First Cup of Coffee - April 22, 2021

Happy Earth Day! I'm talking about why I don't believe in conspiracy theories (people just aren't that clever), getting into the rhythm of drafting again, how my views of travel have changed, and RWA's summer retreat.

Find THE SORCERESS QUEEN AND THE PIRATE ROGUE here (https://jeffekennedy.com/the-sorceress-queen-and-the-pirate-rogue)

You can watch the You Tube video of the podcast here (https://youtu.be/Mi0ygVbWVew).

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning everyone. This is Jeffy Kennedy, author of Fantasy Romance and Romantic Fantasy. I'm here with my first cup of coffee. Hmm, that's good. I swear, every time I say it now I think of Katie Lane imitating me. Damn you, Kathy. Uh today is Thursday, April 22nd. Earth Day. Happy Earth Day, everyone. Uh 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Uh and um ironically enough, the presence of a global pandemic has uh interfered with the planned anniversary celebration celebrations. Gaia just given us a little uh poke in the ribs, reminding us that we are not in control of the world. Which I feel like a number of people are still having trouble getting to their heads. Um, a friend of ours who works at a gallery here in Santa Fe said that um there have been a lot of people from Texas come up here. We're relatively close, and uh Santa Fe is kind of a Texas playground for better or worse. We'll take their money. But uh she said that I don't know when people say, you know, people tend to make sweeping statements, but she said people Texans are coming into her gallery, you know, that could mean one, but and saying that uh they're not planning to get vaccinated, why should they when the pandemic isn't real or COVID isn't real? And it's just amazing to me that uh that people can can cling to this idea that it's somehow not real, you know. It's like so the entire world engaged in some sort of I don't know, massive conspiracy to can like I don't know. I I don't even know what they think. You know, it's like, well, you can't believe everything you see on the news. It's like, well, yeah, um, you know, it's just it's it's boggling to me to think about what it would take to stage uh a conspiracy, a scam on on that level. Uh all of the world governments you would have to get to conspire and agree and work together for for what it's one of the reasons why I don't buy into conspiracy theories in general. I do think that they're colluding forces. Uh, I do think that uh the mega corporations uh attempt to um create blocks uh using money and influence and so forth, um you know, certainly to fund particular political candidates and that kind of thing. But, you know, for the most part, uh a conspiracy requires a lot of clever thought and and meticulous planning. I'm noticing that my uh blouse here is it's probably the way that I dried it. I shouldn't have dried it on the hanger. It's got like the poofy thing, so that's that's irritating me. Let's see. Oh, I know. I'm gonna do the broadcast news thing. Ah, look at that. It's where you sit on the bottom of your shirt. Remember that from broadcast news? Now I've referenced broadcast news several times on this podcast. There, that's better. This is a new top that my mom bought for me. It's soft surroundings at uh Long Cantata and Tucson. Thank you, mom. Oh, and let me do earrings. That's much better than me uh ranting about politics. Although there's a place for all here on First Cup of Coffee, which I do feel like is a valuable part of the brand. Today's earrings. Look, aren't these pretty? They're fairly small, especially for me. Uh little silver set faceted blue stones, nice opening on the back to admit light so that they sparkle beautifully. I'm not sure what stone they are. Uh, but David gave these to me, another pair of earrings, although these are ones I love, and he gave them to me for our 30th anniversary. Uh, which we don't always give each other anniversary presents. So this was uh a surprise and a delightful one at that. And I like these earrings very much. For all that they're small, they show up nicely and they they go well with many other things. So so that's good. So yeah, anyway, you know, it's trying to to pull off a real conspiracy would not be an easy thing. And some of the uh people that supposedly, you know, like like our government is ponderous enough that you can only get so much done anyway. Um the the idea that they could somehow pull off this vast conspiracy is um just not rational. But the people who are subscribing to conspiracy theories are not people who are thinking about it rationally anyway, right? It's not a question of logic, it's a question of wanting to believe something, I think. And maybe a reflection of of this sort of pervasive human fear that there is something that we don't know, that we are missing out on some critical uh secret that people empower know and we don't. But you know, if let's just say, let's just say that there's a vast conspiracy out there that's planning to, I don't know, put nanotechnology in the vaccine or you know, do something. If let's let's let's use COVID as an example. If there were a worldwide conspiracy to create the appearance of a global pandemic, don't you think that they would scrub the internet of that information? I mean, after all, Kylie Jenner's people were nearly able to scrub the internet of that bikini shot that was not doctored enough to please her. Are you guys impressed when I know this? I actually have uh an a fascination for some of the Instagram accounts that are like um Instagram famous, and I think I've mentioned this before, but that talk about the various kinds of cosmetic surgery that uh famous people have had, or the uh especially the Instagram influencers and how they uh photoshop their images to and and it's funny because I actually don't follow any of the original accounts. I only see the stiff because I see the commentary on what they've done. So I think it's Kylie Jenner. I'm I'm not a uh a Kardashian expert by any stretch, but um she's a model and she posts all these photos to Instagram of her looking um Barbie-esque. I mean, the the way that her uh figure looks is does not look human. And it's for a reason, it's because she's so excruciatingly photoshopped. So apparently her grandmother snapped a picture of her in a bikini at the pool where she looks lovely. I mean, lovely, but she also looks human and there's like little folds and bulges here and there, uh, which you know, like a human being would have. And it got posted to the internet accidentally. I think they said an assistant did it, but I think grandmother posted it, and so then all of her people have been trying to scrub it from the internet. Um, with some success, they've done a lot of takedowns, but then it persists in other places. So maybe I've just argued myself out of my own theory, but I do think that um, you know, this proliferation of sites where they reveal all of this secret information that the people in power don't want you to know. It's like, well, the people in power must not be very much in power if your your website's sitting here telling all their secrets. Anyway, so um moving on. One day we will not talk about the pandemic, right? I have writer coffee today, yay, writer coffee, and hoping to get a little bit of writing done before I go do that. I'm making progress on Bright Familiar, kind of getting more into the flow of it now. I've got um 11,500 words, so just about through the first scene. So that's good. I I feel like I don't have much wiggle room on this book. I know that's changing my tune from what I said before. Um, and now we are going to have family come visit. Uh, David's brother and his wife are gonna come visit us in later May. And originally they were gonna come in June, which was perfect because it was gonna be after I'd finished drafting this book, and now they are going to be here sooner than that, which is not so perfect, but David's really excited to have them come visit, so and it'll be fun, it'll be fun to see them. So the the disadvantage of sitting on your shirt is then it pulls the front up. That's why I'm not a professional broadcaster. Um, so yeah, I am about halfway through reading my reread of Dark Wizard and sort of getting back into the flow of those uh of the story and the ideas. I think I know where I'm going with this book, which is actually kind of I have some fun ideas. Jennifer Estep has provided several um ideas from her wish list of how she would like the story to go, which I think is funny. Uh if you all have um anything on your wish list, let me know. I of course don't promise to uh use them, but you never know. If you have Jennifer had one really great idea, so I was like, oh yeah, I'll totally do that because that would be funny. And let's see. Kind of just been working on getting an even pattern to my days again. Um I think you know, travel is just disruptive that way. And it's funny because I know I talked about that one of the side effects, I guess I could say, of the pandemic of lockdown and not traveling so much was discovering how much better arrested I am without traveling so much. Um and I've also found that I don't necessarily want to travel so much. Um RWA is not doing their conference at Opry Land in July, which was the original plan. But they are doing a, I believe they renegotiated the contract with the hotel, but they are doing a um a writing retreat in the middle of July, and they put out a call for people to do like workshops and stuff. And I I kind of considered it, and then I thought, I don't think I want to travel there. I could. I mean, fully vaccinated and all of that. I don't know. I'm I'm toying with it. Is anybody going? I mean, I guess I feel like things with RWA are weird. Um, here I am going on record saying that. Um I don't know, communications are strange. They say they're communicating, but they're not really. Um I don't feel included in the bigger conversation. I don't really understand what they're trying to do. Um their reasoning on some of the stuff with the Vivian Awards is odd. I guess I haven't said um that uh Dorinda finaled uh in medium-length uh paranormal for uh the the new Vivian Awards. So congratulations Dorinda for um Betwixt. Yay, congratulations. But then amusingly enough, she is the only finalist in her category. So we're not exactly sure what that means, except that we think that it means she's automatically won, right? Uh odd things. So yeah, I was thinking, do I want to go to Opri Land? And I mean it would be nice to see people, but also things just seem odd, you know, and like a lot of the reasons that I would go to meet with, you know, like agents and editors. I mean, you go to because everybody else will be there. That's the main reason to go. And if I'm feeling uncertain that anyone I want to hang out with is gonna be there, um, yeah, I don't know. So I should ask around. I should start asking people and then sort of determine if anybody's gonna go. But at this point, yeah, I'm not really feeling it. And I think as several of you suggested, that you know, what I would do is just pick one or two things to go to each other, and I think that's probably what it's gonna end up being. But right now, um I don't have any in-person writer stuff planned. It's all online, and it would be nice to do some in-person stuff. It would be nice if um if Cephweb pulled together some kind of meeting for fall, but you know, things are are looking, I don't know, not not entirely predictable. So um yeah, I mean they moved WorldCon to December, but it's it's late December, it's it's very near Christmas, um, which is not my favorite time to travel. So 2022 might be the year. It occurred to me that Earth Day in 2022 will be 422, 2022. So maybe we can do some some good celebrations then. It's nice to feel like we have uh an administration that actually is trying to do work to to move things forward. Um I do believe that we have the technology that we could that we can reverse a lot of the climate change damage and make a difference if we are acting on it with alacrity and um the diligent pursuit that has been missing in uh the last four years. So um I think that's all I have to say, and I want to get some work done before I go to write her coffee, so I'm going to call her good for the day. I hope you all are doing well. Hope you all have a good day. I hope you um do something to to celebrate Earth Day. Or remind you all that first cup of coffee is part of the Frolic Media Podcast Network. And you will find more podcasts you love at frolic.media slash podcasts. And I will talk to you all tomorrow. Take care. Bye bye.