Here is my hot take for the week: a small-town Fourth of July is the most romantic holiday on the calendar, and nobody talks about it enough. (Everyone is too busy fighting over who brings the potato salad.)

Think about it. The whole town shows up to one field. There is a parade that takes nine minutes because the route is two streets long. Somebody's grandpa is driving a tractor with crepe paper woven through the wheels. The high school band plays slightly off-key and everyone claps anyway....

National Typewriter Day is June 23, and yes, that’s a real holiday. (There is a National Typewriter Day. There is a National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day. There is something for everyone in this calendar system, which is either a sign of abundance or chaos, and I’ve decided not to investigate further.)

The typewriter arrived in 1873 and, for about a century, it was the fastest a story had ever been told. The sound of the keys, that specific unapologetic clatter, meant someone was making...

Before anything else: June 19 is Juneteenth, a federal holiday and a moment of American history worth pausing for. Take a moment. It matters.

Now. Father’s Day is Sunday, June 21, and I want to talk about the single dad in romance, because he is, without question, one of the most effective character setups in the entire genre. (I said what I said, and I’ll say it again in a court of law if necessary.)

Here’s what makes him work: he already knows how to love something more than himself. He did...