Romance Has Something for Everybody: An Interview with Lydia San Andres

A Summer for Scandal (2015) is one of the first historical romance novels I read that centered on people who looked like me. It was refreshing and delightful to see brown people centered in a story that had a happy ending. We often speak in my class about the importance of seeing yourself represented in stories with HEAs, so I knew I had to teach this novel when I designed the class. It also has some of my favorite romance novel tropes, including lady authors and secret identities. I was lucky enough to interview the author, Lydia San Andres, for my historical romance class. I hope you enjoy our lovely conversation and read her books. They are wonderful!

1. A Summer for Scandal is set in 1911 in the Spanish Caribbean in the fictional town of Arroyo Blanco. What made you decide to set your story in this time period? What drew you to this place for the novel? Did you do any research for this novel, and, if so, what surprised you most while researching?

After finishing a master’s degree in Art History, I began working as a research associate for an academic entity in the United States that studies Dominican history. Since I was the only member of the team who lived in the Dominican Republic, I was the one tasked with delving into the National Archives in search of whatever documents were needed for the projects their historians and sociologists were working on. I was so captivated by archival research that I started visiting the archives on my days off, purely to devour all the primary sources there. As I paged through digitized newspapers and magazines and scrutinized fragile handwritten documents, I began to get such a clear picture of what life in the late 19th and early 20th century was like here in the Dominican Republic that I knew I had to set a book there.

Around this time, I had just completed a Master’s in Art History and written a thesis on the history of poster design in the Dominican Republic. The months-long research for that had also involved delving into archives and sorting through—I’m not kidding—garbage bags full of posters and hand-painted signs. These had helped paint an even clearer picture. 

Back then, I was mainly writing fantasy. I saw historical settings as an opportunity to engage in something similar to worldbuilding, especially considering how patchy the historical record in the DR can be when it comes to the smaller details that make up everyday life. (Most of the documents that survive are governmental or the newspapers and magazines I mentioned above, and I haven’t been able to find any personal letters or diaries.) As I began to write A Summer For Scandal, I took the worldbuilding aspect even further and decided to invent my own Caribbean island as the setting, mostly because of the freedom it gave me to make things up.

I narrowed my range of research from 1900 to 1915, because in 1916, the Dominican Republic was occupied by the United States, and daily life changed drastically. I was surprised to find just how modern life was in that first decade and a half. There were advertisements for Colgate toothpaste in magazines, as well as many other brands we still use to this day.

2. What historical constraints (class, gender, religion, law, reputation, money) most shaped the protagonists’ choices—and which were you most excited to dramatize?

In this book, it was Emilia’s gender and her need to make money to support her family while upholding society’s ideals of how a woman should behave in order to keep her reputation—and therefore her marriage prospects—intact.  

Throughout history, women have always worked outside the home. In the early 20th century, especially with the growing appetite for industrial manufacture, women were joining the workforce at unprecedented rates. In the Caribbean, where industrialization wouldn’t come until later, there weren’t as many avenues of work for middle-class women outside of teaching and needlework. Emilia has a day job as a typist at an office, but she still needs to write on the side to make ends meet. (And probably because doing something that scandalous thrills her!)  

3. In my classes, I often talk about the importance of people with historically marginalized identities seeing themselves in narratives with a guaranteed HEA. What does it mean to write Latine romance to you?

When I began writing A Summer for Scandal sometime in 2014, I hadn’t been able to find any historical romances featuring Latine people and written by a Latine author. I hesitate to state that there weren’t any—if there were, they were very hard to find. 

Maybe it’s because I’ve lived in the Dominican Republic for most of my life, but I had this overwhelming desire to open the door to my home and bring other people inside and show them around. Growing up, it was very rare to see my country represented in American media at all—and the few times it was, it showed an incomplete and stereotypical version of reality. I remember one time reading a travel blog from an American who, after spending a week at an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana, claimed that everyone in the D.R. lived in tents. I was flabbergasted, angry, and desperate to show the world that we are so much more than how we’re represented in the media.

 (I also seem to remember an episode of House Hunters International where a white realtor confidently said that no houses in the D.R. have ovens because it’s too hot. And I just???)

 Responding to that kind of thing was a big part of why I chose to set A Summer for Scandal in a fictionalized version of the Dominican Republic.

Luckily, that narrow way of representing other cultures has been challenged in the past decade, and I hope we continue to confront stereotypes and dispel silly or outdated notions. 

4. How did you think about consent and power differences (gender/class/reputation) in a historical framework while still meeting modern reader expectations?

This is often a difficult needle to thread when writing in historical settings. On the one hand, you want to fairly represent the attitudes of the time. (Which weren’t always as clear-cut as we in the twenty-first century tend to believe they were.) On the other hand, you don’t want to alienate modern readers. I always try to lean towards decisions that make my readers more comfortable with the characters, even when that means playing a little fast and loose with historical accuracy. I’m much more interested in conveying my characters’ intent and crafting people that my readers can relate to because that’s an important part of the reading experience for me.

5. You use two of my favorite tropes in A Summer of Scandal: the woman writer heroine and the exploration of public versus private personas. Can you unpack why you chose these tropes and what they allowed you to explore in this story?

A Summer for Scandal was supposed to be the first in a series. The books that would have followed it also delved into the differences between how we present ourselves in public versus in private. This is something I wrestle with frequently as someone who lives in a fairly conservative society and who is often frustrated by the Dominican need to present ourselves as perfectly respectable at all times. The struggle felt relevant in a historical setting where reputation was so important, especially for a woman. 

This theme is also present in The Infamous Miss Rodriguez, a novella in which the main character Graciela (briefly glimpsed in A Summer for Scandal), decides that the only way to get out of an unwanted engagement is to ruin her reputation. 

 For reasons I should probably examine in therapy and not here, I felt it resonated in my own life—I’m an elder daughter who has always been held up as an example of a Good Girl because of how I present outwardly. This is particularly funny to me because most people rarely suspect that, like Emilia and Graciela and most of my heroines, I’m actually a rebel at heart.

As for Emilia being a writer, it had a lot to do with the ways a woman could earn money in the time period and her bravery in choosing to write about female sexuality even under a pseudonym. 

6. Where do you see this book sitting in the broader tradition of historical romance—what authors/books were you in dialogue with?

I’m not sure if I was consciously engaging with any one author or book. At the time, it very much felt like I was doing my own thing, informed by the research that was consuming a lot of my time. And it definitely felt like I was writing outside of the genre in some way—I never bothered to query agents or editors because I thought that an audience used to Regency England wouldn’t find much of interest in my books.

Of course, in hindsight, I can see that this was a time when the genre was shifting to make room for new and different perspectives. Historical romance heroines were increasingly portrayed as crusaders for social justice and female suffrage, and they were confronting their sexuality in a different way than their predecessors. I wasn’t writing outside of the genre at all. I was in the thick of it.

7. What do you love about the (historical) romance genre, and why did you choose to write in it? How has your relationship to romance novels changed over time?

I would say that my love for the genre began with my love for history. Even when I was writing fantasy, my stories rarely took place in a contemporary setting. I don’t know if I made a conscious decision to write historical romance; I think I just wanted to write a romance, and the past is where I’ve always felt the most comfortable. I’ve always found it much more exciting than modern life—I don’t know if I can verbalize it, but the 19th and early 20th century just speak to me. They feel like home.

 I didn’t start writing contemporary romance until 2019, when I started the book that is going to be coming out in 2027. (As I write this, I just finished revising it.) The only reason it’s contemporary is that its themes and plot are very much tied to the experience of modern fandom, and I wasn’t able to translate it into a historical setting even though I tried pretty hard! 

As of right now, I’ve written two romantic comedies set in the present day. If my relationship to romance novels has changed in any way, I’d say it’s expanded to allow these newer stories in.

 8. Over the years, I’ve had more students taking my classes specifically because they love romance novels and want to engage with them more seriously. This means we often talk about our favorite themes and tropes and how they’ve shaped us. What’s your favorite trope or theme, and why?

I am always weak for an enemies-to-lovers trope! There’s something so deliciously fun about writing and reading about a couple who are so preoccupied with trading banters that they don’t realize they’re falling in love. Truly a good time, every time.

9. What can people new to romance get out of these books? What do you wish people knew about the genre, in general?

In the romance world, there is always something for everybody. Whether you’re looking for characters that are representative of your identity, or looking for excitement or comfort or female empowerment or queer joy, there is a book for you. And there is always, always room at the table for newcomers. 

Guest Contributor Bio

Lydia San Andres lives and writes in the tropics, where she can be found reading, sipping coffee, and making excuses to stay out of the sun. As much as she enjoys air-conditioning, she can sometimes be lured outside with the promise of cookies and picnics. Find her on Instagram @LydiaAllTheTime and on her website LydiaSanAndres.com.

The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, is the scholarly sister to Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that stories are magic & true magic is in the everyday…or your next good read, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment.

Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Heyer but Gayer: An Interview with KJ Charles

One of the many reasons why I love teaching and writing is that I get to meet a lot of wonderful creators and share their worlds with my students. I was fortunate enough to interview KJ Charles for my historical romance novel class. We are reading her book Band Sinister (2018). Do yourself a favor and read this lively romance that is often a class favorite. But before you do, check out what Charles has to say about writing queer historical romance. It’s a fantastic conversation!

1. Band Sinister is set in the Regency era. What made you decide to set your story in this time period? What drew you to this setting for the novel? Did you do any research for this novel, and, if so, what surprised you most while researching?

This is the story that gave me the tagline “Heyer but gayer” (for which I sadly cannot claim credit, it was a reader’s genius). I grew up reading Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels—marvellously constructed stories, ingeniously varied plots, properly witty dialogue, and relationships which, while mostly chaste, are bursting with sexual tension. Not to mention that in some of her work, there’s a queerness that’s no less present or deliberate for not being in any way spelled out. However, there’s also antisemitism, hideous classist snobbery, and an entire whitewashing of a period. Talk about a problematic favourite. 

Band Sinister was me trying to write a Georgette Heyer novel that was on-page queer, didn’t exclude people of colour, and offered a happy ever after for more people than just one man, one woman. It’s a Regency because Heyer basically invented the Regency romance.

I very much set it in Romancelandia, unusually for me: I usually like to riff off real specific locations, but this one felt it wanted to be in a fictional village. I did, however, do a deep dive into the history of extracting sugar from beets. This sounds silly (beetroot is one of those perennially comical words), but it was highly political. The British controlled the trade routes from the sugar cane plantations worked by enslaved people; Napoleon funded a French sugar beet industry in order not to be dependent on British sugar; a European supply line for sugar helped in the push to boycott the products of slavery. 

2. What historical constraints (class, gender, sexuality, religion, law, reputation, money) most shaped the protagonists’ choices—and which were you most excited to dramatize?

Ha. All of them in different ways, which was why it was fun to do a large cast! 

In the end, what shapes the plot most is probably gender inequality, in that the events of the plot are put in motion by social constraints on and systemic injustice towards women. Mrs. Frisby can’t escape an unbearable marriage by divorce, so she runs away with Philip’s brother, staining her daughter’s reputation, leaving her children in the hands of their inadequate father, and setting off the events that led to Philip’s brother’s death and Philip inheriting his title. (Not to mention that Philip’s mother would have divorced Sir George Rookwood long before Philip’s birth, given a choice.) If Guy and Philip’s mothers had been permitted to leave their unhappy marriages at will, everything would have been dramatically different. 

Plus, Amanda is socially reviled for having a sexual appetite outside marriage, making her deeply vulnerable to any further hint of ‘immorality’ in staying under Philip’s roof, and Aunt Beatrice is an oppressive villain to the Frisbys largely because she’s afraid of Mrs Frisby and Amanda’s disgrace becoming contagious to her own daughters—who are also, of course, dependent on marriage for prosperity. And Amanda’s writing career, of course, reflects a relatively new and exciting way women could claw themselves some financial freedom despite the constraints of gender and class.

So the social and economic constraints on all these women have a direct impact on the situations and choices available to Philip and Guy, because patriarchy harms everyone, and that’s even before we get into queerness in a patriarchal system.  

(See also: Corvin’s terrible reputation as a rake comes about because he ‘ruins’ a female friend at her request to help her escape an unwanted marriage; the social and professional pressures that affect Sherry’s gender presentation.)  

A large part of what I wanted to do in this book is show a safe space in action (I think this is why it’s usually referenced as my most comforting book), and members of the Murder operate under pretty much all the constraints you mention in the question—race, religion, class, sexuality, gender. It doesn’t escape my notice, however, that the Murder can only exist as it does because of Corvin and Philip’s inherited wealth and gender/class privilege. 

3. Band Sinister is set in a period when queer desire existed but was not publicly legible in modern terms. How do you approach writing queer lives in a historical context without imposing contemporary identity labels?

Well, things exist even when we don’t have names for them, and modern conceptions are unlikely to represent a complete and sufficient truth about human nature, any more than past conceptions have ever managed to do so. 

For example, I didn’t want to explicitly define Sherry as a trans man, or genderfluid, or agender, or indeed a cross-dressing cis woman, though readers are welcome to draw their own conclusions from the text. And the reason I didn’t want to do that is, we have plenty of examples in the historical record of people not living as their birth-assigned genders, where we simply don’t know how they felt about themselves or what modern label they might adopt if they had the opportunity. What’s important is to recognise that people who defied social gender/sexuality norms were there, they existed, they carved out space to live in ways they wanted as far as they could, often with remarkable courage and ingenuity. 

Of course, labels can be a huge help to people who want identity and community. But although Guy doesn’t have ‘I’m gay’ available, he does have an entire history of male-male relationships depicted in his classical studies, plus the practical examples of same-sex and/or non-conforming love within the Murder--and we know that a lot of queer people in the past were able to benefit from existing communities and established tradition. 

And in the end, labels are super useful shorthand, but they aren’t the same thing as character work. In a modern book I might call Corvin a pansexual open polyromantic (for example), but I would still have to work through what it means in practice that he is attracted to literally everybody while having no desire for exclusivity in sexual relationships, and show how that intersects with John and Philip’s preferences and desires, in order to make the core Murder’s entanglements a working part of the plot and character growth.  

4. How did you think about consent and power differences (gender/class/reputation) in a historical framework while still meeting modern reader expectations?

Consent is one of those areas where I feel that human nature is probably constant. When I see comments like “People didn’t think sexual consent was important,” it strikes me as very like “People didn’t think slavery was wrong”: I’m going to need a definition of who counts as “people” in those sentences.

In Philip and Guy’s relationship, consent is crucial because of the power differential: Philip is wealthy, titled, socially secure, sexually experienced, used to doing as he pleases, and has powerful friends who give him confidence in living as a queer man. Whereas Guy is a powerless, isolated, anxious virgin in an oppressive society, whose sister is helpless under Philip’s roof. Even outwith a modern framework of affirmative consent, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to me that a decent human being who cares at all would realise Guy needs a sense of control and confidence in order to enter into a relationship. Getting him to find his voice—or, as we would now say, give affirmative consent--is absolutely part of that.

I wrote a blog post on consent in romance, which breaks down the lengthy consent scene and gives my thoughts on how to use consent.

5. How does chosen family operate alongside—or in tension with—biological family in the novel?

It’s very much a book about chosen family, in that of the five most important characters (Philip, John, Corvin, Guy, Amanda), four come from catastrophically failed families of origin and one from an externally destroyed one (John’s enslavement). Both sets (the Murder and the Frisbys) have had to learn to rely on one another in the absence of parental figures, and it’s clear that none of the five would have had a good life without the mutual support. 

Ultimately, this is a book about supporting one another. That’s the tension in the title: a band (or bar) sinister denotes illegitimacy, an offence against the traditional family, but banding together is what lets excluded people survive—even if it gets them the opprobrium of normative society.

6. Where do you see this book sitting in the broader tradition of historical romance—what authors/books were you in dialogue with?

See question 1! Very directly Georgette Heyer. Specifically, this started as a riff on Venetia, which is an m/f romance with the heroine’s bookish brother breaking his leg and being put up in the rakish neighbour’s house. Venetia is a terrific book, but it’s notable that Venetia remains fairly isolated, and her relationship with Damerel, the rake, doesn’t open up her secluded life much—she chooses him in the teeth of society. That’s a common trope in het romance (all for love, and the world well lost), but I wanted love to mean the opposite for Guy. I wanted his love affair to open up his world and bring him wider joys, precisely because so often queer romances in historicals are obliged to remain hidden and secret, and if we’re going around offering wish fulfilment and happy ever afters, they can include a wider world too.

7. What do you love about the (historical) romance genre and why did you choose to write in it? How has your relationship to romance novels changed over time?

My imagination is very firmly set in the past: I’m a great reader of older pulp. I enjoy the research and making stories work within the settings. Also, there is nothing more plot-ruining than a mobile phone. 

I moved from glomming Georgette Heyer, to a job as editor at Mills & Boon, after which I didn’t read romance for years because wow, saturation point, to discovering modern historical romance: the m/m historical romance of Josh Lanyon and Harper Fox, the Black historicals of Beverly Jenkins, the feminist historicals of Courtney Milan, all of which opened my eyes as to what the genre could offer. 

I love how much I learn from historicals, and I really enjoy seeing characters work against the constraints of their time and society. (Obviously, there are plenty of social constraints operating on people now, but those are the ones we live with, and it’s nice to take a break!)

8. What does it mean to claim space for queer stories within a genre so strongly associated with heterosexuality?

Queer romance has staked out its place in the romance world to a spectacular degree over the last few years. Authors like Alexandria Bellefleur, TJ Klune and Alexis Hall and many more are widely available, and not just online: queer romances are taking up serious shelf space. There’s always more work to do, but the window has shifted in publishing towards much more in the way of queer stories—Mills & Boon now do m/m and f/f books in their main lines, which was just not thinkable when I worked there. Nobody should be complacent in our scary times, but I have great faith in publishers’ willingness to do the right thing when there’s money in it, and as Heated Rivalry shows, queer romance sells. 

9. Over the years, I’ve had more students taking my classes specifically because they love romance novels and want to engage with them more seriously. This means we often talk about our favorite themes and tropes and how they’ve shaped us. What’s your favorite trope or theme and why?

I am ambivalent about the whole concept of tropes, tbh. It’s all in the treatment, not the trope itself, and also the focus on tropes in current (TikTok) marketing is to my mind a bit reductive to the genre. An enemies-to-lovers story can be a completely different beast depending on the severity of the enmity, the stakes, the context, and how they get to being lovers. ‘His muffin shop opens next to her cupcake shop’ is not the same in any meaningful sense as  ‘One is a Russian agent and one’s British Counterintelligence during the Cold War’. Equally, I’ve written a couple of road trips which I thoroughly enjoyed doing, but ‘road trip’ has probably a 50% DNF rate in my reading because it can so often be aimless or picaresque in execution. 

All that said, I am an absolute sucker for agonising sexual tension, which can be strung out as long as the author likes with my goodwill.

10. What can people new to romance get out of these books? What do you wish people knew about the genre in general?

I wish people knew just how good the best romances can be: wonderful, compelling stories that give you hope people can do better by one another. It is absolutely the genre of hope, forgiveness, uplift, and we all need that. 

I also wish they realised romance contains multitudes. People are so reductive about the whole genre (“it’s just boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl”) and that’s absolute nonsense. Post on Bluesky asking for a romance about pretty much anything (spider gods, Brexit, doors, taxidermy, funeral homes, gay dolphin shifters engaged in a house renovation project) and someone will give you a suggestion!

Guest Contributor Bio

KJ Charles was an editor for twenty years before switching sides to become a full-time author. She has written some 40 books, mostly queer historical romance, some with fantasy. She lives in London with her family and a retired murder cat. 

Recent books include All Of Us Murderers (Poisoned Pen Press, 2025) and How To Fake It In Society (Tor Bramble, 2026) and her craft book on writing romance, Think, Write, Edit, Romance, comes out with Hay House in December 2026. 

The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, is the scholarly sister to Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that stories are magic & true magic is in the everyday…or your next good read, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment.

Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

RomComs Are All That: An Interview with Romance Author Maya Rodale

Readers, let me tell you something: I was over the moon when Maya Rodale agreed to let me interview her for my course, “I’ll Have What She’s Having: The Legacy of the Romantic Comedy,” and for the Bruja Professor. I love teaching her book, Lady Claire is All That, part of her Keeping Up with the Cavendishes series. In case you didn’t get the hint from the title, the book is based on the teen classic rom-com She’s All That. It’s a delightful historical romp that introduces students to romance novels, fan fiction and adaptations, and the joys of historical romance. Maya was kind enough to chat with me about this book, romance, and the yucks and yums of the rom-com genre. SWOON!

1. In my classes, we talk about the yucks and the yums of various genres. What do you love or think is yummy about romantic comedies?

I love that romantic comedies put me in an emotional space of love, laughter and optimism. I love that they are unabashedly and unapologetically about having a good-hearted good time.  

2. What parts of the genre feel yucky to you? Anything you would change about them?

We can look back at Rom Coms from earlier times and be squeamish or even horrified by what we thought was romantic, or the dynamics between people or whatever. I think of the movie Knocked Up, which I really enjoyed at the time but now I have questions....

On a personal note, while I love grand romantic gestures in rom-coms, I would be horrified if that happened to me IRL. 

3. I have to ask: What’s your favorite romantic comedy? Why?

My favorite romantic comedy is my favorite movie—Roman Holiday. I love it because you can really see the heroine’s journey of self-discovery happening through the romance. I love her rebellion against what is expected of her. I love her joy and pleasure she finds all day. I love that her hero is thrilled to be there, holding her hand. The whole story is kind, it’s funny, it’s magical and you can feel it. Book #2 in the Keeping Up with the Cavendishes series, Chasing Lady Amelia, is based on it. 

4. What inspired you to write a retelling of She’s All That set in Regency England? What is it about that movie that captured your imagination?

Confession: I don’t think I had seen the movie before I decided to write a Regency version of it! Of course I was familiar with it, being a teen in the 90s, but for whatever reason, I had yet to see it. But watching it is the best kind of “work” and “research” that I do. The entire Keeping Up With the Cavendishes series is based on rom-coms and your next question will allow me to answer why I picked this movie...

5. Tell us a little more about the inspiration behind Lady Claire is All That. What romcom tropes and themes did you want to play with? How did the Regency setting change the original high school-set story?

First, I think the Regency is so very high school! 

I knew I wanted to write a very smart heroine based on Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer. Readers were asking for her ever since my novel, The Wicked Wallflower, which drew a lot of inspiration from the work of Charles Babbage and the computer he invented. 

I also knew I wanted to write a “dumb” hero. So many romance heroes are the tallest, the smartest, the richest, the hottest, etc. and I was a little bored of writing that. I wanted the challenge of writing a hero who wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but who still had a lot to offer. 

And I had major feminist angst about the whole “makeover” plot and “make her popular” plot that I wanted to play with. 

She’s All That provided the perfect framework to play with all those ideas. 

6. I talk with my students about how many romance authors were inspired to become writers, in part, because of the 80s/90s/00s romantic comedies they grew up watching. Was that the case for you?

Sure! I LOVE those movies and then they stopped making them, so I turned to romance novels instead. And when I read those faster than they could be published, I had to start writing my own ☺ 

7. I also discuss with students how fanfic has really changed the way we think of stories, AND YET, in many ways, most writers are writing fanfic, trying to capture the essence of stories they love. Is that the case for you?

Absolutely. I used to play guitar, and I would try writing songs that sounded like an artist I loved and...my songs always came out wildly different. But it was a wonderful creative exercise. What do I like about it? What emotional notes are being hit, and in what order? What are the ingredients here? 

FanFic is the same, I think. The fourth book in the Keeping Up With the Cavendishes series, It’s Hard Out Here For a Duke, is essentially fanfic to the Meredith and Derek relationship on in season 1 and 2 of Grey’s Anatomy. I actually used the name Meredith Green as a placeholder in Book #1 and it went to press before I could change it so...I was stuck with it! 

8. As you already know, there are A LOT of stigmas associated with the romance genre in genre, and the romantic comedy specifically. Why do you think that is?

Well, I wrote a whole book about this. ☺

Short answer: I think culturally we have anxiety about women and other marginalized groups unapologetically experiencing love, pleasure and empowerment—and then being rewarded with a happy ever after. Romance novels and romantic comedies are all about that, unapologetically so. 

9. What do you think romantic comedies can teach people about life, love, and relationships (you can discuss both the good and bad here)?

A really good romantic comedy shows how the love inspires or agitates someone to really blossom and become their truest version of themselves. I love that. 

I could write A LOT here about how they teach us a script and a language for courtship, romance and love. Or what to look for in a partner. How a partner should treat someone they love. How we get to vicariously experience emotional highs and lows and practice feeling emotionally vulnerable. How we can overvalue grand gestures. 

Most of all, I think they remind us that love and life can be fun and funny and full of heart and emotion and we can take pleasure in that. That is no small thing.

 10. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

What a great list of questions, thank you!

11. Where can people find you to learn more about your work?

The best place to find me is www.mayarodale.com. I’m also on Threads and Instagram as @mayarodale and on Substack. 

My most “rom com” romance novels are: Lady Claire is All That, Lady Bridget’s Diary, The Wicked Wallflower, Seducing Mr. Knightly and the contemporary When Jane Met Duke. And in Dangerous Books For Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels, Explained I talk about why it all matters. 

Guest Contributor Bio

Maya Rodale is the best-selling and award-winning author of funny, feminist fiction including historical romance, YA and historical fiction. Reviewers and readers have noted her “signature wit and banter” (Entertainment Weekly) and declared her novels to be “endlessly entertaining” (Booklist), “funny, heartfelt and lovingly crafted” (Library Journal), “certain to delight” (Publisher’s Weekly), “energetic and bold” (Kirkus), and “absolutely a ton of fun to read” (Smart Bitches, Trashy Books).

A champion of the romance genre and its readers, she is also the author of Dangerous Books For Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels, Explained. Maya has reviewed romance for NPR Books and has appeared in Bustle, Glamour, Shondaland, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post and PBS. She began reading romance novels in college at her mother’s insistence and has never been allowed to forget it.

Images of Lady Claire Is All That book cover and She’s All That movie poster.

The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, is the scholarly sister to Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that stories are magic & true magic is in the everyday…or your next good read, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment.

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The Problematic History of "Indian Romances" with Steve Ammidown

Here’s the thing about being a bruja—and a professor for that matter: Sooner or later (the correct answer is sooner), you need to get real about social justice and historical erasure. In a lot of ways, you can’t really call yourself a witch if you aren’t invested in inclusion and equity, and, yes, mason jars. The same goes for being an ethical professor—minus the mason jars.

This means that a lot of the work we do is about undoing historical erasure and figuring out a healthier, happier way forward. In life. In politics. In the arts. For me, that includes finding and teaching narratives that center people with historically marginalized identities working through their stuff and getting happy endings. Enough trauma porn already! It’s time we see ourselves in stories of growth, change, and possibility.

Sometimes, in order to do that, however, we need to look at when inclusion is not done right. There’s a real difference between stories that center BIPOC characters, for example, and stories that do that well, meaning in a way that is authentic to that community and not sanitized for a broader, whiter audience, or that doesn’t fetishize that marginalized identity.

As we celebrate Indigenous history month this November, I want to take a closer look at the problematic history of the Indian romance, a typically western romance featuring an Indigenous man and a white woman, and how the genre is evolving to celebrate actual Indigenous romances written by Indigenous authors.

Steve Ammindown has become a bit of an expert on the Indian romance and the complex and wild history surrounding it. I was so delighted to interview him about this history and how it might represent issues within the genre more generally. As Steve said in the interview, this is not just important genre history, but an important slive of American history that we can learn from. You can read his brief history of Indian romances here.

But before we dive into that conversation, I’d like to share some wonderful Indigenous romances, in case you are as eager as I am to continue diversifying your reading list and celebrate Indigenous voices living in the here and now, not treated as relics of the past. Carolina Ciucci wrote about eight fantastic romance novels by Indigenous authors, and Jessica Avery developed this list of Native American romance novels by Native authors, both on Book Riot. Rebekah Weatherspoon, a fantastic romance author in her own right (seriously, read her work!), created this thread on Indigenous Peoples Day to celebrate Indigenous romance authors. One of my personal farotive books, Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time: An Indgenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology, features a serious of hopeful stories exploring centering Indigenous LGTBQ+ identities in a myriad of fantastical settings.

So, who is ready to deep-dive into the fascinating and sometimes cringe-worthy history of Indian romances, how they are representeative of issues within the genre, and how we can read and support Indigenous romance authors living and writint today? Discover all this, and more, in my interview with Steve below.

Guest Contributor Bio

Steve Ammidown is an archivist currently based in Northwest Ohio. In 2019, he was the Romance Writers of America Cathie Linz Librarian of the Year for his work in preserving and sharing the history of the romance genre with scholars and the public. He currently writes about the history of romance fiction on his blog, romancehistory.com.

The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, is the scholarly sister to Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

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The Literary Figure of The Rake with Dr. Angela Toscano

Who doesn’t love a bad boy? Okay, plenty of people! But there’s no denying that the archetype of the rake—both in history and literature—is one that has captured the heart (and loins) of popular culture. Me? While I love a good fake rake like the kind that finds his home in historical romances, I tend to find that the real rakes of yore are kind of terrifying for their entitlement and lack of feeling. And, real talk, you know those rakes—real or fake—likely have mommy issues and venereal disease but that’s a topic for another time!

In any case, rakes are beloved because they represent a rejection of social norms. They’re just above all. Literally. They have the class, money, and prestige to do whatever they want and get away with it. That’s also why the figure of the rake isn’t quite everyone’s cup of tea. Like the bad boy billionaire in romance (aka the rake reincarnated), the rake also represents typically white male entitlement and privilege, along with a real sense that other bodies—typically female bodies—are commodities for his amusement. So on the one hand, we have the titillating fantasy of the freedoms wealth and position can buy a person and on the other, we have the terrifying realities of the freedoms wealth and position can buy a person. Of course, we also have everything in between, most notably fake rakes in historical romances that are charming, good at the sexy stuff, and secretly harboring a heart of gold.

The history of the rake is, in many ways, the history of the romance novel, and I can think of no better scholar to unpack this figure than Dr. Angela Toscano. She walks us through the origin of the rake in the 1600s to the modern manifestations of the character in romance novels. Prepare yourself for a lecture on drinking, gambling, whoring, and general rakish behavior! Oh, and politics, royal beheadings, religion…you know, all the low-stakes first date topics. Enjoy!

Guest Contributor Bio

Dr. Angela Toscano specializes in the long history of the romance, from the Byzantine period to the present. She received her doctorate from the University of Iowa, specializing in early modern fiction. Currently, she is the book review editor for the Journal of Popular Romance Studies. Most recently, her chapter on the Gothic was published in the Routledge Companion to Popular Romance Fiction. Her lectures, writings, and other work can be found on her website: angelartoscano.com and on Twitter at @lazaraspaste.

The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, is the scholarly sister to Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that stories are magic & true magic is in the everyday…or your next good read, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment.

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The Complicated Legacy of Georgette Heyer with Dr. Sam Hirst

Georgette Heyer is perhaps one of the most famous, or infamous, if you prefer, names surrounding the historical romance genre. In fact, she is often credited with starting the genre. Many a romance lover grew up reading her work. Others might not have heard of her, but have no doubt read historical romances designed in her image of Regency England (and other time periods).

Heyer is the author responsible for the historical romance as we know it today: epic romances featuring swashbuckling lords fighting duels and ladies in gorgeous gowns swanning around ballrooms in search of a husband. There is intrigue. There is witty banter. There is kissing. Sometimes there is even fainting. What’s not to love?

Well, I’ll tell you. Much of the romantic world Heyer constructed is framed as a white utopia divorced from the historical realities of the day. In fact, so much of the luxury of Heyer’s world is dependant on the erasure or minimization of people with marginalized identities within her stories, not to mention the erasure of the complex political and social context of the times. It’s not all balls and duels, people!

And yet, so many later historical romances perpetuate the same classicist, racist, ableist, and heteronormative fantasy birthed from Heyer’s mind. In fact, I’m coming to see that the courtship novels that inspired many a historical romance are, in many ways, much more progressive than the texts they inspire. I was marinating on this idea when I came across an audiobook version of Georgette Heyer’s Venetia. It was narrated by Richard Armitage of BBC’s North & South (2004) fame. The agenda couldn’t have been clearer: to get fans of the now-iconic BBC mini-series based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s Victorian social novel interested in Heyer’s work. Surely, we would also love Heyer since she wrote love stories that took place around Gaskell’s time.

Yet the two authors couldn’t be more different. Gaskell was directly and explicitly writing about the politics and social upheaval of her time. She grew up in a progressive household and went on to live a more progressive life with her husband, writing, raising children, and doing her social justice work. North & South is as much a story about the evils of Industrialization, class conflict, religious dissent, and changing social hierarchies as it is about love. Heyer’s worlds, on the other hand, explicitly ignore those historical realities or only tangentially acknowledge them in favor of the glamorously romanticized lives of the aristocracy. But in the minds of many, there is no clear difference between historical romances and courtship novels simply because they are both about romance and the things that happen behind closed doors.

Dr. Sam Hirst does a spectacular job of unpacking Heyer’s legacy in the romance genre and lovingly explores how we can both appreciate, even love, an author while also being critical of where they fall short. As they say in their lecture, Heyer not only passed on a love for stories of the past and laid the foundation for historical romance worlds but also passed on narrative frames that excluded, villainized, or marginalized people with marginalized identities. Thankfully, many authors are moving beyond that limited framework and exploring just how complex, engaging, and inclusive the genre can be.

Guest Lecturer Bio

Dr. Sam Hirst is a Teaching Fellow at Liverpool University. They work on the early Gothic and 20th-century romance and have published on the Gothic romance and Georgette Heyer. They run the online program Romancing the Gothic.

The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, is the scholarly sister to Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that stories are magic & true magic is in the everyday…or your next good read, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment.

Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!