that you need –

Bea:  Right!

Leah:  Pretty much!

Bea:  And –

Sarah:  – to buy for other people.

Bea:  – every author we’ve ever been obsessed with will come, and we can fangirl all over them.

Sarah:  Who have you, have you, like, reached out to anybody and you’re like, oh, my gosh, I hope they come?  Are there people who’re like, please, please, please, I hope they come to our store, or can you not say, ‘cause that would be, like, totally awkward?

Bea:  Hmm –

Leah:  Welll, I mean, we do, like, blind email everybody and are just like –

Bea:  Yeah.

Leah:  – come to our store!

Bea:  And then the response, sometimes –

Leah:  They’re so nice!  Yeah, like –

Bea:  Yeah, oh, my gosh.

Leah:  – we, we emailed Beverly Jenkins, who we love, and she said this –

Sarah:  Who’s the greatest human being ever.

Bea:  She’s like an angel dusted in fairy gold.  Like, everything perfect.

Leah:  And she was just, like, so nice, and she, she says, I don’t have any travel plans for 2016, but I’ll be delighted to see you in 2017.

Sarah:  Aww!

Bea:  And we’re so excited for the year 2017.

Leah:  For 2017!

Sarah:  I don’t blame you.

Bea:  Yeah.  ‘Cause that’ll be amazing.

Sarah:  She’s the best!

Bea:  She’s the best, and so many people are just so generous and kind with their words.  It, it – ugh! – it’s amazing!  [Laughs]

Sarah:  So what have you been reading lately that you’re super excited about?

Bea:  Excellent question.

Leah:  Yes.  Well –

Sarah:  Hardest question I ask, really.

Bea:  All the DABWAHA books.

Sarah:  [Gasps]

Bea:  I feel like we’ve been catching up, or I’ve been catching up.

Leah:  Yeah.

Bea:  I read a bunch of novellas in the past few days.  I read Craving Flight.

Sarah:  Oh, my gosh!  Is that book not amazing?

Bea:  It blew my damn mind.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  I was not prepared for how much I was into that book.

Bea:  I was so unprepared for every part of it.  I’m, I’ve been talking about it non-stop.

Sarah:  And the, the parts that I love were the parts where she’s negotiating how she’s going to approach orthodox observance?

Bea:  Oh, my gosh, yes!  Exactly!

Sarah:  Like, oh, my – and, and when she screws up, and she feels so awful about it –

Bea:  Yeah.

Sarah:  – ‘cause she’s like, oh, now I’ve got to start all over.  Every time I screw up it’s this huge thing.  Oh.

Bea:  It, it was just so beautiful, and I, I studied historical fashion in graduate school, and I took a class on, like, world cultures, and I, we did a whole section on religious clothing, and all, like, almost that book was a better education – [laughs] – than my graduate-level course, because the way she talked about their belief system and the clothing and the modesty, it was just so beautiful.

Sarah:  Oh, I, yeah.

Bea:  I was, like, destroyed by it.

Sarah:  It, it was one of the books where my, my, I, I was trying to explain it, and all I could do was just start eight sentences and then start them again.

Bea:  That’s exactly –

Sarah:  Like, I couldn’t get to the verb.  I just got through some adjectives and a couple of nouns, and then I had to start over.

Bea:  That’s exactly how I felt, and I think, I mean, I, you know, we are Jewish women.  Like, we have ancestors who lived that way, and it, it just really touched me.  I just loved it!

Sarah:  I, I thought it was amazing.  Hee!

Bea:  Yeah.  [Laughs] That’s what I’m reading.  All right.  Leah, what are you reading?

Leah:  Currently, I am sixty pages into Carry On by Rainbow Rowell.

Sarah:  Have you started to bawl yet?

Bea:  [Laughs]

Leah:  No.  No, I have not.

Sarah:  Okay, you, do you, do you sell tissues in your store?

Bea:  We really should.

Leah:  No, we do not.

Bea:  That’s a great –

Sarah:  Actually, you know what?  You should totally do a display of, like, all the, all the ugly-cry books, and then just –

Bea:  That’s exactly what we should do!  We should have handkerchiefs made!

Sarah:  Yes.

Leah:  Well, I mean –

Bea:  Oh, my gosh, I’m going to do that!

Leah:  Eleanor & Park –

Sarah:  Oh, my God.

Leah:  – ripped my heart out and then stomped on it.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Leah:  So –

Bea:  She, she’s never quite recovered from that book.

Leah:  I, like, I honestly have, and it’s been, like, two years, and I, like, still am, like, in, in recovery.

Bea:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  I read one of her books on an airplane, and, like –

Ms. Koch:  Ooh!

Sarah:  – the flight attendant was checking on me because I was just, like, it wasn’t just, you know, like, a graceful cry.  It was full-on, like, face –

Leah:  Yeah.

Sarah:  – nose, eyes.  I was trying to hide and wipe my face, and I ran out of tissues, and she’s like, are, are you ill?

[Laughter]

Sarah:  I’m like, no, I’m reading a book!

Leah:  I’m just reading!

Sarah:  It’s just Rainbow Rowell.  You don’t understand.  [Laughs]

Bea:  No, you really don’t understand until you read it.

Sarah:  You should totally do ugly-cry handkerchiefs and, like, little cute disposable packets of tissues with the store logo on them?

Leah:  I like that!  We should do that!

Bea:  We’re going to do that.

Sarah:  Yay!  If you guys ever need a recommendation for a company that does great stickers for custom stuff, let me know; I’ll email you.

Bea:  Oh, great, we will, actually.

Sarah:  ‘Cause I just did an ass-load of the Ladies stickers, like all four quadrants of the different Ladies at the top; I have three different ones?  So yes, they’re awesome.

Bea:  Awesome.  We, we will definitely be hitting you up for that.

Sarah:  Yay!  Anyway, so I interrupted.  Please continue.

Ms. Koch:  Oh!

Sarah:  You’re reading Carry On, and you haven’t started bawling yet.

Leah:  I’m reading Carry On.  I’m, I, I just started yesterday.  Right before that, I finished reading, I never read any Kate Meader before, and I read the fir-, everything that’s written in her Hot in Chicago, Chicago firefighters series, and freaking loved them.

Sarah:  They are surprising, aren’t they?

Leah:  The first one, the first one is very good, very solid.  The second one, with the female firefighter and the mayor of Chicago, is, like, so freaking good I want everyone to read it.

Bea:  Okay, also, like, that is a very personal book for us.

Leah:  Yeah.  We grew up in Chicago, and our dad works in the mayor’s office.

Bea:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Oh, my gosh.

Leah:  So I was like, this seems like it could be real life.

Sarah:  Isn’t it weird when you read a book that is so adjacent to your own life, you’re kind of like, is someone looking over my shoulder every day?  Like, what happened?

Bea:  But it’s particularly odd when you recognize yourself and your life in a historical book.

Sarah:  Oh, that is very strange.

Ms. Koch:  And you’re like, wait, what?  Nooo.

Sarah:  That has happened to me before, and I, it’s always very jarring.

Leah:  That has definitely happened to me before.

Sarah:  So what other books are you excited to tell people about in the store?  Like, are there books that you’re constantly recommending to people, or are you sort of, like me, taking recommendations based on what people say they like?

Leah:  Both.

Bea:  Both, definitely.

Sarah:  Yeah.

Leah:  Love hearing from our customers, but there are some heavy hitters that we recommend, and also, the greatest validation is when those heavy hitters are, are right, and people come back so excited for the second book in that series, and I’m thinking in particular of the Nora Roberts, what is called, sisters?

Bea:  The witches one?

Leah:  Yeah.

Bea:  It’s Three Sisters Island.

Leah:  Three Sisters Island trilogy?

Sarah:  Oh.

Leah:  They are so beautiful and wonderful, and I just love, like, giving them to people when they don’t really – they’re just a winner.

Sarah:  Oh, I, I love that series, and I love the Donovans, which I think turned into a quartet.  I’m not sure.

Leah:  Is that the, is that the, they’re Irish?

Sarah:  No, the, there’s –

Bea:  No, that’s Born In.

Sarah:  The Donovans are the ones that are set in California.  They’re all in Sausalito, I think.

Bea:  There’re so many.

Leah:  There’re so many, it’s, and they, like, all the Ds.

Sarah:  Oh, and, and, well, they’re, those are para-Noras; that’s what I call them.

Leah:  Yes, the para-Noras!

Sarah:  All the para-Noras, but the thing I love about the para-Noras is when the women have power.  Like, if they –

Bea and Leah:  YES!

Sarah:  Like, I was just talking about this with somebody yesterday, that I’m starting to get into fantasy, and I find myself drawn a lot to YA romance fantasy, especially if the woman has the power, if she’s a witch –

Ms. Koch:  Yeah.

Sarah:  – or she’s a sharpshooter or she can do something really rad.  There’s a book I just finished called The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury.  She’s, her publisher sponsored the podcast, and I kept talking about this book for four straight episodes, and I’m like, okay, now I have to read it.  It’s a retelling of Aladdin, and the heroine is the jinni.

Bea:  Oh, my gosh.

Leah:  Oh, that sounds so good!

Bea:  That sounds bomb.

Sarah:  It was really, really good, ‘cause it’s, it’s all about her trying to figure out how to escape from her lamp, but it’s so interesting, and I’m, I find all of these women with power in current YA fantasy, and then I look back at the older, like, the para-Noras, especially the trilogies.  I’m like, oh, wi-, witches!  I want witches!  Could we bring back witches?

Bea and Leah:  Yes.

Sarah:  I would so be here for this.

Bea:  Yeah.

Leah:  Okay, so witches, I’m, I generally tend to not do that much paranormal, but witches are my jam –

Sarah:  Yes!  Ditto!

Leah:  – because if it’s done right, witches tend to focus on, on sisterhood and female power, and a lot of times the magic is derived from nature, and I just love that.  Also, we sell – I think the book that I sell almost more than anything else is A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.  Have you read this?

Sarah:  No, but I have a feeling I have to.

Bea:  Oh, my gosh.

Leah:  Oh, my God, you’re going to love it so much!  I’m so excited for you!  [Laughs]

Bea:  That’s, like, our standard line when we recommend something to someone and they get all excited, and we get all excited, and we’re just like, we’re so jealous that you get to experience this for the first time!

Sarah:  Isn’t that the best thing to say?  I have, I have had people say that to me, and I’m like, oh, wow!  Okay!

Bea:  Yeah, ‘cause you’re going to just get, like, immersed in this world.

Leah:  ‘Cause you never, yeah, and you never get to read your favorite book again for the first time.

Bea:  I know.

Leah:  So A Discovery of Witches is not 100% a romance novel.  Deborah Harkness classifies it just as fiction.

Sarah:  Right.

Leah:  I would, in DABWAHA, I assume it would go in the Books with Strong Romantic Themes.

Bea:  Yes.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  That’s, that’s my favorite category.  I was super bummed when RWA dropped Novels with Strong Romantic Elements, because I felt like that’s where I discovered a lot of books that were safe for the romance reader because they were most likely going to have the happy ending that I was looking for, but they were going to go a bit outside what I was used to, and I, I miss that category, so I’m glad we still have it.

Bea:  Yeah.

Leah:  Yeah, totally.  That’s definitely – and it’s, I, I, I’ve actually had people come into the store and say, can you recommend something that’s Harry-Potter-like for adults?  And I really think that that’s what this is.

Sarah:  Ooh.

Leah:  ‘Cause it’s really intricate.  The woman who wrote is this, like, crazy successful, I believe she was a Yale professor, and now she’s a USC professor.  She knows –

Sarah:  As you do.

Leah:  She knows her stuff, and it’s just, like, incredibly detailed.  It’s got tons of history and science, and I really recommend it, and please tell me what you thought.

Sarah:  Okay.  I will totally do that.  Yay!

Leah:  But back to the original question of what we recommend the most –

Bea:  Oh, yeah!

Sarah:  Yes!  Please.

Bea:  A Discovery of Witches, Nora –

Leah:  I’d say in contemporary –

Bea:  Alice Clayton.

Leah:  Yeah, we’re forever trying to get people to read Nuts.

Bea:  That book is so frickin’ funny, and so many people love it, and I really do feel like a lot of people in our neighborhood who kind of come in, and they’re, like, curious about the store, and they want to buy a book –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Bea:  – that is a great way to introduce them.

Leah:  Yeah.

Sarah:  That’ll hook them?

Leah:  Oh, yeah.

Bea:  To what’s happening in contemporary romance right now.

Leah:  ‘Cause they’re like, I didn’t know romance novels could be this funny.

Bea:  Yeah, or, and, like, this feminist – people just have a great reaction to it.  And then in historicals, I would say, I mean, of course I get everyone started on Bridgertons.

Leah:  Yeah.

Bea:  And we’ve had a girl, she’s on the third one now, and I –

Leah:  She comes in every week and buys the next one.

Bea:  – and she comes in every week and buys the next one, and it’s, I just love seeing her, like, meet each new character.

Sarah:  Ohhh!  And that’s a good, long series, ‘cause –

Bea:  It’s our favorite thing.

Sarah:  – bless her, Violet Bridgerton had a lot of kids.

Bea:  Yeah.

Leah:  We, I recommend The Secret History of the Pink Carnation to a lot of people –

Bea:  Oh, to so many people.

Leah:  – by Lauren Willig.

Sarah:  I love that series.

Leah:  ‘Cause it’s a really good –

Bea:  I love that series.

Leah:  It has, like, adventure.

Bea:  I have to admit, I had Lauren as a professor in undergraduate, so I’m –

Sarah:  No kidding!

Bea:  Yeah!  I love recommending that book to people, ‘cause it just feels, like, so full circle to me, and she is the bomb!

Sarah:  Was this the romance course that she taught with Cara Elliott?

Bea:  Yes it was!

Leah:  Bea took it!

Sarah:  Wait!  Did I come speak to your class?

Bea:  Yes, you did!

Sarah:  Oh, my God!  You were in that class?

Bea:  Yes!

Sarah:  Oh, my God.

Bea:  I’ve actually met you, but I thought it would be too weird to be like, I’ve been low-level obsessed with you for years.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Oh, it’s, it’s not weird.  It’s okay.  I, I , okay, well, just to show you how not-weird it is, when I arrived at Yale for that class, okay, ‘cause there was no way I was getting into Yale, you, you go through these tiny little doorways, which are –

Bea:  Yeah.

Sarah:  – you know, a perfect height for, say, me, and I go in, and there’s this nice woman and this nice man, and they’re standing there, and we’re talking, and yes, we’re here for the same thing, and she introduces herself, and he introduces himself, and we’re sort of standing around looking, and, and then Lauren Willing walks up to me and says, oh, Sarah, you’re here!  And I see you met Loretta Chase.

Bea:  Oh, yeah.

Sarah:  And I made this noise:  [prolonged gasp]

Bea:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Oh, my God!  And she looks me and she goes, are you okay?  I’m like, yeah!  I’m, I’m fine!  Um, yeah!  I, uh, okay.  I, I could not breathe normally for at least six minutes, ‘cause I had just stand, been standing there shooting the shit with Loretta Chase, and then I didn’t quite know what to do with my hands or my arms or my legs.

Bea:  Oh, yeah.

Sarah:  Like, I forgot how to walk a straight line, and I was, made a complete goofball of myself for the whole walk over to where we were doing that class.  So I had no idea you were in that, in that session.  That’s so cool!

Bea:  I was.  She, you guys were all amazing.  I mean, for weeks before that session, I was, like, doing breathing exercises to chill myself out.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  And then afterwards, because, you know, that class was a mix of people who were, like, real romance fanatics, and then people who were actually, like, just students and interested in what we were doing but didn’t really know that much about romance –

Sarah:  Right.

Bea:  – so the ones who didn’t know that much about romance, including the one gentleman in the class, were, like, so perplexed –

[Laughter]

Sarah:  Have all of you lost your minds?  What’s wrong with you?

Bea:  After the class, and I, we were, like, all trying to, like, talk, and we were doing that thing where you start eight sentences and you just, like, can’t even control yourself –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Bea:  – he was just, he was like, this is, I mean, this must be what the Beatles, like, you guys are freaking out.  We were, we had full-on romance mania –

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  – and it was, it was one of the highlights of my college career, definitely, and one of the highlights of my life probably too.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Aww!

Bea:  It was awesome!  That whole class was really, I mean, the first time I ever realized that there were other people reading and loving and obsessing over the same books I was reading, loving, and obsessing over.

Sarah:  It’s, it’s weird when you find each other.

Bea:  Yep.

Sarah:  And then you’re like, ohhh!

Bea:  Yep.

Sarah:  There’s so many of us!

Bea:  Exactly.  It was like the light had been shone on this thing that I’d always been doing in private.

Sarah:  And you got to go to a whole class about it.

Bea:  Oh – oh, my gosh.  It was amazing!  We read the best books ever and got to talk about them, like, really seriously.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  Like, a full-on hours-long discussion of Lord of Scoundrels, obsessing over every single detail.  It was just amazing.

Sarah:  I, I wish there were more classes like that, you know?

Bea:  I know, me too.  Oh!  I, I’ve always, like, wished that everyone could take that class, because it just teaches you how important this is.

Sarah:  Yes.  And that it’s im-, it’s not just important because it’s popular and –

Bea:  Right, right!  That’s exact –

Sarah:  It has value.

Bea:  Yes, yes!  That’s exactly what it was about.  It was, like, beyond that first sentence of all the think pieces about romance, where it’s like, this makes so much money, and it’s so popular.  This was actually, like, why we like it.

Sarah:  Yes.

Bea:  And what is the literary value of a romance novel, and even being able to talk about that, that question was just such an incredible opportunity.

Sarah:  Maybe you should start a course series for the store.

Leah:  You should do that.  That would be great.  We’ll do –

Bea:  Oh, my gosh, I would love to –

Leah:  I mean, she’s kind of doing that, ‘cause she’s in charge of the historical book club.

Sarah:  Well then you totally should!

Bea:  Yeah.  Our historical book club is kind of going to follow the syllabus of that class in some ways, ‘cause it’s like the lineage of, of the romance genre?

Sarah:  Yep.

Leah:  Yeah.

Sarah:  So what is one thing you would like to say to anyone who’s thinking about visiting your store?  Like, if they’re curious about it, what, what are, what are they, what do you have for romance readers there?  I mean, is the short answer like, pretty much everything?

Bea:  Yes.  [Laughs]

Leah:  The short answer is pretty much everything.  I guess the longer answer is, if you’re a devoted reader of romance, maybe you could discover something new, like a subgenre you’re not as familiar with –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Leah:  – and if you’re dabbling in romance –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Leah:  – then we’d love to help you make it a full-blown obsession!

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  We try to carry the most diverse and complete and extensive collection of romance that we possibly can.

Leah:  Yeah.

Bea:  And we happen to think we do a pretty good job.

Sarah:  Yay!

Leah:  Not to toot our own horns.

Bea:  But I mean, we carry, and we get as specific as we possibly can in shelving and organizing, and, and know our own stock better every day, so if you, I love it when people come in with, like, really specific queries –

Leah:  Oh, it’s so fun.

Bea:  – and then I can, like, solve their problem.  Like, I would like a romance where the heroine is a librarian, or yesterday somebody wanted May-December romance –

Sarah:  Ooh.

Bea:  – or a romance that takes place on a boat.  [Laughs] We, we will find it for you.

Sarah:  That’s awesome!  Sounds like a really kickass job, generally.

Bea and Leah:  It is.

Sarah:  So is there a book that you wish the other would read or like?  Are there books that you disagree over, or are you, do your tastes kind of align?

Bea:  Well, our tastes not – I read – this is Bea – I read historical –

Leah:  Mm-hmm.

Bea:  – generally.

Leah:  And we also, it’s like kind of a function of our jobs now that we try not to read the same books, ‘cause that’s not, like, a great use of our time?

Sarah:  Oh, I totally understand that.  If one of my reviewers is reading a book, it’s really hard for me to be like, yeah, I’ll read it too.

Bea and Leah:  Right.

Leah:  ‘Cause we want to have read as many of the books as possible.

Bea:  And I would say, like, we’re both trying to expand, so I read Regencies for years and very little else, and I have now read much more than that.  I’ve gone into other historical time periods, I started reading contemporary, I’m dipping my toe in the waters of paranormal.

Leah:  Mm-hmm.

Bea:  But this store has been an incredible opportunity to do that and to, like, challenge myself to read outside my own weird little created box.

Leah:  Yeah, I mean, I, I think we give each other books if it’s, like, top five absolute best book we’ve ever read.

Bea:  [Laughs]

Leah:  You have to sacrifice the time you could be reading something new to read this, but we do tend to try to read different things.

Sarah:  Very smart.  Very smart.  So I’m going to try to edit this and have it up in the next couple of weeks, and chances are, if, if the fairy, the internet fairy descends upon you, you’ll have a website by then.

Bea and Leah:  Yay!

Sarah:  So would you like to tell us what the URL will be?

Bea:  We would love to.  It’s www –

Bea and Sarah:  – dot –

Bea:  – TheRippedBodiceLA.com.

Leah:  Duh-duh-duh!

Sarah:  Woohoo!

Bea:  It’s, it’s the same website, It’s the same URL as our website now.  You can go to that URL, and you will find information about our hour and where, our location and things like that.  This, our new site will just supersede that, so you can, you’ll still go to the same URL, and there’ll be a new, shiny website.

Leah:  Yes.

Sarah:  Fabulous!

Bea:  And you can follow us on Twitter and Instagram.  We are @TheRippedBodice.

Sarah:  Oohhh!

Leah:  And, for our, the people who are visiting our site in the first few days, there will be kinks, so please feel free to email us.

Bea:  Literally!

Leah:  Literally.

Bea:  We, we sell lots of books with kinks.

Leah:  Literally and figuratively, thank you.

Bea:  You’re welcome.

[Laughter]

Bea:  She couldn’t let it, she couldn’t let it fly past her.  All right.

Leah:  No.

Bea:  So please feel free to email us.  We’re [email protected], and we’d love to hear from anyone having any problems.  And not problems too!  [Laughs] Fingers crossed.

Leah:  Yes!  If everything goes swimmingly, send us an email!

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Leah:  That, that’d be great.

Bea:  Also, can we just say that DABWAHA has been so fun?  We, like –

Leah:  Oh, my gosh!

Bea:  – come in every morning and check to see how we’re doing, and we have the physical bracket, so we update it.

Sarah:  Oh, my gosh!  Can you take a picture of the bracket and send it to me?

Bea:  Oh, sure!

Leah:  Yeah!

Sarah:  I would love to see this!

Leah:  I think it’s on our Inst-, is it on our Instagram?

Bea:  Yeah, it is.

Sarah:  Oh, oh, I will have to find that right now.

Bea:  But we up-, I mean, now it’s updated –

Leah:  Yeah!

Bea:  – and it has all the people who won all the rounds.

Leah:  Both of our brackets got shot to hell.

Sarah:  Oh, mine always does.  I’m not even, I’m not even eligible for prizes, and mine is like –

Leah:  We’re not, we’re not doing – I moved up.  I was in, like, 96th place for a long time.  Now I’m in 39th place.

Bea:  After the first round I wasn’t, I was in the top tier bracket, which was –

Leah:  Bea was in first place for, like, a day.

Bea:  – pretty much a, a miracle.

Leah:  Yeah, anyway.  It’s very fun, and we’re very excited.

Bea:  Yeah, and our customers seem to really thoroughly enjoy it as well.

Sarah:  Oh, that’s so cool.

Leah:  Yeah, ‘cause they come in, and they’re like, what is this?  And especially the dudes are like, that’s so cool.

Sarah:  [Laughs] I know!

Bea:  Yes, they do think it’s cool.

Sarah:  The funny thing is, we have to basically ask for adaptations to the tournament bracket software that we’re using, which is, like, you know, NCAA bracket software.  Like, we need lots and lots of room for lots of entries, and we need more characters for the names of the teams, which are actually books, and we need to update – like, we have to ask for all these little, like, tweaks to make it work for us –

Leah:  That’s so funny.

Sarah:  – as it gets bigger and bigger every year, and it’s so much fun.

Bea:  Yeah, we’re, the west coast is thoroughly enjoying DABWAHA antics.

Leah:  Yes.

Sarah:  Yay!  That’s so cool!  I hope you guys entered the Second Chance tournament, too.

Bea:  We did.

Leah:  Oh, we did!

Sarah:  Yay!

Bea:  And we’re, like, into full-on butt feud over it.

Leah:  I, I feel like I just picked, like, the exact same books as my original bracket.

Bea:  I know, ‘cause see, I went the opposite direction.  I was like, screw this!  I’m not losing again.  I’m going to be strategic about this.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  I was literally on the authors’ Twitters, checking how many followers they had, in some hope that I would be able to, like, figure out who could garner support.

Sarah:  Yep.

Bea:  And Leah’s just, like, going through, like, randomly clicking.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Click, click, click.

Leah:  Yeah.  I’m just like, I’ve read this one!  I’ll pick this one!

Sarah:  The one problem with the bracket software is that it is not accessible to blind readers, so I do a lot of Skype calls where I do the bracket for different people who have visual impairment, and I’ll be like, I can’t help you.  I don’t know which one to pick.

[Laughter]

Sarah:  You, you have to pick.  I can’t, I, I have no power.  I have no influence here.  You just need to make your picks.  They’re like, oh, you are no help!

Ms. Koch: Oh, no.

Sarah:  No, I, I’m terrible!  Every year, I’m in, like, 493rd place right now.

Leah:  [Laughs]

Bea:  I have no hidden knowledge for my own bracket.  [Laughs]

Leah:  You could, you could win the last place prize!

Bea:  Yeah!  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Oh, the Wooden Spoon Prize is the best prize.  [Laughs] Well –

Bea:  I, I think one of my years in graduate school I almost won that one.

Sarah:  Ooh!  Wow.

Bea:  It was really bad.

Leah:  Also, we are one of the prizes!

Bea:  Yeah!

Leah:  Which are excited to send to somebody.

Bea:  Yeah!

Sarah:  I know!  I think it’s so rad!

Leah:  It’s pretty awesome!  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Well, I’ll be at RWA.  If I can figure out how to rent a car and drive down, I will do that.

Bea and Leah:  Yes!

Sarah:  And I will sign anything you put in front of me, including other people’s books.

Bea:  You might even be able to, like, hitch a ride in someone’s – I believe there are other people planning that same trip.

Leah:  Yes!

Sarah:  I will have to carpool boldly.

Bea and Leah:  Yes.

Bea:  And if you need someone to fill in on the carpool lane, we can send you our Fabio cutout.

Leah:  Yes.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Yes, please!  I need Fabio to ride, ride shotgun with me.

Leah:  Yes, he can be your co-driver.

[music]

Sarah:  And that is all for this week’s episode.  I want to thank Bea and Leah for hanging out with me and talking about bookstores, which I’m sure is just a really hard thing for them to do because they have, you know, zero enthusiasm for this completely awesome project.  I think there might have to be a road trip down to the bookstore during RWA, and if you’re planning on doing that, please email me, ‘cause I would like to know if there’s room in the car, and I promise I’m very nice in the car, and I don’t have bad car manners, I don’t backseat drive, and I will do my best to be very entertaining.  But, oh, my gosh, I really want to visit this bookstore, and I’m on the wrong side of the country!  So congratulations to Bea and Leah, and I hope it continues to grow and grow.  If you’d like to find out more, you can go to their website at TheRippedBodiceLA.com, and I will have links to the site and their Twitter and their Instagram and other information in the podcast entry at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.

This podcast is being brought to you by J. Kenner’s Dirtiest Secret, published by Bantam Books, available in paperback and eBook.

The memory of Dallas Sykes burns inside of me.  Everyone knows him as a notorious playboy, but to me he’s still the one man I desperately crave, yet the one I can never have.  We’re not letting ourselves give in to desire, and for so long we’ve told ourselves no.  It’s finally time to say yes.

You can find out their Dirtiest Secret with J. Kenner’s new SIN series, on sale April 19th.

The music you’re listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater.  You can find her on Twitter @SassyOutwater.  This is Shed Life.  This is the band called Sketch, and this track is called “March Strathspey and Really.”  I’m digging this whole album.  I hope you are too, ‘cause this is just so much fun.  You can find Shed Life on Amazon or iTunes, wherever you buy your fine music, and of course I have links to both in the show notes.

And one more thing, in case you were skipping over the intro, which is totally understandable because you want to get right to the interview and the discussion part.  I totally get it.  I wanted to let you know that the podcast has a Patreon campaign at Patreon.com/SmartBitches.  That’s P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash SmartBitches.  Patreon is a way to support programs and artists that you like by doing monthly pledges of $1 a month, $3, $5, whatever.  There’re rewards at every level, and your assistance helps create transcripts for the archives of this show and upgrading some equipment so I can do more onsite interviews.  If you have questions, please email me at [email protected], and if you’d like to check out this campaign, it’s Patreon.com/SmartBitches.

In the meantime, on behalf of everyone who is currently standing in The Ripped Bodice, myself, and everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading.  Have a great weekend.

[good music]