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Warning, gentle reader: spoilers ahead for<\/em> Bridgerton season four, as well as plot points from the novels.<\/em><\/p>\n Three days before Bridgerton<\/em> season four<\/a> debuted, author Julia Quinn<\/strong> was grappling with how to balance her professional projects with the state of the world. \u201cYou get to the point where you have to say something,\u201d Quinn, whose eight interlocking books serve as the inspiration for the hit streaming series Bridgerton,<\/em> tells Vanity Fair.<\/em> \u201cYou can\u2019t let this moment pass.\u201d Faced with the prospect of promoting the show\u2019s latest installment, plus her new subscription book box<\/a>, Quinn knew she couldn\u2019t plug her upcoming projects without declaring her opposition to \u201ca government who\u2019s killing people and abducting children\u201d<\/a> amid the contentious ICE presence in Minnesota<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you get to a point where it feels like talking about anything but that is in poor taste, then that\u2019s what you have to talk about,\u201d Quinn says, speaking from Spotify\u2019s New York office (her entire Bridgerton<\/em> series is available as audiobooks on Spotify). A few days earlier, Quinn posted a video to Instagram that echoed the sentiment. \u201cI don\u2019t care anymore if you don\u2019t want to hear my political opinions,\u201d she said in the clip posted January 24. \u201cYou can leave.\u201d Quinn began writing historical romance as a senior art history major at Harvard University. Since then, she\u2019s published more than 35 historical romance novels<\/a> that have been translated into 41 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide, and she\u2019s secured a spot on the New York Times<\/em> bestseller list 19 times.<\/p>\n Quinn, who serves as a consultant on the Shonda Rhimes<\/strong>\u2013produced show, revels in positive fan responses like memes<\/a> and fan edits on TikTok. But in the current political climate, and with millions of eyes on her romantic fantasy world, Quinn has found it hard to pick up the pen after her most recently published book, Queen Charlotte<\/em><\/a> (coauthored with Rhimes), which was released in May 2023. As Quinn tells Vanity Fair,<\/em> there\u2019s a reason she\u2019s shifted her focus lately: \u201cHonestly, that felt more important than writing books.\u201d<\/p>\n Vanity Fair:<\/em> With the popularity of Bridgerton<\/a>, Heated Rivalry<\/a>,<\/em> and romantasy books, it feels like smut is having a pop culture resurgence<\/a>. Why are we gravitating toward this genre right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n Julia Quinn:<\/em> I haven\u2019t watched Heated Rivalry<\/em> yet. I was trying to find the right time to binge it because I\u2019ve heard enough to know that I\u2019m not going to be okay with watching just one episode. I\u2019ve been saving it, but I\u2019m super excited for it. I don\u2019t usually like the word smut,<\/em> but I do understand other people wanting to own it.<\/p>\n Is there a reason you don\u2019t love the word?<\/strong><\/p>\n Maybe this comes from having started in the 1990s, when, even though romance novels were the biggest moneymaker in publishing, we were still very much looked down upon<\/a>. I would never be talking to somebody from Vanity Fair<\/em> then. People would be telling you, \u201cAren\u2019t your books just about sex?\u201d Well, no, they\u2019re not. They\u2019re actually about relationships, of which sex is a really important part.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n