Raging Romantics

Jen and Jackie dive into a world where they easily admit they have absolutely NO experience...the world of Amish romances. Despite the fact that both of your favorite librarians both grew up in Amish and farming country, neither of them have EVER READ A BOOK THAT FEATURES AN AMISH SET OF CHARACTERS. This month, they're rectifying that. Follow along for the ride as we hitch up the buggy and head out to the farm.

Books/authors we mention:

• Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels (Weaver-Zurcher, 2013)
• Sabina: Story of the Amish by Helen Reimensnyder Martin (1905)
• Beverly Lewis
• Linda Byler (Amish author)
• Cindy Woodsmall
• Wanda Brunstetter
• Clara Bernice Miller
• Tracie Peterson
• The Wish by Patricia Davids
• Kimberley Woodhouse
• (Jackie mistakenly named this author as Tracey; also Woodhouse writes gentle Christian, not Amish)
• Dokiri Brides series by Denali Day (wyverns/barbarians/closed-door romance)

Terms:

• "Clean," "Sweet," "Nice," or "Closed-Door," romance - a romance that does not feature on-page intimacy
• The Ordnung - The unwritten set of rules and regulations that guide everyday Amish life
• Protestant Reformation
• Anabaptist -A religious movement grew out of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s and believed that adults should be baptized instead of infants, and reformers should have been much harder on the Catholic Church
• Gelassenheit - “submission,” a belief that includes simplicity, humility, thrift, obedience, and accepting the will of higher authorities. The Amish ideal is humility, in contrast to the modern ideal of personal fulfillment 
• Theory of the Golden Age
• Hypermodernity - excessive technological and socio-economic exploitation characteristic of late stage capitalism
• Hypersexuality - Officially, hypersexuality is used in reference to a clinical diagnosis of Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder; however, in the sense of this podcast, Jen and Jackie use it in reference to the perceived view that America is "obsessed" with sexual depictions and the increasing availability of sexually-charged materials both visual and written, and the countermovement that have arisen in opposition to this perception.
• Swartzentruber Amish - a specific sect of the Amish that value traditional beliefs and practices
• The Kapp -The white or black head covering Amish females wear, also known as the prayer covering

Podcasts Jackie listened to:

• Whoa!mance Episode 84: Amish Romance (Entrop[e]y #1) — The Wish by Patricia Davids
• diyMFA Radio with Gabriela Pereira Episode 250: Crafting an Amish Romance — Interview with Patricia Davids
• Trust Me episodes 40/41 Torah Bontrager- Growing Up Amish part 1 and part 2

Sources:

• "Bonnet Rippers: The Rise of the Amish Romance Novel" (Weaver-Zercher, 2013)
• "Fifty Shades of Amish: A Strange Genre of the Romance Novel" (Goodman, 2015)
• "Carrie Bradshaw -- in a Bonnet?" (Wright & Brown, 2009)
• "Amish" (Kraybill, N.D.)
• "Amish Origins" (Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College)
• "Amish in America" (PBS, 2012)
• "Why Amish Romance Novels Are So Popular" (Lattier, 2018)
• "Bonnets, Buggies and Sexual Abuse" (DeMuth, 2013)
• "Hot Under the Bonnet: The Cooptation of Amish Culture in Mass-Market Fiction" (DeCoursey, 2014)
• West Nickel Mines School Shooting

Do you love book clubs? Do you love romance books? Then shoot on up to NOPL North Syracuse on December 16 and join the Between the Covers bookclub as we welcome bestselling, best friend, writing duo Christina Lauren! Book club starts at 630 pm ET, and is available on Zoom as well. We will be reading their book In a Holidaze...and gang. It's an excellent read.

Check our calendar for more information!

Questions? Email us at [email protected]

Happy holidays to one and all, and we hope you have an excellent start to the festive season!

Welcome back to the tea party folks. You ready for this marathon session? Buckle up, buttercup, it's a long one today.

Content warning: Discussions of racism, transphobia and homophobia. Also please be advised that there is language use in many of the links we have provided, however all of them are vetted for safety and accuracy.

Jamie McGuire drama

• On October 25, Voltage Pictures director Roger Kumble (dir. "After We Collided") announced that he was teaming up with actors Dylan Sprouse and Virginia Gardner to begin filming a movie adaption of bestselling "romance" novel "Beautiful Disaster"
• and SOCIAL MEDIA FREAKS OUT
• Jamie McGuire has a lot of controversial opinions and has made a lot of enemies in the romance community for her books. Please review the provided links and materials for information
• There's no ending to this one yet, it's more of an ongoing realization by romancelandia that movie/television producers continue to not pick the books that romance lovers believe will make better television/film

Omegaverse

• DMCA Takedown Notice
• Scène à faire
• For more information on what omegaverse actually is, go back to last month and listen to our werewolf episodes!
• Addison Cain starts writing omegaverse fanfic in 2012 while living in Japan. When she moves back to the States she pursues publishing and n 2016 Born to Be Bound was released by Blushing Books, and Cain becomes extremely popular and becomes one of the leading published omegaverse authors
• In 2018 fellow omegaverse author Zoey Ellis publishes Crave To Conquer through Quill Ink Books. It's also doing well and readers are liking it...until Cain's readers start gettng into it and recognizing a llot of similarities and tropes and plot lines when comparing Ellis' book to Cain's
• Cain goes forth and accuses Ellis of plagiarizing (similar to Serruya/Milan) and a long legal proceeding begins
• After Cain accuses Ellis, Blushing Books issues DMCA's against Ellis, and all of Ellis' work is withdrawn; Ellis files counternotices, and after a few months her works are resorted; THEN Cain's lawyer's issue threatening letters promising legal action is Ellis doesn't take her work back down. Ellis does not do this, and sues Cain first.
• In late 2018 Quill Ink files against Blushing Books/Cain in the state of Oklahoma (even though BB/Cain have no relation to that state but is where Ellis' distributor is based); Cain asks for this to be dismissed since she has no business in that state, and after she swears to the judge that she had nothing to do with the hreatening letter sent by her lawyer to Ellis, Cain is dismissed from the OK case
• So Ellis sues Cain in Virginia
• The battle between Quill and BB continues, and Quill's lawyers, in the process of obtaining all the necessary documentation to create a fair case, obtain the correspondence between Cain and BB, which reveals Cain had been the one to pursue the takedown notices, DMCA, and copyright filings...in opposition to her sworn affidavit that she had nothing to do with the whole business (and what she's been posting on her personal social media). Furthermore, Cain has no copyrights filed on her works...In light of this, Ellis and Quill file a motion to judge Cain guilty for civil contempt, perjury and to dismiss this case. Three days later Blushing offers a complete settlement, says Ellis did NOT plagiarize and dismissed the case. Ellis was not awarded any money from her suit because she ran out of funds and her lawyer left before she could fully pursue the case.

RWA vs. Milan

• The Romance Writer’s of America (RWA) is a trade organization for romance writers and was founded by Vivian Stephens and Rita Clay in 1980 who had hoped that RWA would be a professional organization that would help promote, advance and protect romance authors
• In 2018 Courtney Milan was appointed to Chair of the Ethics Board in 2018
• August 2019 RWA President-Elect Carolyn Jewell tweets about blocking a problematic author they had been in business with; smart people soon realize that this was Sue Grimshaw, former editor and romance buyer for Borders bookstore. Grimshaw's boss and friend Suzan Tisdale, owner of Glenfinnan Publishing, comes out and says that this is nonsense, and Grimshaw " is no more a racist or bigot than I am."
• Twitter isn't happy (is it ever?), and Milan joins in on the drama session, and rips apart the 1999 book Somewhere Lies the Moon by Kathryn Lynn Davis and its portrayal of half-Chinese women (Milan is half-Chinese herself); there's fallout from this whole situation with Davis claims that she lost her contract, and Tisdale claims that she's having a hard time finding anyone who will work with her now. Tisdale files a complaint against Milan, accusing Milan of harassing behavior, bullying, threatening her career and her business, and threatens legal action if the RWA does not do something about Milan and Milan's social media
• Milan is asked to step down as Chair and she does, although she's upset due to the unclear policies in RWA's bylaws concerning social media practices
• The complaints against Milan are brought to an entirely new Committee Panel, things get weird, people keep recusing themselves, and when the panel finally meets to come to a decision on November 19, 2019, they decide to censure Milan, suspend her membership for one year and put a lifetime ban on ever holding leadership positions again. The Panel's decision is sent to the RWA Board on December 17 but it's lacking a LOT of evidence...including Milan's own statements! Despite the Board asking the Panel for more information and documentation, the Panel (and the Panel's lead, new President Elect Damon Suede) refuse to present more information, saying that the Board just needs to trust the Panel...
• Then Social Media gets ahold of everything...and THINGS BLOW UP
• On Christmas Eve there's an emergency Board meeting and they vote to immediately rescind the ruling against Milan
• That's the end of the Milan dispute...but RWA continues to be in hot water. People are withdrawing memberships, authors are pulling books from nominations, agents are refusing to work with RWA, Suede is catching heat for falsifying claims and accreditations, publishers pull out of conventions, and over 3000 members leave. Suede ends up withdrawing from his position, Davis and Tisdale say they only wanted an apology, and RWA unveils a new award in honor of Vivian Stephens in place of the RITA award annnnnd that's...sort of where we're left off at.

Books/authors we mention:

• Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
• Born to Be Bound by Addison Caine
• Crave to Conquer by Zoey Ellis
• Kennedy Ryan
• Jamie McGuire

Links:

• Maguire/Krumble/Beautiful Disaster
• "Roger Kumble Movie ‘Beautiful Disaster’ Sets Dylan Sprouse, Virginia Gardner & More" (D'Allessandro, 2021)
• "Racist Jamie McGuire Dragged Again Upon News of Romance Book Adaptation" (Shotwell, 2021)
• "Jamie McGuire's 'Problematic' Past Turns Fangs Against Beautiful Disaster" (Krishnamurphy, 2021)
• "What's the Deal with...Jamie McGuire" (Bec&Books, 2020)
• "Beautiful Disaster Criticised by Fans for Jamie McGuire's Controversial Past" (Sonia, 2021)
• "Author Jamie McGuire dropped by agency after engaging with Proud Boys and Nazis" (HorrorMaven, 2020)
• Omegaverse
• "Copyright: The alpha and the Omega(verse)" (Whipple, 2019a)
• "Not Walking Away From Omegaverse" (Whipple, 2019b)
• "The DMCA Is Not a Weapon for Great Justice" (Whipple, 2021)
• Case 5:18-cv-00920-G Document 6-14 Filed 10/17/18 - Blushing Books emails courtesy Whipple
• "Into The Omegaverse: How a Fanfic Trope Landed in Federal Court" (Youtube, Ellis, 2020a)
• "Eyes Wide Open" (Bailey, 2020)
• "Addison Cain's lawyer e-mailed me, and it only got worse from there" (Youtube, Ellis, 2020b)
• Courtney Milan Twitter thread re:Cain
• RWA Ethics complaint against Milan by Cain re:Milan's "lack of support"
• "A Feud in Wolf-Kink Erotica Raises a Deep Legal Question" (Alter, 2020)
• "Drama in the Omegaverse" (Golden Angel, 2019)
• Ellis' lawyers counternotices against Cain
• "Join The Fan Fiction Deep State And Watch This Latest Video That Addison Cain Really Doesn't Want You To See" (TechDirt, 2020)
• Quill Ink Books Limited v. ABCD Graphics and Design Inc (5:18-cv-00920)
• "Omegaverse Lawsuit" (Ellis, 2018)
• Meredith, Empress of the Sock Puppet Army’s review of Crave to Conquer | Goodreads
• "Discussion of Addison Cain's Alpha Claim and Zoey Ellis's Myth of Omega" (Busse, 2018)
• "Just Keep Breathing With Me" - POSSIBLE FIRST OMEGAVERSE by Tebtosca (2011)
• All Lawyers are Bastards Podcast: There Will Be Knots
• RWA/Milan
• "The Implosion of the RWA" (Ryan, 2019)
• "Romance is publishing’s most lucrative genre. Its biggest community of writers is imploding" (Romano & Grady, 2020)
• "Bad Romance" (Grady, 2020)
• "Vivian Stephens Helped Turn Romance Writing Into a Billion-Dollar Industry. Then She Got Pushed Out" (Swartz, 2020)
• Twitter Thread by Bree Sedai (2020)
• "Racism and the Corporate Romance Buyer: a "little fiasco" involving Sue Grimshaw" (Vivanco, 2019)
• "Inside the Spectacular Implosion at the Romance Writers of America" (Faircloth, 2020)
• THE Twitter thread by Milan about Grimshaw
• Suzan Tisdale's formal complaint to RWA
• Milan's formal response to Tisdale's complaint
• Report of the Ethics Committee Pursuant to a Zoom Conference Call: November 19, 2019
• Independent Ethics Audit Report for Romance Writers of America (Judish & Jacobs, 2020)
• Alyssa Cole's Twitter Thread re: the whole situation and emails
• HelenKay Dimon Twitter Thread
• "Romance Writers Of America Was Doing Better With Race — Until A Recent Award Choice" (Bates, 2021)
• "RWA One Month Later: A Special Podcast Series" (Sarah, 2020)

Writers, this one's for you!

NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month, is a challenge for writers to get out 50,000 (50k) words of their Work In Progress out and onto a page. Interested in joining the challenge? Check out Nanowrimo.org for online and virtual events, or search #nanowrimo on social media! The library has some resources available for writers, and you can always visit your friendly local librarian for more information.

Email Jen and Jackie at [email protected] if you have questions or need a writing buddy! Best of luck with your writing goals!

Books we mention:

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• The Starless Sea by Morgenstern
• Cinder/The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
• Wool by Hugh Howey
• Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murhpy
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
• Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

For a genre that seems all hunky dory, there is certainly a lot of drama in Romancelandia. Especially when it comes to issues of authorship and publishing! This month, Jackie and Jen dish on some of the most notorious controversies, dramas, and petty squabbles (including heir own) that have rocked the steady ship of romance. Buckle in sparkly nerds. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Let us know what your favorite scandal was at the end of the month! There's no reward...but if you email us we might remember to give you a shout out in the next episode...maybe. We forget a lot of things.

Christiane Serruya

• After 22 years of practicing law, Rio de Janeiro-based Serruya decided to become an author. After 6-7 years of writing, she had churned out more than 30 works and had one of her short stories was published in a best-selling collection.
• In Feb 2019 news broke that this "author" had blatantly plagiarized Courtney Milan and others. Soon authors like Tessa Dare, Lisa Kleypas, Kresley Cole, Karen Marie Moning, and over 40 others found their work copied into Serruya's. These passages ranged from short sentences with moderate rewriting to whole multi-paragraph sections that were near verbatim.
• Tessa Dare started a whole hashtag: “#copypasteCris”
• In short, Serruya says that she was not responsible for the plagiarism. Instead, she put the blame on an unnamed ghostwriter she hired from the site Fiverr...
• "ghostwriter" - writers for hire who are paid but receive none of the credit for the work produced.
• The Stratemeyer Syndicate
• Then she goes and plagiarizes the queen herself, Nora Roberts. Nora retaliates and takes her to international court (because Queen Nora has the powers to do so), and an injunction goes through which bars the physical or electronic sale of Serruya’s books which were involved in the lawsuit, as well as barring Serruya from receiving royalties from those books. Roberts also won a monetary settlement, which she donated to literary charities.

#CockyGate

• Basically, indie author Falena Hopkins tried to copyright the word "cocky" then tried to go back on what she said that she was trying to stop other authors from using cover designs similar to hers
• She's written her Cocker Brother series since 2016. The series concerns 6 brothers and extends onto stories about their children and holidays.
• According to the court documents Jen went through, Hopkins was worried that there were too many other “cocky” titles out there, and readers were getting confused about which books to buy. She showed the court a few messages from people confused because they had bought the wrong books. Hopkins claimed that a lot of readers messaged her being “wait...this has a cocky word in it too but it’s not you??” or “Wait, this is the same model you used!!!”
• Hopkins filed for trademark protection on May 1, 2018
• It starts devolving into a twitter battle, and Hopkins sues three people; Tara Crescent, a man who protested the lawsuit, and a publicist (on accident). Hopkins tries to argue that the use of Cocky in the title should be limited to her books only because she's got the most notoriety or something like that (read Jen's articles for more detail). The judge doesn't agree with Hopkins' argument, since "cocky" is a common-use word. The injunction is thrown out, the restraining order against the use of "cocky" is denied, and the trademark registration is cancelled.

Alexa Riley...a scandal?

• Alexa Riley (AR) is a team of best-friend indie authors known for their spicy quick reads. At one time they were publishing on Kindle Unlimited at a rate of almost 2-3 books per month between ~2016-2018.
• News started coming out though that AR was not only stuffing pages (including extra blank pages in their ebooks for extra page turns and therefore more money), but also of plagiarizing, using ghostwriters, and paying for click farms
• "click farms" - any kind of operation intended to fraudulently interact with a website. In order to appear more legitimate, the clicks come from real people using mostly mobile devices (cheaper, smaller in size, easier to arrange).
• Amazon took them down almost immediately...and then nothing...else...happened?
• Now you can find AR's books through the library (some of them), AR's website, Eden books, iBooks, Kobo, Nook, and Scribd...

The Syndicate of James Patterson

• Patterson uses multiple coauthors when publishing "his" books. He then publishes these books under his name and brand.
• Instead of being the sole author, Patterson works with lesser-known writers, providing, according to him, extensive outlines, plots, characters and notes to help drive his coauthor through the story. Patterson then, again according to him, goes through upon receipt of the manuscripts and extensively edits. Patterson does his revisions, and rewrites as necessary before sending it back to the coauthor for the next written draft. Over time the number of rewrites goes down for each new collaborator. These co-authors are paid by Patterson. Patterson then takes over the publishing process.
• Perceived issues with Patterson's publications
• He calls himself the #1 bestseller...and yet...he's not?
• Patterson isn't completely writing his own books, and we don't know for sure the writing process with coauthors, beyond his own testimony. So can he fully call himself a bestselling author?
• Also, as it pertains to romancelandia...there are romance authors (and other authors out there) who have published way more books than Patterson under their own name...so what gives Patterson the right to call himself the #1 bestseller?

So...Many...Links

• More on the Stratemeyer Syndicate
• More on Sue Grafton
• Christiane Serruya:
• "Cristiane Serruya: Alleged Plagiarist" (SB Sarah, 2019)
• "Cristiane Serruya is a copyright infringer, a plagiarist, and an idiot" (Milan, 2019)
• "Romance novelist Cristiane Serruya accused of plagiarism" (Flood, 2019a)
• "The Cristiane Serruya Plagiarism Scandal" (Bailey, 2019a)
• Lucas Morta blog post "I’ve never earned any penny with any book in all these years, says Cristiane Serruya, acussed of plagiarizing more than 30 authors" (Morta, 2019)
• "Nora Roberts Sues Cristiane Serruya, Wins Injunction" (Bailey, 2019b)
• "Nora Roberts files ‘multi-plagiarism’ lawsuit alleging writer copied more than 40 authors" (Flood, 2019b)
• "Janet Dailey and the Curious Case of the Missing Author" (Hobbs, 2021)
• "#CopyPasteCris: Romance Novelist Cristiane Serruya Caught in Plagiarizing Scandal" (Fernandes, 2019)
• "Plagiarism, then and now" (Reeth, 2019a)
• "Not a rant, but a promise" (Reeth, 2019b)
• "Let me address this" (Reeth, 2019c)
• "Blowback" (Reeth, 2019d)
• "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" (Reeth, 2019e)
• "To Sum Up- Sort of" (Reeth, 2019f)
• "Update" (Reeth, 2019g)
• "Here's How I work" (Reeth, 2019h)
• "Readers are Amazing" (Reeth, 2019i)
• "Breaking news 2" (Reeth, 2019j)
• "Brazilian romance writer accused of plagiarizing from Courtney Milan, other novelists" (Schaub, 2019)
• #Cockygate
• "Cleaning Up the Cocky Cock-Up" (SB Sarah, 2018)
• "Don’t Do This, Ever: Faleena Hopkins Cocks The Whole Entire ****Up" (Trout, 2018)
• "Trademark Case: Authors Guild Wins ‘CockyGate’ Court Ruling" (Anderson, 2018)
• "Romance Author gets unduly cocky over registered trademark " (Whipple, 2018)
• "'Cockygate' Author Faleena Hopkins Backs Down From Trademark Dispute After A Settlement Is Reached" (Tsoumbakos, 2018)
• "How an author trademarking the word “cocky” turned the romance novel industry inside out" (Grady, 2018)
• "Cockygate: Faleena Hopkins Has Registered a Trademark on Cocky, and is Using it to Threaten Other Romance Authors" (Hoffelder, 2018)
• "Chance Carter And #Cockygate Collide" (Gaughran, 2021)
• "Re: Cockygate" (Hopkins, 2019)
• US Patent and Trademark Office status of "cocky"
• "A cocky Lawyer Reviews #cockygate" (Youtube video, French, 2018)
• Alexa Riley
• Twitter thread by @Jenny_Trout (2019)
• Reddit Thread "Alexa Riley is banned from Amazon"
• James Patterson
• "James Patterson mostly doesn’t write his books. And his new readers mostly don’t read — yet" (Heller, 2016)
• "The Patterson Problem" (De Maria, 2016)
• "James Patterson: Author or Brand Manager" (Kelber, 2020)
• "The James Patterson Book Farm Must be Stopped" (Sizemore, 2021)
• "Stephen King mocks James Patterson for self-written blurb — and writers loved it" (Heching, 2017)
• "How Many Books Has James Patterson Written? Best Update [2021]" (Penn Book Center, July 2021)
• "Ten of the Most Prolific Authors of All Time" (Irisreading.com, 2020)

Looking for a romance that puts you in a spooky frame of mind? Don't worry, we got you.

Jackie's recommendations:

• Karen Marie Moning Fever series
• Book 1 Darkfever
• The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters
• Red Wolf by Rachel Vincent

Jen's Recommendations

• A Girl's Guide to Vampires by Katie MacAlister
• JR Ward Black Dagger Brotherhood series
• Book 1 Dark Lover

And do you want to see Jen and I in the flesh? Well...virtual flesh? Then head on over to the Romance Chicks facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/romancechicks as we join the lovely panelists there in their monthly panel What the Trope! We'll be talking about werewolves, vampires, and all that fun spooky stuff with authors Seana Kelly, T.M Cromer, and Genevieve Jack. The event will be live on Saturday, October 30th at 7pm ET/4pm PT. Hope to see you there!

Looking for a new book club? Love romance novels? Want to try something new? Well I've got JUST the club for you! Northern Onondaga Public Library cordially invites you to join your two favorite podcasting librarians and fellow romance-lovers every third Thursday for a rollicking good time.

Between the Covers is open to all who want to join, and is available both in-person (if you're in the area), or virtually. Check out nopl.org/events for more information!

We just finished reading Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade, and man, was it fun.

• Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, Gods of the Gates, he's known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster. But if anyone ever found out about his online persona, he’d be fired. Immediately. April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s hidden her fanfiction and cosplay hobby from her “real life” for years—but not anymore. When she decides to post her latest Lavinia creation on Twitter, her photo goes viral. Trolls and supporters alike are commenting on her plus-size take, but when Marcus, one half of her OTP, sees her pic and asks her out on a date to spite her critics, she realizes life is really stranger than fanfiction. Even though their first date is a disaster, Marcus quickly realizes that he wants much more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. And when he discovers she’s actually Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to hide from her. 

Join us next month (November 18, 2021) as we read Dial A for Aunties by Jessie Sutanto.

• What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family?You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue! When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate...But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy's great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend? 

We're back with another episode all about werewolf romances! If you haven't listened to part 1 (episode 27) then go do so now so that you don't miss out! In this episode we "chat" with author Dennis Danvers, get into the nitty gritty of omegaverse, look at the different tropes that live in the werewolf-verse, and ponder the import of our conscience on romantic fiction.

Content Warning: This episode contains more explicit references in regards to fanfiction writing and especially omegaverse. Themes of dark romance, shipping, and erotic fiction are mentioned.

Terms:

• Breton Lay (lais) - a story format that features short narrative poems, related to romances, fabliaux, and folktales. They plausibly or conventionally claim to derive from songs sung by the ancient Bretons or Britons in their own language. “Bisclavret” is Breton (The Bretons are a Celtic ethnic group native to Brittany. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brittonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain, particularly Cornwall and Devon, mostly during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.)
• Omegaverse - an alternate universe (AU) of speculative erotic fiction that started in the Supernatural fandom. Within this universe, characters are categorized as "Alphas," "Betas," and "Omegas;" Alphas are the highest ranking in this fictional universe's lupine hierarchy, and whether male, female, or any other gender, are typically characterized by dominance and aggression. Betas are essentially humans and are subject to the same biological functions like menstruation, but typically are not paired with either Alphas or Omegas. Omegas are the lowest in this fictional hierarchy, and can be impregnated regardless of gender. The genre often crosses over with internet subculture "mpreg," which revolves around male characters getting pregnant. They're typically characterized as submissive to Alphas, and in many stories, have little to no agency in A/O relationships. 
• Fanfiction (ie. fanfic) - Speculative fiction, often published online, and written by fans.
• Wattpad - a website and app for writers to publish new user-generated stories.[5] It aims to create social communities around stories for both amateur and established writer.
• A03 (aka Archive of Our Own) - best-known arm of the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit organization created "to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms
• Fated Mates - Think of it as a cosmically-arranged pairing; they're destined to be together
• Trope - a common literary theme or device
• Alphahole - An alpha male whose bossy and/or stubborn tendencies go too far, causing the reader to imagine kicking him repeatedly instead of being wildly attracted to him.
• Lumbersexual - a man that has adopted certain style traits that are typical of the traditional lumberjack
• Metrosexual - a heterosexual male with a strong interest in fashion, appearance and other lifestyle characteristics traditionally associated with women

Books/authors we mention:

• Red Wolf by Rachel Vincent
• House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1) by Sarah J. Maas
• Warlord by Gena Showalter
• Shift (bear shifters) by Ruby Dixon
• Rejected by Jaymin Eve
• Shelley Laurenston
• Christine Feehan
• Patricia Briggs
• Charlaine Harris
• Nalini Singh
• Kresley Cole

Shifter books we recommend:

• Breaking Badger by Shelly Laurenston
• A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole
• Big Bad Wolf by Christine Warren
• Claimed by JR Ward
• Pride mates by Jennifer Ashley 

Welcome to Raging Romantics' first ever minisode! Looking for a perfect historical romance for the weekend? Something cozy and sweet and just a little steamy? Maybe some assassins and a grump/sunshine? We've got just the books for you!

Jen Recommends: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

• A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance.

Jackie Recommends: Hit Me With Your Best Scot by Suzanne Enoch

• Coll MacTaggert, Viscount Glendarril, is a big, brawny Highlander who doesn’t like being told what to do—not even by his exasperated English mother who is determined to see her eldest son wedded and bedded. However, when he comes to the rescue of an irresistibly beautiful woman, Coll discovers that he may have found his perfect match…

Find these at:

• Onondaga County Public Library
• Jen's
• Jackie's
• Other locations:
• Jen's
• Jackie's

As always, questions/comments/concerns/recommendations, email us at our new address: [email protected]!

Visit NOPL.org/ragingromantics for more great book recommendations!

It's spooky season!!!!! FINALLY! Jen and Jackie dedicate this month to paranormal romance lovers everywhere...because it's WEREWOLF MONTH!

Thank you to everyone who listens and supports the show, and don't forget to keep tuning in for some exciting changes coming soon! Remember, you can always visit Northern Onondaga Public Library (NOPL) online or in person to find any of the books J+J talk about.

Have a book you want us to read or a topic to discuss? Email us at our new address: [email protected]!

Want to join a great book club? Discover Between the Covers, a monthly book club run by NOPL devoted to romance books! We meet virtually and in-person.

Content Warning: Discussion of mental health and historical mental health diagnoses. Please contact a mental health professional for an actual medical diagnosis.

EDIT- In this episode Jackie had said that wolf hunting was made illegal in the 19th and 20th centuries in the US, but this was not the case. Wolf hunting was actually encouraged throughout US history, and at times bounties were even awarded to hunters.

Terms:

• Lycanthropy - Once believed to be a supernatural condition in which men actually assumed the physical form of werewolves or other animals, now used as a clinical diagnosis for a mental disorder
• Shifter - Short for Shapeshifter, refers to a creature that shifts between a human and non-human (usually animal) form
• Omegaverse- a subgenre of speculative erotic fiction, and originally a subgenre of erotic slash fan fiction. Stories in the genre are premised on societies wherein humans are divided into a dominance hierarchy of dominant "alphas", neutral "betas", and submissive "omegas"
• Clinical lycanthropy - Clinical lycanthropy is a rare form of reverse inter-metamorphosis wherein patients believe that they are undergoing transformation or have transformed into a non-human animal.
• Hypertrichosis - excessive hair growth over and above the normal for the age, sex and race of an individual
• Lunacy- From Roman "Luna" meaning the moon, related to the goddess of the moon, Luna/Selene
• from late 13th century "lunatic" meaning "affected with periodic insanity dependent on the changes of the moon;" in turn from Old French lunatique "insane," or directly from Late Latin lunaticus "moon-struck," from Latin luna "moon" 
• Dionysian Mysteries - a cultish celebration devoted to the celebration of the god Dionysus
• See this thesis for classical researched-based information
• Bacchanalia/Bacchanalian rites - Greco-Roman religion, any of the several festivals of Bacchus (Dionysus), the wine god

Authors/books we mention:

• Cynthia Pelayo
• Rachel Harrison
• Wilderness, Dennis Danvers
• The Werewolf of Bamberg (Pötzsch)

Articles/sources we read:

• Epic of Gilgamesh
• Lycaon
• Saga of the Volsungs
• The Werewolf of Bedburg
• Peter the Wild Boy
• "Werewolf Fiction" (Wikipedia)
• "Werewolves in Literature (Delahoyde, n.d.)
• "The Ancient Origins of Werewolves" (Koosmen, 2018)
• "A literary History of Werewolves" (Thomas, 2019)
• "The Modern Literary Werewolf: A Critical Study of Mutale Motif" (Hatter, 2013)
• "Skin-changers: Werewolves in the Medieval and Modern Imagination" (Fahey, 2017)
• "You Sexy Beast: Our Fascination With Werewolves" (NPR, 2009)
• "Urban Fantasy 101: A Quick Guide to Shifter Romances" (Stitch, 2018)
• "Werewolf Legends" (History.com, 2017)
• "Hypertrichosis" (Ngan, 2016)
• "Real-Life Werewolves: Psychiatry Re-Examines Rare Delusion" (Gholipour, 2014)
• "Urban Fantasy 101" (Stitch, 2017)
• "Blackfoot Legends - The Wolf Man" (Grinnell, n.d.)
• "Native American Werewolves" (werewolves.com)
• "The Terror of the Skinwalker" (River City Ghosts, n.d.)
• Naked Came the Wolf" (British Library, 2013)
• "Deep dive: The mythology of full moons" (Donaldson, 2018)
• "What is it about a full moon that makes people do crazy things and commit crimes?' (Baird, 2012)
• "Here Is What Happens To Werewolves On The Moon, According To Geophysics" (Andrews, 2018)
• "Lunacy" (Gabour, 2012)