First Cup of Coffee - June 28, 2021

BRIGHT FAMILIAR is finished! Also the standalone novella THE LONG NIGHT OF THE CRYSTALLINE MOON is out! Thoughts on rain after drought, overextending, recovery, and apologies for being behind on Things.

You can find BRIGHT FAMILIAR here (https://jeffekennedy.com/bright-familiar).
And THE LONG NIGHT OF THE CRYSTALLINE MOON is here  (https://jeffekennedy.com/the-long-night-of-the-crystalline-moon).

You can watch the You Tube video of the podcast here (https://youtu.be/au4pz7BTL0I).

First Cup of Coffee is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at Frolic.media/podcasts!

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Good morning everyone. This is Jeffy Kennedy, author of fantasy romance and romantic fantasy. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Very good. Excellent. Hmm, I'm noticing. I have to screw around with one of my plants. Hold on a moment. Oh well, let me start off. Um today is Monday. It's June 28th. I guess I could resist messing with my plant. He's looking kind of dried up though. Maybe I can't resist. Should I pause? I'll grab pause. False alarm. It's it was just uh one particular uh branch, twig, sprig. Hmm. Coffee tastes good this morning. Uh if you're watching on video, you can see it's uh it's a gray morning here in Santa Fe. Um very overcast and kind of cool. I had on my cartigan, it's a cute little cardigan, and then I brought my laptop and coffee out and had to go back in for an additional set of layers. Cool breeze blowing. We're supposed to get more rain today. We got a fair amount of rain yesterday. Most welcome. Um, we need a lot more than this, so cross your fingers. That will get some of that monsoon downpour. So, um, did I finish Bright Familiar? Yes, reader, I did. Yay! I know you guys probably were like, I never doubted. Um, David, I mean, we've been together for 30 years, so you know that there's something there. Uh we maybe know each other far too well at this point, but you know, it's like I was kind of irritated with him because he didn't ask me if I finished. And he asked me like later in the evening. He said, Did you finish your book? And I said, Yes, I did finish writing it. He said, Good. I'm like, you fucker. I was really stressed about finishing it. But I did. I finished it on Friday at about 2.30, 2.45, something like that. Did like 3,600 words that day. Book came in at 97.5. Um, Emily and Dorinda read the final chapter and um a final chapter. Because they've been reading up to that point as I as I finished writing. And they both pronounced, I said, is this ending an okay place? Is this enough of an ending? And they both said yes. So I don't want to hear any bitching from y'all. It it's it's open-ended. It's I swear it's not a cliffhanger. It really isn't a cliffhanger, but it is open-ended. And you know what? Unless I was gonna write twice as long of a book, that was how it had to be. So there we are then. Um, but I'm happy with it. It's it's a different, you know, I've said that all along, different kind of book. Um I I even got that diamond. I'm especially proud of myself uh because I had four and a half hours, count them reader, uh, of meetings for Cepha on Friday. Uh, part of this because we're doing board transition. Um, I take over July 1st. Mary Robinette finishes out June 30th. There is some uh debate about what happens in that uh interstitial space, um, but we believe these space unicorns will handle anything. The jacket I put on is my cepwood jacket. Um, so yeah, we had the board meeting, fine Mary Robinette's final board meeting and final board meeting for some of our outgoing board members. So it was um bittersweet on Friday morning. And we just had a lot of transition things to go over, so it took a long time. However, the great news on that is that it is the last morning board meeting because under the new regime there will be no morning board meetings. I have spoken. So that's gonna be a relief to me. And in um oh, and then in the afternoon, it was our monthly publications meeting, and we're going through a major transition in that. Oh, you guys are gonna be able to see Isabel in the background. She's coming towards me. She's out here with me this morning. Oh no, she cleverly s escaped camera view. What are you doing? Yeah. I thought she would slink past, but she like went under. Unless you spotted her before this. I just caught her out of the corner of my eye. Um, and because we're doing big publications transition, and Mary Robinad is trying to finish out some things that she wants started with publications team, which I respect, but it ended up taking two and a half hours. Fortunately, that was after I'd finished the book, but I was so brain dead, I was so tired. So then I finished that, and um fortunately my uh author coaching session that afternoon got the other person canceled it, so I was that was a relief. I was like, I'm not sure I could have actually the meeting overlapped into it, and I would have been SOL. So yeah, I just um took it easy Friday evening and then Saturday morning. I got up early and um because I went to bed early, and I did the Maryland Romance authors um a panel for them on the feedback loop on giving feedback and critique, and didn't do a whole lot else that day. Um I uh I'm watching Isabel screwing around over here. Funny cat. Um I mean I I kind of puttered around with a few things, but Saturday afternoon, um, I was supposed to do this panel Saturday evening, and I think I like forgot to tell you guys about both of these things because book brain, serious book brain. On top of everything else brain, right? So I was just um I had it tired. And then Saturday afternoon, um, I came down with a migraine, which I almost never do, and it's always a sign that I have overextended. Um that's just my body's way of saying, uh, yeah, you've done too much and you are going down. Um David gave me some acupuncture, and I ended up going to sleep at um like seven. So that mom was why I was not uh awake when you texted me at like 7:30. Um David handed me my phone when he came to bed at 10. He said, Well, do you need this? Because I had just rather abruptly gone to bed. You know, I didn't do any of my um ritual stuff. And I said, No, it needs to plug in. And I said, Oh, wait, wait, my mom texted me, or someone texted me, and so I looked, and so I texted my mom back at 10 saying, Talk to you tomorrow. And then David went and plugged it in for me, so that was very nice. Uh and then I I slept like 11 hours, so I didn't do much at all yesterday, uh Sunday. Um, I did get um Long Night of the Crystalline Moon released. There she goes. Isn't she pretty? She's she's that blue smoke main coon. So beautiful. Um, but it was funny because I could tell, like every time I sat down at the computer, I needed to do my SFF7 blog and I needed to get Long Nigh of the Crystalline Moon released, which um it's the prequel novella to Airs of Magic, and it was the one that was in Under a Winter Sky. So this is just the standalone story. If you haven't read it, grab it. Um, you know, if you've already read it in Under a Winter Sky, you don't need it. It does have a beautiful cover, beautiful, pretty cover. So you could check that out if you're interested. Um, and it's up at all the retailers now. And I'm still tired. I still have a bit tired. Ah, so we'll get to that. So it was interesting because I was doing a lot of reading. It was funny because I had three books around me. Uh, one on my Kindle, uh, one and two on paper. One is this um St. Martin's erotic story called Um Stroke of Luck by Opal Polkeru. And it came in my shipment, you know, from St. Martin's, my monthly shipment. And I thought, oh well, this looks kind of fun. And I had it with me when I did the epic drive up to Colorado Springs and then down to Arizona with my mom, and she asked me if it was good. And I was like, yeah, it's it's fun, it's it's very light, and I was interested to see what she was doing. It's um, there's Isabel in the background doing more screwing around. She's like my little blue smoke bobcat. Uh it's it's funny because it's a menage, it's a male, male, female, and it's so funny because like both guys are our hyper masculine head guys um who really enjoy watching each other do the the woman, and it's supposed to be really sexy, and like even like I'm sorry if this is too graphic, but you guys are here with first cup of coffee and I have a potty mouth, and we're gonna talk graphic stuff occasionally. So, but if you have kids in the car, you might pause and wait and listen later. So there's this one scene where um like the one guy is she's sucking him off, and and the other guy's behind her, and he says, Um he says, you know, when when he comes, I want you to to pull out so I can see him come because it's so sexy when you make him come. And so then he comes on her. Oh no, he comes on the other guy. That's right. He's he splatters the other guy, and she's you know, so so aroused that she licks it off of him, and then he kisses her so that he can taste their mingled fluids. And it's like, but these guys are totally not gay. I mean, like, so not gay. And it's it's just so funny because it's like, you know, and I have no problem with bisexuality or homosexuality, but it's really funny to me how certain um menages like this try to take the position that the guys are just like so so masculine and such good friends, good friends, that they um just enjoy watching each other have sex with the same woman, but it's totally not gay. Um like tasting each other's semen, but it's not gay. I don't know, I just think it's funny. I'm reading that. I'm reading um Patricia McKillop's Alphabet of Thorn, finally. Um, I've started reading a little bit more on paper lately, maybe because it's summertime and I could sit outside. Um, and that was one I've been meaning to get to. I think one of you recommended it to me a long time ago. Was it Colleen Champagne, maybe? So it's been sitting on my pile. And then I've been working my way through samples of different um fantasy romances that are popular on like Kindle Unlimited and stuff. I'm still doing my research there, and uh none of them are really compelling me to go on, unfortunately. I think that it is that Kindle Unlimited syndrome. If it were free, I would probably keep going, but I'm not gonna pay $4.99 to read them. Um, and one of them was really interesting, and they were I was tempted to buy it and keep going, except that there was um so much sexual assault, so much rape, and women were so um oppressed, and um and I didn't see it as being for a good reason. That um, yeah, I just I knew I wasn't gonna be happy reading it. Um so anyway. So, oh yeah, so um I was doing a lot of reading, a lot of hanging out. I got the laundry done. That was exciting. Um, but then I would thought I may I would sort of wrote out all my stages of what I needed to do to release Long Night of the Crystalline Moon, because on the SFF 7 blog posts, um Sunday is my day, so I was supposed to post and we were supposed to post a frothy read, and I thought, well, you know, this is a good opportunity. I need to, I wanted to get that out this week anyway, and that's a light read. So so I broke it down into steps for myself because I could tell as soon as I sat down on the sat down at the computer, um, I could feel my energy start to drain. And it's like, oh, okay. So I did it in baby steps throughout the day. Go read and rest and do stuff and then come back and do a little bit more. So I guess that's one way to manage it by way of managing things. Um, but I could tell that I'm I'm very depleted. I don't always get that um that migraine crash when I finish a book. Uh I think it was just an accumulation of all this stuff, um, pushing to finish that book on top of everything else. So I think I'm going to take this week off of writing. I'm certainly taking today off of writing. Uh I'm supposed to start writing The Dragon's Daughter and the Winter Mage, which is the third book in Heirs of Magic. So Long Night's the Prequel, then Golden Griffin, then Sorceress Queen, now Dragon's Daughter. Um, even thinking about writing Dragon's Daughter makes me feel tired. It's funny, it's that Kyetire where I feel like I could just close my eyes and sleep. So it's like, okay, I need to not do that. I'm also thinking about. So I changed my schedule and finished that thought. Um, and I'm not gonna start Dragon's Daughter till next Monday, no matter what. If I start feeling spunky again this week, I might work a little bit on the Secret V project. Um, I would like to see if I could get that uh, you know, theoretically, I could get that completed this week or at least completed as much as it needs to be. Does that make I bet you guys could guess what it is? I don't know why I'm even keeping it secret, um, except that I may not end up doing it. Other than that. Um, Dorinda decided not to. So, uh, for very good reasons. Uh, one of which is she felt like um, well, I won't give her reasons, but she decided not to. And so I'm still going to see if I can, but I'm going to take it easy. Um, the other so what I'm going to do today is I'm really going to catch up on business. Uh, I know I keep saying I'm going to get after shipping those books. I am really going to get them shipped this week. Uh Laura Darnell very sweetly pinged me and said, Say, you know, about these books I ordered from you. And I said, Yeah, I know. But what's funny is that someone, you know, and to be fair, someone ordered um a bunch of books from me on April 6th, which is, I confess, it's a long time ago. I suck mea copa. Um, and I had not sent them yet. I had them stacked up in the box, but I just hadn't sent them yet. For some reason, shipping stuff like always goes way down far my list. It's like I I have such an obstacle to doing this. Um, and and I'm thinking what I need to do is set aside one day a week to just do that. So I need to figure out ways to make it easier for me. Anyway, um, so I hadn't sent them yet, and I got a a PayPal dispute from her um asking for her money back, saying that, you know, item not as expected, which I thought was funny because it's like, well, yeah, because I didn't sent it yet. But it was so strange to me that she didn't try to contact me. Um, and so I I sent it to Corinne and I said, Would you would you email her and and just make sure that she really wants the refund? Because I can refund, I'll totally refund. But, you know, just tell her that yeah, I suck and that her books are right here, and I just haven't sent them yet, but I'm going to send them because my life will get slightly more sane soon. And um, and Corine said, Yeah, you know, so and I said it's just weird to me that she didn't it and you know, it's it's pretty easy to contact me, right, you guys. I mean, I know you, you all listen to the podcast, so you're more in contact with me than most, but you know, it's not that hard to get a hold of me, and just like Laura did, and I think she messaged me on Facebook and said, Hey bitch, what's up? Only she was nicer than that. Um that would have been fair. But uh so but this gal never um replied to Crean's email either, which I think is kind of odd. It's like if you're gonna go to the trouble of buying books from an author's website so you can get them signed and personalized, I don't know. Um, I was um, I mean, I could totally understand her frustration and I understand that like I'm a sucky business person and all of that, but um I don't know. It seemed weird to me. So if if you're waiting for something from me, I'm I'm gonna work on it. I'm getting it, I'm getting it very soon. So, um, lest I forget again, I these are the earrings I skipped once, and I can't remember if I circled back to them. So if not, they're gonna get done like they got missed once and done twice, but um I wanted to make sure I did them. Isabel! No, now she feels like she's locked out. She's deaf older kitty. She's um my 15-year-old cat. So these are from my mom's collection. They're kind of cool. You might not be able to see the color in this light, but they're a peach color in a silver setting and uh square-shaped posts with um, again, a little bit of that sort of abalone shell texture to them. And they're pretty. I don't wear them very often. I think they're a little demure for me. And there's another pair that are purple, and I'm not sure why my mom had two pairs in similar colors, but there they are, and they always seem like neutral enough, and then you know, I don't have that many picarings, just seems like occasionally I might want to be demure and wear those. So, anyway, wish me luck on my to-do list, and um if you feel like shouting out about long night, I don't think I have any reviews up on the website for long night, so if you liked that novella, uh let people know. And um, I don't know, I think that's it.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Uh, I'll remind you all the first cup of coffee is part of the Frolic Media Podcast Network, and you will find more podcasts that you love at frolic.media slash podcasts. And I will talk to you all tomorrow. Take care.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Bye bye. A little addendum. I realize I didn't say um she never replied, and so I did refund her money. So oh well. Uh I realize I only paused instead of stopping, so it's good. So I could add that little bit. You all take care, bye bye.