Happy Wednesday!
Thank you for all the birthday wishes. It was a very chill day. My partner bought me one of those Kindle/phone/gaming stands, that will prop your device up in front of your face, leaving you with the ability to snuggle under the blankets with your controller or page turner.
Also how did April go by so quickly?
…
Sarah: I was a guest on the Reading Smut podcast, a new romance-focused show from the hosts of Reading Glasses.
…
Last year’s Cherrywood Quilting Challenge was themed “the abyss.” They have a virtual gallery of all the amazing entries, and a calendar for the traveling exhibit. Some beautiful work on display! The 2026 challenge has started and the theme is “storytime.”
…
Pam G. sent in this link on “Labyrinth: Muppets, Bowie, and the Pain of Impending Adulthood.” It’s very much in our house of wheels.
…
Lastly, Sarah and I were having a similar discussion about reading levels and romance, AND LO AND BEHOLD, this popped into my Reddit feed. It’s such an interesting convo around historical romances and anti-intellectualism.
…
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 saw your video clip on FB from the Reading Smut podcast where you were talking about romance as a literary inheritance. I was like “Ugh, Sarah is so smart and so good at talking about romance.” (Which, of course you are and should be, you’ve been doing it for 20+ years!) I’m always so impressed by people who speak well (like you!), because I’m super awkward and just… don’t speak well? LOL
*”Your” meaning Sarah, obvs, since she was the one in the video. I keep meaning to look and see if there’s a transcript to read.
Heather! That’s such a kind thing to say, and I really appreciate it. Thank you! I’m blushing about six shades of pink right now. 🙂
Sarah, I was soooooo excited to see your episode of Reading Smut pop up in my podcatcher! I don’t remember how I found it but my first episode was Sierra Simone’s Priest with Jordan Morris (the second book they covered). The hosts are both pretty new to romance and erotic romance but they’ve covered some good ones in the year they’ve been doing this.
Thank you for the link to the post about historical romance and anti-intellectualism. As someone who gave up on contemporary romance a looooong time ago and only reads historical romance (as well as mysteries and nonfiction, the odd sci fi), I found both the post and the comments very interesting. I couldn’t begin to understand why publishers have decided to drop historical romance lines and authors. Its probably a variety of factors. I’m just glad that some authors of historical romance have gone the self publishing route (Anne Gracie, Stella Riley, etc.). I’m also glad my kindle TBR pile is so big that the backlog will keep me in books for the next decade.
The television adaptation of HEATED RIVALRY won a Peabody Award:
https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/heated-rivalry/
Not sure that Reddit post worked for me. My experience with contemporary romance is the opposite of what she said. Sometimes the couple don’t get together until 80% in! One book I read, they didn’t have sex until the final chapter. Thing is, there are so many romance novels out there. Traditional and self published. Contemporary and historical. It’s easy to stereotype with anecdotes. I am a big fan of historical romance. But my beef with contemporary romance lately is they lack conflict and the couple doesn’t seem to get together until late in the book. I know the Redditor’s experience with one patron was frustrating but that is not the sum total of romance fans, young or old.