First Cup of Coffee - February 19, 2024

My Friday Freakout and how even experienced authors have emotional crises about their books, along with insight on shaken baby syndrome in books, how interruptions cause issues, and Longshot: an underrated movie.

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Transcript

00:01.29
jeffekennedy
Good morning, everyone! This is Jeffe Kennedy author of epic fantasy romance I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:12.57
jeffekennedy
Delicious ah and needed today today is Monday it is February Nineteenth president's day here in the us federal holiday federal and state so a three day weekend for a lot of people. Ah. I very nearly considered taking it off. Um except that I did well I kind of rested over the weekend I rested a lot on Saturday I did not do a hell of a lot I did go to yoga I caught up on some financial stuff but otherwise I kind of. Hung out I was just feeling pretty tired on Friday and just took the day off Saturday and I didn't do a lot of worky work stuff yesterday. But I finished grouting my tiling projects which is exciting a post one of them. As a picture on the show notes and but that the tiling was done the tiling had been done for a couple weeks and I thought silly me that that was the hard part and it was actually the grouting What's really hard. Um I did I titled a floor once back in the day at the first house that David and I owned together on Sixth street in Laramie Wyoming and there was this unfinished basement and actually it was funny.

01:49.14
jeffekennedy
It was like you came down the stairs and there was this unfinished basement with a door to another room ahead which was actually semi-finished and then there was another door to the coal bin because it was an old house. And so this bin that was full of cold dust but otherwise empty and then next to it was a door to like this laundry room storage area and the great big octopus furnace there and this is more detail than you need, but you get to know. We had made the ah bedroom the room we finished finishing it and it was my stepson Mike's room for when he was growing up and later my stepdaughter Lauren moved down in there. And because they had there was another bedroom upstairs but it was kind of like what so was supposed to be the dining room. It was not a big house. Ah, and then we converted the coal ban into a writing office for me when I decide to become a writer and that was interesting because we like had to scrape out all that. Coal dust and like they'd used newspaper for insulation in the room and fortunately David's very handy that way but I was I mean it was a great lesson ah thinking honorably of my ah Kennedy grandfather.

03:20.82
jeffekennedy
Who died of black lung from working in the mines I was blowing black snot for weeks seriously weeks it was like in my sinuses. Ah but David helped you know, showed me how to do everything we insulated it. We drywalled it. We put in a rug and it was my office and it was a. Was great little office. It really worked well but the point was is sort of the ante room there that where you would come down the stairs and it was open you know and then just basically led to these other places was a nothing room and I tiled that floor I laid the tile my floor myself. And painted the walls and covered them with shelves for books and so I called it the library and it actually worked pretty well. Ah, so anyway I have tiling experience I do not remember the grouting being that difficult. Of course I was.

04:17.68
jeffekennedy
25 years younger than I am now that could be um, but yeah, grouting the nichos and the hearths of the 2 fireplaces I am so sore today you all, that's that's the whole point. Um, it was just a lot of like getting it into. All of those crevices and then wiping it up and all of that I remember doing that tyling project. Maybe it was a different kind of grouch maybe being flortile or something like that anyway, it was a lot of work. Um, so that was like I had had a few other things I was playing get done yesterday which I did not I was like ah collapsed. Um, but it was good I'm enjoying doing these um home improvement projects still and the tile looks great. Everybody's so impressed that I can do this I think that's funny. Um, so on Friday Friday how did I do I did not do monumentally? Well um I didn't do terrible either. Let's see it was um what did I get. Oh well I was gonna say I got almost a thousand words by got 786 words but they were hard won um it wasn't terrible for the week I got 6000 words for the week still going slowly I did go talk in my discord because.

05:50.00
jeffekennedy
1 of the things that I tried to do there in my mentoring coaching Discord is I am not the rah rah everything is perfect kind of coach I am very much the yeah this shit is hard coach and so i. Try to I normally do try to keep things upbeat but I did go in there and say much as I normally try to be positive I want to share with you. All you know the reality that sometimes it sucks. And on Friday I was feeling like I was hating this book I just hating it and and it's really what's the word I want I want to say like sweet. Um, it's very caring because certain people will say things to me like they'll. They'll try to problem solve. They'll be like well you know is it this about the book or do you need to do that or the other thing and and whereas other people like my assistant kind of understand that this is a phase I go through. And they'll just be like oh yeah, okay, you hate it. Sorry talk to me tomorrow which is really the correct way to talk to a writer who is in the throes of I hate this book. Um, it's just it's an emotional phase. It's.

07:15.89
jeffekennedy
And maybe a necessary phase sometimes it doesn't necessarily mean anything at all. So um, yeah, ah I think I've got it at a better place I got through a critical saying. Did something that I needed to do. It was interesting to share with the the writers in my discord about you know that I was having this. We have different channels for things and we have one for each day of the week just in case people um want to be prompted to communicate and. I put it in Friday freak out which I don't think I've ever put anything in there before but I was freaking out. Um, but yeah, several people said that they appreciated knowing that that I go through this and I know so many writers do. You know my friends and we just don't do it publicly but you know like my friends will message me and they'll be like oh my god I hate this book I think it's terrible. It's a thing. It's a thing we do so? Um, yeah. Um, it's it's just been hard to write and I did after I put that in the Discord my my assistant Carien is in there too and she messaged me privately.

08:48.48
jeffekennedy
And she had some really good insight such good insight that I will share I just scroll past her and I gossiping about Joe Alwyn and the ah the tortured men society I had sent her a um little. Snippet from a podcast where you know analyzing Taylor's love life because this is so fascinating to us I'm so embarrassed. Um, but the podcast very interestingly was pointing out that the release date for ah. Taylor's new album the tortured poets society coincides with significant dates in her relationship with Joe Alwin and I just never liked that guy silk and I don't adore Travis Kelce but I think he treats her a lot better than Joe did so anyway. Carien and I were gossiping about that as what does I'm totally responsible for corine's Taylor swiftiness just saying so anyway Carien said back back to books. She said as I see it. There's been a lot of people looking and commenting on it while you were only a short way in and then you wrote other books in between sounds like you're not writing just your book but have tons of other voices whispering stuff about it and she is.

10:17.49
jeffekennedy
100% correct ah and I I looked and you know it's just kind of funny how time goes by and I hadn't realized how much time it gone by I've actually written 3 books since I started this book. That's amazing. Isn't it.

10:36.94
jeffekennedy
I wrote by you know I started this book had the draft sent it off to my agent just the spec just beginning. But then I wrote rogue familiar and Oneira and twisted magic. And then came back to this book. so so it is it's 3 books in between and I just hadn't realized that it had been that many and then in trying to explain to somebody else. Um, or maybe even here it had been a long time since I initially had the idea. Which can be a good thing to let those ideas percolate. But if I started writing this in the fall of 2022 which was that's what I started writing. Um. I had been talking to various friends about it just brainstorming some ideas in October and November early November of 2022 and then really buckled down and started writing it post thanksgiving when I went on that retreat in Hawaii. And I thought that I was going to write that book so fast. Ha ah, it always seems to be the kiss of death when I think I'm going to write something fast which is a thing right? We learned that from ah various psychological studies and it's been brought out in a couple of interesting books including.

12:09.12
jeffekennedy
That Burnout book I Love by theNagoski sisters Break. You know, unlocking the secrets of the stress cycle that when we think something's going to be easy then we have certain expectations for how easily we'll complete it right. Thats ah to autoology but and then when in we don't when it turns out to be more difficult than we anticipateed it causes us stress. So yeah, it's kind of the Kiss of death anytime that I think a book is going to be easy to write I should just really try not to think that.

12:48.15
jeffekennedy
That not thinking things is is is not as easy as saying it I was giving that advice to someone in my coaching group where I was able to help her identify why she was feeling a particular way. You know I said can you identify the fear. That's. That's driving this behavior and she could and I unfortunately she's a counselor but I said well you know you're a counselor so you know that identifying the source of the feeling is is a big step but otherwise you know it's up to you. You know like maybe some self-talk or you know we. Some various things that might help her um write to pause to regain my train of thought from from that digression. So anyway I started writing it then I talked to agent Sarah about the concept. In like January of 2022 but I had other things to write so I didn't get to it later till later and then um I had the original idea the inspiration for it to that's the sound of inspiration hitting um in. Winter of 2021. So yeah, um, Carien is absolutely right? that there have been a lot of interferencees right? because I did do it on spec I gave it to Sarah to read.

14:19.83
jeffekennedy
Agent Sarah and then I have thoughts from her I've thoughts from editors I've got a lot of input from people more so than I normally do because it was a little bit of a departure for me and I was getting input on the world building and you know. It's it's shaken baby syndrome I talk about this a lot which I know is a slightly gross traumatizing metaphor I apologize for that. But it's such a good one because if you think about the story as being an infant that does that is not yet. Strong enough to handle the onslaught of the world. You know that stop the soft soft spot and the skull and the baby maybe can't hold their own head up. You don't hand your baby to just anybody now this story wasn't entirely an infant. My story was a young child. Let's say a toddler but I still put this toddler through the rigors that normally I would put a fully formed and revised book through so it was kind of like I maybe we'll scale it up slightly a five year old I don't know. Um, young kid. It was like I sent my toddler to high school and my toddler did not do well on high school I mean I learned a lot about what I needed to teach that kid and but there are ways in which this child is.

15:56.81
jeffekennedy
A problem child now and I'm not going to do this again. I know I've said that before on here but I'm really just never going to try to sell a book to traad on Spec again because. It's ended up taking me so much longer. It feels like a shortcut Sometimes it is but other times it's just um, it ends up sucking up more time later right? So This is my. My lesson learned the the other thing I mean I could have done was write this sooner and maybe that's maybe that's my fault. Um.

16:44.58
jeffekennedy
I guess I didn't because it was out on sub. So again I'm coming back to the same conclusion I'm not going to submit anything to traditional publishing on speck it's got to be finished so there we are ah I am close I know I've been saying that for like a couple of weeks now

17:05.13
jeffekennedy
I still have 17000 words to go just over 17000? Um, but I think I hope and pray that it will start going faster now I certainly know which dominoes. I'll have to finish falling at this point so there we have it. Um, yeah, other things I wanted to talk about. You know what? I watched the other day. Um, because David put it on. Was the movie a long shot with um, ah, Seth Rogen and is it Charlize Theron where she is. It's the unlikely romance where she is running for president and. She ends up hiring him as her writer. They've known each other since they were kids and it is such a great romance I really enjoyed it the second time why don't we talk about that movie more It's it's really I think because. Gender flip doesn't always work for people. We've got the powerful woman and he is willing to be subordinate to her and to her political goals and so forth and boy we just don't celebrate that as much do we and.

18:34.10
jeffekennedy
Would love to see see more of that kind of thing. Um and I need to catch up on book reviewing I've just been reading a lot and watching a lot of movies and not writing this book. Well I am writing it I'm just writing a slowly so on that note I'm going to go. And maybe hopefully write it a little bit faster today and I will talk to you all on Friday you all take care bye bye.