First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee – March 10, 2026
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Today is release day for the Italian translation of NEVER THE ROSES! Also, I'll be at Tucson Festival of Books this weekend. Thoughts on signing tables - standing or sitting? - and having the cred to give advice.
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Tuscon Festival of Books is March 14th-15th this year! See you there! https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org
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Thank you for listening! You all take care.
00:01.72
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.
00:17.41
Jeffe Kennedy
Oh, delicious. Today is Tuesday, March 10th, 2026. And ah if you missed it last Friday, we are back to the old format. Thank you to everyone who commented. um I'm I'm glad that I appreciate both parts. I appreciate that you all were very supportive of the changes and willing to embrace them as I was, ah being willing to give things the college try, as it were.
00:50.78
Jeffe Kennedy
ah i don't even know what that comes from. Is that a football metaphor? Probably is. I guess I always thought that it was like... you know, giving your best on a exam that you hadn't studied for it. Wouldn't that make more sense for like the college try, right? You've been awake all night cramming for the exam and or partying and, uh, but you're going to try anyway.
01:16.70
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, thank you all for giving it a try and letting me know that you gave it a try, but also letting me know that you're happy to be back to the old format. Cheers.
01:30.46
Jeffe Kennedy
Yes, I think this was just never meant to be a polished podcast with sound effects. you You get me slurping coffee. That is your, or my latte. did That's your sound effect for the day. And frankly, all most of us can do.
01:48.57
Jeffe Kennedy
So I am winding up business with Sydney, but one of the things I realized is that she had told me that there were people who wanted pussy sparkle ribbons. And so since I've got video again, I'm going to show you Look at the pussy sparkle ribbon. Isn't that adorable? um I've got a bunch of these. If you're not going to see me at a con, um for example, I'm going to be at Tucson Festival of Books this weekend.
02:19.09
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm going to be on panels with ah Alex Harrow, Julie Long, and ah Adrian Young. ah moderated by other lovely people. It should be a a really good time, a fantastic festival. And I will have ribbons there with me, although I will be there primarily as Jennifer K. Lambert and Pussy Sparkle is a Jeffe Kennedy, Love Lies and Ley Lines property. But anyway, we have the ribbons in the web store now. If you want to go to the store, you scroll all the way to the bottom. They're sort of done with the merch, like bookmarks and stuff.
03:05.08
Jeffe Kennedy
oh You can also buy books from me. ah But if you had filled out the form before saying that you wanted one of these ribbons, ah I think, I think that Sydney had had a form, but she was getting the responses. She had told me we had several takers.
03:26.84
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, and I've asked her to give me those names, but I've not yet heard back. So just in case those got lost, if you were one of those people, um Let me know. ah There's multiple ways. Just go to the web store. i think I they're like a dollar or two dollars so I can put them in an envelope and envelope and send them.
03:51.38
Jeffe Kennedy
oh By the way, I do have the ability to send ribbons. I also have book plates. I can send you a signed book plate if you want that and I have international stamps. Let me show you how pretty these are.
04:09.37
Jeffe Kennedy
Someone from Italy had asked me for a signed book plate. Uh, and we'll talk about why in a moment, but look at these cool international stamps.
04:20.39
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, you can just buy these and they're like first class mail for anywhere in the world. Who knew i didn't. So,
04:31.70
Jeffe Kennedy
I can send those internationally. I can't send heavier stuff because it's so expensive, but um I can send you a ribbon. I could send you some bookmarks. I can send you a book plate signed book plate.
04:44.83
Jeffe Kennedy
Book plate. Is that the word I want? Why does that sound wrong? Semantic cessation right? Book plate. Yeah, the the thing you stick on the front of your book, whatever.
04:57.94
Jeffe Kennedy
But that does bring me to ah cheers on. Today is the release of the Italian version of Never the Roses.
05:08.54
Jeffe Kennedy
It's called um Rose de Mezzo. de Mezzo? Let's see. It's Rose. Oh, gracious, a bird just came in the window. Hold on.
05:23.70
Jeffe Kennedy
That was exciting. I have um my window propped open a little bit. It's one of those ones that opens from the bottom. It's like a single piece of glass and then it hinges up the top and opens from the bottom and it's got um a kind of a crank lever.
05:41.38
Jeffe Kennedy
opener ah thingy ah that has these notches on it so you can lock it in various positions and I don't have the screens on yet. So I might have to do that soon. I feel like I just took them off but we're warming up so fast.
05:56.31
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, that I think we're gonna have to put screens on the windows again. Uh, case in point a little birdie came in through that a little bit of a crack there and then panicked could have gotten back out but I had to go open it fully.
06:14.04
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, I don't know what does that mean? Is that a an omen of something? and Uh, anyway. The book, we were talking about the book, the Italian version of Never the Roses is Rose di Mezzanotte.
06:32.25
Jeffe Kennedy
Rose di rose. I don't know how do Italians do their R's. I want to do it French, right? Rose di Mezzanotte, which apparently translates to Roses of Midnight, which is a very apt title. um Very true to the book for those of you who've read it.
06:54.23
Jeffe Kennedy
And it's a really pretty cover too. It's um, it's not a cartoon cover, but it's a really nice illustration and there are, I don't know, the expressions are really good. Anyway, it's out today.
07:10.58
Jeffe Kennedy
oh if you read Italian, I hope you enjoy it. I've seen people making very nice comments about it.
07:20.89
Jeffe Kennedy
and I feel so so fancy I'll tell you the other thing that makes me feel kind of silly fancy is.
07:30.62
Jeffe Kennedy
Sorry I had to sneeze there. Birds are not the only things coming in the windows little pollenites.
07:38.87
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway for Tucson Festival of Books they're really great how they treat their authors it's um. you know they're putting me up in the hotel and they give us meals and parties and ah tour is paying for my plane flights.
07:56.06
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But um I got an email, I guess, Sunday night from someone saying that they will be the person to pick me up at the airport and they will be standing outside of security with a sign with my name on it. And OK, folks, would I be totally geeky if I took a picture of that?
08:14.92
Jeffe Kennedy
Because I think this could be the first time in my life I've gotten met by a person at the airport with a sign with my name on it.
08:26.90
Jeffe Kennedy
It's silly to feel fancy about that, right? But I actually do feel kind of fancy. ah ah And I kind of want to take a picture. will The thing is, is I would have to ask her. I guess I could surreptitiously take the picture as I'm coming down the escalator. I could be ready. And then I can ask her permission if I could post it and offer her to delete it.
08:56.41
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't know. Am I a dork? I'm kind of a dork, aren't I? But you know, these little things that make you feel special. So um over the weekend, i i won't say I got myself in trouble on threads. i I got some people annoyed on threads because frankly, I got annoyed.
09:20.76
Jeffe Kennedy
And let me tell you why, but which this is what you're here for, right?
09:28.05
Jeffe Kennedy
So I saw somebody post, a person, an author, post saying, here's some unsolicited advice for authors.
09:39.22
Jeffe Kennedy
that if you are signing admin and a at an event, if you have a table that you should not be sitting down and looking at your phone or knitting or working on stuff that you should be standing up and looking up and engaging with people.
09:59.03
Jeffe Kennedy
Now this person did caveat that they know that not everybody has the physical health to stand, but said that if you do, you should, um And that readers won't stop at the table if they see that you're busy. And maybe that's true of some, but i i took some umbrage to this advice. and And I went and looked.
10:26.14
Jeffe Kennedy
And this person has published two books in the and has been a published author for like four years. And, and I thought, well, you know this is what I think. I think if you are a young in the publishing sense author and full of enthusiasm
10:56.22
Jeffe Kennedy
then yes, go on with your bad stuff self, stand up the whole time, be there fresh-faced and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to greet every single possible reader walking past your table.
11:10.36
Jeffe Kennedy
Maybe it's good advice. um It's not good advice for me. And I am put in mind of a long time ago when I complained about some advice I saw. and one of my author friends said, you know, Jeffe, that's not intended for you.
11:28.09
Jeffe Kennedy
And I was like, but I read it, didn't i ah So, yeah, maybe it's not intended for me. Maybe it's intended for someone new beer. I'll tell you what. After low these many years of sitting at tables and doing signings and if I get a break, uh, yeah, I'm going to check my phone.
11:50.14
Jeffe Kennedy
If nobody's coming to my table and I talked about this on the podcast a couple of weeks ago, you know, like during those, like that first hour at love lit con when everybody's hitting the VIP tables. Uh, no, I'm not going to stand there. it feels like begging for crumbs to me. It's, um,
12:11.06
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah, it's like, come to my table if you want to. um Would love to talk to you Would love to give you pussy sparkle ribbon. I mean, I feel like we're making fetch happen, right? Making pussy sparkle happen.
12:24.54
Jeffe Kennedy
oh And people will interrupt me. Like, there have been times when I am reading something on my phone, and sometimes I bring my Kindle, and I'm sitting there reading my book. And and I'll look up, and there'll be...
12:39.90
Jeffe Kennedy
nice people standing in front of me and they're like, Oh, we didn't want to interrupt you. It's like, well, yeah, interrupt me, but, but they also will, um You know, I don't know about you folks, but I don't, you know like I will go out and I'll walk around and check out everybody's tables and see who I know and say hi to people. And I don't like it when the person is grabbing me like visually or vocally. ah
13:10.68
Jeffe Kennedy
it reminds me of being in a marketplace where people are like, come here and try my sandals made out of recycled tires. Um, oh I've been to places where, ah you know, people will be like, do you like vampires?
13:28.05
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm like, yes, I like vampires. I like vampire romance. No, I don't want you to hard sell me your book. ah And I realize that this is not what this person is talking about necessarily. ah And I can see, i can see the points. Uh, somebody else commented that, you know, our readers also have anxiety and, you know, will hesitate to bother us.
14:00.31
Jeffe Kennedy
Maybe, maybe that's true. If, if you see me sitting there reading my Kindle or texting someone on my phone, then yeah, please clear your throat or, you' know, reach out and flutter your hand in my face or whatever. But,
14:17.37
Jeffe Kennedy
There are people like i have a good friend who stands pretty much the whole time, but in part because the ergonomics are bad for her to sit and sign and she doesn't want to jump up and down all the time. Now me, I do want to sit and sign, so I'm not gonna stand.
14:35.35
Jeffe Kennedy
So anyway, part of the, the umbrage that I seized a hold of and carried close to my heart was that this person is such a new author.
14:50.71
Jeffe Kennedy
And I posted something rather than directly speak to this particular bit of advice that I obviously don't agree with. Cause I thought, huh, I'll just you yap about it on my podcast.
15:06.14
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh,
15:08.28
Jeffe Kennedy
I posted a thread saying, you know what, if I see you on the internet, handing out advice on writing or marketing,
15:19.59
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm absolutely going to look to see how many books you've published and how long you've been in the business because sorry, I see that, that my putting the cup down made a big clap clatter noise. I need to be more careful with this fancy microphone.
15:39.81
Jeffe Kennedy
There I'm done with that cup so we'll set it aside. um Along with my train of thought apparently. Oh, um yeah.
15:53.56
Jeffe Kennedy
So so this is this is essentially what I posted, right? Because it bothers me that I see people jumping. to What is with this? what you know and And somebody was comparing it to the Dunning-Kruger effect. One of my friends posted a great graphic of... um And I should maybe try to see if I can find that of like the the cycle of how much experience you have versus how much you feel how smart you think you are and that there's like this peak very early on where apparently people feel very expert before they're before they are.
16:33.46
Jeffe Kennedy
And, and it it's important to people to be able to hand out advice. Right. And some people are monetizing this, right. So there were people who took offense to this thread, um,
16:48.47
Jeffe Kennedy
surprisingly defensive to me because I thought, well, you know, if you see yourself in this, maybe you think, but a couple of people replied that, um, that many of them have pseudonyms and that's like, well, ah you know, if I have a brand new pseudonym, you can't tell that I've published.
17:08.89
Jeffe Kennedy
empty 11 books because I've handed out advice as Susie q when, you know, most of my books are published as Mary P and it's like, well, I'm sorry, I can't help you.
17:23.01
Jeffe Kennedy
It's, it sucks, but yes, I want to know what your credit is especially if I think you're giving bad advice. Yeah. But even if you're just parroting other people's advice, I want to know what your cred is. And I will look.
17:38.46
Jeffe Kennedy
but And if you don't have any there, I am going to think poorly of you. So, um you know, that is the downside of having a non-transparent pen name.
17:51.06
Jeffe Kennedy
where nobody knows that Susie Q is actually Mary P. Like for me, Jennifer K Lambert is a transparent pen name. I say, Jeffy Kennedy writing ass. Um, I was able to do that, which is nice for me.
18:06.26
Jeffe Kennedy
Having a non-transparent pen name gives you certain freedoms to divorce yourself from other pen names, but that is a downside and the rest of us are can't compensate you for that.
18:19.67
Jeffe Kennedy
ah Someone else commented that um that they had ah an extensive backlist, but they're all out of print. ah said rather defensively. and I wanted to say, you know, if you have an extensive backlist that's entirely out of print, then maybe you shouldn't be giving much advice because let me introduce you to our Lord and savior self-publishing. You can get those rights back and self-publish. And if you want to be,
18:53.92
Jeffe Kennedy
recognized as a professional author then handle your business and don't don't expect us to just be like oh poor you as if you can't do anything about that. I have very strong opinions on this.
19:09.88
Jeffe Kennedy
obviously. um Somebody else commented, i did remove a couple comments, which I don't do often. But I did do my hide for everyone on a couple because they irritated me. One was just a snotty from a person with like seven followers and a brand new book saying, you must have a lot of time on your hands. And no, I don't. But on a Sunday morning when I'm scrolling through threads and getting annoyed by certain kinds of advice that I see. Um, it doesn't take that long to look.
19:43.64
Jeffe Kennedy
I did deleted that one just because I thought they were being snotty, but there was another one with someone commented saying, well, I don't have much experience, but I have accumulated a community of 90 plus women who have no knowledge either, but we're all helping each other.
20:04.57
Jeffe Kennedy
And I thought, why are you posting this comment on my thread? Um, you like if this is your way of trolling for people to add to your group, you have, I actually felt like that was dangerous because I don't want anybody seeing that and thinking it would be a good idea to join her group of people who have no experience and don't know anything, but are somehow advising each other on it. Um,
20:31.54
Jeffe Kennedy
If you want a community to be supportive, great. But don't pretend that you're actually giving each other good information. You want to get information from people who actually...
20:43.26
Jeffe Kennedy
have been around for a little while who've actually been through some things. Um, so, you know, yeah, if we want to come full circle on this, if you want to know who, how to handle yourself at a signing table, talk to people who've been doing it for a really long time. And one thing I can tell you, and I know I've talked about is that these marathon,
21:06.94
Jeffe Kennedy
Signing sessions that last like four hours. This has not been part of the event space, the industry space, uh, for all that long. Uh, we used to, you know, it used to be that the longest one was like the literacy signing, the RWA one. And I think that was two hours and that felt really long.
21:29.80
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, this, this idea that we're all going to be hawking our wares at the marketplace and have to be out there and seizing people. Uh, uh, um, yeah.
21:43.19
Jeffe Kennedy
Remind me, did I, I think I've told you all the story. I don't have time today now, but, uh, of the author who made me feel really bad sort of pouncing on me at their booth at San Diego comic-con. Have I told that story? Let me know if I have. Um,
22:04.76
Jeffe Kennedy
I probably will not have a podcast on Friday because I will be at the aforementioned Tucson Festival of Books. We'll see if I if I'm up to it. I will do one that morning. It sort of depends on how early I'm awake.
22:20.41
Jeffe Kennedy
oh So i hope that you all are having a good week. I'm glad to be back with you. And yeah, you all take care.
22:33.12
Jeffe Kennedy
Bye bye.