Welcome to the Meet Cute BookPod, the Trailer! Meet Cute Romance Bookshop is a queer-owned, feminist bookshop in San Diego focusing on genre romance, and *this* is its podcast. Catch up on virtual and live events you missed and join us for some exclusive conversations with folks working all over Romancelandia.

"It's never too late to be yourself." Ashley Herring Blake, author of Delilah Green Doesn't Care and Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, chats with Taleen Voskuni about writing with a sense of place, interior design inspo, figuring out your sexuality later in life, what a day in her life as a writer and teacher is like, which of her characters she's most like and most likely to befriend, and advice for other writers. Ashley also previews the last book in her Bright Falls series, Iris Kelly Doesn't Date, and teases a holiday romance she hasn't even written yet!

"I am not writing to make other people comfortable." A conversation about “Diversity in the Age of Viral Books” with authors Adriana Herrera, Kennedy Ryan, Nana Malone, and Nisha Sharma, moderated by Nichole Perkins. They cover that and so much more. It’s an insightful, incisive, and wide-ranging conversation that covers what inspired each of the authors to start writing romance and what they find to be the hardest thing about it; the pressure they’ve felt to tone down the authenticity of their books to appeal to audiences who don’t share their or their characters’ identities and some of the choices they’ve had to make in terms of content and marketing; their experiences having books traditionally published and publishing them independently; and how TikTok, in particular, has changed publishing, and what that means when the app itself isn’t an even playing field for authors of color.

"I can make anything sexy." Today, we have the audio from our virtual release party for Katee Robert’s fourth Dark Olympus book, Radiant Sin. She's in conversation with the wonderful Xio Axelrod, and, together they chat about the fun of loose retellings and why the worlds of Katee’s various series are intertwined. Both authors share their favorite tropes and talk through the differences between traditional and indie publishing and what they do when they hit a wall while writing. Katee considers which character in the series so far surprised her the most and how her sex scenes stay fresh because they’re derived from character. She also previews what’s coming for some of our Dark Olympus favorites, and even teases a project that she’s afraid to attempt, but is attempting nonetheless.

In our first podcast exclusive episode, Becca chats with Paige Lavoie, the author of the delightfully titled I’m in Love With Mothman. They talk about Paige's background as a romance reader and writer, including her start in web comics and the fanfic she hid in a binder under the bed. Paige talks about her first book, which she indie published, and some of the warnings she got about starting out that way. She also compares her experience as an indie author with her experience at a small to mid-sized press. They try to define Monster Romance and dig into why it might be so popular right now. Then they do the same thing with retellings, which are also popping up all over. Paige talks about her writing process, including writing with a chronic illness, and the origin story of I’m In Love With Mothman’s beautiful cover. Finally, they talk about Paige’s TikTok presence as a vintage influencer and as an author on BookTok.

"It's sarcasm as a love language." Authors Melonie Johnson, April Asher, and Alexis Daria chat with moderator Tif Marcelo about their latest releases, how they chose their settings, and what kind of research they did once they’d written their characters into unfamiliar career paths. Melonie, it sounds like, has learned a lot about death. They talk about building the worlds of their books and how that work changes at different points in the writing of a series. They get into their recipes, or lack thereof, for writing good banter and Alexis and Melonie share a trick for getting work done and staying focused. Finally each author picks a drink to pair with her book and shouts out a recommendation to topple your TBR.

In The Meet Cute BookPod's second podcast exclusive, Becca chats with Vi-An Nguyen, an Art Director with Penguin Random House. Becca starts with a very technical question: What even is art direction? Then Vi-An explains the many considerations that go into crafting the book covers we see on the shelves, including social media’s effect on cover design and who has input about what a cover should look like. Vi-An and Becca debate the pros and cons of the contrasting spine on a trade paperback, then Vi-An attempts to answer Becca's burning question about why the same book has different covers in different countries. Vi-An talks about the trends she’s seeing in cover design now, and the interplay between covers for historical and contemporary romance. She shares where she finds inspiration, and she and Becca talk red carpet fashion because why not? Then they give their hot takes on object covers and, finally, Becca asks Vi-An about how she ended up in this very cool job.

"I would never in my life want to do this, but I enjoyed reading about it." This is the audio from our in store book launch with Anita Kelly for their latest romance Something Wild & Wonderful which, if you follow us on Instagram, you will already know that Becca cried her way through. In a good way. This is one of our favorite conversations yet. You’ll hear Anita talk about their background as a romance reader and writer, the process of getting Something Wild & Wonderful from great idea to final draft, how they approached writing what is a version of a classic queer trauma narrative in a realistic but hopeful way, writing hiking that hard core PCT through-hikers approve of, the trials and tribulations of writing a book where nothing really happens (which we mean as a high compliment), discovering they’d written an autistic main character. You’ll also get a sneak peek at book 3 in this series and a discussion of Alanna of Trebond as an underappreciated queer icon.