First Cup of Coffee - July 1, 2021

Today is a milestone, halfway through 2021 and I'm taking over as President of SFWA. I'm also preoccupied with my glorious fuchsia success and happy dancing that my proofreader loved BRIGHT FAMILIAR.

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/Jfvk2lz36cY).

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_00 0:03

Good morning everyone. This is Jeffy Kennedy, author of Fantasy Romance, and Romantic Fantasy. I'm here with my first cup of coffee. Oh, that's good. I found one of my um a stray, an extra, a leftover of my cocoa truffle espresso. Oh, that's so good. I um have not ordered more because I've got a whole bunch of other kinds. Um because David stopped drinking coffee and I was drinking less. And so I was getting way too much. So I'm thought, okay, well, you know, I need to um be good and just stick to the play mistretto, which I like fine, but boy, this is a nice treat. Nice enough that maybe I should order more. Maybe just a couple sleeves. Let's see, today is Thursday, the 1st of July, 2021. 721, 21. Oh, 7-1-21. That would help if I got my dates right. Uh, today I officially take over as president of science fiction and fantasy writers of America. Woo! Um, and um draw on video, you can see that I am in the Grape Arbor. It is not raining this morning, although it's still fairly overcast. And um boy, we got some nice rain, good rain. We're very happy. We need a lot more of the same. Um, but well, we're happy for what we've gotten so far. Thank you. Thank you, Fates. I have um two hanging baskets that I'm looking at here in the Great Barber that I planted with um lobelia and two different kinds of fuchsia in each basket. And the basket on that side is doing much better. It's really blooming. Do you guys want to see? Let's see if I could show you. I can't see what it's looking at. You have to ignore my gardening vent. There, I think you can see it now. So is that pretty? And then this one on this side, I may not have had that up high enough. Um, this one isn't doing, isn't nearly so lush. Although the lobelia's looking nice in this one. Alright, let's see if I can get it. So it shows on there. I can't tell with the glare, but I think it must be showing. So, anyway, um, I think it this one must not be doing quite as well because the wind blows so hard from this side. This is a north. So maybe I'll swap them and let let this one get brutalized for a while. I don't know. It was an experiment. Normally I can't grow fuchsia. Um, it's just too dry here and they get too beat up. But um I put them in these self-watering baskets that I got that are miraculous and it keeps them moist enough. So, and now they're very happy with all of the specific moisture in the air. So, um, let's see what else. Surely I have things to say. Not. I guess it is. It's just really low. Normally it shows the waveform at the bottom, and it's not showing that right now. I'm not sure how to test tech uh test this. I'm gonna pause. Okay, I was paranoid for no reason. Now I have to splice the two together uh because I couldn't um now it's showing the waveform. Why was it not showing it before? I was just fucking with my head. Oh well, I can splice them together. I have the technology, I can do this, right? Um, I can do it. I don't really want to start completely over. So um I got my copy edits and proofs back on Bright Familiar from uh Crystal at Pico's house. And she said it was an amazing follow-up book and that she loved it. So I'm relieved. I'm relieved. Um I I was a little concerned. I was a little worried about well, I guess I worry about every book, but so many people love Dark Wizard, that creates an additional pressure. And also, as if you've been listening to the podcast, you know that I've been concerned about um about this being the two towers, that it's it's staging so much stuff for more story, uh, that I was worried it didn't have enough story of its own. But it does. This whole series has been different. It's really kind of funny. Um Corinne mentioned that a lot of my regulars for the 12 Kingdoms and Uncharted Realms books haven't wanted to read this one. Wanted to read Dark Wizard or Bright Familiar, but then I'm getting tons of new writ readers on Dark Wizard. So who knows? Uh just the way it goes sometimes. I feel like you're far away. Let's make this a little closer. There we go. So, um, so yeah, this is a great relief. I can send it off for formatting, easily meet my upload deadline of July 5th. So all of that uh fretting and worrying was for not. Well, not really for not, but um. I was just starting to think about do I know how to splice the video part, but I do. I do. I can do this. Other people do, and I can do this. Now I feel like you're too close. Um what do I have to say today? Um, it's been good for me taking this week off. Um, it has been, I've been catching up on royalty crunching and paying bills. I'm gonna get all that done today. It's a little earlier than I need to necessarily, but it's nice to get that cleared off the decks. Um, talked with Corrine yesterday. I'm getting her to take over some more stuff for me, so that will help. I also um did calls with people yesterday on Sephwa, so it's been helping to have the um transition take place right now. Well, I have a little time to to devote to it. Um, you know, the the common wisdom, at least people are always saying, that uh being president of Cepwa costs you a book a year. And so I've I've always wondered at that because you know, I mean, I wonder how many books a year a lot of these people are writing that they say this. Um because I uh I write more books a year than some people do, and I don't mean that in a braggy way, I just know that I'm um a faster writer, more prolific. Um I think I'm I'm just you know, I have a lot of discipline and incentive paying those bills. So, you know, if if it's if I'm writing five books instead of six, that's probably okay. Oh, here comes David. Shall we see him on the podcast? I'll pause. You guys missed a goodbye kiss, but you don't get everything. Uh so so yeah, there's all those things. We could do earrings today. We're back to the posts, or still on the posts. Another pair that were my mom's, I almost positive. Little purple. These are kind of fun. Um fairly heavy, set in silver. In fact, I think that they're real silver. Again, we have an artist stamp on these, though I cannot. Oh, no, not an artist stamp, it just says Mexico, I think. Yeah, I think it says Mexico. Um, and they are kind of Mexican-looking, um, sort of trapezoidal shaped, uh purple stone, simple purple stone of um, what's the I should look up what the word is is you know, it's like not a gem, but uh semi-precious, and it's set in the heavy silver background. Again, these are not ones I wear often because they're small. Um, but they're they're pretty, aren't they? I'm gonna wear them to writer coffee today. I've got writer coffee. Um next week, I think we're going to try to do an interview with um Jay Barton Mitchell, Jack, about uh his new podcast that's um, I won't know what he would call it. I know he says that it's like when the very first time he met, we met, which was a few years ago, he was talking about how he's putting together a new podcast, and he said, it's not gonna be one of those talking heads podcasts. I'm like, I have a talking head podcast. But his is um dramatic. It's he's got like the voice actors, and they're um doing the whole radio show kind of thing with sound effects and all of that. That's pretty cool. So I've listened to the first episode and I asked him if he wanted to do an interview over writer coffee. He didn't want to today because he's doing um auditioning and recording today. So I told him that I do that I've done voice acting, and if he needs a if he needs someone like me that I could uh that I could help with that, and he didn't reply. So I think that was like, no, they didn't they don't watch you, Jeffy. Like I did in college. I I know uh that's that person, right? I acted in college. Um and I did. I did um, you know, like staged readings, I mean, like with audiences and stuff, but yeah, I'm not a professional actor by any stretch, so I guess they don't want me. It's very sad. Um, I need to be writing books anyway. I'm so happy with how pretty my lobelia is. And I'm gonna show you guys. Okay, hold on. There, I've got it positioned now so that you can really see how lush and beautiful these blossoms are, and then see that there's these like lavender variety. Isn't that pretty? And by contrast, we'll just do the little tour here. This one, the lobelia is doing nicely. It's kind of hard to see this one with the against the backlighting. And actually this side is well it's not, see this one's just not nearly as lush as the other. Well, maybe it'll maybe it'll come around. So pause for a moment. Spare you all this chair screeching about. So, um, yeah, here we are. July officially halfway through 2021. Can you believe it? No, I can't. Um, so yeah, a couple interviews in July should be fun. We're also going to have uh the redoubtable Minerva Spencer. I believe I mentioned that before, July 12th. I'm trying to get her to do video. Uh if you know Minerva, send her a message and tell her that it needs to be video. Am I crushing you? No, I'm um. She's up in Tao, so I was trying to figure out if we I haven't seen her since um, actually, I know exactly when, since September 25th, 2019, um, which was my launch party for Orchid Throne before the pandemic happened and all of that. So, yeah, I've I've had a present for her. I I brought it back in August from Dublin, and actually I bought it in Ennis, and I have had it for two years now, waiting, almost two years, waiting to give it to her because I forgot to bring it to the party, you know, and I was like, I didn't know that was going to be my last chance ever. So, oh no, it would be fun to get together with her maybe on that Sunday and pre-record it. I I would like to see her. I'm going to bug her about that. So, um, yeah, I have not been working on any writing at all. I mentioned that I'm going to be um not even the secret project, so which I kind of thought I might work on this week. I did review my schedule yesterday and went through to make sure that there's enough room in it that I can take off time in between books if I need to, or to give myself a little bit of breathing room. And it was already in there. So I've I think I'd done it before and forgot, which says something. Oh yeah, and I was talking about the whole book a year thing before I got distracted by my beautiful Fuchsia. Uh yeah, we'll see. My I've been on the Cephwa board for four years already, and it is my hope that this will not be a huge, you know, like I think it'll be more time, but I'm hoping it won't be like exponentially more time. Um, and I'm hoping that my my superpower of organization will help see me through this. And uh it's funny because um people have uh been saying very nice things to me about looking forward to my presidency because I come from uh corporate middle management and I'm and because organization is my superpower, so it's like I'm going to be the I'll be the coil train president, uh, which is fine with me. So so yeah. Um I guess I don't have much more to say. I'm gonna I think I'm gonna get through these edits today. Um I I was going to do a full read through because I was worried and now I'm not worried. So I think I probably won't. Hello, Hummer. Hi, darling. Um yeah, I think that I might just get through these edits and get it sent in for formatting, and then maybe tomorrow, we will talk tomorrow, but I'm gonna see how I feel. And if I if I'm feeling more replenished, I might try working on the secret project. Um I am waffling on that. Like, do I really need to be taking that on? Um, I need to be um, I do need to start Dragon's Daughter. It's it's a funny thing about writing. It's like when you switch over to a new book, your head is still so full of the old book that you kind of don't want to. And it was like when I finished Sorcerer's Queen and the Pirate Rogue, I had a hard time switching over to Bright Familiar. And now I'm like, my head was all full of how the Dragon's Daughter story was gonna be. And now I'm like, oh, now I have to think about Dragon's Daughter again instead of Nick and Gabriel. Um it's funny how that works, huh? But it's a good thing. Oh my climbing hyacinth behind me is really pretty, isn't it? Is that yeah, climbing climbing hyacinths fine, that's right. With the white blossoms. It's looking very nice. There go some hummingbirds. Did you hear them? Hummingbird warts. Um so sorry, rambling podcast today. I I am relaxing and um yeah, last night I I had a major tired, but it was uh in a good way. In a good way. That's a hashtag, by the way, um, that my assistant and I use quite a bit, along with evil Jeffy. All right, I'm not gonna sit here and uh just ramble at you guys. I mean, if we were having coffee, I would say, just tell me about you. I'm gonna sit here and drink my coffee while you tell me about you. Um feel free to comment and tell me how you guys are doing. All right, I will remind you that first cup of coffee is part of the Frolic Media Podcast Network. You will find more podcasts you love at frolic.media slash podcasts. See, I could be on Jack's podcast. I mean, what the fuck is wrong with him? You all take care. Bye bye.