474. Day Trips, Fluffy Books, And Some Fries

[music]

Sarah Wendell: Hello there, and welcome to episode number 474 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell, and Amanda and I are back with one last round of questions. This week we’re talking about day trips; all the places where it is imperative that we eat french fries; we’ve got fluffy, contemporary romance recs; and we’re going to talk about tabletop games we love.

We also love hearing from you if you have answers to these questions. You can email me at [email protected], or you can leave a message at 201-371-3272. Tell me a message, leave me a joke, whatever; I love hearing from you!

Thank you to our Patreon community, who not only provide questions for these episodes but also keep the show going and make sure every episode is accessible to everyone, because every episode gets a transcript! Hi, garlicknitter; thank you for the transcript! [You’re most welcome! – gk]

I have a compliment this week:

To April: Your kindness and thoughtfulness have inspired a line of scented candles paired with fuzzy socks, and they are so perfect they sold out in two seconds.

If you would like a compliment or you’d like to have a look at the Patreon community, go to patreon.com/SmartBitches.

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Coming up at the end of the show, as always, I have an absolutely dreadful joke and an email from one of you. I have a new Mailbag feature in the outro where I hear from you, and you are all excellent!

But for now, let’s start talking about day trips and french fries. On with my podcast with me and Amanda and all of you!

[music]

Sarah: This question is from Tara C. I love this question.

“What are your favorite day trips, excursions, or adventures? My favorite day trip so far is spending an October day in Salem and then up the coast to Hammond Castle in Gloucester in the evening. They have the most amazing –“

Amanda: You got it right, by the way! You said Gloucester right!

Sarah: Oh, yeah, yeah! I know where Gloucester is!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: “They have the most amazing Haunted Castle set up! A few years ago I took my mother up there and she used me as a human shield and screamed the whole way through. It was awesome! 5 stars, highly recommend.”

I love this question, ‘cause day trips became so important – [laughs] – because we want to go anywhere, stay anywhere, and – like, we, we drove ten hours in one day to pick up the kids, even though if there had not been bus service we probably would have just booked a hotel, driven up, gone to get them, and then driven home the next day. I was like, I don’t want to book a hotel. I don’t want to stop. I don’t want to be around other people. Nope, nope, nope, nope. I barely like going into rest stops outside of our county. ‘Cause we still have a mask mandate here. It was reinstated.

Amanda: Yeah, Boston just reinstated theirs.

Sarah: We have our mask mandate, but surrounding areas do not, so the minute we were outside of our county I was like, oh! I can see your face! That’s gross! [Laughs] Ooh, I see your face!

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: No, thank you!

So my favorite day trips here in Maryland, we go to a state park on the bay. So the beach is weird. It is Sandy Point State Park. The sand is a weird sort of orange? It’s like, I call it Carrot Cake Beach, ‘cause it looks like carrot cake?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: It’s weirdly orange. I don’t believe that it is entirely natural, but it’s on the bay. So if you cross over into the eastern side of Maryland, you have to go over one bridge, and on Fridays and Mondays and Saturdays and Sundays it’s just awful because that’s where all the beach traffic is, and anyone who goes, lives anywhere with beach traffic knows what the beach traffic is like and how you will do anything to avoid it, so we don’t – like, I’ve never been to the eastern shore beaches because I don’t want to sit in traffic! But if we go to the state park it’s on the western shore, on the bay. It’s got a little bit of a jellyfish problem, but they’re not horrible jellyfish. They’re not, like –

Amanda: Oh!

Sarah: – jellyfish that want to kill you?

Amanda: Jellyfish problem.

Sarah: They’ll just, they’ll just sting and it’ll itch, and then you’re fine in half an hour. They don’t –

Amanda: I would love, like, a cross-stitch of just, like, Got a Little Bit of a Jellyfish Problem.

Sarah: [Laughs] Can make that happen!

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: But we went to the beach three Fridays in a row. We would take the dogs out for their morning walk ‘cause it’s too hot, and we would pack lunch, and Adam worked from the beach. Like, he has one of those computers that you can fold over itself into a tablet?

Amanda: Oh my God.

Sarah: So he logged into work from the beach, we sat there, we read, we had lunch, we ate french fries – ‘cause you can’t not have french fries on the beach; it is the law. You must have the fries.

Amanda: No, that’s true.

Sarah: Fries on the beach. And for some reason, being around salt air just scours out all my stress? I just feel so relaxed, and then, after you’ve been in or near salt water and you come home and you take a shower and you can just feel the salt, like, coming off you like you’re –

Amanda: Just coming off of you!

Sarah: – like you’re shedding a carapace of salt, that is also part of the cathartic experience. So my favorite day trip right now is to go to Sandy Point, because it’s not super-traffic-y. We avoid a lot of the beach traffic. We go in the morning; we leave by like two, two-thirty, before the bugs start getting bad after three. We beat all the traffic home, and, you know, coming in and out of DC, that is the other traffic you have to worry about. It is, it was the perfect day trip for us this summer; we loved it.

We used to go to Connecticut all the time when we lived in New Jersey and my in-laws lived in Connecticut, and we would always go to a shore park or a beach, and we would walk on the beach or take the kids to a playground near a beach. Anytime there’s a day trip, I just associate it with, okay, what beach are we going to? What are we doing?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: And I like places that aren’t super crowded, which is hard in the summer when you’re talking about beaches.

What about you?

Amanda: Oh God, yeah.

Sarah: What are your favorite day trips, excursions, and adventures?

Amanda: So it’s, it’s funny that Tara mentioned Hammond Castle, ‘cause I’ve been to Hammond Castle.

Sarah: Is it really good? Have, have you –

Amanda: It is –

Sarah: – used someone as a human shield?

Amanda: No, I didn’t find it that creepy, but it is very – like, the passageways are very tight –

Sarah: Oooh!

Amanda: – and it’s very, like, dark inside. They have, like, some rooms, like, set up and staged and, and stuff. But, like, the, the back, like, courtyard area, like, overlooking, like, cliffs and ocean is really beautiful.

I don’t know if I’ve made any, like, day trips recently, because I don’t have a car, but what we used to like to do is we would go find a place for, like, a little hike or a walk, like a new, like, state park that we haven’t been to and just kind of like get out, and then afterwards we would find like a really cool brewery or brew pub nearby, and then we would, like, visit a brewery and try some new beers.

Sarah: And eat french fries.

Amanda: So those are – and eat french fries, yeah. Usually some kind of food was included in –

Sarah: Obvs!

Amanda: Yeah, ‘cause we were hungry! And both Eric and I get very hangry. But I don’t think I’ve been, done any, like, new excursions.

Right now, like, personally, for myself? I live like a fifteen-minute walk away from a movie theater? So right now I’ve been going to, like, movies in the middle of the day where, like, no one’s there. Get into some air conditioning, buy myself, like –

Sarah: I love doing that.

Amanda: – buy myself like an Icee and maybe a thing of salty, buttery popcorn?

Sarah: And some fries.

Amanda: And some fries? I like –

[Laughter]

Amanda: They do serve fries at the movie theater now!

Sarah: I’m going to have to title this episode French Fries!

Amanda: And Some Fries!

Sarah: And Some Fries.

Amanda: At like 11:30, and I just hang out, watch my movie. I saw, what did I see in theaters? I went and saw Jungle Cruise. I think I’m going to do that next with the new Marvel movie coming out, Shang-Chi.

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: And just go by myself. I really, I’ve been really enjoying going to the movies by myself in the middle of the day.

Sarah: I love doing that. It, it’s like –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – a total break? I remember before the pandemic going to see the Charlie’s Angels movies by myself.

Amanda: That’s right; we talked about those!

Sarah: Yeah! We, I think it was eleven o’clock, ten, or ten-thirty or eleven o’clock on a Wednesday, there was like two whole people in the theater? It’s awesome! Get myself some lunch, sneak in some candy that I can’t buy at the theater? It’s perfect, and when you –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – when you don’t want to be around other people, going in the middle of the day is a great opportunity.

Amanda: Yeah. And there’s AC!

Sarah: And there’s AC!

Amanda: Unlike my apartment!

Sarah: [Laughs] All right, this next question is from Christina:

“I’m going back to school this fall – changing my work life completely around in a new field. If you were to do anything other than SBTB what would that be? I would also like book recs for light and fluffy books with very low stakes, preferably contemporary. My brain tells me that it wants to relax, so I can’t read books with gaslighting, angst and stressful situations at the moment. Right now I’m reading The Wedding Date and it’s the perfect amount of tension for me.”

Okay, first of all, you have so got this! Congratulations going back to school. Awesome!

Amanda: You’re going to kick ass.

Sarah: You’re going to do great. We are so cheering you on.

As far as changing my work life, if I were to do anything other than Smart Bitches, what would that be? I honestly don’t know, because this is literally my dream job. Like, I made it up.

Amanda: Yeah! No, same!

Sarah: I made it up! I made up my job! It’s pretty great! I love what I do, and like we were talking about with the whole, like, discussion of the business end of the site –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – being in charge can be very stressful. I have degrees in English and Spanish; I do not have any business training whatsoever. Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned on the job because I had to figure it out. But I like being in charge. I like being the one who tells me what to do. And it’s like I joke all the time: good news! You’re in charge! Bad news: you’re in charge.

Amanda: You’re in charge!

Sarah: It’s sometimes really scary and stressful, but I love what I do! I made up my job, and I love how I manage my time, and I figured out my work.

The benefit of being married to somebody who works for the government now – as opposed to before when he worked for a law firm – is that he has a, a hard start and a hard end time. Like, he works from X until Y. Literally, it’s called his tour of duty. Like, he has a tour of duty, so he makes X hour to Y hour. Living with someone who has that has helped me set more firm boundaries on when I do and don’t work, because I live where I work and I work where I live, so I could just work all the time, as  many people have discovered in the past year, and that is not healthy for my brain. So –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – I have learned to improve what I do by setting limits on how often and how much I do it and by making sure I have other things to do to occupy my time and my brain that aren’t work-related, like quilting and gardening and, you know, lying on the couch playing on my phone and eating french fries.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: That’s a, that’s a big part.

Amanda: French fries.

Sarah: French fries. I had fries last night; I might have them for dinner again tonight.

Amanda: Mmm!

Sarah: So I, I don’t know that I would do anything differently. I love what I do.

Amanda: In my brain, sometimes, like, I will imagine, like, if I could redo, like, a career path over again –

Sarah: Well, I mean –

Amanda: – and I had to choose something differently, I had to choose something differently –

Sarah: You had a full scholarship to study science, right? I mean, I imagine you think about, what would it be like if –

Amanda: Oh, I would never do that. [Laughs] I would never do that ever again.

Sarah: [Laughs] Never mind! Sorry, science! No Amanda for you!

Amanda: No. But, like, I would love a job like – I, I have recently been on this kick of like, what if I majored in a language and I could, like, get a job in another country and, you know, be a translator for whatever? Like, maybe that? But, like, like, I like being able to work from home – it’s been a little different, you know, with everybody home – and sometimes I do miss, like, an office thing? Like, you know, working in an office, but then I remember, I can wake up whenever I want.

Sarah: [Laughs] I do envy you that, because school starts next week, and we’re going to have to get up even earlier than we do now, because –

Amanda: Oh boy.

Sarah: – the high school starts at the ass-crack of dawn.

Amanda: I can also take a nap at 2 p.m.

Sarah: You can go to the movies in the middle of the day, and it’s okay!

Amanda: I go to the movies in the middle of the day. Like, my schedule is so flexible, and I really like that a lot, and you know, I think maybe now some industries are changing with remote work, but it, like, I can’t think of anything else that would afford me this kind of flexibility in an industry that, like, I’m genuinely passionate about and I like. So yeah, I don’t know what else I would do.

I, yeah, I did go to school originally for chemical engineering. I bounced pretty quickly after organic chem.

Sarah: [Laughs] I can’t imagine why!

Amanda: No, thank you! Yeah, I don’t know! I would love something that has, like, more of a travel focus? Not that I can’t travel now or anything like that. Well, yeah –

Sarah: I mean, you can’t travel now, but when you can travel, you can work from anywhere.

Amanda: [Laughs] I can technically travel with this job, but maybe like a job that was more travel-focused, I think I would like? But maybe not! Maybe –

Sarah: Maybe –

Amanda: – that’s a lie and I was like –

Sarah: – maybe we need a bookstore –

Amanda: – not –

Sarah: – maybe we need like a global bookstore ambassador who goes to different bookstores around the world –

Amanda: God, I would love that.

Sarah: – and be like, let me help you build your romance section.

Amanda: I wouldn’t mind.

Sarah: That’d be amazing.

Amanda: It would be amazing! Yeah! So I don’t think –

Sarah: You don’t have to say you wouldn’t change your job just ‘cause you’re talking to me, by the way. You could be like, I –

Amanda: I wouldn’t, though!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: I’m not, I’m like, I’m a terrible liar, first off. But I wouldn’t!

Sarah: And also, just as I made up my job, we kind of made up your job. Like, every, every year when we have our annual, you know, annual summary, I’m like, all right, well, what parts do you hate and not want to do anymore?

Amanda: Yeah! Like, that’s one thing, when I talk to people about this job, that is one thing I always mention is, like, during our end-of-the-year review, I was like, Sarah always asks what I like, what I don’t like –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – and the things that I don’t like, how can we tweak them so they’re not as bad, or how can we kind of shift them off your plate? And, like, that’s something wild to me.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: Because, like – not that any of my previous jobs were that terrible, except for one, but I’ve never had, like, someone in charge of me or a supervisor or a boss check in with me about, like, what parts of this job are giving you problems or you’re struggling with, and how can we fix that? Like, I’ve never had someone check in. You know, I, I think a lot of people –

Sarah: Dude, I’m like halfway up your nose. How you doing? What’s going on?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: How are ya? What’s going on? [Laughs]

Amanda: Like, I think, you know, America especially, we’re just, you know, expected to do our jobs and that’s that.

Sarah: And shut up about it, yeah.

Amanda: Yeah! Regardless of how it makes us feel, we’re just supposed to do them.

Sarah: Yep!

Amanda: And so, wow, someone actually cares about how my work is affecting my personal life and my mental health.

Sarah: Absolutely!

Amanda: What is this?!

Sarah: Well, I mean, if I’m going to make up a job, and I’m going to make up a company, and then I’m going to make up a position to have an employee, I’m going to make sure that whatever job you’re doing, we make it as agreeable and, and low-stress as possible! I mean, there’s stressful parts, but I don’t want you to be miserable!

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: Why, what’s the point –

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: – of making up a job if you’re going to be miserable in it?

Amanda: I don’t think I’ve ever been miserable, except for when we did our movie matinee and I had to cobble together a five-thousand-word discussion. [Laughs]

Sarah: And once you explained the problem, I was like, well, that’s terrible! Let’s not do that anymore!

Amanda: I was like, oh boy, this is –

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: – oof!

Sarah: I, like I said, I’ve never been to business school, I’ve never studied management, but I, I ask myself all the time, like, are you dreading doing this? Why are you dreading doing this? Do you not want to do this?

Amanda: Well –

Sarah: What is the friction here?

Amanda: I think it’s because –

Sarah: What’s the problem?

Amanda: – your experience as, like, you know, an executive assistant –

Sarah: Oh, for sure! Yes, ‘cause my job –

Amanda: – has really, like, been helpful.

Sarah: – was to smooth the way for, for other people, yeah. Yeah. That was, that’s, that has a lot to do with it. It also helps me be organized for myself? Like, I am a very good –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – executive assistant for myself and my household.

Christina, who’s going back to school, also wants fluffy, light, low-stakes, contemporary, no books with gaslighting, angst, and stressful situations. Okay, so I would suggest Jackie Lau. Everything Jackie Lau –

Amanda: Hmm!

Sarah: – but be warned: you will need snacks. You will need very specific snacks.

Amanda: Lot, lot of snacks.

Sarah: What you might want to do is flip through the start of the book and see what foods they mention there. At least that way you’ll be satisfied with whatever food is coming up next. But have snacks, for the love of God. [Laughs] ‘Cause they’re all going to make you really hungry!

I would also suggest Shelly Ellis? The dancing books.

Amanda: On Pointe is the first one.

Sarah: On Pointe, yeah, is the first one. Those would be lovely contemporary romances as well.

What else do you recommend?

Amanda: I’m just the opposite of – [laughs] –

Sarah: I know this is not – right, we were just talking about this, making recommendations that are not the thing – this is your anti-nip. This is your –

Amanda: Anti-nip! That sounds bad.

Sarah: That does – so, if something is your catnip –

Amanda: Anti-nip.

Sarah: – what is the opposite of catnip?

Amanda: My sushi.

[Laughter]

Sarah: I like sushi!

Amanda: You know I, I don’t like seafood, everybody.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: This is my sushi. If something were this – either it’s my mayo or my sushi.

Sarah: [Laughs more]

Amanda: The two, the two ends of the Amanda spectrum.

Sarah: You know, sometimes there’s sushi with mayo in it; just saying.

Amanda: Did you see that Elyse found a beer that is supposed to pair with Duke’s mayo?

Sarah: I saw that!

Amanda: I don’t know how I get my hands on it.

Sarah: The, the universe is, is aligning itself to satisfy what you need between beer, mayonnaise, Multipass. I mean, come on! The universe is aligning itself for you.

Amanda: I, so my first thought was Alice Clayton’s Hudson Valley series?

Sarah: Oh, that is a good choice!

Amanda: Small-town-ish – yeah. I found them to be fucking hilarious. And the problems aren’t super, like, high stakes or anything. There’s a, a heroine who loves cheese, which speaks to me personally, and has a crush on the, like, hunky dairy farmer at her local farmers market?

Sarah: As you do.

Amanda: Yeah. So I really like those. And then I think –

Sarah: Shannon Stacey would probably be a good choice too.

Amanda: Ooh, that is a good choice!

Sarah: Especially the ones that are set around, like – duh-duh-duh-duh – Yours to Keep, Exclusively Yours. Those were small family, and the stakes were emotional, but a lot of Shannon Stacey’s books rest on a, a conflict or a tension that is circumstantial. Like, for example, in one of her favorite stories, the tension is, I’m not supposed to, I’m not relocating here. I don’t live here; I’m only house sitting; I’m only visiting. The, the circumstantial stakes are usually what drive the tension? It’s not super angst and, and lots and lots of trauma. That’s not what you’re going to get.

Amanda: Yeah, I think I only had that one. I’m trying to think. Jackie has –

Sarah: No, that’s a good one! That’s plenty!

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: That’s good!

Amanda: That’s the one I would suggest. I really like it. There’s three books; they can kind of be read however you want to read them.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: And I hope Alice Clayton comes back to romance soon.

Sarah: I know!

Amanda: I miss her writing, so.

Sarah: So as someone who has been to grad school –

Amanda: Yep. [Laughs]

Sarah: – do you have any advice for Christina going back to school?

Amanda: It depends on what you’re going to grad school for.

Sarah: We don’t know what field; no, we do not know.

Amanda: For me personally, the education wasn’t worth it? But the networking was worth it. But then again, publishing is a very networking, social-heavy industry.

Sarah: Oh yeah.

Amanda: Grad school – pace yourself, first of all. I took on a lot in grad school? Like, I had an internship; I had a couple part-time jobs; I had class.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: So give yourself some room to breathe with classes until you get a schedule down, and then if you’re looking to add in other stuff, other commitments, sure. But I would say, wait until you figure out the, the workload, the time commitment, the social commitment. Like, my classes were at night from 6 to 10 a.m., to 10 p.m., so –

Sarah: Hard no.

Amanda: It wasn’t pleasant for four hours.

Sarah: No. After working all day!

Amanda: After working all day, yes. So I would say, you know, give yourself a, a couple weeks to settle into your grad school schedule?

Sarah: ‘Cause there’s, there’s a lot of messaging is, oh, you’ve got to do this, and you have to do this, and you have to do this; if you do this other thing, you’ve got to do this too; and –

Amanda:  And grad school’s always wonky, right, when compared to standard, like, undergrad stuff.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Amanda: And undergrad stuff is very structured; grad school is like, okay, well, how can we fit this stuff around our undergrad stuff? So I, yeah, I would say give yourself some breathing room the first few weeks before, if you have any plans to add anything else, like an internship or a job or extracurricular stuff or whatever.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: That’s my advice.

Sarah: My advice, which is just general advice that I give a lot of people is, know your why. Why? Why are you doing this?

Amanda: Why?

Sarah: What’s the why? I’m doing this; why am I doing this? Because you don’t want to get into a point where you’re completely exhausted and you don’t know why you’re doing any of the things that you’re doing. Know your why. I mean, obviously you’ve chosen to make a massive change, go into a new field? Fuck yeah! That’s awesome! So clearly you’re already familiar with, I’m doing this –

Amanda: I think that’s the scariest part.

Sarah: Oh yeah!

Amanda: I feel like that, the scariest part is over.

Sarah: Yeah. You, that’s, that’s the terrifying part. But as you add, like Amanda said, figuring out your schedule and adding stuff into it, knowing why, like, what is the why behind this? Once you know your why, you can, can figure out a lot of ways to make things work. But you have to know why you’re doing them. Just because –

Amanda: Yep.

Sarah: – is very rarely a solid answer there. Especially when there’s money involved.

Amanda: Unless, unless you’re like me an you want to order fries.

Sarah: That’s a perfectly good motivation in and of itself –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: – have some – feel like cries? Have some fries!

Amanda: And cry while you fry if you like.

Sarah: I think I need to make that cross-stitch as a really beautiful Shitpost Sampler. Feel Like Cries? Try Some Fries! With a big corgi in the middle? It’s the corgi that makes it. Feel Like Cries? Have Some Fries.

Amanda: Not, not a happy little potato?

Sarah: Nooo, ‘cause you’re about to eat it. It wouldn’t be happy.

Amanda: Well, that’s true.

Sarah: [Laughs] All right, we have a question from Malaraa!

Amanda: Malaraaaaa!

Sarah: Malaraa! Woohoo!

Amanda: Malaraa, we’ve missed you. I know we haven’t been streaming. Emma and the gang haven’t been streaming either because she’s moving, so we’ve missed you. We missed seeing you in the Twitch chats.

Malaraa asks: “Favorite board game? or card game, or any form of tabletop entertainment! I love modern board games and my collection is overflowing my available shelf space, so i always like hearing about other people’s picks!”

So I love a good tabletop card game, because they’re super portable; they’re easy to, to carry around; they’re easy to understand. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with, like, tabletop RPGs and all of their rules. So card games are a lot of fun.

I like Fluxx. Fluxx is so much fun. You can play it with just two people, and you just, like, have cards, and in order to win you have to meet the certain set of criteria, but you also have cards that can change the criteria in order to win the game. So the kind of rules to win are always changing.

Sarah: Yes.

Amanda: Another card game I have is called, I think, I think Gloom? But the cards are really cool in that the top of the card is see-through, but the bottom part of the card with, like, the description or instructions is not. So as you’re playing cards on top of each other, it, like, affects it; like, it changes the rules, but not like the character affecting the rules. It’s just like a really interestingly designed card game? But I think there’s different versions of Gloom as well. It’s kind of got like an Addams Family aesthetic, which I also like? And you can also play with two people. I usually play with just one other person, so my games are mainly focused on stuff I can play with another person.

I also have, in terms of card games, one called Unstable Unicorns?

Sarah: Mmm, that’s a good one.

Amanda: Yeah. So I’ve played that one and Exploding Kittens, which is done by the guy who runs The Oatmeal, if, if you’re familiar. But yeah, I, I’m more of a, a card game player than, like, a tabletop or board game player.

Sarah: All right, first of all, I just sent you a Kickstarter –

Amanda: Yes –

Sarah: – for a new tabletop game.

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: Their goal was twenty-five thousand dollars. They have currently pledged, received pledges for one point one five million dollars. It’s called –

Amanda: I’m looking at the art already, and it speaks to me.

Sarah: Okay, so this came from a subreddit that I follow called /dragonswithjobs that is basically the art of this person. Their name is Sandara Tang, and they draw dragons with jobs. So I will link to this in the show notes, y’all; never fear.

Amanda: Oh my God.

Sarah: Flamecraft is a tabletop game in a fantasy world with tiny artisan dragons, and the dragons need, the dragons are needed by shopkeepers to create what they need to create – Amanda is just, like, beside herself right now.

Amanda: There’s a dragon named Hot Dog!

Sarah: Yes, there is a dragon named Hot Dog! One of the places where they work is –

Amanda: That also spoke to –

Sarah: – Fogo de Char! [Laughs]

Amanda: I, I love Hot Dog the dragon already.

Sarah: Yeah, this is, this is made for you, right?

Amanda: Yes.

Sarah: Yes. Hot Dog the dragon works at Fogo de Char.

Amanda: [Squeaks]

Sarah: Yeah! There’s a dragon called Venti? Coffee, yeah. They’re adorable! So there’s a whole tabletop game Kickstarter for this, for this world with tokens, and people have played the game and said that it’s amazing, and it is, it looks like it is made for you.

Amanda: It, it looks fucking adorable. I love its whole aesthetic.

Sarah: Yep! And if you back through the Kickstarter, you, there’s, like, limited stuff, like special stuff for you as – this game is going to be so popular, and it has pledged –

Amanda: Oh my gosh.

Sarah: – $1,150,000, and there’s nine days left.

Amanda: That’s fucking amazing.

Sarah: Isn’t that incredible? So –

Amanda: That’s so great.

Sarah: – this seems so perfect for you.

Hello, everyone in – all the mammals are in my room begging –

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: Okay, you get some food, and you can toss cat food at the dog. He’ll just fart, but he’ll fart downstairs, and I won’t mind.

As for me, with Malaraa’s question, my older child has come back from sleepaway camp with a fucking Ph.D. in Fluxx. Like, he asked us for Adventure Time Fluxx, which is out of print and available online for many, many dollars, so as a backup choice he wanted Cthulhu Fluxx, and he is so into it. I think he played nine to ten hours of Fluxx a week with all of the kids in his bunk. At one point at camp they had a positive COVID test in their bunk group, and so they had to isolate, so it was just him and his bunkmates playing cards and hanging out all day, which is basically what they want to do anyway; they’re teenagers?

Amanda: Okay, back, back to the Kickstarter.

Sarah: Yeah.

Amanda: One of the gifts is a plush of Hot Dog.

Sarah: Yeah!

Amanda: Okay, this, I’m, I have to!

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: I have to!

Sarah: Wait, which level is that? Is that the Flamekeeper?

Amanda: I don’t know! It says you can get the Bread dragon or the Hot Dog dragon, the Meat dragon. I think it might be an add-on.

Sarah: [Gasps] Oh.

Amanda: I’m not sure, but I’m going to have to do that!

Sarah: Hot Dog the dragon?

Amanda: I need Hot Dog!

Sarah: Hot Dog the dragon, right? Yeah, totally!

Amanda: Yeah! Okay, sorry, continue with your, your son’s love for Fluxx.

Sarah: My child. He has played a lot of Fluxx at camp, and came home and tried to play Fluxx with us, and we were terrible combatants. We were very bad at it.

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: However, I do love it like you do, because the rules always change; it’s never the same game.

Amanda: And it’s quick!

Sarah: Oh, it’s very quick.

Amanda: It, like, goes by quickly.

Sarah: It’s very quick. I also love games that let you be snarky and clever, like Cards Against Humanity with my family, especially with some of the expansion packs we have –

Amanda: Oh, yeah.

Sarah: – is really, really fun. We played a lot of Cards Against Humanity at the beginning of the pandemic.

Amanda: I had a friend who had the, the ‘90s expansion –

Sarah: Oooh!

Amanda: – for Cards Against Humanity; it was very good.

Sarah: That’s delicious.

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: I also like, I bought Adam a copy of Monty Python Fluxx?

Amanda: Oh, I didn’t –

Sarah: Which is really fun! Really, really silly. Lot of performance aspects in that game, which make it very enjoyable. But the thing that I think makes a really good card game is how snarky or silly or clever you are while you play it and whether or not it gets better if you drink. I mean, obviously it’s the adults in my house drinking.

Amanda: And sometimes, like, Cards Against Humanity is all about pandering. I –

Sarah: Oh, absolutely! And they are –

Amanda: All about – [laughs] –

Sarah: – pandering, pandering to the judge? Absolutely. No question, you’ve got to do the pandering. It’s like, it’s like playing Jackbox games. You want to do the callback and make everyone who’s watching –

Amanda: Oh yeah.

Sarah: Yeah. It’s all about the callbacks. You are entranced by this Flamecraft game, aren’t you?

Amanda: Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m, I’m like, how do I get the, the dragon?

Sarah: [Laughs] The role of Sarah will be played by Amanda today.

Amanda: How do I get the Hot Dog dragon? Tell me your secrets!

Sarah: I am so excited for this game, but I’m also excited that the, the Kickstarter has done so well? It is adorable. It is so –

Amanda: They broke down the percentages of like how many tabletop projects reach this level of, of backing.

Sarah: That is, that would be a really interesting question.

Amanda: They did! They broke it down in their, like, updates or whatever.

Sarah: Wow. I think this is going to be such a successful game, and I think we’re going to have, like, so much of you – Meat dragon plushy!

Amanda: I know! I think it’s an add-on, so I think, like, after it goes through you can, like, choose to add –

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: – add Hot Dog. There’s Hot Dog and Bread. You can get the Bread dragon.

Sarah: Oh, I love the Bread dragon! So many dragons! Also, I love that they’ve got, made such an effort to make it available to people in other countries; it’s adorable.

Amanda: And, like, to single players. They’re like, we didn’t originally plan to do a solo version, but so many of you asked that they’ve –

Sarah: Figured it out?

Amanda: – that they’ve developed a solo version.

Sarah: Good designers are good designers.

Amanda: Eh.

Sarah: All right, so last question for you.

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: What books you want to tell people about? Or things that you’ve been reading or seeing or doing.

Amanda: So I’ve been playing Boyfriend Dungeon.

Sarah: How do you like it?

Amanda: I like it! Tara and I have been talking a lot about it, and we have a, a post that we’re working on for Boyfriend Dungeon.

Sarah: Yes!

Amanda: I really enjoyed it! There was one Saturday where just, like, I played it straight, and I think Tara beat, beat it in one day.

Sarah: Wow!

Amanda: She, like, played for eight hours and beat it, and I think she’s going through again to, like, test out some other things with it. So I’m excited to, to talk to her about it.

I’m trying to think. I’ve been just playing a lot of games. So Diablo II is an old, an older game that is getting re-released?

Sarah: Ooh!

Amanda: They have a free beta, which is like the first two acts, and one of my, like, Warcraft guild members and I just hung out yesterday and played the Diablo II beta together –

Sarah: Ooh!

Amanda: – for a couple hours, and it was, like, really fun! Especially because, like, I was getting slapped in the face a lot and dying.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: And, and, you know, he wasn’t.

Sarah: Sounds like me playing Witcher: save a lot, ‘cause you die a lot.

Amanda: Yeah! So it was a lot of fun playing through the, the first couple acts.

And I’m trying to think. I just picked up some books from the library, and there’s one that I’m very excited to start. It’s called A Master of Djinn, D-J-I-N-N –

Sarah: Ooh!

Amanda: – by P. Djèli Clark, who’s amazing. His novellas have been so good, so I’m excited for his first, like, full-length, and it’s set in 1912 Cairo.

Sarah: Ooh.

Amanda: It’s fantasy. There’s this agent, her name’s Fatma, and she’s the youngest woman to work at this, like, secret agency of, like, artifacts and whatever, and this agent brotherhood gets, like, disappears or gets, like, murdered in a day, and she’s selected to investigate. But she’s a, she’s got, like, a snarky girlfriend, and Fatma is kind of like, yeah, I guess I’ll take this. Like, I’ve already saved the world once, and, you know, everyone kind of shits on me because I’m young and a woman, but sure, I’ll save your asses again, I guess.

Sarah: [Laughs]

Amanda: That’s the vibe I’m getting, and so I’m excited to start. I just picked it up from the library on Thursday. So that’s what I’ve got.

Sarah: Awesome! From my podcast episode with Laura from The Short Game, I have been reading Crème de la Crème, the sort of Choose Your Own Adventure, interactive story?

Amanda: Yes!

Sarah: It is deeply, deeply enjoyable. I love it a lot.

Amanda: Mm.

Sarah: And it’s, there’s so much to do. Like, you can start over and go in a completely different direction. I am trying very hard to avoid the developer’s diary where she talks about the different romances?

Amanda: Ohhh!

Sarah: Because I, I don’t want to read the developer’s diary because I don’t want to spoil some of the romances for myself?

Amanda: Yeah!

Sarah: But they’re all so good! Oh, it’s really interesting.

Amanda: Is it on, like, is it on Steam?

Sarah: It is on Steam!

Amanda: Okay.

Sarah: It is available in a lot of places, and if, and because I was just wanting to read something, it’s, I’ve been reading it on my phone browser? It’s super, super easy to get into.

Amanda: It’s text-based, right?

Sarah: It’s all text, yeah, no images; it’s just text. Which was, which was exactly what my brain wanted.

But I also – let me open up my reading spreadsheet so I get the title correct – I’m about to start some of the fall witch books. There are sooo many!

Amanda: Yeah, so –

Sarah: We have a whole post about them, so get ready.

Amanda: Yes, we do! We do have a whole post about –

Sarah: The minute we see a witch, a new witch book, we write it down, and the list is long now. Everyone’s getting witches this, this fall, whether you wanted them or not! More witches for everybody! Yay!

But I have read, I read Breaking Badger by Shelly Laurenston, which was both enjoyable and completely off the wall and very, very packed with plot, to a point where I was like –

Amanda: Yeah.

Sarah: – what even is the plot anymore? I don’t understand where the plot went. Where did it go?

I also read Her Big City Neighbor by Jackie Lau, which was super adorable and delicious and lots of food porn.

Amanda: All of her books are like that. I’m curious about her first, like, trade published one coming out –

Sarah: I know!

Amanda: – with doughnuts.

Sarah: Yeah. Doughnuts!

Amanda: Yeah, it’s about doughnuts. I feel like doughnuts are having a moment, ‘cause there’s another one coming out called The Donut Trap?

Sarah: Yep.

Amanda: By Julie Tieu?

Sarah: Doughnuts are having a moment.

Amanda: Yeah! So I think we’re –

Sarah: I love when doughnuts have a moment!

Amanda: – we’re on a, we’re on a doughnut trend!

Sarah: I’m the, I’m loving doughnut trends. [Laughs]

Amanda: I’m in the works of planning a, a romance event for an upcoming romance that I’m excited about: A Certain Appeal by Vanessa King. It’s like a Pride and Prejudice retelling, but set in, like, the burlesque scene?

Sarah: Oooh!

Amanda: Yeah, so I’m in the middle of planning that for the beginning of November, and the Women in Horror panel. So our second annual Women in Horror panel: super pumped. I think –

Sarah: Are they both virtual? Are these going to be virtual or in person?

Amanda: Virtual, yeah! And I think – so one of the witch books that we’re mentioning, Cackle by Rachel Harrison, I think we’re going to have her on the Women in Horror panel.

Sarah: Ooh, awesome!

Amanda: Yeah. So just excited to plan some events that I would attend if I were a reader? 

Sarah: Well, I mean, that’s the whole point in planning a gathering, right? You want to plan the kind of gathering that you want to attend.

Amanda: Yeah! But other than that, just playing videogames, taking naps. Got a tropical storm coming today, so.

Sarah: Sounds, sounds, sounds like it, like you need to stay inside. Like every other day for the past eighteen months.

Amanda: Oh, what a hardship!

Sarah: I know, right?

Amanda: [Laughs]

Sarah: It’s only the past eighteen months of nonstop staying inside!

Amanda: [Sighs] Yeah.

[music]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode. Thank you to Amanda for hanging out with me, and thank you to Malaraa and Christina and Tara for the questions. I love doing the Ask Us Anything episodes, and I love having the podcast questions from the Patreon, so if you’re interested in joining us for the next round, have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches!

Heads up to my fellow menstruating humans: I have some frank body talk and a nifty new thing to tell you about. This episode is brought to you in part by Flex Fit, a better way to have a period. If you’re like me, making sure you have menstrual supplies can be a little bit of an anxious chore. But if you want a period product that looks out for your body, your lifestyle, and the planet, you’ve got to try Flex. Flex is innovating period care with products that are body safe, made for comfort, and made to keep you moving, and they have options. There’s the Flex Disc, which is a one-time use menstrual disc that fits perfectly inside your body. And if you want to go zero waste and have the planet love you even more, pick up the Flex Cup, which is a reusable menstrual cup that Cosmo rated number one. The patented pull tab makes the Flex Cup the only cup on the market that removes like a tampon. It’s so easy; you already know how to use it. It is disability-friendly; it is made with beginners in mind; it is velvety soft, completely body safe, and it will last for years. I am so excited to have a reusable product that works for me. My favorite part of the Flex-perience is the helpful videos, in-depth diagrams, GIF sets, and Flexperts available to walk you through the entire process. You will never go back to products from the past once you try Flex, so say good-bye to cramps and lend Mother Nature a hand: go to flexfits.com/SARAH and use code SARAH for twenty percent off Flex Disc starter kits or ten percent off your first Flex Cup, plus free US shipping. That’s code SARAH, S-A-R-A-H, at flex, F-L-E-X, fits dot com slash SARAH.

I will have links to all of the books that we talked about in this episode, and I have an email from ReadKnitSnark, including this week’s terrible joke. ReadKnitSnark says:

Love the podcast. I’ve been listening since you were in one ear and Jane was in the other. You’re doing an awesome job.

Considering that I have no longer split the audio poorly, I am really relieved to hear that.

This is the best dad joke ever. I heard it on Very Serious Crafts Podcast, season two. You might like it! There’s cross-stitch, other crafts, rabbit holes, and the train of shame. Thanks for all the entertainment and for keeping on in the Quarantimes.

Are you ready for this joke, y’all? This joke is wonderful. Thank you, ReadKnitSnark! [Clears throat] Serious podcaster voice:

What do you call a dad joke that’s told by someone who’s not a dad?

[Gasps] Scandal!

What do you call a dad joke that’s told by someone who’s not a dad?

A faux pa.

[Laughs] I, I love it! It’s so very, very bad! Thank you, ReadKnitSnark!

If you would like to be in the Mailbag or you want to send me a bad joke, you can always send me an email at [email protected]. I do love hearing from you.

On behalf of everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a great weekend, and we’ll be back here next week!

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at frolic.media/podcasts.

[soaring music]