It’s time to pitch, bitch! We share our respective book concepts through a format favored by cover-judgers everywhere: the book jacket blurb. We also talk about tracking each other’s scents, Chris Evans (again), and the importance of engaging strangers on the subway.

Today, we discover that we are both stronger than babies and smarter than Noah Centineo. In this ep, we dig into the ingredients for a great romance novel — from our favorite tropes to our preferred spice level. And we mentally prepare to actually write something!

In this episode, an Eagles fan (by birth) and a Commanders fan (by marriage) reach across the Amtrak aisle to find common ground. We test our understanding of the “save the cat” novel writing framework and find that we’ve got some work to do.

Since Episode 1, we’ve each created a robust outline and workback schedule to ensure we deliver on time. Just kidding. Can you imagine? We read (half of) a couple books on writing and use this episode to compare our notes. Spoiler: Stephen King saves the cat.

Meet Claire and Molly: long time romance readers, first time romance authors. In this first episode, we cover the YA fiction we read as kids (and adults), our transition into spicier lit, and why we think we’re ready to write it ourselves— with a challenge and a podcast holding us accountable.