AMA, bantr, S06 Jennifer Prokop AMA, bantr, S06 Jennifer Prokop

06.13: Sarah & Jen are Taking Your Questions

It’s December, Jen is in NYC, and we’re taking questions from our Discord and Instagram! Listen to us talk about how we read, what makes us DNF, how we met, the books we loved this year (that weren’t published this year), and more. We love these episodes, and not only because they happen when we’re together on Sarah’s couch, but also because we get to talk directly to you!

Next week’s episode is a surprise deep dive, because y’all are wild about dragons! We’re reading Thea Harrison’s Dragon Bound, available in print and ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo and your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.


Show Notes

Get our Best Romance of 2023 book box from Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA. We're excited to be partnering with them on this one!

You know what we meant when we talked about Bart writing on the chalkboard.

If you’ve never been to New York City at Christmas, we would highly recommend it. This year, the windows at Saks were cosponsored by Dior and celebrated the signs of the zodiac, and it’s pretty awesome. But there’s also the angels and the Rockefeller center tree, and the Bryant Park holiday market.

Jen also went to Back to the Future the musical and ate at the place with two bulls, which was actually called Benny John’s.

Tillie Cole has bigger problems then Jen not liking any mention of cults in the books she reads.

Should you DNF? Yes.

If you’re looking for a romance writer’s conference, check out the Chicago North conference in April of 2024.

Some bookish gifts: a Book stand, a bluetooth page turner for your eReader, and get a stand while you’re at it.

Tracey Livesay made a very funny and very perfect video this week about the rise of Romantasy.

 

Books Mentioned This Episode


Sponsors

Melanie Greene’s Away with a Stranger,
available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your ebooks,

Charlotte O’Shay, author of Snowfire,
available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your ebooks,

and

Lumi Labs, creators of Microdose Gummies,
visit microdose.com and use the code FATEDMATES
for 30% off your order and free shipping.

Read More
full-length episode, joy, Milestone Episode Jennifer Prokop full-length episode, joy, Milestone Episode Jennifer Prokop

S05.05: Moonstruck: A Wolf Without a Foot Redux!

It’s our 200th Episode and we’re finally doing the thing we’ve been talking about doing for 200 episodes! A full deep dive into one of our favorite — or possibly our favorite! — romcoms…Moonstruck! Moonstruck was released December 18th, 1987, one day after Sarah turned nine…auspicious Sagittarius energy! It’s set in Brooklyn, is a perfect romance novel on film, and features more than one wolf, bewitched by the full moon. It is everything.

Go watch it (you won’t be sorry), then come back here and listen to us wax poetic about it.

Thank you for being with us for 200 episodes…you’re the moonlight in our martini.


Show Notes

Moonstruck was released on Dec 18, 1987. It was nominated for several oscars. Cher won for best actress, Olympia Dukakis for best supporting actress, and Best Original Screenplay for John Patrick Shanley.

Everyone loves Moonstruck and there are lots of fun listicles and essays about the movie. Here’s a great thread from Vulture where a movie critic named Rachel Handler live-tweeted a rewatch.

Most of the film’s exteriors were filmed in Brooklyn, but many interiors were shot in Toronto.

Sarah mentioned an essay by Emily VanDerWerff, Moonstruck: Life in the In-Between, about the beauty shop scene and how it can be analyzed as showing the power of the female gaze in Moonstruck.

The last scene at the breakfast table is a good example of farce. An article about the making of Moonstruck and the ending scene played in the style of a farce, with lots of cool info on Loretta's grandfather, played by Feodor Chaliapin Jr.

Jen liked all that moon stuff.

When Cher won the Oscar, she was wearing a very memorable dress. May we all vow to live our 40s with her as our guide.

Learn more about Sarah's Start Your Romance Novel Today class on her website.


Sponsors

This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:

Alyxandra Harvey, author of How to Marry a Viscount,
available at Amazon.

Visit alyxandraharvey.com

and

Forever, publishers of
Season of Love by Helena Greer

Find it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org
or wherever you get your books.

and

Lumi Labs, creators of Microdose Gummies
Visit microdose.com and use the code FATEDMATES
for 30% off and free shipping on your order

Read More