{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Balancing Spice and Story: Crafting Dark Romance with CS Kelleher","description":"On this episode of the Connecticut Book Festivals Podcast, Jed welcomes CS Kelleher, author of the dark contemporary romance novel Scorched Boundaries\u2014the first in a planned four-book series. CS shares how the book began in an entirely different direction: a romantic suspense involving mistaken identity and South Korean gangs. After hitting a massive bout of writer\u2019s block, inspiration struck one night while she was watching TV and typing on her phone. That spontaneous moment became the prologue to Scorched Boundaries and launched a brand\u2011new cast of characters and storyline. Listeners meet Maeve Donovan, an Irish American CEO of a boutique luxury real estate marketing firm in Portland, Oregon, and Lee Hae Jin, a South Korean billionaire mogul whose darkness shapes much of the story. CS explains the difference between romantic suspense and dark contemporary romance, emphasizing the heavier emotional themes, psychological thriller elements, and the importance of clear trigger warnings. CS talks about her deep love of Asian dramas and K\u2011pop, and how binge\u2011watching Korean and Chinese dramas during COVID helped inspire the emotional tone and character dynamics of her series. She and Jed also have fun discussing \u201cbrain characters\u201d\u2014those fictional voices that take over and insist on changing the plot\u2014and how one such character turned her planned trilogy into a four\u2011book series. Along the way, CS shares stories about writing spicy scenes, her retired\u2011teacher mom\u2019s grammatical \u201ceye twitches,\u201d honoring her Nana through her pen name, and her hopes to someday return to an earlier South Korea\u2013set project. ","author_name":"Connecticut Book Festivals Podcast","author_url":"https:\/\/sites.libsyn.com\/558800","html":"