Frequently asked questions

WHY DID YOU START THE PODCAST? 

Mel originally started the podcast with her best friend Erin because they wanted an excuse to chat at least once a week because they lived so far apart. And because romance rules! 

Little did they know, Romancelandia is the best space in the entire world, and they made so many more new friends through the podcast! Now Mel and Sabrina get to follow their bliss recapping romance novels and going down rabbit holes they may never come back from.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE THE BOOKS?

Almost all the books we do are listener recommendations. We have made exceptions when we want to do certain books to coincide with holidays, book releases, or movie premiers. Additionally, because often our recommendations are not as diverse as we would like, we'll add a book here or there to make sure we’re highlighting the awesome representation romance has to offer. If you would like to recommend a book, please email us!

I TOOK THE BRIBE AND YOU NEVER DID MY BOOK!

We are so thankful for all your 5 star reviews!! The bribe list is SUPER long at this point.

YOUR PODCAST NEEDS MORE DIVERSITY!

When we committed to the iTunes review/recommendation bribe, we realized pretty quickly that most of the recommendations from listeners featured only white, vanilla, heteronormative characters, and most were written by white, straight, female authors. We got an email about our lack of diversity early on, and since then, we have made a concerted effort to put books by diverse authors and with diverse characters in our lineup, even if our iTunes reviewers have to wait a little longer to hear their books. We want to read and talk about every kind of book in the rainbow of Romancelandia - all races, cultures, sexual orientations, neurodiversities, abilities, kinks, book genres, etc. Send us your recommendations! If you have something to add to this conversation, we’d love to hear from you. Please email us at heavingbosomspodcast@gmail.com

WHere is erin?

In 2022, some nonsense happened in Erin’s personal life that made it emotionally impossible to be a regular host of Heaving Bosoms anymore. Thankfully a bunch of HB pals stepped in to make sure HB kept going strong and now Sabrina is the other bosom!

Does Melody’s partner really own a comic book shop?

YES! Michael is the owner of Manifest Comics and Cards in Bayonne, NJ! Cool, right? In addition to having most everything you could want in the comic book and graphic novel hobbies (and he ships!), but he has some really amazing charity opportunities like the ability to donate Young Reader Bundles to local kids and the Manifest #OurVoices Education Fund which provides graphic novels featuring underrepresented groups at no cost to local educators. He’s a big nerdy swoon! 

Does sabrina have another podcast?

She does!!! The Busy Romnivores is a podcast she does with 3 of her friends (they met through HB!) and it’s all about reading challenges. Legend goes that Sabrina tried the HB Reading Embrace and caught the reading challenges bug. Now she does roughly a challenge a month. So cool! Check out her TBR podcast for prompt recs, general recs, and all the alien dick jokes!

WILL YOU DISCUSS THE BOOK I WROTE?

No, it's just too awkward, sorry. What if we don't like it? Also, a lot of our listeners are also self-published authors, so we don't want to end up in a situation where we've given some of you free advertising and not others. We love you and good luck on your book, though!

IF I JOIN THE HEAVING BOSOMS GERIATRIC FRIENDSHIP CULT, DO I REALLY HAVE TO GIVE YOU ALL OF MY POSSESSIONS?

Oh bless your heart. Of course not! We've made very clear that we are not accepting nunchucks or vibrators. Also, if you swear allegiance to Chris Pine as The One True Chris, you can keep your eyeglasses. The Heaving Bosoms Geriatric Friendship Cult is our Facebook group. It was created before certain other podcasts started calling their groups "cults," just saying. It is the best and warmest and loveliest place on the Internet. It's free except for your possessions.

YOU HATED THE BOOK I LOVE!

We may not have loved your book, but we will defend to the death your right to love that book without judgment or side-eye from the likes of us! This is one reason why we discuss books, and refrain from rating or reviewing them on the podcast. This podcast is just girlfriends chatting about books. We aren't critics. We love that you love the book you love. We hope that you can love that we hate the book you love. Romancelandia unite!

YOU MADE A MISTAKE ON YOUR PODCAST!

You bet we did. All the time. We love making mistakes. It's our favorite. We hope to make more in the future. You're welcome.

I WANT MORE PICTURES OF EMBER & Valor!

Okay, just follow Melody's personal Instagram @melodycarlisle2.0

WHO PRODUCES YOUR PODCAST?

Ha. Mel does. All by her onesie. If you want to support the production, check out the Patreon! 

WHY DO YOU SAY ‘BING BOONG BONG’?

When we first started the podcast, we got some advice to include segments denoted by music and/or sound effects to break up the show. Obviously, we were not professional enough to take this advice, and just continued to ramble on and on with no direction whatsoever. In an early episode, Erin made the self-deprecating remark, “Okay, here’s a segment, BING BOONG BONG, there’s the sound effect for this segment,” and it became a thing.

WHY DO YOU SAY ‘IT’S ON, TM’?

During the great Cockygate scandal of 2018, Erin and Melody poked fun at the ridiculousness of trademarking common romance words by saying ‘TM’ after everything and claiming to have trademarked it. One stuck.

WHAT KIND OF DOG IS ROOSTER?

Rooster is a neo-conservative medium dog. She is also a dog medium. She has three teeth. In 2017, Rooster invented a cryptocurrency for old female dogs called Bitchcoin. It is highly overvalued at one million U.S. dollars per Bitchcoin. She hates the outdoors, but once ate a moth. Rooster came from the streets and will fight anyone, especially a dog named Chicken who lives over by Max's Beefy Burgers. In 2016, she had record deal with DJ Khaled, but it fell through due to her vocal support of President Trump in her music. Her breed is unknown.

WHAT KIND OF DOG IS GOAT?

GOAT GOAT es una mezcla de Blue Heeler, German Shepherd, Yorkie. Es 8.6 porciento “wolfy.” Ella es una hispanohablante y está aprendiendo inglés poco a poco, pero ella es una perra, así que es difícil. Te insta a no invertir en “bitchcoin.”

WILL YOU BE ON MY PODCAST/MAKE A PROMO SWAP/DO A CROSSOVER EPISODE?

Probably! Email us at heavingbosomspodcast@gmail.com.

CAN I ADVERTISE MY BOOK OR PRODUCT ON YOUR PODCAST?

Of course you can! Email us at heavingbosomspodcast@gmail.com or fill out the advertising form on the main page!

CAN I BE ON THE PODCAST?

Maybe! Go ahead and send us an email at heavingbosomspodcast@gmail.com.