Book Thingo

Guests: Sophie Ly and Rudi Bremer | Host: Kat Mayo | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 9/06/2019 Sydney

I’ve been sitting on this episode for a little while, but hold on to your one-click buttons because Sophie Ly joins Rudi and me with a huge number of graphic novel recommendations. (But please note: not all of them are HEA romances, but we try to identify which of the titles fall into that bucket. We do also talk about the difficulty of knowing if a graphic novel series will have a romantic HEA.)

Shout out to Vikki, who tweeted in response to our #rombklove episode (EP69). If you’re on Twitter and listening to the podcast, we’d love for you to live tweet or just send us your reactions by using the hashtag #btpod.

Guests

Sophie Ly — Host of Gaggle of Geeks podcast, and best known on the Book Things podcast as Rudi’s alter ego: @Soph_Ly; podcast

Rudi Bremer — Amazing audio producer and recommender of books: @rudi_bee

Books

• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Twilight graphic novels by Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim [ review ]
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
• BD |

Guests: Rudi Bremer and Gabby | Host: Kat Mayo | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 9/02/2019 Sydney

The Book Thingo bloggers decided to knock one book off our TBR piles. Spoiler alert: only one of us actually did the work, and you get no prizes for guessing who. We also talk about the books we lie about having read, books we feel guilty about not having read, and romance classics that didn’t really work for us.

Guests

Rudi Bremer — Amazing audio producer and recommender of books: @rudi_bee

Gabby — Wearer of socks and gloves, epilogue hater: @penneclearwater

Books

• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Lover at Last by J.R. Ward [ review ]
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Flowers From the Storm by Laura Kinsale
• BD | BT |

Guest: Aislinn Kearns | Hosts: Kat Mayo and Rudi Bremer | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 19/08/2018 RWA

What happens when you combine a love of 80s action films with romance genre tropes? You get Ainslinn Kearns’s books! Rudi and I caught up with Aislinn at the Romance Writers of Australia convention last year, and we talked about romance characters with disability, favourite tropes, and dealing with food intolerance in the apocalypse.

Thank you to Claire for being such a wonderful listener!

Guest

Ainslinn Kearns — Australian author of contemporary romance: @ardentaislinn; facebook; aislinnkearns.com

Books

• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Station Alpha by Aislinn Kearns
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Stranded with the Mountain Man by Aislinn Kearns
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Mission Recovery series by Dana Mart...

Guests: Rudi and Gabby | Host: Kat Mayo | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 23/05/2019 Sydney

#RomBkLove, the brainchild of the amazing Ana Coqui, is a month-long celebration of romance books, authors and readers. Book Thingo is excited to host today’s topic: Rebellious readers.

In this episode, we thought it would be a good time to take a pause from title recommendations, and instead focus on our habits as readers. Rudi, Gabby and I talk about our personal reading rules, how they affect our enjoyment of books, and whether we’ve broken our rules for particular authors or books.

If you don’t have time to listen to the podcast, but would still like to participate in today’s #rombklove topic, here are the rules and habits we talk about:

• Gabby: Don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like Passion by Lisa Valdez.
• Kat: Don’t read a series until it’s finished.
• Rudi: It’s perfectly acceptable to skip books in a series, or even retcon it out of a series.
• Gabby: I will not read a series with the same couple in multiple books.
• Gabby: I won’t read epilogues.
• Gabby: I can’t skip books, and I can’t read them out of order.
• Gabby: I don’t hold physical books sacred. I will dogear the corners, which is the natural order of bookmarking. (Gabby went through a phase of ripping off or erasing clinch covers and spines.)
• Rudi: Use digital bookmarks for returning to specific scenes in books, for good and bad.
• Rudi: It’s okay to spot-read — ie just reading the scenes that resonated with me, and that I feel like rereading.
• Kat: I will open keepers on a random page and just start from there.
• Kat and Rudi: We will read the end of a book first (also known as killing fairies).
• Kat: When I open a book, I expect it to be magnificent.
• Rudi: I have to read 3-4 books from a new-to-me author before writing them off.
• Gabby: Never read a novella.
• Kat: No matter what the physical description of the hero is, I’ll imagine the same person.
• Rudi: For every straight white het author that I read (and book that reflects that), I read a book and an author that sit outside of those parameters.

You can join in the conversation by using the hashtag #rombklove on social media. Let us know what reading rules and habits you’ve developed for yourself. Who would you break your rules for? We’ll be hanging out mostly on Twitter, and we hope to continue the discussion there. You can also find out more about #RomBkLove here.

Finally, thank you to Fangirlxmillion for leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. We love hearing from our audience, and we truly appreciate it!

Guests

Gabby — Wearer of socks and gloves, epilogue hater: @penneclearwater

Rudi Bremer — Amazing audio producer and recommender of books: @rudi_bee

Books

• BD | BT | Amz |

Guest: Melanie Milburne | Host: Kat Mayo | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 18/08/2018 RWAus

When I heard Melanie Milburne’s keynote at the 2018 Australian Romance Readers’ Award, I knew we had to have her on the show. Her speech as a powerful personal statement about reconciling her feminism and her writing career. It as powerful because it was so honest and reflective in a way I hadn’t heard from many romance authors before. I hope that comes out in our conversation in this episode. Melanie celebrates over 15 years and 80 books this week — an amazing achievement.

Shout out to stephnay14 for the awesome review on Apple Podcasts!

Guest

Melanie Milburne — Australian author of contemporary category romance: @twitter; facebook; melaniemilburne.com.au

Books

• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Lexi’s Secret by Melanie Milburne
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — The Prince’s Stolen Virgin by Maisey Yates
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Penniless Virgin to Sicilian Bride by Me...

Guests: Gabby and Rudi | Host: Kat Mayo | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 18/01/2019 Sydney

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, the BT bloggers are back on the podcast to talk about love languages. To find your own love language, you can take a free quiz here.

Shout out to Ben, whose Instagram spreads featuring the podcast are amazing!

Guests

Gabby — Wearer of socks and gloves, new owner of the Fabio cover of Flowers From the Storm: @penneclearwater

Rudi Bremer — Amazing audio producer and recommender of books: @rudi_bee

Books

• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — The 5 Love Languages: How to express heartfelt commitment to your mate by Gary Chapman
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — One Dance with a Duke by Tessa Dare
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — My Imaginary Ex by Mina V. Esguerra

Guest: Amy Andrews | Host: Kat Mayo | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 18/08/2018

Following on from the theme set by Kate’s 2018 RWA conference keynote, which we talked about on our previous episode, I chat with Amy Andrews on where she stands on the subject of safe sex in romance fiction. We also spend a bit of time talking about sports romance, and if you’re fan of any of the rugby codes, you’ll probably yell at me at some point because I very likely got them mixed up.

Thanks heaps to divaflip for leaving us a review on iTunes! We read every single review, and it really helps to know that you’re enjoying the show.

Guest

Amy Andrews — Australian romance author: @AmyAndrewsbooks; facebook; instagram; amyandrews.com.au; BD | BT | Amz

Books

• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Long Game by Catherine Evans
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Fair Game by Amy Andrews
• BD |

Guest: Kate Cuthbert and Jodi McAlister | Host: Kat Mayo | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 19/08/2018 RWA

At last year’s Romance Writers of Australia conference, Kate Cuthbert’s keynote speech, Consenting adults, was a game changer for the attendees. It spawned deep discussions about the choices authors make when writing romance stories. It also bridged a gap in the conversation because it acknowledges that problematic stories have a place in genre history, while urging us to re-examine the messages our stories are conveying.

So I’m excited to have Kate and Jodi McAlister in our first interview from the conference. We talk about the function of nonconsensual scenes in the history of romance, what happy endings look like in different cultures, condoms in romance, power politics, and cultural conversations.

You might also like to check out this guest post by Ainslie Paton, which looks at some dos and don’ts when writing first kisses. Ainslie also includes some examples of great first kisses.

Finally, a huge hug of thanks for all your comments, tweets, Instagram stories, and emails. A special shout out goes to RBurbank and Roxanne for your lovely feedback!

Join our conversation on Twitter and Instagram by using #BTpod. You can now also listen to the show on Spotify.

Guests

Kate Cuthbert — Program Manager at Writers Victoria, former managing editor of Escape Publishing: @katydidinoz

Jodi McAlister — Literary historian and lecturer at Deakin University, author of the Valentine series: @JodiMcA; BD | BT | Amz

Books

• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James [ reviews ]

Guest: Gabby| Host: Rudi Bremer | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 21/09/2018 Sydney

What better way to celebrate the new year than with our (super very) belated podcast anniversary episode! *cue applause*

We talk about Lisa Valdez’s books, whether you can have a multi-book romance, our urban fantasy faves, and Gabby’s love for Flowers From the Storm.

Once again, Rudi has organised a special treat for us — we’re playing Book Thingo bingo! If you want to play along, you can generate a bingo card here. But let me just say: this game was totally rigged not in my favour...

Guests

Rudi Bremer — Amazing audio producer and recommender of books: @rudi_bee

Gabby — Wearer of socks and gloves, new owner of the Fabio cover of Flowers From the Storm: @penneclearwater

Books

• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Passion by Lisa Valdez
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Patience by Lisa Valdez
• BD | BT | Amz | Aud — Primrose by Lisa Valdez
• BD | BT |

Guests: Gabby and Rudi | Host: Kat Mayo | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 7/09/2019 Sydney

We turned 4 in August (hurrah!), so of course we’re bringing you our anniversary special in November. Because that’s how we (ie Kat) roll. As usual, Rudi is the architect of all shenanigans, and this year, she’s assisted by some of our podcast listeners!

Thank you to Ana, Ben, Chachic, Jen, Mel and Sarah for taking part in this episode. You were all AMAZING!

And now, over to you, dear listener — who do you think would make the best Gabby? Tweet your vote (write-ins welcome!) and tag us using #BTpod.

Guests

Gabby — Irreplaceable: @penneclearwater

Rudi — Best audio producer ever: @rudi_bee

Jennifer Hallock — Author of Sugar Sun historical romance series: @jen_hallock; Instagram; Facebook; jenniferhallock.com; Amazon

Chachic — Filipino book reader, blogger and Instagrammer: @chachic_; Instagram; chachic.wordpress.com

Melissa — Pork roll tragic: @moetical

Sarah — Bringer of sweet things: @Bluestocking_a

Ana Cocqui — Blogger, librarian and podcaster: @anacoqui; podcast; website

H. Bentham — Romance reader and Instagrammer with impeccable taste in podcasts: @bentchbites; Instagram

People

Sophie Ly, Danielle Steel

Links

• IASPR — International Association for the Study of Popular Romance
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