First Cup of Coffee – April 25, 2025

I'm a featured author at Columbus Book Festival July 12-13! And the Closet of Doom is NO MORE. Also, I'm talking about the lack of control in creative careers and how that leads to toxic desperation - along with thoughts on dealing!

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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You can watch this podcast on video via YouTube https://youtu.be/LxVwpSeSejc

Transcript

00:01.38
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, author of Epic Fantasy Romance, also writing as Jennifer K. Lambert. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:15.44
Jeffe Kennedy
Delicious. Today is, say it with me people, it is Friday. April 4-25-25. And, yeah. Excuse me. four twenty five twenty five and yeah good excuse me It's um been a busy week for me.

00:34.49
Jeffe Kennedy
It's amazing how much time it has taken to do my office renovation. I feel like um renovation is too strong ah of a word, but you would be amazed at the transformation of the closet of doom into the glo closet of paradisical organization.

00:57.86
Jeffe Kennedy
It really is great. um I waffled at one point because when was it? Tuesday. ah My darling friend, Megan gave me a ride back. I did the new car, the new car, the brake lights came on ah that ABS brake deal.

01:17.54
Jeffe Kennedy
And so I called CarMax because they have that 90 day guarantee. And they said, yeah, we're, book couple of weeks out, but take it to this other place.

01:30.21
Jeffe Kennedy
And so I called this other place and I dropped the car off and it turned out that like this whole break part, uh, sorry for my lack of, um, vehicular vocabulary, but something important done broke and they replaced it. It ended up being a $2,500.

01:55.34
Jeffe Kennedy
job. But Carmax covered the whole thing. ah So anyway, I dropped it off Tuesday morning. David wasn't feeling well, so he wasn't able to pick me up. And so I called Megan and she had just been to her meeting and the timing worked out great.

02:13.01
Jeffe Kennedy
So she picked me up and then she brought me back And she has, she and her husband have recently bought what I like to call the yacht. ah It is actually a very small boat. It is a reimagined, I also want to call it a tugboat, which is also incorrect.

02:33.14
Jeffe Kennedy
um it's a replica barge, a Tjalk replica barge. And it's harbored in London and across the street from like this 400 year old pub.

02:44.55
Jeffe Kennedy
And they've been having a marvelous time learning to live it in very small spaces. And plus they get to be in downtown London. Do you say downtown London?

02:55.17
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't know. Sounds kind of wrong to me. Anyway, so she had this idea that this closet and I guess I'll just show it to you. It's it's not quite done. but oh Okay, so look at all beautiness, but see how it's sort of like one of these pocket closets because this office is actually a bedroom.

03:17.52
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, and So her idea, which is admittedly a brilliant idea that I love, was to take the doors off and build in a day bed, you know, take out that shelf and all that kind of thing, build in a day bed, have storage beneath and have it be like a reading nook because it would then look out down the valley and to the beautiful view. And I do think it's a great idea. I did consider it for probably a couple of hours as I was clearing things out.

03:47.71
Jeffe Kennedy
But um as I discussed previously, and several of you sent me positive, supportive comments, which I appreciated, I need this to be something that will facilitate it my working life. I don't really need, i have places to read.

04:03.99
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't have a place to deal with shipping books. So I don't know if you could see from my ble brief glimpse of the video, if you're even on video, I will take a photo and use that on the show today.

04:16.89
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, now I can see exactly what copies of what books I have. And, um, it It's just going so much better. And it got up. I'd had all these books stacked on the floor around the room.

04:31.20
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And so I think my cleaning ladies are going to be really happy because I know it annoys them that I have stacks of books on the floor around the room. ah So I think it's going to brighten the whole office.

04:42.11
Jeffe Kennedy
I need to finish painting. You will have noticed if you were watching ah in the brief glimpse that I haven't finished painting the office, but I really want to finish that over the next week.

04:54.77
Jeffe Kennedy
and get this office completely redone and it's giving me all sorts of happy.

05:03.94
Jeffe Kennedy
There are other things that were originally on my task list that have slid down unfortunately, but, um, so it goes right. Uh, this is, I think this is going to be good to get done because then it will set the stage because I was actually looking at,

05:23.67
Jeffe Kennedy
um when I need to get magic reborn written and aiming for actually having the audio book come out at the same time as the other formats, which would be a first and probably a last, but you know, appropriate for the last book in the series and, uh, and working out the timing for that, uh, looking at,

05:53.34
Jeffe Kennedy
keeping myself to writing 2000 words a day so that I maybe am not quite so mentally drained. Um, I am trying, I'm going to try to do that. And, uh,

06:09.44
Jeffe Kennedy
yeah I started thinking about that, but yeah, I think that that's the thing that I need to do is not try to push for 3000 words a day. Uh, my aging brain, I don't know.

06:21.49
Jeffe Kennedy
Maybe I've written too many books at this point.

06:25.77
Jeffe Kennedy
I've other I've so many other things that I need to do. ah So anyway, that's that's my plan and I am.

06:37.72
Jeffe Kennedy
Maybe or maybe not sticking to it. But anyway, I was thinking I need to, um when I was looking at my calendar, i actually need to start writing when I come back from Toronto.

06:49.34
Jeffe Kennedy
So I really want the office to be totally done by then. But I think it will. ah There's going to be cool things like, so I have like this little printer cart with the printer in it.

07:03.16
Jeffe Kennedy
And I had had the bottom section, which has a little accordion door that comes down to hide. the unpleasant stuff. Uh, and I'd have books stacked in there.

07:13.90
Jeffe Kennedy
They are now in the bookshelf. So I'm going to put like papers and those kinds of supplies in with the printer. Uh, I'm going down for brunch Sunday, to, uh, Albuquerque to see my friends, Jim and Sage.

07:28.20
Jeffe Kennedy
And I am going to go to the container store. oh everyone. When I say I'm going to go to the container store, uh, wraps the dices. And I'm going to buy a few things. I'm going to, I want to buy an organizational system for my bookmarks, something with lots of little slots, right?

07:48.40
Jeffe Kennedy
And I am going to buy hooks for hanging things in the closet. And I am going to buy ah wrapping paper station.

07:59.34
Jeffe Kennedy
because that is one of the banes of my life. I'm sort of looking for the things that cause me friction and trying to find ways to make those frictionless.

08:10.54
Jeffe Kennedy
So, um this is the, uh, Jeffe-Kondo-ing. but Uh, it's, uh, plenty of things do not give me joy, but I, I don't know. That always bothered me. Like if it doesn't give you joy, let it go.

08:28.62
Jeffe Kennedy
um

08:32.03
Jeffe Kennedy
I and I'm just going for, if it's giving me friction, how do i make it so that it is at least less friction fill.

08:44.75
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, so we're finally, we're getting there. I have like cleaned out various cabinets and supply stations and do to do.

08:57.29
Jeffe Kennedy
So, um, other things. Oh, actual writing things I am allowed to share. oh I was going to put the picture on today. Maybe I'll do the closet picture Monday when everything's done, when it's all organized. I'm going to do that.

09:14.10
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, cause today I need to put, um, the graphics on my socials and i get to announce that I'm going to be participating in the Columbus book festival, uh, in July.

09:28.59
Jeffe Kennedy
Columbus, Ohio. I will be there July eleventh excuse me, through 13th. And so I may have mentioned this before, but apparently I wasn't supposed to until after the 23rd.

09:41.75
Jeffe Kennedy
So you, my, my small, deeply twisted audience, uh, big chill reference there. You, uh,

09:53.64
Jeffe Kennedy
God, you got to know first, you get to know all kinds of things first. Cause I, I know I blurt things out, uh, which is ah great incentive more or less to listen to this podcast. Right?

10:06.40
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, so, um let's see, I was gonna, I had some other things in mind to talk about.

10:15.16
Jeffe Kennedy
oh yeah. So want to talk about desperation. And I know this is a ah switch. We're going to... ah if If I were like a professional podcast, I would like play some music to show that we are downshifting into a more serious topic.

10:33.37
Jeffe Kennedy
But you don't get that. oh So I think desperation... is and I promise this is I do have a point here I'm trying to figure out how to walk my way into this topic.

10:52.33
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, desperation drives a lot of human nature and one thing about writing and publishing is as I often discuss not within our control.

11:08.23
Jeffe Kennedy
There's so much within this business and it's true of creativity in general that um is not within our control. I've been watching the studio on, um on Apple, ah which is with Seth Rogen, among other people.

11:30.21
Jeffe Kennedy
And he plays this guy who has become the exec of a movie studio and episode six, I feel like you could all just watch episode six without context.

11:45.81
Jeffe Kennedy
You don't really need to know anything else that's going on in this show, but Seth Rogen, the movie studio exec, and he makes movies like kind of like transformers. In fact, I messaged my friend Jim and said, if you watch nothing else in the studio, I want you to watch episode six so we could talk about it.

12:07.03
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, he, know, makes big splashy movies and he goes to this benefit with his new girlfriend who is a pediatric oncologist.

12:23.58
Jeffe Kennedy
and the doctors are very stuffy and arrogant to him and it's it's just it's so well written it's so well done and they get into this argument about what is art because he's trying to he's trying to make the point that what he does is as important as what they do to which they all turn up their noses And, you know, cause they're saying we're, we're saving lives.

12:55.83
Jeffe Kennedy
You know this is life and death. And he says, yes, but what's, what's on every wall of every hospital room, a television set, we need art. We need entertainment to make life worth living. Yes. You save lives, but art is what makes life worth living. And then they start critiquing, saying that the movies he makes aren't to art and,

13:19.70
Jeffe Kennedy
You can imagine how that goes. And I really identified with it because wasn't i I have been in those conversations, right? I found it unlikely that none of the doctors had ever watched any of his movies because, you know, I do think that even the smartest people and possibly especially the smartest people need that decompress of the brainless movie.

13:44.55
Jeffe Kennedy
But I have been in those conversations where people ah make sneering comments about genre fiction and how it's not art.

13:56.72
Jeffe Kennedy
At one point he makes the, he asks them, is are the Godfather movies art? And they say, of course. And then he's like, well, how do you decide that the Godfather is art and that my Transformers type movie, I can't remember what they called it, like MK4 or something, is not.

14:14.67
Jeffe Kennedy
And they're like, it just obviously isn't. Yeah. yeah So, and i'm I'm trying not to deviate too much, but it's,

14:28.32
Jeffe Kennedy
There is there's so much that, you know, you create these things and people either like them or they don't. They either want to consume it or they don't.

14:40.17
Jeffe Kennedy
um And we have these conversations, you know, like with diverse reading or with short stories. ah you know, trying to get people to read short fiction. And the thing is, is especially when people are reading for pleasure, it's very difficult to get people to to read what they don't want to.

15:00.34
Jeffe Kennedy
i And you can talk to people about how it broadens you. you know, if you try stuff, then you will learn to love it. And it's all really valid arguments.

15:11.59
Jeffe Kennedy
But essentially, it comes down to that we cannot make other people consume our art. Right. Uh, we can, there are people who try, ah and certainly this is the model for like the tech companies who lock us into the annual subscription for our software.

15:35.05
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, we need it and therefore they control whether or not we can access it. They could charge us more for it with Um, People choose if and it all comes down to want right? You know, if I want this book, I want to read this book. I love this book. It makes me feel good ah you can't control whether or not somebody feels good consuming your art. Right.

16:04.38
Jeffe Kennedy
And so that's one of the things about writing. And I'm going to focus in on writing in particular that can drive creators to desperation, especially in this day and age. I feel like it's gotten worse over time ah because there are so many people saying you can control it, right?

16:24.74
Jeffe Kennedy
That it is within your control because, um, you know, advertising and you can write to market, you know, you can use your AI generated prompts, which apparently lots of authors are doing now to create these books, either for click farms or to try to appeal to readers who aren't paying,

16:45.47
Jeffe Kennedy
close attention to the story. I did post something to social media the other day because my audio book narrator is recording strange familiar, even as we speak, um, it's coming. Uh, just not yet.

17:00.04
Jeffe Kennedy
Sorry. i I was behind, which means I get off her schedule. That's why I'm going to try to hit it for magic reborn. But, um, Oh, also I shipped all of the print copies of, um, strange familiar on like April 10th.

17:16.93
Jeffe Kennedy
So you should have gotten them by now. A couple of people have asked, and if you haven't let me know, but you should have, um,

17:26.90
Jeffe Kennedy
But my audio book narrator asked me about a character in chapters like two and three, ah which is uncle, for those of you who have already read it, uncle at House Hare Hill.

17:38.90
Jeffe Kennedy
And she wanted to know if he would return, mostly out of curiosity. Sometimes she needs to plan those things because she like gives the good voice to a character that she knows is going to persist as opposed to like a one-off voice.

17:54.72
Jeffe Kennedy
But she asked mostly for her own curiosity if he would be back in book three. And I said, you know, i i think he will, because I tried to cut him. i I kind of felt like he was an extraneous secondary character and he refused to be cut, which usually means that the character is going to come back later and have an important role.

18:15.71
Jeffe Kennedy
and And I said, you know, this is, I posted to social media, this is why I feel like you know, the AI generated stuff, you know, how, how can you tell a story with that? You know, if you don't have that kind of creativity where characters decide what they want, but that's a different kind of writing, right? You know, there are some people who don't write that way.

18:41.37
Jeffe Kennedy
So anyway, I've seen this pattern many times over the years where somebody writes a book that they feel like should be more successful than it is.

18:52.54
Jeffe Kennedy
And they keep trying and trying and they like try to write to market and they try to do what other people are doing and they try to employ all of the so-called magic formulas and it doesn't work.

19:05.45
Jeffe Kennedy
And I'm going to specify that there's a difference here between persistence, which I feel like is key. ah You look at people, you know, like someone like Martha Wells or even George R. R. Martin, who wrote for 30 years,

19:22.33
Jeffe Kennedy
before becoming an overnight success like they hit the thing that breaks out. It's the right thing at the right time that people want and then they explode. um George did it with a song of ice and fire Martha did it with murderbot.

19:38.50
Jeffe Kennedy
oh But these were people who were writing other stuff for a very long time. Persistence is key you know and I know plenty of people who wrote a few books and disappeared.

19:49.79
Jeffe Kennedy
oh And I, you know, it's hard. it's It's not an easy profession by any stretch. And so there are, but there's also the banging in your head against the brick wall.

20:05.70
Jeffe Kennedy
And like, I knew a ah gal who wrote this book that she felt like should have hit and it never quite did. And she just kept flogging that book. She kept repackaging it redoing it. And I always wanted to tell her, just write some more books, you know, because that's what, you know, like George and Martha are good examples because they didn't keep flogging the exact same books, right?

20:29.90
Jeffe Kennedy
They kept writing new things and then they happened to hit on the thing that people did want to or that lots of people wanted because they were marginally successful or, you know, medium successful before that mid list successful.

20:46.50
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, but you know, when you want it, that breakout, that phenom thing, and then that's, uh, it's something that's not controllable. So there are people that,

21:01.27
Jeffe Kennedy
that struggle with this. And like I said, I think it's a human emotion that, um, that sense of desperation of wanting to make something happen that we have trouble making happen.

21:15.23
Jeffe Kennedy
And that desperation and to pause to sneeze, ah that desperation can really turn back in on itself and become something that is toxic to the individual and makes them behave in crazy ways.

21:32.56
Jeffe Kennedy
ah Where they they lose perspective. They just don't understand. They don't see that they are that they are eating themselves up from the inside and that they are angry at other people.

21:46.98
Jeffe Kennedy
And, and I have been there. I remember I wrote a blog post once about being angry because, um, I had done a massive revision on my book and the agent still didn't want it. And that's, I'll blow these 20 years ago.

22:00.55
Jeffe Kennedy
And I remember people commenting on there saying, don't succumb to the anger. And it was good advice. ah so Um, I'm already gone over time.

22:13.41
Jeffe Kennedy
And i'm I know that I'm being kind of nonspecific because I'm thinking of someone in particular and I don't want to call them out. But it's one of those principles of life that if everyone... Oops, sorry.

22:28.18
Jeffe Kennedy
Hit the wind chimes as I gesticulate. um If everybody around you... is seeming to be angry at you for no reason or accusing you of things for no reason and you're feeling like a pariah because everybody is suddenly against you the whole world is against you then it's time to look at the common denominator which is you Right. And I am gesturing to myself because I've been there.

22:57.52
Jeffe Kennedy
I've been there where it's like, why is everybody acting like I'm being crazy? And it's like, oh, actually, it's because I'm being crazy. So on that note, it's something to think about. Right.

23:09.91
Jeffe Kennedy
And if you start to feel that desperation, that anger that you need to make something happen and you don't care what you need to do to get it there, um give that some thought.

23:24.00
Jeffe Kennedy
All right. On that note, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all on Monday. You all take care. Bye bye.