Kate Cuthbert and Jodi McAlister: Deliberate choices – BT065

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 ]