First Cup of Coffee – March 31, 2025

It's release day for STRANGE FAMILIAR! Also, I'm back after an unplanned podcast hiatus after being struck with the flu like a nail through the forehead. Also, being a notable alum of my high school and people messaging to ask if my books are "clean."

STRANGE FAMILIAR is live! https://www.jeffekennedy.com/strange-familiar 

You can preorder MAGIC REBORN at https://www.jeffekennedy.com/magic-reborn

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

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

You can always buy print copies of my books from my local indie, Beastly Books! https://www.beastlybooks.com/

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Transcript

00:02.87
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, author of Epic Fantasy Romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:15.35
Jeffe Kennedy
Ambrosia. Today is Monday, March 31st, 2025. I feel like I have to specify the year because I do know, keenly aware, that I've been gone for a couple of weeks.

00:31.02
Jeffe Kennedy
So thank you to those of you who checked in with me. Thanks to those of you who didn't also ah sir appreciate both ways. And those of you who checked in, checked in very tentatively, ah with the great exception of my mother. But the rest of you were like, no pressure, but just wanted to see if you were okay.

00:53.54
Jeffe Kennedy
My mother was like, it's been two weeks. But I got sick. ah And... Yes, I'm sure there are those of you out there who are like, yes, we knew if you tired yourself out that much.

01:07.03
Jeffe Kennedy
You would get sick. Maybe that was a contributing factor. Who knows? But um it was on Thursday afternoon, so not this Thursday, but the previous Thursday.

01:18.71
Jeffe Kennedy
I mean, I was feeling fine. I was feeling great, feeling good. It's kind of funny because when you get really sick like that, yeah there ends up being like this before time and the after time.

01:32.12
Jeffe Kennedy
I was running errands and I went and bought some new makeup. I had to replenish a couple of things and I wanted new lipstick. So for those of you on video, I'm wearing my new color lipstick.

01:45.40
Jeffe Kennedy
But anyway, I bought several things. I bought like a new eyeliner and a new el lipstick, new lip pencil, replenished a couple of things. And by about four o'clock that afternoon, all of a sudden I got chilled.

02:00.81
Jeffe Kennedy
And like shivering chills. And it's been a cool spring. And I've got this thing where in springtime I don't dress as warmly as I should. but And I put it down to that.

02:14.41
Jeffe Kennedy
I was like shivering. And I even stopped and, you know, like on my way home, got my bottle of wine and my favorite little dessert moon pie thing. and And I was still not feeling good.

02:28.57
Jeffe Kennedy
It didn't feel like drinking wine. And that's one of those things that if I don't feel like drinking wine, something's wrong. And I took my temperature and it was 102.7. ah hundred and two point seven So I just like went from fine to major fever.

02:43.45
Jeffe Kennedy
um Other than the fever, I wasn't terribly sick. I mean, or like didn't have a lot of symptoms. It just completely wiped me out. I slept pretty much nonstop for three days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

02:57.83
Jeffe Kennedy
And then it still took me like a week to recover. I just ended up taking most of last week off, uh, with the exception of finishing strange familiar, which I guess I'm burying the lead, but, um, today is strange familiar release day.

03:17.63
Jeffe Kennedy
So and was going to put up the cover, but you all have seen it. I'll put it on the show notes. So, um, Did finally, did manage get that uploaded last week. Otherwise, I've been doing a lot of sitting still and reading and just trying to recover. And it made me realize this is the first time i have been sick with like a random bug since pre-pandemic.

03:46.38
Jeffe Kennedy
um I did get COVID once, and but it was long after I'd been vaccinated. And while it did wipe me out for a few days, it wasn't too bad.

03:58.29
Jeffe Kennedy
This, whatever I got, was some, I hear there's a lot of things going around. Some kind of random flu bug. Nobody around me got it. So I don't know what it was. I don't know where I picked it up.

04:11.95
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But, yeah, it was interesting to, like, have a full-blown flu where I could tell I had not been vaccinated against this thing.

04:25.87
Jeffe Kennedy
And it was, um, why wiped me out. So, ah yeah, sorry about, um, that Friday morning when I was so sick, there was no podcast.

04:42.08
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I thought about doing one on Monday and it was, um, it would have been a whole lot of effort. And so I thought, no, I'm just gonna try to recuperate from this, go slowly.

04:56.31
Jeffe Kennedy
So, so that's what I've been doing. Um, but really glad to get strange familiar out, um, And then there's like this whole thing where it's like I'm putting on my makeup for the first time in whatever it is, 10 days?

05:11.02
Jeffe Kennedy
had to count, 11 days. So first time in 11 days I've put on makeup. And it was kind of fun to discover new makeup in my makeup drawer. I was like, oh, I remember the before times. Yeah.

05:25.64
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah. So, so that's me. That's, that's what happened. um I've got like a little bit of a cough. It's not COVID. I tested for COVID. Um, it's not that. So it was just some sort of random flu that decided to tap me on the forehead.

05:45.52
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, those of you who I've already ordered my author copy. So those of you who've pre-ordered, uh, print copies of strange familiar, those will be coming to you soon.

05:57.92
Jeffe Kennedy
and now I am um just going to working on a rose in the mirror, the revision of that and getting ready for Apollycon next week. A funny thing I wanted to tell you all, semi random, but ah I have, like I said, this is like dropping off the face of the earth for 10 days.

06:19.56
Jeffe Kennedy
um I have no idea of like what, what I told you. i don't know who we are, Who am I? Who are you? ah But this happened a few weeks back. I don't remember when.

06:37.77
Jeffe Kennedy
So my high school boyfriend, Kev, hi Kev, with whom I am friendly and so forth, had messaged me on a Saturday and said, hey, guess what?

06:50.21
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm at a wedding. And he was at a wedding of one of our high school mutuals ah is there in Denver. And he was sending me pictures and he was there with like one of my besties from high school was also invited to the wedding and her husband.

07:10.96
Jeffe Kennedy
And it was entertaining to see these photos and everything. But he was telling me this story that just tickles me immensely. So there was this guy who was like in our mutual group.

07:25.35
Jeffe Kennedy
He was a year behind me, I think. Jeff Berry. Hi, Jeff. I made a note. In fact, well let me actually make a note ah that I do want to.

07:39.13
Jeffe Kennedy
drop him a line to thank you for this. Uh, because apparently he was telling this story to all of them at the, uh, wedding. Uh, Jeff and I were primarily friends.

07:50.38
Jeffe Kennedy
don't know if you could say we dated. I remember one very notable make out session. Uh, but, uh, I'm sure all of that's not that important. Anyway, ah Jeff was looking at, i mean, who does this?

08:05.90
Jeffe Kennedy
Who does this Jeff? Apparently he was looking at like our high school Wikipedia page and saw that the notable alumni listed were all white male jocks.

08:19.00
Jeffe Kennedy
And so in a, ah A valiant effort towards DEI, he added me because he's been keeping up with my career and so forth. And I thought that that was really lovely. So he added me and and they removed it.

08:37.81
Jeffe Kennedy
which annoyed him. So he added it back with more information and they removed it again. So he added it for a third time, apparently with mad receipts and this time it stuck.

08:53.58
Jeffe Kennedy
But there's some tenacity for you. And I was really just touched. I thought that that was super sweet, but I still haven't gone to find this um Wikipedia page, wherever it is.

09:08.52
Jeffe Kennedy
But anyway, that was um really kind of a fun story. I feel like I should have more things to tell you. i was thinking about things as I was getting ready and so forth.

09:20.75
Jeffe Kennedy
But I'm probably just, um yeah, you know, a little bit, little bit behind. Yeah.

09:31.69
Jeffe Kennedy
One thing that I discovered being sick, you know, it really is kind of our body's way of saying you will take it down. You will take this down a notch and you will relax.

09:44.57
Jeffe Kennedy
As realized how much I really love in the morning ah sitting in my reading chair or once weather gets nicer, I'm sure it'll be the grape barber and just reading for a while while I drink my coffee.

10:00.96
Jeffe Kennedy
So right right now i am reading, i've like I said, I did a lot of reading, so that was nice. ah Right now i am reading Vicious by V.E. Swab, which I have read before, but I'm reading it from my book group, ah doing a reread.

10:16.19
Jeffe Kennedy
It's interesting doing a reread. This book came out in 2014.

10:23.52
Jeffe Kennedy
I know i didn't read it when it came out, but it's still been a while since I've read it. And it's always interesting to go back and reread a book. I really impressed by V.E. Schwab's writing. It's very tight, very well done that way.

10:40.38
Jeffe Kennedy
I read Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. ah And i i yeah I just wanted to read some stuff that was really tightly written.

10:54.22
Jeffe Kennedy
i read a couple of things by various people, um none of which I was super thrilled about. So it was fun to read these.

11:07.79
Jeffe Kennedy
Sunrise on the Reaping, of course, is... You know, it's a Hunger Games kind of prequel, so you know it's not going to end up happily. Yeah,

11:21.34
Jeffe Kennedy
yeah i I thought it was well written. um I didn't think it really added anything. um I thought... Reading President Snow's book before this, the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, was very illuminating and said a lot of very interesting things.

11:41.41
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm not sure Sunrise on the Reaping ah with Hamish's story. I don't feel like it really added to the world for me or added to the overall all

11:54.48
Jeffe Kennedy
message. Um, I liked it fine. It was a fast read, uh, but I didn't feel like it really, was fine. i mean, it was a very solid fine.

12:06.59
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, something that's been on my list, of course, forever. I think it has been, ah even i know it was on my list and I did not talk about on my most recent podcast. I ported it over.

12:21.68
Jeffe Kennedy
So this happened a little while back, but that someone messaged me on like Instagram and Instagram DM to ask if never the roses was clean or closed door.

12:35.92
Jeffe Kennedy
And

12:39.42
Jeffe Kennedy
I just, I think you all know that I really hate the term clean. ah So I appreciated that they at least tried for the clean slash closed door.

12:51.33
Jeffe Kennedy
But I feel like people messaging to ask that question, um I assume they were asking because the ARCs are going out or, you know, because of pre-ordering and so forth.

13:05.91
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And I just... um I weighed what to say because i mean, the the answer is an easy and obvious no.

13:17.91
Jeffe Kennedy
um It's not a tremendously spicy book ah to me as far as sexual content. It's nothing like some of the ones I've written so far as length and detail of the sex scenes, but also and don't care.

13:38.18
Jeffe Kennedy
And I feel like People messaging to ask this question are in a way wanting to deliver their judgment.

13:49.05
Jeffe Kennedy
They want you to know that this is a consideration for them and for you to, that you feel like that it should have been clean or closed or clean.

14:03.42
Jeffe Kennedy
This house is clean. i always think of poltergeist. Notably, she was wrong. She said that this house is clean, and it was not because of the Indian bureau burial grounds beneath. But that's, I know, a distraction.

14:18.27
Jeffe Kennedy
um Yeah, it's it's a weird era to me that we are living in oh where readers feel like they want...

14:31.13
Jeffe Kennedy
this full informed consent before they go in to read a book. And they also, there is this movement that's kind of persistent.

14:47.65
Jeffe Kennedy
And I feel like connected with this, the Trumpism and this wave of, you know, reasserting Christianity and trying to convince people that we all need to abide by these ideas, you know, that they should not, Oh, we've, you know, accidentally go near something that might have sexual content. And it's like, well, you know, maybe you shouldn't be out in the world by yourself.

15:23.16
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, if You can't, I saw somebody else, I think was Kelly Armstrong commenting on this on social media saying, if you don't have the literary reading comprehension to understand when a story is heating up and skip that section um You know how we can't help you.

15:49.00
Jeffe Kennedy
um Also, it's not going to contaminate your brain. I mean, this whole idea that like somehow you'll be contaminated if you'll you accidentally read about sexuality that it might, I don't know, taint your mind. It's like, well, make maybe maybe would be good for your mind.

16:08.93
Jeffe Kennedy
Maybe the fact that you are so worried about this. But the thing is, is I think someone asking a question like this, they are not actually worried about themselves.

16:20.17
Jeffe Kennedy
Instead, they want to deliver a slice of judgment and say, um i am checking to see if your book meets my standards, because if it does not, then I'm not going to read it. In which case it's like, great.

16:35.90
Jeffe Kennedy
Don't read it. Don't read my books. sir of It is not the lever that people seem to think it is. It's like, yeah, vote with your dollars.

16:47.38
Jeffe Kennedy
um don't Don't buy it. ah You don't want books to have sex on them? Then, yeah, don't put your money into books that do have it.

16:58.79
Jeffe Kennedy
But um that's not where they're leaving things, right? they They want to stop the rest of us from reading and writing it, too.

17:10.34
Jeffe Kennedy
oh

17:16.27
Jeffe Kennedy
I did see where Emily Rath, who is not an author that I read, but I just because she doesn't write in the genres that I normally write in, although I'm now following her on social media.

17:30.90
Jeffe Kennedy
She does a lot of hockey romance, which, you know, doesn't do that much for me. But um she's New York Times bestselling author, but she did this brilliant video takedown of a reader who contacted her and said, um you know, not saying that they were a ah Trump supporter and not all of us are horrible.

17:55.41
Jeffe Kennedy
And to remember that she has readers who are Trump supporters too. And she did a great breakdown of that where she said, no, this this is not a safe, space for you. And I feel like there's a lot of people who are asking for that, who are Trump supporters and conservative Christian types who want to enforce their agenda on other people. And they insist that they are not bad people. They want to be known as being good people, they want to be forgiven and accepted into spaces because they've been told that they are the majority. They've been told that they're in the right. And I think that this persistent encounter that they are having with people ah coming back to them and being like, no,

18:43.86
Jeffe Kennedy
you are You are not in the right and we do not agree with you. And you're not even in the majority. I think it's distressing to them. But that's where we are with things that you cannot say that you supported what's going on and that you are not a horrible person.

19:06.50
Jeffe Kennedy
That's the, you don't get to be both things. If you support Nazis, literal Nazis, then Nazis are horrible and you are horrible.

19:18.25
Jeffe Kennedy
And that's, that's just where it starts and stops. There's, there's not any nuance there. um So I won't continue to rant about that, but I was um very supportive of, of Emily's video takedown of, of that.

19:37.41
Jeffe Kennedy
So um welcome back all of you. Welcome back me. And I'm going to work on getting a Rose in the Mirror out this week. And I will talk to you all on Friday.

19:50.36
Jeffe Kennedy
You all take care. Okay. Bye-bye.