Welcome to Smart Podcast, Trashy Books! Each Friday, I talk with authors, readers, reviewers, bloggers, publishing professionals, editors, and librarians, or combinations thereof, and share the fun and mayhem with you. Frequent topics include romance fiction, the brilliant and interesting people who read, write, and produce it, and issues common among romance readers, along with a hefty side order of silliness. Plus, we always recommend some books we’re reading and really enjoying.
And speaking of recommendations, are you new to the podcast? Welcome!
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, fear not: here are some of our most popular episodes – so far!
This month we’re going back to September 2012 to take a look at the new books in Romantic Times magazine. We’re talking about a very male hero, letting teens be teens, and hooray, there are dozens of terrible men to add to the pile. We also talk about our favorite Garth Brooks songs, and our go-to karaoke songs. (What’s yours?) At about 25 minute in we talk about something rather morbid – books bound in … Continue reading 735. RT Rewind: September 2012 Reviews→
Jess Rothschild is a podcaster and journalist, one of the founding writers at Autostraddle, and her latest project is a documentary podcast called Finding Fire Island, about the history of Fire Island, Cherry Grove, and the Pines. Her prior work includes The Cult of Body and Soul, about SoulCycle, and I love BOTH of these productions. Jess has been writing online longer than I have, and we talk about internet history, the process of making a … Continue reading 734. Finding Fire Island with Jess Rothschild→
We are back in the early 90s, when the mullets were epic and the covers were sumptuous. Come on back to July 1992 with us as we explore the ads & features of the 100th issue of Romantic Times Magazine! This issue contains some FASCINATING retrospective looks at romance, cover art, and more, and I think it is one of the primary sources cited for some of the more common stories I’ve heard about romance. … Continue reading 733. RT Rewind: July 1992 Ads & Features – The 100th Issue Special!→
Dylan MarcAurele is the writer and composer behind The Heated Rivalry Unauthorized Musical Parody, and I am extremely excited to share this interview with you! We’re going to talk about writing musical theatre, his writing process, and how long it took him to write this musical (you won’t believe it). He also talks about the actors and how the show came to be – it’s delightful. Musical theater and romance have a lot of similarities … Continue reading 732. The Heated Rivalry Unauthorized Musical Parody with Dylan MarcAurele→
It’s RT Rewind time again! This month, we’re going back to July 1992 to check out the new releases reviewed in…the 100th issue of Romantic Times magazine! Yup, the cover is memorable, and so are the book covers. We discuss: Cover models! Who would be the cover model for subgenre specific magazine issues? Nostalgia! Are the tag lines on the cover both references to cigarette ads? Reviews! There are some absolute classics in this issue, … Continue reading 731. RT Rewind: July 1992 Reviews – The 100th Issue Special!→
The re-release of The Luckiest Lady in London has arrived, and Sherry Thomas joins me to talk about the writing of that book more than 13 years ago, how romance and historicals have changed, and how this book is a reflection and subversion of another very, very famous historical romance. Plus, she gives us recommendations of her favorite historical romance authors and some of their books. Note: we had some connectivity issues, so sometimes the … Continue reading 730. Still the Luckiest Lady in London with Sherry Thomas→
Hey, where are you going? Get in the time machine – we want to bring you back to March 2009 to check out the ads & features from Romantic Times Magazine. We’ve got: Snippy letters to the editor! Covers that look like shaving cream ads for women Reading in a recession Folks explaining steampunk! Pop vs. Soda And you’ll find out what words are used in an acrostic of “pandemic.” TW: In the middle you’ll … Continue reading 729. RT Rewind: March 2009 Ads & Features→
Jo Piazza is my guest this week to discuss her new book, The Parisian Heist. This book is a dual timeline story weaving together a 1990s heist at the Orsay museum with the story of Jo van Gogh, Vincent van Gogh’s sister in law, who is the reason we know who Vincent is today. Along the way we talk about DNFing books Stealing art Mythologizing artists usually men And how many women do nearly everything … Continue reading 728. The Parisian Heist with Jo Piazza→
We’re back in the time machine heading to March 2009 to check out the new books reviewed in Romantic Times Magazine. We’ve got: Hot dog shrines Alpha heroines PT Cruisers Allegories for the siege of Leningrad Whore’s Dust We’ve got some new books in the magazine that are still bangers today across many genres, alongside some books that we’re going to leave in 2009, right after we talk about them in this episode. We got … Continue reading 727. RT Rewind: March 2009 Reviews→
A few months ago, Kayleigh Donaldson joined me to discuss Oscar predictions and other pop culture stories, and we decided to connect quarterly to discuss popular culture. We discuss the misogyny attached to Timothy Chalamet hate, a deep dive into the public post history of Club Chalamet as indicative of larger issues in fandom behavior, Madonna’s new album, Lizzo’s new album, and the Tartan Army. The through-line of our conversation is really fandoms, specifically changing … Continue reading 726. Q2 Pop Culture Report with Kayleigh Donaldson→
My guest this week is Kirsty Greenwood, whose new book Romantic Hero is out now everywhere, all over the world. Kirsty writes what she calls “speculative romantic comedy,” and I really loved her first book, Love of my Afterlife. We discuss SHOCKING topics like deleting the first book she tried to write, the character journeys in Romantic Hero, dealing with writer’s block, and punching people in the face. Want to watch this episode? Find us on … Continue reading 725. Romantic Hero with Kirsty Greenwood→
