First Cup of Coffee – May 1, 2025

My office rehab is done and I am THRILLED! I've discovered my intuition led me to solidify this aspect of my creative life while on hiatus. Also: Why We Write. Musings on having a creative career and balancing love and business.

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

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Transcript

00:01.81
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, also writing as Jennifer K. Lambert, author of epic fantasy romance, and I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:17.69
Jeffe Kennedy
Well, that wasn't totally seamless, but getting better, getting better. um Today Day. May. May 2025. happy may may first twenty twenty five And yeah, welcome all to a new month.

00:36.15
Jeffe Kennedy
ah If you are on video, you will see that I finished my office. I will post pictures along with the show notes, but I am epically happy.

00:48.90
Jeffe Kennedy
This sure did take me a long time. um It was kind of a massive-ish, massive-ish project, um but I'm delighted. i love the color.

01:01.32
Jeffe Kennedy
ah if you um If you're not on video, it's it's kind of, it's it's basically a gold. It's like an egg yolk yellow.

01:13.84
Jeffe Kennedy
I was worried that the yellow was going to be too intense when I had it on all the walls, but it is it is perfection. I cannot believe the way that it makes everything pop. The yellow is a great foil for the beautiful blues and greens outside.

01:31.25
Jeffe Kennedy
And ah great for making the art pop. um And I rearranged my art. I got to hang up some new ones. So if you can, if you are on video, you can see behind me. I've got a couple of new Stephanie Pui Moon Law um images up.

01:50.96
Jeffe Kennedy
Very happy with those. And there's another one up on the wall up here too. And the one up above my right shoulder here could be left to you, but that's from her tarot card collection.

02:06.09
Jeffe Kennedy
And that's the the card for strength.

02:11.69
Jeffe Kennedy
which is meaningful to me and for many reasons. I had a choice of two tarot card images and did not choose my usual ones.

02:25.47
Jeffe Kennedy
I usually like it if I draw like the sun or the world. Those of you who know me understand why, but at the time that I picked these out and just now got around to framing them, that was, um,

02:42.72
Jeffe Kennedy
Those were the ones that were meaningful. The other one I have is the six of swords, which is, um, an image of rest and recovery.

02:56.08
Jeffe Kennedy
So, um, yeah, so this project is done and I am feeling like I mentioned that this was not on my list of things that I was going to get done.

03:08.28
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, the Casita is complete. We passed the final inspection. The, uh, so the big dumpsters gone. I missed my window on that. Alas, but you know, it's been super windy and so it hasn't been great weather for it being outside.

03:26.24
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, so I did not do any of my outdoor activities. I didn't do any of the other activities that I like bought paint for months ago. Instead, I completely redid my office.

03:38.41
Jeffe Kennedy
But sometimes I think these things are met that we intuitively go with what is what is most needful for us. And or at least that's what I try to do.

03:53.02
Jeffe Kennedy
um I am an intuitive writer practicing Taoist and i try to ah follow my intuition. I'm, you know, what my subconscious tells me needs to be done. And this was the project I knew I needed to clean out the closet of doom, which is now the closet of paradisical organization. It's so much better.

04:18.62
Jeffe Kennedy
All my, Bookmarks are sorted. i can see exactly which books I have. All the books are up off the floor. It's just, um it's um it's amazing. I cannot believe how much it makes me feel better.

04:36.26
Jeffe Kennedy
So, yeah, I feel like this was part of the reset that I needed. And amusingly, as I was finishing yesterday, as I'm like ringing re-hanging the art,

04:48.60
Jeffe Kennedy
I got an email from Dianna at Tor, and she said that they were planning to get me my edit letter on um A Rose in the Mirror May 15th.

05:05.86
Jeffe Kennedy
So the for those of you keeping track at home, you will know that I return on the 9th. and was planning to get started on the 12th on writing again. So I think probably what I'm going to do is during my writing retreat and during those few days before I get that edit letter, I think I'll work on my my secret project, yet another secret project, as a couple of you pointed out.

05:39.69
Jeffe Kennedy
I think I might work on that for a few days while I wait for that revision letter to come in. But it's like, okay, you know, the hiatus is over and well, we'll be over. I get my, um I leave for Toronto in the morning. So, which is why we have the Thursday podcast.

05:58.26
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And then, um yeah, and then back to it and I'm feeling good about it. I'm so happy with, do I keep saying that? have Do you know that I'm happy? I'm so happy with this redone office.

06:15.59
Jeffe Kennedy
It's um just exquisitely beautiful.

06:21.47
Jeffe Kennedy
So, um so yeah, I have very little to report. um One thing that I want to talk about because I feel like I've had this conversation several times in the last few days is why do we write?

06:39.66
Jeffe Kennedy
And I just quickly and easily retrieved from the closet of paradise ah from my small collection of writing books. I have very few writing books. um And one reason for that is oh this is hard for me to say without sounding snotty, but i feel like most writing books are,

07:12.36
Jeffe Kennedy
how, How does one say it? um not Not useful um or have limited usefulness.

07:21.93
Jeffe Kennedy
You can learn structures, especially people ask for advice on like writing craft books to learn the craft of writing. And while I don't believe you have to go to an MFA program, ah i do think that there are not many ways to learn craft besides doing it.

07:46.42
Jeffe Kennedy
Reading extensively, and I don't mean reading craft books, I mean reading actual books in the genre that you want to write and in other genres. Observing, also writing a whole lot.

08:01.59
Jeffe Kennedy
So I have, shall we count? I have 14 books on writing. And they are all primarily thoughts from writers.

08:14.72
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, not really instruction so much as thoughts from writers. And this book, why I write is a collection of essays from a whole bunch of people, um, musing on why they write shockingly enough.

08:35.81
Jeffe Kennedy
And So like the blurbs on the back and maybe it's a little bit false. I keep this for particular reasons and not because I think it's really well done.

08:49.06
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, so it says why I write brings writers and readers together and exhilarating collective meditation on the solitary charms of prose fiction.

09:00.93
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, Blythe has elicited Blythe, the editor of the anthology, uh, or essay collection. Um, Blythe has elicited shrewd and poignant revelations about the process and the pain.

09:15.51
Jeffe Kennedy
Passionate and sometimes to eloquent, to a memorable book, certain to interest anyone who is curious about writing and writers. ah By turns, cantankerous and dreamy and an inspiration to writers and readers alike, a living monument to vitality and the writing life.

09:33.94
Jeffe Kennedy
So... it's interesting to read the things that different authors say. Uh, and so I find it useful for that reason. However, it's, um, it's the romantic side.

09:55.57
Jeffe Kennedy
It's this whole, you know, mulling on the, the ecstasy and the agony, right? Which if you are a writer, Yeah, that's, I mean, that's part of it. That's part of how it works and how it goes down.

10:13.28
Jeffe Kennedy
ah

10:17.75
Jeffe Kennedy
But when it comes to writing careers, to making decisions, that's a different thing, right? This is, this kind of book is the starving artist in the garret.

10:32.85
Jeffe Kennedy
It is not the How am I paying the bills? How am I making it so that I make more money from writing than I'm spending doing it for some people?

10:46.43
Jeffe Kennedy
I had um, one conversation that I have is with a friend of mine, a woman who is a little bit older than I am.

10:58.09
Jeffe Kennedy
who knew was possible and is looking at how she wants to spend the rest of her life. She has salaried spouse, but they live in an expensive city and she has not made much money from her writing.

11:17.71
Jeffe Kennedy
She's been well received. um She was with a traditional publisher who was, is one that does not pay their authors very well. Yes, there are some like that.

11:31.55
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, and she was asking me for my opinion on what project she should do next. And she was telling me that she had resurrected something that she had written a long time ago, ah trilogy.

11:46.06
Jeffe Kennedy
but it is not in the hot genre. And really what she's been writing in does fall into the romantic yeah umbrella and could be, um i mean, she could be writing in the hot genre. You know, there's a lot of us who have been writing in the genre for a long time, feeling like um we're kind of running after the train.

12:12.35
Jeffe Kennedy
Which is funny because we were for so long, I don't know, walking along the tracks by ourselves.

12:19.29
Jeffe Kennedy
But she, this thing that she should resurrect it, she'd looked at it and thought that it was even more solid than she remembered. And she was excited about working on it. However, it is not in a hot genre.

12:31.06
Jeffe Kennedy
And she wondered, you know like what I thought she should do. And before I tell you what advice I gave her, I'll mention that in my mentoring discord that somebody else was talking about this, you know, feeling discouraged, um having had a book that they had very high hopes for that they thought might, you know, be breakout, shoot up the charts,

12:59.74
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, the we always hope that books will do well, but then there are certain books, you know, like starting first in series, um writing something in the hot genre, you know, that we think, okay, this one is the one that could catapult us to this place where we are no longer running after the train, where we're no longer feeling like we're having to um battle for every dollar.

13:26.82
Jeffe Kennedy
Which is, frankly, how a whole lot of writing is. And we can't have this conversation without talking about the fact that there are these authors out there who are writing things for Kindle Unlimited.

13:41.52
Jeffe Kennedy
There are people who are using generative AI to write as many books as possible, to get them into Kindle Unlimited, to cash in on the Amazon bonuses and, you know, publishing their income and, you know, saying how, oh, well, you know, you could be making all of this money too.

14:03.14
Jeffe Kennedy
And the people who hit very big, ah you know, and published their seven figure deals and saying, well, you could be doing this too. Uh, the thing is, is you don't really hear from the people who are not doing well, who are not in that place, right?

14:21.89
Jeffe Kennedy
You hear from the people who are either doing very well or want everyone to believe that they're doing very well. And trust me, a whole lot of those people are exaggerating.

14:38.30
Jeffe Kennedy
ah They are changing up. They are indulging in hyperbole, especially those who are offering their services, who are offering to sell courses in things.

14:58.51
Jeffe Kennedy
ah take the courses from the people who acknowledge that it's a difficult business and that you will be dealing with ups and downs.

15:14.76
Jeffe Kennedy
The the people who are like well you can tell the people who are selling success are selling success. They aren't experiencing success.

15:27.26
Jeffe Kennedy
Otherwise, if they were making all the money they wanted from what they were doing with writing, they wouldn't be spending their time selling the success classes.

15:40.01
Jeffe Kennedy
I know I mentioned this all the time. So anyway, um, the thing is, is that most of us like my friend,

15:51.42
Jeffe Kennedy
like my mentee, the most important thing to us to tell stories. And, and that kind of comes back to this whole, for better or worse, this why I write thing.

16:03.68
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, some people put it as simply as because I can't do anything else because I'm not happy unless I'm writing. Uh, there uh,

16:17.84
Jeffe Kennedy
the creative impulse that drives us to tell stories, to write books and the people who are using generative AI to do it,

16:33.20
Jeffe Kennedy
they want to have a book. Uh, they don't care about their creative process. So

16:44.55
Jeffe Kennedy
see the why I write uh, what to write, why do we keep doing this even when it's painful? oh

16:57.81
Jeffe Kennedy
it's because of that creative of joy. It's the going through the process. It's why if you're using generative AI, even to like edit your books. And frankly, I don't believe the people who are saying that, that they like write the story themselves, but then use that to edit it and help them along with the story.

17:19.16
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, part of the creative process is, is that struggle. It's, it's what we're doing. It's, Like, why are we here on earth?

17:29.88
Jeffe Kennedy
We're here on earth living our lives to do more than just pay the mortgage. I mean, it's great to pay the mortgage. You know, it's great to have, be able to buy art and to buy paint on the walls, which by the way, it was $60 a gallon. but I don't think it used to be that much.

17:47.80
Jeffe Kennedy
Fortunately, I was able to get it done. It's one gallon. Incidental. but there are the exigencies of life. There are the things that we need to do to fill out the bottom of the pyramid, to have food and shelter and feel comfortable.

18:06.27
Jeffe Kennedy
And that then enable us to create, right? That's how Maslow's pyramid works. That at the top is like creating and self-actualization. It's,

18:17.21
Jeffe Kennedy
If we're not here to experience our lives and the creative process is is is peak life, right? there's If you ask writers like what the best experience is, most people will not say something like, you know, seeing my book in the bookstore window. That's the great moment.

18:37.30
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, yeah, it's it's good. it's It's really nice. Don't get me wrong. But the best moments are like when you nail something, when you get something exactly right, when you get that creative high.

18:51.58
Jeffe Kennedy
And there are not, um that's not something you get with using technological tools to assist you.

19:02.11
Jeffe Kennedy
Despite what the oligarchs say money isn't everything. So why do we keep doing this? It's because because it's meaningful to us, because it gives our lives meaning.

19:16.12
Jeffe Kennedy
If all we cared about was making money, we would go be stockbrokers or grocery store checkers. There are plenty of things that we could do. My friend who is not making money from her writing, um, it would be the same if she spent her days watching soap operas, right? She's got the salaried spouse.

19:36.98
Jeffe Kennedy
She takes care of her family. Why does she keep putting herself through the pain? Because it's meaningful because it's important. And, you know, so even if the book isn't the runaway success that we hoped it would be, even if it doesn't shoot up to the top of the Kindle rankings, there is still that satisfaction of having created the story.

20:00.82
Jeffe Kennedy
And so the advice that I gave to my friend when she said, should she work on this? I said, absolutely. I said, if this is what's lighting you up, write that thing.

20:12.57
Jeffe Kennedy
And that's the advice I would give to all of you. if but you know, if you're not loving what you're writing, if it's not meaningful to you, and yes, sometimes we have to buckle down and finish the thing that's due or the next book in the series. And sometimes we don't feel the fire that we would like to. But if you're not doing it for that sheer creative pain and joy, then what's the point?

20:45.18
Jeffe Kennedy
So on that note, I am heading out on vacation. I might try to do podcast next week. I think I'll take the camera and the ring light with me and we'll see what happens.

20:57.10
Jeffe Kennedy
But you all know better than to count on me. So um go out there and write something for the joy of it. All right. um You all take care of and I will talk to you soon.

21:10.20
Jeffe Kennedy
Bye bye.