First Cup of Coffee – July 25, 2025

I'm coming to you from San Diego Comic Con with the third and final installment of my book tour recap for NEVER THE ROSES! All about New York City, including my big city gaffe and event at the B&N mothership!

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

00:04.12
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.

00:17.44
Jeffe Kennedy
Which I've already been drinking. if you're on video, you will see ah several things. ah You will see that I'm drinking my venti oat milk latte from Starbucks.

00:28.13
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, and they even have on there Jennifer with a smiley face and I am in a ho hotel room because I am here at San Diego comic con. Oh, and also, apologies, say it with me, today is Friday, July 25th. you've got the chime recording off of my phone because I am obviously not at home.

00:58.91
Jeffe Kennedy
Excuse me, but aren't you proud of me for like doing a podcast while I'm on the road? I decided I had better get better about doing that. So you probably can't see I tried to set up the view the camera view so you could see the view out my window.

01:15.29
Jeffe Kennedy
But um yeah it just barely comes in. So alas alas a lack actually and got it a little bit there didn't I?

01:26.80
Jeffe Kennedy
I could if I could get this to turn. Oh well we won't square about it. That would be silly. So anyway, I am at the Hilton Bayfront, uh, being put up in this beautiful room by tour. Um, my wonderful publisher last night, I went to, uh, the tour party, which was amazing.

01:46.60
Jeffe Kennedy
And I drank way too much free Prosecco. Uh, it is the great peril of the publisher party with free alcohol. It's just, yeah I clearly have no self control.

02:01.51
Jeffe Kennedy
It's sad. It's very sad. But I would be remiss if I did not go back and finish book tour, which this is kind of technically an extension of.

02:14.09
Jeffe Kennedy
ah So I had left our heroine flying to New York City. and which sounds very glamorous and dramatic. And I have a confession to make. Uh, I don't love New York city.

02:25.85
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, I know I'm supposed to, i know everybody does. It is, is, um, it is like my, my antipole, right? That's everything that I love about where I live is the opposite of what New York city is.

02:44.23
Jeffe Kennedy
And I did have a couple of friends who are from New York city giving me advice. So I did, um, you know, fun, fun things. So let me tell you about it. Uh, I flew there on, um, Monday morning and stayed at the, took, you flew into JFK. Everything went fine on the way in.

03:08.50
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, and then, uh, took, a lift to my hotel which was the moxie which I liked okay. it It was all right. It was very hip. It was fun.

03:20.91
Jeffe Kennedy
Um. It was way down in the financial district though whereas everything I was going to it was like way uptown but oh well. Ah and the  lift driver was very apologetic because they were doing all this work on the street from the hotel And so he had to drop me off like two blocks away, um, at the construction barrier, which was fine, except that I had my bag. So I'm like, chundling my bags to, you know, like one of those city construction zones with the overhead awning and you know, like the made up sidewalk that with the asphalt ramp, that's there temporarily at all of that kind of thing. But I got there fine. Um, I wasn't able to get into my room yet. So I ditched my bags with the, you know, the desk.

04:07.82
Jeffe Kennedy
and went walking around. And the first thing I did was go around the corner and get this, um, Japanese green tea cream puff that a friend recommended, which was very good.

04:21.15
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, but I was feeling a lot of overwhelm, uh, just being all those tall buildings around me and all the noise. I think, you like people tell me that they get used to the city noise and you don't hear it anymore. But to me, it's just like, and,

04:38.03
Jeffe Kennedy
And I think, and I had an argument with a friend of mine who is a very practical person who one of the New York people, you know, who I was saying, I was feeling a little overwhelmed and he said, well, just think of it as like a movie, you know, free there for you to see.

04:52.29
Jeffe Kennedy
ah and he's not in the least woo woo like I am. And I said, well, you know, the thing is, is I feel like there's all this psychic pressure there here. There's just the psychic input from so many minds.

05:05.09
Jeffe Kennedy
And, he very carefully did not reply to that, but I think it's real. And my friend, uh, Deena Ray, aspiring author who you will be hearing from no doubt very soon did and has, um, uh, is, uh, she's ADD I think, and maybe a little on the spectrum and certainly has a son on the spectrum and is used to managing that kind of thing. And she's like, you know, input is input.

05:34.61
Jeffe Kennedy
And I think that's really true. It's just a lot of input for me. Uh, so I, um took my cream puff and tried to find a place to sit, to eat it.

05:46.64
Jeffe Kennedy
I could have gone back to the hotel lobby and I was very tempted to just hang out in the hotel lobby, which was nice. It's one of those deals where the reception desk is, you know, just in this sort of tiny little room and in the, off of the sidewalk.

06:01.44
Jeffe Kennedy
And then you take elevators up, but then really great. bar and lobby restaurant lounge space, uh, sort of on that. I think it was actually the third floor, but, uh, but I thought, you know, I'm in New York city and I shouldn't just sit the hotel lobby.

06:19.82
Jeffe Kennedy
So I took my cream puff and I just sat in a little seating area. It was kind of cool. Cause I walked around the corner and there was like a boat down the block and it's like, oh yeah, I'm I'm on an island now. I'm not used to seeing boats at the end of the street.

06:35.92
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, and then I, um was saying they're eating my cream puff and that sort of like all these little scattered chair groupings and a gentleman came and sat nearby.

06:46.35
Jeffe Kennedy
ah and he was a Hasidic Jew and I thought, you know, that's the lovely thing about New York City and I started to feel a little better. Uh, and I decided, well, I was going to walk up to Soho. My New York friend said that I would, that there was a hat shop there that I should see and I should walk up there.

07:05.15
Jeffe Kennedy
So I went back to my hotel to get my bag because it was hot. It was really hot and muggy and people were complaining and I had packed my hats for no good reason that morning instead of wearing one on the plane which I regret it and I wanted to change my shoes.

07:23.16
Jeffe Kennedy
So I um but then I was able to check into my room and so I checked in and i put on my shoes and my hat and I went walking up to Soho and that was fun. It was fun to see the things.

07:37.20
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, had a little bit of a tight turnaround because I had get back in time to go do dinner and movie with Sarah. But then this funny thing happened was you know here I'm all hot and sweaty and I'm on the block where the hat shop is and I saw this beautiful French bakery and it looked so enticing so gorgeous that I thought well I should, um, I should go in.

08:02.16
Jeffe Kennedy
I should go in and have a pastry. So I go in and the, have my hair tucked up under my hat. Cause it's so sweaty. And the woman there is like, Oh, um piano yeah you look so beautiful. So sophisticated.

08:14.92
Jeffe Kennedy
And I just like country mouse in the big city, uh, totally ate this up. I think she was sincere actually, but hard to say. So I told her, i said, haven't been in. I'm not from out of town, which maybe I should not have said.

08:29.05
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But, you know, like what's what's your best pastry? And so she showed me, you know, like there's this one that had like caviar on it and another one. And she said these two and this one.

08:39.95
Jeffe Kennedy
And I said, okay, I'll just take one of each, right? Because I thought, well, I'll eat one now. or And then I'll, you know, have others for my hotel room, right? Totally normal, like one does.

08:51.00
Jeffe Kennedy
So, and then she says, well, I would like to give you a complimentary tea. know, you could have a black tea or a green tea. And then I see the champagne bottle sitting there and I said, and she's, and she said, um you sit and I was like, no, I'm going to get them to go. And she goes, I know, but we, we repair, we prepare them while you wait.

09:10.16
Jeffe Kennedy
was like, ah okay. So I said, well, if I'm going to sit, I might as well have a glass of this lovely sparkling Rose. So I sit down at this adorable little bistro table and I have my gorgeous glass of sparkling rosé, which was delicious and perfect.

09:26.78
Jeffe Kennedy
And she even says, I was going to give you the the tea complimentary. And I was like, oh, I'll pay for the champagne. ah Well, this should have been one of my, one of several clues I should have taken.

09:38.60
Jeffe Kennedy
So then she brings the check over and shows it to me. And it turns out that like, to the two smaller bun type things, which I don't even know what they were called.

09:49.21
Jeffe Kennedy
ah you You get three of them and she's put them in these gorgeous boxes where they're like on a little tray and stuck down with honey and, you know, beautifully packaged with gold embossing and everything.

10:02.21
Jeffe Kennedy
And she shows me the check and on there like a 20% tip, right? Which It annoys me if you're supposed to pay 20% tip for counter service, but nevermind the whole thing people. And I'm telling you this.

10:17.27
Jeffe Kennedy
It was $244. I felt such a

10:23.28
Jeffe Kennedy
chump, but I also felt like what could I say? No. I mean, maybe I should have just said, no, I changed my mind. But they specially prepared them, and they were warm.

10:34.40
Jeffe Kennedy
And then she asks me like how many friends I'm sharing this with, you know how many plastic forks I need. And I'm like, oh, four, because I still felt like a chump and an idiot.

10:46.31
Jeffe Kennedy
So I have told that story to several wrote people, my New York friend. And then I ended up telling agent Sarah that story at dinner who saw this coming like from the beginning. She was like, oh no, because apparently this is like, I don't know, ah a New York hazard.

11:04.78
Jeffe Kennedy
And then she made me tell the rest of the agency, but I'll get to that part. Uh, so hat store was a little rich for my blood, especially after I dropped $250 on seven pastries, which were not even that amazing. I mean, they were fine.

11:20.81
Jeffe Kennedy
They were great. Um, that's, I was just like, I could have spent $20 at cliff foodies in Santa Fe and had something much more amazing. Ah, live and learn learn from my mistakes. People.

11:35.72
Jeffe Kennedy
So oppos i was thinking, well, it's a good thing tour was paying for the rest of the trip because that was, yeah. Uh, so no hat shopping.

11:47.07
Jeffe Kennedy
walked back to the hotel, change clothes, get my lift and go up to, um, ate at the glass house tavern near york Times Square with Agent Sarah and it has started to rain and everyone was warning me that this big storm's coming and it was fantastic I mean there I am i felt very glam you know going uptown to have dinner with my agent and she and I sat at a wonderful little two-top on the second floor in front of a glass window and we watched the torrential rain come down and

12:17.90
Jeffe Kennedy
talked business and gossip and how lovely time. And the waitress kept saying, are sure you don't want to stay here with us? And Sarah was like, no, we have a seven 30 show. And so she and I go scurry. We had amazing meal, fantastic meal. And Sarah treated me and it was lovely. And then we would scurrying across times square drenched, completely drenched.

12:41.00
Jeffe Kennedy
And, uh, and we saw Oh Mary! which was absolutely hysterical. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I kept thinking it was gonna get excuse me get dumb and it would like add right up to the you know line of being farcical but it was always hysterically funny and I got to see it with um I think Titus brought us And who apparently I was very lucky to get to see that.

13:13.48
Jeffe Kennedy
So it was a lovely evening. ah The next day, though, I didn't have anything all morning. It was that was Tuesday, right? Yeah. and So i um I actually kind of hid in the hotel lobby and I worked on my book revision.

13:30.85
Jeffe Kennedy
I had a good breakfast and I sat there in front of a window and I worked on this book. And that helped settle me a whole lot more. And I know I mentioned that often on this podcast, but I think it's worth ah revisiting and reaffirming to myself that I always feel better if I'm getting my work done. You know, coming back to the the writing is very grounding for me.

13:56.87
Jeffe Kennedy
So, um, then, uh, Deena. input person. She came up from took the train up from Baltimore and she messaged that she had hit town. So she came over and we went and had a slice of pizza and a glass of wine.

14:13.58
Jeffe Kennedy
And then we went and took the a lift up to Union Square where I met the marketing and publishing team and my agent and Sarah Beth Durst for dinner.

14:31.54
Jeffe Kennedy
And wonderful dinner and Carol Perny presided, you know, and she was like, Tor really wants to celebrate you too. So everybody order anything you want. And we had amazing cocktails.

14:43.57
Jeffe Kennedy
I probably would have had more since I'm bad about drinking on my publisher's time. Uh, but I felt like I should be sober for the event that night. So then they took Sarah and I over to the Barnes and Noble on Union Square, which is like four stories tall and gorgeous.

15:02.19
Jeffe Kennedy
And turns out it was the mothership. It's the very first Barnes and Noble, which I enjoyed and everybody. That was so amazing. So that Sarah and I do an Instagram life and then we did the event in the ah big room with a big trip that job.

15:21.13
Jeffe Kennedy
And it was hugely well attended and we signed all kinds of books and it was funny on like the second to last book that I signed. If you've been listening to this whole three parter, I probably, I don't know if I mentioned or not, but I forgot my special signing pen, which let me show you.

15:48.60
Jeffe Kennedy
I think I did once already but this is the beautiful Scrivener pen that my nephew gave me for Christmas. You might not be able to tell the color on video but it's a dark green which is my favorite color and it has ink and it's um you suck the ink up into it and it's beautiful and I've been used I've been using purple ink.

16:09.76
Jeffe Kennedy
I used it for all those tip in sheets and it's um i forgot and so when i was in austin i walked over to the office depot which carried these pens they didn't have the same one but they had another one that had an ink cartridge that you put in it and that night at the barnes and noble my last night of book tour i ran out of ink and so one of the publicist gals they're so nice to me i'm like oh i need to get my purse because they had locked it in the room where we did the instagram live

16:43.33
Jeffe Kennedy
And she's like, I'll get it for you. And so she goes running off and got it. And I used my backup pen for the, the last person second to last person got, um, like half ink and half ballpoint.

16:56.72
Jeffe Kennedy
I was sorry, but that was how it went. Uh, so it was an amazing event. It was a gorgeous evening and everything about it was just perfection. And it was so much fun to get to do that.

17:09.73
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, the next day I stayed in my room and worked on the book, which was great. And then at about 10 30 agent, Sarah called me and she said, did you know that you were on the USA today bestseller list?

17:23.98
Jeffe Kennedy
And I had not known on the book debuted at number 29. And so that was incredible. And we were doing happy dancing and I'd already been planning to stop by Nyla, but, um,

17:35.37
Jeffe Kennedy
Nancy O's literary agency, but Sarah said she was going to go buy a bottle of Prosecco. So then um, went took a lift back uptown. That was pretty much all I did in New York was take rides up and down.

17:48.68
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, and I met Maria Vale, the fantastic Maria Vale who lives in New York city for brunch and Deena Ray joined us and we had a very fun brunch, uh, with Prosecco there's a theme here, right? And we toasted that.

18:07.09
Jeffe Kennedy
And then I walked over to the agency and we all toasted to the book success. And, uh, Sarah made me tell the dreadful pastry story, which I've now disclosed to all of you.

18:25.02
Jeffe Kennedy
and, um, then I sat and chatted with Sarah for a while. And then i took a ride back to the hotel, got my bags, got my car to JFK.

18:36.77
Jeffe Kennedy
I got all the way to JFK, checked in It took a long time. it was a madhouse and took a long time to get through security. I was there two hours before, but it I ended up having to wolf my dinner because it was giving time to board theoretically.

18:54.81
Jeffe Kennedy
Well, ha ha ha. We were delayed on boarding and then we finally board and we taxi and we go out and we sat on the runway for two hours because they said we couldn't get a flight path out because of storms between us and albuquerque and they were so and they'd had to turn off the engines to save fuel so it started getting really hot on the plane and the pilot i'd never heard this before the pilot said um if if you all are getting too hot tell me And I can go back to the gate. We can taxi back to the gate. But if we do that, they will almost certainly cancel the flight. And none of us want that.

19:34.14
Jeffe Kennedy
But you can say so. And so everybody on the plane is like glaring around going, don't you dare say anything about it being hot. But then after like two hours, they taxi back to the gate. We have to deplane.

19:47.43
Jeffe Kennedy
They're saying that it's going to depart at like, and we were supposed to leave at 6, 6.45, 6.45. six forty five six forty five Um, by now it's nine, they're saying we're going to leave at 10, then 10 30, then 11.

20:02.58
Jeffe Kennedy
And we are, you know, the, the, they're like tearing up the carpet, and replacing it in the airport around us. and finally at like 11 30, they canceled the flight and it was crazy. And so the thing is, is the next day was Kelly Robson's birthday.

20:21.51
Jeffe Kennedy
And she and I were planning to go on the Georgia O'Keeffe home and studio tour. And she had missed it once, the last time she visited Santa Fe, because ah she got sick. And so we had to cancel.

20:35.24
Jeffe Kennedy
So I was so determined to get there. So here it is midnight in New York City. And the flight's been canceled. There's you know nothing out of JFK.

20:46.57
Jeffe Kennedy
They t told us that we would be getting information on rebooking via email in the next two to three days so this was jet blue one yeah not doing that again so know go down to baggage claim get my bags waiting waiting it took him a long time to bring out the bag shockingly enough and I got on the phone with um the but the emergency hours travel agency that tour uses and they'd said to, you know, call if I had trouble.

21:18.81
Jeffe Kennedy
So I call and this guy was enormously helpful and he's like, oh, well you could get a flight out tomorrow afternoon. Uh, nothing from JFK. I could not get out of JFK. So i was going to either have to go to lagua LaGuardia or Newark, no matter what.

21:34.61
Jeffe Kennedy
So i he's looking at flights and we're figuring out what I'm going to do. And I'm thinking, well, I can get a hotel and go sleep and then travel, but we're going to miss the studio tour.

21:45.32
Jeffe Kennedy
And then he says, oh, or I can get you on a 5.30 a.m. flight out of Newark Airport and that'll get you into Albuquerque, where I parked my car at 10 a.m. And our tour was at 1. So I thought, you know what, I can make this.

22:02.89
Jeffe Kennedy
So I still book it and he does. And then I'm looking at the timing and I'm thinking, okay, by now it's one in the morning. Uh, my flight is at five 30 from Newark. If I'm going to be there two hours before that's three 30, it's going to take me half an hour in a ride share to get to Newark air airport.

22:28.24
Jeffe Kennedy
If I go to a hotel, check in, try to sleep, get up and go. what I'm going to sleep for like an hour. Right? So I just took a lift directly to New York Newark airport and I had to wait until 3 a.m. m for the uh, counter to open to check my bags and then I went through TSA and like had a coffee and a bagel and The upshot is, is, you know, and then we connected through dallas and I thought, you know, so much could go wrong, but everything went just fine.

23:03.65
Jeffe Kennedy
And I got to Albuquerque and it took a little while for my bags to come down, but they came down and I jumped in the car I met Kelly, uh, by ginger. If you know Santa Fe and I took the relief route up, met her there, jumped in the car. She was ready to go.

23:21.66
Jeffe Kennedy
And we got there 15 minutes before the tour. And so that's my tale. ah On Tuesday, i will be in Tucson. I have to go see my mom.

23:32.97
Jeffe Kennedy
But I will tell you all about Comic-Con then. So there we are. We're caught up finally on at least that phase of book tour. So I hope you all are doing well.

23:45.05
Jeffe Kennedy
And I will talk to you all on Tuesday. You all take care, okay? Bye-bye.