First Cup of Coffee – July 22, 2025

Part two of my book tour recap for NEVER THE ROSES! All about Columbus Book Festival and my terrible day where I could not seem to get anywhere on time or do anything correctly. And then I flew to NYC!

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

The posture-correcting sports bra I love almost more than life itself is here https://forme.therave.co/37FY6Z5MTJAUKQGA

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Transcript

00:01.85
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.

00:17.26
Jeffe Kennedy
Delicious. Today July 2025. july twenty second twenty twenty five And we're heading into part two of my ah breakdown of book tour for Never the Roses, which was fantastic. Spoiler alert.

00:36.24
Jeffe Kennedy
We... we yeah left on the Saturday morning. So I will tell you everything. ah But to be right up front with a few things, lest I forget, like I mentioned at the very end of the episode last week, that yes, ah the book hit, debuted at number 29 on the USA the Today bestseller list.

01:01.97
Jeffe Kennedy
I am thrilled. I'm delighted. First time that's happened to me. And I saw my book, In the JFK airport, which some of us argue is like an even better accomplishment because airport book.

01:19.07
Jeffe Kennedy
Also, I wanted to show you all that I got the UK edition of Never the Roses. I got a whole box of these too. Isn't that beautiful? So you could kind of see the difference. Let me do a compare and contrast.

01:36.36
Jeffe Kennedy
US is in my right hand, which ah I don't even know. It's near the wind chimes. oh That's the clanging, clanging. So you will see that the UK edition is bigger. Not necessarily better, but the sprayed edges are much brighter.

01:57.65
Jeffe Kennedy
And if you ah look and see that the rose is actually ah set off in like a glossy, and don't even know what you would call that. Like ah the rose is very glossy compared to the rest of the cover. And it doesn't blend into the background like the rest of, like the rose on the U.S. edition.

02:19.83
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah. It's interesting because the U.S. edition has the tagline at the top, Unstoppable War, Unspeakable Sins, Impossible Love.

02:32.27
Jeffe Kennedy
And the U.K. edition says, Unstoppable War, and Impossible Love. So they left off the ah unspeakable sentence. Why? The Brits don't like unspeakable sentence. I don't know.

02:45.47
Jeffe Kennedy
I haven't opened this up to see how the U.K. edition looked on the inside. Oh, it's purple. Look at this. It's purple with gold on the spine.

02:58.21
Jeffe Kennedy
There is no case stamp on this. I'm seeing what else. The map is there. Everything else is pretty much the same.

03:10.59
Jeffe Kennedy
There aren't the same end papers, but purple. That's pretty cool. The U.S. edition is black with the case stamp. So that's super cool to see, huh?

03:23.44
Jeffe Kennedy
And then I also received the international trade paperback, which also came from the tour UK team.

03:34.86
Jeffe Kennedy
So this is a tall trade paperback. It is more the size of the, Oh, it's still taller than the U S hardback.

03:46.38
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, but again, the roses offset in this very glossy. Um,

03:54.55
Jeffe Kennedy
I want to save like printing it's or laminated. It's, I don't know the rest of the covers Matt and the rose is very, very glossy. So it really shows those, um, burnt edges of the rose.

04:09.08
Jeffe Kennedy
And this is only available internationally. Thus the international paperback, uh, description name title.

04:21.28
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, yeah. So very cool, huh? Beautiful, beautiful books.

04:29.23
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, yeah. So it's fun to see the different additions and that now I got them all set up over my shoulder. There's one down there that I haven't been able to show you yet because it's secret, but it shouldn't be secret for too much longer.

04:44.25
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, all right. And then, um, Before I forget, i might remember to mention at the end of the episode, I don't know if I will do a podcast on Friday because i will be at sand you Sandy Ego Comic Con.

04:57.78
Jeffe Kennedy
So we shall see. Maybe I will. But I always say maybe I will and then I never do. I don't know why that is. It's like I'm, yeah, I probably won't because Friday is a free day for me and I don't think I'm going to want to like put on makeup and all that I think I'm just going to go to the pool or the beach or something.

05:20.09
Jeffe Kennedy
But you never know y'all could get lucky if having a podcast for me counts as being lucky. So anyway where we last left our heroine on book tour it was Columbus Book Festival and I did that signing at the steamy lit booth on Saturday morning.

05:38.66
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't know if I mentioned what a comedy of errors Saturday was, uh, starting out Saturday morning. my mouse stopped working and I thought, well, it needs a new battery, right? What bad timing.

05:54.24
Jeffe Kennedy
So I called down to the desk and I asked, is there somewhere I can buy a battery? A double A battery. And he said, Oh, we'll just send one up. I'll have engineering send one up. This was at the Junto. they were great. They were lovely

06:07.69
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, well didn't come before I left, uh, for this, um, signing at steamy lit booth. So, and which I was late to, I think I already told this whole story. I got there late and all of these things. And I wore high heels and I shouldn't have because I was like walking through wet grass and what was I thinking?

06:27.93
Jeffe Kennedy
So, but I brought my flat sandals with me and trade traded them out. Well, we have a trap kitty. Please stand by.

06:37.86
Jeffe Kennedy
So after the signing, I went back to the main library where they had a green room where they fed us lunch, which was lovely of them. So I had lunch and there I ran into Vivian Shaw and Arkady Martine and Amal ElMohtar

06:55.21
Jeffe Kennedy
And it was funny cause ah Vivian at least did a double take saying, i didn't realize you were going to be here because of course, Jennifer K. Lambert was there, not Jeffe Kennedy.

07:07.90
Jeffe Kennedy
Although, even though we're never in the same room at the same time, we're actually the same person. um So I had a nice lunch with them and then I went back to the hotel and A battery had never arrived.

07:21.82
Jeffe Kennedy
And so I stopped at the desk and i said, you know, is there somewhere nearby could buy battery? And the guy at the desk like hit his forehead because it turned out it was him I'd talked to that morning.

07:33.76
Jeffe Kennedy
And he's like, I even wrote it down and I forgot. He said, just wait a moment. went and he called engineering right then. And a guy brought me two AA batteries. It was like, oh, well, you know, how lovely. So I go up to my room, put the AA battery into my mouse.

07:47.40
Jeffe Kennedy
Does not work. And so it was like, okay, great. Uh, so then I call down to the desk and I say, is there somewhere nearby I can buy a new mouse? Cause it turns out the but net mouse is broken.

08:00.28
Jeffe Kennedy
And he says, no, there just isn't because, downtown Columbus Ohio was lovely. ah We were across but the science and nature museum the big library was there all of these wonderful beautiful things and yet ah no stores nothing just a total desert shopping wise and I kind of looked on the Google Maps you know I'm like I know I'm trying not to use Google Maps but it's the easiest way to find stores but I didn't find anything and he said no you're you're gonna have to order one.

08:33.44
Jeffe Kennedy
I would just take Or, you know, you'd have to like go out. And I looked. I would like have a to take a lift to ah out to an Office Depot or some such to buy any mouse. And I might as well do like Instacart, which I hadn't really done before.

08:49.85
Jeffe Kennedy
But this seemed like a good circumstance to save me. time and aggravation. So I signed up for instacart successfully by this mouse. so I'm feeling good about myself. It's going to come in like half an hour.

09:01.65
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, because I use an external mouse with my laptop. It's very, um, I, I hate the little touch pad thing and I use my mouse pretty extensively with my spreadsheets. So, and I was feeling kind of stymied that I couldn't do things because I didn't have a working mouse.

09:19.18
Jeffe Kennedy
So ah then I get an email from instacart saying that my order has been cancelled because they think that I'm committing fraud and they like want me they send me this list of things to do to prove who I am.

09:35.67
Jeffe Kennedy
Including holding my driver's license and credit card like up next to my face or something like this and was like screw this shit. ah So I actually, I think I did this before I asked the desk. Cause then I tried again, like, where can I buy a mouse?

09:52.34
Jeffe Kennedy
And he's in, Oh oh no, I, I forget the order of things. Anyway, he tells me to use go puff, which is a thing in Columbus. He says they will deliver to the hotel. They've delivered for other guests.

10:04.47
Jeffe Kennedy
So I am trying to do this. A huge rainstorm has come sweeping in. I'm in my hotel room and it's this gorgeous torrential Midwestern downpour and both the cell signal and the wireless keep dropping out in the midst.

10:20.76
Jeffe Kennedy
And I get go puff to work mostly, except then it tells me that my credit card is wrong. like the information's wrong. And I don't know if it's cause like the wireless is dropping out all the time or the cell signals dropping out.

10:33.87
Jeffe Kennedy
But anyway, it's getting to be time for me to go for my afternoon panel. And I really did not want to be late again. And I'm wondering, are they going to have it even because of this sideways rain and everything? And I had previously spotted the author stage, the temp with the author stage.

10:52.79
Jeffe Kennedy
So I am, I get a lift over to the library and in the car, I'm even like trying to get the go puff thing to work. We're entering my credit card number, a credit card that I know is perfectly good.

11:07.60
Jeffe Kennedy
Nope. So it's like, so I go in and I go to the author check in like I'm supposed to. And I asked them if they're going to have this ah' still in there. Like, yeah, we go ahead.

11:21.85
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, they said the good thing is, is at least people come into the tent if it's raining hard. And, and I'm telling, and I asked them, is there anywhere I can buy a mouse? I feel like that children's book, right? Are you my mother? It's like, can you tell me where I can buy a mouse?

11:37.70
Jeffe Kennedy
And I said, cause I don't see any stores downtown. And they said, no, it's an absolute retail desert. You cannot buy anything downtown. But then this one lovely librarian, Abby um offers to give me her backup mouse. She says it's a corded mouse, but if I can give it back to her the next day, she just needs it for Monday morning. And really it's her backup for her wireless mouse.

12:00.29
Jeffe Kennedy
i Like this is clearly what I need to travel with. So she gives me that. I put in my purse. I run off in my flat sandals to the author tent and I'm talking with Nghi Vo, who I don't think I've met before.

12:13.88
Jeffe Kennedy
And then Vivian Shaw shows up and I'm like, are you on this panel Vivian? And she said, yeah, I am. And I'm getting progressively more confused. And it turns out I am in the wrong place.

12:26.50
Jeffe Kennedy
And they said, oh, you need to be an author tent number two. It was like, well, I'd spotted the one I hadn't spotted the other. So I go racing off to the other one and those don't look like the people on my panel either.

12:42.88
Jeffe Kennedy
So I finally find someone and this is like entirely my fault because they had like given me the whole schedule and everything. Like somehow I never processed looking at which space my panel was in and it turned out it was inside back at the library.

13:00.59
Jeffe Kennedy
so I go booking over there. It is still raining, although not so hard, but everything is soggy. And so I get there and the people are like standing out in front, looking anxiously. One guy's on his like literal walkie talkie and they're like, Oh, we just put out an APB for you.

13:17.21
Jeffe Kennedy
It's like, Oh my God. So then I sit down and I'm flustered and I am in between

13:27.37
Jeffe Kennedy
Andrea Stewart and Ehigbor Okosun. And Ehigbor is like asking me questions about Grace Draven because it turns out that Ehi is from...

13:41.21
Jeffe Kennedy
I can't, I have some no words, Austin. She's from Austin and she had wanted to make the event, uh, with grace and me, but she had like been flying in from somewhere else and then had to fly to Columbus. So she's asking me how grace is doing. And other people are like trying to introduce themselves. And I'm completely flustered.

13:58.33
Jeffe Kennedy
We do a panel. We have a great time. Uh, I, um, go back to the hotel uh, ah I don't know. Like I couldn't get a seat at the restaurant at the rooftop bar again. And I end up sitting in this weird seat.

14:16.99
Jeffe Kennedy
I still cannot get a mouse delivered. that They keep saying that my, you know, well, I tried one more time, but I have my corded mouse. so I'm able to do a few of the work things I needed to do.

14:28.89
Jeffe Kennedy
then I go up to have dinner at the rooftop restaurant, but it's Saturday night and they're packed. So they say, well, what you can do is you can sit outside in this part of the roof. Cause I could have like sat at the bar, but I didn't, I hate, I don't like sitting at the bar. They always want to do that to singles, you know, and no.

14:45.95
Jeffe Kennedy
So they said, well, you can sit outside and then order food from the bar and take it out there. And it's like no, no table service, but whatever. And so I'm a little cranky about that. It was just a bad day.

14:57.60
Jeffe Kennedy
it's weird how some days are like that. So i go outside, I pick my spot, I have my book and my phone because I'm just charging things to my room.

15:08.79
Jeffe Kennedy
And I go and I sit down for a few minutes, catch my breath. And then I leave my book and my phone there to reserve my table, go inside, order a glass of wine, order my dinner.

15:22.75
Jeffe Kennedy
i go back outside and my book and my phone are gone. I'm like, what the hell? So I go back inside and the manager who I've actually met the night before is there um holding my phone and like my boarding pass and he's trying to call and I'm like, it is that my phone? And, and he's like, Oh yeah, I found it. You left it outside.

15:46.02
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm like, I left it on the table. I was going to eat my dinner at. He's like, Oh, I'm sorry. And you know, and he said, you know, all you know making all of these excuses and I'm like yeah I was told I had to come inside and get my food so I just left my things there and he's like yeah we just thought someone had left it and I said in my book do you have my book and he goes oh was that your book too and he said because they the whole Junto was like book themed.

16:12.49
Jeffe Kennedy
And so he, they would bring you your check in a book. And he thought that like that book had been the one that they brought the check in. Nevermind that it was like a brand new hardback dance of lies by Brittney Arena.

16:28.72
Jeffe Kennedy
So, and that's where he like found my boarding pass with my name on it and et cetera. So um that was kind of it for, that evening I did walk over to another hotel for a new author gathering that a, he had talked me into attending and there were just a few people there and like, I don't know. It was weird. I ended up sitting there for a while with like no one introducing themselves to me or asking who I was. And then turned out it was a lot of debut authors, which I should not wrinkle my nose and say that because I don't have any, um you know,

17:04.91
Jeffe Kennedy
Obviously no judgment there, but I think they like not used to the social skills thing. So then on Sunday, I'm still not going to make it through the book tour. Am I? ah Sunday have a couple of things.

17:27.09
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't look and see what I did Sunday. I only had one thing on Sunday. I had a panel at 1 30. So Sunday morning i got up, refreshed, tried the GoPuff thing again, worked instantly. Boom!

17:41.72
Jeffe Kennedy
I had a mouse delivered to me in 30 minutes. It was crazy. It was like, oh, today is another day. Today you're allowed to have things work. I treated myself to brunch at the rooftop bar, the damn rooftop bar, and had an amazing, amazing meal. Chicken and waffles and this wonderful coffee.

18:01.95
Jeffe Kennedy
Before that, I went worked on this revision and that helped ground me too. One thing I really know about myself is, although I forget it regularly, is that I am, I feel best when I'm making progress on whatever thing I'm supposed to be writing.

18:19.19
Jeffe Kennedy
So I spent quite a few hours writing that morning and doing these other things and it was great. And then we had a lovely panel with Nghi Vo and PH Low.

18:31.44
Jeffe Kennedy
And I forgot to mention that on Saturday too, after each of these panels, we had an hour long signing and I signed so many books and everybody was so great. Uh, and then, um, I had a very quiet Sunday evening. I, uh, eat dinner at this tavern on the street and had a, a steak that was too tough and overly salted. And I still had a good time and I went to bed early. And then in the morning I flew to New York city.

18:59.85
Jeffe Kennedy
and ah that was that was amazing and I'm trying to figure out what to do because I'm almost out time. Let's maybe I'll just finish this out since I probably won't do podcasts later in the week.

19:12.16
Jeffe Kennedy
So long run today. ah So then I let's see what day is this it's Monday and I ah there's going to be too much to tell.

19:26.00
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah, it's going to be like another 20 minutes. Okay, We're just going to to do a part three. Sorry. um Yeah. So maybe I will really try to do this podcast on Friday. We'll see what I do.

19:38.42
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm going make myself a big note. So um I hope you all had a great weekend. I hope you're having a good week. I hope that the, the fates are conspiring to give you a day where things work.

19:54.83
Jeffe Kennedy
And I will talk to you all very soon. You all take Take care. Bye-bye.