Illicit Liaisons

Illicit Liaisons: Fantastical Foes Enemies to Lovers Romantasy Celebration

• Jenna Harte • Season 2 • Episode 22

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This week, we're celebrating Fantastical Foes, an enemies-to-lovers romantasy zine. We're chatting with the editor, Parrish Baker, and contributing authors Marissa Marinello, Lynne Solisse, and Tara Leederman.

Parrish Baker/Urna Semper
Urna Semper is a romance author from Argoshaan, known for her books depicting passionate tales of forbidden love between clones and born-humans. Born to a family of scriveners, she learned the art of writing at her mother's side. Her breakthrough came with Olava: Fallen into Bondage, followed by Kyrie: Betrayed into Bondage, and Kingdom of Maids. Her most recent projects, The Pearl Crucible and Where All Past Years Are, are out on Amazon. She can be found at https://urnasemper.substack.com.

Marissa Marinello
Marissa Marinello is a SoCal native who writes urban, high fantasy, and cozy-romantasy. A TTRPG nerd who grew up on Tolkien, musical theater & comics, she's always been inspired by finding the fantastical in the mundane and building amazing worlds to tell rich stories in. Much of her work is inspired by real life moments that spark something more. Her work can be found in several anthologies, and she is an active participant in fandom and her writing group in Southern California. In Fantastical Foes, she did something new with Tender and Tempting Tales and wrote an epic romantasy story.
https://marissamarinello.com/

Lynne Solisse
Writing found Lynne Solisse later in life, and never let go. She writes romance that doesn’t flinch, centering on women who are fierce, loyal, and unafraid to demand more out of life. Women who want to reclaim passion on their own terms. Whether contemporary, fantasy, or even proving that love can still burn bright in a gritty post-apocalyptic world, her stories are raw but sweet, fun and emotionally charged, threaded with just enough tension to keep your heart racing. She lives in the Southern US with her three boys and two spoiled cats, and she believes it’s never too late for a second chance. Or a plot twist. https://lynnesolisse.com/

Tara Leederman
Tara Leederman is the Social Media Manager here at Tender and Tempting Tales, and Lore Maven and main fiction writer for Starship Valkyrie, a science-fiction game and story universe. She writes science fiction stories, including romance, and you can often find her in our anthologies, including our upcoming zine, Fantastical Foes!  https://taleederman.com/

CURRENTLY READING & RECOMMENDATIONS

Fantastical Foes: A Steamy Romance (Print, ebook, KU)  Zine https://amzn.to/3QWEe3S

Princess Bride by William Goldman https://amzn.to/3QWEe3S

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas https://amzn.to/4gneFmR

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson https://amzn.to/44NG8a7

A Heroine of the World by Tanith Lee https://amzn.to/44NG8a7

Dresden Files by Jim Butcher https://amzn.to/4h1b0LD
(TV Show: https://amzn.to/4aJ6Ynf)

October Daye Series by Seanan McQuire https://amzn.to/4psgIZr

Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris https://amzn.to/4eOYZYn

In Death Series by JR Robb https://amzn.to/3RnMhGY

The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer https://amzn.to/4vsyqgM

TENDER & TEMPTING TALES

Tender and Tempting Tales Substack Subscribe and get a FREE story! https://tenderandtemptingtales.substack.com/

Tender and Tempting Tales on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/tendertemptingtales/

Tender and Tempting Tales ARC Team https://booksprout.co/reviewer/team/56782/tender-and-tempting-tales

Calls for Submissions https://tenderandtemptingtales.substack.com/p/write-for-tender-and-tempting-tales

ILLICIT LIAISONS PRODUCED & HOSTED BY

Tara Leederman Substack: https://taleederman.substack.com/

Jenna Harte: https://jennaharte.com/

Outline and Show Notes: T.A. Leederman
Editing: Jenna Harte

SPEAKER_02

Hello, romance readers. Welcome to Illicit Liaisons with Tender and Tempting Tales, where each week we discuss the good, the bad, and the naughty of romance fiction. I am Jenna Hart, a romance author of the Southern Heat Contemporary Romance series and the Sexy Valentine Mysteries, as well as the managing editor of Tender and Tempting Tales, a steamy romance anthology for readers who like quickies.

SPEAKER_01

Hi, I'm Tara Lederman, social media manager here at Tender and Tempting Tales, and Laura Maven and main fiction writer for Starship Valkyrie, a science fiction game and story universe. I write science fiction stories, including romance, and you can often find me in our anthologies alongside these ladies, including in our upcoming new zine, Fantastical Foes.

SPEAKER_02

And today we're here to celebrate the upcoming release of Fantastical Foes. And we have all three of our zine authors with us. We have Lynn Solis, Marissa Marinello, and very own Tara Lederman. And we also have Parish Baker, who rides Azurna Simper and has acted as the editor and curator of Fantastical Foes. And Parish, go ahead and give us a quick intro about you, Mr. Editor.

SPEAKER_00

Well, uh, there's really not very much to tell. I have on and off written through my life, and I really kind of picked up steam about three years ago because it seemed like such a great idea at the time. And whether it was or not makes no difference because here I am now. And after becoming involved in some anthologies, I got involved in the anthology here at Tender and Tenting Tales, and by happy happenstance, ending up as uh an editor of this particular zine, which has been very fun. So there you go.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, very exciting. Let's go ahead and introduce our other authors here. We have Writing found Lynn Solis later in life and never let go. She writes romance that doesn't flinch, centering on women who are fierce, loyal, and unafraid to demand more in life. Yeah, good for them. Women who want to reclaim passion on their own terms, whether contemporary fantasy or even proving that love can still burn bright in a gritty post-apocalyptic world. Her stories are raw but sweet, fun and emotionally charged, threaded with just enough tension to keep your heart racing. She lives in the southern U.S. with her three boys and two spoiled cats, and she believes it's never too late for a second chance or a plot twist.

SPEAKER_01

And of course, I'm very, very excited to uh introduce again Marissa Marinello, my friend, who's a SoCal native who writes Urban, High Fantasy, and Cozy Romanticy. She's a TTRPG nerd who grew up on Tolkien, musical theater, and comics. And she's always been inspired by finding the fantastical and the mundane and building amazing worlds to tell rich stories in. Much of her work is inspired by real-life moments that spark something more. Her work can be found in several anthologies with us. And she is an active participant in fandom and her writing group here in Southern California, also my writing group. And Fantastical Foes, she did something new with Tender and Tending Tales and wrote an epic romanticy story. Hello, Marissa.

SPEAKER_02

Hello, everybody. Hi, Lynn. Hi, everyone. Welcome, welcome, welcome. We're so excited to have you here. And just a reminder Fantastical Foes is coming out July 13th. It is up for pre-sale on Amazon. And of course, any links, links to our authors, links to us, and then links to Fantastical Foes will be in our show notes. So you can be sure to go there and grab it because I know you're gonna want to, because there's all sorts of other fun stuff in it. Games, I think there's a bingo card, uh, a long article about fantasy and romantic and romantic fantasy and fantasy romance and all the incarnations of that. But we like to start our shows normally uh with a hot take. This is not my hot take. I watch way too much YouTube, and lately they've all been hot take YouTube's where other YouTubers are are reading people's hot takes and talking about them. This one came across and it seemed perfect for this one, which is somebody, not me, felt that fantasies are too long. And by too long, I'm not talking about the length of the book, I'm talking about the length of a series. They say they'd rather have a duology or a trilogy instead of like, I think we're gonna be talking about Zodiac Academy, which is, I don't know, it's supposed to be 12 books, but could be 15 now for all I know. So some of these have gotten really long. Uh, and their hot take is they're too long. What are your thoughts on this?

SPEAKER_03

I think personally that's such a banana's take to have because it is like, okay, if you don't like it, don't read it. There's so many books out there, and there's so many great fantasy books out there that are one or two or three books long. There's tons of great standalones. Admittedly, I can't talk. One of my favorite series, I had to go look it up, is on book 27 and still going. And I love it. But like, if the author is finding fun stories to tell in that world, congrats to the author. If you don't like it, you don't have to keep reading it. You can go find those shorter series. Why do you have to complain about it instead of just going and finding them?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, support someone coming at fantasy from romance and being like, why isn't all of fantasy like romantic? This is like the welcome to fantasy. The books are long and so are the series. Sit down. It's just like this, you know. I'm I'm I I would have thought this was pretty bananas as well. Like, I I've never, I mean, how do you I didn't even know what a duology was until I started reading romantic? What's a duology? I mean, I know now, but two books in fantasy, two books, how can you how can you tell an epic story in two books? I mean, I actually I think that being serious, I think fantasy can learn a lot from romanticy. And I think that there are room for there's there's room for trilogies and there's room for like duologies in fantasy, and I think that some series could consider doing that, and that would be really good. But by the same token, like fantasy has had long series and long books for a very long time and has told really amazing stories in doing so. So I thought this was a little funny.

SPEAKER_02

Well, but before we go on uh to Parish and Lynn, I'm thinking of Aquatar, and that is that is five or six, I think long. Her she has a crescent series that I think is also long, so it's like even in the OG of romantic, those were long. Fourth wing, I don't know if it's on three or four books, but anyway, just wanted to throw like romantic books aren't necessarily duologies or trilogies to start with.

SPEAKER_01

I've seen a lot of duologies and trilogies. I remember I was getting series from my niece, and she was I was like, which duology or trilogy by this author do you have? And I remember there were a lot of duologies and trilogies to sort through there. So I think that that is common in romanticy, or more common than in fantasy. And certainly I didn't see the word duology until I started looking at romanticy for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Lynn Parish, what are your thoughts on this?

SPEAKER_05

Well, I think what in fantasy or romanticity, you have so much to say, you know, so much world building and history and all the because it's so different than reality. So I think it justifies having a lot of books. I personally have been struggling with reading long series lately. I don't know if it's the season of my life or the season of the year or what it is, but I'm into short form and standalones, but I don't begrudge anyone else writing a long series like go to town. You know, one day when I swing back and want, you know, something with a ton to consume, then I'll be glad it's there. So I don't have any problem with other people writing long series.

SPEAKER_02

Sort of like picking a show and seeing, oh, there's a bazillion seasons, I can be here for a long time to enjoy this instead of like one season. What happens if I love it now and there's nothing to watch? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, someone's saying that like Gray's Anatomy should have been two seasons. What?

SPEAKER_03

I have so many people who will not watch one of my favorite anime series because it's way too long. And I'm like, that's valid.

SPEAKER_02

So valid. I get it. There's a lot. Parrish, what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00

Well, you know, I'm I'm always in the side of whatever you want to read, whatever you want to do, is is fine by me. I will I will personally avoid a 50 book series because I don't I just I haven't got that kind of time to invest at all. If I can get through one book and feel I've done it just as I'm I'm doing great. Uh I under, I think I understand kind of where they're coming from in this kind of a take, but again, it doesn't mean anything really, because people are going to read what they want to read and they're gonna write what they want to write. If they're writing to market, market's buying, obviously there's not a problem. I think there's this probably what the hot taker is reacting to is a sense of series bloat that is just sort of a runaway thing. And I think they're silly being critical of that concept generally, but you know, don't read it then. You know, it's not a problem to you.

SPEAKER_02

I I've seen on TV shows sometimes where they'll have sort of this ongoing plot that goes through this the series or through the season. And sometimes I get annoyed at that. I'm like, I've had enough of that, get rid of that. And I think in fantasy and romantic, sometimes because there's usually an overarching plot, and so there may be a sense of that. Like, when are we, when are they finally gonna kill this bad guy or whatever, right? Like, oh, here we go again, you know, the the the secret gym is not here. We just have another riddle, off we go. I could see it in that terms, but I love JD Robb. There's 60 books in her series, but they're all standalone, right? So there's not this overarching plot that I'm like waiting to get to, right? It's not a hero's journey, each one is just a mystery. So I'm wondering if that's the difference, too, is having to wait so long to have a conclusion. I don't know. It's an interesting take.

SPEAKER_01

I wonder if there's a sense of perfunctoriness to this, right? Like sort of like the prologue. Like I think that some people might just do it because it's the thing to do in fantasy, you know? Lots of fantasies have long series. So if you're gonna do a fantasy series, do a long series. If you're gonna do a fantasy, write a prologue. But sometimes I think people do it without needing to do it. So there I I go back to my original point that maybe there is something to be learned from the duology or the trilogy. Maybe try to confine your story if you don't have a lot to say. But I think most of these people do have a lot to say and a lot of a lot of story to tell, and that's the reason why they have a series and they're not doing it unthinkingly. There could be some perfunctory series out there. I haven't run into one.

SPEAKER_02

I I'm working on a series that originally would have been 13 books because 13 is spooky and it's it's a woo-woo books at New Orleans. But then I started thinking 13 books. Like, do I really want to commit to 13 books? That's a long series. It went down to seven and now it's down to five.

SPEAKER_01

Seven's a good number too.

SPEAKER_02

Those are books, so so still not a trilogy or duology, but yeah, the decision was mostly made. I think a lot of people, maybe when they have long series, maybe start out as a trilogy. J.D. Robb's books, those books were trilogy at first, but then everybody just loved them and off we go. And I I wonder if Sarah J. Mause was just let's do a beauty and beast retelling.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and it's it got away from her, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And then and then they're like, We love it, write more, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I mean one of my favorite jokes about Douglas Adams is that he wrote the best five-book long trilogy with the Hitchhiker's Guide. I went to a show that was like, dress up as your favorite trilogy character, and I went as Arthur Dent. And they're like, What? And I was like, five-book-long trilogy, and they're like, Nope, that yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01

All right, we've got more hot takes to get into here. We know that our office has some hot takes on your minds right now. Marissa, you've had adaptations on the mind, which is pretty appropriate with so many romantic and fantasy adaptations right now. And Lynn, I know that you have DNFs on your mind, so I wanted to hear what you guys had going on going on in your brains.

SPEAKER_03

Your hot takes. So, my hot take is one that will potentially lead into enraging Tara and my spouse at the same time. There is nothing wrong with screen adaptations because you can separate them as two different entities and mediums. There is, as someone who has done work with film and theater and writing, there is no way to do a perfect page-to-page adaptation of a book on screen. They're just different mediums and they're gonna be different. Most of the time, it's okay. Some of the times it's great. Look at Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings is one of the people's favorite movie trilogies, and it wasn't a perfect adaptation of the book. And the thing that will make Tara spicy at me, I loved the Dresden Files TV show.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, well, let's not talk about that. That was I hate the Dresden Files TV. Let's not get into that. You don't want to point with me here about the Dresden Files TV show. But I know I actually agree with you 90-90% of the time, I love screen adaptations. And actually, I like some screen edit adaptations better than the books. And the knee-jerk spicy take that I see online, it's not like the book drives me freaking wild. I'm sick of hearing that. It's not so annoying.

SPEAKER_03

One of my favorite adaptations of all time are Three Musketeers. I love almost every screen, Three Musketeers, even the ones that are bad, sometimes because they're bad.

SPEAKER_01

The Disney one is perfect. I will accept arguments about it.

SPEAKER_03

It's perfect, and not the the animated one, too. I'm talking Charlie Sheen and Keith or Sutherland and Tim Curry is Carly Miller Schlu. Perfect. But like there's plenty of adaptations that if I hadn't known they were books, I may never have found the series outside of the TV show or the movie. Like I started reading Dresden Files because of the show. I read a True Blood because of the show. So it's like it's sometimes that's the gateway drone. Get into it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Revenge spicy take, Marissa. I like Lord of the Rings movies better than the books.

SPEAKER_03

And that's fine. You can't revenge it on me because I think both mediums are great.

SPEAKER_01

But the internet's gonna come for me right now.

SPEAKER_03

Maybe the internet's gonna come for me for Dressing Files.

SPEAKER_01

Fantasy internet's coming from my butt.

SPEAKER_02

You like Dressing Files? Lynn and Parrish, what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_05

I mean, I think it's it's just impossible really to translate a book into a movie or a s or a series because there's so much, you know, it's so dense. I saw um, I always mixed up whether it's Hail Mary Project or Project Mill Hair Hail Mary, whichever one. Um, and and I saw that the author, I think was the producer or something. Like he was intimately involved in creating the movie. And so even that wasn't exactly like the book, because it can't be. It's just too much, you know, it'd be like a 20-hour movie or something. So yeah, I think I think it's uh but at the same time though, just it being different than than the original source versus it being bad, you know, is a thing too. Yeah. Where it doesn't honor the book and it also just is not good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So there's adaptation decisions that have driven me crazy, like in the Dresden Files. But most of the time it's great.

SPEAKER_00

What about you part of it? I have what I would call two for my own purposes good examples. There is the Netflix production of a series of unfortunate events, which I think is infinitely better than the books, and I have almost no almost no justification for saying that, except it just is. It is just so well done all the way through. It would, you know, and it it's I I I really wouldn't be able to read the books again just because I've seen the series. It's just that good to me. And the other example is really off the wall for the rest of everything that we're talking about here. But Judy Moody and the not-so-bummer summer is a word for word, beat for beat, scene for scene replication of the movie. So I it's basically the screenplay written as the kids' book. And I was like, you know, if we saw the movie, and I started read the book of the kids, they said, Wow, they really did a good job of this. I said, Wow, they yeah, they did. This is just a screenplay. But because of that, it's perfect. It's an absolutely perfect adaptation of the movie, and vice versa. So there you go.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I do think Hollywood is starting to figure out, like Lynn, you mentioned the producer being part of the movie. Hollywood is finally figuring out if you bring in the authors, it's gonna end up being better overall. Like there's so many things that the authors are producers or the creative directors, and you know, people will be like, Oh, it's not perfect, it's not this. Well, the author signed off on it. So clearly they're doing something right or they're doing it for a good reason.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm gonna go. Yeah, there's a reason why the first four seasons of Game of Thrones are so much better than everything else that they did because George R. Martin was on, was like on duty there, and his episodes are the best episodes. Battle of Castle Black, I'll go to the Matt for it. It's so damn good. And he wrote that episode.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, like you guys brought up uh Black Dagger Brotherhood uh a couple weeks ago on the podcast, and Jared Ward is on set almost all the time. Like my friend's obsessed with that series, so she sends me behind-the-scenes videos all the time. And you see Jared Ward seeing the main character on set in costume the first time, and she broke down crying from how good it was.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, like seeing when Vegas showed up, he showed up in character. So when he looked at her like, what? And she just loved it because she melt, yeah, yeah, because he was yeah, and and that adaptation in terms of quality is in this, you know, have the money. Well, they don't have the money like a Netflix or whatever, no, but if you enjoy the books, everything you want to see is there, and that that was the point I was gonna make is we see this with Outlander, right? Like the scene when Claire comes back and Jamie Frey, like there's things that she knew that fans would look for. They've read the books, these are the scenes that resonated. We have to see that scene. That scene's not there in the way they want it, right? It's not good. Now you can't please everybody all the time, right? So they're gonna cast somebody who they don't think looks right, or you know, whatever. My sense of adaptations is I it's fun to see the things you enjoyed in your head reading come to life on the screen. That is so fun. I and I think that's why a lot of people watch these things. Bridgerton is another example. Um the thing is, does it have the essence of what is supposed to be there? And for me, when something misses, it's because that part is missing. So I've read Pride and Prejudice, so I've seen all the adaptations, even those old ones where they're not dressed right. Um, and if I don't feel like that's Lizzie or Darcy or whatever, that's usually what for example, the death of Pemberley. That was like not Elizabeth. I don't care if she's been married for a long time, she'd still have that part about her that she just didn't have in the show. That Sparker, you know. Um, Red, White, and Royal Blue, I thought did an excellent job of capturing those two young men. The one for the money, which is the Janet Ivanovich, Stephanie Plum was that was yeah, that was bad because it it didn't capture anything about those books, they are so funny, weird, wacky, quirky. I would love those. I would love to see the O'Hare Fox books made into TV and Goldberg. He was her co-writer on though on some of those, but that that particular one, bad. That was that was horrible. Yeah. So if you can't feel the characters and you're not seeing the things that you felt were important and you wanted to see Bridgerton's the same way, they know exactly what scenes need to be in there, you know, what they can change and what they can't change. Anyway, that that's my my thought on. I I enjoy them as long as I can feel what I felt when I was reading the book.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Speaking of, you had you had just DNF the Zodiac, what was the series that you said, Lynn?

SPEAKER_05

Zodiac Academy.

SPEAKER_01

Zodiac Academy. I'm sorry, I haven't read this. Tell me about why you DNF'd this. What happened?

SPEAKER_05

Well, so there's nine books that I know of, but they have a bunch of spin-offs, and so maybe there's something at the end to extend it. But I had been listening to them in the graphic audio version, and so there's been long delays between between the next book because I was like caught up to what they had uh put put out. And so I just listened to the first, or I started to listen to the first uh book six out of nine. And they just it I started to feel, I don't know if you've ever felt this I I couldn't bring myself to care anymore. I felt like manipulated, like, oh, these star crossers and finally, finally get together, and oh no, we're tearing them back apart again.

SPEAKER_02

It's like a soap opera. I hate that.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I'm just playing with a soap opera, yeah. So we got to this in Gray's Anatomy, I think the same thing that you're talking about, where it's like you're just gonna kill people off. I'm not watching this anymore.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it's it's like you're dying for them to get together, they finally do. This other couple gets together, and then the main characters are like twin sisters. No, so we we get to this point where both couples are so fun apart, and the sisters are torn apart.

SPEAKER_02

And I was just like, ugh, I can't drive for drama sake, yeah. Yeah, not only that, I mean, I've these books have a lot of buzz, right? I mean, that's I've looked at them, but first of them, each of them must be four inches thick. First of all, I mean thousand page books, eight hundred to a thousand pages each one. I mean, they take up an entire shelf in the in the bookstore. I mean, that's a big commitment. So when you get to book six, you're already five, you know, five hundred thousand people. I don't know. So it sounds like

SPEAKER_01

Soap opera, like a reading soap opera. Isn't a lot of younger people who are reading it? Like so. I would say that it's yeah, it's Gen Z's soap opera. Everyone has to have their heart broken by their first soap opera. And I think this might be a lot of people's first Grey's Anatomy or whatever. Like Gray's Anatomy was mine, whereas I got to season 16 and was like, I don't think I care anymore. Well, crap.

SPEAKER_03

Supernatural was mine somewhere around season eight or seven. I was like, I can't, man. This is I'm gonna go watch Great British Bake Off. I can't do this anymore.

SPEAKER_01

If this angel doesn't get together with this man right now, I am flipping the tape. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I also I missed the Monster of the Week format that they had. Unsurprising considering what I love. It's weird because like I I see so many things on social media about like, you know, your DNF list, the DNF this, and I'm like, I I've never done that. I've come really close. Like, I almost yeeted the first Black Dagger Brotherhood book across the room so many times. I've never DNF'd a book. I I am unfortunately optimistic, and I'm like, I believe the author won't screw me over. And I just reading, and I'm like, there's two books that came really close. One of them was The Black Dagger, and I had to keep messaging my friend going, Does this get better? Because I hate this. Oh my god. You've introduced 20 male characters, and only three of them are good people. Like, what is happening? And then the other one, I don't remember the name of the book, but I think it was like a it was supposed to be a trilogy. Fantasy, I read it like way back in the early aughts, and the the main couple they build up in the first book had to separate because of big fantasy reasons. And then the main dude meets this other girl and they realize they were destined to be together, but he's gonna keep the other girl as a side piece. Oh god, nope, yeah, unless you fix this by the end of the book, I'm done. So I DNF'd the series, but the second I was like, nah, no, no, no, no, no. And you killed off the guy. No, and they killed off the guy she could have ended up with that would have treated her right. So I was like, I'm like 14 years old, and I'm just like, this ain't right, this isn't okay.

SPEAKER_01

Is there a dent in your wall where you've thrown books that you have gotten to the end of that you didn't DNF?

SPEAKER_03

I can't throw them because in my brain I'm like, books are precious creatures that we must respect. I can't throw it in my brain. I'm like, like I throw it on a pillow, and I'm just like I threw the fifth Harry Potter book.

SPEAKER_01

I actually physically threw it across the room. I think that happened.

SPEAKER_03

I got it spiraled on one of them.

SPEAKER_02

Do you DNF Parrish at all?

SPEAKER_00

Or do you I peter out and wander away? It's not really a boy. I'm not going to finish this book. It's just, well, we're gonna deprioritize what's going on here, and then I never get back to it until like 10 years later, literally.

SPEAKER_02

So on my shelf with little bookmarks in them where it's like, oh, maybe I'll come back to this later.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, pretty much. I I I don't deliberately DNF books. I have never said, I am not going to finish this specifically. It's not that's not how I roll. I have I have chugg through to the ends of books that amazed and surprised me and appalled me. And I said, Well, we'll just see where this is going, and I perhaps have been become a better person for it. I don't know, but never deliberately DNF.

SPEAKER_01

I've been turning it. Literary delivery. I'm done. Just toss the book and I can't handle it anymore.

SPEAKER_03

I'm getting better about DNFing, I'm getting better about DNFing shows because there's other shows out there. I don't need to keep watching this, but books, I'm just like unbridled optimism. I'm like, I have hope that you know that I'm only two-thirds of the way through. Maybe there's a you know, that the the peak at the end is gonna get real crazy, and most of the time it is, and it's great, and I'm happy. And then very rarely I'm like, well, that was a book, all right.

SPEAKER_02

That happened. I read that. I've read I I'm behind on Black Dagger Brotherhood, but I want to say the first five or six I really enjoyed. Yeah, I'm on um book and after, and I haven't read the runoffs, and but after that, there was and then I started to read one that was Lasseter the Angel, who was so fun, but I had missed some books before, so I was like, I don't know what's going on here.

SPEAKER_03

So I'm looking forward to his book from what I've heard, but I think I'm on book four right now. And my my friend who had read them all for so long, she was like, You might have a really hard time with one specific one. And I read it and I was like, No, that was fine. What are you talking about? Is it vicious book? No, I'm all that's what I have to read. Uh Z's book is the one that she's you're gonna have a hard time with this. And I was like, No, I'm not.

SPEAKER_02

He had a very difficult, he had a very difficult life. Yeah, anyway, okay, we shall move on because we need to talk with our authors here about fantastical foes. Uh it is an enemies to lovers, romantic stories, 7,000 words or less, which like is amazing. Everything you have to fit in in 7,000 words when we've already talked about fantasies, generally are over 100,000 words and take several books to get through. And here we made them do it in 7,000 words. So, Parrish, you were the editor on this collection. I'm just curious, like, you know, what inspired you to? I mean, I know you do like, you know, science fiction and fantasy types, but you we also we're very specific about the enemies to lovers bit as well. And I'm just curious what inspired you to do it and how are you feeling about this thing we're about to put out?

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's it just sort of kind of happened as far as Adam is like, you know, what what's what's the take on it? And that just kind of bubbled up. And we had, I had not really encountered a set of stories that I've been like involved in that had that kind of specific spin on it. And it it just sounded very interesting. I said, This is this is what we're going to do, this is how we're going to approach it. It'll give people an extra challenge because you know, you will normally, in your very generic situation, say, hey, we have two people, they meet, they shake hands, they say, Why not, and off they go. But here where they have to beat each other for up first and then change their minds. So it's an extra twist there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. A lot of work in 7,000 words.

SPEAKER_00

So a lot of work in 7,000 words, yes. Um, yeah, yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Having uh read these with you, as in addition to you know, meeting the challenge, this was like diabolical. Incidentally, it's kind of like I thought it was gonna be hard when I saw what you wanted for the zine. And then when I when I read the stories with you, checking for guidelines and doing copy edits, I was like, this is hard. This is very hard. I'm like watching a lot of different authors struggle with this, and it seems like a very difficult thing. And I I know that also, because I I read your sub stack, you're serializing your sci-fi mystery novella, the case of the engagement party, which is very close to being done. And you're well into your sci-fi romance, Lion in the Garden, which I am loving. And I was wondering if you could tell folks a little bit about Lion in the Garden and what you plan to work on next.

SPEAKER_00

Well, Lion in the Garden is in a weird way kind of not unlike Lynn's stories, because we have an older woman who is kind of unsatisfied with her life, except she's like massively rich and massively powerful and an important person in a massively corrupt society. And then she meets this extremely unconventional individual that she falls head over heels for for reasons that she cannot understand. And he is a walking, breathing challenge, the very foundations of the world that she lives in. And so she right now is behaving really like you'd expect her to normally, except she's trying to like bring him into her mental set, and she's having a lot of difficulty parsing that destination. So that's kind of what kind of what's going on with that, and that's about 35-40% of the way through, I think. And Casey Engagement Party, I'm kind of finishing up basically now wish. I'm just about done with that. And where I kind of go next after that is I'm not sure. I've I think I may finally get wrestled and finish another novella with the same character in it that's kind of related to that, which would make the other one make either less or more sense. I guess it just depends on your point of view on how those things are. So that's that's kind of where I'm going.

SPEAKER_01

Sounds good. I'm very excited. I I remember you sent me a cover for the Mentis daughter.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I that came to me when I was half awake. And it's like, oh, this would be a great phrase, which means it needs to be the name of a book. So I have I have the cover and the name of the book and a vague impression of what the story is about, but absolutely no details. And that's on top of about three or four other things that I'm doing that are partially underway, or it's very underway, or underway for the fourth time, and I'm always busy.

SPEAKER_01

I blame Erna and her Anteball. Seriously, like I look at my phone and Parish has just sent me the cover of this book that I know nothing about.

SPEAKER_04

I don't know anything about it.

SPEAKER_01

I'm like, Oh, Erna's just sending you covers first.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, what she's doing.

SPEAKER_01

Fresh off the Ansible folks.

SPEAKER_02

Well, let's let's talk with some of the authors that uh Parrish picked to be in the zine. Now, Marissa, for this zine, you wrote your first epic romance short story, a romance between two Faye Warriors from opposite courts. I I enjoyed the bit about breaking out of jail and going on an adventure. Um yeah, I love a good adventure. Tell us a little bit about it and what inspired you to write it.

SPEAKER_03

So it's funny because I have fantasy was, you know, my wheelhouse for a very, very long time. Like all my first stories that I started writing were these big epic high fantasies. And I've always loved fairy tale and folklore. So trying to think of enemies to lovers, which is not my wheelhouse in the slightest, I was like, war, wars are big, yeah, war, wars are big fantasy things, opposite ends of a war. Yeah, that that works. I brainstorming a lot with fellow authors and friends and being like, I love the idea of kind of the trope of like the battle couple, where it's like they're both really competent badass warriors, but as like the banter that can happen with cross swords is always really fun for me in a fantasy book. Like, if you're writing banter mid-sword fight really well, that's the the stereotype of are we fighting? Are we flirting? What's going on here? When I did a lot of like writing online with friends and things like that, I used to joke that if we hadn't had any new ideas in a while, I would just throw a character at them injured and be like, your problem now. So I was like, what if I did that to myself? Here's so opens in prison, injured character, and fun. Now what? Um, but just the I mean, fairy tale and folklore and the idea of opposing courts and opposing elements was built-in enemies, and then forcing myself to figure out why they will not hate each other by the end. How do you actually get them to fall in love? Because maybe I was just given bad wrecks for enemies to lovers for most of the stuff I read. I was like, that's barely an excuse. That like that excuse to like each other is tissue paper thin. How are you making that work? So it's challenging for myself.

SPEAKER_02

Many of the enemies to lovers are really more like rival to lovers. Yeah. Not necessarily enemy. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I love that too. I love seeing like Lynn's story. It was so much fun getting to read that, or you know, like seeing people that just they they meet each other and they just immediately, I don't like you. And then like, but what if we made them kiss? Are we gonna pull that off? Figuring out how am I gonna pull that off is is a fun and a challenge, especially in 7,000 words.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's that was the challenge. Yeah. I I thought it was very smart the way you use various shortcuts in order to make sure that you could do this in 7,000 words. Like, and I don't mean like shortcut, shortcuts. I mean that like you don't have to explain what Sealy or Unsealy is. We get that pretty quickly from fantasy, right? Like, we don't you don't have to explain why two people on opposite sides of a war are enemies with each other and they're gonna be deadly enemies because they've been fighting. So, like, we don't have to get into that. That was great. And and you'd like also even like everything you did the jewel of Avalon thing as like you don't have to explain anything about that. It's just like, why do we want the jewel of Avalon? It sounds cool. So if you've read any fantasy, you're there. Like, so you don't have to explain stuff, so you can just get right into it, you know, and get into the story of like why these two people get together. So I thought that was extremely smart.

SPEAKER_03

Um, shout out to Lynn for also having an Avalon type uh thing too. I read that and I was like, Oh, me too.

SPEAKER_01

I put lots of little gems in the cover and like into the different graphics and stuff to make sure because you guys had done these cool jewels and gems and stuff. Uh, but I know you're working with me on programming for our regional writing groups, uh, July Camp, just write July. And you mean like a really cool like bingo card thing for people to use to like get ideas to post about or write about. Uh and I know that you're working on a very special project for that, which is finally your novel, Pacts and Negotiations. And I was hoping you could tell folks about that.

SPEAKER_03

So it is the same one that I've been cooking on since kind of the last podcast I showed up on. But it's urban fantasy, it's set in my West Coast weird world. It is a basically the story that I did for Midnight Mischief and Mistletoe, but like the whole arc of how did they meet? How did they fall in love? How do they get through their issues, the happily ever after, etc.? But the it is so close, so close to being a draft that I actually can show people and be like, please read this. But it's I cannot write linearly in a story to save my life. I can't start with chapter one and write through to the end. So I'm always bouncing around the different scenes as the mood takes me, but then it leaves me with all these scenes I then have to connect and make make sense. So this July is basically forcing myself to the proverbial grindstone of make the scenes connect, take everything I've learned from all of these short stories to make the scenes punchy, pray. Good luck.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and then figure out where your chapters are. That's how that's how I fear.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I have a few that I'm like, this has to start here, this has to end here. So that particular story is because it's urban fantasy, paranormal romance. So the the main character is a Kilerisara had not had this job at the time when I started writing this, but she is a social media manager. Um and the main guy is a trained chef struggling to find work in that field and happens to be a werewolf because the idea of werewolves being really good with their sense of smell and taste amused me greatly. But the ironically, the chapters from his perspective are all on the new moon when he's at his worst. And I didn't realize I had done that until I finished a really rough draft. And I was like, perfect. That's intentional now. We're we're leaving it this way. No more POV chapters for you.

SPEAKER_01

Like, oh, that's really smart. And Marissa was like, Yes, that was.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, it was. It was so smart of me. He just decided he wanted the attention because he was having a bad day. And I was like, All right, you can have the attention. You're having a bad day. Now it's gonna be hard. Now she's gonna get a chance.

SPEAKER_02

Scratches ears. It's okay, no pupper. Basically, yes.

SPEAKER_01

It's really, really good. I'm really excited for you to have this done. I I liked Val so much. I followed in her intrepid footsteps. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I have actually been inspired by like a lot of what you're doing and a lot of what Parish is doing to try and post more on Substack and have these little like serialized bits of things there. The novel that I was originally gonna set in this West Coast Weird World isn't a romance, it was just kind of a slice-a-life thing. But now so many of the stories in that world are romance that I'm like, maybe that one will get serialized and I can show it off in bits, and then the published stuff will be the romance-y things. Maybe that'll be the I guess I have a lot of that written already. Like that was a nano project that I did a few years ago. So it's already sitting on like 80k worth of words that I can yank from and post as necessary.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's always nice when the words are written in advance. It's when you think today I have to post and I have no words. That's that's pressful.

SPEAKER_00

Oh man, that's a long day for me.

SPEAKER_01

Especially when you commit to four chapters a week.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. I'm not doing that next time, but let's let's talk to Lynn. Now you wrote a magical academy reunion story about two people split apart during school who get a second chance. One of my favorite tropes is second chance. So can you tell us and our listeners some more about the story and what inspired you?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So I also I really enjoyed having to do short form and having to just kind of imply things about their world. That was actually fun. And so they're in a semi-modern fantasy setting. And I don't not everything I've written has older characters, uh, older meaning 30 plus, but this one does. But yeah, I did enjoy kind of the academic setting and a more cozy setting. So I managed to do both of those by their uh time at the academy was in the past. And so we'll get a little bit of flashbacks. Um, but yet they're still both like fully grown adults in their 30s. Um and what inspired it was just yeah, all those things, getting another shot at romance, um, having your heart broken, but that not being the end of the story is very appealing to me. So yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I really liked your universal fantasy in there, which I, you know, ever since Jenna started talking about universal fantasy, I ask myself sometimes when I'm reading a story, what's the universal fantasy in this story? And yours was very much like, what if there was a way to perfectly portray to this other person and show them my perspective in order to explain what happened. And I don't want to get into it too much, but there's like a way that they find to do that in order to like to figure out what had happened. And I thought that was really lovely.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, exactly. We often wish someone could truly see our side of the story, and so in a fantasy world, you can exactly.

SPEAKER_01

I thought that was wonderful. And I I really loved the alumni thing.

SPEAKER_03

I was gonna say, I really loved the alumni thing too, because when it's like, oh, it's a magical academy. I was like, for college age kids, and then reading it, I was just like, oh no, it's better. They're alumni and they're coming back to school, like coming back to the scene of the heartbreak kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and Lynn, I know that you're working on a new romance novella right now, appropriately a bully to lover story. And I was wondering if you could tell our listeners about it, what you know, when it might be releasing. And I thought it was really cool that you had moved to a to a bully to lover stories after after writing Sterling and Sapphire.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, and I actually I wrote this a long time ago. I wrote it last October and just finally got it back out and read it over. Yeah, so it's a it's a 20-year high school reunion, and woman goes back. So again, the characters are in their mid and late 30s, and runs into her high school bully, who is also her best friend's little brother. So he's a little bit younger than her, and you know, things go as you would expect in a romance, but she is actually a dominatrix. So yeah, so there's a little little bit of kink in there, and he is not familiar with kink at all, so he gets introduced to it from her.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Complex, and you said you're gonna be doing an audio, right? Now she gets to quote bully him a little bit.

SPEAKER_05

Bully you on your terms. I love that. You got all sorts of karma.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and you said you're gonna be doing an audiobook for it.

SPEAKER_05

I think I will. I really, really enjoyed recording that first one, so I'll probably do it again.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I again I need to uh uh talk to you about about that whole process. It sounded really cool. I love that you did that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Well, um, let's go on to Tara because she has a story in this one. The devil's handiwork is an urban romanticy involving ghosts and witches, which seems a little different than what I've read from Tara before, but it's enemies to lovers, former bullies. Also, something I I think before you didn't like those things before, at least enemies the lovers. So now you've embraced these tropes and tell us a little bit about how that happened and about your story.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I think people are probably tired of hearing me say this, but I really enjoyed ship happens in in Moonlight Margaritas and had this moment of like, oh wow, this can be good. I really like this. This is like I didn't realize this trope could be so good. I mean, uh, the only thing I liked that was basically enemies to lovers before that was Pride and Prejudice. So that's your only enemies to lovers that you can stand. You know, it's gonna be difficult to uh I guess probably north and south as well. But I I really didn't like enemies to lovers. I've always been a friends to lovers gal, you know. This story is part of a universe that I have been writing since I was 16. It's called Watermarks, it's an urban fantasy story universe, it's never been. romance in it whatsoever. The main character in the main series isn't a 13-year-old. It's more of a YA urban fantasy type story, but a kind of darker YA. The main character in that story universe is the daughter of the characters in Devil's Handiwork. Spoilers, it's a romance they get together. But they're also these two people are not very compatible. And when I sat down to write a an enemies to lovers or bullies to lovers romantic story and I want to do urban romantic because I can't write Epic romances save my life. I can't write epic fantasy to save my life. I've never been very good at that. I've always been an urban fantasy person. I was like, okay, well it's going to be in watermarks and these are the two lovers that I can think of who who definitely started out as enemies and are not very compatible. And that's Steven and Thea. And they come from two very different worlds. Like their their differences are very real. And even though they sort of overcome them for a happily ever happily for now in this story, I kind of want people to be able to see the cracks that these two two people are not particularly good for each other. Steven is extremely religious and he can see into the shadow world. And Thea is a witch. And like his beliefs are real. Like he is a truly a Catholic and he truly believes that her power comes from the devil and that's not something that's going anywhere. And I really wanted to like explore that and explore why people are attracted to each other or fall in love with people who are not emotionally, spiritually like compatible with them, but do it anyways and how people can reach sort of happily for now in that situation even if it's not particularly good for them. And that's where these two characters are you know I if I was going to do an Enemy Solivers I wanted their differences to be very real and to feel extremely meaningful. And doing Steven and Deia's story seemed like the best way to do that.

SPEAKER_02

You've been working on a collection of your own in advance of an author event coming up and maybe you can tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah that's been my great challenge this week actually is trying to pull together a collection of my own stuff this Starship Valkyrie collection. I've been meaning to put it out for a while but I very suddenly made it work to go to LFG Con, which is a gaming convention here in Southern California. They're they're sort of new and they're finding their feet and we've been talking to them about running a Starship Valkyrie event and they were all like oh why don't you do an author signing and I was like cool I need books. So I went very suddenly trying to pull this thing together during my week off and edit all of the stories in it which has been a mammoth task actually it's been like a lot of I've been like going back through these short stories which I haven't looked at in in months and novelettes and a novella and everything and just trying to edit them and make them like good enough for the collection. And I've I basically finished last night at 2 a.m and they're all in layout now. So we're we're there. But yeah it'll be a collection of Starship Valkyrie short stories. It's called Contact Unknown and I'll have it out very soon within the month of July and I'll have copies with me at LFTCon. Awesome. Everyone let's let's talk about your inspo. Let's find out your favorite romantic or fantasy that most inspired you and get people fired up for Fantastical foes. Give them stuff to read but before they get the zine.

SPEAKER_03

I don't really read enemies to lovers so I don't really have like an inspo but as I've been joking in some of the other author promo stuff for this book the memcy of Coldfire Vows is loosely based off of a TV show character that I love and whoever guesses it and messages me with it I will find a way to get you cookies because I keep picturing the actor in my brain whenever I write this guy. So his dialogue is said like in his voice and I have so much fun with it. But if you want like romantic romance ish, it's not really romantic like honestly Princess Bride I go way opposite the Enemies of Lovers and I'm like the cozy long form romance. I love the Princess Bride so much. It was actually a huge part of my wedding as well that's how much I loved it. So that's always my rec.

SPEAKER_02

You recommended Tress of something or other yes tress of the Emerald Sea by Brain and which I bought it's on my TBR. I bought it just because you recommended it.

SPEAKER_03

So it's got a it's got a little better romance in the sense that she's trying to reunite with her love.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And she's more the the the Wesley instead of the buttercup in that case but it reads a lot like Princess Bride in the fun but slightly lighthearted adventure and there's pirates and there's all sorts of cool magic but it gives the same vibe with a new fantasy spin I should say yeah and there's a wonderful letter from him in the beginning about why he wrote it and he wasn't going to publish it.

SPEAKER_02

He was just writing it during COVID for his wife or something.

SPEAKER_03

So again Tress of the Emerald Sea T-R-E-S-S okay by Brando Sando.

SPEAKER_01

Brando Brando Sando Brandon Sanderson my spouse says Brando Sando and it's in my brain now the Japanese call sandwiches I know sandwiches but oh sando so I'm really thinking of a Brandon Sanderson sandwich.

SPEAKER_05

Well so the first when I first got back into reading fiction reading for pleasure just maybe a year and a half or two years ago the first romance I read was Aquatar. Oh and having no idea about any of the tropes or any of the predictable plot twists it was like completely mind blowing.

SPEAKER_01

That was pretty good actually.

SPEAKER_05

Oh it was great. So I devoured that series in a very short time and I certainly I think that everyone it I think it's worth a read um if anyone that hasn't read it that is into romance or romanticy it's it's worth a shot to see if you like it. Because not everyone does but it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah yeah I I I agree with you actually it's probably really really high quality the parish well you always will guess that's I'm gonna I'm gonna evangelize for Tanith Lee's a heroine of the world but there is a definite enemies to lovers skip to that yeah yes thank you yes absolutely somebody has to back me up on this because at one point in the in the book about a third of her way into it uh she the heroine Aradia is the mistress of a large estate the man that she had to marry to kind of like basically survive and her love interest Spencer Xavian shows up as kind of like a military official from kind of an interim government who like shows up to like make sure there's nobody there who's not supposed to be there. And so they're very much on opposing sides at the moment and he does not recognize her although she definitely recognizes him. And so that's kind of an enemy smoke a lover's moment in that. And other than that it's a damn good book and everyone should buy it and rate it. I bought that one too and very good very well that you did.

SPEAKER_01

Yes I'm always going to have to recommend urban fantasy because urban fantasy is my my big inspiration when I write stuff like this. I of course my my big inspirations are doesn't files I really love the October Day series. I think that it's got a nice romance sort of subplot going and threading throughout it if you read it that was pretty good. And of course I love Sucky Stack House I thought that was a really good like paranormal romance or like kind of urban romance going like urban fantasy romance kind of going on before those terms made any sense. Even though it's it's rambling and weird and it has like romance in it that I'm like what? And of course I think she gets together with the wrong guy feel free to come at me. I don't I'll come at you I don't I'm an Eric stand even though it's a bad idea I like bad ideas I wouldn't have written this story if I didn't like writing about bad ideas.

SPEAKER_02

Jenna what's your favorite yeah well I just want to point out to anybody looking for the Suki books they will be in the mystery section. Those are technically mysteries yeah because it's always a murder but they are they are fun and there is a book event coming up next year in New Orleans and Charlene Harris will be there and maybe I will too but I last time I went to a book event in New Orleans I went to one panel and the rest of the time I was elsewhere.

SPEAKER_01

The spectacular books have been I have found them in three different sections. I found them in romance I have found them in the fantasy section and I found them in mystery. When I was reading them at first they were I was commuting and I kept trying to find them in the bookstore every time I needed the next one and it was always pot luck basically which section I was going to find these damn books in.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah well romance would be miscategorized there is romance I there is romance in them and I you know I'm always uh the first guy is the guy that I feel like she's supposed to be with so vampire was my choice and then the same with Avatar I didn't read on because I was like even though I wasn't really ship I just there were the I didn't feel the chemistry with them but at the time I think it was a YA book and so maybe that's kind of why I don't know but my daughter's like you have to read on at least read the next book and the opening of the third anyway so I you know I haven't read a lot of romanticy I did read Avatar I just told you my thoughts on that I like the beauty and the beast retelling for a YA book I enjoyed it I thought it was clever. And then I like the JD Robb books which I don't think are romantic they'd be closer to they're a future world that looks it's close to ours but it's in the future type so there's futuristic things but you recognize our world in it and of course she's a cop um and he's a a bazillionaire with only one name Rourke and he's Irish so you know that's all you need sounds like an alternate future alternate timeline sort of story. Well no she started writing it in the 90s and said it like in 2058 or something but in 60 books we've only gone about five years. I mean it's like you know and she comes out with two books a year now in the catching up um and so there's been a big there has been a big war there is off planet things going on there although we've only been off planet a few times they do have a prison off planet but there's also a resort anyway you recognize the grittiness and the humanness and all the thing of the of the mod of of the world we live in it's like near future sci-fi there's some cool doodads yeah um and ways of flying she doesn't like to fly like me which I think is funny she's also afraid of cows which is also funny to me in New York and she doesn't like cows um she's I you you just sort of have to read it to get a feel for it you know they have these auto chefs which my mind look like microwaves but work like the chains you can just like I want pizza um oh like in Star Trek yeah anyways is I'm reading a book right now called the book uh the book witch and I am really liking this book there's a romance in it i i'm not really sure I would call it a romance but this book what their job is to go into books when somebody's messing them up to make to get to get the plot back on track and there are so many fun references that writers would get she talks about how if a character gets agency because they find out they're not real they start kind of doing their own thing and she's like authors just hate that when their characters start doing something other than what which is true right um there's there's and there's things like that for readers um but basically this is a book witch who in the beginning goes into her favorite noir 19 it's I think it's prohibition time Chicago because the main character a man is he's off track he's been tied up so she's got to get him loose and back on track. Well they fall in love and they have this relationship where she's going to the book or he can come out for a little bit well she gets caught she get it gets banned and everything and what happens is her grandfather disappears her mother had sort of disappeared and the only thing she left her was oh people love this too is a Nancy Drew book. But it turns out this Nancy Drew book probably has more to tell us about the mom. Anyways it's really really cute it's cozy it's nice he has come to help her solve this thing and so they can figure out how to be together. It's just really cute and sweet and anybody who loves books there's so many references to books and reading and so I think you'll love it. That is my pick.

SPEAKER_01

That's cool. That's awesome. Very cool yeah all right folks well this is going to be for Fantastical foes that is our next scene coming out it's going to be out July 13th by the time this releases hopefully it will be available for you to buy it's available in ebook on Kindle Unlimited as well as in beautiful paperback it's got a lot of lovely features in it has an article on fantasy as Jenna told you it has three games there is a bit of a scavenger hunt with a riddle there is a bingo card and there is also a word search in there a lot of beautiful features there are author interviews in there we also have news about things going on in the romance world lots of different events there's a new Lady Tender tale feature in there everything that you enjoyed in Pause and Peril Plus as well as of course three wonderful enemies to lovers or manasey stories to give you a sense of the subgenre to see if you like it. And if you do love it then you get a sense of the different sort of categories you can find in that subgenre and all the different ways to do enemies to lovers. Of course you heard from all of our authors as well as from our editor. The next zine that we're going to be doing is Sapphic of Saturn. If you're a romance author just remember that that's coming out in November and we're doing a call for submissions in August. I am the editor for that I am looking for Sapphic science fiction stories. Remember that is a science fiction romance it's got to be both romance and science fiction. And of course I want Sapphic stories. Sapphic doesn't necessarily mean that both of them have to be biological females. I'm looking for queer stories. If you have any questions about that do not hesitate to send me a query and I will be happy to talk to you about it if you're not sure if your story qualifies if it's a queer story it probably does. That's why I'd love to talk to you. If you are curious about the zines, you want to learn more about them, remember to follow our zine series on Amazon and you will get a notification every time one of the zines pops up you can find us on Substack if you're a romance author or romance reader we've got lovely articles by Jenna Hart and by guest authors every single week about romance we've got romance news and of course we've got our podcast coming out every week on the on the Substack you can also follow us on Instagram learn all about tender and tempting tales all of our publications coming out we have two anthologies this year and we would love to hear from you we'd love to hear from our readers on the comments of this of this podcast or on Instagram Jenna Yeah and again thank you all for contributing helping put this great publication together we're excited to have it out and thank you for being here today to talk to us about hot takes and what you're writing and anyone who's listening also thank you for coming wherever you're listening to us you know drop us a comment if you have a hot take or just thoughts about whatever we'd like to look at it and respond to it.

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And until next time peace love and happily ever after