First Cup of Coffee – July 18, 2025

I'm back from Book Tour and super revved that NEVER THE ROSES debuted at #29 on the USA Today Bestseller list! Today is part 1 of the tour, who I saw, how it went, and all the other (not-so) salacious details!

I will be at San Diego Comic Con! See me on the Mystical Mayhem panel on Saturday, July 26, 2025 10:30am - 11:30am PDT, Room 10 . https://www.comic-con.org/cc/things-to-do/programming-schedule/saturday/ I'll be signing NEVER THE ROSES afterward at Noon!  Saturday July 26, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm PD  Sails Pavilion - Autographs 

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

00:01.99
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.

00:16.64
Jeffe Kennedy
Ah, delicious. Today is, oh say it with me. Today is Friday. Woo-hoo. July here we are together July eighteenth and here we are together again

00:33.02
Jeffe Kennedy
I back from book tour back from book tour and it was it was great. It was wonderful. ah It was exhausting.

00:44.29
Jeffe Kennedy
It was occasionally stressful always delightful. oh My travels went entirely smoothly except for the last flight the coming home flight which was like an epic disaster.

00:58.23
Jeffe Kennedy
Well, I suppose not disaster, right? Because that would be like the plane actually crashing. But short of that, it was um yeah difficult. But I will tell you the whole story. I'm going to tell you all about Book Tour today.

01:12.50
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And i'm ah either I am still wired and going to crash or I'm doing okay. We'll see. While I was on book tour, i have to show you all my um the UK team.

01:27.91
Jeffe Kennedy
Sorry. but That was very loud. I but apologize. The saucer stuck to the bottom of the vase. Yeah. and Oops. So the UK team for Never the Roses sent me this beautiful, beautiful arrangement.

01:42.90
Jeffe Kennedy
ah that book released on Thursday. So I was out on book tour, but David took pictures of it for me and it's still in relatively good shape. It's looking a little wilty, but it's, it's close. It's um I still get to enjoy it. And it was such a lovely gesture.

02:03.02
Jeffe Kennedy
Okay. So um to catch us up where we last left our heroine, it was, A week ago Tuesday, it feels like forever. I swear, you know like things that I did right before I left, I was surprised to come back and find what it's like. Oh, the before times.

02:22.03
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, I don't know how people who travel all the time for book stuff do it. You know like Mary Robinette Kowal. I feel like she's on the road constantly and I don't know how she does it anyway.

02:36.50
Jeffe Kennedy
Um,

02:39.54
Jeffe Kennedy
I was just realizing I didn't describe the flowers for those of you not on video. It's um white roses, white daisies, white status, and blue delphiniums. Beautiful. So, uh, yeah. So we had the launch event on Tuesday.

02:55.19
Jeffe Kennedy
It was great. It was really just, um, it was at basically books and twig got me purple roses. I posted pictures of those. I tried to post things to social media, but I just got behind. I also don't know how people,

03:09.85
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, you know like Sarah Beth Durst, I guess she has her husband doing it for, I guess that's the secret of these people. I've noticed some Victoria Schwab has been on book tour and like she has people taking videos of her and putting together these video compilations and yeah, so I need, um, an assistant to travel with me and take photos and postings to social media because clearly and i'm not going to do it myself.

03:37.16
Jeffe Kennedy
Alas. Um, what do you do? You know, like ah I've thought about that saying, well, you know, I don't have, you know, but I do have my, my husband, David, who is lovely, but is disabled. He can't travel with me. And even if he could, he wouldn't be taking videos.

03:52.96
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, you know, so I should get other people to take them for me. Like maybe pick an assignment, a person in each place I go to, that would be smart. Um, it is not smart.

04:06.95
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, um, Okay, so a Twig, who got me the purple roses, called it the cozy launch at Beastly, which it was. I mean, it was smaller.

04:18.12
Jeffe Kennedy
ah Darynda Jones and Amber Knox came up from Portales, and they got here in the afternoon. And Kelly Robson, who is staying with me, arranged for us to order pizza so that we would eat before the event.

04:33.05
Jeffe Kennedy
She's very good mother. Uh, and we sat out on the portal and Vela Roth was here and we, uh, she came over and so we all sat on the portal and we had champagne and pizza.

04:45.19
Jeffe Kennedy
And then we went to the book event and it was lovely. All the people who came for it. i so appreciated that. Uh, Melinda Snodgrass did an amazing interview.

04:57.10
Jeffe Kennedy
we had a party at my friend Megan's afterwards. And, um, yeah, it was, it was just the best kind of day. And then Wednesday I flew to Salt Lake city where my cousins, my first cousins, uh, daughters of my mom's older sister, uh, picked me up at the airport, Jane and Becky, and they drove me out to Spanish for it, which turned out to be like past Provo and the ways.

05:24.77
Jeffe Kennedy
And we had dinner and it was great to catch up with them. They're both a little bit older than me. ah Jane is I think seven years older than i am and ah Rebecca I don't know if i I'm supposed to not call her Becky anymore and I'm going to try and Rebecca's like 10 years older no more 12 years older than I am anyway.

05:48.13
Jeffe Kennedy
We had a great event at Poppy's Books. If you are in the Salt Lake City area, it is well worth it to go out to Poppy's Books. It's this lovely bookstore that's in a converted house and they've got like little hidden doors everywhere. Little um pretty like I spotted a hobbit door on the stairway and you open them and there's little dioramas inside. It's a fantastic place for ah kids and for the child at heart.

06:16.42
Jeffe Kennedy
They had a wonderful, wonderful collection of books. Great turnout for the event. Alexandra Kennington interviewed me and she was terrific.

06:27.50
Jeffe Kennedy
She did a great job. We had a wonderful conversation. I already talked to you about her book. I think it's Blood Under the Snow. ah gave a copy of it to Grace Draven because then the next day i went to Uh, the airport very early since it was like an hour from where I was and flew to Austin, Texas.

06:50.29
Jeffe Kennedy
and stayed at this great hotel called canopy right downtown Austin near the book people bookstore. I was able to walk over and do a few errands.

07:00.86
Jeffe Kennedy
I uh, I tried to one suitcase this and you know, I've I'm at peace with the fact that I am you like I'm never going to be your carry on traveler. Uh, I'm too much of a clothes horse for that. I, I want my stuff with me.

07:15.62
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I was trying to be ah my version of traveling light by having one suitcase, but I still had packed it almost to wait.

07:26.38
Jeffe Kennedy
And then at Poppy's bookstore, they gave me a book. I got to pick any book I wanted. I should have kept that up here.

07:36.30
Jeffe Kennedy
So I got, The Night and the Moth, which everybody is saying is really great. So that was really cool. They said that they used to, i can't remember what she said, they used to give authors something and she said it turned out that all they really wanted was a free book, which, fair.

07:55.09
Jeffe Kennedy
Right. So I took that book. So in Austin, when I checked in and for my flight, it was my suitcase was like at 51 pounds.

08:05.97
Jeffe Kennedy
I think they have those scales tilted because I've hit 51 pounds before. And um but then they've said it's fine. So I think that means it's actually like 49 and they're trying to get people to tip slightly under.

08:21.50
Jeffe Kennedy
So anyway, I went and bought a little dash bag because it was like, okay, I'm clearly going to be accumulating more stuff. And, and I did. So that was smart.

08:31.57
Jeffe Kennedy
And I'd forgotten my special signing pin. So I went and bought another one of those, which actually this is a seed that will come around later in the story. I bought ah one of the ones, it doesn't have the kind with the screw cap or the screw cartridge where you could suck up the ink, like my special one that my wonderful nephew Brett gave me that I left behind.

08:53.20
Jeffe Kennedy
I had it for the signing night here at Beasley books. And then I, ah it didn't make its way into my bags. so I got one with just the ink cartridge and so I was able to use that to sign books at night where I was met by the fantastic and lovely Grace Draven.

09:12.65
Jeffe Kennedy
As many of you know we have been friends for many many years like 11 years now we're figuring out ah but I had not seen seen her since pre pandemic for for reasons A lot of reasons pandemic being one, but then also she got sick, that kind of thing.

09:32.54
Jeffe Kennedy
So I got to see Grace. It was great to see her again. we did the event at book people, great bookstore in downtown Austin, multi-story, all the books you could ever want out of life.

09:45.55
Jeffe Kennedy
And they even had some, ah ASL interpreters from the local community college. doing ASL of our conversation and they had a lot of fun. Everybody said how great it was. Cause you know, Grace and I can riff with each other.

10:01.82
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, and then Grace got to stay the night with me. She went back with me to my hotel and we had dinner in the courtyard, stayed up very late. it was one of those things where we're the last people in the restaurant cause the servers like come through and we're looking at this. It's like, Oh, it's 10 30.

10:19.43
Jeffe Kennedy
ah It's what you get for having dinner after the book event. And so then grace just stayed overnight with me in my hotel room and then the next day we went and walked around some I was looking for So I've got this thing. I've probably mentioned it on here, but I'll mention it again.

10:38.53
Jeffe Kennedy
I've got this thing where I Try to buy Landscapes in all of the different places I visit I prefer them to be um artwork It can be photography so long as it's um, like not touristy stuff.

10:56.00
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, from local artists, which is not always easy to find, but it provides a good quest and I hang these up and you can see. Um, well, none of the ones behind me are like this, although there's a up above me, there's the red wolf, which is a Santa Fe artist I love, but then next to it is a Georgia O'Keeffe from her home and studio That's she painted that doorway a lot. And so that one for me is partly a landscape.

11:26.72
Jeffe Kennedy
They help provide me with inspiration. i have them all around the house and it helps me think of different kinds of landscapes in which to set things.

11:38.67
Jeffe Kennedy
So we went back to book people thinking maybe we could find something there. No, ah they didn't have anything local and we and they suggested a stationary store that we went over to And that girl's like, no, everything here is from China, which is you know, I guess life that's the life we're living.

11:57.47
Jeffe Kennedy
So, ah but she said, go to Congress street, which is, you know, sort of like the touristy area of Austin. But she said, you will find local art there. And she even suggested a couple of stores and we, we did, we took a lift over to Congress street.

12:14.04
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, behind me is a wonderful piece. I'll grab it so I can tell you the artist. She was a street artist and had a bunch of pieces. Isn't that great?

12:27.58
Jeffe Kennedy
ah It's a Karen Seigert, Karen Seigert. So this piece is it's very colorful and it's a woman in tight, a blue woman, a blue person perhaps entwined with flowers, flowers growing out of her head.

12:41.59
Jeffe Kennedy
She's holding a blue bird. There's a hummingbird feeding off of one of the flowers. I also got Kelly yesterday was Kelly's birthday. So I got Kelly, um, a gorgeous octopus.

12:53.48
Jeffe Kennedy
That is really great from the same artist. And I did find some landscapes. Uh, we also went to a vintage store. I got a great pair of shoes. Um, we had a wonderful time and then, went back to the hotel, grabbed our suitcases,

13:11.04
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, road, uh, another, you have another lift. What did we do before ride share? I guess we paid out the nose for taxis or we didn't go places. Uh, rode the lift out to the airport and grace rode with me and her sister picture her up there and and for those of you wondering I ran into someone else I'll probably add that this is probably going be a two-parter because it's a long of story.

13:35.46
Jeffe Kennedy
So I um she she's doing fine. She's she's clear she's cancer free. She's in remission. She's so stronger and more vital than I expected. We talked about whether or not she should color her hair.

13:51.19
Jeffe Kennedy
ah Um, but yeah, we had a lovely time together and it was, yeah, it was great. Great to have that time. So then, I flew to Columbus for their book festival. I got in fairly late that evening, but then, um I stayed at a ah great hotel there too. The tour team put me up at just such fun hotels, all very hip, which was kind of cool.

14:19.48
Jeffe Kennedy
So I stayed at, excuse me, the Junto in Columbus, which was across from the park with the, I think we might have some sort of capture.

14:34.87
Jeffe Kennedy
It's Killian though. And he bikes down so hard that he kills things instant instantly.

14:40.54
Jeffe Kennedy
with Jackson, I can get them away and set them for you, but I won't go investigate. Uh, so the Junto was great. They had a rooftop bar. I set up on the rooftop bar in the warm, humid night. It was perfect.

14:54.15
Jeffe Kennedy
Had a great meal, uh, wine. And it was just really, it was good decompress moment. Saturday, Saturday was the day of errors. It was one of those days where just like everything went wrong.

15:09.17
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, I think I was partly getting tired and discombobulated at this point, which, you know, I had really been going pretty strong um since before Tuesday, even because there'd been all the prep for the book release and getting out of town.

15:27.17
Jeffe Kennedy
So decided to take a lift over to the Library where the book festival was being held. It's a tremendous book festival. It's beautiful.

15:38.52
Jeffe Kennedy
ah The library is a Carnegie library that they then added on to in the early 90s in a beautiful way. ah So now the park adjacent to the library that all of these tents and pavilions set up. It was just gorgeous.

15:54.31
Jeffe Kennedy
And so I get there and I get there late. It's a mile away from the hotel. So I considered walking, but then I ran out of time. I thought I was getting ready in time, but I wasn't. And it was also very hot and muggy.

16:09.10
Jeffe Kennedy
And I thought, well, I don't want arrive there all hot and sticky. And if I got lost, you know, like I wouldn't have done. So I splurged, I was, you know, getting reimbursed anyway, but I'm conscious of like spending other people's money.

16:23.42
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But then there was, I had a signing at the Steamy Lift booth at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. And the festival began at 10. So as we got closer and closer to the library, the traffic got worse and worse and worse. And it took forever. It took forever.

16:43.02
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't know, easily 20 minutes for us to go the one mile from my hotel, which I'm just not used to cities anymore. You being out my lovely, peaceful countryside.

16:56.55
Jeffe Kennedy
So I, finally, I just told the Lyft driver, stop here, let me out and I'll walk the rest the way.

17:06.43
Jeffe Kennedy
So, and it wasn't that far. was like a block. But I'd go in and check in and get my author credentials. And I was late for that. And I told them I'd look to see where the steamy lit booth was. And I'm, know, I'm already late.

17:18.51
Jeffe Kennedy
i I hate being late. And I hate making people wait on me. So I said to them, okay, I have to be at Steamy Lit Booth. I know that's number 94. I know it's on this little spur on the map.

17:34.05
Jeffe Kennedy
I just don't know how to get there. And this one woman wearing a library T-shirt says, I will escort you there. And I was like, you know, bless, bless. So ah she escorts me there. She's the one who tells me that they expanded the library in 93.

17:50.15
Jeffe Kennedy
And I ask her what she does at the library. And she says, oh, I'm the CFO. I was like, Oh, can be escorted by the CFO. And she said, you know, there's not a lot I can do for the book festival.

18:01.94
Jeffe Kennedy
So I volunteered to escort people and it was great. I'd also foolishly worn heels, not realizing so much of it would be on grass. Um, so I was slow.

18:13.76
Jeffe Kennedy
So we get to the steamy let lit booth and they're very nice. They're waiting for me. There's another author signing and, uh, we, you know, she's already going, ah there's people lined up waiting for me, which is always gratifying. You know, you gotta to love it when people are waiting for you and they were all very nice. I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And they're all very nice to me.

18:34.22
Jeffe Kennedy
I did not realize when they asked me if I would sign at the steamy lit booth, I was like, sure, you know, why not? But I associated them with steamy lit con, uh, which they also do, but they are a bookstore. I didn't know that they started in, um, Deerfield, Florida.

18:51.54
Jeffe Kennedy
And then they have a second store, and I think also in Florida. She probably told me where and I've lost it. ah but And the owner, who was fantastic and so helpful, ah told me that she, um

19:08.22
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm seeing what happened with Killian. He doesn't have anything dead in his mouth. So, you know, that's always a good sign. Uh, but they just signed, ah the lease on their third store in Miami.

19:20.63
Jeffe Kennedy
And she told me that this is the last year for steamy lit con in Anaheim because it's really far away for them to deal with. But it sounds like she may reincarnate it closer to, uh, where they are.

19:33.68
Jeffe Kennedy
Which would be great because I always hear her and I told her I hear great things about the Kong even from my most pickiest author friends. ah So um look at that. I'm already at 20 minutes. So and we've made it to Saturday but But that's a good place to stop.

19:51.08
Jeffe Kennedy
um We'll leave it here. Columbus Saturday morning. Had a great signing at Steamy Lit Booth. ah People were lovely and fantastic. And then i will tell you the rest on Tuesday.

20:04.46
Jeffe Kennedy
So I hope you're all doing well. I hope you didn't mind. i hope you like saw my social media posts. Oh, I almost buried the lead. um the, we found out Wednesday that the book debuted at number 29 on the USA today bestseller list.

20:21.59
Jeffe Kennedy
it's my first time being a USA Today bestseller. I'd always said I wanted to get there on my own to not do it like with one of the book box deals.

20:33.02
Jeffe Kennedy
So this is with a hardback and um oh all me. And so I am and proud of myself. This is something I've wanted for a long time.

20:44.76
Jeffe Kennedy
And it's amazing. And, and I saw my book in the bookstore at the JFK airport, oh which was also a first, but I took a picture of it.

20:57.50
Jeffe Kennedy
So, all right, I will tell you all the rest on Tuesday. You all take care. by Bye.