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What is Steamy Lit? ft. Special Guest @bookrecsbymel | Bonus Ep 1
249 Plays2 years ago
This week we learn all about Steamy Lit, the adult bookish subscription company that empowers readers to incorporate self love into their reading habits. We’re joined by the company’s founder Melissa (@bookrecsbymel) as she walks us through Steamy Lit’s origins, the Steam Box , and what readers can expect from the upcoming inaugural Steamy Lit Con happening August 18-19, 2023 in Anaheim, California.
For more on Steamy Lit follow @steamylit , @steamylitcon , & @thesteamboxco on Instagram
@bringyourownpod on Instagram
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Transcript
Introduction to Mel and Stimulate
00:00:06
Speaker
Hi guys. Hey, welcome to Bring Your Own, a catch-all bookish most of the time podcast. I'm Brandy. I'm Kendra. And I'm Kayla. And today we have a very special guest. So first we want to introduce our guest, Melissa, who likes to go by Mel.
00:00:27
Speaker
And she is the founder and CEO of Stimulate, which if you're listening to this podcast, I'm sure you've probably heard of. She's a proud Latina, Navy veteran, and a dog mom. She's also an avid reader of Steam Your Romance. She says, the more the books make my thighs clench, the better, which obviously we appreciate that we had a whole smut episode on this podcast.
00:00:51
Speaker
We feel that here. So at Stimulate, Melissa and her team want to empower discourse around sexuality and self-love while also providing a new way for authors to have their work showcased. So we're so excited to have you here. We're going to discuss all things Stimulate and all things Stimulate Con as well, which again, if you've heard of that happens in August. So we're so excited to chat all things Stimulate today.
00:01:16
Speaker
Thank
Current Reads and Drinks
00:01:17
Speaker
you for having me. This is exciting. I love your energy. Oh, thank you. Awesome. Before we dive in, we have like a little tradition on the pod where we say our current reads and our current drinks. So Melissa as our guest of honor.
00:01:33
Speaker
What are you reading right now? And if you're drinking anything fun, what are you drinking? So I'm reading two books. I am reading an arc of Katie Roberts' Hunt on Dark Waters and then I'm listening to... what am I listening to?
00:01:53
Speaker
All the right notes by Dominik Lim that just came out this month. And what am I drinking? I'm drinking a Bud Light Michilala, which it's like a Bloody Mary but with beer and stuff. Amazing. It's delicious. If you're ever hungover, this is like... The perfect hair of the dog.
00:02:14
Speaker
I'm not hungover, but I am very slowly reading fourth wing still. Kayla was rolling her eyes at me. It's been like two hours. Okay, here's the thing.
00:02:31
Speaker
I have gotten very into Vanderpump Rules as a result of this scandal that has broken on TikTok. I am obsessed with it right now. I've just been watching it nonstop. They're all such horrible, horrendous, toxic people. And the show is absolutely bonkers. So I've been doing a lot of that, which is why I'm taking so long to get through fourth wing. But I will get there soon. We'll get to it in a couple months, guys. It's fine.
00:02:54
Speaker
It'll be a couple of days at the rate that I'm consuming Vanderpump Rules. Like, I just finished season two. I started this like three days. Anyways, anyways. We were just watching like episode three of season one. I don't want to talk about it. I just also want to be clear in a previous episode, she said that she was reading fourth wing and that so that's still true in this episode. I just want to point that out. But anyway, go ahead. That was like what, three weeks ago? Anyway. You know what? I'm on summer vacation right now. I'm
Book Hype and Recommendations
00:03:20
Speaker
on summer vacation right now. I am just trying to like
00:03:22
Speaker
Okay, fair, fair, fair, fair. Anyways, Kayla Anne, what are you reading? Um, sorry. Uh, lemon salts or lemon water. Um, so I'm currently, I'm not eyeball reading anything right now, which I haven't like picked up an actual book or my Kindle in like, this is going to sound totally ridiculous to somebody who's not a big book person, but in like a week, which is a long time for me. So I know she, Melissa gets it.
00:03:50
Speaker
Um, but, um, for audio, I'm reading Crimson River by Debbie Perry about halfway through. So that's currently what I'm reading. Oh, and drinking also shocker Coke Zero, my, my vice. Yeah. Um, I'll go. I am drinking nothing for the first time ever on this podcast. I know. Crazy. Um, and then reading wise, I'm reading two books. I started, um, a Caribbean heiress in Paris.
00:04:19
Speaker
which I've been wanting to read for like a long time. It's because the second one just is about to come out and it would, it will be out by the time this, yeah. Okay. So then I knew it was soon. We saw it in Barnes and Noble early and we went on her Instagram and she said, Oh, a week left. So I was like, Oh, I don't know. Um, by the time this episode comes out, it will have been out. I know that's sapphic. It's historical. So I was like, I want to read that. Um, and the first one has been on my radar for a very long time. So I got it on Libby. Um, so far so good. I'm usually not a big like historical person whatsoever.
00:04:49
Speaker
But I wish that five can draw Adriana Herrera. Yeah, she
Curating Stimulate's Boxes
00:04:54
Speaker
has like a whole like she she has a lot of books. She has like some sapphic romances, gay romances, like she has a lot. So and so far, like this is my first book of hers, I think, and I'm having a great time.
00:05:10
Speaker
that's what I'm reading with my eyes and then listening to a book called Divine Rivals that Kayla recommended to me but she is not getting any updates on it because I am very petty. If you don't know earlier this year I
00:05:28
Speaker
read the fallen men's series by Gianna Darling and I was like oh my god Kayla like I would just love to know like if you ever want to read it like give me your thoughts um we were pretty sure she was gonna hate it like we knew that yeah but we just wanted to like see her thoughts so she goes behind my back and reads welcome to the dark side without telling me and I've held on to that um ever since so I'm like you know what I'll take one of her favorite books
00:05:53
Speaker
I'll tell her that I'm reading it, but I won't give her any thoughts, any updates, nothing. So now she just has to sit with the consequences of her actions. And it's killing her, I can tell. Oh well. So yeah, nothing. Can we talk about fourth wing for a minute? Like, is the hype real?
00:06:10
Speaker
I mean, listen, this is what I always say to people. Listen, um, if you go in expecting a literary masterpiece, you'll probably be disappointed. Don't expect that. Just like a fun time. Like I've had a, I have such a fun time reading it. Um, so, and I don't know if you like fantasy that much, but, um, okay. But I also tell people,
00:06:34
Speaker
like if you are wanting to get into fantasy I think this is a perfect gateway for people to get into fantasy and it is pretty spicy like for um a fantasy book so I just had such a good time reading it like
00:06:49
Speaker
It's not going to win the Nobel Peace Prize for writing, but it will win the Nobel Peace Prize for the vibes, you know? Oh, I like that. Okay. Okay, I can get behind that. Yeah, I'm definitely having fun so far. I think once I hit about the 25% mark, I have a feeling I won't be able to put it down. I've been stuck in that first 15 for a
Evolution of Stimulate and Latinx Special Edition
00:07:08
Speaker
couple of weeks. I also, I'm a teacher and so just like the end of the school year has just really
00:07:13
Speaker
clogged me down, but it's fun so far. I haven't seen a book blow up like this in a hot minute.
00:07:21
Speaker
Yeah, and my thing with fantasy romance is that once I get going, there's no stopping me. So I'm kind of glad that there's only one book because otherwise... You would consume your life. See you later. It's my whole personality. I won't do anything else. So I try to tread carefully with what I start fantasy-wise because I know I'm gonna go into a deep hole and I need to get shit done. You're like, I have a job.
00:07:49
Speaker
Yeah, it's so disappointing. Have you read Belladonna? I haven't. That's a really good one that we all really enjoy. That has two books, right? But it's going to be a trilogy eventually. There's only one out right now, though. Okay. It's so good on audio. If you do read it, we highly recommend the audio. Okay. Yes, definitely.
00:08:12
Speaker
Amazing. Well now that we're all caught up on what we're reading and what we're drinking, obviously we're here to talk about melon steamy lit. So in your own words Melissa, can you just like tell us or the listeners, we know what steamy lit is, but can you tell the listeners a little bit about steamy lit?
00:08:28
Speaker
Sure. CME Lit is a... it's a lot of things. Originally we started as an online romance bookstore, which primarily we focused on subscription services, book subscription services, in where essentially we paired romance books with vibrators.
00:08:47
Speaker
Our mission behind that was just to like, to stigmatize sexuality and pleasure, embracing our sexuality and also just creating a new platform to amplify the work of authors part of marginalized communities or identities. And since then it's kind of evolved into
00:09:07
Speaker
this kind of like web of different things, which I'm really proud of and I'm really excited of where it's going. But yeah, that's steamy lit and it just so customers can choose from like quarterly semi annual or one time only purchases. Is that correct? Yes, they can also do an annual.
00:09:26
Speaker
An annual. Okay, cool, cool, cool. And is that always romance novels? It's always romance. And then we, you can also pick like, if you want a vibe,
Romance Community as Home
00:09:35
Speaker
if you don't want a vibe, if you just want the book only, you know, I understand that like not everyone wants a vibrator collection, and that's totally fine. So you have different options. And we're in the middle of kind of switching to a different system that lets people be a little bit more interactive with their subscription, like if they want to switch out different things. So yeah,
00:09:54
Speaker
I also just saw on TikTok that you guys just did your first box that was for both men and women, which I thought was so cool. I saw that with Kevin, and then he got to work with you guys. I thought, that's great. Because, yeah, men can use sex toys too. Women can use sex toys. I thought that was so good.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah, my goal from the beginning was to create boxes tailored to different people and different couples, right? It's just a little bit hard to do because sex twos are so expensive. And so, you know, trying to gauge interest.
00:10:28
Speaker
men want it, if couples want it, it wouldn't be a subscription, it would have to be like a one-time box type of thing that's kind of always available for people to be able to purchase. But yeah, I mean we want to essentially say like fuck the patriarchy and like explore your sexuality and embrace it however you want and if you want to one-hand read while you're at it, you know, like be my guest.
00:10:52
Speaker
please yeah you know what's so funny is um when i was when we were prepping for this episode i was on like you know perusing your guys's website and my husband i was telling him about about all that like what we were doing what our interview was going to be what the company was and as i was like getting into it i hadn't gotten to the sex toys part yet because i was just kind of explaining about the boxes and the romance novels and then he's like he's like wait he's like kayla i have an idea he's like kayla like what if we open up a bookstore
00:11:20
Speaker
And we also pair him with vibrators. And I was like, I think they already beat you. Like, I think that's like, this is part of it here. Like you, you're beaten. You got beat to the punch. He's like, damn. He's like, there's a market for that. I was like, there's a massive market for that. Are you kidding? He's like, hell yeah. Women in power. He kind of made me laugh, but I was like, sorry honey, you got beat. But anyway. That is so funny. Jared's like,
00:11:42
Speaker
Let me talk for a moment.
Embracing Romance without Shame
00:11:46
Speaker
So do you pick all of the stuff that goes in each box? And I know you have a team, obviously, at Steamylit. But do you guys curate every single thing? Do authors pick certain things to go in their boxes? And also, how do you choose the books, too? So how does a box get built at Steamylit? That's a complicated question. So honestly, a lot of the answer is whatever I read that
00:12:10
Speaker
I like like that. I love that. That's basically what it is. Obviously, as the box grows and our team grows, I've started, you know, getting the help of other people to help me read just different books coming out. But I try to be very intentional with obviously, like what identities we are showcasing in the box. And, you know, if like, we've already done a Latinx author for every box, like what other identities have we not
00:12:38
Speaker
um like shown up yet right so that's part of it um the toys is probably like my favorite part of this because i do try to test out everything that we put in the box um and now we've gotten to the point where like i i think satisfier sent me their like may sample box and it was i'm not kidding 30 vibrators why am i like i'm jealous i was like do you need help like if you want to help you out yeah
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, and I was like, like, I don't even like I don't even have these many holes in my body. So, but that's like, and just learning about like the sexual wellness industry has been something that has been really big for me because I was just a reader before and sure like I knew self pleasure and I've had vibrators in the past but I've never been this involved in it.
00:13:32
Speaker
So, you know, picking, sometimes I try to pick a vibrator based on like, you know, if I have a book that is like has a lot of, I don't know, eating out or giving head or something, like I try to maybe match a vibrator to that sense. But at the end of the day, it's just kind of like
00:13:49
Speaker
whatever makes sense to me. And then as far as the other items that we put in the box, I try to always source from other small businesses. And the other part to that is either I'm kind of going with like the season of the box because we're kind of like winter, spring, summer, fall. So I try to put items that are
00:14:08
Speaker
that match that
Birth of Stimulate During COVID-19 Lockdown
00:14:10
Speaker
season or there's like a specific scent or like a specific item that like really pops out in the books, I try to get things like that. And then as far as the authors go, I've had authors who have very little involvement and then I've had other authors who like have provided
00:14:27
Speaker
you know, some items or small businesses that they love if we are able to acquire from them. So that's always nice when the author is involved because it feels a little bit more personalized. But when you have like with a quarterly box because you have three authors, it's a little bit hard of like how to pick what with what.
00:14:44
Speaker
So yeah, it's kind of like, let's see what I come up with for this season type of thing. And that's probably the funnest part of the job, like putting the product together is I think really exciting. Aside from reading, I feel like I'm ranting now, but I think the reading portion can get a little
00:15:09
Speaker
When reading starts feeling like a job, then it's not as enjoyable anymore. And so, for example, I'm like you in that historical romance, or like Hendra, like historical romance is not my jam, per se. But like, we just did a historical romance box and obviously like, so now what, right? So I try to...
00:15:36
Speaker
make sure that I'm also reading things that I just want to read aside from the things that I'm also reading like if I happen to read something that's like on my radar that I really like happens to be great for the box awesome but then sometimes you know I kind of have to go outside of that so it's like a it's a fine line so you don't get burned out in the things you love doing
00:15:57
Speaker
yeah is there a box like that you're super proud of that like you always think back on you're like damn i did that like i put all that shit together i got that author i got that book i got that product
00:16:07
Speaker
Okay, so there's a couple of things. I do a Latinx, Latinae special edition box every year. And that box always makes my heart really happy just because we're celebrating my culture and the authors that are part of that culture. So I really love that. And when we source for that box, we also source from just Latinx or Latinae small businesses as well, all the way down to the vibrator. So I really love that.
00:16:37
Speaker
some of the boxes that I'm really proud of, I mean like some of our special editions, I have no idea how we've done.
Vision for SteamyLitCon and Diversity Mission
00:16:46
Speaker
I am an avid believer that if you want to do something,
00:16:54
Speaker
ask like all someone can tell can tell you is no right like so just ask and so that's really what's happened with a lot of the boxes like Anna Abby Jimenez Christina Lauren like
00:17:09
Speaker
All of us own both of those books. We're obsessed with those ones. Aren't they beautiful? For context, we held a partier world by Adam Jimenez and Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren, both of which Cimulate did collaborations with and the covers are stunning when they came out all over Bookstagram. We were just like, Kayla sent us the Love and Other Words one.
00:17:30
Speaker
And she was like, Oh my god, look how beautiful this is. And within like two minutes of each other, Kendra and I were both like, damn, crazy how fast we just bought that. Like, we love them so much. And like, so you just like reached out to those authors and then
00:17:44
Speaker
Yeah, when you're trad, it's a little bit difficult because like you have to go through the publisher, not only the author. So obviously you want the author to be on board, but at the end of the day, it's like the publisher that's gonna give you permission to have access to that. So I never in 1000 years would have thought that like
00:18:09
Speaker
neither Simon and Schuster or forever would say like, yeah, let's do this. And they did. And I was like, oh, shit. Okay, they did. So now what? Because I mean, I'm like, sure, I have a team, but like all of my team has a full time job, right? Like, yeah, it's all very like part time. I have a full time job. Like, so it's like, holy shit. Now we have 3000 orders, right? Like,
00:18:41
Speaker
And that's some of the work that I'm proud of because it helps not only see me get out there, but it helps promote our mission that diversity and romance is so important.
00:18:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's so amazing. I got to go to the LA Times Festival of Books and you guys also had like a tent there. That was so cool. Like, that was so fun to see. Yeah, I was also taken aback by how busy we were. Like I had been to LA Times Festival of Books before just like as a, you know, just a regular person.
00:19:19
Speaker
I mean, I expected people to come by but like, oh my god, next year we're gonna need a much bigger booth. It was jam-packed in there. And again, it was one of those things that I remember when the idea came to my head and then being able to see it flourish like that, it's unbelievable.
00:19:40
Speaker
Were you at the booth? I was. Oh my god, we definitely crossed paths without even knowing it. I was probably running around so small. You guys were like so busy. Like you said, like there was it was definitely my friend Celine and I were there and we're like looking for the stimulant tent and we're like, Oh, that crowd of people is definitely
00:19:57
Speaker
Definitely where it is. Which like kind of leads me to my next question too. Like you mentioned, like you're gonna need a bigger booth next year. Steamylit's so well loved within the bookish community, especially like the Bookstagram community. So like, where do you see Steamylit heading in the future? I mean, we're gonna talk about SteamylitCon in a little bit, but are you like, just like everything a little bit more? Are you really happy with the direction it's going right now? Or what are your visions?
00:20:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think I would love to have an actual brick and mortar store eventually. The thing with that is that prior to this life, I was
00:20:39
Speaker
in the Navy. And then when I wasn't in the Navy, I was married to someone who was in the Navy. And so like, I moved every three to four years. And so moving has kind of become part of like, who I am. And I don't know, like, this is the first time that I don't have to move at all. So I don't know how long I'll last. And that's, that's what scares me about a brick and mortar that I feel like I would need. You know, like a location, right? Roots and so
00:21:08
Speaker
I don't know if I want to plant those in Florida because Florida is a little scary right now with all of our politics. But I would love to have essentially the same thing we have online, like pair romance books with vibrators.
00:21:22
Speaker
But not only vibrators, like I want to open the conversation about pleasure in sexual wellness and sexual health.
Planning SteamyLitCon in Anaheim
00:21:31
Speaker
And you'll see a lot of this and we're going to talk about SteamyLitCon, but at SteamyLitCon, a lot of our
00:21:38
Speaker
conversation will be about sexual wellness. It will be about educating each other on like, what is pleasure? How do you pleasure yourself? How does romance and pleasure tie together? And I think we don't have enough community around those conversations. I don't
00:21:57
Speaker
know a lot of people who are, you know, calling each other to talk about their latest orgasm, right? Like, it's still such a taboo topic. I feel like us in the romance community are a little bit more open to those conversations, because you're like, damn, like, like, right, like, she just got railed, you know, like, and then like, that opens the conversation, right? But like, I feel like my, my friendships outside of the book world, like, I'm not like,
00:22:27
Speaker
I just got railed. Well, maybe I just got railed, but maybe not like this was my orgasm, right? And so like, you know, just creating community around that. So that's one like big project. Another one is just like showing face more. I guess I never
00:22:46
Speaker
thought people like they were fine with steamy lit just being like an online entity and seeing how much love we received the LA Times Festival of Books was like oh like maybe we should show up at more places so we're gonna try to be a little bit more intentional about that and then just kind of see um how we go from there. Yeah I want to mention uh you just had an article come out on the day show so I think that's about to like
00:23:11
Speaker
blow you up like that's amazing yeah how did that happen tell us about that um they reached out to talk to me about steamy lit um in the steam box and um they had an article that came out i think this was back in february maybe um in relation to just like
00:23:28
Speaker
self pleasure and romance and then I saw that read with Jenna posted it yesterday so yeah it makes me really excited I mean I think what's really important to me is to make things accessible and like as I grow I want to like
00:23:45
Speaker
special editions like a lot of people talk about the pricing and obviously there's like a lot that goes behind the scenes that people don't know about the actual pricing of the book but like yeah it's something that I 100% want to make more accessible like you shouldn't have to like put out $50 for a special edition book right um and so
00:24:04
Speaker
trying to find ways to do that. And as we grow, I think it's something that I'll be able to do more of, but it's the same thing with like sexuality and pleasure, right? Like really good vibrators are not accessible for people. And so that we're starting to partner a lot with Satisfire actually, because they are also kind of on that same mission to make sure that pleasure is accessible for folks. And so trying to figure out how we can do that and lower costs and things so that more people are able to like get their hands on.
00:24:35
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. Vibrators are so expensive. I bought two. The last time we recorded a podcast, before we started recording, we always chat beforehand. I was like, guys, I just spent $150 on two vibrators. They would allow me the rest of my freaking life. I mean, they're amazing. I'm so glad I bought them. But you're so right. They're really expensive. So I love that you're trying to make them more accessible. Yeah. Especially because, I mean, especially if it's things that you're going to put inside your body, right? Yeah. You want to make sure that it's
00:25:06
Speaker
done with quality product. And I mean, I feel like a lot of the more expensive vibrators usually have a warranty. So just like, I got that. Yeah, boxes. But yeah, right. Like, it's not accessible for folks. And everyone deserves an orgasm. Yeah, I think that's such a good tagline. Everyone deserves an orgasm. Yeah, exactly. Jared's new store that's going to be in competition with you is going to be tagline. Everybody deserves an orgasm.
00:25:35
Speaker
We've talked a little bit about what you see for the future for stimulant, but I kind of want to go back a little bit and talk about the beginnings of stimulant. So I want to know like when did this become an idea for you? When did like little seeds start being planted? And then when did it become more of like, holy shit, I think I might actually do this kind of thing. And tell me about that.
00:25:58
Speaker
The story is always funny because it basically boils down to like COVID year 2020. I'm at home, my spouse at the time was deployed and so I'm really by myself and that's really when I turned all my attention to romance.
00:26:18
Speaker
everything going on with the protests because of the murder of George Floyd took COVID and like the world was such an ugly place that like I just wanted to escape in romance and then when I started reading I was like
00:26:35
Speaker
Like, nobody else is horny? Like, can we talk about that? Like, is
Upcoming Projects and Collaborations
00:26:40
Speaker
no one else masturbating? Like, what are we doing? Like, as a collective unit, are we, like, rubbing one out? Are we not? Is that, like, frowned upon? You know, like, what? What are we doing? And so I noticed that I feel like at this point in time,
00:26:59
Speaker
book talk was starting to grow and I feel like people weren't as vocal as they are now about like just orgasms, right? And like one-handed reading. And I think at the time I just like we weren't talking about it on bookstagram or at least maybe I just wasn't on the right side of bookstagram. Like sure people would say like oh it was really steamy or it was spicy but like we're not talking about more than that and so I was like
00:27:25
Speaker
hmm, someone should really pair romance books and vibrators, like that should be a thing. And a friend of mine was like, well, why don't you do it? And so that's kind of how the idea bloomed. I was like, okay, cool, how do I do this? And like, I've never sold a book in my life. I've never sold a vibrator in my life.
00:27:44
Speaker
I worked in athletics at that point, so we're talking about a complete different field. And so a lot of that was research and talking to different people within the book community already and figuring out what is needed, what is wanted, how do you get started, who prints books, who do I buy them from? Is there a book distributor? Do I buy them from the publisher? Same thing with vibrators and just items for the box.
00:28:12
Speaker
And that's how I got started with the journey. And I think it didn't hit me that I was fully doing that until I received my first boxes for the Steam box from the printer. And I was like, well, now I have 500 boxes. You gotta do something with them. Yeah. I gotta do something. And funnily enough, when my ex-husband came home from deployment, he came home to a bunch of vibrators everywhere. And he was like, what the fuck?
00:28:41
Speaker
I was like, I know! You know what? I was thinking about the future. Like, what are we doing? So that's how I got started. And it's been a learning curve. I mean, I had people like the Feminist Book Club, which they have a book box, and then Hello Lovely, Becca, they were both people who really like set me up in just giving me like
00:29:08
Speaker
insider info of the box world and it's something that I like to pass on when people tell me they want to start a box. I share as much as I can but I also tell them there's a lot that I'm still learning myself. I've never worked in publishing a day in my life so a lot of it has been research or trial and error or asking people in the community so it's not easy.
00:29:33
Speaker
at all. And I try to tell people this all the time when they're thinking about starting a bug box, like it will take up a lot of your time. So just like really think thoroughly about what you want to do.
00:29:44
Speaker
Yeah. So here for the three of us, we, you know, brought together because of books, specifically romance books. You know, now we like talk every day, we have a podcast together, we go on vacation together now, right? So like, outside of just connecting through books, we've formed, you know, a really close friendship. So can you talk?
00:30:06
Speaker
about how the romance genre has affected your life other than obviously creating a very successful business. Can you talk about what it's done for you in your personal life? Yeah, honestly, the book community felt like coming home. I've never felt more at ease or myself like I do with the book community. I've always been like the reader in all my other friend groups.
00:30:32
Speaker
no one read like i did or like they were just like not into the same things and fighting a community of people who like love to read and love to go to bookstores and love to buy books has been amazing like like i don't even know and honestly just like the support i mean like i started my bookstagram account during covid and then like so like
00:30:58
Speaker
I was FaceTiming people when I was eating dinner by myself who I met through the book community who I had never met in person. When my ex was coming home from deployment, they were the ones who were sending in meals for us for his welcome home. Now I'm getting divorced, they were the first people who were the ones reaching out to me, making sure that I was okay.
00:31:23
Speaker
I don't know a more supportive community and I don't have a more supportive system in my life than the community and honestly, it's what's kept me going this whole time.
00:31:34
Speaker
I love that. I think we can all agree with that. Like, we've all become so close. Like, Kayla lives in Kansas City. Like, I'm friends with someone in Kansas. That is just crazy. Maybe that was like a bad example. But like, it's insane that like, I now have friends all across the world now that like,
00:31:54
Speaker
all because I love to read and like decided to post about it online, which is so cool. And like, we're in the genre that I still think to this day gets like shit on the most. That's why we have such a strong sense of community because it's like we have to like stick together like because every you get on TikTok every other day and people are like just shitting on romance. We're like, no, like, you know what you can learn? You know, you can do like, oh, my gosh. Yeah, so grateful for this community.
Rapid-Fire Questions with Mel
00:32:20
Speaker
It is such a beautiful, like, it's so amazing to watch people who get into romance, like go through the journey of like, the most people feel some inherent shame when they start reading romance of just like, because of the societal, like, you know, and then to like, watch people just be like, Oh, fuck that. And like, yeah,
00:32:39
Speaker
I feel like it's happened with every single one of my mutuals, we start the bookstagram. They're like, this book wasn't very well written. And I'm like, okay, we don't have to say that. Like, we can just say that we like the book. Yeah, it's I think it's an awakening. And exactly like you said, I like to give people grace whenever I see a TikTok of someone expressing their like opinions on romance, because I'm like,
00:33:06
Speaker
Okay, now watch you get hooked. And like your whole, right? And like, I think sometimes we forget like the societal stigmas and just like taboos and shames that we've been, I mean, especially as women, right? Like sex has always, has only ever been a thing we do because we procreate and it's only the men's job to finish because that's what like,
00:33:33
Speaker
Seals the deal, you know, like it's never been about us getting off and so like I I try to be gentle in those conversations because I don't like to scare people away I think it's the same thing when we talk about like ab covers versus or discreet covers versus cartoon covers and It's the same thing right? Like yes, like actually like what you're saying about ab covers is a little bit like
00:34:00
Speaker
you're with the patriarchy not against it but right like let's give you some space to figure out that like sure right like at work i don't necessarily want to read in front of my boss a book with abs because like not because i'm ashamed of it but because that man who is my boss is going to say some shit to me that is gonna be a problem right and so like
00:34:25
Speaker
It's just like really interesting dynamics that we still have to navigate. So I don't know. I think the more people read romance, the more like come to Jesus moments they have for themselves. Oh, I like there are so many books that I refuse to read for so long because of the covers that it literally took me making my books to Graham and like talking every day with people who were like, these books are so good. Why would you not read them?
00:34:50
Speaker
It took so long to do that unlearning that you're talking about. I still catch myself doing it. You know, when I talk to people who aren't super
00:34:59
Speaker
into reading but they like know that I like to read they ask me for like a fun book to read and I'm like okay well I'm gonna give you this one that I like I love like it's one of my favorite books all the time but it's like so silly goofy and like you don't have to like I'm always like making excuses I'm like yeah I was gonna say something super similar because like at work like if we're meeting somebody new we'll have like like a little get to know you or whatever and they'll see these books in the background they're like what do you like to do for fun and
00:35:23
Speaker
like oh you know I like to read or whatever that's like my only personality trait right they're like what kind of books do you like to read and I'm like oh like you know like like fantasy like you know fiction and then I like refused to say romance for a while but now but like after a while I was just like why like why and so now I'm just like yeah I like romance I like fantasy so yeah it took me a while to like be able to actually tell people that I read romance so it's crazy
00:35:52
Speaker
think it starts young too because when I was in high school like I was obsessed with sex oh my gosh I wasn't having it but I was like I want to read about it so bad I would read it only in like fan fiction but never in like actual books and then I found like YA that was like sex positive nothing smutty but like had sex in it and like had teens talking about sex and their bodies I think that's when like you're the horniest sometimes when you're a teen like you're coming into it. Your hormones are raging. Yeah so I've noticed that like even with YA like
00:36:19
Speaker
my favorite YA is always the ones who are like super sex positive engaging in the conversation because i'm like yes if you get these books in the hands of teens right now they'll grow up and they'll go to read like the best romance books that can like change their lives or they'll read monster smut and that can still be life-changing but like i i need them to like get on that um pathway and i think it starts
00:36:41
Speaker
It starts then you just need more sex. I just recently
Hesitations and Preferences in Romance Tropes
00:36:44
Speaker
found out what nodding is. Oh my god. We were on live one day and I was like, I think I know what nodding was. And I was like, no, our friend Ashley hopped on and explained to us, but I'm so sorry.
00:37:00
Speaker
I just read an arc of Lena Ferguson's upcoming release, The Fake Mate. Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. I saw the cover and I read the synopsis and I was like, wait, it's a shifter. That's what this is? Yeah. Yeah. And that was my first shifter romance. And I just want to say I was kind of scarred because like,
00:37:28
Speaker
They were wolves, like they're shifting into wolves. And like, I could not look at my dog the same. Oh, no. Like, is that what you do? Like, I'm looking at him right now. And I'm like, it wasn't like the Jacob from Twilight vibe. Like, that wasn't the vibe. I so I walked I don't I watched Twilight very long ago. I never read the book. So
00:38:00
Speaker
But yeah, I've been like staring at my dog like
00:38:03
Speaker
That is so funny. I remember when I saw that on like NetGalley, it probably, I looked at the cover and I was like, Oh, this is cute. Whatever. But it was about like vets, you know, just two little, Oh, that's the one. Yes. That's the one. And so I texted to our group and I was like, guys, what do you think this book is about? Just based on the cover. I guessed it. And Kendra actually guessed it. And I don't remember what other people said. Cause there were like little pulp parts leading to him. I didn't even notice that. You guessed werewolves. I guess it was a werewolf.
00:38:32
Speaker
I didn't even notice but a couple people got strong they were like fake dating vets or something but I mean hey if you like shift romance you like shift romance do it do do you but I was just like so taken aback by that I was like wow I mean the book the book was sensational it was great it was so good um I just was a little scarred in that like yeah your dog so I don't I like I don't I don't want to think about my child and him nodding another dog yeah oh my god
00:38:59
Speaker
Like, that's my child. Like, he's looking at me like, why are you talking about me? Because I read the starving, I read the starving erotica about you. Yeah, it was like, I think maybe like if they were shifting into an animal that was not like dog-ish, cat-ish family, I think would work better for me. I mean, the book was great. But I had to get past the nodding. Yeah.
00:39:29
Speaker
I feel like Monster and Shifter romances are my final frontier. I haven't gotten there yet, but I am determined to get there because you mentioned you were reading a Katie Robert book. Those covers that she has for, I forgot what the series is called, but it's like the gargoyle one and the devil one.
00:39:46
Speaker
Yeah, those are the most stunning covers. With the double penetration one? Yeah, and those are the most stunning covers I've ever seen. Every time I go to Barnes & Noble, I'm like, I just want these for myself. And like, I'm determined to become a Monster Romance early so that I can have those bits.
00:40:03
Speaker
This was my first like, and I accidentally got here because I've been putting off like monster like shifter romance, especially if it's like contemporary. I can do it in fantasy because I'm already in like fantasy world, right? But like these people are like working in a hospital and they're shifters and they're nodding and then my dog and I have to unpack that with somebody, honestly.
00:40:30
Speaker
Um, so I stumbled upon it because I, I saw all later Ferguson, like, I just read the nanny, the nanny, and then like, there was an alpha and an omega and I, yeah. Um, it comes out this year though. You should, you should check it out. Uh, it was great.
00:40:48
Speaker
You have to now. Yeah, you have to. And then if you can't look at your pet the same, just... Yeah, I have two dogs, so now I'm like scared. Yeah, so I have one male and two girls, so like, it's only my male that I'm like... Both of mine are males, so... Yeah, yeah. As a fellow dog parent,
00:41:16
Speaker
Okay, I'll approach with caution. You're like, what is my dog doing when I'm not here? Like, what's going on? It's almost more disturbing to think about him shifting into a person when you're not around. But I guess it's different, right? Because while we're gonna go into a whole dog mating conversation, but because like when dogs mate, they just get stuck. It's not like they have like a knot at their base that gets like
00:41:41
Speaker
stuck into the other person, right? So it's different. It's different. My kid is not nodding anybody. Yeah, okay. I have to know who the first person to ever write nodding was because I know it was fanfic. I need to know. Let's trace it back. We'll do a whole episode. The history of nodding. Yeah, no, seriously. We'll become like researchers. We'll write a dissertation. I'll make a PowerPoint with pictures.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yes. Have you seen the renderings of it? No, but now I'm going to have to look, and now I'm going to have to look. Be careful, dude, I'm
Future Aspirations for SteamyLit
00:42:20
Speaker
private tab. Oh yeah, no, definitely private tab.
00:42:23
Speaker
100%. We, uh, we looked at everything. I actually lived in our group chat for a second and I was like, all right, this... Is it K-N-O-T or N-O-T-T? K-N-O-T-T. Nodding. Omegaverse, I would search as well, yeah. Omegaverse. Images. This is like the time that Kendra you were talking about, you said fisting to a group chat.
00:42:50
Speaker
Yeah, because my friend didn't know what fisting was. She thought you put your whole fist. And I was like, that's not how it works. This is why sex education is so important. Wait, it's not. Fisting? Fisting? You don't put the whole... It's not like this, no. Well, yeah. Right, right, right. So she thought it was like this. But I was like, no, here's a video. And it's just all the fingers. Yeah.
00:43:16
Speaker
I can't find good nodding. Do you mind us attaching one to the email we send you? No, not at all. When we send you this episode for approval. Not at all. And for sexual education. Here's nodding. This conversation took its turn. Great. So we'll ship gears.
00:43:43
Speaker
in August of 2023, which for us is in like a very few short months. Wait, how many days?
00:43:51
Speaker
66. 66 days from the time we're recording this. Simulit from my point of view has been like just like a lot of your special editions all over my Instagram like I follow the page like you guys are announcing new authors all the time like new sponsors like I have friends who like I just bought my ticket like everyone seems to be talking about this. How did SimulitCon come to be? What is the origin of it?
00:44:17
Speaker
And how does it work when it came to picking the authors, picking the vendors, picking the location? Why Anaheim, California? Explain all the things about the con.
00:44:28
Speaker
Okay, so how do we get started? Right about the time when I launched the Steam Box and just Steamy Lit in general, I knew that I wanted to do some kind of convention. I just didn't know to what extent, and with the same mission, right? Creating a new platform for authors to just be able to showcase their work.
00:44:50
Speaker
But there was a lot of research that was going to go into that and a lot of that was like, okay, what already exists? Where is it happening? How is it? And so my co-organizer, Cookie, she, from the beginning when I told her, she was like, okay, when you're ready, I'm game.
00:45:11
Speaker
That's kind of how I got started. Why Anaheim? Simple answer is because I used to live in San Diego up to like December, so I wanted to keep it in SoCal, but aside from that, like there's no big romance convention in Southern California, or just like really... Well, the West Coast is starting to get a few other romance comms, but there wasn't anything in California at the time, so I wanted to also
00:45:40
Speaker
created somewhere where people can vacation before or after because I know sometimes for people that's like the only time that they have vacation off of work so if they were traveling with their families I just wanted to be intentional about like them being able to bring them and vacation while they're there yeah um and then steamy lit con so my mission with steamy lit con is actually a much bigger um
00:46:10
Speaker
like organization than just the convention. The convention will be part of a non-profit so it'll be kind of like our annual non-profit event which essentially will be to raise funds for scholarships for authors part of marginalized communities or identities for them to apply for scholarships. Like if you have a banging book and you just can't pay for a cover artist like
00:46:35
Speaker
I want to be able to give you money for that. If you need an editor, I want to be able to give you money for that. If you need to go to a book convention and you don't have the funds for that, I want to be able to provide that. I feel like there's so many spaces in which BIPOC authors in particular just don't have... they just need a little bit of help to get that notoriety.
00:47:04
Speaker
Yes. And the same connections, right? As like their white counterparts. And so being able to provide spaces where they can connect with other folks in the industry, being able to provide funds for them to have the same chance as somebody else, right? And kind of removing some of those barriers to entry is what I really want to do with SteamyCon in general.
00:47:32
Speaker
but we needed to get started somewhere and that was you know we did like a huge fundraiser for it to just get us going and so hopefully that is this is our stepping stone into like a much bigger space that we're trying to create and we're also trying to create spaces for aspiring authors so that they're able to do like a craft workshop at the convention or like this year we'll have a couple panels that will be tailored to aspiring authors
00:48:01
Speaker
or just authors in general if you want to like be an indie author and or if you want to go traditional just like a couple of different panels that will have different industry experts that you can chat with and connect with
00:48:17
Speaker
So yeah, then as far as like picking the authors obviously wanted to be intentional about that wanted to create a space that put diversity in the forefront and it wasn't an afterthought and so something that I found when going to other conventions was that I can count how many like
00:48:36
Speaker
BIPOC people there were in like my two hands, right? And so like, as someone who is a Latina woman, when I'm walking into a space like that, I feel very much out of place, even though I'm surrounded by people who love books as much as I do, like, you can't help but feel like, okay, where are my people at, right? Like, and so I wanted to create a space where like
00:48:59
Speaker
I don't walk in and I'm like, where are my people? Everyone is my people here. And so I wanted to be intentional about that. But also just like championing and celebrating readers who read diverse romance and other authors who are white as well, but like champion and use their platform. And I feel like Christina Lauren, Ali Hazelwood are two great examples of that.
00:49:23
Speaker
they use their very large followings and platforms to like promote the work of authors part of marginalized communities and identities and that's really important for us too. As far as vendors, kind of just like
00:49:36
Speaker
it was like a give and take of like, okay, how many vendors are already doing this? What kind of identities, you know, are the small businesses kind of embrace? And yeah, then as far as sponsorship, so we took them all. If you wanted to give us your money, we wanted to take it. But
00:49:58
Speaker
We just found out actually that talking about pleasure, that Satisfyre is gonna be donating vibrators for every single person attending the convention. So I am very excited. This is gonna be a swag bag that is gonna be pretty cool. And it's like will be memorable too. And I was looking at like the author lineup and I've seen like obviously like bigger names on there that I'm super excited to that are like are just going. But then I would see someone that like I'd never even heard of.
00:50:26
Speaker
And that's what I think I really loved because then I'd be like go to their Instagram and it would be an author that had like 500 followers. And I think that's so important because at these conventions, I've only been the one so far I went to Love in Vegas last year with Brandy, you see so many new names and you're like, I wonder who that person is. And then if they're just like at their table by themselves, like you can go up, you can start a conversation and then you could have discovered like your new favorite author.
00:50:47
Speaker
So I just I love that you're giving so many smaller people a seat at the table because it's so important. Yeah, that's something we definitely wanted to do. And like you said, something that has been my favorite part about going to conventions is that like, if I see an author table that is empty, or just like an author that calls my attention that I didn't know I like to like connect and see what books they might be writing or like, okay, maybe they write, I don't know,
00:51:12
Speaker
that monster romance that might not be for me right now, but I can message you and be like, bitch, you love naughty.
00:51:24
Speaker
Yeah, and we're starting to do that. We're actually gonna work. We'll be at Buck Bonanza next week, but we're gonna do... Oh my god, we'll see you there. Oh, yay! We're gonna be working on the seating chart while we're there. And so that's kind of what we also are wanting to be intentional about, like putting big name authors next to.
00:51:44
Speaker
authors that are smaller in a sense, just so that we can help people kind of connect. Like while you're waiting in line for this author, we'll talk to this other author, you know, and maybe we can create some scavenger hunts or something around it so that people are more enticed to go meet new authors. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. On the list of authors that we have, I mean, there's so many people who are going to be there, but some of the names include Abby Jimenez, Sierra Simone, Christina Lauren, Kennedy Ryan, Cubie Tyler, Tara DeWitt,
00:52:13
Speaker
Chip Pond, Mia Sosa, who is super underrated in my eyes, Maisie Eddings, Chloe Lease, B.K. Boris and Brittany Cherry, and so many more. Is there an author that you have not met yet that you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe they're coming. I can't wait to meet them like someone who's your fave?
00:52:33
Speaker
Amy only there. Well, I've already met Amy. Or if you've met them and you're excited to see them again. But Amy's not coming, so I don't know. Okay, Evie Mitchell. I've created a really good relationship with Evie Mitchell. And I've never met her in person. She lives in Australia, I believe. And yeah, she'll be coming. So I'm excited to hug her in person if she allows hugs. But
00:53:03
Speaker
Yeah, then my all time fave is Kennedy Ryan. And I don't know if y'all saw the special edition. We did. They're beautiful. I'm gorgeous. I'm so fucking in love with them like you like that was that was probably a dream project for me because Kennedy's like my absolute favorite and being able to work on those was
00:53:22
Speaker
Um, and the artist was just fucking amazing. It's so good. We talk about like, discrete or Have you read the series? I have not read grip yet. Um, but I just finished hookshot though. And I was like, who is this grip person they keep talking about? I didn't even realize it was a series. And I'm like, you don't understand the way that it's gonna tear like a tear. You're a heart. That's what I'm terrified of.
00:53:46
Speaker
I can only handle so much. You have to because she puts it back together. She like fixes it all up for you, but she's gonna make you go through it. And I also think it's especially important for
00:54:00
Speaker
white women who are in interracial relationships to read this book because they're an interracial couple. The woman Bristol on the book is white and the premise aside from romance is a lot of the big important points in the book are now you love a black man.
00:54:24
Speaker
what are those important differences in your lifestyle that you now need to learn and unlearn? Because now when you get stopped by the cops, it's not just you talking however you want, because the black man next to you might get killed, right? And so like, that just gave me chills. But like, Kendi Ryan just like has such a way with her words. They're so poetic.
00:54:49
Speaker
And so just lyrical in a sense that when she talks about this, man, she makes you feel it all. And read it, cry, get the tissues. She's also gonna make you horny, but... I know when you were at the LA Times Festival books, I'm sure obviously you were working, but I got to go to her panel, which was the sex panel. And she is just like...
00:55:13
Speaker
her writing is so beautiful, but she's also so beautifully spoken. Like everything she said, I was just like, so amazing. I'm talking about a lot of stuff that we're talking about right now, just like sex positivity on learning like the shame that's built around it and how she writes it like very intentionally. I am so excited to read the group series too. So yeah, the covers are stunning. And like we talk a lot about discrete covers on here are like special edition covers.
00:55:36
Speaker
And I love that you picked scenes from the book. Like that to me makes me want to read it even more, right? Because I don't want to just see like the title and like a random object. Like I want it to have intention and purpose. And it's stunning. So yeah, there is- They're all such, like they're all such important like scenes in the book. You just have to read it. I love that you're like fangirling. Like this is your collection. Like that's so cool. This is yours.
00:56:02
Speaker
I just love that story so much. And yeah, same thing with part of your world. And we did it with the twist. Yeah, we did it with the twisted series too. Like I, that's what I envision when I do a special edition covers like a scene from the book. Okay, so with that being said, SteamyLitCon last day to buy tickets is July 8. So there's that. But we are
00:56:24
Speaker
going to do... we got green lighted to do two special editions, we're waiting for the third, but one of them will be yours truly by Abby Jimenez.
00:56:40
Speaker
I just had a heart attack. I'm sorry. Lenny Kaufman will be the artist on that one as well. I know, very excited. She's also doing, I don't know if you've heard about The Art of Scandal by Regina Black. It's an age gap romance. It's coming out in August. It's really good.
00:56:57
Speaker
Okay. Lenny's gonna be doing a special edition cover for that one as well for us. But then we also are doing Elena Armas' The American Roommate. Oh, fine. Yeah, so we'll be doing that one as well. And like, it's the same thing that we're doing with the other books where we're like pulling out scenes that like stand out to us so that
00:57:23
Speaker
Can you tell us? So I haven't talked about yours truly yet. We can suggest, we can help. The only thing that I think I have to reread the email but I think the only feedback I got from the author editorial side was to make sure that he has funny socks
00:57:49
Speaker
since that's like a big part of, so definitely that. For American roommate experiment, have you read it? I have not.
00:57:59
Speaker
Okay. Well, there's a scene where they're, basically they're fake dating. She's like a romance author. And he's her cousin's or her best friend's cousin and like they have to share her best friend's like apartment for the summer or something. She's a romance writer and is in like a writing slump.
00:58:23
Speaker
And so her best friend is like, well, why don't you start dating again and go to these different dates so I could give you some ideas to write about. And so he's like, you're going to date? Absolutely not. So he's like, I'll be here date, right? And so he starts taking her to all these different dates so that she can write about them. So it's this one specific date that's on a rooftop. Anyway, I think that that one's going to be really beautiful too.
00:58:52
Speaker
Yeah, those are two... Let's see, what else can I tell you? We're doing, you know, in the romance bitches on TikTok. Oh, the dance. Yeah, yeah. We're doing a collaboration with her and one of the books we're doing a special edition of is Catherine Cowell's Fracture Sky. Oh, that's my favorite one in the series. Me too.
00:59:18
Speaker
Yeah, we're doing that one and then... What else are we doing? Oh my god, so many amazing things coming up. I know, there's a lot happening. I was just telling our social media manager, we really need to get a cabin, they're going. There's so much happening. All of these are in honor of the con, right?
00:59:42
Speaker
No, none of them are actually. So Catherine Cowles is just like a collab we're doing with Paige and then we're doing a Barbie box with like the movie. So the like, it's kind of like you pick the Barbies job and we picked three different professions. And so that's so cool.
01:00:05
Speaker
That's where the Abby book falls into place. That's where the Elena Armas falls into place. And then the other one that we're pending approval on is The Trouble with Hating You by Sashni Patel, which is a STEM romance. And so, you know, you kind of pick your own journey, like you pick your, like what your Barbie job is. And so that's kind of what we're based out of.
01:00:26
Speaker
For the con, the only thing we might be doing special is Teacher of the Year by M.A. Wardell. He's part of our summer box, but we might be doing a special edition to that for the con only. I've seen that book every week. That was a big release last month. It's so good. It's such a good romance book. I love it when it's forbidden. Yeah, because it's like a teacher and a parent. Anything that's forbidden is like...
01:00:57
Speaker
my shit. Yeah, we eat it up. Yeah. Catch me snatching that Barbie box up. Yeah, that's so fun. Amazing. So can we do some rapid fire, just like general romance book questions for you to round us out? Yeah. Okay, amazing. So first question, what's your favorite trope? Ex Boyfriend's Dad. Do you have a favorite Ex Boyfriend's Dad book?
01:01:25
Speaker
birthday girl by Penelope Douglas. Also, sorry, I needed to I need to write about this because Berkeley picked it up and like, what did you Okay, Berkeley also picked up like, the corrupted series by Penelope Douglas and like, the thing is right that like, why love this for p dog? Like, are we are we doing cartoon covers?
01:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's scary. I don't think so. I think from what I've heard, the covers are gonna remain the same. But then like the other thing is like, you know, when you're reading a Berkeley title, you know what you're getting, like, you know, you're getting a rom-com, right? And now you're not. I know. They really expand it recently. And like you said, like, I'm proud of these authors. But at the same time, I'm like,
01:02:14
Speaker
Why? Berkeley's marketing better do them justice. That's the thing, yeah, that I'm also doing. If the birthday girl promo box doesn't come with a loofah, I don't want that.
01:02:28
Speaker
If it doesn't come with like the edge of a desk, so I can rub on it. I don't want it. I don't want it. Oh my gosh. Oh my God. So anyway, back to you. Great one. So next question. What is one of your comfort books for both eyeball reading and audio reading?
01:02:50
Speaker
so for audio it's crescent city book one um i can't tell you how i probably listen to it like six times seven times i like which is like insane because some of the scenes are like lee-lee lee-lee yeah i i need to listen to it now um so that's my comfort audio of my comfort read so i don't reread
01:03:19
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah, it's one of those like... But you'll reread on audio but not like eyeball? Yeah. Like I'm gonna die without reading all the books I want to read and like I already know I love this book and like while it's probably gonna be like safe and comfy
01:03:39
Speaker
No, I need to. No, like the fear of missing out when I die is real. I would say I do like 95% of my rereads on audio as well. Yeah. Last five star read. I've been actually on a roll lately, so let's see. My last five star read. We already talked about it, but it was the fake mate.
01:04:06
Speaker
really nodding yeah i like i really like that i wasn't lying i just the nodding but before that was do your worst by rosie dannon um i'm so excited i heard there's a yeah i heard there's a choking scene in that book oh yeah there's like a little bit of like a but i wouldn't say like full okay okay thank you for setting my expectations because i heard yeah i was like oh
01:04:34
Speaker
No, but there is a sex, like, ritual that they need to do in a castle. And I was like, baby. Yeah. I mean, who is gonna take me? Yeah. Take me to the sex castle, please.
01:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, that was a really good one. We already talked about your favorite trope, but do you have like a favorite like sub genre of romance books? Like there's like small town romances. I know I really really like lots of people who are like that kind of genre or you know, the shift or which you've just dipped your toes in. That's a sub genre. I would probably say is ripping my heart out a sub genre? Like very angsty?
01:05:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. Either that or I would say like sports. Like baby, give me some football player that's in college. I actually just started, I just started classes again at a college campus and I'm like, let me go find me a baby. You can have your own age gap, little romance, or hot older professor. Yeah, but I feel like the professors that are like hot or like my age, I'm 32.
01:05:49
Speaker
you know maybe a little bit older so it wouldn't be that much of an age gap so i feel like i need to be the age gapper okay you know you can do that yeah i could 22 year old it's really too bad than none of my exes have a hot dad yeah like maybe i should start asking people on like
01:06:09
Speaker
Hinch. Show me your dad. What does your papa look like? Let's see if we have entity married. We have a future. Is there a specific genre romance that you will never touch? I want to say never, but dark romance is not my cup of tea for the most part.
01:06:37
Speaker
A lot of it has to do with my own trauma and even though I understand that there's a lot of power in women taking back some of those darker themes in romance, I feel like there's a power shift there, right?
01:06:57
Speaker
I don't know it has it would have to be someone who writes it very carefully because I feel like there's a fine line between romanticizing some of those themes and as someone with certain trauma like I just it would be too hard for me but um the other one is like surprise baby like Mel we love that trope here.
01:07:22
Speaker
i honestly i don't know if it's because like kids are just not my jam uh that's not because like single dads i can do um but surprise baby oh my god or just like pregnancy trope in general and i think no fuck that i don't want it i will say i just read reckless by lc silver oh we love it yeah i felt like that was done really fucking well because i my thing with surprise babies are like
01:07:53
Speaker
how do you just surprise this man? Yeah. Or this person with like, without like, so I feel like there's certain, like, I think I read a Helena hunting one that also did it really well. Like, it wasn't like I kept your baby from you without trying to get in contact type of thing. Obviously, there's like other cases, but I don't know, it has to be done well and reckless. Okay, the way I want it feel to knock me. Yes, like,
01:08:20
Speaker
Maybe. I don't even know. I will burn your little rodeo child. I don't want children. And I'm like, I will pop it right out of this. I also think it worked in that book because she skipped the entire pregnancy. Like, Oh, that's a good point. Yeah. So we didn't have to see winter go through all that. We just got to see her finding out and then being a mom. And I think that's why it worked so well.
01:08:47
Speaker
Maybe that's what I don't like. Like the pregnancy stages? Because I'm like... I like the turmoil of like feeling... Yeah, because a lot of the times, like you said, unless there's like a really good reason for why they don't know, like if they're going through it by themselves, I'm just like, this is avoidable.
01:09:06
Speaker
if you know like if they're purposely keeping it from whatever anyways yeah i agree it has to be done we we just spoke with an author who has an accidental pregnancy book and i haven't i haven't read this book but from what i understood like they didn't know each other's names and i but she knew that he was in the navy i think it actually was and so she's like she can't just like call up the navy it's a one night stand situation yeah i i
01:09:30
Speaker
I'm looking for a man who I had a one-night stand with and now I'm pregnant with they're like okay get lost like so I can understand that but we love we love the pregnancy trope here um well accidental pregnancy or like secret baby I guess I should say we like it's just because we all have we all just we all have breeding kinks to some degrees but it's like yeah the result of that
01:09:52
Speaker
Okay, so this is... maybe this is like TMI. It probably is, so feel free to like cut this out or whatever. But in a sense, I feel like at my own... I don't, again, right? I don't want kids, but I also don't want you to not nut inside of me. That's what we're saying. Because I... I don't know if it's like I am... What's the word? Over protective?
01:10:21
Speaker
But I feel like there's some internal reading thing happening in there because why? Why do I want this man to fucking be me? It's very primal. Yeah, that's what it is. Oh my god, I don't like it.
01:10:36
Speaker
We were talking about unpopular bookish opinions on one episode and mine was that I love an existential pregnancy and I was like, you guys are begging for this man to nut in her with no protection for the whole book and then you're mad when she has a baby? But I love it though. We're all limit breeders here. I'm gonna have to really unpack about tonight.
01:11:02
Speaker
You're welcome. Sit down. You need to sit down Mel. Have a conversation with yourself. Yeah. About like, about breathing and nodding. Yeah. And the two kind of go together. Yeah, they do. You're about to fall into an Omegaverse hole.
01:11:18
Speaker
Y'all are like unlocking some shit in me right now. You're welcome. Happy to. So when the Steambox subscribers get a fucking breeding box. Sign our names. We would love to curate that. We'll have some great breeder books. We would love to if you ever need a breeder box to wear the girls. Next, Rapid Fire. Is there a book release you're excited for, either this summer or fall?
01:11:48
Speaker
Ooh, Anisha Sharma's... Tastes like shuckers? Yes, it's so good. Also, The Art of Scandal by Regina Black is a really good one. There is Ashley Poston. Did y'all read the... What's it called? That Romantics? Oh, no, but I saw so much love for it.
01:12:15
Speaker
It was, I just read it recently. It was very good. And I had the arc of her upcoming release. Seven years. Yeah, I've seen that around. So good. Amazing.
01:12:28
Speaker
And then lastly, is there an author that you haven't read yet that you are like itching to get to like any other books or to check out any other stuff? Well, I mean, we already talked about Rebecca Yarrows and fourth wing. I definitely want to read that. I also want to read Emily Rath fucking around. Oh, but like it's also like 700 pages. Yeah, it's that one where she's fucking two teammates.
01:12:58
Speaker
I think so. And it's 700 pages! Wait, I don't think that's... The pucking around is why choose, right? Is that pucking around? Yeah, that's what I said. It's two teammates. Well no, if it's why choose, it's more than two.
01:13:15
Speaker
It's like three or four. What you're talking about, no, you're talking about a different book, but you're talking about the one that there's two, there's two multiple people, hockey books coming out. Well, like the one you're, Tanya just at Baby Gal reads. Yeah. She just did a video that blew up about the book that you're talking about where it's two hockey players and then pucking around is a white shoes romance.
01:13:35
Speaker
That's like a lot of hockey players. Damn. The hockey girlies are being fed this summer. I also, I don't think I've ever met a hot hockey player. That's what I'm saying. A lot of them don't have to. Except for that one player on the Kraken who they're just like using for their TikToks. I feel so bad for that guy.
01:13:56
Speaker
I saw that TikTok of like the hockey players humping the floor. Like they're like warming up. Have you seen it? I was like, OK, well, I guess I got to go to hockey game now. And I did. They're really like catering towards book talk. It was very disappointing. I said that I would say the other person I want to read is Sarah Blue. She wrote Charming Your Dad. It's an ex-boyfriend's dad trope. My fave.
01:14:26
Speaker
Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being with us here today. We had so much fun chatting with you. Thank you for having me. Oh my god, of course, literally any time. If you ever want to come back, we'd love to have you. When we do the nodding episode, you're being personally tall. You'll come back and you'll tell us what you've learned. Oh my god. Yeah, after you send me the image. Oh yeah. Oh god. Yeah, we'll attach it and then like all the people that are CC'd on the A will be like,
01:14:54
Speaker
What the fuck is this? Like, why aren't they sending this? We won't CC anybody else, don't worry. But yeah, make sure you guys check out the Stimulit website, Stimulit.com, and also check out all their socials and StimulitCon, and like we mentioned earlier, the last day to buy tickets is July 8th. So make sure you check that out. And what are the days of the convention again? August 18th and 19th.
01:15:18
Speaker
August 18th through 19th in Anaheim, California. So if you've been wanting to go to Disneyland and you also want to see some of your favorite romance authors do both in the same weekend, you will have a blast. And we're just so proud of like everything you've done with Simulitbox. Congratulations. I can't wait to see like where this company goes and all the new special editions you have coming out.
01:15:39
Speaker
Um, this was amazing. And for more, bring your own. You can follow us on Instagram at, bring your own pod. This is so much fun. Thank you so much, Mel. This was amazing. Thank you. Bye.