I took the above photo of Joanna Shupe from her website, which you should check out at some point before or after reading a ton of her books. I decided to focus on Shupe in this month’s romance author/trope spotlight because I love what she does with her heroines. While my post on Lisa Kleypas…
Author: caritagardiner
131. Why I Don’t Care What You Think
Check out Tuukka’s “I don’t care about anything” face. Pretty cute on him. The title of my post is an exaggeration, but now that you’re here, let me explain what I’m thinking. As you know, I work with teenagers, and I’m always floored by how much of their energy and attention goes into paying attention…
130. Why We Ask Why
My sister (Thanks, V!) sent me this powerful video on YouTube, which connects some of the searches people made in 2020 with many of the important moments of that unprecedented year. While we were all stuck, separated in our homes, we could look for answers with our fingertips on keyboards rather than through physical exploration….
129. Why Blame the Victim?
[If you knew of my existence in my first eighteen years of life, there was about a ninety percent chance you thought of me as “Viveca’s sister.” At the time, I didn’t always see that as a good thing. I do now. I’m so grateful to have my sister, Viveca Gardiner, in my world. She’s…
128. Why We Shouldn’t Lean In
Please don’t judge me harshly for the percentage of my posts that spin off podcasts and Peloton workouts. Since both activities fill my mornings, I get ideas from them frequently. (Of course, if you have other ideas for posts, you should write a guest post. Then you can trash talk me all you want, and…
127. Why I Read APs
[After I wrote this, I realized that I wrote a very similar post two years ago. I guess I’m both consistent and forgetful. You probably didn’t read that one, so here’s Why I Read APs, 2.0.] When this post goes live, I’ll be hours away from beginning eight days of reading the College Board’s Advanced…
126. Why Julia Quinn’s Trope Bending Works
If you’ve seen any of my other recent posts, you know that 2021 is my year of reading romance novels, so imagine my delight when I got an email from the Senior Class Dean (Hi, CC!) saying that Romance Writers of America Hall of Famer, Julia Quinn (aka Julie Cotler Pottinger, Hotchkiss ’87) will be…
125. Why I Don’t Have a Favorite Word
Recently, when I was on dining hall duty (don’t bother asking unless you’re really curious, in which case, ask away), a group of four students (Hi, CC, LG, EH, and BJ!) asked me to tell them my favorite word. I glibly said, “splendid,” which they rejected as not very long or interesting. I tried, “defenestration,”…
124. Why Do You Write That Stuff?
[In my MFA program at Southern New Hampshire University, I was lucky enough to have Patricia Lillie as my Capstone Project teacher, which means that I got her for three classes in a row. I found her supportive, realistic, and thoughtful. As the best teachers do, she pushed me in all the ways I needed…
123. Why Beverly Jenkins
The screenshot above shows you this month’s spotlight romance author, Beverly Jenkins with a few of her almost fifty novels’ covers. I read as many of her books as my three library aps allowed (seven books) and thoroughly enjoyed her style. Having come off my Lisa Kleypas month, I was immediately struck by the heroines…