The Mythic Mic Podcast

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where the enemy commander taking you captive is complicated enough before he becomes your husband.
This week, host Sara Santillan sits down with author R.A. Raine to discuss Storm, a dystopian romantasy filled with lightning magic, feminine rage, motherhood, fae lands, an oppressive empire, an enemy commander, morally complicated choices, and a heroine determined to protect her children at any cost.
Storm is a 31-year-old pregnant mother who has spent her life in servitude to the patriarchal empire of Halo, a brutal society that controls women and their bodies. More than anything, she wants to get her children away from it. Then Malek, commander of the enemy army, takes her as his wife. He’s older, powerful, mysterious, and far more complicated than Storm initially realizes. As war rages between Halo and the magical fae lands beyond its borders, Storm must decide what she’s willing to risk for freedom, family, and the people she loves.
⚡ What happens when a lightning-wielding mother decides she’ll do anything to get her children out of a dystopian empire?
🖤 What if the enemy commander who takes you as his wife isn’t the man you thought he was?
🌲 And what happens when a world of oppression and scarcity exists just beyond the treeline from a magical fae utopia?
If you love dystopian romantasy, feminine rage, fae worlds, lightning magic, enemy commanders, morally complicated heroes, protective mothers, he falls first, age gaps, hidden motives, rebellion, high-stakes romance, and heroines who will choose their children every single time, this episode is for you.
🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ R.A. Raine’s decision to sell her house, put everything else on hold, and finally go all-in on becoming an author.
✨ Why Storm became the book where Rebecca poured her own rage, love, passion, and emotions onto the page.
✨ Blending dystopian fiction and romantasy through two radically different worlds divided by a single treeline.
✨ Storm, a pregnant mother and lightning worker determined to save her children from the patriarchal empire controlling their lives.
✨ Malek, the mysterious enemy commander who takes Storm as his wife and slowly reveals a very different side of himself.
✨ Why motherhood became one of the most important elements of the story and a source of strength, hope, and love rather than weakness.
✨ Feminine rage, environmental themes, oppression, and the real-world emotions woven throughout Storm’s dystopian world.
✨ The complicated romance between Storm and Malek, why he falls first, and the choices that will always put her children before him.
✨ Creating morally complicated characters whose decisions might be questionable even when readers understand exactly why they made them.
✨ The cliffhanger already sending ARC readers into Rebecca’s DMs demanding to know what happens next.
CONNECT WITH US
🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 R.A. Raine – @R.A.RaineAuthor
✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where cursed bloodlines hide beneath ordinary society, ghosts haunt college corridors, and one forbidden witch is about to become entangled with four dangerously broken heirs.
This week, host Sara Santillan sits down with bestselling indie and traditionally published author Lucy Smoke to discuss Hallowed Bones, the first installment in her Sons of Salem series. 
Lucy shares her nine-year journey from publishing a debut she later removed from circulation to building a full-time author career across multiple pen names, genres, and publishing paths. She opens up about stubbornness, rejection, one-star reviews, surviving unpredictable indie income, finding the right agent, and why fear should never be the deciding factor when choosing whether to pursue a creative dream.
We also dive into Hallowed Bones, where Haven enters Ipswich College despite warnings to stay away from Ezra Bishop, Cameron Good, Lyle Corey, and Reyes Scott, the four cursed Sons of Salem. Lucy discusses combining The Covenant with Wednesday Addams energy, researching the Salem witch trials, interviewing practicing witches, Wiccans, and neo-pagans, and creating a hidden paranormal society filled with inherited magic, demons, blood contracts, ghosts, and other planes of existence. She also explains the immense challenge of crafting four distinct romances and character arcs while refusing to let why-choose storytelling be dismissed as “just spice.”
🕯️ What happens when the witch everyone fears is more powerful than the four cursed heirs meant to contain her?
🩸 Can Haven survive Ipswich College when ghosts, gods, and hidden bloodlines are closing in?
🔥 And how do you fall for four different people without any of those romances or the men themselves feeling interchangeable?
This is a must-listen for gothic paranormal readers, why-choose romance fans, lovers of Salem-inspired witch stories, and anyone who wants layered relationships, dangerous magic, and broken characters fighting toward a realistically messy happy ending.
🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ Lucy’s real-life found family, friend-family vacations, and hunt for the perfect milkshake.
✨ Pursuing writing despite being repeatedly encouraged to choose a more “practical” career.
✨ Studying English literature, professional writing, and education before leaving the classroom path.
✨ Why finishing and releasing an imperfect first book was essential to her growth.
✨ Learning through failure, removing early books, and continuing without regret.
✨ Why rejection letters and one-star reviews prove that a story made someone feel something.
✨ Building a full-time indie career through experimentation, research, and stubborn persistence.
✨ The financial highs and lows of treating authorship as a real business.
✨ Finding her third agent after previous representation ended or became unhealthy.
✨ Challenging academic attitudes that dismiss indie publishing and commercial fiction.
✨ Why affordable books, Kindle Unlimited, libraries, and format accessibility matter to Lucy.
✨ The origins of her Lucy Smoke and Lucinda Dark pen names.
✨ Her introduction to why-choose romance through anime, manga, and reverse-harem stories.
✨ Why writing four love interests means constructing four complete romantic arcs.
✨ Exploring what makes someone fall in love with multiple people for entirely different reasons.
✨ Helping bring why-choose romance from a niche category into mainstream traditional publishing.
✨ Haven Wardwell and the four cursed heirs of the Sons of Salem.
✨ Researching the political and economic motives behind accusations of witchcraft.
✨ Interviewing witches, Wiccans, and neo-pagans while distinguishing their belief systems.
✨ Deconstructing a rigid good-versus-evil worldview while creating the book’s magic.
✨ A hidden paranormal society populated by witches, demons, werewolf-like beings, and ghosts.
✨ Bloodline-based magic that manifests according to the individual rather than copying a parent’s ability.
✨ The beloved aunt, the brutal cliffhanger, and why book two may reveal something even more shocking.
✨ Reader Mafia, accidental branding, chaotic honesty, and Lucy’s infamous eyeliner.
CONNECT WITH US
🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Lucy Smoke – @AuthorLucySmoke
✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where morally gray vampires, fated mates, touch-her-and-die heroes, and a little leather never go out of style.
This week, host Bethany Amanda sits down with legendary paranormal romance author J.R. Ward to discuss Lover Enthroned, the newest installment in the iconic Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Her irresistible pitch? Hot nerd meets a queen. A literal queen.
J.R. takes us behind the scenes of more than two decades of the Brotherhood, from getting fired by her first publisher to building a series that has spanned more than 20 books, bringing the vampires to the screen with Passionflix, and why showing up for the story remains at the heart of her writing process.
🖤 What happens when the Black Dagger Brotherhood trades its usual alpha hero for a hot nerd?
👑 What secrets are waiting when that hot nerd falls for a Shadow princess?
🧛 And after more than two decades of vampires, fated mates, and morally gray heroes, how does J.R. Ward keep surprising us?
If you love vampires, paranormal romance, fated mates, morally gray heroes, touch-her-and-die devotion, dark fantasy, powerful heroines, found family, and romances where love conquers all, this episode is for you.
🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ J.R.'s journey from writer to lawyer and back to writer, and the unexpected encouragement that helped turn the stories in her head into a publishing career.
✨ Why she describes herself as a “secretary” for her characters and how scenes arrive in her head out of order before becoming a finished book.
✨ The perseverance behind her career, including getting fired by her first publisher and giving herself one more chance with the series that became Black Dagger Brotherhood.
✨ Why readers have stayed obsessed with the Brotherhood for more than two decades: morally gray alpha males, fated mates, touch-her-and-die devotion, tattoos, fangs, leather, and plenty of darkness.
✨ Lover Enthroned, J.R.'s “hot nerd meets a queen” romance between Alan and Shadow princess Denny, and why new readers can jump into the Brotherhood right here.
✨ Bringing Black Dagger Brotherhood to the screen with Passionflix and why J.R. waited decades for an adaptation partner willing to stay true to the books.
✨ Watching a story she never expected to find an audience become a decades-long series with an intensely loyal fandom and more stories still unfolding.
✨ Denny's deliciously satisfying moment of vengeance, new insight into the Shadows, and J.R.'s love for the unexpected final pieces that reveal themselves while she's writing.
✨ Why romance remains at the heart of everything J.R. writes and the enduring belief behind the Brotherhood: in the end, love conquers all.
✨ Plus: J.R.'s favorite Brother, Vicious unexpectedly discovering fatherhood, ancient Dell laptops, terrible roommate options, and why the safest Black Dagger Brotherhood roommate might actually be a golden retriever.
CONNECT WITH US
🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 J.R. Ward – @Jrwardauthor
✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

Welcome to another episode of Banter & Books, the monthly Mythic Mic segment where host Amara and a special guest share spoiler-free reviews of the books they can't stop thinking about!
In this episode, Amara is joined by bookstagrammer Kris West to talk fairy-tale villains, dystopian video-game worlds, fated mates, magical academies, hidden identities, devastating cliffhangers, and the wonderfully chaotic world of why choose fantasy.
They dive into Blood of the Fairest by Morgan B. Lee, Codebound by Kendra Moreno, A Crown of Crimson and Crows by Tessa Hale, and Clash of Claws and Edge of Steel by Elizabeth Dear. They also revisit two indie favorites they cannot stop recommending: Veil of Ash by Fallon Hendrix and Rook of Ruin by Elle Youngish.
Along the way, Amara and Kris make the case for giving why choose romance a chance, celebrate golden-retriever heroes, enemies-to-lovers tension, fated mates, groveling, powerful FMCs, and the beauty of having an entire “boy buffet” of love interests. They also discuss evil-queen fairy-tale retellings, LitRPG worlds with deadly levels and praying-mantis companions, sparkly purple snakes, brutal twists, tampered memories, and books that leave you staring at the wall wondering what just happened.
Whether you already love why choose, have been curious but hesitant to try it, or simply want some wildly original indie fantasy recommendations to destroy your TBR, this spoiler-free episode is for you.
BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE
Blood of the Fairest by Morgan B. Lee (Check out our Mythic Mic interview with Morgan B. Lee here) 
Codebound by Kendra Moreno
A Crown of Crimson and Crows by Tessa Hale
Clash of Claws by Elizabeth Dear (Check out our Mythic Mic interview with Elizabeth Dear here)
Veil of Ash by Fallon Hendrix
Rook of Ruin by Elle Youngish
CONNECT WITH THE MYTHIC MIC TEAM
🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
👤 Amara – @Bored_Military_Wife
✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where sometimes the heroine doesn't defeat the villain. Sometimes she becomes one.
This week, hosts Sara Santillan and Amara sit down with J.E. Caroline to discuss The Venom in Her Veins, a dark romantasy about a cursed fae woman fated to destroy the world and the dragon prince destined to kill her before she can.
🐍 What if your favorite romantasy heroine became the villain and loved it?
🐉 What happens when the man destined to kill you falls in love with you first?
🖤 And just how far can grief, rage, and darkness push a heroine before there's no going back?
If you love villain arcs, cursed heroines, dragon shifters, feminine rage, touch-her-and-die romance, slow burn, dark fantasy, deadly magic, morally gray characters, and heroes willing to burn the world for their girl, this episode is for you.
🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ Going from full-time motherhood and rediscovering reading to writing and independently publishing her debut novel.
✨ The chaotic reality of indie publishing for the first time and what Jessica wishes she'd known before jumping in.
✨ Why Jessica abandoned the traditional hero's journey and asked: what if the heroine became the villain instead?
✨ Creating Verena, a cursed fae woman fated to destroy the world she's desperately trying to save.
✨ Ronan, the dragon prince destined to kill Verena who makes the very inconvenient mistake of falling in love with her first.
✨ Villain arcs, feminine rage, grief, trauma, and what happens when a character's moral balance is pushed too far.
✨ Building a dark and beautiful world of fractured kingdoms, cursed forests, deadly monsters, hidden secrets, and inevitable betrayals.
✨ The slow-burn romance, touch-her-and-die devotion, and a hero willing to burn the world for Verena or right alongside her.
✨ The inspiration behind Verena's venomous curse and why viper imagery became central to her transformation.
✨ What's coming next, including more trauma in Book Two, a dystopian romance, and a future prequel exploring the gods behind Verena's world.
CONNECT WITH US
🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 J.E. Caroline – @J.E.Caroline.Author
✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.