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Fates Mates and Podcasts

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I’ve started listening to the Fated Mates podcast on Audible with Sarah MacLean and Jen Prokop which is a romance oriented podcast that started out discussing Kresley Cole IAD books and branched out. This is why i started listening . . . I love Kresley Cole. She is a must purchase in multiple formats whenever a new book comes out. Don’t judge me. I need them in physical form for my bookshelf, cause I do. AND I need the audio because Robert Petkoff is a GOD. Here’s a sample.

These books are like crack because once you stop, you won’t be able to stop. I stumbled upon this podcast by accident and was between books. Actually, I wasn’t ready to start the 49 hour sludge through Diana Gabaldon‘s Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone…especially when I know that nothing exciting happens. So, I figured why not.

But GOD DAMMIT, I’ve gone down a rabbit hole and haven’t been able to come out. This is precisely the reason I don’t listen to Podcasts when there are thousands of books out there that I would love to listen to.

Side note: I am fully aware that if I go down the true crime podcast road, I may never come out. I’m fucked up that way, perferring murder to a lot of other things. Those podcasts, I don’t date touch. Also, i get super judgy about murder; like – man that guys an incompetant murderer. Or that’s not enough trauma to justify those actions, dude.

Now I’m involved in the shenanigans of these two hilarious women and I can’t get out. I’m just glad that I was alone when one of them referred to a succubus being poisoned by the sex she was having as “suffering from the dick flu” because I cackled like a fiend.

Another side note: I relayed this story to Ross and when I started explaining the context of the succubus being poisoned by the sex she was having, he literally rolled his eyes back in his head.

Sarah and Jen (I use their first names like I know them…I don’t) talk about feminism, sex, writing as a craft but also as fans, and take a deep dive into each book or topic.

There are several books that I’ve gone back into after their podcasts to relisten to, because again, Robert Petkoff. They loved Dark Needs at Night’s Edge which is Conrad and Neomi’s story. It was never one of my favorites. After listening, I decided to give it another try. Nope, even with all that deconstruction, still not one of my favorites. But that’s okay and the great things about books, we can all love different things. I’m revisiting The Master right now and its just as delightful as I remembered. It might also be my fifth or sixth time through. I have zero guilt about this.

As an author, it makes me a little widgy to think that people might be dissecting my books on that level. They’re not. I’m not nearly as popular or as widely read as Kresley Cole or Sarah MacLean. But weird to think about just the same.

Observations

Outlander Obsession

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I don’t normally review books on this blog and I’m not necessarily reviewing a book or a series of books here. I’m really just having a discussion now that I’m almost caught up.

I’m “reading” the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. When I say “reading”, I really mean listening and I’m not sure that I could actually sit down and read these books if I was turning pages. I just don’t have the time to put into it. They are big. Huge. I would place these books in the category of fucking gigantic. I’ve spent so much time listening to these books that I refer to them as Scarlett’s British Mommy. The narrator is British and I let it play while I’m doing housework or playing with her so she hears quite a bit of it. I really hope that when she starts talking, she says things like “I ken” and “Aye”. That would be fantastic. To make my point about the size of these books (I have no idea how many pages they are but they are quite frankly in the George R.R. Martin realm), below is the running time for each audio book.

  1. Outlander – 32 Hours and 43 Minutes
  2. Dragon Fly in Amber – 39 Hours and 28 Minutes
  3. Voyager – 43 Hours and 51 Minutes
  4. Drums of Autumn – 44 Hours and 54 Minutes
  5. The Fiery Cross – 55 Hours and 30 Minutes
  6. A Breath of Snow and Ashes – (This thing downloaded in 7 parts) – 57 Hours and 46 Minutes
  7. An Echo in the Bone – 45 Hours and 54 Minutes
  8. Written in my Own Heart’s Blood – 44 Hours and 55 Minutes

Which means that after completing all 8 books, I will have spent 15 days and 2 hours listening to these books and that doesn’t even count the Lord John Grey Books. Who are we kidding? I’m going to listen to those too.

I’m not complaining. I’m truly not.

These books are a strange mix of history, romance, sci-fi, and melodrama. Nothing can happen for hours upon hours on end and then, BOOM! Jamie is thought to be dead, Claire is accused of being a rebel spy, and Jem gets kidnapped by some idiot who thinks Brianna and Roger have a stash of gold. And that’s the book I just finished. That doesn’t even count the time Jamie fought a bear with his bare hands. Or the time that Roger survived a hanging. Or when the house burned down because a jar of ether exploded. What was that, you might ask. That’s right. Claire concocted some ether and it blew up.

I LOVE THESE BOOKS! Love. Love. Love. I can’t even really explain why. I asked Ross if he would dress up as Jamie Fraser for Halloween with a kilt and everything…he declined. Too bad. Maybe next year.