First Cup of Coffee – June 27, 2025

I'm going on book tour! Lots of burbling about that and this Cinderella ticket. Also a deep dive into how we decided on book titles (Spoiler: don't get attached!) and fun insights into yesterday's editorial meeting. 

Book Tour for NEVER THE ROSES information here! https://us.macmillan.com/tours/jennifer-k-lambert-never-the-roses/

Buy LoveLitCon tickets here https://lovelit.com/ Be sure to use my author-specific code for a $10 discount! LOVE8368

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

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Transcript

00:01.26
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, also writing as Jennifer K. Lambert, author of epic fantasy romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:15.22
Jeffe Kennedy
Ah, we loves it. ah Today is say it with me people, it is Friday, 27th. ah june twenty seven Last podcast of June, halfway through the year. Here we go.

00:29.22
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm sorry to those of you who sent me messages saying you feel attacked when I say things like that. Yeah, I know. i It's going fast. Book tour next.

00:41.09
Jeffe Kennedy
Well, week after next. But still, July is here after so long of waiting for Never the Roses to come out. It is here um coming out July eighth The delightful Kelly Robson arrives on Wednesday evening and we have many fun things planned.

01:01.18
Jeffe Kennedy
And then um book launch here in Santa Fe at Beastly Books. Going to be um super fun. diet Please come if you're in Santa Fe or want to be. Gorgeous time of year to visit Santa Fe. We're starting to get the monsoon rains, which is amazing.

01:20.87
Jeffe Kennedy
of Need that water? Um, yeah, so Tuesday, July 8th, 5:30. Beastly books, George RR Martin's bookstore, come on down. Um, Melinda Snodgrass is going to be in conversation with me. I think that's funny how they put that.

01:38.29
Jeffe Kennedy
It's like, she's not interviewing me. We're just in conversation as if Melinda and I are not in conversation all the time. It's the, you're a fly on the wall in conversation.

01:52.29
Jeffe Kennedy
um and I will be signing books if you can't be there you can contact basically books and they will send you a signed copy. You could even get it personalized by me if you request just contact them look them up. I think it's beastlybooks.com if you google beastly books Santa Fe you'll find it

02:15.18
Jeffe Kennedy
Yes. And then the next morning on ah Wednesday, i fly to Salt Lake City and I will be at Poppy Books on Wednesday evening and in the garden, I believe.

02:28.84
Jeffe Kennedy
And I don't know why I'm doing the plummy accent because book tour feels very fancy. ah For those of you new to me, well, and long time listeners will know this is my first ever book tour.

02:42.31
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, And it's just kind of amazing getting the Cinderella treatment. So then on Thursday, i will fly to Austin, Texas, where I will be in conversation.

02:56.93
Jeffe Kennedy
but Apparently, I have to say that with the accent ah with the redoubtable Grace Draven. which will be really great. And she's going to just spend the night at my hotel with me.

03:08.96
Jeffe Kennedy
And we are going to spend time together on Friday and tool around and have fun. And then Friday evening, I fly to Columbus, Ohio, where I will be at the Columbus book festival on Saturday and Sunday.

03:24.48
Jeffe Kennedy
And then Monday morning, I fly to and start spreading the news to New York city. I should have come up with a song for everything, but you're all like, no, Jeffy, please don't.

03:38.00
Jeffe Kennedy
um Clearly I'm just over the moon about all of this. So yeah, I fled in New York city. um I'm going to see a show with my agent dinner and a show and Tuesday evening. I will be at the union square Barnes and Noble with Sarah Beth Durst, whose book, the enchanted greenhouse comes out.

04:02.98
Jeffe Kennedy
that Tuesday the 15th and so we are doing her launch event and I will be there to be in conversation with her and but also lots of my books will be there a lot of my books will be at all of these locations.

04:18.44
Jeffe Kennedy
So yeah, it's going to be super exciting. I'm really looking forward to all of this. It's kind of going to be the week-long party. Kelly Robson is the the best of friends. She's staying here ah for, well, some time before I leave, obviously, so that we can play. And then she will be here the whole time to be company for David and look after him while I'm on book tour. So i don't have to worry, which is of the nicest things anybody has ever done for me.

04:53.24
Jeffe Kennedy
And then we'll have a little bit of time when I get back to hang out and she's going to treat it like a writing retreat. So she'll be the first Casita guest and we'll get her reviews of what an amazing space it is.

05:08.69
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah. yeah So I don't know if I'm leaving anything out. ah There will be more stuff coming. There's still something coming in July that they're saying, no, you can't talk about it yet.

05:22.85
Jeffe Kennedy
And yes, that's exactly how they say it. I don't know. It's not clear to me why it's still secret because other stuff has been announced for this event and they ran the plane ticket times through me and they're by my plane ticket. So I'm definitely going, but I don't know. I don't know.

05:43.91
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, the savvy among you can probably figure out what it is, but yeah, I'm not allowed to say it. Hi, nobody knows. Anyway, I'm going to have a very busy July and it's going to be like mostly traveling and partying and not writing.

06:02.38
Jeffe Kennedy
But um I believe I told you all on Tuesday. Yes, I did. Yeah, that I am working on the revision of book two. It's going well.

06:16.95
Jeffe Kennedy
We had an additional meeting yesterday that editor Ali referred to as kind of the fire break meeting. She wanted to make sure that I hadn't like freaked out or gotten stuck because we're a little tight on time now, not super tight, but our transmission date, I think that's the term.

06:52.69
Jeffe Kennedy
And um, yeah sorry there was a little bit of funny bobbling there. It might have sounded weird on your end. As i always say I can't tell if only she would edit these but she's not going to so.

07:06.63
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I I'd like to think that this adds texture. It adds verisimilitude. Um, Yeah, that you would can imagine that if we we're sitting in having coffee in the coffee shop that this is when the server came by desk, interrupting our conversation to ask if everything is okay.

07:24.36
Jeffe Kennedy
ah Yeah, so we we have time. Transmittal date means when it gets turned over to production. We did find out at the meeting yesterday that it's being printed domestically so we don't have to worry about Um, shipping times containers going across the ocean.

07:46.79
Jeffe Kennedy
And we have a potential title. It's still it's been approved by a few people. It still has to go through like all of the um, Marketing people and so forth. So basically Allie suggested the title Deanna assistant to Allie suggested a title.

08:07.66
Jeffe Kennedy
So here's here's what I'll tell it in order that would be helpful wouldn't it. So but I'm gonna have to do an aside which hopefully won't completely derail me. But last week I was at Harry's in the garden with my friend Jim Sorenson having writer coffee.

08:25.96
Jeffe Kennedy
which wrote or writer French. And I was talking about the revision and I think I have a carrying voice. I sometimes get told i have a carrying voice. I, I was in theater or so I project without meaning to, uh, but this guy was sort of following his daughter around as she played with the waterfall in the garden. It's a great garden.

08:46.38
Jeffe Kennedy
And, uh, she, if you come to Santa Fe for the book lunch, you should go to Harry's and sit in the garden. Totally worth it to wait for a table in the garden. Anyway, he's, he turned to me and asked if I was a writer and I said, yes, because clearly he'd been overhearing the conversation.

09:04.93
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, it was kind of a funny interaction because he asked what I wrote and I told him and it turns out that he also writes fantasy and I opened my mouth to ask him.

09:16.00
Jeffe Kennedy
i it's it's still hard even for another writer to ask, well, are you published? And so forth, you know, that kind of thing, except that I also didn't actually want to know. because I'm I don't know a terrible human being um because I thought I do not want to get into a whole conversation about I don't know the epic fantasy novel that he's never quite finished but has a filing cabinet full of world building for and then he asks if I want to read it I don't know.

09:43.91
Jeffe Kennedy
um I guess I am just cynical. ah so I deflected by mentioning that Jim is also a writer and that he ah is this lore expert on transformers and GI i Joe and go bots and all this kind of thing which I know will light people because don't know it's just funny watching people go bananas excited about ah Jim and transformers and so forth.

10:19.69
Jeffe Kennedy
So anyway, I didn't find out to ah what anything more about it, ah but I thought it was kind of funny because it was like this is how it would be if we were actually having coffee and a cafe, which I can't complain about right. I wish just a funny incident.

10:37.29
Jeffe Kennedy
ah So anyway, titles. I'm remembering. ah So the title of that Allie sent, she, so actually let me back up slightly.

10:49.73
Jeffe Kennedy
Jennifer Estep, my friend, had suggested always the thorns to follow up Never of the rose never the roses right never the roses always the thorns and I'd sent that on and Ali said that everybody really likes that except they felt like it sounded a little too much like always a bridesmaid never a bride which I could totally see so she suggested among the thorns and she suggested and she said that Dianna had suggested bound by thorns and which I thought those were great. And I replied saying that I thought um ah really, liked both of them, but that I voted for among the thorns because I thought bound by thorns sounded a little BDSM-y.

11:32.71
Jeffe Kennedy
And ah Allie wrote back ah saying that she that had not crossed her mind because clearly her mind is not as dirty as mine and that she was blushing now.

11:44.55
Jeffe Kennedy
And then fortunately agent Sarah weighed in and said she'd have the exact same thought. So this is why Sarah and I get along well. Um, so I think we're going with among the thorns, but we'll see. She's I asked her about it yesterday on the editorial call and she said she likes it and Monique Patterson, the head of the imprint likes it and Devi Pillai, the publisher tour likes it.

12:08.55
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, but now they have to sort of bounce it through. Like the the concentric layers of marketing publicity people possibly even like the book buyers and so forth to see how they feel about it.

12:23.07
Jeffe Kennedy
I also got a cover comp for I'm going to just start calling it a mother the thorns. um This is partly why um i don't get wedded to titles right.

12:36.58
Jeffe Kennedy
um They can change and I changed the name of what ah the tab on my Excel Sprack.

12:47.36
Jeffe Kennedy
My Excel spreadsheet tracker. ah So I can that's a fairly easy change. But as many of you know, like as far as computer files are concerned and stuff, if you um change the file name,

13:02.90
Jeffe Kennedy
You don't like them my my links won't work anymore my my favorites so I'm waiting to I don't want to have to change everything everywhere multiple times.

13:14.55
Jeffe Kennedy
So. um Yeah, so among the thorns is coming along well. The other funny thing about the editorial meeting was Ali had asked to for an outline. She said, well, she wanted an outline so she could see where the beats were.

13:33.29
Jeffe Kennedy
And she said, I know you don't write that way, though. so And I said, well, no, now that the book's written, I can make an outline. I said, actually, I have that because for those of you who followed me a long time, you know that I do record everything in a spreadsheet.

13:49.17
Jeffe Kennedy
And I have my I use the 8th scene 3x structure works well for me. I figure things by percentages. So as I write I put in the word count of each chapter and I know kind of where my scene 1 end is and I know where my act 1 end is.

14:09.11
Jeffe Kennedy
um Act 1's first climax. It's where all of the stakes are set. um If I don't have all of the stakes set by the end of, i know I haven't finished act one. I know it's not done yet.

14:24.53
Jeffe Kennedy
Scene one is really more like the first sequence. So it's like a lot of the introductory sequences, how I think of it. So end of scene one is around 12.5% end of act one is around 25%.

14:39.72
Jeffe Kennedy
And so get those,

14:43.00
Jeffe Kennedy
and so what get those Then i know where you know I can do it eight times. ah Whatever my word count is for that scene one or I could do four times whatever my word count is at act one and then I can know pretty much how long the book will be and so forth once it's done.

15:02.37
Jeffe Kennedy
I can see all of these things and rejigger if ah some of the beats are off. So it was very easy. I told Ali, I can just pull this into a separate spreadsheet for you and then you can see. And as I was going, I would just put down what happened in each chapter, sort of like the major events of each chapter.

15:23.14
Jeffe Kennedy
And so I got a little bit more than halfway through the revision before the meeting. i'd So like Wednesday evening, Wednesday afternoon, I sent um that spreadsheet. I made a copy of it and did a paste special. So all the links were gone, make it easy for everyone.

15:40.96
Jeffe Kennedy
And I was at like 53, 54%.

15:46.35
Jeffe Kennedy
So I'd sent that and it was really helpful. And we talked about it and I even noted on there, like how much ah my actual word count was off percentage wise from the expected percentage and none of it is more than like 2.5% which I feel very proud of myself for.

16:07.66
Jeffe Kennedy
of

16:10.47
Jeffe Kennedy
yeah I guess I wanted to do this fresh off my shoulder right what's what's the correct gesture there. um So it was just funny as we were talking about it because Allie said, well, now that the outline is there, you know, you can finish pretty quickly. You know, she's just concerned because she knows we got behind in that it was her fault. There's no castigation there. And she asked me to do more.

16:34.28
Jeffe Kennedy
So that's why it was like the fire break meeting just to see how I was doing, if I was having any major issues, so forth. So, ah so she says,

16:45.98
Jeffe Kennedy
although the outline's not done, right? It's only halfway done. And I was kind of opening my mouth to explain and Sarah jumped in and she said, well, unless I'm mistaken, what this means is, is that this is everything Jeffrey's revised so far and she's just filling it in as she goes.

17:03.44
Jeffe Kennedy
And I said, this is exactly correct. I said, so everything up to this point is revised. Um, and he said, you know, like for me, an outline, I can make you an outline. I said, but you have to remember, I'm like that kid at school that when asked to create an outline for a paper, I would go write the paper and then make the outline from it.

17:23.91
Jeffe Kennedy
And, uh, Ali was like, I've never heard of anyone like this process. And it was kind of funny. i mean, it's really fun. ah were having a great conversation, ah Sarah was like, Jeff, he's amazing with her spreadsheets. She like weighs her cats every week and tracks it. And, uh, which, and then, so we started talking about why it's important to weigh your cats. Allie asked about it because Sarah told me, she said that I would be pleased to know that she and her partner have gotten so that they weigh their cat. Although she apparently has a smart litter box that like tracks her excretions and weighs her when she gets in the litter box.

18:04.27
Jeffe Kennedy
It sounds really snazzy, which we were all super interested in. I don't know if I want one of those, but it sounds really cool. Uh, but then I was explaining to Ali and I will explain to all of you just in case you don't know that it's important to weigh your cats regularly.

18:21.91
Jeffe Kennedy
And I do it weekly on Wednesdays. And I explained that my scale has a baby mode. So you get on the scale that weighs you, then you get the cat and it weighs you you, know, your cat baby and hold it.

18:33.45
Jeffe Kennedy
And then it gets your, um, calculates the difference for you. But yeah, cats, if they don't feel good, they stop eating. Um, and they will, they can crash pretty quickly if you are not noticing that there's like been a sudden weight loss.

18:50.98
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, yeah, so that's why anyway, it was a fun call. Um, I'm feeling on track with things. Uh, we'll see where I end up today. The last couple of days have been slower.

19:04.11
Jeffe Kennedy
ah but I, it's not surprising to me. Um, I had some distractions, but then also it was a little bit stickier on the revision.

19:15.42
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, And i used I said this to them on the call. I said, you know, it's really amazing. I said, because it was like you all saw the bones of what's there. And then I'm just having to to lift out some of the flesh from it, bring it out.

19:29.98
Jeffe Kennedy
And they're like, oh, yeah, it's us. We did all the work. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm just the stevedore. ah Anyway, it's um it's ah really fun. When...

19:41.62
Jeffe Kennedy
I know I've said this before, but I think it's worth reiterating when people say, you know, what's the point of getting a trad deal. Um, this is one of them that working with a team of people on a project is really fun, especially if they're really good. But you know, I, I did have, I think I mentioned on Tuesday, a friend's remarking on how amazing it was that my editor has, and, and what both have,

20:07.33
Jeffe Kennedy
not only read the book once but twice and we'll read it again um there are some editors who in who are just so overwhelmed that they're not giving things that level of attention so i am i'm lucky i'm lucky in many ways and enjoying that so uh i hope you all have a fabulous weekend i hope that you are able to find some time things that you feel lucky about in your life and i will talk to you all on tuesday You all take care.

20:38.28
Jeffe Kennedy
Bye-bye.