Award-winning and best-selling author of fantasy and romance, Jeffe Kennedy shares her first cup of coffee of the day with listeners, giving a daily insight into the realities of being a career author.
Good morning everyone. This is Jeffy Kennedy and I'm here with my first cup of coffee. It's Monday, December 2nd, last month of 2019. How did that happen, right? My uh coffee is especially yummy because when I was in Tucson, I went shopping at the Williams Sonoma at La Encantada Mall, which is an annual tradition with my mom, my stepsister, and myself. We don't really do the Black Friday shopping so much, although we do get great deals. It's more of going out and roaming the shops. We buy clothes for ourselves, and we check out some of the Christmas decorations at Crate and Barrel, and we get peppermint and hot chocolate samples at peppermint bark and hot chocolate samples at William Sonoma. And they had a uh these capsules that are compatible with espresso, which is kind of a miracle. You all know I love my Nespresso machine, and they had a chocolate mint, and it is super yummy. It's very much like having a Starbucks peppermint mocha, only with none of the sugar, because of course I sweetened with stevia. So I was very happy with that find. I also got a package of pumpkin spice, which was on deeper sale because they said it was from the fall promotion, but I think it's because it's icky. It actually tastes um like mustard in a way. I'll give it another try. I think if I don't expect it to taste like pumpkin spice, I might not mind it, but it is a little much. Now that it's December, I have got my Jackie Lawson electric computer advent calendar going. That's the music you hear in the background. I really love these things. My mom and I have this tradition of doing it every year. So I'm going to play it and share it with you. Obviously, I won't be able to share it with you all every day, but this year I have the Cotswold calendar. And I watched yesterday's, and now December 2nd, it says the most valuable shops are the closest ones. We like shops, right? Here we go. There's kids looking in the window of the toy shop. Oh, carousel and balloons and a big Pinocchio. Now the kids are running inside the shop. Oh, and all sorts of shoppers going in. People are buying all the things, getting all the toys. Shopkeepers happy. Now she says closed. Oh no, there's a little kitty shut outside the door. Washing his paw. Oh now the shopkeeper came out. She let the kitty into the store, and now the kitty's sleeping in the window. And the sign says closed with a sprig of holly. How lovely. I love it. I always think I want to get a real advent calendar. I longingly look at them every year. The ones with the uh, you know, like the fancy chocolates in them or the whiskey a day. In fact, I looked at one of those whiskey a day ones, and so of course now the ad is haunting me everywhere I turn on the internet. They keep thinking maybe I still want to get it. But you know, they're so expensive. Um and so I do my Jackie Lawson one, which costs five dollars. Um, so I apologize to you all that I did not uh post a podcast on the 30th. I really did have every intention of doing it, and I nearly made it my 30 days. Um, but we got up early to road trip from Tucson, and I just felt like I didn't have time. And then, of course, the you know, eight-hour drive back home, and then I got home and we had a bunch of cleanup to do on the house. Uh our the house setter we had this time was not awesome, and there was a lot to deal with, which was kind of upsetting. You know how that sort of thing can feel like a violation when somebody doesn't take care of your house properly. So, but that's in the past, it's done with. So I think that uh it certainly counts because I did a podcast on the 31st of October. So I did all my 30 days in a row. And for those of you who are winding up Dan O'Rimo, I hope that you were not bothered that you didn't get that final day podcast. Consider this um your final day podcast. It's um I hope that you didn't just screech to a halt, which is what I see a lot of people do. If you wanted to take a break on Sunday, I hope you did, because I think that, you know, definitely take the breaks that you deserve. But I see an awful lot of people say, Oh, I did nano Rhymo and I won. I got my 50,000 words, or I got almost 50,000 words, and then they never, you know, they'll say, Oh, yes, I write wrote a novel. One of my high school friends said that. I'm so excited, I wrote a novel, and then never did anything ever again. And as you all know, I often say that the um, you know, you got to keep progressing, progressive realization of the goal. And if you want to be a writer, then you really have to build that writing habit and follow it in the long term. So I think no matter how things worked out for you on NanoRimo, whether you felt like you won or not, I hope you I hope it gives you a foundation to move forward. I think that's the most important thing. Yeah. As for me, I am working away on stuff. I did not work on the fate of the Tala at all while in Tucson. I kind of thought that I wouldn't. I did finish uh copy edits on the fiery crown in the car on the drive home. So that another reason why I didn't podcast. But it only took me a few hours. I did as I had intended. I just bounced from track change to track change. This copy editor is just amazing at St. Martin's. She's so good. So I um yeah, just got that finished. Today I have to do my dedication and acknowledgments. Usually, and I've given this advice before, it's really good advice, is as you're writing the book to keep a running document of people to thank as you you know come up with things in the document. Um, I wish I had taken my own advice because I apparently didn't do it this time. I went to open my acknowledgments document and they ain't none. So, for whatever reason, this time on Fiery Crown, I did not write any of those things. So I'm going to have to come up with a whole hog, but it shouldn't be that difficult. And see excuse me, I'm kind of sneezy this morning. Gracious. So I had to pause to let that sneezing fit pass. I don't know what the deal is, sir. At any rate, I um am going to be hitting the fate of the tallow really hard. Have I been saying that all along? I have at this point, I don't know, something like 20,000 words to go, right? I've been saying that for a long time. I think it's gonna come out around 104,000 words. It'll be interesting to see what it's like digging into it now that it's had a little bit of rest. Hopefully that will um will make a difference. Um letting me get over this last hump. Let's see. So, yeah, I'm gonna just pass 82,000 words. So I might have like um, what am I figuring? 109? Finishing at 109? That's what I have right now predicted. So certainly 26,000 words, which I should be able to get done in the next two weeks, have some time for revision, have some time for the CPs to look at it. They should be able to give it a pretty quick read, and then I can do a revision and get it to my line and copy editor before for her to work on over Christmas. Yeah, it could happen, it could totally happen. I think I know what's going to fall out at this point. I just need to wind everything up. So I'm going to get past this climax, this climactic event, and at some point I'll go back and layer in. I suspect some of that, those 109,000, the remaining 26,000 are going to come from layering in. There's a couple of characters I realized I should probably touch on and bring into the mix. So that'll be the focus of my concentration. So I think I will focus on getting to work here today. And I hope that you all are feeling spry and excited about the holiday season if you celebrate here in the US or elsewhere. And I will talk to you all tomorrow. Um Jeff, first cup of coffee is of course part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more podcasts you'll love at frolic.media slash podcasts. And that's it for me today. Take care. Bye bye.
