Jennifer Prokop 6/7/23 Jennifer Prokop 6/7/23

S05.38: Prologues & Epilogues in Romance

It’s hard to believe it’s taken us this long to do a prologue and epilogue episode! We talk about beginnings and endings and why they exist and why writers should ignore every piece of broad strokes nonsense advice people want to throw at them. Jen says “Prologues are plot and epilogues are character,” and blows Sarah’s mind with her genius (jk, Sarah already knew she was a genius). And yes, we talk about babies. Fair warning!

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Show Notes

You know, Animal Farm is a good book and King Lear is a good play.

There is a very cute family of foxes living in Chicago’s Millennium Park

Apparently this dogs and rosetone thing is a known issue.

Here is an example of the hardline “Prologues are Bad” stance. || ed note: I’m not mad about it, since I have some known hardline stances myself. Ahem. ||

Our list of things good romance prologues do: provide needed backstory, historical information, an inciting incident in the past, an unusual set-up, and showcasing the relationship between the primary characters.

Our list of things romance epilogues do: fan service, bringing the whole gang back together in a series,providing a glimpse into the other character’s POV, The HEA fulfilled, the babylogue, and surprise motherfuckers!

A link to a folder with PDFs of links in show notes.

Books Mentioned this Episode

Lord of Scoundrels

Forbidden

Something Wilder

Love at First

The Boyfriend Project

Wicked and the Wallflower

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris

No Good Duke Goes Unpunished

Never Judge a Lady by her Cover

Knockout

The Viscount Who Loved Me

Georgie, All Along

The Love Hypothesis

The Duchess Hunt

Devil's Bride

Burn For Me

Sapphire Flames

Prince of Broadway

Wild Rain

Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes

S04.40: Royalty Romance #2

We were going to do a deep dive this week, but then we read the book and decided that was a hard pass! So, we do a very shallow dive and then get to the good stuff this week…talking about Royal romances! We talk about the strange fascination the world has with royalty, about the way fake countries hit the spot, and about why it’s so rare to see a gender-swapped Cinderella story. Sarah also offers a peek at her newest research project, preliminarily titled—Alexbastian: Is Name, In Fact, Destiny? It’s better than a deep dive, we promise.

Fated Mates Live, in person is happening — if you have tickets to the live show in Alexandria, VA on July 30th — let us know on our Twitter thread (and find friends!). If you didn’t get a ticket, but want to join the wait list, you can do that at Old Town Books!

Thanks to Adriana Herrera, author of A Caribbean Heiress in Paris, for sponsoring the episode. Thanks, also, to Lumi Labs, creators of Microdose Gummies. Visit microdose.com and use code FATEDMATES to get free shipping & 30% off your first order.

Show Notes

Turns out we are not reading The Dragon and the Jewel…because yikes. Eleanor Plantangenet and Simon de Montfort were real people, but this 1991 romance is too problematic for a full discussion.

Yes, we talked about royalty in romance with Nana Malone back in season 1, but there’s always fresh content!

The Oprah interview with Prince Harry & Meghan Markle is worth a watch, if you can stand all the commercials.

The launch event for American Royalty will be in Richmond on June 28, 2022. Go check it out— Tracey will be joined by Kate Clayborn.

There is a real His Royal Highness Prince Sebastian in Luxembourg, if you’re into that kind of thing.

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