If it seems like Claire is bursting with energy in this week’s episode, it’s because she can hardly wait another second to talk about the new season of her favorite Scandinavian horror show, The Chestnut Man. Also this week, we discuss the lifestyle movies that made us yearn for womanhood (The Devil Wears Prada), as well as a show that makes us sad about girlhood (The Testaments). Finally, we review a new summer romance — and Little Women fanfic — on shelves now: Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune.

The state of our writing mirrors the state of our Union: bleak, bordering on hopeless. But we barely talk about the economy and AI in this episode, if you can believe it! Instead, we discuss the Off Campus tv adaptation, Molly’s cult-of-one classic LOL (starring Miley Cyrus and D’mi Moore), and Claire’s latest second chance romance Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan — in addition to workshopping our own rough writing. It’s about time you put us in your prayer books.

This week, we catch up after an eventful weekend that includes a James Patterson commencement speech, a trip down memory lane, a mostly sober viewing of The Devil Wears Prada 2, and the rescue of 1,500 beagles. Since we last met, Molly finished Rites of the Starling and Claire (finally) finished The Poisonwood Bible. Also this week, we tackle Claire’s favorite romance trope: airports and airplanes. Hopefully you can’t catch Molly’s chronic cough through your headphones.

It’s game night! Much like the 76ers and the Knicks, Claire and Molly are facing off in a battle of grit, heart, and skill. That is, we are dusting off Joops’ dad’s friend’s game, Writer Blocks, and writing short stories against a prompt and a time limit. Tune in for this and a misandrist reading of Eternity, a hit job on (one of our favorite writers) Mindy Kaling via review of her (very good) show Running Point, an indictment of old timey romantasy, and a close read of one particular scene in Paradise season 2. Oh, and if you’re thinking about jimmying Claire’s knee? You’re too late.

Nasty people make the best friends and nasty people are smarter than everyone else. That’s one of many very nice takes we drop in this week’s episode, as we cover Grant Ginder’s So Old, So Young, The Drama, and Bigfoot the Musical. We also report from our time at the book lover’s hottest destination, BookCon. One more thing: could you please have some generosity for our basketball team?

Mars is in Aries and we’re embracing conflict— with everyone we’ve ever met and within our books. That’s right, we’re writing again, but ask us anything about it and we’ll clock you! This episode also includes a Spring weather report, a reverse HIPAA violation on Molly’s new therapist, a big announcement re: Claire’s reno, and our final reviews of Something Very Bad is Going to Happen and the Artefacts of the Ouranos series (both need to figure out their magic systems).

Let's get one thing out of the way: we're not talking about writing this week. What we are talking about this week: bunny brunch, childhood science experiments, glucose, Claire's period, Molly's romantic attachment to Jonathan Groff, Paradise, Harlan Coben and Dan Brown, and so much more. Plus, Molly makes sure that the Epstein files stay top of mind, while Claire reminds us once again about the impending apocalypse. If the audio is a little cooked this week, it's because Joops left us alone and we're doing our best.

This episode is an interview with our first real guest (sorry to our previous guests, who are more so our friends)… Irish romance author extraordinaire, Catherine Walsh! Catherine shares her invaluable writing advice, inspiration, and encouragement. We also chat about her latest, How to Write a Love Story. It’s Molly’s favorite to date (sucker for an editor MMC) and Claire’s second favorite (topped only by the airplane setting of Holiday Romance).