L.J. Shen Interview
Romance at a Glance is a podcast where hosts Bridget and Shani review romance novels and interview some of romance’s biggest authors diving into candid conversations about life, relationships, and sexual desires. Expect 100% honest reviews, spontaneous singing, life lessons, indecent anecdotes, and bawdy humor. Leave us a rating and review on iTunes.
Full transcript available below.
L.J Shen Podcast Interview
Popping the cherry of unstoppable indie author L.J. Shen. You guys, we met another amazing and funny author and if we lived close by would for sure be hanging out!
L.J Shen is a self-published author of such sexy books as Vicious - book one in the Sinners of Saint series, Sparrow, and All saints High series. She writes the hottest sex scenes in modern romance and is absolutely an author to watch. We will definitely be following her journey.
We hit so many fun topics:
We popped her podcast cherry!
How she built her huge following of Sassy Sparrows
Her marketing and promotion things (hint hint - loves her signings and knows a lot of her readers in person)
Was at Book Bananza last year on a panel talking inclusive romance
How she balances perfectionism and the desire to edit with the need to move on to the next story
Her beta readers (Hi Amy!). They help shape her books and help her with the anxiety of writing so many books.
She finds them on Goodreads a lot based on their reviews.
Bridget wanted to apply to be a beta reader.
L.J.’s team - how her indie team has grown and what they do with her.
Audiobooks - how she produces them and picks the narrators
The planning of her series with timelines, mood boards and re-reading the books!
Timeline is the bane of her existence.
Bridget’s DEEP dive into the timeline of The Kissing Booth
How L.J. chooses the ages of the characters.
The power of first love and young love and how sometimes you have to break your own heart.
Cover models! L.J.’s are HOT and she spends a lot of time choosing them and unique ones.
Movie/TV adaptations - she’s in super secret talks about one of her books! Fingers crossed.
Sex scenes!!
Shani gives L.J. the highest steam/smut rating!
Writing process, how she knows how much to put in, how graphic to get with it
Her dad being her biggest fan and how uncomfortable it makes her!
He owns the copy of Blood to Dust in paperback and was reading it out loud to his friends (her book with the first anal scene!).
Why she stays an indie author. What the benefits and drawbacks are.
The Devil Wears Black - standalone contemporary romance releasing with Montlake Publishing
Sassy Sparrows (hello!) - her really dedicated group of fans.
How L.J. encourages her readers to review her books and support them.
Writing diverse characters. She is Israeli and Jewish so she typically is writing different characters than her. If she’s writing characters who are minorities, she’ll taken on sensitivity readers to make sure she is doing the culture justice.
Why she won’t be writing about Covid 19.
Who her favorite characters are in her books (so hard for her to choose!)
L.J. didn’t want to work at all! And then became a best-selling author because she was really bored waiting for her husband to come home from work.
She liked the rush of writing the book and releasing it more than the money. But makes enough money to support herself and being an indie author she can decide how much she should or should not make.
Why Leigh decided to use L.J. initials on her books! And she reveals what her middle name is!
L.J.’s Books
The Boston Belles
The Hunter - you can check out our podcast review on the episode coming Friday. Hunter gets called back to his family after a sex tape goes viral. He gets set up with a babysitter, the boring and focused Sailor, a elite level archer competing to get on the Olympics. SEXY SEX scenes. Book continues to get better as it goes on.
All Saints High
Pretty Reckless - Penn and Daria! Following the children of Sinners and Saint characters, this book has a ton of angst but Bridget was riveted.
Broken Knight - Follows Knight and his selective mute best friend since childhood Luna. They’ve both been in love but needed to grow up apart to find each other again.
Angry God - Vaughn is a dark soul. The epitome of the Alphahole, Vaughn has a dark secret in his part and has come back to London to exact revenge. Lenny accidentally witnessed Vaughn’s secret and when they come back together years later, Vaughn is determined to break her even if it breaks his heart too.
Sinners of Saint
Vicious - OG Alphahole - Vicious isn’t going to take no for an answer when he chases Emilia across the country 10 years after she stormed into his life.
Defy - Female student sleeps with her male (18) student and falls in love. Taboo and HOT.
Ruckus - Rosie and Dean. He dated her sister in HS but she loved him first. 10 years later he’s back to try and claim her, even though she won’t live forever.
Scandalous - He’s her fathers business partner, 15 years her senior, and a single dad. He catches her stealing his mother’s purse and an affair flairs hot and fast.
Bane - He’s trying to scam her and she’s on a break from guys. Can he get into her pants… and will he ever want to get out?
Standalones
Full Podcast Transcript
Welcome to Romance at a Glance, a podcast that uses romance novels to dive into candid conversations about life, relationship dynamics, and sexual desires.
As hosts Bridget and Shani review books and interview some of romance’s biggest authors, they explore the breadth of the genre, openly embracing the sex, diverse couplings, and taboo in order to create a safe space for listeners to be exposed to different lifestyles, fantasies, and to pique their naughty curiosity.
Expect 100% honest reviews, spontaneous singing, life lessons, indecent anecdotes, and bawdy humor.
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