Here is a text transcript of Podcast 110: Subscription Services, What Jane's Reading, and Listener Email. You can listen to the mp3 here, or you can read on!
This podcast transcript was hand crafted with attention and flair by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.
[music]
Sarah Wendell: Hello and welcome to another DBSA podcast. I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and with me is Jane Litte from Dear Author. Yay! We are together in this episode talking about many things, but I must warn you, if you were thinking, gee, I wonder if they’re going to talk about the lawsuit that was filed against Jane by Ellora’s Cave, no. Many reasons why, but no, we don’t talk about it at all. However, we do talk about subscription services, Kindle Unlimited, Scribd, and a few of the other options. We actually agree on a book, and we both liked it. I find this quite alarming. I hope you are as shocked as I am, because, well, this is very rare, and it hardly ever happens. Of course, we disagree about why we like it, but still, we like the same book! And we also talk about what Jane is reading, which is a long list of really interestingly titled books. Very strange. As usual, I will have links to all of the books we discuss in the podcast entry, so please don’t feel like you need to write things down while you’re driving or on the treadmill or driving on your treadmill, which I still haven’t figured out how you do, but if you’re doing it, go ahead, that’s great.
This podcast is brought to you by Berkley, publisher of Reaper’s Stand, the latest bad-boy biker romance in Joanna Wylde’s edgy, sizzling Reapers Motorcycle Club series, available wherever books are sold.
The music you’re listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater, as is all of our music. I will have information at the end of the episode as to who this is and where you can buy it, and of course I will also link to all of that information in the podcast entry.
There will be a transcript of this episode, carefully crafted by transcriptionist garlicknitter [gk: hi, everybody!], and that usually shows up between 48 and 72 hours after the podcast is posted.
And now, on with the podcast:
[music]
Jane: Do you know about this program, Kindle Unlimited All-Stars?
Sarah: Yeah, it’s, it’s based on the number of borrows you get within Kindle Unlimited, right?
Jane: And, and sales.
Sarah: Right.
Jane: So the top 100 authors get a bounty, I guess, or a bonus, and then the top 100 books get a bonus, so you could get two bonuses, conceivably. The ones that are getting the bonuses, of course, are those that are authors who are the kind of upper echelon of Kindle –
Sarah: Of course.
Jane: – and they have the special deals with Kindle so that they are part of Kindle Unlimited, but they don’t have to be exclusive to Kindle Unlimited –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – so not only are they getting the special deal, but they’re also getting the bonuses. [Laughs]
Sarah: Of course they are!
Jane: And, you know, I’m sure Amazon is saying to these authors – not, not privately – I don’t know what they’re saying to these authors privately – but the public statement, I think, is, see, big name indie authors, you want to join, because here you can get a $25,000.00 bonus if you are in the top 10. And I do think that the Harlequin signing with Scribd kind of changes the deal for authors, at least for, because it, because for me as a reader, I wasn’t finding a ton of titles on Kindle Unlimited that I wanted –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – but there’s actually quite a few indie authors who would put their books on Scribd through Smashwords –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – and so I would be able to read it there. And now with 15,000 backlist titles from Harlequin –
Sarah: That’s huge.
Jane: – I think, I think that really changes the game a lot, and, and you know, you can also buy books through Scribd, so Scribd is building this, quietly, bookstore, I think, that could be a competitor in a real way to Amazon in the future.
Sarah: The funny thing is, you know how when you have a brand that makes a first impression that’s negative, it’s really hard to shake that?
Jane: Yes.
Sarah: All I knew about Scribd was, you got assloads of pirated books, and I know it’s a pain in the ass to get them down off your service, so, wait, you want me to take you seriously when so many other people complain to me about you on a semi-daily basis, and this was, like, a year or so ago. But they had a real problem with people saying, here’s a book, you can have it, and it’s, you know, somebody’s book from Penguin that they have uploaded onto Scribd. I know –
Jane: That’s still a problem right now. Like, if you search, for example, Lynne Graham –
Sarah: Oh, God.
Jane: And there is a lot of legitimate content now –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – but there’s also a lot of illegitimate content. But you know what, I think it’s smart to put your legitimate content on there, because the illegitimate content’s not very good.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: Like, it’s hard to – there’s no formatting, blah blah blah. So I mean, if you were a reader and you had to choose between a nicely formatted, legitimate copy – and remember, it’s free, right, ‘cause –
Sarah: ‘Cause you subscribed.
Jane: I guess it’s not free, it’s $8.99 a month or $9.99 a month?
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: But whatever. You, you’d probably choose the legitimate one. I mean, that’s what shows up first, and –
Sarah: That makes sense.
Jane: – and then, now, authors or going to get paid for that.
Sarah: It makes sense, but for, you know, like, for me as a consumer, completely separating all of the other stuff, I, my, my initial reaction to Scribd is still errrrr. Okay.
Jane: See, but, that, that – mine as a consumer isn’t that way. I mean, I guess I’m just more, I don’t know, it’s less –
Sarah: Are you trying to say you’re better than me?
Jane: No!
Sarah: Is that where you’re going here? [Laughs] I’m kidding!
Jane: I’m, I’m just trying to say that why would we agree on this when we agree on nothing?
Sarah: I know, we agree on nothing at all. Nothing in, nothing at all; it’s amazing, actually. [Laughs]
Jane: I understand, like, conceptually I understand the problem and the animosity or animus any author would have against Scribd for failing to protect, you know, and, and take down the copyrighted works, and I don’t know what they’re doing. Like I wrote in my – I, I did a post about subscription services before I even knew about this Harlequin thing. I only knew about the Harlequin thing yesterday.
Sarah: Yeah, ditto.
Jane: So, so I, I don’t know, so four weeks ago or five weeks ago, it was actually after, right after Kindle, Kindle Unlimited came out, ‘cause I tried Kindle Unlimited, and I tried Scribd, and I tried Oyster, and I don’t recommend Oyster. Oyster is the app for, is the subscription service for the literati crowd who own iPhones.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Jane: It’s true, the Oyster app for Android is the worst app ever. I mean, I don’t even know why they put it up, because it’s unusable –
Sarah: Okay.
Jane: – I feel like.
Sarah: That’s hilarious.
Jane: It’s for the hipsters that have iPhones.
Sarah: Who want to read literary books. Okay, that’s hysterical. [Laughs]
Jane: I have nothing against the literati crowd. I have lots of problems with the Oyster app. That’s what –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Jane: My animus is toward the, toward the Oyster app. Oh, my God, I have to tell you about – so, after I wrote that subscription service thing, I got an email from another subscription service, and they’re like, we’re launching this new subscription service. I’d love to tell you about it, and I’m like, I want to hear about it, and they sent me some details, and I’m like, well, how much does it cost? And they’re like, well, one book a month is, like, $5.99, and two books a month is, like, $9.99, and I was like, I’m not – [laughs] – We’re, we’re breaking up now. Please don’t email me again.
Sarah: [Laughs] Yeah. Are they insane?
Jane: But the, I think that, again, this is for the literati crowd or something. I don’t know.
Sarah: Of course, because what you pay for the book indicates its quality. Always.
Jane: I – Right, right. So, I, I did say that I liked the Scribd app, and it, there’s a lot of backlist titles. Like, I read the Christina Lauren books. Have you read her, them?
Sarah: Mm-mm, no.
Jane: They’re very sex heavy, but if you can get back, past the first one, the first one is – I thought I talked about, on this, on the podcast about this before. No?
Sarah: I don’t think so.
Jane: Okay. So the first book, Beautiful Bastard, was, they’re Office fanfiction.
Sarah: [Snorts]
Jane: Fanfiction of The Office. Now, I haven’t, I’ve seen some episodes of The Office, but I’m not, like, a, you know, an avid follower. I barely know the characters, I mean, and I don’t even know who these people are supposed to be. You know, in fanfiction, usually they take a particular character from a television show or a movie and, and then transform them, or they have a – so I don’t even know who these people are based on –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – and it’s a book about hate-fucking. You know, two people who don’t like each other that are irresistibly attracted to each other, and so they hate-fuck, and then they go away, and then they hate-fuck and they go away, and then they fall in love, and then it’s all over, right? So it was entertaining, but I’m like, I can only take one of these books, right. ‘Cause it’s not like a – I, I just couldn’t read a steady diet of them, so I didn’t go back to the Beautiful series, ‘cause I just thought that was all that it was. And then Kati on my blog wrote a review of Sweet Filthy Boy. I hate that title, by the way.
Sarah: Sweet Filthy Boy?
Jane: Correct.
Sarah: Ggghhhh!
Jane: And I hate that title, but she talked about it in such a way that it was really intriguing, and so I was signing up for Scribd, and I’m like, oh, there’s a Christina Lauren book here. Well, maybe I’ll give it a try. [Laughs] So I read Beautiful Stranger and then I read Beautiful Player, and then after – oh, I read Sweet Filthy Boy ‘cause I actually had a paper ARC in it, and I started re-, paging through it, ‘cause I was, like, kind of cleaning out my ARC closet, and it really is a sweet book. I mean, I kind of see the title, even though I hate it, because Ansel, the hero, is very sweet, and –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – it was a totally different romance from Beautiful Bastard. It was really about two young people who fell in love, or kind of fell in lust, I suppose, over a, a, kind of a rowdy night in Las Vegas.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: They get married, and while she’s drunk, the heroine writes a letter to herself saying, don’t, when you, when you sober up, don’t annul the marriage. Give it a chance. Blah blah blah blah blah. So he presents this to her the next day and, and he convinces her to come to Paris with him – he’s an attorney, and he lives in Paris – to come to Paris with her, him, because she has a summer before she starts grad school, and he says, give it a try and then see what happens. And so when they go back to Paris, he’s very busy. He’s working very hard on a very, on a particular case –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – and so she’s kind of like a stranger in a strange land. She’s exploring Paris. She’s unsure about her relationship, because, you know, it’s one thing to have this wild night, and it’s another thing to have many nights and days together, and I thought that that kind of, what happens after the one-night stand was a really fascinating book, and Ansel is a very sweet hero. So in the Scribd application, I was able to read Beautiful Stranger and Beautiful Player, and again, those books are so different than the first book, and they really contain these kind of sweet heroes who are, like, the caretaker alpha that we like so much. They are very heavy on the sex content. It’s actually well done. Each of them have kind of their own little kinks, so, like, Beautiful Stranger is about exhibitionism and voyeurism. Beautiful Stranger is not, or Beautiful Player is not so much. This is more like a friends-to-lovers kind of Eliza Doolittle sort of story, which I enjoyed, and then the Sweet Filthy Boy is about role playing. They play a lot of games together, which is cute, and, and a way to make the love scenes a lot more interesting.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: And then the book that’s just come, that’s coming out in November is Dirty Rowdy Thing, and –
Sarah: Uhhh?
Jane: – yeah, I know, I don’t like these titles. Or the covers. But I can see why these authors are really successful, and I can see them having a long, long-term career if they continue to write these sort of books. They’re kind of like, the characters are super nice, so I kind of would compare the characterization to maybe, like, a Jill Shalvis, but they’re very, like I said, sex heavy, so – but the, so the, the, the Dirty Rowdy Thing features –
Sarah: [Snorts] These titles are killing me, you know. [Laughs]
Jane: I know, ‘cause I ca-, I have a hard time remembering them. Features Finn, who is a fisherman from, God, is it Alaska? I can’t remember. And he comes down, and he’s in L.A. for a particular reason. I don’t know if I should give it away, so I won’t –
Sarah: Okay.
Jane: – even though – yeah, ‘cause you, you don’t, she, Harlow, the heroine, doesn’t know, and that kind of presents a –
Sarah: It’s a big spoiler.
Jane: It’s not really, but it is. I mean, it’s not like, oh, my God, when you read it, you know. It’s not like a Gone Girl spoiler.
[Laughter]
Jane: Or a Sixth Sense. And he’s into, like, the Japanese rope tying, and I thought it actually worked, ‘cause I have read other books with that, and it seemed really forced. I don’t know; I really like their voice, and I, I don’t think I would have tried so many books had they not been in the Scribd, you know, as a low, no risk proposition there.
Sarah: Mm-hmm. I’m sort of half-tempted by the subscription services. I don’t think they work for me because the, the, the things that I’m in the mood for vary so wil-, widely lately that I want to, to go find things that are very strange and, and far outside what I normally read. The subscription services that I’ve peeked into, like Kindle Unlimited did not work for me at all. And I was in it! I am a, I am a Kindle Unlimited author, and I was being interviewed for an author podcast last week, and the guy was like, I want to ask you about being in Kindle Unlimited, and I was like, oh, yeah, I guess I am in there. I had no idea. Okay, well, you can see how much it’s had an impact on my life. [Laughs] I, the subscription service, just having to, to, to wade through all the books, that just seems so exhausting to me. But I have very low patience right now. That’s mostly my fault, I think.
So what are you reading right now that you recommend?
Jane: Well, I just finished Cora Brent’s – God, I don’t even remember the name of it, ‘cause, you know, let me look it up in my Kindle.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Jane: Do do-do do-do…
Sarah: I am reading A Bollywood Affair.
Jane: Oh, I loved that book.
Sarah: You did?
Jane: What are you thinking?
Sarah: Oh, I’m really enjoying it. I’m really, really enjoying it. I suppose this means that we should just close both of our websites at this point and never speak again, because we’ve agreed about a book.
Jane: I agree.
Sarah: [Laughs] Okay, we’ll just no longer be friends. It’s, it’s so sweet! And every time I think it’s going to do something clichéd, it doesn’t. I have – ‘cause I love when a, when a writer can do that; they sort of demonstrate the familiarity with all of the expected clichés of romance and then sort of halfway introduce them and then do something different.
Jane: I, see I thought it was really clichéd, but the – [laughs] – but they were clichés that I liked, and they were very much in the, wrapped inside the interesting world that was unfamiliar to me.
Sarah: Mm-hmm. Of course we’re going to like the same book and disagree about why we like it. That’s normal. [Laughs]
Jane: Right, right, but I thought, I mean, ‘cause I felt like it was a classic Harlequin Presents story. Here you have the misunderstood do-gooder who’s viewed as the gold digger –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – and the, and the brother sent, the wealthy brother is sent to lure her away.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: So, I mean, that seemed like a standard Harlequin Presents storyline to me, but I like that, so…
Sarah: I loved how – the one thing that makes me roll my eyes is how when he’s with her is the only time that he can write. She’s his magic writer’s block angel.
Jane: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: [Laughs] But the fact that the, both of them grew up in India and both of them are in the States for a temporary amount of time, the way in which all the little tiny pieces of their cultural upbringing influence their behavior is fascinating. Like, instead of the heroine being a virgin, because she is, and everyone at work knows, and they ask her about it in the elevator almost daily, and she, she dwells on it all the time – the heroine is a virgin because that’s cult-, a cultural expectation. She’s, she’s married! She has been since she was four, but she’s never met her husband, so of course it’s understandable that she has never had any sexual relationships with anyone else. It makes total sense, and it’s not ridiculous. It’s not stretched into scenes where people are like, so, how’s your hymen? Still got it? Which happens alarmingly when people are virgins and they dwell on it a contemporary romance. I also loved all the cooking. You can’t read this book while you’re hungry.
Jane: Yes, the cooking was wonderful, and it made me want to eat a lot of that food.
Sarah: Oh, we have really good Indian food, and it’s, it’s, it’s one of the more expensive take-out options, and it’s been a problem how much I’ve been craving Indian food at this point. The other thing that I really like about it is how, even when they, even when the characters do something really doofy, it’s completely understandable, based on who and, who they are and where they’ve come from. And the hero can be a real dickbag. His initial scenes with his, with his mistress or girlfriend or fuck-buddy or whatever she was, oh, he was a – even though he did the heroic thing, he was a callous dickbag.
Jane: Classic Harlequin Presents.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Jane: The, the, the alpha-hole.
Sarah: He’s a total alpha-hole, yes. You are so right. I hope this book does really well when it comes out, though. I, I, I worry, ‘cause it’s expensive. It’s a $9 eBook and a $12 paperback, ‘cause it’s in trade, but, oh, is it just – there’s so much to enjoy in it.
Jane: It is expensive, and I’m, I’m concerned about the cover. I mean, I, I don’t know. I feel like it either has the opportu- – you, you know, the cover will appeal to a broad audience, and it can really take off because it’s such a wonderful story –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – or it won’t take off. It’ll be doomed because it’ll miss the audience altogether. I don’t know.
Sarah: Yes. And people will look at the cover and say, oh, oh, that’s not for me.
Jane: Right. So I hope it does really well. I loved the story –
Sarah: Oh, I did too.
Jane: – and I can’t wait to read more from her.
Sarah: I think the cover is gorgeous. I even kept –
Jane: Yes!
Sarah: – the postcard she gave me of it, but I completely see what you’re saying there, totally. The funny thing is, I’ve have two different people, one person on Twitter and then another person over email say, you talked about a book that had some hands, and there was henna, and I can’t find it. I hope you haven’t forgotten. I’m like, I totally know what that book is! I can tell you the title and the author, ‘cause that’s how well I know it, which never happens. I never remember either of those things. I just remember the picture. So it’s making an impact on some readers that they come back and want me to, want me to help them find it again. But –
Jane: You know, the problem is, I don’t know, there was actually a, a – I do not remember where it was, what website it was, but it talked about how these India books are really limited to only two types of covers, the henna hand or the jewel in the forehead.
Sarah: Mm-hmm. The bindi.
Jane: And those are the, then those are the only two covers that any Indian author ever gets, ever.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Jane: So the henna and the hands, though, might mean something to us –
Sarah: Yes, but –
Jane: – but if you go to, like, a bookstore, they’ll be like, uh, we’ve got, like, 20 henna hand books.
Sarah: [Laughs] At least for the romance audience, it is a new style of cover. It is unique.
Jane: Yes.
Sarah: That’s, that’s a good thing, because if this book is aiming for the romance crowd, it’s a beautiful, unique, very lush cover, especially if, if we can spread the word about how very, very awesome and familiar the tropes are, but completely new at the same time. I’m just so enjoying this book, I can’t even tell you.
Jane: I think it was Abby Green who wrote, and I want to say it was in an overarching series about sisters –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – and Caitlin Crews wrote one, it was a Harlequin Presents series. Anyway, the heroine was, either she was Indian or she was marrying an Indian, I don’t remember, but one of the traditions – and it – one of the things I loved about A Bollywood Affair is that it showed how different and how vastly, vast India is. There are so many different regions, and they all have their own cultural –
Sarah: Yes.
Jane: – identities –
Sarah: And languages.
Jane: – and that was really, and that was really cool.
Sarah: Yes.
Jane: But in this, in this one book with Abby Green, one of the traditions is that the sisters and mothers come and henna the body of the bride on the night before the wedding –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: – and then the, they write the husband’s name in her body somewhere, and he has to find that –
Sarah: Whoa!
Jane: – before they can consummate the relationship. And I thought that is such a beautiful tradition, very erotic, very –
Sarah: It’s very erotic!
Jane: – very loving, too, you know, that he has to go everywhere on her body to find his name, and it’s written on, you know, and it’s just – I thought that was really a wonderful thing, and one of the reasons I love to read about books set in other cultures, like Australia or even England or India, is that you get an insight into all these really beautiful cultures and traditions that you might not be exposed to before, and I just hope that we get more of that in the future. It just enriches your life experience.
Sarah: And it also, it also reveals the, the humanity and the emotion behind different cultures that seem, that this can, on, on the surface, seem very difficult to understand. It, it’s just, it, the eroticism and the intimacy of that type of a scene is, that’s something, I think, that most, that anyone can understand. It’s not difficult to understand that.
Jane: Well, and also, I think it shows how, how, how love is a very universal language. I mean, I felt like the story that we read by Sonali Dev was a story in some ways that could be written by anybody, but only by her as well. Do you know what I mean?
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: The underlying romance between the two of them was very familiar to me, even though the wrappings were unfamiliar.
Sarah: Yep. I, I, I hope it does really well. Any other books you want to mention, ma’am?
Jane: Yeah, I read Cora Brent’s Risk, and that is the second in her, they’re brothers.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: Gentry Boys. There’s three brothers; this is the second. You can read the first one on Scribd. That’s where I found it.
[Laughter]
Jane: But I bought the second one, and it’s 99 cents, so it’s not like it’s going to break your bank. And I have really come to like her. She has – one of the things I’ll say is that her characters don’t sound very different. Like, the female character in Risk doesn’t really sound that much different from the female character in Draw, but that’s okay for me, because I really like that voice. I, I’m, I was trying to explain to another reader, kind of, who she reminded of, and a little bit, she reminds me of Lisa Kleypas.
Sarah: Really. How so?
Jane: Just her, her voice. She has a certain Southernism to it.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: The, the, there’s a certain – and some people might view it as contrived – but I think that her similes and kind of the stories that she tells are very charming, and there’s just a little bit of Lisa Kleypas I think I see in her, and I, I like her books. I think this – Risk is about a woman, a young woman, that she lives in Arizona. She, she grew up in a trailer with her mom and her three sisters. There was no father influence, and she succumbed to many a male attention because, you know, she had missed that in her life, and she thought that that would fill some kind of gap in her. She slept with her mom’s boyfriend –
Sarah: Whoa!
Jane: – she lived as a kept woman for a little while by a wealthy man who was married, and so, this is not the perfect, you know, virginal heroine, and I liked that.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: So when you meet her, though, she’s kind of, like, trying to stay away from boys, but Creed Gentry is just too irresistible for her, and Creed has his own problems. He also came from a very poor family. His father beat him, and he feels like he is, like, one fight away from dying. You know, the, these are troubled youths.
[Laughter]
Jane: But, so, this isn’t, like, one of those stories where everybody’s rich and perfect. She’s a waitress. He earns money by illegally fighting and working security at the local Arizona State University football games. So it’s, there’s no billionaires, there’s no virgins, and it’s just about two kind of troubled souls that find each other and realize that together they make a better team than when they are apart.
Sarah: Hmmm.
Jane: Hmmm.
Sarah: I have warm fuzzies now.
Jane: [Laughs]
Sarah: Is this a series? Are there more?
Jane: There – she’s written a motor-, three books, in, like, a motorcycle club series. I haven’t read that. I started reading one of them, and then I got distracted, but this book Risk just came out, and it’s the second of the three series.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Jane: Three books about the three Gentry brothers.
Sarah: So they’re going to show up in other, those characters will show up again, and there’s more in that world.
Jane: Yeah, I mean, you, in, in Risk, you definitely see Cord and Saylor, who are the couple from the first book, ‘cause they’re triplets. Cord and Creed and Chase are all triplets.
Sarah: Cord and Chase and Creed.
Jane: Well, they’re names are –
Sarah: Those are some romance hero names right there.
Jane: His name is actually Creedence –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Jane: – and his name, and his brother’s name is Chasyn, and I can’t remember what Cord’s real name is.
Sarah: Corduroy!
Jane: There is an explanation –
Sarah: His name is Corduroy.
Jane: There’s actually an explanation for it, that, about his moth-, the mother, and why they, she named them that way. I don’t remember what it is now.
The other book in – I, I read it a while ago, but it came out on Monday, is The Understatement of the Year by Sarina Bowen.
Sarah: Oh, yes, everyone in Twitter was talking about this book. This is the money-back guarantee from Jane book.
Jane: No, no, no. That was the, The Year We Hid Away, about the –
Sarah: Oh.
Jane: – about the hockey player, the female hockey player who was paralyzed? This one is about the hockey player, the college hockey player that came out, was kicked off his hockey team, and then comes to this other college to play hockey where he runs into his first love, who is so far in the closet, remember, I said he lives in Narnia?
Sarah: He was hanging out in Narnia, and, and, and John said that would be a great name for a gay club, or they would call it The Wardrobe. [Laughs]
Jane: Right, right. So, I really loved that book. I think it’s $3.99. It’s worth the $3.99. I can’t afford to give the money-back guarantee anymore, ‘cause I have to save up money for my lawsuit, but – [laughs] – I do recommend buying it. It’s a, it’s a great story, full of, full of, like, unrealized passion. Not even unrealized passion, but banked passion, ‘cause, you know, particularly the one guy, he really wants the gay boy but is trying to deny his gayness.
[Laughter]
Sarah: Well, so many people have talked about how incredibly good this book is.
I hope you enjoyed that discussion with Jane. I did, ‘cause it’s been a while since I spoke to her. I also hope you weren’t deeply disappointed by our complete lack of talking about the lawsuit that’s going on, but if you were thinking, you know, I could totally do with some excellent and incisive legal commentary, I totally recorded a podcast with Courtney Milan, who specializes in incisive legal commentary and also verbal ass-kicking, so I’m going to edit that and probably have that ready next week and the week after. It may be so big I have to divide it into two. But I’m looking forward to that, and I hope you are too!
Before I go or begin doing all the things that I do at the end of the podcast like tell you what the music is and tell you about how you can contact us and tell, tell you about our awesome sponsor, I have an email that I really wanted to share with you because it’s really awesome, and it totally made my day, and I hope it makes your day, too. This email is from a reader named Katherine, and Katherine writes:
Dear Sarah and Jane,
I have been lurking in romance book sites since the dawn of newsgroups. Every week I compose a response to your pod cast in my head and never sit down to send it. Your interview with Jon Jacobson was wonderful and has compelled me to speak at last. A young gay man embraces and talks about romance openly and with such passion. I’ve been reading romance for 35 years, what am I waiting for? I have so much to say, so in the spirit of Sarah Bareilles, I’ll “be brave and let the words fall out”.
My name is Katherine and I have always been a reader. Library trips were family time. As a kid, if I showed up at the register with a book it was purchased for me, a tradition I continue today. I would read anything. Richard Scary’s Huckle & Lowly Worm, anything with a horse on the cover and Nancy Drew covered the first dozen years. In the 1970’s choices for a young girl were not as varied as today. The summer of 1980, our family moved yet again and everything I owned was packed to go. The only book in our temporary apartment was Mom’s copy of Ashes in the Wind by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. At just 14 this was my very first Romance Novel – I still own it. Followed very closely by Shanna and I suspect a Joanna Lindsey as I was hooked for life. My teen and college years were filled with every classic bodice ripper available and I still own most of those too. I even had an oh-so-cool red calico book cover with handles to carry and read “undercover”. I’m pretty sure I read Jude Deveraux’s Twin of Fire and Twin of Ice simultaneously. Tom Clancy thrillers were in my comfort zone at that age. Bertrice Small, not so much.
My attitudes towards sex, love and marriage were different from my parents and friends. “Wait until you are married’ was the refrain. I knew in my soul from 16 that when I met my “one” I would not wait until the wedding night. So few heroines did and they were doing just fine. I have loving and warm parents, but they were a little brief in the discussion of love, marriage and couple hood. My sex education consisted of “sex is great with the right person” from Dad and “I don’t want anything terrible to happen to you” from Mom. It was the God’s honest truth when I informed them nothing terrible had happened. My future husband and I had visited the college health center and figured out birth control together. I learned about flirting, courtship, love, sex and marriage from all my books. I loathed anything Danielle Steele, but in Celeste DeBlais’ Wild Swan series I saw the evolution of three generations of family and wept when it ended.
I married a science fiction reader at 22. My husband and two girls learned to live on grilled cheese & chicken noodle soup as I read thru dinner preparation. Whitney, My Love (original version) was an all-night read after I bargained with my husband – staying up with an ear ache ridden 3 year old vs a Saturday morning trip to the doctor. I knew I could rock and read. An afternoon at the book store was a regular weekend errand. Though I would binge at the library every so often, I still have a thing about owning books. Harlequin serials were not on the shopping list – too short for the money that could now buy children’s books. Leon and the Spitting Image brings back fond memories of reading aloud. Soon I was reading the girls’ “teen” books as well. Their choices are so much better than mine were at 13– rom com, fantasy, thriller and adventure. Everything Meg Cabot sits on our shelves in hard back right next to every LaVyrle Spencer and vintage Beverly Cleary. My all-time favorites are the historicals though. A smart girl in a great dress charming a man – what’s not to love.
As a young bride and mother I returned a book for the first time, a Robin Shone. When I think back it had more to do with writing style than content, but she was the start of a new era in romance. As I matured so naturally did my comfort level with sex and contemporary and fantasy novels. Though I do think that Jaci Burton’s not only purple but double chicken was a little much. Things that were scandalously written in the late 70’s and early 80’s seem to be the norm today. Teen books explore sex and sexual orientation in a great way. Between my girls, four exchange students, several BFF’s I have had seven teen girls live with me full time. Along with them came the boys – cute, attentive, stupid, over eager, smart, and get off my porch. Proudly I’m the mom who will talk about birth control and sex with both boys and girls. My daughters, now 23 and 20, went off to college with much more information than I did. Last week my daughter sent me a picture from her study abroad welcome packet – a package of condoms and directions on how to use the applicator. Her complaint was there was no applicator for the tampons. My response – If you have to use applicator for the condom because you don’t want to touch the chicken – get out of bed! [S: [Laughs] Oh, my God! Sorry. Beg – [laughs] – anyway.] Reading teen, adult and now new adult books gave me a base to have these kinds of conversations and not be uncomfortable myself or embarrassing to kids. My new favorite teen read is Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. This Scholastic Book has a little bit of the crazy sauce but explores many types of girls with insight and accuracy. The exceptional audio version lets you really hear their experiences in individual voices. Scholastic sure has changed since I was in 6th grade – and for the better. There is always nostalgia for the innocence of decades past, but as the world changes the reading options have too.
Though I live in Northern Virginia, in one of the most affluent counties in the country, it is a 40 minute drive to the nearest Barnes & Noble. I miss the afternoons wandering thru the stacks on the hunt for a new author. I was saved by technology and Amazon gift cards. Decades of reading, knitting and carpool left me with severe carpal tunnel in both elbows and wrists. Kindle was invented just in time as I could no longer hold a 300 page book for hours. In addition to the hundreds of books alphabetized by author on my Kindle, there are currently 56 in my Sample folder, 12 in New and 22 in To Buy. The last read was Ripped by Sarah Morgan. About 60 audible books on my iPhone – the last was The Winter Bride, by Anne Gracie. I’ve watched my options narrow on my Amazon page, so randomly selecting books to view is a fun way to screw with my algorithm. Fortunately I have the desire, money and most precious of all – time to read whenever I want. I have played croquet with the Bridgerton’s, sailed with pirates, gone camping with the Kowalski’s, attended Hogwarts, stolen art, fended off vampires, started companies, feuded in a kilt, raced NASCAR, coached a team, cast a spell, promenaded in Hyde Park, and could teach a seminar about vintage undergarments. I have loved every minute!
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has drawn me in. At 49, I’ve found my people. One of my favorite moments is listening for Jane’s deep breath as she “girds her loins” for another awesome quiz! When Nicki Minaj's new song is on the radio, all I can think of is Manaconda. My image of that chicken was changed forever when I clicked the photo link in the Orca romance review. Not quite scarred for life, but close. I long for a Purple Prose (a la vintage All About Romance) contest from your contributors. Taylor Swift is in my picture of coltish. Bad grammar, spelling and continuity errors and killing off the heroine are my pet peeves but I love a good cat burglar. Bet Me is a great book; Jennifer Cruise can do no wrong. My travel companion in case of world electrical failure is The Eight, by Katherine Neville. I wish for the next trend to be Victorians.
Listening to the two of you thoughtfully discuss, banter and argue has educated me in the world of publishing both print and digital. I was blissfully ignorant of the trials of authors and editors. Who knew authors retired, I thought they had just died when nothing new came along. So many new authors have been added to my “go to” list now that I have heard their stories as they talk with you. You both approach books with such obvious love of reading. Forty minutes flies by. Keep talking, we are all still listening.
Sarah: Okay, this letter totally made my day and gave me all of the warm fuzzies. I, I love how I think she responded to every single episode that we’ve done yet. Hey, Kathy, how you doing? And I love the idea that romance novels and the way in which they deal with sexuality helped her be a better parent. I was joking with somebody recently that being on Tumblr every now and again I am hoping will make me better able to, to communicate with my children when they’re teenagers, because so many of the people that I interact with I later learn are teens, and I understand their perspective now, that they talk about what bothers them and they use images to illustrate how they’re feeling in ways that they can’t quite communicate verbally, or in writing even. It never occurred to me that romances would help with the teaching of sexuality as a parent, which is something that I think most people struggle with in a lot of ways, but it makes total sense. I, I don’t understand the com-, the condom applicator thing, though. I mean, I – there’s a number of ways I’ve read that done, usually with your hand? Maybe toes if you’re particularly dexterous? Teeth sometimes? Ears? Applicator? That I don’t get. But either way, thank you so much for this letter. It was a real pleasure to hear from you, Katherine, and I hope you’re reading something awesome.
And I have one more email. This one is a short one. This is from Kimberly, and she says:
Listening to last week's podcast, you talked about Overdrive. I love, love, love Overdrive. [S: Oh, Kimberly, me too.] I have a tip for my fellow listeners. I live in a small town. My library has Overdrive, but the selection is super limited. I mentioned it to a friend. She told me that a neighboring town has a really great Overdrive selection. Because it is a college town, you just have to be a resident of the State, not the county. I took a little trip over there one Saturday and got a library card. After learning that, I did a search of all of the county library systems in my state. Many of them have county residency restrictions, but some do not. Some allow you to apply over the internet. I am now the proud owner of 4 library cards. That means that I have access to 4 Overdrive libraries! So, if your library's selection is limited, find out what the requirements are for other libraries in your State. You may be able to get access to more than just your local library.
Sarah: That’s awesome. I know for where I live in northern New Jersey, the Bergen County Cooperative is the Overdrive connection that I use, and I’m not in Bergen County, but the many libraries in the many, many towns, most of northern New Jersey closer to New York City is like a bunch of small towns all squished up together, so they all work together in this library system. I think, though, as Kim, Kimberly says, in spaces, or in states, where there’s not as many squished-up towns all right next to each other and, you know, a couple million people, libraries with only state residency requirements or public universities with only state residency requirements for a library card are a great option. That’s awesome! Ohhh, oh, this is great!
So I’m sure you’re wondering, if you’re listening, how do I find out about the public libraries in my state? Well, there’s a number of things. Obviously, I just Googled New Jersey public libraries and came up with an umpty-zillion list, because there’s a lot of people and a lot of towns and a lot of options in New Jersey, but if you look online for the county libraries in a particular state, you should come up with a much more manageable list of libraries to examine. Then you just go to their websites and see what their library card requirements are. Easy pie! And if there are any librarians listening and they’re like, this is a bad idea and you should not tell me, people about this! please let me know. I don’t want to piss anybody off. I would like people to use the library, because using the library means the library is healthy and happy and if there’s anything I like, it’s a healthy, happy library.
[music]
And that is all for this week’s podcast. Next week, me, Courtney Milan, much discussion. I might have to make it two episodes. I’m going to try to make it one, but it may end up being two. I’m sure that no one has a problem with that, right? Right. Of course.
This podcast was brought to you by Berkley, publisher of Reaper’s Stand, the latest bad-boy biker romance in Joanna Wylde’s edgy, sizzling Reapers Motorcycle Club series. Reaper’s Stand is available wherever books are sold.
If you like the podcast, you can subscribe to our feed; you can find us online at iTunes, PodcastPickle, and Stitcher; and you can email us if you have ideas or comments. Our email address is sbjpodcast@gmail.com, and you can leave us a message at our Google voice number, which is 1-201-371-DBSA. Please don’t forget to give us a name and where you’re calling from so we can include your message in an upcoming podcast.
The music that you are listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater, and you can find her @SassyOutwater on Twitter. This song is from the group Three Mile Stone, and this track is called “Snug in the Blanket.” The temperatures have dropped recently where I live, so, yeah, I want to be snug in a blanket pretty much all the time. You can find out more about Three Mile Stone at their website, and I will have links in the podcast entry about the music and where you can buy it, as well as all of the books that we mention, including the one that we agreed on, which is still kind of shocking to me, but hey.
Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, Jane and I both wish you the very best of reading. Have a great weekend.
[cuddly music]
