First Cup of Coffee – March 17, 2026

A wrap-up of my time at Tucson Festival of Books - along with a cautionary tale for authors of how to behave like a normal human being when other authors ask what you write.

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Love, Lies, and Ley Lines

MAGIC REBORN

Never The Roses

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Among The Thorns

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Thank you for listening! You all take care. 

Transcript

00:01.43
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy. Also writing as Jennifer K. Lambert, author of epic fantasy romance, I am here with my first cup of coffee.

00:17.26
Jeffe Kennedy
Nirvana. Today is Tuesday, March 17th, St. Patrick's Day here in the US, maybe in other places, not Ireland so much, I understand.

00:29.46
Jeffe Kennedy
ah i only thought about it after I'd gotten dressed, so if you're on video, you will see that I have almost like no scrap of green on me. I'm wearing pink today.

00:41.01
Jeffe Kennedy
It's not Wednesday. What was I thinking? I felt like wearing pink today. I'm very much a mood dresser, which um apparently some people find very funny. But I have and have had my St. Patrick's Day nails, my green sp sparkly nails.

00:56.31
Jeffe Kennedy
ah So I've been making it a month-long celebration. It's funny because I often wear green. I wear a lot of green. And like today is, well, at least I'm not wearing orange, right? If you know, you know.

01:12.31
Jeffe Kennedy
I am back from Tucson Festival of Books. I got back yesterday midday. had some travel snafus on the way. ah it wasn't terrible, but there were hugely high winds in Albuquerque and Albuquerque Airport got backed way up and I didn't get home until late, late, late and ended up spending the night in Albuquerque rather than drive home when I was a zombie.

01:36.76
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And so yesterday I was still kind of tired and tired. Um, I'm going to have to just program in a buffer day for me after travel. It's, I don't know, age.

01:51.42
Jeffe Kennedy
Go figure. ah But if you're on video, you will see that I got my mug. going to bring it up to the camera. It's the Tucson Festival of Books, where words and imagination come to life. And this year's animal, they do an animal native to the Tucson area every year. And this year it's a jaguar with a cub.

02:15.80
Jeffe Kennedy
And you probably can't see, actually, No, no, they did do it on the mug. It's just even up even in person. It's kind of hard to see, but they make all of the lines, the black and and, uh, yeah, the, the black lines and everything are all letters. So the image is composed entirely of letters.

02:39.70
Jeffe Kennedy
And now we have Killian coming through. Yes. Tail across the camera.

02:48.05
Jeffe Kennedy
He's still up here, but I've got his tail off of the camera. Although now it's lashing across my keyboard. So who knows what's going to happen at this point?

02:59.64
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, I got the t-shirt also been there, got the t-shirt also got my mug and I got last year's t-shirt too, because it was fruit bats. And I thought, well, I have to have fruit bats.

03:12.82
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, maybe that's not obvious to all of you. If you don't know why um ask me and I will elaborate on fruit bats um otherwise i want to tell you all a story of a thing that happened at the festival.

03:34.30
Jeffe Kennedy
So there's lots of stuff to tell about the festival. the The long and short of it, the TLDR, is that I had a fabulous time. They treated me really well.

03:47.61
Jeffe Kennedy
um They treated me like a rock star, which is just always amazing when you're a writer and not an actual rock star.

03:56.02
Jeffe Kennedy
And yes, um, I did take a picture of the person holding the sign for me at the airport, but it was um, a little bit sideways and not a great shot and I decided not to ask her if I could share it.

04:12.41
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't know but I did take it. We have a cat in the camera again.

04:19.30
Jeffe Kennedy
He's very happy to have me home. He missed me. So I want to tell you all this funny story. ah Okay, so the Saturday evening of the festival, know, like i I was busy all day. I was really running from thing to thing all day. I went over there and I checked in. i i ran into Jesse Mihalik and Katee Robert and chatted with them for a while. And John Scalzi got to say hello to everybody and went and purchased my souvenirs. So that was nice to be able to do. And then i went to the Steamy Lit booth where I signed with K.A. Linde. And she was delightful.

05:07.88
Jeffe Kennedy
We had a wonderful time. Uh, my publicist, Jocelyn stopped by to see how I was doing and she took good pictures of us. So that was really, uh, great. And so tons of books.

05:21.05
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, K.A. Linde Kayla, uh, ran out of all but one. i had a few left, but she ran out of all but one of hers.

05:33.11
Jeffe Kennedy
But it was pretty much nonstop signings the whole time. So that was great. And then I went from there to my first panel, which was with Julie Leong, who wrote ah The Teller of Small Tales, which is actually let me show you.

05:51.35
Jeffe Kennedy
Oh, the teller of small fortunes. Sorry, Julie, I got that wrong. Uh, there, it was the, uh, the cautionary ring of the wind chimes as I showed the book. Anyway, I got this because my assistant Carien wanted it signed. So I was able to slip over and buy this before the panel. And, uh, Julie was delightful, delightful panelists. Um, yeah, delightful person.

06:19.35
Jeffe Kennedy
I might tell you all the Hulk story. um Alix Harrow was supposed to be on the panel too, but Alix got hung up with delayed flights. a lot of the authors did scattered all across the country.

06:35.16
Jeffe Kennedy
I talked to ah Susan Williams. I think it's Susan Williams, not Suzanne, um who was running the festival or the author coordinator. And she said,

06:46.42
Jeffe Kennedy
Everything's great. author's are scattered all across the country, but you know, whatever. Uh, there was the surprise storm. I think it was a surprise. The blizzard on the east coast really caused a lot of havoc on people coming in.

07:00.54
Jeffe Kennedy
So Alix made it for the signing afterwards, but she did not make it for our panel. So it was just kind of the Jeffe and Julie show was the Jennifer and Julie show. And we had a great time, ah really excellent a moderator who asked excellent questions.

07:20.60
Jeffe Kennedy
And it was funny because we were asked about writing sex scenes. The, the how do we do the technicality? And one thing about Julie is it turns out that she and I are sisters under the skin. We have like almost the exact same writing process, which almost never happens. Um, most authors, we have such wildly different processes and mine's a little weird as long time with listeners will know. but Julie also loves spreadsheets. She keeps spreadsheets and she does a lot. The same thing I do.

07:57.37
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, she's very much right for discovery and then tracks it by word count and chapter length edits that way. So yeah, cheers to the spreadsheet method.

08:12.02
Jeffe Kennedy
Julie and I should do a workshop sometime that would be entertaining. So anyway, they asked us about writing sex scenes and how did we develop the technical skill for writing sex scenes.

08:25.05
Jeffe Kennedy
And Julie went first and she said, well, you know how ah in the Marvel movies, they ask Hulk how he is able to be angry on the spot in order to transform. And the Hulk says, I'm always angry.

08:44.22
Jeffe Kennedy
And, and everybody started laughing and she looked abashed and she said, I mean, I'm always thinking about my story and I'm always like tracking it in the spreadsheets and what I'm doing. And I said, I, that was not where I thought you were going with this. And, uh, but then of course it was immediately my turn and I wanted to say, you know what? I am the Hulk except that I am not always angry.

09:08.63
Jeffe Kennedy
And, uh, that was funny. And then I, I blessed. So, ah, TMI, right? But...

09:21.78
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah, so that was great panel. Alix made it for the signing afterwards. They provided us with boxed lunches, which was delightful. And we sat outside and I ate with Nghi Vo, who I had not seen since the Columbus Book Festival. And we had a great time catching up. We talked about her upcoming book and she showed me the amazing cover.

09:46.84
Jeffe Kennedy
The book is called The Scarlet Ball. The cover is amazing. It's on her website at Nghi.com. That's N-G-H-I-V-O.com. It's a gorgeous cover. um And she's going to send me a copy of the book. So I'm super excited about that. It was great to catch up with Nghi, who is wonderful. And then I saw Alix had finally worked her way through her vast line of people and waved her over. So she came and sat and ate lunch with us. and

10:17.37
Jeffe Kennedy
We, that's one of the best parts of these things is when you get to have these conversations with other authors like that. And so we had a great time chatting.

10:32.44
Jeffe Kennedy
And then it was time for our afternoon panel, which Alix was on with me and also Adrienne Young. Again, a really terrific moderator, asked great questions. um I really enjoyed ah meeting Alex, ah just really a tremendous human being, an interesting person. And we had a great time on the panel. That one was on world building, I think. The morning panel was on heartbreak and healing from trauma.

11:01.08
Jeffe Kennedy
Julie had talked about that she was writing that book while her dad was in the hospital and was not expected to survive. So that was a good dovetail with Never the Roses.

11:14.78
Jeffe Kennedy
So then after these things were all done, uh, and it was hot and I really was ready for a glass of wine. We were having a party. This is the story I've been leading with. You've been suffering through all this time waiting for this particular story. I hope, um,

11:32.82
Jeffe Kennedy
So this, there was a reception at a bar that was being held for all the authors and it started at 530. And I got there at 430, but I thought, what the hell, you know, I'll just sit there with a glass of wine and read my book because I was ready. Have I mentioned for a glass of wine at this point? So I get to the bar and it is wall to wall cramped with very excited students watching a basketball game on enormous television sets. When I say enormous, I mean like...

12:10.42
Jeffe Kennedy
These could have been drive-in movie theater screens. Maybe not that big, but you know what I mean. And it was because we were on the University of Arizona campus and the U of A team was playing in some kind of basketball finals that were going on.

12:29.08
Jeffe Kennedy
And so it was very exciting. They did win. i know this because there was much chanting of U of A, U of A. a So our party was on the rooftop there and the bouncer said I could go up, but that the party wouldn't begin the private event. And they had signs for this saying private event will begin after the game is over.

12:54.78
Jeffe Kennedy
So there i am on this rooftop bar surrounded by students. And it was, it was interesting to watch them. It was, um, I heard other people bitching and complaining. I'll come to that later. But, you know, they were having a great time. When I was a college student, I probably, i don't know. I've never been much for watching sports, but.

13:18.97
Jeffe Kennedy
I might've been there. Uh, but yes, they were drinking heavily and chanting and these TV screens were up so loud. It was incredibly loud. And so I was kind of circling, I got my glass of wine and was kind of circling, caught up on some of my social media things, looking for a spot where I wasn't in direct line of the speakers because, um, I, I, I'm sensitive to sound. That's something I think not many people know about me and actually I'm sort of learning to manage about myself. Uh, and so if I can find a place that's sort of like at a null point and the speakers I do a lot better.

13:57.62
Jeffe Kennedy
So I was wandering around and you know hadn't really found a soft spot to land and then I saw a group of guys get up from like one of those little couch circle deals. And it was, I think they gave up on it because you couldn't really see the screens from there, which was bonus for me. So I went and sat myself on these couches and sipped my wine and read my book, The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson. has too many names.

14:28.92
Jeffe Kennedy
Robert Jackson Bennett, which I'm really enjoying. So I'm reading that on my phone. And, you know, of course, I have my Tucson Festival of Books lanyard on. So this group of two men and a woman come up to me and they say, can we share your couch chairs? And they are also wearing the Tucson Festival of Books lanyards. And I say, know, sure. Yeah.

14:52.12
Jeffe Kennedy
have at it. It's so loud conversation is almost impossible, you know, but we, we say hello and yeah, you know, waiting for the, it ended up that the game ended at like five 35 or five 40. So we're all just sort of waiting for this game to be over.

15:10.90
Jeffe Kennedy
And the two men are sort of holding forth. And this was some of the complaining, you know, like one of them apparently was from there and I didn't know who he was. I didn't recognize his name, but he had, I think, gone to U of A and he was talking about, well, you know, students party so much these days and that's all they do.

15:31.22
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm like, you know what? It's spring break, at which it was. They have the festival during the university spring break. It's like, that's what college spring break is for is partying. And it's a, it's a big sports event that involves the, you know, university's team. And that's a Saturday evening and Saturday afternoon that that's what I would want to be doing right up there on the rooftop bar.

15:58.74
Jeffe Kennedy
So I always think it's funny when older generations are like those younger generations just don't know how to work.

16:06.55
Jeffe Kennedy
Whatever dude. So then the other person was a woman whose name I did not recognize. And she had, um, her, it was ah an initial name, like one initial and then her last name. And I didn't recognize either. And, you know, i said hello and introduced myself and just by name and asked her what the initial stood for. If I should, I never know. Like when people have initial names, do they want to be called the initial? Um, like I asked K.A. Linde that, right? Do I, do you want to be K or, and that was when she said, no, it's Kayla.

16:40.47
Jeffe Kennedy
So this gal told me her name. And i said, ah what do you write? And she, and admittedly it's very loud.

16:51.26
Jeffe Kennedy
And, but she's sitting right next to me. Right. So I say, what do you write people? Do you want to know what she answered me? She says fiction.

17:02.27
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm just going to pause there. That's a real pause. She, she said fiction. And I'm like, okay, well, I mean, I could have had a 50-50 shot, right, in guessing. What do you write? Fiction or nonfiction, right? It's like nobody answers this question this way, fiction.

17:25.18
Jeffe Kennedy
And so i say, well, that's a rather large umbrella. I'm still trying to be nice. That's a rather large umbrella. What kind of fiction? And she spreads her hands helplessly as if, who is she to educate me on what fiction is and And then she scrabbles in her tote bag and hands me a postcard about her book, Singular. and And I don't mean to be snotty about that, but I'm sorry.

17:55.93
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, if If you've written one book, it's really easy to tell people what you write beyond saying fiction. And by saying this, she of course meant that she writes literary fiction, which she thinks is the only kind of fiction that exists. And so her book was a collection of short stories about a particular geographical location.

18:21.59
Jeffe Kennedy
I won't say what it is because I'm not really interested in outing her in particular, but it's a unique geographical location. And if it had been me, I would have said, um i wrote a, clip you know, I, I have, I'm, I write short stories. um I have a new collection of stories about this fascinating geographical region.

18:48.30
Jeffe Kennedy
That's a really easy answer. And, and you know, and she did say, well, it's very loud. and Um, we established that we were staying at the same hotel and she said, well, maybe we could walk back together. Actually, she said we should walk back together. And I was like, sure. you know, thinking, let's see how that works out. Cause I know like, I'm not going to be leaving for a while. Right. What's the TVs are off and I'm settling in. I'm talking to my friends who I then found after this, but, um,

19:19.54
Jeffe Kennedy
That's been one of my takeaway tales of the book festival because, and I'm just going to say this because I know a lot of you out there listening to this are also authors. I know a lot of you are readers too. So if an author is snotty to you in this way, and I'm sorry, this is snotty behavior. um You don't have, you don't have to listen to it. You don't have to take that. It's somebody who,

19:45.11
Jeffe Kennedy
It's very, very easy. This is my advice for the authors. It is very, very easy to have a one sentence description of what it is you write.

19:55.80
Jeffe Kennedy
um And I think all of you know this. And especially if you're a newer author and you've only written one or two things, you can pick one book and you can say, i wrote a book about this. um Answering someone that you write fiction is Yeah.

20:17.02
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah, no. So anyway, that's my rant of the week. I will tell you more things on Friday because I'm already out of time. But I'm glad to be back. I'm ready to really get cranking on Blade's Books on the Bandit.

20:32.60
Jeffe Kennedy
And I will talk to you all on Friday. You all take care. Bye bye.