Hey Riddle Riddle - Patreon Preview #312: Steel Yourself

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

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So the question I want to ask you too, what is your relationship to the author and their work Danielle Steele? Do you know, when I say Danielle Steele, do you know who that is? I think of mass market paperback romance novels. Yeah, I think of like airport books. I've never, I wouldn't be able to tell you a title or style or even if any of them have been turned into movies or anything. Now in Adelson romance, and I think that that's not wrong, and I have also never read a Danielle

Steele book, but I think that Danielle Steele is like a, it's so interesting because I think the romance genre, Danielle Steele has been as prolific as she's been writing, I think her first book that she published was like in the 70s. I think like the- It's the Stephen King of smut. Well, but it's not smut because I think- Still listening. I think a lot of- Stephen King smut type into porn.com.

I think a lot of the modern day, I don't know, what do you even call it? That kind of smut, like the trashy nature of things is like explicitly sexual. And I don't think that Danielle Steele, I think her thing is like more romance, but also not even like always necessarily romance. Like sometimes it's just like a contemporary fiction,

but it's, and I've also heard that some of her stuff is like sad or like has like, there's like real struggle to it, which is not the same as like romance. Yeah. I feel like that nowadays when you say romance, it's kind of loaded and people think like, you know, quivering member and other things that I've remembered from 10 things I hate about you. How did you know what I was member and other things that I've remembered from 10 Things I Hate About You.

How did you know what I was thinking? Can you read mine? Who told you? I've also never read a Danielle Steele book, but I'm fascinated by her. And I it's one of those things where it's like, I don't know if this sensation is familiar to you. But if you ever been like- Quivering members. Now I know that sensation's not familiar to you. Hold on, let me get my just, and then everybody just kind of make small talk for just a moment. Just make small talk for just a moment.

I am having a ton of sex. Okay. Yay, Erin. Good for you, Erin. Yay, Erin, good for you, Erin. Yay, Erin. But the sensation of you are fascinated by a thing, but you don't wanna know anything more about it. Like I never want to have the illusion stripped away from me of like what this thing is.

Yeah. Do you feel that way about anything? That's a great question. Let me think on it. My first instinct, and I haven't thought this through completely, so apologies if I change my mind immediately. Yeah.

I feel like almost like even like cowboy culture or something where I'm like, I get it. There's guys with boots and these hats and they ride horses and they're herding cattle. And it's like, I'm sure if I did a deeper dive, it's like, I feel like cowboy started in either Mexico or South America and then the, so I feel like there's, there's so much more depth to it. But to me, I'm like, yee haw and cowboy hats and lassoes.

That's the cowboy. That's the extent, the full breadth of, of what a cowboy is. Yeah. But there's, there's stuff like that where I do, I'm like, I'm sure there's more underneath the water, but I don't care to dip my face below surface. more underneath the water, but I don't care to dip my face below surface. I feel that way a little bit about like how food gets made and where it comes from. Like I feel so I can get like food quite easily. And obviously I'm not just talking about like meat stuff that we know is really intense.

Meat stuff. That's a Daniel Steele novel, right? So, but yeah. Yeah. I don't want to know. Yeah, that's like everything. Everything is way more complicated than like the base level understanding that you have of it. But there are some things that I just don't have the inclination to ever dig into. Daniel Steele is one of them.

But I am fascinated by Daniel Steele because, a couple of things about her. She was, she's currently 77 years old. I was just about to ask, 76? Wow. 77 years old. She has been married and divorced, I think, six times. Icon. Isn't that crazy? It'd be funny if she was married six times,

divorced two times. I know. Wait a minute. Yeah, married and divorced six times. I don't think she's ever had a marriage go longer. Her longest was nine years. Seven children, biological children. And this shocked me. So she started writing in the 70s. She has written 190 books, including over 140 novels, and she's sold 800 million copies. What? Damn.

Now, that means- So she's like a billionaire. She, well, I mean, I think she's very wealthy. But it seemed wild to me, because I was like, that's too many books, first of all, to write. Yeah. She, between the years of, I wanna say,

uh, 19, it was like 1994. Yes, between the years of 1994 and 2014, a 20 year period, she wrote three books a year. But then- That's Brandon Sanderson level output. Three books a year is a crazy pace. Yeah, what is, I wanna know her daily routine. That's nuts.

We'll get to that. In 2015? You know? Well, I know what she claims. In 2014, or 2015, she wrote four books. 2016, she wrote seven books. And then it's seven books, seven books, seven books. She has written seven books every year for like over a decade.

What the fuck? Holy shit. Now, she did an interview a few years ago where someone was like asking her about her process. And this is by the way, a 77 year old woman who I guess in her like 60s, like 60s and 70s was cranking up seven, a woman who has like seven kids and presumably at least a grandchild.

A thousand husbands. Seven books a year. Oh, she hates her kids. Well, she was saying that she routinely, she writes all of her books on typewriter, like these two different typewriters, one in her house in San Francisco, one in her house in Paris,

which is also crazy to be like, I'm a novelist in the modern age writing on a typewriter. Like, that's really just a hassle for the people that work with you that probably have to take that and type it up into a computer. But she said that she writes all the things on typewriters and she routinely puts in like 22 hour days writing. What? Now there's also a lot of speculations.

Oh, so she loves writing. Well, I guess. There's also a lot of-ulations. Oh, so she loves writing. Well, I guess. There's also a lot of speculation that she's absolutely full of shit and that she has ghost writers that she just doesn't want to claim. But it's crazy to say, like, when you were making a name for yourself, you wrote three books a year, and then now you're cranking up seven books a year, you're 70s, that's to be...

More than double. A little unbelievable. I would say a little unbelievable. Now, Aaron, if I told you I was writing 22 hours a day, that leaves two hours where I'm not writing. Obviously, I have to sleep at some point. We'll, I don't know, say for an hour, we'll take an hour of that time

to say I'm sleeping during that hour. That leaves one hour for me to eat poop pee. You can't do that while you're writing? Walk upstairs, walk downstairs. Where are the commas in this sentence? Because you should absolutely not be eating poop and pee. Hey, hey, GBC, no commas. Oh yeah, oh yeah.

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