First Cup of Coffee - September 19, 2022

Some stats on my Bookbub Featured Deal and setting DARK WIZARD free for the week. TL:DR-great sell through on books 2 & 3! Also how I harvested grapes, organized all the things, and danced to TSwift.

The blog post I mention on writing communities is here https://blog.jeffekennedy.com/2022/09/18/circles-of-community-how-writer-friends-keep-me-going/

Interested in Author Coaching from me? Information here: https://jeffekennedy.com/author-coaching

Preorder SHADOW WIZARD, Book One in Renegades of Magic, continuing the epic tale begun in DARK WIZARD. https://jeffekennedy.com/shadow-wizard

ROGUE'S PARADISE is out today! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-paradise). Buy book 1, ROGUE'S PAWN, here! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-pawn) and book 2, ROGUE'S POSSESSION, here! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-possession).

ORIA'S GAMBIT now available in audio on Scribd here! https://www.scribd.com/audiobook/571010481/Oria-s-Gambit LONEN'S WAR - now in audio! - is available wide. Buy links here https://jeffekennedy.com/lonen-s-war and in audio on Scribd here https://www.scribd.com/audiobook/558914129/Lonen-s-War

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Transcript

00:01.64
jeffekennedy
Good morning, everyone! This is Jeffe Kennedy author of epic fanmasy romance I'm here with my first cup of coffee delightful. Ah today is Monday September. What. Nineteenth my eyes the nineteenth. Why did they make the date so tiny at the bottom I could probably change that anyway.

00:34.79
jeffekennedy
Ah, so I had a good weekend. A good restful weekend. Um, continuous listeners faithful adoring listeners will be delighted and no doubt relieved to know that I fixed the fucking chairs if you're new to the show that. Are occasionally f bombs probably at least 1 per episode. Ah I fixed them. Yay. So I I had a productive weekend I did not work on the book I set that aside. Which means that this week is crunch week I have to finish this revision so I have to get through at least 76 pages a day today tomorrow Wednesday then two days of out loud proofing with a bit of slop over. On to Saturday if I have to hopefully I won't have to ah fortunately it's just incredibly gorgeous weather and so I can for the proofing perhaps set outside and do my reading.

01:49.97
jeffekennedy
I had a long conversation with Grace on Saturday we finally had our catchup business call and that was very productive good to talk to her I posted um a catch up blog post yesterday on the sf f 7 um and I mentioned my. Calls with Grace we do a a ah monthly business call monthly I'm going to put that in air quotes we try sometimes it doesn't always work out that way. But that's on top of like other kinds of chatting or quick phone calls about this that or the other. Ah. Often urgent gossip like do you want to hear this thing I just found out and we're like yes, so the the business call we kind of go over just. What our plan is what our strategy is what we're working on. We ask each other questions about stuff. What do you think about this or that um you know, sort of trade. What's been effective for us on various things. It. It's um. It's really useful I mean I think you know there are a lot of people who would call it like a mastermind call which you know sort of I feel like that's gotten a little bit ah diluted over time and was perhaps slightly questionable to begin with ah but the idea of mastermind. Um.

03:21.78
jeffekennedy
I think it was coined by Napoleon Hill with the idea that you have people who are um so aligned with you and want your success that you're working together towards a common goal and. I think it's harder to manufacture than a lot of people wanted to believe I've I know I've known a lot of people who have like lotdi da created a mastermind group. You really can't be competing with each other. You have to really. Honestly, want the best for each other the more people therefore that you get in the group the more likely it is to get problematic but Grace and I um probably entirely because she's such a delightful person. Ah, we really do wish each other the best and. No competition between us I've talked about competition before how I think it's deadly lethal kills. It's a poison. Anyway, you could tell him'm pretty rev today huh keyed up keyed up to finish this book. So. So yeah, Grace and I had a great business phone call and I talked about it a little bit in the blog post you know, sort of my different levels of writing community. One of the things that talking with Grace does is it helps us both align our priorities because it's so easy to get.

04:54.67
jeffekennedy
Mired in the day to day right into thinking about the you know like what do I have to get done this today. What do I have to get done this week and the calls give us a chance to kind of pull back and look at our overall strategy for the year you know what? what is the priority. What are we trying to do. Um, and I I think it's been really helpful for both of us. We've ended up making some decisions on these calls. You know things of okay, um, you know, let's just drop this effort because it's not going to be useful. Let's do this other thing.

05:33.50
jeffekennedy
Likesourcing so um, yeah, had that call with her and I was probably going somewhere with that. Yeah ah had a wonderful meetup with my friend. Megan Mulry who has in the course of a week put in an offer on the house got the house put her house up for sale but she she. Put in the offer on like Monday and it was accepted then she got her house ready for sale and on the market by Friday and they had showings on Saturday and she was under contract for her house her house by Sunday morning. The woman is a dynamo. It also. Nearly dropped her she she needs to take it easy. This week is our plan hello hummingbird change this so you could see the hummingbird. The birds are all getting ready for the is it not good. Getting ready for their migration. Yeah, that like I said the weather's been fabulous. She might be telling me. It's to be changed. It's looking a little cloudy. There isn't up alas not something I got done I did clean up the grape arbor

07:05.48
jeffekennedy
Tied up the vines cleared out all the grape detritus and reader I harvested grapes I know it's like the first time. Well second time ever but in 13 years I think I did the very first year ah yeah I harvested grapes and I felt very um bucolic it was like I said incredible weather. It's that perfect autumn weather where the air is crisp and cool and the skies are dazzling blue and the sun is that. Molten gold warmth and so yeah I came out under the grape arbor and harvested grapes and it felt very relaxing and when we talk about how do you refill the well um, talking with friends is 1 turns out harvesting grapes is another and I found the correct tool which I have now kept out for tightening the chairs so look at this if you're on video I can wiggle in the chair and it doesn't come apart. Simple joys.

08:18.99
jeffekennedy
Um, I also this weekend did a long forestalled task in that I rearranged the refrigerator took everything out and moved the shelves around because um David.

08:36.20
jeffekennedy
Love the man been with him forever. At this point I think we just call it forever. Ah, he's always had the. Where's my man gene where he can look right at something and not see it or if it's behind or under something. He can't find it. Ah I don't. I Don't understand this this particular gene but it turns out very handy because if there's like something I don't want him to find or see all I have to do is put it behind or under something pumps and serious people. So anyway with the Parkinson's disease. It has made it. It is only exacerbated this particular problem in that he um, it's hard for him to bend over and see things. His neck is very stiff and so if it's like below eye level in the Fridge. He just can't see it and which is a problem for the person who's doing like all of. The grocery shopping meal planning and Cooking. So I Finally rearrange things so that the the juices and the tall things are now at the bottom. Um, the bottom drawer and bottom shelf are basically just like my stuff and. Then I put a series of shallower shelves at the top so that he can see stuff and we kind of consulted on that we threw a lot of things away and I did the same for the pantry which desperately needed it I took all of the the booze shelf all of that alcohol.

10:07.43
jeffekennedy
And moved it down to the floor because I'm basically the one who rummages do that stuff since he can't really drink anymore and I don't drink much hard liquor but I Also a lot of that stuff I use for cooking on the rare occasions that I cook or bake anymore. But it's also like. I Don't know I've made a plan that I'm going to start tasting like some of these liqueurs. You know the bottles of liqueur that sort of ah take up residence in your liquor cabinet and live there forever and they're so valuable and usually gifts. Ah, yeah, and you're like well men can't throw it away.

10:49.62
jeffekennedy
Probably not appropriate to give it to the person ah panhandling on the corner either. So so yeah, what do you do with those so I'm going to try them and if they're bad I'll pour them out if they're good I'll make an effort to ah. I don't know start indulging in a liqueur in the evening. So. So yeah, those were big tasks and I also finished getting the taxes all put together. So I have to do a few more things on it today. But then I'm going to send it off to our CPA and it's amazing though because this is yes, still 2021 because we're in this last quarter filing cycle and it's amazing. How few paper receipts I had for 2021. It's just funny to look at that now because it's like because I put them all in this one folder every time I come back from a trip or an event or something like that where I have receipts where I'm going to deduct I put them all in this one folder. So I just sort out all of the 2022 because here it is. Mid -september we're gonna stick with mid, not late and so I you know quite a few twenty twenty two in there but easily 3 times as many as I have paper receipts for 2021 because um, now we forget I didn't really go much of anywhere.

12:20.63
jeffekennedy
And 2021 so um, soundtrack for the weekend has been Taylor Swift Lover cruel summer been listening cruel summer on repeat. Um, also I think he knows.

12:41.70
jeffekennedy
Ah, what a great album though. What an excellent album? Ah Megan was not was feeling wiped out because she accomplished this superhero worthy task I still can't believe she did it I told her I stand in on. She took a a bow and then told me I could sit down. Um I could not have done this people so she was not feeling all that great on Sunday morning and we were texting and she was telling me about she was listening to a band that people had recommended and did I like them and I was like yeah I'm mad and she's like there's so mad. And she said well what are you listening to and I was like um I might be listening to cruel summer on repeat and she put it on and she was like instant mood change. Thank you Taylor we love you. So.

13:37.97
jeffekennedy
And I also did a lot of reading I have been embarked on a yet again a reread of Jacqueline Carey and bouncing around this time I've been skipping some parts but I've been really reading Kushiel's legacy Imriel's story and royal in sidoi and going back and reading some parts of the original trilogy. Um, ah just such freaking brilliant books.

14:15.17
jeffekennedy
So so yeah, that was my um I suppose my my autumn chores edition of the weekend was nice to be outside and do some things. Um, yeah, got to spend some time. And the grape arbor and on the portal reading and otherwise getting a lot of those things dealt with so that was great and oh and Jason was good I also got a couple of blog posts written getting ready for release of shadow wizard. So now. Um. I think I'm pretty well queued up to to spend this week finishing out this revision. Um, yeah, it's good I think to balance out the the mental effort of of something like revision. With the what is it like manual tasks of doing things like harvesting grapes and tying up grapevines.

15:20.55
jeffekennedy
So I think I'll leave it at that Today. It's sort of a a broad sweep but I slept so many hours last night and it was funny because David and i. Both went to sleep fairly early as as we do and this storm swept in at like Eleven P M and I mean it came in with a roar and woke us both up and those of you who? ah. Longtime listeners or friends will know that it's not easy to wake me up that I ah I sleep very very hard and and this storm came in and came in from the south and most of our windows face the south and they were all open and it just warm. Ah.

16:16.64
jeffekennedy
Wind and rain and lightning and so we were both up closing windows and then it disappeared again, but it dumped a fair amount I should go and look and see how much actual rain we got from it but it was unexpected and then i. And I'd already been asleep for a couple of hours and then I went back to sleep and slept till six thirty so I guess I'm doing a lot of that. Um, replenishing of the neurotransmitters in preparation for finishing this revision. Oh and I should tell you all that Carien did finish reading it. Ah. She popped up later on Friday and she said so tell me that you're writing the sequel next and I said no actually I'm not but I'm writing this secret movie project next and then the holiday novella next and then this one I said but soon. And I said so does that mean that you liked it and she said like is the wrong word. She said I loved it um she loved love loved it people and she says the ending is perfect. Ah I don't know if I should tell you the exact words that she used for it. But she said it's perfect and it couldn't be anything other than. What I made it be which is what I thought so so there we are um oh final statistics on I should share these with you on the um, the freebie because I know some of you were interested in that so it was.

17:52.90
jeffekennedy
Very effective. Um I would say already very effective I ended up with um, over 13000 downloads um copies for the week of dark wizard. Um through yesterday like afternoon. We're at 13348 I don't know if I could tell you how many of those were free versus um sales but they are mostly free and then ah I have been selling very well through on the next 2 books which we'd hoped. Ah, preorders for shadow wizard really took off so the book but feature deal cost me three hundred and seventy one dollars and by the the featured deal was on Tuesday by Thursday I had sold enough copies of books, 2 and 3 to pay for the featured deal plus more and still doing really nice sell through on those other 2 books. Um, yeah, so and then getting these preorders for a shadow wizard have really been ah shooting up. Um.

19:07.53
jeffekennedy
It's been up for preorder for I don't know for like forty days and for a long time I was getting 2 to 3 preorders per day and then now I am at like 5 preorders per day but that's an average overall so that gives you a sense of how much it shot up. Just over this last week so you know I've never been a fan of setting things to free and yet I I may be a convert now as I'm not sure I would do it without the book but featured deal. Ah because I've set stuff free before and it just doesn't go very far. I did not do ad stacking which a lot of people do um because I did ad stacking before and I didn't see much difference from the other ads so you know me I don't want to spend money if I don't have to so on that note. I am now going to go get to work I hope you all have a wonderful Monday I hope it's kicking off a productive week for you I hope you're feeling that um that autumn energy like I am and I will talk to you all tomorrow you all take care bye bye.