Coast to Coast Romance

Breaking down Science Fiction Romance

• Ann Jensen & Skylar West • Season 2 • Episode 2

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Hi, I'm Ann Jensen coming to you from the east coast of New Jersey. Hi, I'm Skyler West coming to you from the west coast of Canada. We are two Romance Writers using our life experiences to break down and share with you all things romance, how you find your next book boyfriend, discovering genres and tropes and looking at what works and why. What doesn't work and why. Hello, welcome back to coast to coast. We are here this week to talk about sci fi romance. It's sub genres, it's tropes and doing some comparisons on what is most popular and why. So I'm going to ask you the first question, what is its eye fi? What makes it sci fi. So sci fi is defined by science beyond our current reach. Or you could also look at it as being technology based world. And adding in of course, the romance to this, which can show up in a ton of different sub genres and tropes is basically a romance that takes place or is born, obviously in this freshener world. And it's a setting. And sometimes it's an element of the wrote romance story. A lot of people classify it together with fantasy, because a lot of times people don't know enough, or they just don't feel like sharing enough. So their science is on the verge of magic or right realism or something like that. But what we're talking about here is what I guess I would call pure sci fi, and those things that are obviously scientific Star Trek, Star Trek or Guardians of the Galaxy, or, you know, something along the lines, where it's based on our human society, or what our human size society could become. If we advanced technologically or right, or something of that net, I think he will have cited Gene Roddenberry as being you know, a brilliant mind to the future best, because so many things that he put into a show back in the 60s have actually come into fruition, which is amazing, right. And now, what I will say, and I've actually beta read for some sci fi romance author has, I often want to take people who write sci fi romance and say, Stop trying to explain the science. Yes, that's a very good point, because I, I will do the same thing, in that I will be writing a story and all sudden want to start researching and detailing something very specific. And I'll be like, hang on a second. I don't even need to do that. I need to stay in the story. The story is the relationship. So from the perspective of romance, yes, you don't need we don't need to know everything. Right. And you know, there's a reason that I won't read hard sci fi, outside of romance is because either A, they go so far down into the technical descriptions that I feel like I'm almost reading a textbook, it can become very draining to me why you know, how the spaceship moves, explained to me how the weapon works, explaining to me you know, all these kinds of things. And while that may be fascinating to some, it's not to me. But as we talked about, a long time ago, in our sub genre episode, we're talking about romance. Yes. And I have to say that one of my absolute favorites is Renee Rose, who does a fabulous job of writing about interplanetary species connections, having on and off our world without a great detail to the hows and whys, but still so alive and engaging that you can picture it, I need to know the transporters exist, I don't need to know how they work. I need to know spaceships is this I don't need to know how they work I need to know with if it's a spaceship. Does it take years to get somewhere? Or can they get there in the blink of an eye? You know, yes, I need to know that. But I don't need to know the how. And that's where to me, you would cross over between the line of if you're a sci fi book that happens to have some romance, or a romance book that has sci fi? Or is you know, written within a sci fi world. Now, we've been talking a lot about the technology and everything like that. One of the common trends right now is taking the machinery to the next level, cyborgs, robots, right. And even full AI Well, here's the thing is AI is machines with humanized characteristics. Right? So a non biological artificial intelligence or aka robot, like you said, but if you go back to Star Trek movies, we brought that up already you go back to the sophistication of data. I mean, data is a perfect example of an AI creation, right? Yet an exhibit so many human conditions are characteristics that, in fact, all of the cast at some point during the show, it's like, oh, you know, they start to develop feelings for data, like he is a human. Right? Right, because that's how he comes across. So, versus a cyborg, which is a slightly older human, which, of course already exists our reality, if you think about pacemakers, right? Or anything else. I mean, these are all parts. Absolutely. You think about how many athletes participated in the Olympics this year, that had artificial limbs? So artificial, or cyborg type, you know, things are already here. Right? So there's a nice difference between the two, but that people get confused. Right? And, to me, if they're a cyborg, that it's just a matter of, I don't know if it's a disability, but it's, it's just something different about the hero or heroine, you know, whether they have enhanced eyesight or increased strength, or you know, it's a characteristic. But when you get into robots, or AI, or those kinds of things, you start getting into a more different species, almost Yes, yes, absolutely. And I don't I have not read. In fact, I can safely say, I have not read an AI book. And I'm not sure I'm not opposed to it. I just I haven't seen any that have drawn me in yet. And if there's it like you often say, if there's anybody out there who knows what to do, let me know. So I've seen I've seen it done, but I've not seen it done. Well. How's that? Right? It were it just felt uncomfortable to me like it was either a pleasure robot that someone couldn't connect with. Right? So they either hire you know, they they're hired, or they or they whatever. I did have Angelina Anderson did one which made me laugh, and this is sci fi, but guy pretended like he was trying to escape. She had both a guy and the girl to different stories where they pretended to be a pleasure robot just because they were hiding out. And then they ended up falling in love with the person who took them out of storage, so to speak. Yeah, that's that wasn't they weren't robots, but it sounds also like that's kind of a more of a less cyphy and more. Kind of just with their humor in there. It sounds like there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, more tongue in cheek science fiction. Yeah. Yeah. It was one seriously, I can't remember what it was that, that it was an AI but I wasn't a fan. I think it was on like Mars, where it started off. Like they were soldiers. And then they got, you know, they were turned half machinery. But they still had the brain of a human but they didn't have their human memories. But as the story progressed, or human memories were breaking through. Yes, I thought she that sounds very familiar. And that was, that was a fascinating, but a true AI now, I've never seen it. Well. I've just seen it. Like, I've fallen in love with my pleasure at all, you know? Yeah. And that's the thing is is I mean, that's definitely one way you can find one or two. Yeah, exactly. Weird Science. Actually, what you were just saying reminded me of several years ago, I want to say it was back in maybe 2011 or 12. I was watching a show Beauty and the Beast, but it was the TV version. And that's what he was he was the result of a wartime experiment. They're trying to create super soldiers. So that's another one. So in the attempt to create a super soldier, they actually created a super weapon. And he turned out great because he still maintained or retained. What made him human. Yeah, right. But there was a lot of other ones that didn't, so they returned into the perfect or ultimate weapon. And so there's this idea that you become what you are, even when you're fiddled with, right? So, you know that if you are not a great person, you're not going to be a great Super Soldier when your your minds mess with either Right? Right. Right. So that takes us to Well, talking a little bit about these different categories, but interracial, yeah. And you like that. So I do, and I don't know why. No, that's not true. So it's interesting what kind of aliens that people come up with for us to fall in love with. I found that on the whole, a lot of people like to use the generic, you know, maybe they've got a different color skin, or maybe they're taller or bigger or something like that. But there's everything from double dicta aliens, right to different skin textures, or having horns or trying to. There's a fun series by Michelle Mills, where these Earth women are going to be nannies or governesses on another planet, and they all look like the caricature of Satan. Red Skin, the horns and they breathe. The other planet. Yeah, on the other planet. Okay. But humans are considered like the best nannies around so they import them onto their planet. I guess like an au pair or something? I don't know. But right. It's a fun series. I also find a lot of aliens do BB W. Big beautiful woman. Yes, that's true. Because, you know, your alien could could be 10 times bigger than you. And so then you're no longer big or that could you know, whatever trait it is that women beat themselves up for, which is just stupid. By the way, you're all beautiful. You know, it's treasured by that alien race. Right? And I really like that. Especially in Alien romance, I see a lot of body positivity and everything like that, which is sometimes harder to find done tastefully? Yes. And you know, that's a really good point. Because I think even for us, our lead characters are all very different looking. Right? Like they're very, they're not all cookie cutter. They're not all a certain way. And I think that's really important because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So, you know, in all of these romance stories, there's always, like, fated mates and those types of things is there's the one well, it doesn't really matter what she looks like. Because it's that spark. It's that soul connection, or whatever you call it. Yeah. Yeah. So it's important that that somehow reflects in our stories, unlike TV where everyone's blonde and has, you know, fake tan and hair. And if you're red, you got a sass. And if you're if you have brown hair, you're the nerd. And if you're blonde, you're the sexy one. Oh, okay. All right, then. So I guess you're pretty sexy. I'm a redhead. So I got the sass though my daughter loves to tell anyone who asks that, sure. My mom's a redhead, but it comes out of a bottle. Oh, dang. That's funny, like, and give my secret away? Yeah. So I like the fact that not only do we have the ability to change the body type of the man, but we also have the ability to make whatever the body type of the woman has as a desirable trait. Yes, absolutely. I think that's a very, very good point. All right. So let's let's talk a little bit so smaller talking about aliens. What about alien abduction? What's your thoughts on that? So I'm, very much have mixed minds on this. I am not a fan of alien abduction, but I am a failure and a fan of getting rescued from alien abduction. Ah, fine line. And it all boils down to consent. For me, I I'm not a fan of the Stockholm Syndrome, even if it's aliens. Yes, dubious consent can have a lot of negative connotations. Right? And people walk that line of like, oh, well, they're racist. I and so they kidnap all these women. And now you know, it's like, yeah, and when I say it skates the line is I've seen on on several different Alien series where the women get abducted by one evil race. And then they get saved by another but they can't go home because they now know and, you know, right. Earth is considered a technologically backwater planet so you can't can right interfere with their natural development. So now they're stuck. Right? But the person And then they fall in love with was not responsible for their initial kidnapping. And it can be an interesting plotline as long as it is a plotline where they get kidnapped or whatever. And then because they saw something they shouldn't have seen or, you know, they, they had to be taken or something like that. And then they have to come to terms and then they forgive the person, because it wasn't their fault or whatever, because they were Chad chasing an alien, bad guy on to the earth, and then somebody saw something they shouldn't have. So then they had to be taken. Yeah, it's, it's so fine line. And I think it all for me, boils down to when the time of relationship comes? Is the woman falling in love with a man or the man falling in love with a woman doing so? Because they have no other options? Right? Or because they've actually fallen in love with this person? Right? And, yeah, I'm not a fan of calm. Yep. Unless it's for roleplay. We're right, okay, we're gonna pretend and you're going to chase me and go. Here's my safe words. It's tough, but again, to each their own, and to own their each. And that's why I don't have to buy certain books and other people don't have to buy my books. Another element that I enjoy in sci fi is the 100 years into the future, you know, not so far into the future where the human race has gone out into space, and they've started colonizing, and then they discover that there's a much bigger universe out there and they start encountering aliens, right? That's a fun storyline to play with because the ego of the human centric thought process. And as an American, I see it very much as a statement almost that can be made about Americans. Because a lot of times we believe that, you know, we're the center of the universe. And before you it was the British, the British and before us is the British. We're not going to mention where we came from Sheesh. But I also, I enjoy when authors take the language thing out with a semi plausible trope. Yeah, like whether it be the universal translator implanted in the ear, the virus that makes your brain it rewrites your brain synapses. I always laugh when it's a virus that rewrites your brain synapses. Because I'm like, Look, if you got that technology, why do you have any problems? Yeah. That's a good point. You can rewrite the synapses of the human brain. Yeah. So would you consider that like, you see that in futuristic? End of the Earth or the human race kind of scenarios? Yeah. And I think there's a difference between sci fi dystopia, which is the world has, you know, the human race has collapsed in on itself. Yep. And you either have a love story within that collapse, right? Or you have an alien race that has come to take some of us off, right, and get, you know, help us survive, even though we've doomed our own planet. Yes, yes. And it's interesting to see the thought processes that obviously go through certain authors minds, because you can see what they think is going to be our downfall, whether it's overpopulation, or a virus, or you know, anything like that. Yep. It's in the background of the love story. But it's fascinating to see how different authors feel our society is going to collapse in on itself. But I've also heard someone we had on recently was talking about they were doing a future one with a female society. I believe that was Vanessa. That's that. Yes. That's sci fi. It's in the future. You know, it's dystopian, and we've, we actually sounded really interesting. So in hers, it was a Minaj. So the collapse of the earth has happened and you know, if the survivors have, or is it just a completely different planet? I'm trying to remember that. No, it was like they had created sky cities, but some people still lived down below. And it has time had passed that right below had started coming to the surface. And so the two societies clashed, and then one of the sky people crashed her ship ran actually, it's a lot like you just said so she has to stay. Because she's been in they don't She's been infected laminated. Yeah, exactly. And so she ends up staying with the two men, or creatures or whatever that find her and, and the three of them are together. And I haven't read the story, but in my mind, I hope that she has a choice to go back, but she chooses to stay. Well, I eventually I think Vanessa said that's what happens is they decide that you know, she can't go back but she decides to stay with the two men so yeah, yeah, now I got it. But like, outside of romance, I love myself and good space opera and insider romance, it can be as fun as well. And to me, that's the the jewel heist, the the the caper of the the Sci Fi world where they're flying across these vast galaxies and encountering strange cultures and everything like that, all while also falling in love. Absolutely. I think those are some of the best. And I think my first example of that was Star Wars, the very first one. The undercurrents between Princess Leia and Han Solo. Is, is that constant? You know, it was the looks, it was the energy, it was the vibe, it was like you'd be, you'd be pretty if you weren't so serious. You know, you'd be my type if you weren't so anal. And, of course, way years later, like, what does it been 40 years or something? Since that first one came out? Of course, they did that Star Wars movie where they actually had a child and yeah, yeah. But I love those romances that exist within the framework. You know, that occur? You can almost say it's kind of a bit of force proximity to because often they take place on the ship, right? And they don't have anywhere to go exactly. You know, rather than being snowed in, they're spaced in? Yeah, they're spaced in. Love it. And in that case, you don't have instantaneous travel. So you have weeks that you're going to be together on the ship. Or maybe you're getting attacked by pirates, or lots of fun things like that. And zactly. So I was thinking, we have sci fi, romance. And then we have sci fi fantasy romance. And the Star Wars that you mentioned, is a is probably one of the most well known examples of that. Because you have you have the Sci Fi in the ships, and the lasers and the and all that kind of stuff. But then you have the force, you've matched the elements. And I see this in some stories, where it's just a matter of the alien race that you encounter has metric. Right. And one of our Yeah, we can just pull this all together with some of the later topics we have here. The race happens to be a shifter or the the alien race happens to have surprising characteristics just like vampires or, you know, stead of being a shifter romance or a vampire romance or a dragon romance or a wizard Warlock, whatever. Because they're from another planet. It fits more into the fantasy. Yeah. For some people, the sometimes the technology gets to the point where it becomes like it's magic, or Star Trek, you had cue. Right? Any sufficiently advanced technology will appear like magic, to the uninformed to the end of that very good point. And I love books that take advantage of that. There's a good series where their, their blades have nanotechnology and their armor has nanotechnology and everything like that. And they just call it magic because none of them know how it works anymore. Like, at one point, their society was so advanced that it knew how to do these things, but now it doesn't. And so all they have is what was left over. Right. Which is a ruse, also a really great way if you're a writer to explain things that are unexplainable. Yes, right. Actually, I don't know if you've ever heard of my underlay, but he he wrote a he started a series that just expanded into this universe that is absolutely insane. It's too many books to possibly count but it started off as like technology that was in the blood like basically nanotechnology and ended up dispersing through the water and the air and everything like that. And then people started getting these abilities. And they thought it was magic, but it was actually that they had absorbed. Yes, he's actually Piper stone wrote one like that too. It was her Lane shifter book, where it's 100 years post You know, the Earth Kind of having its world war three. And right at the point of which world war three kind of happened they were experimenting with genes. So it was gene splicing. And so they had created ultimate races not realizing they had. And so 100 years later, you have these full on shifters out there. And it's not something they inherited, it was something that was created. Right. So it's, again, a slightly different take. Yeah, it's very interesting. Actually, those can be a lot of fun. Now, we have talked about it in another episode, but I think it bears mentioning again, since we're actually talking about sci fi and aliens now. And that's what we deem acceptable in our heroes, and heroines that we wouldn't necessarily deem acceptable from a human, contemporary male, whether it be the I get to lock you in my house for 30 days. But at the end of the 30 days, you get to choose whether you stay with me or not. But for those 30 days, your mind, you know, like that kind of concept, which I know is very popular and certain series as an alien trope. Right? And of course, these aliens are very gifted and talented, and their whole purpose is to give women pleasure. Oh, but you're still trapped for 30 days. I'm sorry, I'm trapped for 30 days a pleasure. I'm very upset right now. Very, who are and I will say there is a not disturbing but fascinating thing in both alien Ed shifter where all alien and shifter men seem to love going down on women like it's just their drive. I think human men should take note of that. I think they should too. That's a good quality to have human or otherwise. I will say this. There was one oh god, somebody email me if you know which series I'm talking about. But there was there was an alien robots where the men's semen tasted basically like chocolate. Know what it was like? Oh my god, this is amazing. Oh, I like that. I was like, now that's an alien characteristic that we need. Forget the green slimy skin. Let's go with the chocolate. I love it. Oh, yeah. As dieted. I just I mean, it was only one element of the book. But I was like, alright, that's, I'm done with that. Absolutely. So let me ask you this then. So we've talked about the differences between sci fi romance sci fi fantasy romance, so adding in a fantastical quality that can't be explained this solely by science. So then how would you then compare those two to paranormal? So always have a tough time between fantasy and Panner. Paranormal. Right? Well, once more magic and once more faith i i think I'm not really sure. So to me, paranormal is one of two things. It's either ghosts afterlife, that sort of element or its natural abilities that we believe that humans possess, like lbmc type nesis dream sharing, right dream walking, you know, like, those innate abilities that have become so entrenched in our legends that they aren't considered beyond their scope of reality. Right. So that would be the paranormal, like, just outside you know, normal adjacent. I love it. But yeah, to me, paranormal is almost science trying to explain fantasy. Yes. Yeah. So that is how I would classify those but again, my appeal. Have you had Have you read any sci fi paranormal romance that you like? Romance? No. I mean, I read romance that has had paranormal elements like, there's a shifter romance series. That's alien. They're the dragons on another planet and everything like that. And by finding their mates, the women develop paranormal abilities. Whether it be to troll like mean or see the future or, you know, something like that. So something about meeting with the alien trigger something within their DNA to give them these paranormal abilities I've heard of but not read. Ghost romance like we're, yes, I have to both romance. I've seen ghosts used as like, Oh, I feel the company in touch with my ex husband giving me permission to move on. Yeah, like, that sort of thing. I saw a show and I don't know what it was called as originally done in Europe. And then the United States made a version of it, but there's three. So a girl dies in this house and ends up not being able to leave. So she's the ghost. Right? Guy. Doctor says so this house is just down the road from a hospital, the doctor rents it or he's not a doctor. He's like a male nurse. And he is a vampire. And then they end up having a werewolf move in with them. And so it's this Minaj with a ghost of empire in the world. And we loved it. And it wasn't really like mean there was some serious stuff in there, but it was and there was some heartfelt stuff in there but it was it really had a lot of comedic elements to it. Mm hmm. And the girl that started it is now in Hawaii Five O which I haven't seen so she's been in it but that's where she went after that show. And it was quite entertaining. But what I was more wondering about is is paranormal, you you mentioned ghosts of afterlife, but and natural abilities. What about things like angels and demons? So yeah, I think that's where it crosses over into fantasy depending on your belief system. You might consider them paranormal. Right, but I don't think I guess I that's not true. I have seen series where they were Shayla Shayla black dude is black Dyer Brack brotherhood? I don't know. I thought you're a big fan empire. If you haven't read Black dagger, brotherhood and you're a vampire lover, you're missing out. Oh, I'm gonna check that one out. Then. I was just looking for something last night and a few popped up. And I I read the synopsis. And I'm like, Man, that's not that's not what I want. Jr. Ward, Jr. Ward was i i think i might be familiar with those because that sounds like something I know of Jarrod Ward has angels in her series. Nalini Singh has a very fascinating take on angels in romance, where the angels have basically taken over the earth. Right, and they roll them in, like, kinda like fiefdoms? Oh, no, it's a fiefdom. Yes. And they're there. They're not the nicest people on what's good. Oh, dear. That's not good. I think it all depends on how it's done. If it is a mythical creature, then it's fantasy. If it's you know, the guidance of an angel telling you who your true love is, then it's paranormal. Right? So, yeah, it is an interesting line. For sure. So that takes us I mean, as you've mentioned it already we talked about Star Wars. And there's that element of magic, which is the force would you put in here there's blends of magical elements. Like once bitten, which includes like that whole series that was done and put into TV yet again. We think there's only a vampires until we find out that the reason why this one particular girl is so attractive to everybody else is because she's a fairy, and has very blood. Apparently he stuck out right sucky. Escort Charlene Harris. That's right. That series do extremely well. I like to say Sookie, like Bill, he says, Okay. I think the actress has made comments about that. It's quite amusing. So to me, those are a blend of fantasy and paranormal as well. Yes. Honestly. I mean, really, any alien is fantasy. Yeah. One of the beauties of sci fi. People often call it fff sci fi fantasy is Grace Goodwin, you know her aliens have supernatural abilities and I mean, mind you, you always got a extra supernatural ability for pleasing a woman but who? Yeah, so you mix them all together. Now you put down four. And I think horror has no place in romance, but we're gonna have to differ on that. Well I was actually just kind of writing down. I mean, okay, so you have science fiction. And I guess what I was really thinking about when I wrote that down as a category was, again, American Horror Story. So what happens is a case I was thinking of, there's this haunted house, there's a woman in there, or there was a ghost in there. A family moves in the ghosts falls in love with the girl. And when after everyone else dies, they actually let the girl go so she can come back every year and Halloween when they can walk the earth. So inside of this horrific, fantastical tale, okay, so love story. Come on, they have great baths together. So yeah, I mean, it's it's obviously a weightless thing. But I was actually thinking more about horror science fiction, you know, more on the dark side. Right, than anything else. But one thing that we haven't really talked about which I was, you know, which I think we should is the time travel element. Yes. I, I'm, I'm always interested by time travel, when there's no other element of sci fi fantasy in it. Like, yeah, outlander. When it's more a historical, I shouldn't say that. When it's just a story that has time travel in it didn't write the Time Traveler's Wife or read the book? Hmm. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it just simply is. Yeah, and I'm not a fan of the stories where it's like, I need to travel back in time to save the right, save the timeline and everything like that. Friend of mine was talking about a series that he had just seen on Netflix. And it was like, they jumped through all of these hoops trying not to necessarily break the timeline, but to fix the timeline. And like it was it was. Okay, now look at that to Loki, Loki just makes me laugh because it's like, they just don't even bother trying, you know, they just try to wipe out, you know, the timelines that don't fit what they want. But yes, they're not trying to work around not splitting the timeline there. Whereas when it when it's like, ooh, if I stepped on a butterfly, will it you know, when my great grandfather no longer fall in love with my great grandmother, you know, like, or this the the series that my friend was talking about? It was like these aliens came, you know, were frozen in the ice caps. And so they went through this like, convoluted plan of trying to come up with like this genetically altered virus that they would inject in them while they were in stasis. And then, and I'm sitting there going with just blow up the ship kill them just ship. Right? Yeah. Why are you going through this convoluted? Yeah, plan just now get out. Yeah, maybe I'm a little blood thirsty. I don't know. That's the romantic suspense in me. Well, when that's just it, it's it's an I think I mentioned to you in another podcast that I found that time travel. Even though I understand why it's listed in science fiction is not the kind of time travel that I like to read about later. And so for me, I don't categorize it in there, even though that's exactly what it is. Right? I like it in a more fantasy type style, where it's like, I get thrown back in time, and there's no coming back. Right? Or time enough for love. It was one a was written in the 70s I think 70s where he figured out how to time travel so that he cuz he had done everything. Like he was Methuselah he had lived forever. He had lived 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of lives, and he was trying to find a way to die, is really what it was. And then his descendants were trying to convince him not to do so. So one of the things that they did was they figured out how to time Trump so that he could do things that he had never done before. And it was it's called time enough for love. Because, you know, really what he discovered was it's that process of romance of starting a relationship new of starting a new family starting. That makes you young again, yes. But he he time traveled back to like, and he was laughing because he wanted to talk try time travel back to his childhood, and the memories of fishing in the old lake and you know, that kind of thing. And the people who were helping him design this, we're like, you should go to the Battle of Hastings and he's like, why would I do that? That's so horrible idea. You should go to world war three. No Yeah, that's yeah, I want you want me to live? Why are you sending me to battle slates? Interesting? Well, and that's just it. I mean, if if I know there was a question in on a Facebook group today that I saw, and it was one of those questions that someone had made up, and they said, What would you like your superpower to be, and that gives you five options. And one of them was time travel, like, well, der time travel, because that gets rid of all those other problems, I don't need those skills. This is all I want. If I can time travel, I just want one jump, I'm gonna jump back to before Apple, like the day that apple became a public company. So I'm gonna bring money with me a lot of money in it and put it into a trust, a travel back to my own time, I'm gonna cash it, that's it. There you go. Or Google or you know, something like that. And then I don't have to worry about money, and we're all good. I don't need to change any historical things that happened. And it's interesting why, like, people are attracted to that idea. Like, that's a really great thing to say His excuse was also, or his reasons were great, too. And for me, I literally want to touch and smell history, I literally want to reach out my hand. And, and feel the fabric of time. And, and so many of it, like I just am such a kinetic person, and imprint and have those things imprint in my DNA, so they stay with me. If I have to get a superpower, it's gonna be an we're talking sci fi, but I'm going to go down a shifter, there's a shifter series, that is about basically women, if they reach their 50s, and they're unmated. And they've got this gene, it kicks in and it and basically on their, whatever birthday, they, their body regresses back to like 23. Okay, and they're young again, and, and they've got shifter metabolism, so they can eat whatever they want. That's why we're be a vampire. They're instantly thin. And it's just like, it's like I one of the shifter series that I that I have different outlines different novels that I may do someday has to do with magic coming back into the world and kicking in the shifter jeans. And then all of a sudden, these people are like, they're thin, and they're, you know, they're in shape. And thin isn't really the big thing for me in shape is, like healthy. Um, um, by the time this airs, I will be 46. And if I could get rid of these aches from the morning, if I could wake up and not Creek, or if I could sit with my foot underneath me and not end up like paralyzed for half the day. Cuz my body's like, Nope, you can't do that anymore. That's a superpower I would walk. Yeah, but a doctor who did a funny one like that, where it was, like, aliens were gave these magic diet pills, but they were actually just science where they needed the fat from human bodies, like made the fat like run away at night. So you lost a pound a night on the on these magic pills. And really what it was was like, the fat with like, it became this little alien that like walked away. Really, I'm like, I'm okay with that. I'm, you know, if I'm feeding some evil, you know, Empire, and it's taken away, you know, and I can eat whatever I want. And I'm good. That's awesome. So have we covered the sub genres and tropes for science fiction romance that we wanted to cover? I think we did. I think the only theme that we didn't cover was colonization. Oh, okay. So which will usually be futuristic? And maybe here, maybe not. You're talking about colonization offer? If right? Yeah, yeah. Where Earth is whether they've created a large ship full of enough people to start a colony and they've blasted it off into the stars. And then they land on another planet and then they have to build a new society. And sometimes they've got you know, great advanced tech and sometimes it's just throwing them back to the pioneer days. Yes, but they have the knowledge like they have a modern technology knowledge of what could be what what's possible while trying to build this world. I've seen you know, some Mars colony books, but I like the ones that they're so far flung, that there's no longer contact with the home world Home Society. And then really, to me, that's just a romance story on another world. Yep, absolutely. That was my husband got me watching 100. And I think he started watching it years ago. And then I watched it with him during COVID. Just because we needed something to watch. I found that really interesting. Because here you've got people that the top 1000 people or whatever it was that left Earth ended up in space in an ark for 100 years. And now they're wanting to find out if Earth is viable for them to come back. Because they're, they're running out of supplies early. Right. And so that's where it starts. And it's um, it's a I wonder if it was originally ya, just because the the main characters for the most part are, I think, I think it was based off of mine. Yeah, yeah. But it was interesting. Because, again, you you've got these technology, advanced people that have been living in space, and coming back to it a raw package like Earth where there's, you know, nothing, you know, striking the spear if you want to eat dinner, right. There's no pressing a button here. And I, I Yeah. And then of course, as the seasons go on, they end up having to leave Earth again, because they destroy once again, weather surprise, it almost makes me think that the way that they're presenting human beings in that show is that it's like that James blunt, blunt song. Give me a reason. But don't give me a second chance because I'll just make the same mistake again. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And counterpoint to that is like, the kind of thing where humans have just expanded out to the galaxy. And now there are lots of races around and everything like that, though. I do find an interesting theme or trend in those types of books in that somehow Earth women are the universal breeders. Yes, like because we have to be special. We Well, well, we have the ability to procreate with anything, apparently in it, which is a giant, obvious trope, I guess, of right. of aliens is if you're going to hook up with an alien hottie, you should be able to have a baby with them. Right. All right. I think that covers everything that we had laid out to talk about sci fi, fantasy or sci fi. Sci Fi romance, sci fi romance. There we go. Thank you for listening to coast to coast romance. I'm Ann Jensen. And I'm Skyler West. If you'd like to contact either of us. Our links are located in the show notes. Have a great week. Thanks so much for joining us.