Notes:

Towards the beginning of the conversation, the Verbivore mentions that the Romance genre is wide and growing, with characters that are starting to more accurately represent the world around us - but there is still a long way to go. We strongly believe representation matters and that we each should be able to see ourselves reflected in stories with happy endings. If you’re curious to learn more about where the industry is at, here are a few articles on this topic:

- NY Times Article “The Changing Face of Romance Novels”

- The Ripped Boddice “The State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing Report”

- Writers Republic Article “Diversity in the Romance Novel Industry: Has there been any progress?”

Fable and the Verbivore both talk about gaining vocabulary to more clearly identify or categorize the steam or spice level of a romance story so that we can better understand what to expect from a given book. Here are links to a couple steam/spice scales that we found online:

- DelShereeGladden.com Article “What exactly does “steamy” mean when it comes to romance?”

- RomanticFantasyShelf.com Article “Romantic Fantasy Heat Levels (Revised!)”

The Verbivore references a very funny Instagram post from author Ali Hazelwood talking about Christina Lauren’s upcoming book “The True Love Experiment.” That post can be viewed here.

Here are a few articles we referenced for this conversation:

- MasterClass Article “Writing 101: What Is a Romance Novel? Learn About the History and Characteristics of Romance Novels”

- Publishing Research Quarterly “The Romance Publishing Industry and Its Reputation” by Lauren Cameron

- Book Riot Article “How are Romance Novel Covers Made?” by Sarah Nicolas

- Book Riot Article “As Illustrated Covers Trend in Romance, What is Being Said About Women’s Interests” by Kelly Jensen

Books and Films Mentioned:

- The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

- The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

- Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon

- Uprooted: A Novel by Naomi Novik

- The Lost City – Directed by Aaron Nee and Adam Nee

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)