S08.08: Romance Short Stories and the Ladies in Waiting Anthology

Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People

Fated Mates

Society & Culture, Documentary, Books, Arts

4.9 • 889 Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 130 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We definitely have a hope became reality hangover this morning, but we also have a very fun episode for you today! We're talking romance shorts -- not novellas, not short novels, but actual short stories under 15,000 words (or about 50 pages). We talk about why this is such a difficult goal to hit, about why romance lends itself to longer formats, and about why short fiction is a really great way to keep reading when things feel chaotic.

We also chat about Sarah's new short story, a part of the Ladies in Waiting anthology, out this week and providing minor characters from Jane Austen their own happily ever afters. Sarah is joined by romance greats Diana Quincy, Nikki Payne and Eloisa James, among others. Get the collection at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

Also, we want to take a moment to send enormous thanks to everyone who donated to the Fated States Giving Circle at The States Project this year — those donations were gamechangers — last night we expanded our majority in the VA House, and secured a Democratic Trifecta in Virginia! As ever, we’re so proud to stand and fight with you!

If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Our next read along will be KJ Charles's The Magpie Lord. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

Notes

The Ladies in Waiting anthology was released this week, and in the anthology, authors wrote HEAs for minor Austen characters. Sarah wrote about Miss Bates from Emma. Sarah has a few short stories: The Bladesmith Queen, a Medieval short available with her newsletter signup; "Fire That Lasts," and a YA short in the Generation Wonder anthology. The duke who has a sheep is in a novella called A Duke Worth Falling For.

asked Threads for recs of romance short stories

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sarah, I don't mean to laugh, but you look like you're literally recording from a pillow fort.
0:05.1	It's true. I'm in Rhode Island, cat sitting for my sister, which means like already I've had to stop and put the cat out of the room.
0:14.6	Because I don't have a cat traditionally.
0:18.5	So I don't understand that they just do whatever. Yeah, they're in charge.
0:23.9	They're like, oh, you're busy? That means I'm going to be on your laugh right now. Now,
0:27.9	meanwhile, if you wanted them, they'd be like, no, I'm sorry, I'm not available right now.
0:34.5	So anyway, but my sister has a very beautifully designed home, like stunning.
0:41.5	Everybody is very jealous of her gorgeous home, but the truth is that there is not a single soft edge anywhere in it.
0:49.9	So Eric was like, can you put a blanket over your head to record?
0:54.4	Yeah, then I'll be calling them.
0:55.7	I'd be like, call 911.
0:57.0	She passed out.
0:58.9	Got real hot under there.
1:00.1	And then Jen was like, absolutely not.
1:03.5	What's happening?
1:04.6	And it is true.
1:05.6	There's like no way to do this.
1:07.3	So if it's a little echoy, everybody, please don't blame Eric. Please blame my sister
1:12.7	for her design motifs. And I'm sick. So it's, you know, the weather has changed and I'm going to
1:20.8	get an upper respiratory infection and end up at urgent care. And I did. So it's a mess today. And Eric is doing yeoman's work,
1:31.3	as they say. I mean, you know, we have to keep it, we have to keep it exciting for him or else
1:36.8	he'd just get bored and he would be done with us. That's true. But we have a really fun topic
	...

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