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Happy New Year!
This week we are talking with Katie, Kate, and Adam – we’ve got book recs, wishes, spreadsheet discussions, dungeons, and some wishes that don’t violate the Hatch Act.
There’s also rather appalling poo adventure immediately after my first interview. Pew pew!
Check out the complete show notes at SBTB.com!
Thanks to your Patreon pledges, we have reached our goal with the F’ICE campaign, and all dynamic ads are now turned off permanently for everyone who listens. Thank you so much!
You can gift a Patreon membership if you’re so inclined! A lovely gift for someone you know who loves the show.
AND! The Smart Bitches Candle Collection is available now for a limited time – until January 5, and boy, howdy, does Wax Cabin Candle Company ship fast.
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This week we are talking with Jenna Grinstead, Stephanie Violet, Lisa, and Bull! Yup, we’re visiting Norway this week. Bring a hat.
As always we have book recs, including one from the 1500s, wishes, and terrible jokes.
Please note: during my conversation with Lisa, we discuss true crime and historical murders.
We also mentioned:
Important Notes I Want to Keep Shouting About!
Thanks to your Patreon pledges, we have reached our goal with the F’ICE campaign, and all dynamic ads are now turned off permanently for everyone who listens. Thank you so much!
You can gift a Patreon membership if you’re so inclined! A lovely gift for someone you know who loves the show.
AND! The Smart Bitches Candle Collection is available now for a limited time, and boy, howdy, does Wax Cabin Candle Company ship fast.
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This week we are talking with Shana, Sue, and Rhonda about book recs and wishes, plus fantasy and magical bureaucracy, grief in romance, schtupping by volume, and inventions for readers to find even MORE books.
We also mentioned:
Thanks to your Patreon pledges, we have reached our goal with the F’ICE campaign, and all dynamic ads are now turned off permanently for everyone who listens. Thank you so much!
You can gift a Patreon membership if you’re so inclined! A lovely gift for someone you know who loves the show.
AND! The Smart Bitches Candle Collection is available now for a limited time, and boy, howdy, does Wax Cabin Candle Company ship fast.
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We’re back with more Holiday Wishes! This week we’re talking with Rae A., Josephine, and Sneezy!
This week we are talking romance bookstores and road trips, luxurious bidets, webtoons, and, of course, books. And some ranting about women artists in history. We are traveling as far as Taiwan in this episode – and this should be the last of my laryngitis – hooray for all of us!
We also discussed:
Updates!
Thanks to your Patreon pledges, we have reached our goal with the F’ICE campaign, and all dynamic ads will be turned off permanently for everyone who listens. Thank you so much!
AND! The Smart Bitches Candle Collection is LIVE! For a limited time only, you can get a Smart Bitches 20th Anniversary candle, and a Bad Decisions Book Club candle. You can shop small, support the site, and spread light and warmth this year.
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We’re back with more Holiday Wishes! This week we’re talking with Garlic Knitter, Claudia, Christine, and Jo.
A few notes:
First, my voice is not great. Some of these were recorded when I had a dreadful cold, so I apologize in advance.
Second, if you’re a sympathetic crier like I am, please know that when Christine and I are talking, we both get a little choked up while talking about grief and the infuriating unfairness of American healthcare. It’s an emotional conversation and a beautiful one – thank you for sharing so much of yourself, Christine.
Updates? Updates!
Thanks to your Patreon pledges, we have reached our goal with the F’ICE campaign, and all dynamic ads will be turned off permanently for everyone who listens. Thank you so much! You can gift a Patreon membership if you'd like! It's easy and very flexible.
AND! The Smart Bitches Candle Collection is LIVE! I partnered with Wax Cabin Candle Company, an independent small chandlery, to offer two limited edition candles just for the holiday season!
They are on sale now through early January, and you can buy one or both in a gift set! And they are going very fast!
The Smart Bitches 20th Anniversary candle is an 11 ounce hand poured soy candle with notes of sea salt, book pages, sandalwood and jasmine.
The Bad Decisions Book Club candle, also 11 ounces, is designed to be the perfect pairing for late night reading, with scents of sweet tobacco, book pages, leather, rose, and sandalwood. I had a marvelous time picking out the scents.
So if you’re looking for the perfect gift for yourself or the book lovers in your life, check out the 2025 Smart Bitches Candle collection. You can shop small, support the site, and spread light and warmth this year.
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Ready for more wishes and recs? And bad jokes? I bet you are! This week we’re talking with Agnes, Emily, Sarah Jane, and Jenn – and Min the cat.
And in the outro, you’ll hear from ShoesforAll, aka Sarah.
And! Important announcement 1: thanks to your Patreon pledges, we have reached our goal with the F’ICE campaign, and all dynamic ads will be turned off permanently for everyone who listens. Thank you so much!
Important announcement 2: the Smart Bitches Candle Collection is LIVE! I partnered with Wax Cabin Candle Company, an independent small chandlery, to offer two limited edition candles just for the holiday season!
They are on sale now, Friday November 28, through early January, and you can buy one or both in a gift set!
The Smart Bitches 20th Anniversary candle is an 11 ounce hand poured soy candle with notes of sea salt, book pages, sandalwood and jasmine.
The Bad Decisions Book Club candle, also 11 ounces, is designed to be the perfect pairing for late night reading, with scents of sweet tobacco, book pages, leather, rose, and sandalwood. I had a marvelous time picking out the scents.
So if you’re looking for the perfect gift for yourself or the book lovers in your life, check out the 2025 Smart Bitches Candle collection. You can shop small, support the site, and spread light and warmth this year.
We also mentioned:
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It’s time for our annual Holiday Wishes episodes!
Every year I connect with listeners around the world, where we talk about books, wishes, and bad jokes. So this time of year, my guests are…all of you!
In this set of wishes, we’ve got classics, new mysteries, and series romances. And we’ve got Sapphic yearning!
I have a record number of people signed up to do holiday wishes conversations with me, and these episodes are so uplifting and delightful, I’m extremely excited.
And! There is still time to sign up! If you’re part of the Podcast Patreon or After Dark, you can still pick a time to connect with me.
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Amye Archer, host of Little Miss Recap, was a guest on a recent paywalled episode of Fixing Famous People talking about soap operas. I was entranced. Amye is a fan of soaps, going way back, and I was very eager to have her as a guest to talk about soaps, the romances within soaps, and some of the overlap between soap fans and romance readers.
After we talk about the matrilineal cultural inheritance of soaps and romance, we have a challenge. Amye brought some of her most memorably unhinged story lines from soaps, and I have brought some of my most memorably unhinged story lines from romance, and we’re going to swap.
Please note that in this section we mention sexual assault, faked deaths, transphobic language and quicksand. During the recommendations, Amye mentions her memoir, which is about weight loss and addiction, so we discuss antifat bias and shame.
This is a long one, so we’re going to keep you company.
Did you have a favorite soap or soaps? Which ones?
You can find Amye Archer at her website, AmyeArcher.com. Her podcasts are:
We also mentioned:
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After mentioning Heather Graham, one of the Grande Dames of RT, so many times while recapping issues of Romantic Times, I got to sit down with her to talk about her career, the way the industry has changed, and of course, her memories of Romantic Times, both the magazine and the convention.
We talk about…
Heather has had one of the most interesting career paths, and this is a guest with whom I could just turn on the mic and say, “Please, tell me everything.”
TW/CW: At 48:40, there is a discussion of groping, and if you’d like to avoid it, please skip ahead one minute.
You can find Heather Graham at her website, TheOriginalHeatherGraham.com, and find all her short stories under “For My Readers.” You can also sign up for her newsletter.
We also mentioned:
Music:Purple-planet.com
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My guest today is Lux Raven, author of the Siren’s duology that starts with Siren’s Mark, which came out – together – in early October. Lux wanted to join me on the podcast to talk about disability portrayals in romance, and about her own journey to diagnosis and how it influenced her writing – and vice versa.
We talk a lot about the pernicious ableism in the writing of disabled characters, and about writing your catnip when you desperately want to see your experience in a romance.
Last week was Invisible Disabilities Week, and we timed this episode on purpose. So if you’re dealing with an invisible disability, we see you. You are loved and if no one has told you today, you’re fabulous.
TW/CW: at 16:50, we discuss antifat bias and misogyny in medical care, and if you’d like to skip over that, it’s about 1 minute total.
Music:purple-planet.com
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We’re going back to May 2016 to look at the Ads & Features in Romantic Times magazine. The kilts are kilting and the abs are ab-ing, and we’ve got some questions.
So hop into the time machine, we’ve got the snacks, and we’re off to May 2016.
Patreon folks, you have an extended cut of this episode, available through the app or through your private feed.
We also mentioned Elyse’s review of Imagines, complete with Amanda’s specialty Photoshop.
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I’m bringing back a classic episode from the archives of the show, and because she has excellent taste, Amanda said it should be this one. When I originally published this episode, I focused on how silly we were – and we are plenty silly.
But since then Amanda and I have talked about the fact that when we recorded this, we were, in fact, baked out of our gourds.
So it’s a different kind of time travel: We’re going back to June 22, 2018, when Amanda, Elyse, and I were cruising on the special herbs at the Romantic Times BookLovers convention in May – the last RT convention.
You can see how many full circles that is – I think this is why Amanda suggested this episode.
We’re going to talk about Amanda’s weakness for Val Kilmer, the ranking of Hemsworths in order of physical density, how bad of a style icon was Anita Blake really? And can Amanda and Elyse find a villain hero I’d be interested in? Nah.
As I said in the original intro:
This is what happens when Sarah, Amanda, and Elyse get really silly, and stop making sense. And given that this has been A Rough Week, we hope you enjoy our completely bubbly, goofy, discussion.
It’s still been a rough week! So I hope this makes you laugh.
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Grab your carry on, your snacks, and a blanket, because we’re hopping in the time machine again to go back to the May 2016 issue of Romantic Times to look at the new releases and reviews!
This issue caused some big questions.
We have lots to talk about so let’s get started!
We also mentioned:
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Alexandra Vasti is back, because her new historical romance Ladies in Hating is out this week!
We are going to talk about:
Side trips include historical publishing houses, how nothing in romance is new, and how a lot of our current erotica, including that book where someone schtupps a door, is connected to books with the same sexual pairings in the Victorian era.
You can find your copy of Ladies in Hating wherever you most like to acquire your books. And if your library doesn’t have it, ask them to order it for you!
And don't miss Alexandra's last appearance on the show in Episode 664. Haunted Abbeys and Hidden History with Alexandra Vasti!
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It’s the 90s so the Ads and Features from the August 1996 issue of Romantic Times are a treasure trove of confusion. We’ve got:
We mentioned:
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The second book in Holly Black’s Night duology, Thief of Night, is out now, and I was so excited to talk with her about it.We start right off by talking about creepy places – like, what kind of magic comes out of Jersey?
Then we talk about world building, starting with atmosphere instead of plot, and the intricacies of shadow magic in her duology. Plus, we squee about books we’ve loved, magic powers we wish we had, and Kelly Clarkson.
Truly, if you’re writing romance, this episode contains many pieces of advice and perspective – it’s a banger.
Remember: you can’t hide from your own secrets.
You can find Holly Black at her website, BlackHolly.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter, and on Instagram.
We also mentioned:
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We’re going back to August 1996 – that’s a bit of distance – to take a peek at the new releases and the book reviews in Romantic Times magazine.
We’re back in the era of time travel, a scifi imprint named Avonova, and probable worms.
NSFW worms.
As usual, we learn astonishing amounts of unexpected information from this magazine. For example: we’re both obsessed with the 1996 movie Twister and we have many thoughts on tornadoes.
Content warnings: the following episode contains discussions of large worms, racist language in 29 year old reviews, and spiders.
Worm discussion: 5 minutes long at 35:00
Spider discussion: 47 seconds long at 45:00
We also mentioned:
Special thanks to the sponsor for this week's episode: The Spite Date by Pippa Grant, available in KU, special print edition, and/or duet narration audiobook.
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Valerie Bowman returns to talk about her new book, The Honeycrisp Orchard Inn, out September 9. Valerie has written over 30 historical novels but when asked by her agent if she’d be interested in pivoting to contemporary, Valerie jumped on the opportunity.
Please join us as we puzzle through the reasons why historical romance isn’t as popular, and what led to the pivot that so many authors are making. Plus Valerie shares the differences and similarities in writing contemporary and historical romance, and what question she gets the most from historical romance readers.
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You can find Valerie Bowman at her website, ValerieBowmanBooks.com.
And you can listen to her in Episode 586. Saying Yes to the Dress with Valerie Bowman.
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Support for this episode comes from Head Witch In Charge by Avery Flynn, out on September 2, 2025. Several romance bookstores in the UK, Canada, and the US will have signed swag goodie bags for anyone who orders Head Witch in Charge while supplies last. Many offer online ordering, too! See the list and place your order at AveryFlynn.com.
Plus, Bookshop.org is offering a 15% discount to anyone who orders Head Witch in Charge and uses the code LOVEBOOKSELLERS.
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Thank you to HelloFresh for sponsoring this week’s episode. Visit HelloFresh.com/SARAH10FM to get 10 free meals and a free item for life!
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It’s July 2016, and we’re back in the time machine to check out the ads & features from this issue of Romantic Times Magazine!
We spot an SBTB friend in the letters to the editor, and we talk about romances translated into English, the appeal of the wounded hero, and we spot an ad that’s very clearly some Tay-fic, as I’m calling it. We also discuss an article about Kickstarter in romance – and this is 2016. Look how far we’ve come – and how much RT had its finger on the pulse of new trends.
The July 2016 issue also has several scrapbook-style pages of the RT Convention in Vegas. We recorded a separate episode about those pages, with some conference memories, analysis, and memorabilia, and that will be the bonus episode for this month, dropping on August 26, 2025, for Patreon subscribers, with pictures galore.
We also discussed:
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Molly Horan is a YA author, playwright, and professor who is writing a dissertation on aromantic and asexual characters in YA literature. Molly also teaches classes about YA literature, so we have a LOT to talk about.
Examining relationships between people within the context of aro/ace characters requires a re-examination of how we portray human bonds in media, and how they work in real life. There are many book recs, so don’t forget to check the shownotes to embiggen your TBR.
Find all the books Molly mentions in the show notes at SBTB!
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Music: purple-planet.com
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Want a free preview of our bonus content? You're in luck! Inspired by other Patreon folks, including Chris DeRosa at Fixing Famous People, I’ve made some of the Patreon content free so you can sample what we’ve got.
This collection of special previews is available now to all listeners, and there’s a link in the show notes to dive in. And if you like our free samples, join us in the Patreon community where there’s bonus content and more.
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