First Cup of Coffee - February 14, 2025

My VOW for Girls project - a special treat for you all. About the new book in my favorite series and how I miss the edge it once had. Also: endorsement quotes (or blurbs) - do they work? Does anyone care? I say YES.

🎉 GIVEAWAY ALERT! 🎉
 
 Calling all fantasy romance lovers! I’m so excited to team up with @vowforgirls for the Happily Ever After Giveaway—because every girl deserves the chance to write her own Happily Ever After. Every 3 seconds, a girl is forced into marriage, but together, we can help change the story.
 
 📚✨ I’m giving away signed print copies of the Chronicles of Dasnaria trilogy to one lucky winner! Want in?
 Here’s how to enter:
 1️⃣ Click the link vowforgirls.org/jeffe-kennedy and donate to @vowforgirls.
2️⃣ Every donation = 1 entry to win my special prize!
3️⃣ Tag a friend who needs to get in on this! 💕
 
📅 Giveaway closes on 2/28, so don’t wait! Let’s share the love, support girls worldwide, and change lives together. 💌✨

The VOW for Girls donation link is here: vowforgirls.org/jeffe-kennedy 

Visit JenniferKLambert.com

RELUCTANT WIZARD is out now and audiobook is live!! https://www.jeffekennedy.com/reluctant-wizard

You can preorder STRANGE FAMILIAR at https://www.jeffekennedy.com/strange-familiar and MAGIC REBORN at https://www.jeffekennedy.com/magic-reborn

The posture-correcting sports bra I love almost more than life itself is here https://forme.therave.co/37FY6Z5MTJAUKQGA

Join my Patreon and Discord for mentoring, coaching, and conversation with me! Find it at https://www.patreon.com/JeffesCloset

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Transcript

00:02.80
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, author of Epic Fantasy Romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:14.92
Jeffe Kennedy
Delicious. Today is, say it with me, it is Friday, February 14th, Valentine's Day.

00:26.86
Jeffe Kennedy
And happy Valentines to all of you, my my faithful listeners. I wish you love wherever you may find it. And with no further ado, I'm going to talk about, I've mentioned before that I'm participating in VOW for Girls to stop child marriage around the world. We're raising money, asking you to donate, not to give up,

00:53.72
Jeffe Kennedy
your ah one latte of the day that brings you joy. But if you have money to donate, we're asking you to do so. And I am doing a special giveaway. So I am giving away three print copies of the Yes, three print copies signed. It has to be to someone in the US. Sorry, shipping elsewhere is just getting really complicated. Of the Chronicles of Dasnaria trilogy, which I'm holding up if you are on video, Prisoner of the Crown, Exile of the Seas, and Warrior of the World. If you have not read these books,

01:36.32
Jeffe Kennedy
um These are about um a young woman who is basically sold into marriage and it's an abusive marriage and it's kind of awful. So the first book is kind of dark and it's not a romance. It ends happily but not in a romantic way. ah The love interest appears in the second book as she is fleeing, I mean,

02:05.47
Jeffe Kennedy
I know that's a spoiler, but spoiler sheet does not remain trapped. And Warrior of the World is the third and final book. And I have a soft spot for this trilogy. There are, I know, a number of readers who have said they will not read it because that first book is dark, which is fine. I totally understand that. But I wanted to to show the the reality of it. I wanted to show I don't know, you know, I love the trope marriage of convenience. I love enemies to lovers, but I felt like at one point I needed to write something that would tell the other side of this story. So now I wish I could give away. I mean, I could, but I do have this beautiful print trilogy of the Czech translation, which has gorgeous, gorgeous covers.

03:04.57
Jeffe Kennedy
And I'm showing those on here. ah If somebody does want the Czech translation, let me know. ah Donate and comment. And yeah, let's see if we can't get it to you. of If only for those beautiful, beautiful covers. I have two sets of those, otherwise I would not part with this one.

03:29.44
Jeffe Kennedy
um So rules will be on the show notes, but basically you, for this giveaway, we are asking that you do donate something to Bell for Girls. That's the whole point of doing this. And then you can enter by sending screenshot or some kind of proof of your donation. And thank you. Thank you for doing that. I feel like it's it's so important.

03:58.71
Jeffe Kennedy
I mentioned on another show, but that the Taliban in Iran recently lowered their marriage ability age to nine. And you know the whole reason to do this is to um wed children to grown men who can then control them. And that kind of thing, if you know we have we have to try to stop it.

04:27.87
Jeffe Kennedy
oh Moving on, I have arcs of Never the Roses. I'm showing this on video. Look how beautiful. I did post a photo of this online. um d The final cover, this will be like in gold foil and the rose thorns along the sides will be in gold paint. And um it's just beautiful. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous arc.

04:58.39
Jeffe Kennedy
we've got these advanced reading copies what that stands for it's got these beautiful little chapter headers um because they're arcs advanced reading copies they don't have the maps and stuff yet but beautifulness So I'm super excited to have those. ah We are going to be looking for more art creators. So ah assistant Corinne has put together some ah form to fill out and I will be looking at ah those questions. I didn't quite get to it yesterday, but then we will be taking applications.

05:42.55
Jeffe Kennedy
ah One thing I am looking for for people wanting to um get arcs of Never the Roses is I would really like people who are also interested in reading my Jeffy Kennedy books. So it's just a good time to to add to the arc team and refresh and so forth. So I think I need to add that question and um yeah.

06:12.04
Jeffe Kennedy
We're looking forward to having you ah read for us.

06:19.15
Jeffe Kennedy
All right, so other things. I've had a good writing week. In fact, this will be, unless today goes completely to hell, which is always a possibility, it will be my best word count week of the entire year.

06:38.62
Jeffe Kennedy
So that's, that's nice. so It's feeling good. um I am this close to hitting 60,000 words on Strange Familiar. I thought I might hit it yesterday, but I didn't quite, about 400 words shy. I thought about like pushing through and it's like, eh. But I should pass it today, which leaves me um with only about 25,000 words to go.

07:08.67
Jeffe Kennedy
and I yeah so yeah I think I feel like it's coming together what I'm going to do is once I finish this draft I am going to set it aside and do the revision for a rose in the mirror and um Okay, so if you're on video, you're gonna see one of the construction guys come to plug in their extension cord. I put a note on the cord that goes to the fountains asking them to use the outlet inside the gate. So we' we'll see if they app pay attention to that. ah They keep unplugging the fountains and then they freeze up. So I can see him reading that note.

08:02.18
Jeffe Kennedy
but he's plugging into the other outlet, which is perfectly fine. It's so funny having, you know, like this activity and everything. I've complained about that numerous times. You'll probably, it's much, it's not so bad now because they've got the walls up. They'll be finishing the ceiling. So I, you know, like they're, they're kind of inside now.

08:28.54
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But yeah, it's weird like they come up and unplug my fountains and use my outlet and it's just doing work for me But it also feels like an invasion um so Get off my lawn so Anyway, it's been a productive week. I'm feeling good about where this is Oh, and that's what I was saying then I will go switch over and do the revision of a rose on the mirror so I can make sure to get that done and then I will um That way we'll give Strange Familiar a little time to percolate. I might send it to some people to read. I don't know. i'm I'm a little torn on that because there are things I already know I need to layer in and fix and adjust. And I'm always waffling on that. I've probably talked about it before, those of you who are longtime listeners. It's like sending a draft to somebody when they're stuff

09:25.09
Jeffe Kennedy
and that that you know needs fixing feels like it feels like some partly a waste of their time because they're going to look at it and say, well, this needs fixing, which then it feels a little aggravating to me because I'm like, I know it i know it needs fixing. um But also, then does it distract them from something that I don't know about? So I'll just see. I'm going to see how the timing works out on this.

09:53.10
Jeffe Kennedy
um but I should be done by the the end of the month. um I've got a few sort of just depends on how fast next week goes. I've got a few days of slop. So if I finished the draft before the end of the month, because I'm switching over to, I want to start this revision of a rose and the mirror on the third. So if I have time, I might spend a few days doing this revision. It's it's fixing things like,

10:35.53
Jeffe Kennedy
trying to explain without like, spoiling, but you know, it's sort of um like when I write an initial conversation between people, I changed my mind on what their agreement was, right? You have to do things this way. um And then later I'm like, well, I think that this is what the deal is. So that's the kind of thing I need to fix.

11:04.69
Jeffe Kennedy
So we'll just see how the timing works out. But yeah, I'm definitely feeling more or less in control of my destiny at this point. We'll see how that persists.

11:21.99
Jeffe Kennedy
Other things I wanted to talk about. I'm reading a couple of books. um I read the newest J.D. Robb, which released on Tuesday and is an auto buy for me, of course. And I still enjoy reading these books. And I feel like I've talked about this before with them too, because I've been reading those in-depth books since they came out in the mid-90s. And times have changed, and Nora has been writing them for 30 years now.

11:58.60
Jeffe Kennedy
and which is an amazing accomplishment that she has kept this series going. um But one thing that I really notice, and I feel like this comes from social media feedback, frankly, because I know that she sees what readers say. I see her responding to things on it. um And let's see. So let's see which number this book is.

12:30.29
Jeffe Kennedy
Okay, so this is number 60, and the first one did come out in 1995. um And I'm going to just caveat that because I'm going to complain a little bit. ah But did I also just pre-order the one that coming out in September, number 61? Yes, I did. And will I continue to do so? Yes, I will.

12:51.62
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, so, you know, like it's the same couple, even Roarke, and we are, you know, up to 60 books and it's a different murder mystery in every book. And it's just not as edgy as it was in the beginning. And I don't know how much of that is conscious on her part. Um, maybe it does. Maybe she doesn't need to be edgy. I don't know. Um, I miss the edge.

13:20.27
Jeffe Kennedy
of those initial books. I miss the miss the edge. i I'm trying to think of another way to explain it. The the thrill of it, um the sexiness. I mean, this one had one love scene and it was very nice, very sweet. But Eve and Roarke are getting along very well. They had like one minor disagreements and it was kind of kind of dumb. I wanted more. I mean, i i that being articulate, to am I? I'd really love to know what everyone else thinks. um And I'm going to spoiler this book a little bit. So if you want to know nothing about it, um then stop listening. But

14:16.51
Jeffe Kennedy
It's this group of people who comes together, and it's it's cool the way it's connected into the rest of the series. And i I won't spoiler who it is or why, although it could be in the back cover copy. But it brings together people from the past, okay? And so there's a whole lot of, there's this whole group of friends, essentially, that are brought together, and there's a murder at the beginning,

14:45.40
Jeffe Kennedy
ah one of the people who, you know, like we don't know who he is. We haven't met a lot of the people in this group yet. Um, and so he's murdered and we feel bad about it, but only kind of bad. And it's a kind of a bloodless death that wasn't too terrible. And then they work very hard to protect the risks of the people that they know are going to be targeted. And here's the spoilery part. If you want to just close your ears for like 30 seconds.

15:15.70
Jeffe Kennedy
but none of the other people in this group get killed. And we kind of don't want them to because we like them. um But also, I think in the past, at least one of them would have gotten murdered. It felt so safe, it felt so safe and nice. And I know a lot of things are moving towards cozier, but I don't know, I miss the, and I knew, I knew she wasn't.

15:44.97
Jeffe Kennedy
going to. I knew that no one else would die. I probably went past my 30 seconds there, sorry. um And I don't know. it's There's a point at which, also spoiler, Eve gets shot, but it's barely a flesh wound and she's fine. And, you know, like I miss, there was the the book very early on where, you know, like she gets really badly hurt and Roarke takes care of her. And I loved that. I wanted, i when she got shot, I thought, okay, great. Finally, at last, Eve has gotten hurt and we can have a little bit of her being down. But like, it doesn't even break her stripe. And

16:31.30
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't know, I missed that. um say Oh, I was gonna show you all what else I'm getting to read. Look at what I has.

16:43.03
Jeffe Kennedy
Yes, I have The Enchanted Greenhouse. um Speaking of cozy, sequel to The Spell Shop, which I loved by Sarah Beth Durst. Editor Ali asked me if I would read this for an endorsement quote, and I am just a quarter of the way into it, but I already wrote up my endorsement quote. um I'll read it all the way through to make sure and something terrible doesn't happen to change my mind. We were talking about that. We were talking about endorsement quotes.

17:15.45
Jeffe Kennedy
So in one of my author chats, someone shared this article from the Guardian, who I subscribe to and support, um that Simon and Schuster said they will no longer ask authors to obtain blurbs. Blurbs are endorsement quotes. I started saying endorsement quotes more lately. um And it's such a weird article anyway, but basically,

17:44.21
Jeffe Kennedy
Let me close this. um This guy, Sean Manning, of publisher of the imprint in the US, wrote an essay for Publishers Weekly, which I did not read. I guess I could have, saying that he says, while there has never been a formal mandatory policy in the eight years I've been with Simon and Schuster Imprint, it has been tacitly expected that authors with the help of their agents and editors do everything in their power to obtain blurbs to use on their book cover and in promotional material. I have always found this so weird. The argument has always been that this is what makes the book business so special, the collegiality of authors and their willingness to support one another. I disagree. I believe the insistence on blurbs has become incredibly damaging to what should be our industry's ultimate goal, producing books of the highest possible quality.

18:41.88
Jeffe Kennedy
Authors feeling obliged to write burbs for blurbs for their friends can create an incestuous and unmeritocratic literary ecosystem there's ore for you that often rewards connections over talent.

18:56.36
Jeffe Kennedy
And I think it's so funny on these Guardian articles, there's always like a reaction from some British writer that I've never heard of. But it says, thank God was the reaction of British writer, Jo Hamya. Honestly, it's just an insular and repetitive format. So we were arguing about this or discussing, debating in my author chat and talking about yeah Because there's a lot of just indie authors in there, and one was saying that she felt like this gave traditionally published authors an unfair advantage.

19:32.04
Jeffe Kennedy
because we feel pressure to do this for our editors um or our agents. And the thing is, there is not pressure. It's so weird that all of these quotes are talking about there being this pressure and destroying the and industry, destroying. It feels very strong to me. um Personally, I do not give quotes. I don't endorse books unless I have read them and loved them. And really I expect anyone who endorses my books to do the same. I would never want someone to give me a quote if they don't, if they don't genuinely mean it. And I was talking about

20:20.75
Jeffe Kennedy
you know, that sometimes you can tell when people have done it to be nice because the blurb will be something along the lines of um this is a book. And I've talked about this before, you know, like how those translated, you know, sort of like cozy and real estate means small, you know, when people say things like lyrical, it means um that it's like maybe a little overwritten. Um,

20:46.20
Jeffe Kennedy
Sometimes people made it genuinely, but I'm always entertained by the quotes that are essentially like, Hey, this is a book. And you could tell they didn't really like it. But I feel like that is the vanishingly small, representation of what happens because most of my author friends I know they will you know offer to read the book and we always have these outs we have these caveats saying well you know super busy might not get to it and then if you don't get to it you know it's could mean that you hated it it could be that you didn't get to it or maybe just that you didn't love it and there's I don't know I saying that it's unmeritocratic

21:33.66
Jeffe Kennedy
um I think it's kind of annoying because it implies that the book business is a meritocracy anyway, which everyone likes to think it is and everybody knows it's not. Yeah, merit plays in, but there's a lot that's serendipity and not necessarily connections, but networking, um working well with people.

21:59.84
Jeffe Kennedy
ah Yeah. so I'm going a little long, so I won't wax on a lot longer on this, but I think it's an interesting question. And one thing that we're forever debating is whether or not readers pay attention to endorsement quotes on books.

22:20.58
Jeffe Kennedy
And I just know that when I was a reader, before I understood how publishing worked or um any of those things, yeah, if a favorite author of mine had an endorsement quote on a book with an author I never heard of, it made a difference to me. I always paid attention to that. And I'm kind of amazed that people say they think readers don't pay attention.

22:43.46
Jeffe Kennedy
um I think that one thing that happens in our social media communities, like when somebody says, oh, well, they ask their readers if they pay attention to it and the readers say, no, they don't. um You're still only getting a very small sample. You are not seeing all those people who are not talking to us on social media who are um at the store browsing through the bookstore and picking up books that are not book bloggers, that are not watching TikTok, that are not part of these communities

23:15.56
Jeffe Kennedy
I think it does make a difference. And I guess I don't think it's a bad practice, but I do think that it depends on who's doing the blurb offering. All right, on that note, I am going to get to work. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, a long weekend for some people here in the US.

23:40.04
Jeffe Kennedy
And I will talk to you all on Monday. Even those presidents stay, I'll be working because my boss is a bitch. I will talk to you all then. You all take care. Bye bye.