Welcome back! I hope you’ll enjoy the special treat of a morning edition of Wednesday Links.
I feel like the heat has finally broken in New England and we can feel the start of cooler temps. Yay! In other news, I shared appetizers and margs with a friend last week, which led to her including me on the plan to secure Backstreet Boys at the Sphere tickets.
Well, we got ’em! I’m so unbelievably excited for the experience.
Also there’s nothing better than bonding and venting over warm tortilla chips and fresh salsa.
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Kelly Faircloth is killing it over at National Geographic. Her latest is a dive into a new book that discusses the real possibility that Queen Victoria had a secret marriage. This one might be paywalled, but the book in question is Victoria’s Secret by Dr. Fern Riddell.
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I’d like to mention a podcast! I follow historian Katie Charlwood, who has a lovely voice and even lovelier fashion sense, on social media. She has a history podcast called Who Did What Now? I’m linking to Spotify, but check your podcast apps of choice.
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Thanks to EC Spurlock for sharing this list of sci-fi and fantasy romances with forced proximity. (And not to be nitpicky, but the actual list is all fantasy, with the exception of the sponsoring book.)
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Love PBS and want a good cry? Watch this short doc on Camp Widow.
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
I feel like forced proximity would be so easy to write in sci fi. The distances between destinations on a planetary scale is long and a space ship can definitely be a small space.
Please universe get on that immediately.
author Celia Lake cited SBTB as a great place to check, in her blog about looking for deals!
https://www.celialake.com/2025/08/looking-for-books-on-sale/
Celia Lake is SO awesome, and not just because she recommended us! 😀
@Melody Prime: Your comment reminded me that I’d been meaning to take a closer look at Amanda Bouchet’s Nightchaser duology for a while. It’s one of the few sci-fi romances that I’ve seen in the last several years (as opposed to “sci-fi with romantic elements”).
Re “forced proximity in SFF”: When are publicists and critics going to figure out the difference between historically-informed magickal fantasy and futuristic technology-informed science fiction? There is romance possible in either, but they are very different reading experiences. Just sayin’
Thanks for the link to Who Did What Now, I see lots there I can’t wait to listen to!
@Amanda – I just saw two Backstreet Boys shows at the Sphere two weeks ago over the same weekend. It was amazing – you are going to have a blast! Are you going in December/January or February?
@Katie C: January! I’ve heard from a lot of friends who have gone that it’s amazing, but take a dramamine.
@Amanda – I think it depends on how prone you are to motion sickness and what type of stuff brings it on. I was in section 208 the first night and had no problems. The next night I was in the front row of seats in section 108 and there was only one moment where it seemed like the stage was actually moving (when it was not). But absolutely no motion sickness either night
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer is excellent sci fi with forced proximity, for those looking. It’s pretty tense (and there are some moments where I had to put the book down and go look at reviews to make sure I actually was reading a romance) but they do get there eventually, and I absolutely loved watching them love each other. It’s one of my favourite recent reads. (I have not read the sequel.)