Illicit Liaisons: Fireworks & Spice Levels with Lynne Solisse and Miranda Tamrakar

This week, we're still celebrating the release of Fireworks & Flirtation by chatting with Lynne Solisse and Miranda Tamrakar, where we discuss:

- Spice levels in romance and what each chili pepper means

- Plus we learn about Lynn and Miranda's stories in Fireworks & Flirtation, other books they have coming up, and more!

Lynne Intro: Writing found Lynne Solisse later in life, and never let go. She writes romance that doesn’t flinch, centering on women who are fierce, loyal, and unafraid to demand more out of life. Women who want to reclaim passion on their own terms. Whether contemporary, fantasy, or even proving that love can still burn bright in a gritty post-apocalyptic world, her stories are raw but sweet, fun and emotionally charged, threaded with just enough tension to keep your heart racing. She lives in the Southern US with her three boys and two spoiled cats, and she believes it’s never too late for a second chance. Or a plot twist.

Links to Lynne

Lynne's website https://lynnesolisse.com/

Lynne's Substack https://lynnesolisse.substack.com/

Miranda Intro: Miranda Tamrakar was raised in SoCal on a steady diet of books and musicals. She finds joy in creating worlds that chase the same sense of sweeping romance and wonder, sometimes with dragons and sometimes with spies, but always telling a tale of how the right people can change a life. She is inspired by looking at relationships in real life and asking herself, "what if?" When she's not writing, she is winning at cards, losing at elaborate board games, or finding inspiration out in the wild with her husband and two daughters, all of whom are delightfully weird.

Links to Miranda:
Miranda Instagram https://www.instagram.com/miranda_writes_author/

BOOKS MENTIONED ON THE SHOW

Fireworks & Flirtation https://amzn.to/4uacLtQ

CURRENTLY READING & RECOMMENDATIONS

McRae Bodyguards by Jolie Vines https://amzn.to/4dY9l6C
Green Rider Series by Kristen Britain https://amzn.to/4a8VNUx
Lane Sanders Mysteries (Art Deco) by L.A. Chandlar https://amzn.to/4aq5Zbk
Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain https://amzn.to/43vxBrL
The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer https://amzn.to/4uH2Lsd
Our Perfect Storm by Carly Fortune https://amzn.to/4x5wXyP
The Shippers by Katherine Center https://amzn.to/4o6YwDQ
Urna Semper at Substack https://urnasemper.substack.com/

The Book Witch, Our Perfect Storm, and The Shippers, Jenna picked up through Book of the Month (BOM). BOM is a fun way to get great new books at great prices. Don't see a book you like for a month? That's okay, you can skip that month. Get your first book for only $5 here.  https://www.mybotm.com/yoljbhec8pc

TENDER & TEMPTING TALES

Tender and Tempting Tales Substack: Subscribe and get a FREE story! https://tenderandtemptingtales.substack.com/

Tender and Tempting Tales on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tendertemptingtales/

Tender and Tempting Tales ARC Team: https://booksprout.co/reviewer/team/56782/tender-and-tempting-tales

Calls for Submissions: https://tenderandtemptingtales.substack.com/p/write-for-tender-and-tempting-tales

ILLICIT LIAISONS PRODUCED & HOSTED BY

Tara Leederman Substack: https://taleederman.substack.com/

Jenna Harte: https://jennaharte.com/

Outline and Show Notes: T.A. Leederman
Editing: Jenna Harte

Transcript

0:00

Hello, romance readers. Welcome to Illicit Liaisons, brought to you by Tender and Tempting Tales, where each week we talk about the good, the bad, and the naughty of romance fiction. I am Jenna Hart, the romance author of the Southern Heat Contemporary romance series, as well as the sexy Valentine Mystery Series. I'm also the managing editor of Tender and Tempting Tales, a steamy romance anthology for people who like quickies. I am Tara Lederman, social media manager here at Tender and Tempting Tales, and Laura Maven and main fiction writer for Starship Valkyrie, a science fiction game and story universe. I write science fiction stories, including romance, and you can often find me in our anthologies alongside these ladies, including in our upcoming new summer anthology, Fireworks and Flirtation. And today, again, we're celebrating the upcoming release of Fireworks and Flirtation with the fourth of our Fireworks pod episodes. Each of these special episodes features one or two of our authors in pairs that make thematic sense, either based on the kind of stories they write or the character of the authors themselves. In today's episode, we're very excited to have Lynn Solis and Miranda Tamrockar. Now, let's talk a little bit about Lynn. Writing found Lynn later in life and never let go. She writes romance that doesn't flinch, centering women who are fierce, loyal, and unafraid to demand more out of life. Women who want to reclaim passion on their own terms. Whether contemporary fantasy or even proving that love can still burn bright in a gritty post-apocalyptic world, her stories are raw but sweet, fun and emotionally charged, threaded with just enough tension to keep your heart racing. She lives in the southern U.S. with her three boys, two spoiled cats, and she believes it's never too late for a second chance or a plot twist. And I am honored to introduce Miranda Tamrakar, who was raised in SoCal, just like me, on a steady diet of books and musicals. She finds joy in creating worlds that chase the same sense of sweeping romance and wonder, sometimes with dragons and sometimes with spies, but always telling a tale of how the right people can change a life. She is inspired by looking at relationships in real life and asking herself, what if? When she's not writing, she is winning at cards, losing at elaborate board games, or finding inspiration out in the wild with her husband and two daughters, all of whom are delightfully weird. We'll have Miranda's Instagram available in the show notes so you so you can follow her, along with Lynn's links and socials. Yes, we'll have all the links so everybody can click and go and check out our authors, books, all of it. Now, as you know, uh Tara and I love a little bit of bookish drama or gossip, the tea, the tea on the books. Uh this week, both Lynn and Miranda brought up the idea of spice levels in romance and the frustration with labeling things like clean romance as opposed to smut. This is a huge divide in the romance world, especially online. Uh, and we thought it would be a good topic to discuss, especially with authors who are finding their way and trying to figure out where their writing fits in the romance spectrum. So, what are everybody's thoughts on the idea of spice levels? Well, I do wish that it was a little bit easier to gauge spice level. Um, I think we kind of casually use this five spice, five pepper spice index, but that's not really housed anywhere and you can't really look it up. Um you have to like go ask on a social media page to find out anything about what you're reading. Because I do think it's important for the reader to be informed on what they're kind of getting themselves into. It's really best for everyone, for the author and the reader. Um that was part of my thoughts on that. I love that one. I think that romance is for everyone. I mean, I've got a 10-year-old daughter. We were watching a movie last night, and she's like, kiss, kiss, I ship it, mom. I I was a shipper at a young age too. Super cute. Well, romance is for everyone and for everyone's taste at different spice levels. So I think that this idea that clean romance is somehow boring or poor quality of writing, or needs to be called clean romance because you know, your habanero level spicy novels are somehow like a dirty and one is more one is more pure. I don't know. I I think that Lynn's idea of having it very easy to find information on the book that you're looking to read to make sure that it fits where you are comfortable is important. I find, you know, sometimes I love the story, but I gotta skip a couple pages because it's gotten too hot for me. I guess I'm just not mature enough to deal with it. Um yeah, we try to be really like upfront about like the three chili pepper spice, like on the cover, you know, of these things. But I also I remember when I entered the press asking Jenna, like, what is this chili pepper rating system? What does this mean? What does it all mean? And you know, Jenna's written some some articles on it. And I, you know, I've as as I've progressed as a writer and also as an editor, I've gotten a better sense of what three chili peppers means. Um and I know that it's very subjective across different readers and across different presses, but as a captive audience on social media, I hate the term clean romance so much. It feels so judgy to me. I and I know why it's there. I know there's a lot of Christian romance that, like, if they're like really like, no, I want something like a pure romance, I don't want all of this smut. And I and I understand where they're coming from. I was raised very religious, I get it. But it does, it does feel judgy to me to people who like smut, you know, and there does seem to be this weird divide where clean romance writers feel like they're being like people are prejudiced against them because they don't write smut and like the spice writers feel like the clean romance people are judging them. And it just feels like a mess on social media. Like, I feel like as like people are already looked down on romance, we shouldn't be like chasing after each other with pitchforks within the romance readership and within romance writing. I I I have a similar thought about using the term clean or sweet to mean no um sensual content. And because the opposite of that is sour or dirty, right? Again, holds a connotation. I'm not so sure that I've seen within the in the romance writing community people having um a a judgment against who writes others writes either, but definitely see within readers, like if if I meet a reader uh who only reads what we'd call clean or sweet, you know, they there is oh, I couldn't read that that naughty stuff. Um and I think part of it we do see in romance that there is a lot of judgment against it anyway. And so we do see that I think with when we do have uh the extra sensuality to it. And then I'm just like, if you don't like it, don't read it, right? Yeah like you don't have to judge me or anybody else who enjoys it for it. So that there's that there, I see, more on the kind of in the reader world. I've I've seen it less with the the writer world. Uh, but in terms of how having a system that is the same across everybody, it it would be trying to have a system of what five stars means when you're reviewing a book. Some people are they hand out those five stars hardly, hardly at all. It's gotta be something special, extra, extra special. So for them, four stars is like really good, and five stars is not excellente. Or other people hand them out like candy. If if they enjoyed it, they get a five. So in some ways, trying to have uh steam level rating is is like that, what it means for everybody else. For example, I have Write with Heart, where we do have a romance author that would describe themselves as a sweet writer, but they will have kisses on page. But there are some readers of that who don't want even that, yeah. Right? So um, so the challenge for us is we know there's an expectation. If they think it's three, if they think it's four, if they think it's five, if they think it's one, there's an expectation that comes with that. And when we get into the nuance of it, what's the difference between a one and a two? What's the difference between a three and a four? I mean, we can guess that a five is gonna be hot, right? So what's the difference between a three and a four or a two and a three? So that's and that's definitely a challenge for authors, and then of course to help our readers understand that. I wish we could create a stronger industry standard, especially amongst indie romance writing. I mean, I see indie authors who write clean romance struggling on both sides of this, you know. Uh, and I see them struggling from both sides, right? Like people struggling with them wanting to them to write more spice, more smut, and people struggling with even them having a kiss if they're like a clean writer, you know, and and they'll say, like, this is what I think that clean romance means. Here's what it is. And even when they're really upfront, they'll still have readers who are like, but you know, that's not what clean romance reads means to me. So to me, it feels like we need some kind of standardization. I just don't know how to implement standardization anywhere outside of our own press. It would be sort of like saying five stars is this. And I mean, we I we have some ease, one of the uh YouTubers we talk to. Sometimes she's handing out a six star. This is six stars. She does that yet. So very special. So that is extra extra, I guess. So yeah. The other thing I've learned, I've been dabbling a little bit in what maybe you could call closed door romance, is a little bit less of a judgmental term. But the you can you can keep it closed door and reduce the spice level, but then people are also concerned with swearing and with you know, premarital sex or other sort of ethical items that you can write it clean and closed door, but still offend a bunch of people because you didn't take those other things into consideration. So it's a man. Yeah. It's like um there's a genre of co what's called cozy mystery. And cozy are amateur sleuth, no sex, no swearing, no on-page violence. It's it's very clear. However, for example, I have a cozy mystery series and I go right up to the door and then I shut it, and they're not married, and nobody got on me for that, but I I could see where some people might. Um, but I still adhered to the rules, right? There was no swearing, there was no on-page in closing mysteries. There's always a dead body, so it's always funny to me. It's like you have to have a dead body, but no on-page gory violence. So we could if we had if we used cozy instead of sweet or clean romance, we could use cozy romance to mean the same thing. Of using clean, we we use let's use cozy. Yeah, I think things can be cozy and still have like cursing in them. I think that's I don't know. I don't think that the cozy people get to claim that those many things. Like they're not a genre, it's just a it's a feeling, it's a vibe being cozy. Well, the cozy mystery is a thing, like it is that, right? And cozy has been adopted after cozy mystery to mean this is gonna be a soft, gentle journey, right? I'm not gonna be whatever you're reading, whether it's cozy fantasy, I don't know. Do they have cozy horror? I don't know. Well, um during these calls, we like to talk to each of our authors and learn a little bit about you, and so that our listeners can learn about you and what's going on in your writing world and with fireworks and flirtation. Now, Lynn, you've published a novella, novella off limits, which is a taboo age gap romance. Um, and you just recorded the audiobook. Um, and and here's the thing I like about this is that taboo age gap, we've seen that, but you sort of turned it around a little bit. Um so can you tell our listeners a little bit more about it? Yeah, so I guess the term is reverse age gap because the female main character is is older, a lot older. So it this was the second thing I ever wrote, um, but it was the first thing that I published on Amazon. Um, and I just had a scene, I feel like this happens a lot to me and probably to other writers. You just have a scene kind of pop into your head. Um, and in this one, it was basically the the lead, female lead is a 38-year-old divorced mom named Chelsea standing in front of her fridge trying to cool off. And she looks up, and her son's 18-year-old friend is in the kitchen enjoying the view. And so I just imagine how crazy it would be to experience that. It's not a real life fantasy, it's just just for fun. And so then I kind of built the story around that scene, and I'm I'm proud of how it turned out because I feel like it's sweet and meaningful and not um, it's not erotica. I'm sure there's a place for that, but it really isn't. That you know, the story and the love involved is is central to what I created. So yeah, I like that. I recording the audiobook was so fun. Um, it felt like I don't know if if other people do this, but as I'm writing, I hear the lines in my head and like say them in my head. And so I got to actually like act them out. And so that was that was a lot of fun. I found a male narrator and an audio producer so that we could make it into an actual like duet style audiobook. And it's stuck in the audible, you know, 10 to 25 business days QC review process or whatever, but it is on Apple Books uh right now. Anyone wants to check it out? So it's awesome. Congrats! I love multicast, I think it's so fun. Yeah, yeah. I was thinking of doing that with a friend of mine for all hands, which and you switching back and forth between Jason Sora's perspective with me doing Sora and my friend. It was his idea, but um, how did you find working with an audio producer? How was that? Oh, he he's been so great. It was just a just a random Facebook group, and I I was like, I need a male narrator. He responded and I said, Oh, I should probably mention this guy's the character's only 18 years old. And he was like, Oh, well, you know, I'm in my late 60s and have like a stage voice. And I was like, Oh, sorry. And he said, Well, actually, though, I do the producing part and I've been looking for a chance to practice weaving together a duet style. Um, and so he did that for me and he helped me with my setup because I didn't have a microphone and how to arrange it in my closet and which way to face and just back and forth with this was good and try try to sound more sultry, try to sound like Jessica Rabbit, you know. That's great. Yeah, yeah. I'm not naughty, I'm just drawn that way. Exactly. Yes, absolutely. I would because I was good at the parts where she's you know kind of making fun of herself a little bit, but then on the spicier scenes, you do have to kind of get into a mode. Um yeah, so he he's been great to work with. That's awesome. I might have to ask you for his name. Yeah. Well, I mean, you tend to write older female protagonists, which I think is really great, you know, now that I'm now that I'm leaving behind early adulthood and getting into middle adulthood. And your story in fireworks and flirtation was not so star-crossed, which was a contemporary cruise romance where like a vacation fling turned into true love, again with an older FMC with a younger MMC. Um I was wondering if you could tell our listeners some more about your story and especially about your FMC Juliet. Yeah, absolutely. Yep, she's she's another later in life FMC. What I've what I've learned is when I first started reading romance, which wasn't that long ago, maybe a year and a half, I I did enjoy trying to see myself in the characters. And it was a little bit more difficult for you know, a teenager or an early 20s, because I am myself in my late 40s. Um, and then I started to understand there are certain scenarios where they have to be really young. You know, it doesn't make sense for them to be later in life and finding love for the first time necessarily, and still wanting kids. And that's so it's it was interesting to realize that. But Juliet, yeah, so she's she's in her late 40s, her kids are grown, divorced, she works really hard for everyone else all the time. And so she's in this story, she's finally taking time for herself and doing a girls' trip on a cruise. And so she does meet a younger man, not much younger, he's like nine or ten years younger, I think. And they meet in the spa of this cruise ship and have a very intense first encounter. Um, and at first she doesn't want to exchange information, she just kind of wants to leave that as a special one-time memory. Um, but she comes to regret that decision. And so thankfully, fate brings them back together anyway. Yeah. I remember I like the age gap because it was like she was in her late 40s, and Andy Roman was 35, which I thought was a good age gap. It didn't feel didn't feel weird at all. You just don't see it very often. Yeah, and it's one of those things we should because I think um, yeah, I mean, we why is it always um my best friend's daddy or something like that? You know, we have a lot of those, right? So my best friend's mom or a woman. I think a lot of times, and we saw this actually in Bridgerton, where mom's got eight or nine kids. How many of our Bridgerton? Seven. I don't remember how many there are. There's a there's a brood of them, right? But if you think about if she was only about 18 when she had Anthony, she can she can be barely 50 now, right? And she looks good. And her husband died, and her husband died 20 years ago, right? So um, well, maybe not 20 years ago, 10 years ago. So why not? Why does she have to be kind of the shriveled-up prune, right? What why can't she have a so I I'm liking that we're seeing more and more uh women in their late 30s, in their 40s, um discovering kind of their second life and finding love in it. Yeah. Well, I think I think it's important to think about, you know, a woman doesn't stop being a woman once she has found love or once she has had her children or whatever uh her beginning of her adult life holds for her. A woman stays a woman for her entire life and deserves to have her garden watered or have her tea as Violet Bridgerton with Blooming. I agree with that. I remember uh taking my son to preschool one time, and I'm walking out, and I'm walking out, and they're calling me by his name, Zach's mom. No, I realized at that point, like I wasn't me really anymore. I mean, I'm okay with that. I at the time I was like, this is my role, this is what I want to do, this is who I want to be. But it it is interesting in society how that happens when when a woman gets married and becomes a mom, there's a part of her that seems to be lost. And yeah, no, this is very true, true. My son is in preschool right now, and like one, I'm always referred to as Alex's mom in all the emails, which I don't like, even though I am his mom, I have a name. And and also for the year before I started like going back to work and writing, there was a there was a I was actually at home with him for two years, and I and I was writing on my own, but no one really knew it. And during that time, all of my friends didn't seem to know how to talk to me. What what inspired this particular story, Lynn, in terms of that and putting her on a cruise and and meeting this man? And and in particular, like she's made it, she does make a decision, like, okay, I'm gonna allow this fun little thing, not just the cruise, but this, and then sort of shifting and being like, Well, no, maybe, maybe I do want to know him. Yeah, so my family, we actually did go on a cruise last summer, and the ship had a big, beautiful spa with like saunas and ice rooms and aromatherapy rooms and a huge hot tub. And just spending some time in there, it was so comfortable and with the water and the sounds of the jets and and everything, it made it feel intimate despite being such a large space. And so I found my mind kind of wandering to what one might be able to get away with in such a setting. So um, so that was the ended up being the opening scene of Not So Star Crossed, which I wrote while I was on the ship. And so that's kind of a fun memory when I read it, it brings back memories of that trip. Um uh yeah, so it just seemed like as a person, if she's she's been divorced for a few years, but hasn't had feelings for any other man in all that time, and so I just was imagining her, you know. Considering that she did something very out of character, something that maybe she was like nervous or scared to ever admit. And so I just could imagine her, sorry, wanting to kind of keep that to herself and try try to have it remain special just for her. But then I would think that she would come to realize that like if she hadn't had that spark with anyone for four years, then it was probably a pretty special opportunity. So um then she ends up wishing she had gotten his information, but then but then it was okay because they run into each other again. So I love stuff like that. Like it like it's supposed to be. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not so it was star-crossed, but you know, they're seemed a little bit starfaded, like the universe is bringing them together, which I thought was nice, but it doesn't feel forced. Makes me think of makes me think of Serendipity, the movie with who was in that Kate Beckinsale. John Kusack. I think so. John Kusack Beckinsale. Kate actress. Anyway, but it was this idea it was this idea of, you know, hey, we have this connection and she's a little she's a little wild and she's a little uh she's a little bit kind of funny. And she says, okay, well, if it's meant to be, uh, this will reconnect us. And just when they're ready to give up, it happens again. So I'm actually looking really forward to reading yours, Lynn. Oh, thanks. Yeah, I'm excited for it to be out there. Your stories are right next to each other in the anthology. Perfect. I thought it was fun that you were in this that you were in this podcast together because I happen to know the from layout where your stories are. So I that was an Easter egg to me. And I do see a lot of projects going on in Lynn World. I mean, I seem you see a lot of uh novellas and things coming out, and I was wondering like what right now you were really excited about that you had coming up or that you had released, other than your audiobook, which sounds really exciting. Yeah, that's definitely exciting. I feel like lately I've been drawn to reading and writing shorter works. Like the thought of you know, a big sweeping eight-volume series is like I I don't even think I could read something like that right now. So I've been working on a series of short stories, and I also thought I would dabble in the closed door arena, and so and that's where I kind of was learning about all the different aspects of what that means because I also wanted my characters to be a little bit older. Like I didn't want them all to be, you know, in their early teens or I mean late teens or early 20s, but I wanted it to make sense for them to be on a road trip, right? So I was like, well, they have to, I guess I didn't say that they're on a road trip in this first series, but they're also like based all of them are gonna be based on travel. And so it needed to make sense that they might go on a road trip. And you might do that in your early 20s, but if you're doing it later than that, I had to figure out kind of where are they in life? Are they divorced or they just never got married? And if so, why not? Um, and all that. So that's been fun trying to figure out that piece as well as how to build all that romantic tension with a little bit less spice than I'm used to. Yeah. That's awesome. How are you liking being in clean romance world? How are you enjoying it? It's definitely different. It's almost like as I'm writing it, I'm disappointed that I I don't get to watch the good parts. Um but I haven't completed one full story yet, so it's it's interesting. I'll have to see if that is gonna work for me because I could also change it up and have them be spicy romance and just do a series of spicy short stories. I don't know yet. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean you could just go through goat into three chili peppers that way. It still feels like things are like more consummated or something. I don't know. I let the characters sort of guide me. I've got characters who I have closed door romances for very good. This character actually has a a player in real life reasons, but and and also have ones that are, you know, like more that are spicier. So I sort of let the characters guide me. I think that absolutely just like let the story guide you to where it wants to go and what seems most satisfying. And don't worry about writing to market necessarily. For me, the challenge of writing something that would be oh, in the one one chili pepper range is that you you take out any form of sensuality. So the the attempt to show an attraction and a special chemistry between them, because that would be there. Whether you're showing it on the street, these are two people who are falling in love. And whether you see it or not, someday they're going to bed or wherever they're gonna do it, the shower, whatever, right? Um, backseat of the car. Um but people don't want to read it and they don't want to have a heavy sense of of sort of erotic sensuality. But you still have to have characters that have a chemistry and a connection that is that has some level of that. And to me, that would be the challenge, I think, would be to show that without overstepping the line. Right. Yeah. No, I think you're exactly right because the scenes I've written, I I am showing quite a bit of like attraction and sensuality, and they're they're like touching each other and kissing and just not mentioning, you know, like the tongue or certain body parts. Right. It's ending up feeling like this may not be as closed door as people are expecting. Maybe a two chili pepper. Yeah, I like chew chili pepper. I think there should be more two chili pepper out there. As Jenna knows, I am I am naturally either two or four. Three is not a natural zone for is either none or all. Yeah, yeah. So either either we're all in on alien dog or yeah, yeah. Or it's true chili pepper. Right. And so then as much as I want to go with what the characters guide me to or what I feel drawn to write, then how do you market that? That's gonna be end up being challenging. Like the word clean might be kind of judgmental, but it is what people search on. Yeah, you have to use what people use. Yeah, yeah. That makes it hard. Yeah. So it's all challenging, but fun. People do look for closed door. I do see closed door, which is different from from clean, right? Like closed door is two chili peppers, you know. So I do think people do search for that term and it's out there, it's not as big as the clean category, because the clean category is a lot of Christian romance, and so there's a huge market for that stuff. So, but I do think that closed door is out there. It's it is a it is a category that people like and look for. So you're not alone, you know, you're not gonna be unable to market it. Uh, it's just not as big as the clean category, but that's okay. Like, I think that it's a good thing to do. I think it's good to have writing out there for all the different chili pepper ratings, not just like it's smut or it's cleave, you know. Yeah, and I I think the term clean could could have a wider girth than than one, right? I I think people are like, Well, I'm okay if they kiss, or I'm okay if he walks her into the bedroom and the door shuts, right? Yeah but they still might use the term clean. Yeah, so I think the people who want like no spice are very loud, but I don't think they're the majority. Yeah. In the clean space, you know? Yeah. Well, uh, Lynn, you and Miranda are kind of book buddies in fireworks and flirtation. And I'm just curious, now that you are introduced together, you're here together on this podcast. Miranda, did you have any uh questions for Lynn or comments or anything like that? Um, yeah, yeah. Lynn, I love hearing about your project. And like I said, I'm excited to read it. I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on the copy and read all the fellow author stories. But what you're saying just now just really resonated with me about if you are trying to write a certain spiciness level. Um you feel like you are missing out on kind of the good stuff that you want just for yourself. Do you ever write throwaway scenes for yourself? Something that's not meant for the finished work, but just you've got to get it out of your system, you know it's happening, and you just kind of tuck it away for your own little heart. I have not done that. That's an interesting idea. I feel like if I wrote it, I would feel very drawn to including it in the final work. Like it would feel weird to me to leave it out. Um but I guess I guess that's something I could try, is just write it however feels naturally and then edit it to the level that I want to actually be able to mark it. That's that's a thought. Yeah, that's a good idea. We talked about a couple weeks ago. We talked about wouldn't it be fun to write two versions of your book, one for the people who want closed doors and one for the people who want them wide open. Um, and and even I think Tara brought up in an ebook, you know, it could be a switch you could toggle on and off. Yes. Somehow you could identify these are the spice, and you could toggle it on and off. Yeah, I actually wanted to write a like an exploration of the different chili pepper levels, more of an exercise for myself for my novella, which is my my reader magnet, Star Groomsman, and give a version that is one, two, three, four, and five chili peppers. And you could just click on the one you want. And and this would be something for readers to look like well and writers to look at to get an idea of what the different chili pepper levels mean. And it's not just for me to just display it, but for me to explore it and to get my head around it. Because I think I've written at a lot of these different spice levels, but it would be good to do it and identify which is which for myself and for others. Are you thinking the same scene? Yes. That's a really cool idea. Thank you. Some of it is language, some of it is like using or not, or use his member, you know, like some of it is flowery language versus not flowery language, right? Some of it is like getting into like really intense kind of fetishy type stuff, getting into getting closer to erotica and just you know, writing it in these different styles and giving people more or less detail based on the chili pepper level. Well, I I go through as well as write for myself. And my spice scenes, for the most part, I think are the same along both. The difference is the language. So the language I would use for my client who writes right now, we're doing mafia romance, so it's darker and it's a lot of stuff. So that language is coarser, you know, there's a lot of elements to it, but but in terms of what's going on, um, it's a lot of the same choreography. It just has to do with the language, is different. So, so but mine might be four, four and a half. Well, mine might be four, theirs might be five, or mine might be three and a half, four, and they're four and a half. I'm I'm like a half-step chili pepper down, I feel like, but it's it's just language, it's not what's actually taking place in terms of the choreography, which I think is interesting. We all know what we're talking about, right? Yeah. Um, well, let's talk with Miranda now. Her story is Smugglers and Sentiment, a historical romance featuring pirates. I love pirates. I don't know why. I mean, they were bad people, but I love pirates. It also has smugglers and your spunky FMC smacking someone with a rowing oar. That alone is worth reading. Uh, can you tell our readers a little bit more about it and what inspired you to write it? Yeah, of course, if we have to. I do a lot of what ifs, and it usually happens to me right as I'm falling asleep. And the inspiration for this one was what if two people were held captive on a ship, and when the FMC escaped, she mistakes the other captain for one of the bad guys. Um so for this, that idea had been sitting, that what if had been sitting for a couple years, and then when I saw the prompt for fireworks and flirtation, I was going through it with um Marissa Miranella, one of our our other authors here, and she said, It's that one, that's the one. So then I got to play with, okay, how do I work on fireworks? How do I deepen this? How do I make it go from oh um just another passenger, just another prisoner, to uh kind of giving giving poor Elvie a gut punch and making it someone who matters to her, bring a little treachery into it. Ooh, treachery. I love that. Yeah, it has a really nice like swisheroo in it that you know leave for our readers to discover, but uh it's it's very fun. And uh Miranda, I know that you are working on second round of revisions on a novel currently called Wing Walker, and I was hoping you could tell our listeners a little bit more about that. Yes, so this Wing Walker is my first completed novel I have written too. It's in second round revisions. Um, and it's an exploration, not quite of political intrigue, but um, it's got some spy craft in it. Um and it's got a young woman whose family is uh recovering from the Great Depression. She and her family had a crop dusting business, and when the crops dried up, um she and her father did um a barnstorming act, which was fairly um like like a small family circus. People would gather and paid, and she would do aerial studs, she would walk on the wings. So she gets to use that experience as a pilot and not quite save the world, but at least stop something from happening with the aid of a handsome Belgian man who is himself dealing with the beginnings of uh pre-World War II and the tensions with Germany and his moral compass there. That's awesome. Fascinating. That's really cool. Uh you mentioned that you have all these little sparks of ideas, which happens the minute you write your first book, all of a sudden the floodgates open and it's just idea after idea after idea. So uh you you're working on Wing Walker. What do you have up next? What what projects are you working on? I am battling with wanting to do a sequel for Wing Walker. There is an amazing side character who I think deserves his own romantic story. Um going and finishing um or starting revisions rather on on my second completed novel, which is high fantasy elves and dragons and uh and the whole mix, but treating dragons more like more like people, more like regular people that can talk to everyone, and um and it's a story that I started as a much younger woman than my late 30s to deal with the trauma of some health issues and uh you know who are we when our sense of self gets turned upside down? So that's Daniera's story. But also, I mean, I might just go through back through that story bucket. There's one in there that I won't touch for now, or maybe not ever. It just says, what's the immigration process to become a mermaid? I love that. I love mermaids too. That's all that one. I don't know what's next. I'm really focused on exploring short stories for the first time and really liking to be able to bring something to a satisfying close, get that dopamine hit in a few thousand words. Getting Wing Walker uh shaped up because it really is a story that means a lot to me. Yeah, that sounds fun and different. I love hearing premises that are just I mean, I I like a lot of romance. A lot of them I will admit are sort of the same. I still enjoy them, but when I hear a premise that's so different, I love that. I'm I get very excited. So yeah, very interesting. Yeah, I got gays. And Lynn, for a little extra spice, other than your cat have a very having a very inquisitive tail that I am loving. Oh, I was wondering if you had any questions for Miranda. Yeah, what I thought about as she's talking about what she's written, do you feel like you knew stuff about like pirate life or the kind of barnstormer situation that you just talked about, that you knew that and wanted to write about it? Or did you decide to write about it and then learn about it afterward in order to be able to write about it? Um there was a lot of research involved. So I um I start with I start with vibes, for lack of a better term. I start with a a feeling for a character, and sometimes a character or a story will come to me and oh, you know so-and-so is a smuggler, or oh you know so-and-so is a lady. Um but sometimes I just have have uh a feeling about a character, and so I have to search and find for, find, um find out who that character is, what that character is. So for um for smugglers and sentiment, I always knew that it would be a lady, a slightly spoiled but lady with gumption, dealing with um dealing with criminals at sea. So I had to decide, was it pirates, was it smugglers? Um for Wing Walker and for a lot of my other projects, um I had to search and I had to find those locations uh for my main character in Wing Walker. I knew that she was um she did aerial stunts on the wings of plain. And it's probably my obsession with the movie Anastasia as a child, that scene in Paris, they have Wing Walkers dancing on the wings of the planes. Um so it's a mixture of both, Lynn. It really is. Okay. I love pirates. I I live sometimes. We go to the outer banks where um that's where Blackbeard used to hang out. And so it's so fun to go down there and see all the pirate lore and everything else. And they might have had wing walkers too, because it's also where the Wright brothers first flew. So were they laying on the wings when they first? I don't know. Anyway, as they say in uh in the gamers, everything is better with kids. Um, well, just to remind everybody, these are two of our authors that are going to be in fireworks or flirtation. There are 10 stories in all, and uh, you've already heard about a couple of them. I know the more you listen to these podcasts, the more you're excited you are to read them. And one of the great things about reading anthologies is that they are quick. You get a quick fix. You you know, the beginning, the middle, the end, a little bit of spice, three-level, which we describe with us as on page spice. So you you get that whole thing too. And it's just a really great way to take to the beach and have something quick to read, or have something quick to read in between whatever it is you're doing, if you're chauffeuring your kids around, or in my case, I have a husband with a broken knee and I'm chauffeuring him all over the place. And I can sit and wait for his PT and read a great little romance. And we always do this during our podcast, and I just wanted to ask you too, um, and Jenna, and of course myself, what are you listening to or reading right now? What are you excited about? I'm excited about what I'm listening to because it's the MMC has this lovely Scottish accent, which is like my favorite thing. It's kind of an older book of Jolie Vines. I don't know if you're familiar with her, but she wrote about this the McRae family in Scotland that like tons of cousins and brothers and aunts and uncles, and each one has their own love story. Um so I read her more recent stuff and then went back and have tried to work my way forward. The only downside is it's it's dual and not duet. The men and women are voicing the characters like they're voicing each other. Oh, yes, yeah. A little bit awkward, but but still, it's she's a really good writer. I enjoy her work a lot. What about you, Miranda? I read some of the series that Lynn is talking about, and I had just completely dropped the ball nut. I gotta go back to that. But for me right now, I Am ping ponging between books in two series because um you know one is never enough, I guess. Two of our art authors have new books coming out this year. So the Green Rider series by Kristen Britton, um, I believe is getting another installment. And LA Chandler has the Art Deco Mysteries, um, and she is coming out with a new book as well. So I'm just depending on how I'm feeling, bouncing between those two. How about you, Jenna? Uh well, I I was reading Dark and Shallow Lies, which is a YA mystery with Woo Woo and set in the bayous of Louisiana, and then I got busy, so I started listening to it because I that's what I did with the other Bennett sister, and it got me through the book faster than I would have. But there I the there's nothing wrong with the reader's voice, but how she uh I don't know what's the right word, emphasizes and tones the energy that she uses for some of it is like not vibing with me. It just I'm always feeling kind of on, and I'm like, not every moment I need to feel like uh uh you know, like on edge. So I'm gonna have to go back to reading that. But I did, I also got my book of the month and I got three books, and I can't decide, and I have books sitting on my shelf that I'm supposed to read next, but I'm I'm kind of leaning toward the book witch. Okay, Meg Schaefer, because again, woo-woo. But that one looks fun. But I also picked up um, I got Carly Fortune's Our Perfect Storm because I've heard a lot about her, haven't read her. She's great, I like her a lot. Yeah, I see the booktubers and the book talkers love her, and then I think this was the one for the month of May. Oh, I've seen that one. The shippers, uh, which is a cruise ship, and we've had a lot of cruise ship stories, so we have we always specialize in them. So I I I just have to decide what to read after Dark and Shallow Lice, which I am enjoying. It's just the there's something about the audio that just is putting me on edge or something. So I was like, I want to read it because I don't want to read everything like every moment she's about to die. That's what it feels like. Like every moment she the Rougarou's gonna come and eat her. And I don't know, I need moments of down, I guess. Yeah, that can be stressful. Yeah, we need a just a cruise anthology, like all cruise romances. Oh, that would be fun. I have a space cruise ship and I can make it a space cruise. Yeah, yeah, and there could be pirates too, right? With pirates, space pirates. Yes, absolutely. The little treasure planet on it. Yes, power space. Or so Erna Semper actually wrote a a space pirate story called uh The Wreck of the Cal 9, and it's in a it's in a pirate anthology, and it's great, actually. Like it's it's legit. It's a very, very good pirate story. It's really intense, it's got a lot of like close quarters, combat. It's you know, so like that could be really good. And I love my I've already written some stuff on my space cruise uh ship because it's called the Ring Runner. Uh and you know, we could go full like Plava Laguna, space opera. It could be a lot of fun, you know, but like all like you know, romance and stuff. So I think that would be fun. I don't know, cruises and kisses. What do you think, Jenna? I'm I'm there. I like having ideas in my back pocket for for more anthologies in the future. You always need more titles, right? But yeah, I I've been struggling to read lately uh in the leading up to my my my next eye surgery. My eyes are very different right now, so I've been reading entirely on my computer, uh using my browser for the most part. Um But like uh I have been very much looking forward to Ernest Emperor's weekly installments of um the case of the engagement party, which has been really, really good. And that's part of that's that's another Ifigenia story, but it's like a it's a Dardana Fennec mystery. Um, this is like far future science fiction murder mystery type stuff, uh, but it's been really good. I wanted to give that one a shout-out. That's one of the things I've been looking forward to. You like Ern a lot. I do, yes. Yeah, I really struggle. I was, you know, I was an English major and PhD, and during my PhD process, I really got burned out on certain kinds of reading. Um, and it's very difficult to go back to reading for pleasure after a lot of years of having to read a lot of material. I mean, my reading list was 150 very dense things from the 17th and 18th century and you know, a lot of like critical theory and stuff like that. And so I wrote on my blog just how difficult it's been for me to return to reading for pleasure and not feeling a lot of pressure. Like I always feel like I'm reading for work. Even now I do this where I'm like, oh, I gotta read this for work. You know, it's like it's like a crutch almost where like I don't know how to write read for pleasure. Um, but Erna Semper reading that has been helping me get out of that, and I'm very appreciative of it. Um, so it's good to just sort of like follow my bliss in that way, just be like, I like this. I'm gonna read more of it because I want to, and I'm allowed to want to read things that I like. I was an agent for a couple of years, and I remembered there was no other reading. Um, there's just so much reading. Yeah. You know, I read our stuff to assess it as like an editor and as the copy editor, I'm always assessing things for oh, is this following the guidelines? So I do, I still do a lot of like reading for work right now. And so it is difficult for me to be like, I want to read this because I want to read it, and then just let myself do that, you know? Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, Lynn, you look like you wanted to say something. Yes, I completely relate because I got a master's degree just in business. So I didn't have to read, you know, really heavy literature, but I did have to read a lot and it burned me out of reading for decades. Oh God, I'm so sorry. I yeah, I I I worry that I'm gonna be like this for a long time. I was really struggling to get out of it, you know, and reading parenting books and always feeling like I need to read for oh yeah, that's what I love. But this is where audiobooks can come in really helpful because I I noticed that I go through phases where I'm not listening to them, but lately I I have. And because I can have it on my phone, every time I get my car, it automatically comes on. And I I may only have 10 minutes because I'm going to the store, but I'm hearing the story. My husband got me this craft project for Mother's Day. Yeah, so here I am building it and I'm listening to the, and it's just a really nice way. And it it is, I people will say it's not reading or whatever. Well, so what? I'm still I'm still getting a story that I don't, I'm not sitting and watching the TV, right? I'm still doing something else and I'm getting this story. Um, and because I do sometimes reading it is a mental, it does take a lot of mental energy, right? To sit down and read. But I can sit and listen. Um, and I've done that too. I've laid down and just listened to a story and call it reading or don't call it reading. I don't care. I enjoy it. And if you're if if reading does feel like a chore, or it's just like I can't do it, I listening is a is a great alternative, I think. Yeah, I listen to a lot of podcasts, so especially while I'm cooking. I always listen to podcasts while cooking and cleaning. Uh peak mom energy. But uh I really find that Substack is the answer for me because I, you know, the Substack posts can't be that long, right? They have to be, there's like an email link that they're supposed to adhere to. And they're usually around 2,000 words. So if I'm in the line at the grocery store or I'm waiting to go into an appointment or something, or I'm waiting for my son, I can read a Substack post. It's like part of a longer work that's serialized. So serialization seems to be useful that way. And also like I usually when it's like on the Substack app on my phone, I can like personalize it so I'm not seeing double, which has been a problem that I've been dealing with a lot lately, is seeing double because my eyes are different and I I don't quite have reading glasses that work for both of them because they're not the same. They're like more than a diopter apart. That will change on Friday, and maybe I can go back to like reading on my phone and using my Kindle app, that would be super great. Well, I'd be remiss not to point out real quick before that this is where short stories can be great too. So having an anthology, if you if reading is feeling hard or a choy or your chore or an inspired, no, an anthology is a great way. You get one full, complete, satisfying story in not very long at all. So yeah. I really I've been reading a lot of short stories lately. It really helps with the visual stuff. So if you're struggling like me, or you're you're a parent at home, or you know, you're just constantly busy, yeah, having an anthology or a zine, one of our anthologies. Now there's a lot of like folks bringing out anthologies nowadays, you know, and I highly recommend it as a way of like getting out of your reading ruts or like having something that you can like get a satisfying story in a short period of time. And speaking of, we are tender and tempting tales. You can find us on Substack, that's Tender and Tempting Tales at Substack. We have great articles there that you can read every week. Uh, those are going to be about romance. Jenna writes for us. We've had stor, we've had articles from Mariah Ankenman, stuff from me, giving you all what Jenna calls my smarticles. Uh the benefit of the of a of a PhD, uh talking to you about 18th century romance, the origins of the genre. You can also find us on Instagram. That's TenderTemptingTales at Instagram. You can find us on Facebook and join our reader group. Um, you can find us on Amazon. We are on Kindle Unlimited. We've got uh a new zine out that was from March. That's Pause and Peril, it's romantic suspense. Um, and we'll have a new one out in July. And of course, we have fireworks and flirtation coming out May 18th with 10 amazing stories, including a novelette from veteran romance author Jenna Hart and from our two authors here today. Um, you can find historical romance, paranormal romance, science fiction romance, sapphic, straight, whatever you want. We got it. Jenna. I and I want to remind everybody we will have links to Lynn and Miranda on our show notes. So you can go to their websites, check out their socials, check out their books and all sorts of things. And until next time, peace, love, and happily ever after.