Raging Romantics

Content Warning: Mention of sexual assault in a romance novel @ 34:39-34:57

Welcome back you sparkly romance nerds! First and foremost, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LOVE WE'VE BEEN GETTING FOR LAST MONTH'S EPISODES! You love Ruby, we love Ruby, and we're seriously so grateful for all of you. In this episode, we follow up our last discussion of fanfiction with some live discussion and reactions! Jen made Jackie read a bunch of different original works from sites like A03, Fanfic.net, Wattpad, and Tumblr, and Jackie has a few thoughts...

Thoughts/feelings/opinions/fics to recommend to Jackie? Email us at [email protected]!

Sites/fics:

• Dramione - "If I'm Gonna Fall in Love" by Colubrina (fanfic.net)
• Stiles/Derek - "Binomial Coeficients" by DevilDoll (A03)
• Angrything Starlight (Tumblr)
• Wattpad
• Lore Olympus (book) originally a webtoon
• The Kissing Booth

Books/authors we mention:

• EL James
• Christina Lauren
• Anna Todd
• The Love Hypothesis

Links:

• "Wattpad partners with ViacomCBS to adapt stories to Streaming" (bookriot.com, 2021)
• "Wattpad to Be Acquired for $600 Million by Korean Parent Company of Webtoon" (Spangler, 2021)
• "ViacomCBS announces partnership with Wattpad to adapt originals" (Keck, 2021)
• "Why “The Mary Sue?”" (Polo, 2011)
• "Why Are So Many Gay Romance Novels Written By Straight Women?" (Foster, 2018)
• Jack Harbon's twitter (@jackharbon) and the tweet
• Gen Fic in Fanfic (tvtropes.com)
• "Why smut fics are so popular in the LGBTQ community" (Sung, 2020)
• Wattpad copyright FAQ

Happy Black history month! Let's celebrate with some books that represent black joy. Of course, just because it's February doesn't mean you should only limit your diverse reading to this month- read more diversely all the time!

Have other authors/books/series you think we would like? Email us at [email protected].

Books we mention:

• Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins
• Rare Danger also by Bev
• Brown Sisters trilogy by Talia Hibbert
• Book 1 - Get a Life, Chloe Brown ; Book 2 - Take a Hint, Dani Brown ; Book 3 - Act Your Age, Eve Brown
• Playbook series by Alexa Martin
• Book 1 - Intercepted ; Book 2 - Fumbled ; Book 3 - Blitzed ; Book 4 - Snapped
• Alyssa Cole series
• Note- Jackie got her series and the books numbers mixed up! There is the Reluctant Royals series:
• Book 1- Princess in Theory (STEM princess who doesn't know she's a princess); Book 2 - Duke by Default (Scottish sword maker) ; Book 3 - Prince on Paper (playboy prince) + novellas
• And then there's Runaway Royals
• Book 1 - How To Catch a Queen (amazing audiobook version, arranged marriage) ; Book 2 - How to Find a Princess (queer Anastasia)
• Love in Color by Bolu Babalola

Are you, like Jackie, completely baffled and intimidated by the world of A03, Wattpad, and all other things fanfiction? Don't worry! Jen's taking down the twisty turn-y path that leads us to all thing fandom, canon, and full of ships...not the three-masted schooner kind, though.

Questions/comments/concerns/suggestions? Email us at [email protected]!

Terms:

• fanfiction - fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction
• Fandom - the fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc. regarded collectively as a community or subculture.
• 'Ships -Shipping (derived from the word relationship) is the desire by followers of a fandom for two or more people, either real-life people or fictional characters (in film, literature, television series, etc.) to be in a romantic and/or sexual relationship.
• Superwholock - ship that involves Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock crossover
• Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) - Amazon's direction publication service
• A03 - Archive of Our Own - a nonprofit open source repository for fanfiction and other fanworks contributed by users
• Wattpad - an online social reading platform intended for users to read and write original stories. 
• OTP - One True Pair
• NSFW/SFW - Not Safe For Work / Safe For Work based on content
• Canon - the source material; in fiction-based fandoms, "canon" is simply the source narrative you're referring to when you talk about that thing you like
• Spiritualism - a system of belief or religious practice based on supposed communication with the spirits of the dead, especially through mediums.
• Fanart -artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work
• Genderbent -When a character's gender is changed; usually in fanfictions or fanart
• Fanzines- a magazine, usually produced by amateurs, for fans of a particular performer, group, or form of entertainment
• Slash fic / slash fiction - a genre of fan fiction that focuses on romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex. Sic m/m, f/f
• Dead dove - "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat" is a warning or tag used to indicate that a fanwork contains tropes or elements that may be deemed morally reprehensible without explicitly condemning the sensitive aspects (see fanlore.org)

Specific Fics and books we mention:

• "Master of the Universe" fanfic by EL James/Snowdragons Icequeen
• Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren
• The Office (No longer available online)
• Tessa Dare P&P fanfiction (not available online, but this is Tessa's blog)
• Naomi Novik "His Majesty's Dragons" - Master & Commander fic
• Pamela
• Shamela

Other episodes we recommend:

• #11 The Cult of Snowqueens Icedragon and 50 Shades
• #25 A (not-so-brief) Brief History of Romance
• #27 Howling for Werewolves
• #33 Exploring the Final Frontier with Science Fiction and Romance

Links:

• Organization for Transformative Works
• "Fan fiction" (Wikipedia)
• The Forgotten Early History of Fan Fiction (Hill, 2016)
• "In A Lonely Lockdown, With Books Slow To Come, Fanfiction Booms" (Çam, 2020)
• "Fan Fiction Was Just as Sexual in the 1700s as It Is Today"
• "How TikTok and Young Creators Turned Fanfiction into a Celebrated Art Form" (Weekman)
• "Fifty Shades Of Green: How Fanfiction Went From Dirty Little Secret To Money Machine" (Cucinello, 2017)
• "The early adventures of the apocryphal Sherlock Holmes" (Jamison, up. 2021)
• "Anne Rice Really Hated When People Made Her Characters Bone" (Jackson, 2021)
• "Why Do Queer People Write Fan Fiction? To See Themselves in Mainstream Culture" (Binstock, 2016)

Who's ready for a year of Raging Romantics? We wanted to let y'all know what we're going to be covering in the upcoming months. Have suggestions or thoughts? Email us at [email protected]!

February: Fanfiction!

March: Retellings in romancelandia

April: Something dark

• Possibly monsters or motorcycles

May: Publishing

• both traditional and indie spheres
• (will feature a very special interview...)

June: Pirates

Content warning: Language use and some discussion of...uh... the biology behind baby-making.

We're back with more sci-fi and aliens! In this episode we get to share our interview with the amazing Ruby Dixon, and we only fangirl *slightly*…(Maybe a little more than slightly). We also talk about some of the themes that run through scifi, and why readers could love the genre so much. Thoughts? Feelings? Opinions? Email us at [email protected]. And, of course, Ruby, thank you so much for giving us this interview! We had an amazing time emailing with you, and if you ever want to join us again, you are more than welcome!

The many series of Ruby Dixon:

• Ice Planet Barbarians (the og)
• Ice Home
• On the same planet as IPB but with more diverse characters
• Risdaverse
• Corsairs & Corsairs Brothers
• Fireblood Dragons
• DARK FIRE IS COMING OUT SOON
• Aspect and Anchor
• Bear Bites

Books Ruby Recommends:

• Vicki L. Holt Predator Planet series
• Naomi Lucas Cyborg Shifters series
• Homebound Lydia Hope
• Laurann Dohner 
• VK Ludwig
• Engineering Fate Alexis Osborne
• Claire Kent Hold series
• R Lee Smith Last Hour of Gann

Other books we mention;

• The Martian by Andy Weir
• Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
• GA Aiken
• Dragon kin series (dragon shifters)
• Scarred Earth saga (centaurs!)
• Monsters Love Curvy Girls series by Michele Mills (human nannies)
• Orc Sworn series by Finley Fenn
• The Dragon's Bride by Katee Robert

Oh look, a new minisode! Looking for new alien and sci fi romance recs? We've got you! Some of these are available through Northern Onondaga Public Library, so click the link, read the book, and let us know what you think! Email us at [email protected]!

We recommend:

• Anna Hackett
• Corin Cain
• Amanda Bouchet, Endeavor series
• Jessie Mihalik, Polaris Rising
• Marissa Meyer, Lunar Chronicles series
• Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell
• Tiffany Robert Ensnared

Are you a Trekkie like Jackie? Or do you only read science fiction romance for the spurs, like Jen? This month we're blasting into the stratosphere to look at the evolution of science fiction as a genre, and how aliens and scifi romance started stepping onto the scene. We'll talk about issues of gatekeeping, sexism, lack of diversity, and

Terms:

• Science Fiction - a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals.
• Hugo awards -first presented in 1953 and presented annually since 1955, are science fiction’s most prestigious award.
• Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967) - American inventor and publisher who was largely responsible for the establishment of science fiction as an independent literary form.
• Pulp Magazine - Literary magazines printed on cheap pulp paper
• Science Fiction League of America- founded in 1934 and one of the first official fan groups, devoted solely to science fiction; has since spawned into numerous other such organizations

Other episodes to go listen to:

• #9 Fifty Shades of Blue with Ruby Dixon
• #10 Adventures on an Ice Planet
• #11 The Cult of Snowqueens Ice Dragon and 50 Shades
• #21 Into the Unknown with Paranormal Romance
• #25 A (not-so-brief) Brief History of Romance

Books/authors we mention:

• Ice Planet Barbarians (series) and Ice Home (series) by Ruby Dixon
• Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• The Time Machine by HG Wells
• Jules Verne
• Edgar Rice Borroughs
• Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
• Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein
• Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
• The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey
• Dragonriders of Pern (series) by Anne McCaffrey
• The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
• Lost Colony series by Jayne Castle (aka Jayne Anne Krentz)
• Star King by Susan Grant
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• Johanna Lindsey
• Specifically her Ly-San-Ter Family series
• Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
• The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice
• Anna Hackett
• Calista Skye
• Ilona Andrews

Links:

• Hugo Awards issue Jen was referring to: "Diversity wins at the Sad Puppies lose at the Hugo awards" (Walter, 2015)
• "Pulp Literature and Science Fiction" (Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center)
• "Forrest J Ackerman Papers-An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University" (Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center)
• "Pulp Magazines" (Encyclopedia.com)
• "Writing the future: A timeline of science fiction literature" (BBC.co.uk)
• "Origins of Science Fiction" (Scififilmhistory.com)
• "Science Fiction" (Britannica)
• "Science Fiction And Utopia In 'Gulliver's Travels'" (UKessays, 2018)
• "Enlightenment" (History.com, 2020)
• "Before The Shape of Water, There Was Mrs. Caliban" (Mason, 2019)
• "Science Fiction and Romance: A Very Uneasy Marriage" (Lawson, 2006)
• "The fourth wave of feminism" (Britannica)

It's finally here, 2022! Wow, what a year. Thank you one and all for listening, emailing, loving, and supporting us here at Raging Romantics. We're truly grateful for each and every one of you, wherever you may be. In this minisode we're making plans and setting goals for 2022!

How about you, dear listener? What are your reading goals for 2022? Reach out! Let us know! Our email is [email protected], and you can always find us at Northern Onondaga Public Library. RAGE ON!

Authors/books we mention

• Nicole Rose
• Jessa Kane
• Mink
• Ice Planet Barbarians/Ruby Dixon
• Thrill of the Chaste
• Alyssa Cole
• Talia Hibbert
• Alexa Martin
• Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes by Alexa Martin
• The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews (rel. 1/11/22)
• House of Sky and Breath by SJ Maas (rel. 2/15/22)
• Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Sutanto
• Four Aunties and a Wedding (rel. 3/29/22)

We're venturing back into Amish-landia with a deep dive into the book that started it all, The Shunning by Beverly Lewis. We learned some things in this episode, dear listener. So buckle into the buggy seats, this road is long and twisting.

Thoughts? Feelings? Opinions? Want to tell us that we're completely off base? Email us at [email protected]!

Terms:

• kapp - The white or black head covering Amish females wear is known as a kapp or prayer covering. This is different from the larger black bonnet women may wear over the kapp. (Pike, 2015)
• Ordnung -The origins of the word “Ordnung” hail from the German language, the meaning being: “it’s all good," and refers in general to a behavioral guide. There are in actual fact 2 different types of Ordnung. One deals with all of the important official decisions that have taken place since the beginning of the movement and this one is written down. The other (and the one which is not written down) is the behavioral code. It is this which determines exactly what it is to be Amish (Dimmitt, 2013)
• Old Order - The Old Order Amish separated from the Mennonites in 1693 are are thee single largest faction of Amish groups. In general, the Old Order Amish refrain from most forms of technology and do not use indoor plumbing or any kind of machinery that has a motor. They practice traditional faith practices as adapted by the Church in 1623, and are generally more conservative in their clothing and mannerisms (Amish Furniture Factory, 2016)
• New Order - New Order Amish split from the Old Order in Pennsylvania in the 1960's, and in general can be described as more progressive than the other faction (Amish America)
• "Anabaptist Escalator" - movement of an individual from low-church, world-rejecting plainness to higher floor of progressive, world-accommodating Anabaptist churches and beyond (Weaver-Zercher, 38)
• Shunning - This is a longstanding practice in which church members isolate, ignore, or otherwise punish someone for breaking community rules. Amish excommunication is a complicated process that occurs when someone does something that goes against the church's values (Wisiti, 2018)

Books/Authors we mentioned:

• The Shunning by Beverly Lewis
• Melody Carlson
• Amish Heart by Miranda Rush (spicy!)
• The Shunning by Susan Joseph (spicy and dubcon)
• Sadly, though, I can't find a copy of it anywhere :(

Articles/resources:

• Thrill of the Chaste by Valerie Weaver-Zercher
• "Why Amish romance novels are such a big hit for Harlequin" (Donaldson, 2020)
• "The Amish don't believe in insurance. Here's how they help pay everybody's medical bills" (Newman, 2018)
• Amish Studies; The Young Center
• "The Amish and Adoption" (Yoder, 2016)
• "The Gentle People" (Labi, 2005)
• Content Warning: discussions of Sexual Assault of a minor
• "Investigation Into Child Sex Abuse In Amish Communities" (Martin/McClure, 2020)
• Content warning: Discussions of Sexual Assault
• "The Amish Keep to Themselves. And They’re Hiding a Horrifying Secret" (McClure, 2020)
• Content Warning: Discussions of Sexual Assault and miscarriage
• This is the same article as was published in Cosmo, only free to access

Is it really almost January 2022? Where did this past year go? No seriously, please let us know because we are v. confused. In the meantime, Raging Romantics is looking back on some of our favorite episodes and tropes of the past year! Have you listened to these yet? No? Well then what are you doing with your life? Go listen to them.

NOW!

*ahem* Then email us and let us know what your favorite episodes/tropes were.

Happy holidays you sparkly romance nerds. May the end of 2021 bring you light and joy and really good books.

XX Jen and Jackie

Jen's Favorites

• Scandals

Jackie's Favorites

• History of Romance and Ripped Bodice Interview
• Ice Planet Barbarians
• Werewolves

Honorable mentions

• Cougars
• Billionaires
• Lyssa Kay Adams

The Ripped Bodice LA

Email us at [email protected] ♥️