We hit our first major milestone: Claire finished reading (and we can finally stop talking about) The Bodyguard. We discuss heeding the vocational call of jury duty, which starts with opening your mail. And finally, we talk about finishing our outlines— but is an outline ever really, truly finished?

We have started outlines to satisfy our innate need for structure and accountability (and NOT because Joops has taken away our iPads until they’re done). This episode also deals in light themes such as seceding from the economy, the plight of the Irish, and miscommunication between lovers!

Do you know our protagonists? If so, could you introduce us? This week, we talk about the process of discovering and refining our leading ladies, and— you guessed it— it’s harder than we thought. We also preview some new themes in our personal lives: Claire’s home renovation (“the reno”) and Molly’s Fourth Wing-induced mental illness.

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.