She is truly so sweet. She just wants to be with us all the time. 🥹

This was all an elaborate ploy to soft launch my husband as a social media influencer. It’s all going according to plan…

You’re damned right it’s a contest. And now I’m going to win. 🏆

The plot thickens…

❤️

An adorable white with brown spots Havanese dog wearing a baby onesie stands on two legs at a window, staring out the front door…

My husband, who basically has no intentional social media presence, posted this photo of our dog on Mastodon and got like 68 likes and growing. As an experiment, I’m curious how many likes this will get on my romance novel podcast account… #petsofbluesky

The Genuine Article There were rare finds and very rare finds . . . Antiq…

This one features a desk in the description?! lol www.goodreads.com/book/show/57...

I’ll drop links in for any books that could fit the bill based on farcical author and hotel connection: www.fantasticfiction.com/s/suzanne-si...

One potential line could be Love and Laughter - it’s a Harlequin line from 1996. Even if that’s too late, look at the authors listed as they’re the ones most likely to have written earlier funny category romances. www.fictiondb.com/series/harle...

Questions - do you remember anything about the cover? Color, photo vs painting? How sexy was it? Assuming contemporary… if it’s farcical and funny that doesn’t actually have that many possibilities.

That is so good. So true and so sad. (The middle option makes me sad because it’s so closed off from curiosity / new ideas for fear of being seen as inferior!)

a cartoon character is playing frisbee in a park with the number 2 on the bottom of the screen Alt: Milton from the Simpsons is playing frisbee in a park by himself - throwing it to the ground and running to pick it up and throw it again.

Reading Bourdieu and thinking I should change how I describe myself from “independent romance scholar” to “illegitimate autodidactic romance scholar.”

Ironically, understanding the reference requires specialized intellectual training that renders this “joke” humorless.
#romancebks

Yeah, I think this cover is for the audience of people who mostly read bestsellers and have less genre preference or genre fluency/competence (not derogatory). They don’t want a book that looks like a romance novel.

To be clear: I think this packaging is boring, verging on ugly. But: am I the target market for this cover? (I don’t think I am.) And what does the actual
target market think of this style?

That’s where I get most of mine. I target $1/book or under. Favorite the lots and you’ll usually get a lower offer from the seller within a day or two.

…search for eBay lots!

I love (/s) that the intro is like, “What compels someone to own 2,000 romance novels?” and it felt extremely targeted and rude.

Beautiful books!

I’d like to ask the author of this piece if his interest in interviewing people represents a yearning for interesting things to happen in his own life?

If you listen to romance podcasts, please spare a few moments of your time to help a romance scholar understand the appeal of this glorious art form.

See Laura’s post below with the details!

Do you listen to podcasts about romance novels? One of the romance scholars (Dr. Precie A. Schroyer) is inviting you to take part in a research study: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Just gave up on two advanced reader copies of romance a few pages in because both displayed a galling and breathlessly incorrect understanding of how W2 salaried jobs work & current norms in the labor market.

It’s called verisimilitude! I’m willing to suspend my disbelief to an extent, but come on…

I’m so sorry.

I Want You (to Want Me) So Badly Why do we fantasize about being desirable to the powerful rather than fantasizing about a utopia of equality?

"Romance novels aren’t meant to explore a utopia — they’re a fantasy of succeeding in a world with the same challenges, power imbalances, and constraints as the one we live in." #romancelandia

shelflovepodcast.substack.com/p/i-want-you...

I Want You (to Want Me) So Badly Why do we fantasize about being desirable to the powerful rather than fantasizing about a utopia of equality?

Why is being desired by someone with power the ultimate fantasy?

In today’s Shelf Love post I unpack how desire + power shape our stories, and why we don't fantasize about utopia. #romancelandia

Read now

open.substack.com/pub/shelflov...

They’re so tough. The toughest. The best. The bestest. Big strong macho men command: they do not express anything about themselves. What they want shall be and is.

These are rich texts, baby. Compelling, horrifying, cringey, joyous and unselfish conscious. Camp, baby. Camp, Honey.

She have the heroine think something then repeat the exact same thing aloud a second later. She will come up with problematic cultural “reasons” to explain all sorts of horrific behavior and demonize non-MCs for the same behavior. She will do all of this bravely and without a second’s hesitation.

What you have to understand about Kristen Ashley is she will write Daenerys/Khal Drogo GoT fanfic, she will create a new language, and she will also describe in great detail the fabulous outfit, makeup, and hairstyle the heroine wears to an execution. #romancelandia

So glad to hear that the holiday fairies came through to provide some holiday cheer!