S05.41 Worldbuilding in Romance Novels

We’re talking about worldbuilding this week, and you’re getting a glimpse into Jen and Sarah’s everyday non-podcasting romance chatter.

This one is for everyone — we talk about paranormal and historical romance, about what we think fantasy means when it comes to romance, and (most importantly) about how contemporary romance just might require the most worldbuilding of all of it?

Separately, Eric points out the irony of us referring to “two people in a phone booth” in an episode where we talk about how kids today don’t know about cassette tapes.

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Show Notes

Donald Trump was indicted and was storing his documents, including some with nuclear secrets, in his bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.

Thread by Angus Johnson about ChatGPT and writing, which was in response to this article at PW about how AI will soon replace editors.

Sarah’s editor Carrie Feron says, “Your opening has to tell a story and leave the reader asking a question.”

A classic reaction video from Tim and Fred Williams to In the Air Tonight, Questlove was nervous about In the Air Tonight, and a terrific episode of Hit Parade about how Phil Collins changed the sound of drumming.

NPR did a terrific piece about Kennedy Ryan and why she’s so big right now, and we were briefly interviewed talking about her legacy.

Jen tries to make as many of those links as possible into PDFs! Thinking of you in the future times, wondering wtf we were talking about.