First Cup of Coffee - February 24, 2024

I'm taking signups for my ARC team if you're interested. Also some analyses on books I've been reading and some advice for the newbie-r writers out there on not trying to do too much. Also, keeping secrets too long.

The ARC Team signup form is here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd3qh21bQ8g02eg3z_sej824qOaytfm1RhVjUKVcFIvM3GnJA/viewform

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3️⃣ Tag a friend who needs to get in on this! 💕
 
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Transcript

00:01.24
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, author of Epic Fantasy Romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:11.71
Jeffe Kennedy
Oh, delicious. Today is Monday, February 24th.

00:18.92
Jeffe Kennedy
And yeah, here we are. Here we are again. Another week, last week of February, two months into 2025.

00:33.54
Jeffe Kennedy
So I hope you all had a ah good weekend. I did. i know that sounded dubious. It was kind of a different weekend for me.

00:44.52
Jeffe Kennedy
um And I can't really say why. I think I did a lot of resting. I was messaging with my friend Kelly Robson, sci-fi author extraordinaire, on Sunday morning, yesterday morning.

00:59.85
Jeffe Kennedy
And she asked me what I was doing. And I said, being lazy. I was sitting in my reading chair, reading a book and she said, or resting. if She's good that way. I was like, okay, okay. Yes, I'm resting.

01:14.67
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, yeah. So, oh Oh, let me do this before I forget. Then I'll talk more about my life, the details of which you all are and inexplicably interested in. I have to tell you that I really do appreciate, uh, the comments and messages um,

01:33.10
Jeffe Kennedy
From you all, thanking me for sharing the mundane details of my life with you. i I'm glad you care.

01:42.55
Jeffe Kennedy
Somebody's got to. um Okay, so we have talked previously, but look at the beautiful. This is, if you're not on video, the ARC, the advanced reading copy of Never the Roses.

01:57.52
Jeffe Kennedy
In all of its loveliness, and I have... a big box of them. and Some are spoken for. ah i will tell you, there is a secret, a special secret thing. It's really not a special secret thing.

02:13.11
Jeffe Kennedy
There is something that is in the acknowledgements of in the arc that will not be in the final. So scholars, it will not be hard for you to figure out why,

02:28.77
Jeffe Kennedy
um but Yeah, you all, it's something to know. If you have an arc, you will see something that is not in the final. But my point here, and I do have one besides the doing Vanna White with my beautiful cover.

02:44.18
Jeffe Kennedy
For those of you who have not seen it, I'll probably put the cover on the show notes. But um it's got a purple rose on the front that's charred on one side. It's all very emblematic of how the book is.

02:58.37
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, my point, and I do have one, is is that we are taking signups for an ARC team, Advanced Reading Copy team. ah I'm going to link to the Google form, the form de Google.

03:13.48
Jeffe Kennedy
And you all, if interested, can apply. Assistant Corrine, the ruthless, I call her the no dragon for a reason.

03:25.43
Jeffe Kennedy
She's the one deciding who who gets in. i It's not me. um I don't want to be responsible. ah She is also a book blogger and avid reader. So I trust her to know.

03:38.22
Jeffe Kennedy
um Take it up with her. I suppose you could always appeal to me, but really, I mean, Karina, she tells me no, too. So, you know, who's going to win that argument? um So there will be paper arcs and also there's EPUB arcs.

03:59.64
Jeffe Kennedy
So you could um potentially be on the team. ah One thing i will tell you is there is it's not exactly a trick question, but I feel like is a a question that's in there that may seem unimportant, but it's important to me.

04:19.13
Jeffe Kennedy
And that is, are you interested in being like on my forever arc team, ah my forever team? Do you want to read and review my books as Jeffe Kennedy, as well as Jennifer K Lambert.

04:36.76
Jeffe Kennedy
I have to get my Vanna White thing going in the right direction for the camera. Um, Because I totally get that a lot of people really want to read this book. I mean, who can blame you because it's amazing.

04:47.70
Jeffe Kennedy
But also it would be nice to flesh out the team for the other books as well. So there's there's your hint that one answer is being weighted more heavily than another.

05:05.62
Jeffe Kennedy
But I figure if you're a reader and a podcast listener, um then you should get an extra in anyway. Feel free to mention those things to Corrine.

05:17.10
Jeffe Kennedy
um Like I said, she's tough. She's a real tough audience. oh I will also give. Well, no, we won't go there.

05:27.82
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, yeah, so well, yeah, I am going to say, um, yeah, politics matter. Um, I can't imagine if you have shitty politics that you are listening to my podcast for very long, but, um, yeah, I'm sorry.

05:44.33
Jeffe Kennedy
No Trumpers. That's, that's just how it is. Um, I just, um,

05:52.14
Jeffe Kennedy
the it's It's too dire. it's that we're not um We're not in this place where we're saying, oh, well, Biden and Trump are the same um because they're not.

06:06.42
Jeffe Kennedy
ah We are not in this place where it's like it doesn't matter who's in office because it does. um We're looking at a really dark time in U.S. history.

06:21.07
Jeffe Kennedy
And um yeah, if eight I know that. it's hard for some people to see it this way, but basically ah a vote for Trump is a vote against queer rights, transgender rights, the rights of people of color, the rights of women.

06:43.17
Jeffe Kennedy
um It's enabled all of his presidency now is enabling all sorts of horrible things. And yeah, I'm sorry. I just don't, I don't think we can be on the same team.

06:58.52
Jeffe Kennedy
So there's that.

07:03.45
Jeffe Kennedy
So let's see what else I wanted to talk about that. Oh, we could go back to my brilliantly exciting weekend. I've been reading this book.

07:15.90
Jeffe Kennedy
So it was kind it was kind of good. um i am part of this book group, this science fiction fantasy book club. ah which I really enjoy. it's It's fun because, you know, book clubs get you to read books you wouldn't normally read.

07:32.85
Jeffe Kennedy
But these are all science fiction fantasy, obviously. So it's um within my favorite genre.

07:43.16
Jeffe Kennedy
So, um yeah, sorry, I got distracted because assistant Corrine messaged me. We've been having website issues. So anyway, I've been reading this book and I think I won't say what it is.

07:55.74
Jeffe Kennedy
um i was behind on starting it, which was partly my fault. um i had rabbit hold on this other series. I nearly picked it up way back when because our January book club pick I'd already read, ah which was Naomi Novik's Deadly Education.

08:13.93
Jeffe Kennedy
And I'd recommended it. I loved that trilogy. Um, so I had, and then we didn't meet December. So I had this huge break, right? I could have been reading this book at any time and I nearly picked it up. I bought it a long time ago.

08:28.93
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, but then i sort of rabbit hole into this other trilogy, which I ultimately did not end up finishing. And I don't know if I ever really talked about, um, some of my issues with that, but I'll talk about that now.

08:46.87
Jeffe Kennedy
since this seems like it's going to be Talk About Books Day. um That particular trilogy was self-published. um I'm trying to think of a way to distinguish these ones that I'm talking about, since I don't really want to call out authors and titles.

09:06.15
Jeffe Kennedy
um But we'll just call it the Romantasy Trilogy, not Naomi Novik's. A Deadly Education, those books, utterly brilliant. If you haven't read, you should. um But this Romanticy Trilogy, someone had recommended the first book to me. And ah and I really liked it, especially the first book.

09:30.33
Jeffe Kennedy
And I went on to read all the way through about 75% of the third book. And what happened? What happened on book three? Well, one thing that happened was, is I think this series took off.

09:45.82
Jeffe Kennedy
and which is, you know, great for the author, but you could tell in book three and you could tell this in trad pub books too. This happens all the time where instead of winding up the story, they've decided to draw it out.

09:59.96
Jeffe Kennedy
Now I'm going full mea culpa this. I know that my series go on way longer than I think they're going to. Then I say they're going to all of these things. Um, and I'm going to tell you scouts honor.

10:13.96
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I actually am a Girl Scout or was it's swear on Gamma Phi that um I don't mean to do it. And I'm never deliberately spinning out the story.

10:28.01
Jeffe Kennedy
What do I mean by deliberately spinning out? So there is, there are a couple of mysteries um in this trilogy, which there often are. I mean, the,

10:38.65
Jeffe Kennedy
Wanting to know what's going on is a huge reason why we read a story, right? You know, it's like, oh, well, I really need to know what happens with such and so, or what's the deal with. So in this particular trilogy, um in the first book, the protagonist, the heroine, um her magic tries to show her something. She sees something, but she knows if the secret is revealed to her, that it will put her life in danger.

11:08.36
Jeffe Kennedy
and I, it's something I enjoyed about the series was that this particular protagonist is not terribly kick-ass. She knows her limitations and, you know, she does a lot of things to make sure that she can stay alive because she's not the strongest.

11:27.11
Jeffe Kennedy
So when she has the opportunity to see through to this secret, she very determinedly does not, which is ah fascinating choice. I mean you don't see that choice very often. And I really liked And this persists through book two, which is fine.

11:42.84
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But it is an ongoing mystery. is like It's um you know like, who is this person um that's hiding their identity?

11:53.26
Jeffe Kennedy
And in the third book, she still deliberately does not look because she decides it's none of her business. And it became very clear to me that I mean, it's kind of well done in that she, she uses that.

12:14.86
Jeffe Kennedy
She says, you know, I won't, I won't look, I won't find out what your secret is um because it's not my business, but then you're going to leave my friends alone kind of thing, which works except that there's really no reason why she couldn't look and still keep the secret and tell us, right?

12:36.44
Jeffe Kennedy
Because after a certain point, it begins to feel like the author is simply milking the secret to keep us on the hook. um And it can be effective. It's why cliffhangers are effective to keep people coming back.

12:53.33
Jeffe Kennedy
But I don't know. You have to, and i'm I'm in a minority on this maybe now because I really don't believe in cliffhangers and I've been accused of writing them before, but I don't think i write the kind of cliffhangers we're talking about.

13:10.05
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, I write unresolved endings. Yes. But you know, not the hanging on to the cliff. Like, are they going to live or die?

13:21.62
Jeffe Kennedy
And that's a very popular kind of ending now to keep readers coming back. And it's, it's effective. Um, readers will say they hate them, which we all do. Uh, but then they, they come back, you know, so it's sort of the difference between what we say we want and our actual buying habits.

13:43.20
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I don't know how effective this was. I'm not going to keep going with to the series because partly that it annoyed me that we were clearly not going to find out this secret anytime soon.

13:58.42
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, and there's a lot of books ongoing and I started to get kind of, um, bored. I mean, the romance got resolved, um, there together, but it didn't really have the excitement I would have liked for it to have.

14:17.87
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, One of the other things that happened to me, and I promise this is related with my not reading ah the book that I was supposed to be reading for book group was ah the new JD Robb book came out.

14:33.12
Jeffe Kennedy
And I know I talked about that on here a little bit, but you know, as soon as that hits my Kindle, I'm going to read the next Eve Dallas installment. Right. But, And that series is a really good one to study if you want to see how to keep a romantic relationship interesting even after the couple are together.

14:53.05
Jeffe Kennedy
When it's no longer just about the the sexual tension, no longer does he like me, does he not. we're We're actually getting into a real relationship. I was a little, if you listen a lot, you know that I was a little disappointed in this one in that the romance and marriage felt entirely too easy.

15:12.80
Jeffe Kennedy
oh it wasn't that sparkly for me this time. I, you know, missed that edge, you know, and what is the edge? What are we looking for? That's probably a whole nother podcast that I could talk about.

15:26.46
Jeffe Kennedy
oh So, so that I rabbit hole down those books. I read the JD Robb and then i got, um well, here I'll give it another plug since we're here. Then I received the enchanted greenhouse um from my editor.

15:42.11
Jeffe Kennedy
And that's another arc oh because she asked me if I would do an endorsement quote for it. And so, of course, I had to read that. And now I'm a little bit behind because I'm supposed to be beta reading a book for a friend. And I haven't because I thought I should at least try over the weekend.

15:58.67
Jeffe Kennedy
I think I started and just started Saturday morning reading this one for the book group. And I had asked my friend Jim Sorensen, who's in this group also,

16:10.28
Jeffe Kennedy
uh, if I would like it, he's very good at knowing whether or not I'm going to like a book. So I, ah don't mind being the princess. I'm like, just, just tell me if I'm going to like it.

16:20.93
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, and he said it was a mixed bag and, and he, and we kind of talked about it, writer coffee on Thursday morning, why he felt like it was a mixed bag, you know? And he said, well, i don't want to spoil things for you. I'm like, na no, no, no, go ahead.

16:36.59
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, And then he was concerned that he was going to ruin the experience of reading the book for me by telling me the things he didn't like. And I said, no, I'm going to try to read it anyway, but I'm going to like fast read it.

16:49.17
Jeffe Kennedy
So I started reading it on Saturday morning and really, really liked the beginning. I thought, huh, I wonder why Jim didn't like this book. Um, which he would argue with me. He would say that's not that he didn't like it, uh, but that it was a mixed bag.

17:05.06
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, So I'm reading, reading, and I'm really enjoying it. And I think, well, you know what? I'm just going to spend the weekend reading this book, which resting, right? um It's been a long time since I've just sat around and read a book.

17:20.05
Jeffe Kennedy
And I did spend, yesterday I did laundry, but then I also spent a whole lot of the day reading this book. And I've only gotten to midpoint, but I felt like it started to fall apart around 35, 40%.

17:35.70
Jeffe Kennedy
um which is the sign of a sagging middle. That's what we call that. It's when the book starts to lose forward momentum in the middle. um Very characteristic of a first novel.

17:48.70
Jeffe Kennedy
This one's traditionally published with a very good press. And I'm surprised... I want to say it should have been better edited. there's There's a lot of effect in the middle.

18:03.81
Jeffe Kennedy
um There's a lot of stuff that feels repetitive. It feels like it's circling. It also, and this is kind of characteristic of our first novel too, um is overly ambitious.

18:17.15
Jeffe Kennedy
And I have kind of put together my quip for the book group where I want to say that...

18:27.00
Jeffe Kennedy
I want to say that even Orson Scott card and yeah, problematic, awful. Um, but unfortunately, because he's such a brilliant writer, but even the great Orson Scott card had to write Ender's game speaker for the dead and Xenocide as three separate books. And I feel like what this book is trying to do is put a whole lot of that into this book.

18:53.67
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, a lot of similar things, a lot of really great themes. And I thought where the book started, um, I wish it had stayed on that project project particular trajectory instead of adding in and adding in.

19:09.15
Jeffe Kennedy
And my point here is, and I will probably never ever tell you what this book is because, um, yeah, no need to go after a particular author, but, um,

19:22.60
Jeffe Kennedy
For those of you out there who are early in your careers, writing your first book or your first books, this is a lesson I had to learn. I think when you're a new author, you keep feeling like it's not enough. There's not enough in this book. I need to add in more.

19:40.08
Jeffe Kennedy
um and And listen, listen to Auntie Jeffe. No, you do not. Do not add in more. keep it simple.

19:50.78
Jeffe Kennedy
There is nothing wrong with keeping the story simple. Um, Ender's Game, if you haven't read it, if you can read it without supporting Morrison Scott Card. I don't know. It's so hard.

20:03.46
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, but it started as a novella, which was then expanded into a novel. And it's a good study because you can see the crystal clarity of the novella idea.

20:16.51
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, is at the heart of that book. It's essentially the beginning of the book and it's fairly easy to tell where the novella ended and the expanded novel began. um Just interesting things to study.

20:31.00
Jeffe Kennedy
So on that note, I am going to get to work on my revision. It's actually going really well. Thank you for asking. A Rose in the Mirror. It's coming along quite nicely.

20:42.75
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm feeling good about it. um I'm up to page 44. Did a whole bunch of chapter rearranging. Now I'm writing the new POV. And then special bonus.

20:58.31
Jeffe Kennedy
Could you hear that? If you can hear construction, you should be able to hear that. That's the Wren.

21:05.00
Jeffe Kennedy
First time I've heard the Wren this spring. A sign of hope and happiness.

21:11.52
Jeffe Kennedy
Such a pretty song.

21:33.16
Jeffe Kennedy
Okay, well, hopefully, I think it was recording that whole time, you so you will have gotten me staring puzzledly at the screen. My Google froze. Google.

21:43.71
Jeffe Kennedy
the Chrome. Is everyone getting this? Chrome is freezing. I keep going to switch to Firefox, and I should do it. So anyway, wrens, 44 pages, happiness, wishing you all.

21:56.87
Jeffe Kennedy
I will talk to you all on Friday. You all take care. Bye-bye.