Melanie Hamrick is a former ballerina at the American Ballet Theatre and has just released her debut romance, First Position. So we are talking about ballet, and about balancing – both on your toes, and in career changes. We also cover how much writing and ballet have in common. We are talking about professional ballet, so there is some mention of disordered eating and extreme body consciousness. Music: purple-planet.com
It’s time for another edition of Stuff We Like! This month: I’ve been doing some shopping for family travel and summer college programs, and I’ve found some great upgrades to my vacation supplies! Want to see? Just click that image above or click right here, and come shop with us! And if you’d like to browse some more, we have a complete Stuff We Like archive, including past Gift Guides and other posts of our favorite … Continue reading Stuff We Like: Making Travel Easier (and Fun)!
Alison Goodman’s new book, The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies is out this week, and you are definitely going to want to read this book – and listen to this episode! We talk about her book, of course, and about writing female-forward action scenes featuring “old maids.” We also talk about her recently completed doctorate, which was in historical fiction research methodology. So come for the Regency spinsters, and stay for the deep dive into … Continue reading 567. Historical Research and Ill Mannered Ladies with Alison Goodman
What’s the last book you were reading where you thought midway through, ‘This book is FUN’? Maybe it made you laugh, maybe it was extremely clever, maybe you were in the perfect location or brain space to enjoy it? (I love when that happens.) Elyse: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. Sarah: Really? That’s awesome! Elyse: It’s very much a “get the old gang together for one last heist” story and it’s funny and just generally fun … Continue reading Books That Are a Really Fun Time
Romance author legend Julie Garwood has died at the age of 78. At the memorial online, readers are leaving hundreds of comments about how much her books meant to them, to their parents, relatives, friends. For romance readers, especially those around my age, Julie Garwood was a foundational author. I wrote about Garwood at NPR in 2015 during their “Summer of Love,” spearheaded by the late and also great Petra Mayer. Garwood’s books kept me … Continue reading Julie Garwood 1944-2023
Recently KJ Charles tweeted about how absolutely devouring the Blessings series by Beverly Jenkins helped “save her sanity during the 2020 lockdown.” So I asked if she’d talk to me about it – and to my surprise this is a popular topic at the moment! She recently did a panel about comfort reading, and I’m really excited to take a look at what makes a comfort read, well, comfy. Plus, we learn what a HFY … Continue reading 566. The Blessings of Comfort Reads with KJ Charles
Elissa Sussman has a new book, Once More with Feeling, so of course I could not WAIT to have her back to talk about the story, the pop culture inspirations for this novel, and her research methods. We also talk about the way stardom and pop stardom specifically has changed since the early 2000s, and how we’re now examining the way we talked about young women and young people at that time. TW/CW: I want … Continue reading 565. Once More with Feeling, with Elissa Sussman
In September of 2022, we snarked a cover, Planet Oster: Fertility Fusion. The cover designer, who is also one half of the writing team behind the series, reached out to me saying that they were unironically flattered that we’d snarked the cover, and asked if I’d like to talk about the process and the behind the scenes of the design work. Of course I said yes. Music: Purple-planet.com
