Smart Talk...

For any readers of our blog who don't know - Molly and I were interviewed by Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches during one of her RWA National Conference podcasts. It was actually one of the highlights of the conference for me because I’m such a huge fan of the DBSA podcasts in general.


I love listening to really smart people talk about romance seriously. And sometimes not so seriously. The jokes are there about romance novels no doubt, and to truly have an intelligent conversation you have to accept the good with the bad. But for the first time listening to those podcasts, I really appreciated having someone legitimize both what I write and what I read.

Then Molly and I got to be the smart people talking and that was fun too. We chatted for almost two hours about books, and sex, and the impact of sex in romance novels on women and their lives and I thought YES! This is so cool.

I’m done with being maligned for reading what I love. I’m done thinking that romance books can’t be smart and worthy of serious discussion. I’m done listening to men chuckle behind their hands when they bring up 50 Shades of Gray and how all books like that are just porn. Then I have to explain how it is a romance, but it isn’t a romance and what does it matter?

I read plenty of books by men that have sex in them. But when a woman writes a book about sex suddenly – it’s there. Molly made such a good point about why women aren’t more educated about sex, aren’t more open about sex. It’s the judgment.

I know it seems cliché to say there is a double standard but flippin’ A there is a double standard. And listening to our conversation back and hearing us talk I was reminded again how much I love reading these books. I love writing these books. I love talking about these books!