Sarah interviews author Lisa Marie Perry about her latest book in a romantic suspense/sports romance series for Kimani. They discuss several of her books, the inclusiveness of her characters, the challenges and victories in balancing multiple sets of expectations, and her newest series, which may involve nipple tarts and buttercream. Finally, the question you’ve been asking all your life will be answered: Should you eat an entire chocolate penis in one sitting?
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You can find Lisa Marie Perry on her website at PerryTaleBooks.com.
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This Episode's Music
The music you’re listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater, and you can find her on Twitter @Sassyoutwater. This is the band Sketch, and this is “Fire Them Up” from their album “ShedLife.”
You can find it on Amazon, iTunes, or wherever you buy your most excellent music.
Podcast Sponsor
This podcast is sponsored by J Kenner’s DIRTIEST SECRET, published by Bantam Books and available in paperback and ebook.
It was wrong for us to be together, but it was even harder to be apart.
The memory of Dallas Sykes burns inside of me.
Everyone knows him as a notorious playboy, a man for whom women and money are no object. But to me, he’s still the one man I desperately crave—yet the one I can never have.
Dallas knows me better than anyone else. We bear the same scars, the same darkness in our past. I thought I could move on by staying away, but now that we’re drawn together once more, I can’t fight the force of our attraction or the temptation to make him mine.
We’ve tried to maintain control, not letting ourselves give in to desire. And for so long we’ve told ourselves no—but now it’s finally time to say yes.
Find out their DIRTIEST SECRET with J Kenner’s new SIN Series. On Sale April 19th.
Transcript
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Dear Bitches, Smart Author Podcast, April 15, 2016
[music]
Sarah Wendell: Hello, and welcome to episode number 189 of the DBSA podcast. I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. With me today is author Lisa Marie Perry. We talk about her latest book in her romantic suspense/sports series. There are football player-owners involved here, so you know it’s going to be a little salacious. We discuss several of her books, the inclusiveness of her characters, the challenges and victories that happen when you balance multiple sets of expectations, and her newest series, which may, and yes, does, involve nipple tarts and buttercream. And we answer the question you have been asking all of your life: should you eat an entire chocolate penis in one sitting? These are important questions.
Lisa Marie also asked me to add a mention of her other series, because we talked about so many things, and she felt terrible that she’d missed this one. Coming from Loveswept is The Devil’s Music series, which is based on the TV show Empire. Book one, Sin for Me, will come out in September, and introduces a hip hop label COO heroine who has secrets that she needs to protect and a songwriter hero who has death on his hands. Lisa Marie has been told that this is a series of “bitches and bastards,” and she is very pleased with that assessment.
This episode is sponsored by J. Kenner’s Dirtiest Secret, published by Bantam Books and available in paperback and eBook.
It was wrong for us to be together. It was even harder to be apart. Everyone knows him as a notorious playboy, but to me, he is still the one man I desperately crave, yet the one I can never have. We’ve tried not letting ourselves give in to desire, and for so long we’ve told ourselves no. Now it’s finally time to say yes.
Find out their Dirtiest Secret with J. Kenner’s new SIN series, on sale on April 19th.
The music you’re listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater, and I will have information at the end of the show as to who this is.
And one last piece of news! If you are a regular listener to the podcast or you’re a fan of the transcripts and you might like to support the show, you can have a look at our Patreon campaign at Patreon.com/SmartBitches. By listener request, I set up a Patreon, which is a little bit like Kickstarter, but instead of a single project you support an ongoing creative project like this one. Listeners who wish to contribute can make a monthly pledge, starting with one dollar, to help me reach goals like commissioning transcripts for the seventy or so episodes that don’t have one. You can see the rewards and the options at Patreon.com/SmartBitches, and for everyone who nudged me to set one up and has already backed the show, thank you. You are entirely made of awesome.
And now, on with the podcast.
[music]
Lisa Marie Perry: Hello. I am Lisa Marie Perry. I’m an author of contemporary romance, and –
Sarah: Yay!
Lisa Marie: – yes, I very much enjoy it, so yes. Let’s get things rolling with a joke. And if anyone knows me, I’m a very dirty girl, so of course this has to be a dirty joke.
Sarah: Welcome! We, you are among your people.
Lisa Marie: Awesome!
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: Okay, so this one, this is one of those story jokes, so, okay.
Sarah: All right.
Lisa Marie: Settle in. [Laughs] All right, so, three men, a tall man, a man of average height, and a short man all decide to go to the top of the Empire State Building for a dick-measuring contest.
Sarah: As you do.
Lisa Marie: As you do. And so, the man of average height unzips, and his package drops six feet, and he says, you know what, guys, I know this is very impressive, you just can’t top this. And so the tall guy unzips, and he says, okay, this is going to be easy, and his package drops twelve feet. Hey, so clearly he thinks that he’s the winner. So they look over, though, however, and the short guy is hopping around. [Tapping sounds] He’s hopping around, and they say, hey, guy, what’s going on? What are you doing? And the short guy glances at them, and he says, I’m dodging traffic.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: Ahhh! [Laughs]
Sarah: Well played!
Lisa Marie: Well, got to give love to short guys.
Sarah: Yes.
Lisa Marie: Make sure they get enough, so there you go.
[Laughter]
Sarah: Well, I am, I am 5’3”, and my husband’s, like, maybe 5’7” with shoes on, so we are not a tall people in our house, and he always, like, he always laughs at me when I’m like, oh, you’re so tall, will you reach that bowl on the high shelf that I can’t reach? ‘Cause anyone taller than me is tall. Right?
Lisa Marie: Hey, I understand; I’m 5’4”. Oh, yeah.
Sarah: Right, exactly? Anyone who’s taller than you is tall.
Lisa Marie: Absolutely.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: Well, I, I will say, though, my, my, my brother, one of my brothers, he’s 6’8”, so.
Sarah: Ohhh!
Lisa Marie: That’s tall. [Laughs]
Sarah: That’s not fair!
Lisa Marie: That’s tall!
Sarah: Okay, so, let me ask you about your newest release. Tell us about One More Night with You.
Lisa Marie: Okay. One More Night with You is actually the finale of my NFL sports romance series, The Blue Dynasty, and it’s, it’s book five, and it essentially, the series surrounds a family that takes on a fictional football franchise that is based in Las Vegas. Although it is a sports romance, however, I really focus on sports management and the deal-making. The money and the power and things of that nature, and so there’s quite a bit of manipulation. There’s quite a bit of sort of behind-the-scenes drama?
Sarah: Private jets, lots of money.
Lisa Marie: Absolutely. So I really, I, I very much enjoy digging into that, and I do get into it further, and One More Night with You, it in fact ties up several sort of storylines that have played out over the course of, of the previous four books.
Sarah: Right.
Lisa Marie: However, we also basically get inside the head of a woman who is the catalyst for a lot of the fallout that occurs, and this is our heroine Joey, or Josephine, but I call her Joey –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: – and she is a former DEA agent, and she is introduced, as a matter of fact, in, in, in book one. She’s the heroine’s best friend, and so she was sort of waiting in the wings, I like to think. And I thought about her as I wrote everyone else’s story. I, I never forgot her, I never stopped thinking about her, and I felt that she was very, very important and necessary to the overall plot, and she most certainly deserved her happy ending. But I don’t make it easy for her, most definitely –
Sarah: Well, why would you do that?
Lisa Marie: Of course not! [Laughs] I don’t think she –
Sarah: I mean, you’ve got more than, like, two chapters you’ve got to fill.
Lisa Marie: She’s been put through a lot, and so she’s different from anyone I, I have written before?
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: Joey is, she has a physical impairment. She walks with a cane as a result of being shot. You find out early on, so I would not say this is a spoiler.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: You find out rather early on, as soon as you meet the hero, that he’s the man who shot her.
Sarah: Oh, crap!
Lisa Marie: Yes. He’s the man who shot her, and, and forces her to, for the rest of her life, walk with the assistance of a cane, and it essentially took away what she thought was her identity, which is her job. She lived her job, she thought she was the job, she didn’t think she had much else beyond the job.
Sarah: After her injury –
Lisa Marie: After her –
Sarah: – she couldn’t do her job anymore.
Lisa Marie: Absolutely, because she could not, you know, physically, she just was not capable of doing the, the, the strenuous work that she had done before, so, yeah, she works –
Sarah: Major life change, like, personal and professional life change –
Lisa Marie: Yes.
Sarah: – and it’s all his fault.
Lisa Marie: Oh, yes, she certainly thinks so. And they haven’t seen each other in those five years since he shot her. It happened during a botched drug bust. She thought he was dirty.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: She thought he was with the, you know, the bad guys, and so, just quite a bit of betrayal, and the bullet, and fragments still remain inside of her, and so she always carries part of him with her, essentially. So –
Sarah: Well, that’s a really easy to conflict, you know, to, just to overcome.
Lisa Marie: Oh, sure.
Sarah: I’m, I’m certain it was really simple to work that out in a couple of chapters, right?
Lisa Marie: Oh, yeah, sure, sure, most definitely, right?
Sarah: Easy as pie!
Lisa Marie: ‘Cause he’s, I mean, hey, he’s, he’s still hot, you know? She loved him once, right? No, not quite. So – [laughs] – it’s very complicated. In this book, however, there are a few things going on, which, which I really enjoyed sort of putting this together, and so we have, of course, the romance, and you would think early on, how in the hell is she going to get past this? How in the hell is he going to prove that he deserves another chance? And the thing is, he has to prove it to himself even more so than Joey –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: – because it, it turns out that she’s, she’s willing to try to, to rediscover that love she had for him before –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: – much sooner than he’s willing to, to believe that he even deserves it. So, so, that, that’s, that’s also very, very interesting, and, and of course, even now, the hero, Zaf, he, he has, he’s hiding quite a bit. Quite a bit. So the manipulation is not done, it’s not over, it’s not in the past. There’s more. So, so there’s, there’s that, as well. And, however, there’s still football. So –
Sarah: Of course!
Lisa Marie: [Laughs] What I love about this book, actually, is you get two romances, which is not, I would say, very, very easy to do in a category-length book?
Sarah: I was going to say, it’s really hard to have two storylines going on in that small of a word count.
Lisa Marie: Absolutely. The secondary romance involves a football kicker. He’s an African-American man, and –
Sarah: Wait, what, whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa. Whoa!
Lisa Marie: Yes. [Laughs] You go back!
Sarah: Are you telling me that there are people of color on your football teams?!
Lisa Marie: Strange as it sounds, yep!
Sarah: Wow! Okay, I’m, um, I’m going to take some deep breaths. Please, please continue. [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: Very, very strange. [Laughs]
Sarah: Why is that – like, why?
Lisa Marie: Yes.
Sarah: Why is that? Why are all the teams white? I don’t understand!
Lisa Marie: I just don’t know! I –
Sarah: I don’t either! I mean –
Lisa Marie: I don’t know how it can be –
Sarah: I –
Lisa Mare: – because I watch football! Yes.
Sarah: You know? And then I adore baseball. You know what, baseball? Not all white either! And yet, in romance –
Lisa Marie: Precisely.
Sarah: – everybody’s white.
Lisa Marie: Everyone. Why is that? I –
Sarah: Right?
Lisa Marie: – I don’t understand it at all. [Laughs]
Sarah: So, anyway. So –
Lisa Marie: I don’t understand it at all. It just felt like the most natural thing, if I’m creating a football team –
Sarah: Got to have men of color on it.
Lisa Marie: There’s going to be, there’s going to be some variety. But I will say, though, in this series, my, my quarterback, he had actually come back to his position. He’s white, and that’s, that’s book two of the series. My quarterback is white, but, you know, my linebackers, they’re black guys. They just are. Or –
Sarah: Wow. You, you, you rebel.
Lisa Marie: Yeah, I, I guess so.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: I’m a bad girl. Like, I don’t know –
Sarah: I have to say, one of the things I really like about your website is that when you list the books on your books page, you have the cover, you have the title, you have the release date, you have where it is in the series, and then you have the hero and heroine’s name.
Lisa Marie: Ohhh!
Sarah: See, I love that, because if you’ve been following along with the series, you know that this book is about these people that you’ve already met in the prior books. Like, this is this person’s story, and that’s this person’s story. Like, all of that is one – that’s, that’s really smart, first of all. I think that’s really smart for a web, web page, for an author.
Lisa Marie: Oh, yeah, all of the detail, and you know what, I have to say, though, my web designer, I’m with Bemis Promotions –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: – and the specific detail of including their names, that was her idea.
Sarah: It’s, I really like it. I think it’s really smart.
Lisa Marie: And I, I thought it, I thought it was very brilliant, and yeah, I’m, I was so happy to, to, that we could do that, and I’m so glad now to actually get some feedback that, hey, that’s helpful. Cool!
Sarah: So Josephine –
Lisa Marie: Yes.
Sarah: – is Josephine de la Peña.
Lisa Marie: Yes.
Sarah: Is she Latina?
Lisa Marie: Yes, she is. She’s Mexican-American.
Sarah: And Zaf Ahmadi is the hero.
Lisa Marie: Yes, he is.
Sarah: Is he Pakistani? Did I read that correctly?
Lisa Marie: Yes, he is.
Sarah: So, has that caused a problem for you with this book?
Lisa Marie: Okay. So the short answer is yes.
Sarah: Ah, crap!
Lisa Marie: Yes.
Sarah: I mean, I knew the answer, but still. Damn it.
Lisa Marie: Absolutely. Okay, I need to explain. Kimani Romance, as I interpreted it, is a multicultural line, and to be honest, prior to writing book four – and this is important, and I’ll tell you why in a moment – prior to writing book four, the three heroines of the previous books, they’re African-American. One of them, her happy ending is with a, a white man. Another, her happy ending –
Sarah: Oh, that never happens. Like, never ever.
Lisa Marie: That never happens, does it?!
Sarah: No, never.
Lisa Marie: My gosh. This fiction, huh?
Sarah: Ugh.
Lisa Marie: I have quite the imagination, right? But –
Sarah: What, what – ugh. Whatever you’re on, can I have some, please?
Lisa Marie: [Laughs]
Sarah: ‘Cause clearly this is just so unrealistic. I mean, this doesn’t reflect any reality except the one that you and I actually live in, and also, I actually went and looked, Harlequin Kimani stories feature sophisticated soulful and sensual African-American and multicultural heroes and heroines who develop fulfilling lives –
Lisa Marie: Yes.
Sarah: – as they lead lives full of drama, glamour, and passion. So, football teams, private jets, DEA agents, falling in love with the guy who shot you –
Lisa Marie: Uh-huh.
Sarah: – this all fits!
Lisa Marie: Right?
Sarah: So far, so good. So, what, what –
Lisa Marie: Except –
Sarah: – what happened?
Lisa Marie: Except I, you know, to be honest, I, I began to break a rule with book four, in which I wrote a truly multiracial, multicultural heroine who struggles with her racial, cultural, and religious identities? And that’s in book four, Mine Tonight, and the thing is, though, on the cover, the heroine is portrayed much differently than she is in the book. And so when people –
Sarah: That never happens, either.
Lisa Marie: Uh-huh.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: The thing is, though, I’ve received feedback from readers who felt sort of bamboozled because of that, and they’re saying, you know what? Why is it that she’s dark-skinned on the cover; however, in the book, she has blue eyes, she’s fair-skinned, she’s, she’s wondering if, if she should live the life of a Jewish person? Why is this? This is not on the cover. Okay. So, you know, so I absorbed that. I, I listen. Okay, all right.
Sarah: But that’s not something you have control over –
Lisa Marie: It is not.
Sarah: – most of the time.
Lisa Marie: It is, it is not; however, by that point, I already knew that I was going to give Joey her story, and she deserved it, and why not? And no, she is not black, and I will tell you, to be honest, it was a very unpopular opinion for me to do that, simply because she is not black.
Sarah: Among your readers?
Lisa Marie: Among readers, actually, and, and also with my line, if I’m going to be honest, because the Kimani line actually asks for the heroines to be African-American, and it’s not something that I knew starting out, and I always say, though, in traditional publishing, it is, it’s a game of a delicate compromise, is how I would put it, because what you’re trying to do is create a book while satisfy-, satisfying the wants of your publisher, your readers, and yourself, and in One More Night with You, I found that each of those things were different. So what I wanted to accomplish with this book was not what most people would feel the readers wanted or what the, the publisher wanted, so I had to take elements of all three of those wants, combine them, and create a book out of it. So both of the leads are, are not black, that is true; however, as I said, there is a secondary romance that includes a black man and a Japanese-American woman, and their story actually is, is, is something I very much love about the book, to be honest.
Sarah: Really? How come?
Lisa Marie: Oh, geeze, it is just, it’s so honest. It’s –
Sarah: I have to say, I love when you talk to a writer, and they’re like, I’m so excited about this romance that I wrote. Like, these two people – and you, I know how, in your brain, they kind of become real? You’re like –
Lisa Marie: They do.
Sarah: – I made happiness, and I love it so much! Like, please tell me all about this, because it’s so great when you hear an author just excited about the characters and the story that they created, so tell me all of the things!
Lisa Marie: Absolutely. So I’ll actually start, I’ll start then with the, with the secondary couple. So, yes, our, our kicker, he, he’s a, he’s a young man who really came from terrible circumstances. He abused drugs in, in the past. He was traded from a previous football team onto this fictional Las Vegas team, and, and he’s really, his past essentially will always follow him, and even the team owners, when they suspect that someone is abusing drugs, they say to Joey, you know, hey, we’re wanting, we’re wanting you to infiltrate, we’re wanting you to get information, we want you to look at this man. Look at this man. Look at our kicker. He does a great job, he’s a talented kicker, he’s looking to break records; however, his past is still there, and people look at that before they look at him, and so, so he’s carrying that, you know? And I, I don’t know if I will call it baggage, but that is his reality, and so, while he’s doing that, though, he’s also getting caught up in the parties. He’s getting caught up in, you know, the brotherhood of, of, of being on a football team, you know, the locker-room dynamics, and so he’s also just, he’s looking at, you know, he’s looking at women and saying, hey, I’ve got this money now. My name is on ESPN. I, I have options, and beautiful women are approaching him, and you know, I feel that I can’t avoid saying this, but Joey catches his eye, and he actually, he’s attracted to her. Meanwhile, he’s not realizing that he’s also falling in love with his friend, who is his, she lives in his neighborhood, and she has a dog that, they met because her dog peed on his garage door. And –
[Laughter]
Lisa Marie: – and, and his friend, Minako, she is, she’s a delight. She’s a pharmacist, actually, so she, she, she deals with drugs too, but in a different capacity, right?
[Laughter]
Lisa Marie: Which is actually significant in the story, but I really shouldn’t say why.
Sarah: Okay, don’t spoil.
Lisa Marie: I shouldn’t say why, but yes. But, but, so he doesn’t realize that, you know, when, when he sees his friend dressing, dressing herself in a certain way, you know, to go out clubbing with him, and he’s starting to get jealous, but he doesn’t realize why! He’s saying, oh, hey, I’m attracted to Joey.
Sarah: Men. [Sighs]
Lisa Marie: Okay. However, I’m jealous because people are looking at my friend, Minako, and so it, it’s very cute, and because – [laughs] – meanwhile, Minako is sending him signals that, oh, I am so into you, I want to be more than friends, and it’s really quite interesting, though, because, you know, as things develop, and as he finds himself sort of chasing Joey, at the same time, you know, his friend is, she won’t take his shit at all. She, she talks very frankly to him, she’s very honest with him, and she’s actually his salvation in a way. And he’s –
Sarah: I love a heroine who takes no crap.
Lisa Marie: Oh, yes! I love, I want to be friends with her, actually. She’s, she’s a joy. She’s a delight. But he always, you know, when something bad goes wrong, where does he go? He always goes to his friend Minako, and so he, he, eventually, though, it, it takes a lot, but he realizes that he completely, completely screwed up when, you know, when he didn’t sort of pay, pay attention to what was developing between Minako and himself, and he believes at some point that he’s really lost her in every capacity, in every way, and it just won’t, things won’t be the, the same as they were before. And so I very much enjoyed writing that, and I, I do – [laughs] – regret that I didn’t have the opportunity to, you know, give them a full story, but – because, my God, I would, I would so have enjoyed to do it. I really, I really enjoyed them as much as I did the primary couple, to be honest. So they felt even more significant than secondary to me, and there have been a couple of readers, though, who, who also share in their true enjoyment, you know, of the secondary couple, and, and that makes me feel good. You know, I, you know, I, so I’m thinking that, hey, I’m glad I’m not the only one who, you know, by surprise, you know, I actually fell for these people, and, and, you know, I’m, I’m so, I’m so glad, though, that I, that, that I wrote that, because it actually, it offered the opportunity to also show the heroine and even the hero from a different perspective, and so it all sort of ties together, and I, I really appreciate that my brain was able to do that?
[Laughter]
Sarah: Isn’t it nice when you can look at your brain and be like, wow, thank you!
Lisa Marie: Yeah!
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: Like, hey, you’re capable of some things here; I’m proud. Yay!
Sarah: Good!
Lisa Marie: But, but, but most definitely. And so it’s actually a nice contrast, though, because, so the secondary couple, there’s a, a bit of sweetness and lightness to their romance. However, with Joey and Zaf, there’s so much hell. So much. It, it is, it is not easy for them, and I, I refuse to make things pretty for them and to sugarcoat things. So –
Sarah: So mean.
Lisa Marie: Yeah, I had to be. [Laughs] I had to be, and, and I have to also say, this also goes into sort of the rule-breaking that I did with this book, and some people might find that the language, ah –
Sarah: Did you drop an f-bomb? Oh, no.
Lisa Marie: I think, like, a dozen. [Laughs]
Sarah: You used bad words?
Lisa Marie: I did! I used –
Sarah: [Gasp!]
Lisa Marie: – the cock word. [Laughs]
Sarah: Oh, my goodness!
Lisa Marie: And I don’t even know if I should say this, but I used the P word, and I was talking to someone –
Sarah: Penis?
Lisa Marie: – P as in vagina.
Sarah: Wait, you used the word penis and the word vagina?
Lisa Marie: No – [laughs] – well, I think I do use the word penis somewhere in that book, but, so, can I say –
Sarah: Oh, pussy! Oh, God. I was like –
Lisa Marie: You can say that?
Sarah: – doing dumb word – oh, please –
Lisa Marie: Okay.
Sarah: – it’s a podcast. I have no FCC oversight. You can say whatever the hell you want. Bring it!
Lisa Marie: Okay, yeah, ‘cause I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t know if, if, you know, I was going to get mail.
Sarah: Oh, no, this is, this is most definitely not NPR.
[Laughter]
Lisa Marie: Great! So, yes, I, I used, I used the word pussy –
Sarah: [Gasp!]
Lisa Marie: – and the thing is – [laughs] – the thing is, people are saying, I don’t think you can use that in category at all. I don’t think it’s ever been done, and I was just wondering why not? I mean, don’t people refer to it as a pussy, just the same as you refer to a penis as a cock? So where I come from, a cock is a cock. You know, I’ve got to say. And so –
Sarah: I think every writer has their language, but seeing pussy in a romance, particularly if it’s a really intense sexual scene, does not throw me at all. Like, I just sort of accept that that’s part of the language of some really intense sex scenes –
Lisa Marie: Yes!
Sarah: – for some books. Like, it’s, it’s, it’s part of the vernacular, I run into it, but –
Lisa Marie: Okay, great. ‘Cause it’s so natural –
Sarah: – I, I don’t, I mean there are some places where I don’t expect it, but this is not one of them.
Lisa Marie: [Laughs] Hi, how you doing, you pussy? No. [Laughs] No, nonono. But it is, it does occur doing, you know, during a, a sex scene, and it felt natural to me, so I think it works, so.
Sarah: Well, if it’s what the characters would say, then obviously that’s what they say.
Lisa Marie: Yeah!
Sarah: Now, is there a suspense element to this book, too? Because –
Lisa Marie: Most definitely. Because –
Sarah: Ohhh!
Lisa Marie: Oh, yeah, and, and so, sort of the, the drama that began in book one, it really comes to a head in, in, in Joey’s story. She’s, when she was investigating someone, she stumbled upon an illegal gambling ring?
Sarah: In football?!
Lisa Marie: Yes, in football. So –
Sarah: Seriously, this multicultural, multiethnic, all-abilities, crazy world that you are living in and where people bet out-, outside the boundaries of the law on football –
Lisa Marie: Yes.
Sarah: – I just, I’m really not sure I can handle this, this amount of worldbuilding here. Anyway. Sorry. [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: Oh, oh, I know, I know. I must have been, like, on soda and Pop Rocks or something, right?
[Laughter]
Sarah: Soda and Pop Rocks. That’s what I’m going to blame any, like, complete crazysauce romance that I read. Like, he’s a duke, but he’s secretly a pirate, or he’s a pirate, secretly a duke, and it’s set in, like, 2015. Yes. Pop Rocks and soda, that’s what happened there.
Lisa Marie: Absolutely! [Laughs]
Sarah: And also he’s a wizard and possibly a dragon. Pop Rocks and soda! Bring it on! Anyway.
Lisa Marie: [Laughs more] Oh, my gosh. But yes, so, yes. So she had really stumbled upon this illegal gambling ring, and she discovered illegal bounties that were taking place. People were paid under the table to injure other people.
Sarah: Oh, that never happens in the NFL!
Lisa Marie: Well, of course it never happens, right? Never happens in football. No one’s ever motivated to, you know, line their pockets. Of course not! [Laughs]
Sarah: Using the Achilles tendon of another player.
Lisa Marie: Ow, my God, ouch. Or, or damaging the spine of another, yes.
Sarah: Or, you know, their heads. It’s like, you know, brains and, you know –
Lisa Marie: Oh, yeah!
Sarah: – that’s fine.
Lisa Marie: Sure, sure.
Sarah: Yeah. Oh, wow.
Lisa Marie: So, yeah, so she’s uncovered this, and then the man who’s really at the, at the head of it, his, he owns a ca-, a very, very, very elite casino, and his, you know, he’s a dirty dude, and, and he’s not happy about it, so she essentially has interfered with his business and with his earning potential, and, so you have the, you have associations, and you have the league looking at him, and you have the feds looking at him, and he’s, he’s not happy about it, so naturally he feels that it, it’s only within his right to retaliate and eliminate her. Zaf is in town to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Sarah: And so the solution to this is, he’s going to pretend to be her boyfriend so that he can be in her presence protecting her all the time.
Lisa Marie: Yes.
Sarah: So essentially, what you have here is a sports romance/romantic suspense –
Lisa Marie: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: – with a pretend relationship between two people who had a very bad breakup –
Lisa Marie: Yeah.
Sarah: – and then a secondary romance with two people who are a friends-to-lovers story.
Lisa Marie: Precisely!
Sarah: So you just basically took catnip and put the book in it and just sort of swirled it around for a while.
Lisa Marie: Ooh, I like that image.
Sarah: Oh, yeah. That, this is – I guarantee you, someone listening to this has pulled over to, like, start taking notes, because this is so many people’s book catnip.
Lisa Marie: Oh, wonderful. It was mine. It’s, it’s, actually, to be honest, it is my favorite in, in the series.
Sarah: You’re not supposed to have a favorite!
Lisa Marie: I’m not supposed to pick favorites, right? [Laughs]
Sarah: Nah, you’re not allowed to do that!
Lisa Marie: It’s my favorite, but that’s not to say, my God, believe me, I’m the first to, it is not perfect. I’m the first to say it.
Sarah: Oh, no.
Lisa Marie: This story is not perfect. I would, I would say my favorite book of all times is, of all time is Nora Roberts’ Carolina Moon? But I’ve told people before, however, if I had written that book, I would, I would find ev-, I would find every flaw, I would not like it, you know, as much. [Laughs] It’s just that way.
Sarah: Oh, totally!
Lisa Marie: It’s just how it is. I feel that, you know, nothing I have written or will ever write will be perfect. It just won’t.
Sarah: Oh, no.
Lisa Marie: But it gives me a goal. So – [laughs]
Sarah: Well, I, I always, I’m always sort of fascinated, because I’m both a reviewer and a, and an author, and I’ve written two nonfiction books and then a, a contemporary novella, and –
Lisa Marie: Hmm!
Sarah: – I always see people talking about how, well, the author should always give their own books five stars, except they shouldn’t grade their own books, but if they did, it should be every book is five stars, and I’m thinking –
Lisa Marie: Uh-uh.
Sarah: – no, I would not give all my books five stars.
Lisa Marie: Mm-mm.
Sarah: Like, I know about mistakes in the first two books and in, and in the novella that I was, I would really like to change, but –
Lisa Marie: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: – it’s already done.
Lisa: Marie: Mm-hmm. Absolutely!
Sarah: I can’t go change it, ‘cause, I mean, I can’t – I can’t! It’s just not possible, but there are things I would love to go back and fix and, and –
Lisa Marie: Yes.
Sarah: – and I evaluate them. At the time, that was, that was an incredible achievement for my brain, but now that my brain is older and has done more writing, I can see where I would have done things differently –
Lisa Marie: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: – if I had to do it over again. You know what I mean?
Lisa Marie: Absolutely.
Sarah: I think it’s healthy to be critical of your own writing, though.
Lisa Marie: Oh, oh, yeah. Exactly. Even going through to pick, you know, excerpts to share for various things –
Sarah: Oh, God.
Lisa Marie: – I’m like, I don’t like looking at this! [Laughs] It’s a phenomenon. I think a lot of people experience that, even, I’ve heard actors say, you know, they absolutely don’t want to look at – I think even Johnny Depp. He doesn’t like to look, you know, at his, at his films or see himself sort of, see his work?
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: It just feels strange, you know, so.
Sarah: There’s a really good scene in Judith McNaught’s Perfect, I think it is, because – speaking of Pop Rocks and soda pop – the heroine is a, a young woman who is a teacher, and she picks up this guy on the side of the road who she thinks is, is hitchhiking, and I think she sees that his jeans are, like, brand-new and still have the crease down the front, and she’s thinking, you know, he’s got brand-new clothes, he must be trying to get to a job interview, he’s trying to impress someone. I’ll just, I’ll give him a ride, and of course, he’s a former movie star who was convicted of murder and sent to prison, and he just escaped.
Lisa Marie: Yeah.
Sarah: But she didn’t know, ‘cause, I mean, under a rock or something, I don’t remember that particular, but anyway, he’s like, uh, yeah, well, you’re stuck with me. I’m kidnapping you in your car. So they have this little, like, you know, fugitive road trip where of course they fall in love, because romance novel –
Lisa Marie: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: – and the place where he ends up taking her has a bunch of his movies, and once she figures out who he is and what’s happening, she’s trying to make the, the best of it, and then they start to sort of become sort of friends and, in this weird sort of power imbalance that they have going on, and they sit down and they watch some of his movies. And they’re, like, super sexy films, so he starts telling her, okay, so what you can’t see is that I have my elbow in her belly, and she’s trying not to laugh because I’m tickling her, and there’re, like, seventy-five people in the room filming this, and it’s the least sexy thing I have ever done –
Lisa Marie: Yeah!
Sarah: – in my life, so you’ve got this gorgeous, sex-drenched scene of these two people who are just totally into each other, and he sort of pulls back the focus and tells her what’s really happening in the movie? The whole time, he didn’t want to watch any of his films.
Lisa Marie: Uh-huh.
Sarah: She’s like, let’s watch this one! He’s like, no, no, no.
Lisa Marie: [Laughs]
Sarah: No.
Lisa Marie: Yes!
Sarah: I love, I love that scene. If you haven’t read that book, it’s just, oh!
Lisa Marie: I read it once.
Sarah: Pop Rocks and soda cola. Mm-mm-mm.
I would really like to know about your next series too. Would you be willing to talk about it?
Lisa Marie: Oh, yes? I’ll need a –
Sarah: Okay, so, here, this is the email you sent me, and I’m just like, I, this is, this might be my new favorite assemblage of letters? You know, I like it when these letters are in this order. The series for Forever is titled Guilty Pleasures and introduces a sex shop owner, an erotic baker who specializes in dick cakes, and a boudoir photographer. Please tell me all about this. Oh, have mercy! I think that what you need is a lot of dick cake on the cover of these books.
Lisa Marie: [Laughs]
Sarah: You don’t need a puppy; we need giant icing dongs here. This is what we need.
Lisa Marie: I will send that note to my editor. [Laughs]
Sarah: Yeah, I, we need some buttercream peen, is what we need. And you know how all those cozy mysteries have super cute names, like, all the ones that are set in bakeries and cupcake shops because it’s not at all weird that all these murders happen in, like, a twelve-foot square radius of this one woman who runs a bakery in a small town and is very successful at it, despite people not eating carbs? So they all have cute names, right?
Lisa Marie: Yes!
Sarah: You need, okay, you, you need these to have, like, Buttercream Peen needs to be the title of a book here, right?
Lisa Marie: [Laughs – starting to run out of air]
Sarah: Double Dipping and Finger Licking – I’m here all day. Just let me know.
Lisa Marie: Oh, my God!
[Laughter]
Sarah: Now I guarantee you, I would remember those titles, and I don’t remember titles, but we should totally have a book called Buttercream Peen, right?
Lisa Marie: Oh, my gosh!
Sarah: Okay.
Lisa Marie: That’s awesome.
Sarah: So, anyway, tell me about these books! Ah! This is so great!
Lisa Marie: Yes! Actually, you know what, if you find the cover, it’s, it is such, it’s a pretty cover. It’s a lovely cover, and you see no hint of a sex shop, though. The series is based on Cape Cod, and so what’s happening is, on Cape Cod somewhere, there are people who are opening businesses that are very, very sexual, and – so essentially, three friends. The, the first one is, she’s actually a virgin who inherited her aunt’s sex shop.
Sarah: As you do.
Lisa Marie: And so of course she decides, of course I’m going to run this. I’m going to run this. I’m going to run the hell out of it. Okay, so, and, and so her friend has the, the shop next door, and that’s her erotic bakery, and then next to that is the boudoir photography studio. However, underneath, underneath these businesses is a nightclub that they’re all running together with the help of someone else, and it is Guilty Pleasures, and so, go down to this club, you’re going to see something very different from what you would ordinarily see on the Cape. You’re going to see people grinding, you know. They’re grinding, they’re drinking, they’re having a good time, and this is sort of the place to be. This is a place I would, I would be if, if I went to the Cape, or back to the Cape, because this is actually, to be honest with everyone, inspired by a trip that I took when I was younger to the Cape, and so I, you know, I went there and I ate a chocolate penis, and I got sick.
[Laughter]
Sarah: You know, I, I could just, I could separate that, just that one sound bite for you. I ate a chocolate penis –
Lisa Marie: [Laughs]
Sarah: – and I got sick. It could be your ringtone!
Lisa Marie: You know, you eat a chocolate penis, an entire chocolate penis, it’s just not going to end well.
Sarah: There are so many jokes, and they have all run to the front of my brain, and they have collided with one another. So, yeah, okay. Anyway.
Lisa Marie: [Laughs] Yeah, so, it’s, absolutely, it’s, so this series, the seed is simply, I took this trip, and, you know, the chocolate penises, the meeting lobster men –
Sarah: Yep.
Lisa Marie: I like a very specific type of man. I mean, there’s just –
Sarah: You are not alone in that.
Lisa Marie: Yeah, there’s just a type, you know, a type of guy that just really does it for me, and, you know, rugged, just, hoo! Ah! I don’t know. So, you know, he, he’s working with his hands, he’s on a boat, just so sexy, and so the hero in Meant to Be Mine, he is a longshoreman, and he cannot quite put his demons to rest. He is getting past drug abuse. He was very deep into that when, when he was a teenager –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: – and it took him a very long time to get clean and stay clean, and, and the heroine is someone who essentially comes back into his life after being away for a very, very, very long time, and they used to be friends, and it’s, it’s a very lovely story in the sense that she helps him put, put away some of these, some of these demons, and he in turn helps her to really accept that she has a second chance at life. In addition to being a virgin, our heroine, Sofia, is also a heart transplant recipient, and once she got her new heart, she had been quite hesitant, really, to get her new lease on life, to get it going and to really embrace and really accept that this is her heart, and she’s not simply, you know, hanging on to it for someone else or is keeping someone else’s heart. So it’s, it’s, it’s very lovely. It’s extremely sexy, and it’s extremely bawdy and fun. It broke my heart a few times to write it. I, actually, this is the first book where I was working on it, and it made me cry, and you know, I had to step away from my computer for a while and come back! And so it, it is, this one’s quite personal, but at the same time, though, it’s so dirty. It’s so dirty, and I love that about, about this book. I really hope that, that other people will love that too. So you get your dick jokes, you get your explicit sexy times –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: – you – [laughs] – It’s all there! It’s all there, and, and I really, you know, I really enjoy seeing these two people figure out how to fall in love and how to recognize it. So it, it’s just, it was a wonderful experience, and, and I’m delighted, really, and it, this one, the first book drops in August, and the, the second one is coming in December, and you’re going to see our erotic baker show her skills. Her new assistant is very, very hot, and –
Sarah: Oh, that’s just terrible.
Lisa Marie: He’s so hot, and it’s difficult, though, you know. If you’re making, if you’re making dick cakes, you know, or filling up chocolate dick molds, you know, and you’ve got this assistant who’s standing next to you, and he’s freaking hot –
Sarah: Yep.
Lisa Marie: – it makes your job just a little bit difficult, I would say.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: Just a bit. And so, I mean, there’s even – okay, so I’ll give this, this little, tiny little bit away in book two, which is coming in December, where he challenges the accuracy of her dick molds, and he says, okay –
Sarah: Oh, no.
Lisa Marie: – I see your large here, I see your large, but it’s inaccurate; it’s not large enough. And, and, of course she tells him to unzip and prove it –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: – and he, he proves it! [Laughs]
Sarah: Oh, my goodness.
Lisa Marie: He proves it, sure! So, so I’m, I’m having too much fun, really.
[Laughter]
Sarah: Sounds like it! For the research for this, are you making a lot of inappropriate baked goods?
Lisa Marie: Yes! Okay, so –
Sarah: Oh, that’s just terrible.
Lisa Marie: Yes! You have nipple tarts?
Sarah: Nipple tarts!
Lisa Marie: Nipple – [laughs] – nipple tarts.
Sarah: I’ve never looked for that on Pinterest. Is this something I need to do?
Lisa Marie: If you find it, send it to me, and I’ll put it on my board. [Laughs]
Sarah: Nipple tarts.
Lisa Marie: Nipple tarts, the edible vulva, and has the, has a piercing –
Sarah: Of course.
Lisa Marie: – which is also edible.
Sarah: Of course.
Lisa Marie: Of course. The favorite, of course, is, well, the heroine’s favorite to make is her selection of, of chocolate dicks, and, and she believes in diversity too, now, so you’ll see, you’ll see milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate.
[Laughter]
Lisa Marie: You just have to be, you know, I have to think about everyone, and, and, and people like different things, and so she has that variety.
Sarah: So tell me quickly about your book for Kensington.
Lisa Marie: Oh, okay. So we will see these books in 2017, actually, and it’s –
Sarah: Isn’t it so funny how publishing is, like, nine years ahead of us?
Lisa Marie: Oh, I know!
Sarah: I kind of wonder –
Lisa Marie: Always, like, thinking ahead! Right?
Sarah: – what date do they write on their checks? Like, do they just get to the checkout and they’re like, oh, is it, what year is it? Is it 2019, ‘cause that’s what I was working on.
Lisa Marie: [Laughs] Precisely. But, ah, yes, for Kensington, this is a hockey series, so I can’t stay away from sports, can I?
[Laughter]
Lisa Marie: And it, it follows three very, very badass brothers who have blue-collar roots, and they play for a fictional New York hockey team, and it’s, it is so, this, this series is just so delicious. And these men, they are dirty talkers, they are coarse; however, their heroines, you know, they, much like women that I like to write, they’re just not going to take their shit, and –
Sarah: Of course.
Lisa Marie: They’re just not going to, and, and I love the back-and-forth. I so love it, and I so enjoy seeing these people sort of, what happens is they sort of see each other, they see each other really through a, a lens of all of the shit that they’re carrying? If, if that makes sense.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: But then, you know, when they start to change, they’re actually able to see themselves differently, just, just by being in a relationship and knowing, and knowing that other person, and so that happens, you know, for, for each couple, but in a different way, and I’m just, I’m truly excited about it, and I, I’m majorly attracted to hockey players, I’m not going to lie.
[Laughter]
Lisa Marie: So researching it, going to games, and, and such? Ohhh! I’m getting a joy out of it.
Sarah: That’s just a horrible thing to have to go research, too, like –
Lisa Marie: Oh, well.
Sarah: – I, I need to go to all of these sports events for, for research purposes. It’s, that’s just, it’s just terrible.
Lisa Marie: Oh, it’s so, it’s so difficult. It’s so difficult. Occupational hazard, for sure. [Laughs]
Sarah: So I have one last question for you.
Lisa Marie: Yes.
Sarah: I always ask this: what have you read recently that you would recommend and love to tell people about?
Lisa Marie: Oh, dear. I have read, I have read quite a few keepers recently. So, you know, I will start by saying, I actually lately have not been reading a lot of contemporary. I, so I write it, and then, but, however, I read quite a bit of historical, so I have a couple of historical recs, and I do have a contemporary, and I’ll start with that one. That one is Rock Redemption, Nalini Singh. Oh, my gosh – [sighs] – I do not read quite a bit of, of, of rock star books. I know there’re a lot out there –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Lisa Marie: – but this, this book makes me want to gobble up everything this woman has written, and I feel if I can have that sort of connection, then something awesome is happening here, and so I just really want to, you know, I’m sure it, it’s a very, very popular book as it is, but anyone who’s listening to this, if you have not tried it, please do. It will, you won’t forget it, and it will change things for you.
Historical, I recently read Beverly Jenkins’ Forbidden?
Sarah: Oh, that book.
Lisa Marie: Ugh. Hoo! Oh!
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: Oh, my word! [Laughs] It’s, good grief, it’s, it’s so lovely. I’m just, I’m, I’m literally, like, just, hoo! I am fanning, I’m not kidding, I’m fanning myself.
Sarah: That’s not a surprise!
Lisa Marie: It’s just, it’s so – I, I don’t know. It’s a simple word to say, but that book is absolutely beautiful!
Sarah: [Laughs] It really is.
Lisa Marie: There are so many things that, that she does right in that story!
Sarah: I could have sworn you were going to be like, that book is so hot!
Lisa Marie: Oh! [Laughs]
Sarah: But is also beautiful. It, it is –
Lisa Marie: Yes! It is!
Sarah: Oh!
Lisa Marie: It is! I felt that, I came away from it feeling as if I could, she showed us really the hearts of these characters, and I can see their hearts, and, and, and I could just sort of feel things along with them. You know, you know, you could picture them, you know what I mean? You can look at the cover, you can imagine how they look, but even beyond all that, I just felt that I was able to, to get to know them, and, you know, just in the, in the certain way that, that goes deeper than, than the surface, and I just, oh, she just did it so well. Beautiful book, and I recommend it to, to everyone, really. People I know who don’t read quite a bit and, and, you know, I, I, I have recommended that, and so – [sighs] – gosh, love it.
And then there’s another, and this is actually a series, to be honest, if I can cheat and do that, and it’s the Pennyroyal Green series by Julie Anne Long?
Sarah: I love that series.
Lisa Marie: Yes! Well, I came in midway through, actually. I think I came in on book three or four, I can’t remember exactly, but, you know, and, and I, I just, I had to have ‘em all. I had to have ‘em all, and I went, I, I was haunting Barnes and Noble.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Lisa Marie: I, for the last book, for Lyon and Olivia’s story, I was, I was a crazy person. I kept going to Barnes and Noble and looking, and it wasn’t on the shelf yet, and when it was, I took a picture. I was like, I’m so happy! But, gosh, she, Julie is, my God, she’s, she’s a brilliant storyteller, and I, I’ve heard this expression before, where people will say that a writer can paint a picture with words. She really does. I feel she really does.
Sarah: Oh, her books are very visual.
Lisa Marie: It’s funny, because I really feel intelligent when I read her work! [Laughs] I do, I feel like, I am so smart, having read this! And it’s just, this is, you know, this has educated me, and this has enlightened me, and, and, and I, I love it. When I was in school I, I was a terrible history student, so it’s very funny, you know, that I just gobble up historical romance, and a big part of that is, you know, I like to know the research and, and just, with the understanding that it, of course it’s not all going to be perfect, ‘cause we’re all just researchers, right? But I, I still, I love learning from it. So I would say those are my recs at this point.
Sarah: That is a very good series of recommendations.
Lisa Marie: [Laughs]
Sarah: I mean, seriously.
Lisa Marie: Oh, gosh. And I so enjoy it. I, I, I’m happy. So I hope I’ve added a few books to people’s To Read piles.
Sarah: Honestly, I, either people are going to be like, oh, my God, I read that book, it’s so good! Or they’re going to be like, now I must read all of these!
Lisa Marie: Oh, yeah. I, I love that, I love that when I discover someone new, you know, and I adore it, and I find out they have a backlist.
Sarah: You’ll read everything they’ve ever written.
Lisa Marie: Yep! Collect it all. Yep, that’s what I’m doing, so it’s, it’s not the best thing for my pocketbook, but –
Sarah: Yeah, none of us ever really –
Lisa Marie: If I don’t, if I don’t read I feel like I’m missing something essential, so –
Sarah: Oh, me too, me too, and if I don’t get to read a little bit I get really ornery.
Lisa Marie: [Laughs]
Sarah: Like, what’s wrong with you? I haven’t read! Please, fuck off.
Lisa Marie: [Laughs more]
Sarah: Okay, go report to your chair. I’m going to!
[Laughter]
[music]
Sarah: And that is all for this week’s podcast. I want to thank Lisa Marie Perry for hanging out with me and discussing all of the things that she writes. I will have links to all of the books that we discussed in the podcast entry, which is also called the show notes, at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.
This episode is sponsored by J. Kenner’s Dirtiest Secret, published by Bantam Books, available in paperback and eBook.
It was wrong for us to be together. It was even harder to be apart. Everyone knows him as a notorious playboy, but to me, he’s still the one man I desperately crave, yet the one I can never have. We’ve tried not letting ourselves give in to desire, and for so long we’ve told ourselves no. Now it’s finally time to say yes.
You can find out their Dirtiest Secret with J. Kenner’s new SIN series, available April 19th.
The music you’re listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater. You can find her on Twitter @SassyOutwater. This is the band Sketch. This track is called “Fire Them Up” from their album Shed Life, which you can find on Amazon or iTunes or wherever you like to buy your funky music.
And if you’re a regular listener or reader of the podcast transcripts and you’d like to support the show, please have a look at our Patreon campaign at Patreon.com/SmartBitches. I set it up by listener request, and certainly you are not obligated, because the podcast will not change! It will continue to roll out on Fridays, but if you would like to contribute or make a monthly pledge, starting with as little as $1, you can help me reach goals like providing transcripts for all of the episodes that don’t have one yet. You can see all the information, rewards, and options at Patreon.com/SmartBitches. And thank you to everyone who nudged me to set one up and to everyone who’s backed the show already.
Future podcasts will include me and other people talking about romance novels, and if you were thinking, but, but, but, but it’s RT! It’s Romantic Times! Isn’t that going on right now? Well, yes, if you’re listening to this on April 15th, yes it is, and I will have a dispatch from RT featuring all of the Bitches as we assemble early one morning in my hotel room to discuss all of the things.
But in the meantime, on behalf of Lisa Marie Perry and everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a great weekend.
[fast music]
This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.
Podcast 189 doesn’t seem to have uploaded (to the RSS feed, at least!).
It isn’t downloading on iTunes, either. (I hope y’all are having a blast at RT!)
Can’t listen to it on podbean either.
My bad! I set everything and forgot to upload it. OOOPS. You should be good to go now. My apologies!
I need to put “Meant to Be Mine” into my eyeballs immediately. IMMEDIATELY.
Like, I was listening on Stitcher and had to hop online to add it to my Book Wish List on Amazon, just so I wouldn’t forget to buy it.
@SBSarah:
The discussion of erotic bakeries reminds me that you need to listen to blues songs from the 1920’s-1940’s. You will here a lot about bananas, fruit baskets, and jelly rolls as euphemisms for sexual anatomy. These songs also have other things as euphemisms such as pencils, cars, and even poodles, but I thought the food ones would relate directly to this podcast. 🙂
Aw… Perfect isn’t available in an electronic format, and it isn’t even at my library! 🙁
OMG, was listening this morning on my way to work and LOLing during the description of the bakery book. Thankfully that passed before I got on the bus or I would have been getting looks.
Also, I’ve never read anything from Lisa Marie Perry before, but now want to read everything she has and will write.
Thank you!
@SBSarah:
I also forgot that these songs include biscuits, pies, ice cream, and pudding. Can’t forget the pudding. 😉 You can probably guess why I might be a fan of the term honey pot.
@SBSarah:
There’s also this song which I think I’ll post the link to. I was actually reminded of it in the podcast where Elise was saying how she was scarred by the description of a heroin milking the hero. Keep on Churnin’ ’till the Butter Comes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8swz7WFgrU
This guy also did the song about pudding which I was trying to find to post here but youtube didn’t have it. Damnit!
Okay. I promise I’m done with this train of thought. I’m starting to feel like I’ve hijacked the thread.
And apparently I cannot spell. My apologies to Elyse. I should know to check first before writing someone’s name. Especially since I often have people who spell my name Stephanie instead of Stefanie, and I spelled Gloriamarie’s name wrong.