First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee – March 20, 2026
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In which I mainly squee about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and why I think it's THE BEST. Also, Jeaniene Frost's new book, increasing my wordcount gradually to build endurance and output, and yes, Virginia, there are jaguars in Arizona.
The article I mention The United Federation of Planets Has a War College Now — Are We Gonna Talk About It? by Emmet Asher-Perrin is here.
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Thank you for listening! You all take care.
00:01.69
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.
00:16.57
Jeffe Kennedy
Delicious. Today is say it with me, people, it is Friday! Woo-hoo! um March 20th. I think it's the vernal something.
00:30.33
Jeffe Kennedy
Equinox? Equinox. Something. And if you're on video, you'll see that I have a cat here on the desk with me. He is, um I'm not sure why he's being desk cat today.
00:44.44
Jeffe Kennedy
But he's, yes, being part of the podcast under the wind chime.
00:52.86
Jeffe Kennedy
I looked and I'm smarter than I knew. It is the vernal equinox today. Uh, I wonder how I knew that. I think that's really kind of funny because it's not on the calendar. I had to Google it, but yes, uh, 1046 Eastern daylight time. So I'm recording this at 1012, uh, Eastern daylight time. So it's going to be a vernal equinox soon.
01:17.50
Jeffe Kennedy
That's kind of exciting, isn't it? I do take comfort in the the rotations of the earth continuing despite the ape shenanigans of our politicians. The sun rises and sets and the spring is here. Happy Vernal Equinox.
01:45.74
Jeffe Kennedy
I've got my Jaguar cup again today, and I'm going to emphasize that, that it's a Jaguar because someone commented on the YouTube that you do not have Jaguars in Arizona and that this is a leopard and I beg to differ on the comment thread, but um yeah, don't correct me on my big cats.
02:14.04
Jeffe Kennedy
ah ah There are plenty of things you all can correct me on. I get things wrong all the time, but I do know my leopards and my jaguars. First of all, leopards are not a new world species. They are Africa and Asia, Middle East. Jaguars are Mexico, South America, new world. That's when we talk about new world versus old world animals.
02:40.41
Jeffe Kennedy
Because I am a biologist by training and There are very interesting um dichotomies, maybe even not dichotomies because that implies too, but there's interesting branchings of animals between old and new world with Australia being its own crazy thing. But for instance, there are... um Huge differences in bats between the old world and the new world.
03:07.54
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, jaguars are South America. And of course, that's a that's a colonist phrasing, right? Old world and new world. It means new to the Europeans. But OK, ah South America, Mexico um and also southwestern United States, traditional jaguar range. And I'm pointing to my jaguar as if that's.
03:29.82
Jeffe Kennedy
proves anything, which it doesn't. But um there are Jaguars in Arizona. Again, they had gone extinct in the U.S. and there have been sightings now, um verified sightings of Jaguars in Arizona back in their original native range. So yes, Virginia, Virginia.
03:56.06
Jeffe Kennedy
There are Jaguars in Arizona and that is the cat that is on Tucson festival of books logos this year because book people don't get that shit wrong.
04:09.40
Jeffe Kennedy
Word to the wise.
04:12.98
Jeffe Kennedy
All right. Um, other things to tell you all. I want to rave about a few things. Um, one of them i want to share with you is look what I got.
04:26.68
Jeffe Kennedy
For those of you not on video, this Jeaniene Frost's new book, A Curse of Beasts and Magic. And how beautiful is this? This is an advanced copy.
04:38.84
Jeffe Kennedy
um It's an uncorrected proof. I'm not sure this is even an ARC. does It doesn't say just says that yeah it is an advanced reading copy. Um I asked because this is also a ramble I shamelessly asked if I could have a copy of this because I have been a Jeaniene Frost fangirl from way back.
05:00.06
Jeffe Kennedy
Um her first book okay Kat
05:07.67
Jeffe Kennedy
Sorry, Killian decided to stand in front of the camera for a while there. ah Her first book in the Night Huntress series, Halfway to the Grave, was one of the three books that I put on my brand new very first Kindle.
05:27.74
Jeffe Kennedy
And because she has that cliffhanger ending, she was also the first author for whom I did that instant click to buy book two. And I have reread a lot of her, both her Night Huntress series. I enjoyed the Bones POV side of it. And then all of her vampire books.
05:52.98
Jeffe Kennedy
spinoffs of the night huntress um and so i am super duper excited to read this because Jeaniene is one of those authors who never misses this woman cannot write a bad book there There are other authors that can be uneven, you know, and it's like, eh, that wasn't your best. um Janine knocks out of the park every single time. So I'm thrilled for this new world, new book. um It says beautiful and beastly one.
06:26.71
Jeffe Kennedy
so We shall see. um a little bit of news for me. um I am talking with my agent and editors next week about options. And i submitted, I think I told you all, a a pitch for never the roses book three and a bunch of other pitches and, ah editor Ali and assistant editor Diana want to discuss those next week. They have ideas for book three of never the roses, which I'm very excited that this is what they said. They wanted me to consider it because I'm like, yes.
07:07.83
Jeffe Kennedy
And, um, one of the other ideas i pitched, they're super excited about. um Excuse me. So we begin the new mystery
07:20.50
Jeffe Kennedy
of what um secret project that will be. But we'll see. We'll see. I mean, it hasn't gone to acquisitions yet. There's no contract or anything. This is just early conversations, but very exciting. Yeah.
07:35.26
Jeffe Kennedy
And then I also got an interesting opportunity to work with a celebrity possibly on a romantic. Very, very early stages there. They're compiling lists of names and they're going to be interviewing people, but, um,
07:53.08
Jeffe Kennedy
i Sarah texted me agent Sarah texted me saying did I want to hop on a quick call to talk about this and I said sure actually I said how about 20 minutes so I can finish good my word count because I'm a good writer kitty I'm trying to be a better writer kitty uh and as soon as I called her I said is it Katherine Heigl tell me it's Katherine Heigl she said I wish it was Katherine Heigl
08:20.22
Jeffe Kennedy
Catherine you know now that we're besties I feel like this could be a really productive partnership you know so um, call me.
08:29.30
Jeffe Kennedy
So those and that otherwise I'm just working on book three of um, or books right Geez. I don't even know what I'm saying. I'm working on, i call it B3. That's the problem is it's blades, books, and the bandit. ah And I am, I've been increasing my word count incrementally again, because I was having a lot of trouble. Like my first hour of writing would be good. And then I would totally tank for the next hour.
09:00.44
Jeffe Kennedy
So I'm and then i you know, like had to some festival books and everything. So now I am starting over and I am building up. I've talked about this a lot, you know, like building up your endurance for producing word count for concentrating on stuff. I do think that's a big piece of it.
09:20.98
Jeffe Kennedy
So I started with 250 words on Tuesday because Monday was like still travel hangover day. And then, I'm going to sneeze.
09:35.74
Jeffe Kennedy
Our pollen counts are in like the the high red bar on pollen.com right now. Ah, so much pollen.
09:46.46
Jeffe Kennedy
Okay, so I take it back. I'm increasing by 250, but I started at 500. So on Tuesday I did 500 words on Wednesday. I did 750 words a little bit extra each day. It's like a little bit like maybe 25 over, uh, because I don't slavishly watch the word count.
10:07.87
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, but I do stop once I hit that goal to, um, even if it's feeling good, even if I still have time, just to try to build up this, um, you know, it's sort of like the couch to 5k of, of generating word count.
10:23.13
Jeffe Kennedy
So then, um, so I did 500, 750 yesterday. I did a thousand. So today I'll do 1250 and I'll keep doing that until I'm doing 3000 words a day. And then I should be able to finish this book on time.
10:38.22
Jeffe Kennedy
crossing fingers people. I'm actually i actually have room I just want to have room to write these other books because like option phone calls and so forth right.
10:50.78
Jeffe Kennedy
So um yeah, I'd like to stay ahead of the game.
10:58.17
Jeffe Kennedy
ah The other thing I want to rave about have I raved about this to you all yet. Starfleet Academy, the new Star Trek ah series just wrapped up season one.
11:10.49
Jeffe Kennedy
Jeffy just wrapped up season one because it took me a while to watch that final episode. It came out last Thursday while I was at Tucson Festival of Books and I never did watch it.
11:23.00
Jeffe Kennedy
thought about it. And then is that it took me a while when I was back this week. Anyway, i love this show. People, i love, love this show. And I know a lot of people don't. And I've been seeing, so okay, like I like to look at IMDB, but if I can avoid subscribing or signing up for a thing, then I avoid it. I don't want to be, you know, that's very Gen X of me, isn't it? that's um I don't want to be signed up for all the damn things.
11:56.86
Jeffe Kennedy
So
12:00.15
Jeffe Kennedy
I, am very close to signing up for IMDB just so I can go in and rate this show because first of all, i think there's a lot of trolls on IMDB, which is actually the counter argument. It's like, Oh, don't argue with trolls. Right. Those what's the point.
12:21.75
Jeffe Kennedy
But Oh, I love the show. Have I mentioned how much I love this show? Uh, this is something I've talked about before is that the language of praise tends to be weak compared to the language of criticism with criticism. It's easy to kind of go through and pick out all the things that you dislike and the language of praise. We ended up just doing things like going, I love this show.
12:46.71
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, let, I know I did talk about this. So let me talk about what I love about this show. Um, the writing is great. There are wonderful callbacks to earlier series.
13:02.01
Jeffe Kennedy
ah if you're on video and you can see the reflection of my window, Killian's up there in the window now looking very Leonine.
13:13.85
Jeffe Kennedy
ah Holly Hunter plays the commander and chancellor of Starfleet Academy, so she which also has the Athena-associated starship. And Holly Hunter is a small person, and they do amazing stuff with the direction and cinematography, showing her being a very tiny person, this very slim woman who is...
13:41.05
Jeffe Kennedy
being towered over by other people. And yet her presence is there. And it's like, it's not, she's not diminished in any way. She sits sideways in the captain's chair or sits with her legs curled up under her. Because if you are a smaller person, you know, that's how you sit in big chairs. Um,
14:02.48
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I love that Holly Hunter. I'm not going to say she hasn't had work done. i mean, we have the infamous Jeffe's never had Botox story. Uh, I don't pretend to be able to tell if somebody has had work done, but she does not look to me like she has had work done.
14:21.18
Jeffe Kennedy
ah to my untutored eye, i had to look up her age, but she's 68 and she, I've been seeing a lot of discourse about this, you know like saying whether or not someone looks young for their age or a woman looks good for her age. And especially all us Gen Xers back to that saying things like, um you know, oh she's almost 60, but she looks 50 or 45. I don't even know. But instead claiming our age, you know, like I'm 59. This is what 59 looks like. I don't look young for my age. I look my age.
14:59.29
Jeffe Kennedy
um Holly Hunter is 68 and she is not tightened and de-wrinkled and made up a fide to look different than she is. Her face is as earnest and lined with experience as say a Picard. And it is fabulous. I love seeing this. I love this.
15:24.95
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, she brings so much presence to the show and to, this sense of Star Trek as being a um, kind of back to the ethics of Star Trek. There was a really good article on reactor that I should link to. in fact, I'll look so that I remember.
15:47.45
Jeffe Kennedy
Article by Emmett Asher-Perrin, uh, who I mean a really well written. Thank you for this one, Emmett about how Starfleet Academy introduces the concept of the war college that in the lapse of time between star Trek discovery in which the burn happened, I didn't watch discovery. Uh, but apparently the Federation grew very isolated and for reasons we won't delve into all of that go read the article I'll link to it but Starfleet Academy was closed because there was essentially no Starfleet nobody could go anywhere.
16:26.58
Jeffe Kennedy
ah they They lost warp drive. They lost the ability to to do faster than light travel. So in the interim the war college was created.
16:38.46
Jeffe Kennedy
And so it ah happens early on in the series where there's a tension between the newly christened Starfleet Academy and the War College. And this is a really great essay because it talks about the fact that now we've divided things up. Because even though from the very beginning, Star Trek was supposed to be about peaceful exploration, right? The whole...
17:00.78
Jeffe Kennedy
Non interference. We're not actually, you know, we're just out here to, you know, find strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations and not actually blow people up that Starfleet is still a militaristic organization and it's difficult to get away from that.
17:21.40
Jeffe Kennedy
And what I really love about Starfleet Academy, especially with someone like Holly Hunter playing Nola Ake, who considers herself a teacher, and she's over 400 years old, and she is obviously a pacifist, and her concern truly is with this ethical approach to the world.
17:44.38
Jeffe Kennedy
Now, I think one of the enduring problems of especially a visual medium is that having a show that's entirely about peaceful things doesn't make for good graphics, right?
17:59.16
Jeffe Kennedy
We want space battles. We want space lasers. We want photon torpedoes. And we want people being thrown across the bridge and shields weakening and all of these kinds of things because it's exciting. But...
18:13.46
Jeffe Kennedy
it doesn't have a whole lot to do with actually being peaceful. And now I'm feeling this great urge to write something about, A series that's actually about people choosing nonviolence, a true like Quaker approach where you do not resort to violence if you can help it.
18:33.98
Jeffe Kennedy
Apparently, Deep Space Nine wrestled with this in later seasons. And I may do. I know I only watched like a season or two of that, and I want to go back to that. Anyway, but Starfleet Academy ah actually wrestles with these ah ideas in a way that makes them plot crucial.
18:58.81
Jeffe Kennedy
I like the young people in it wrestling with what does it mean to be a Starfleet officer, ah to be sort of reincarnating this world and what will the new star fleet look like?
19:14.97
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I love Tig Notaro as a teacher in these, um, especially final episode, Tig Notaro doing this, um, they're like trying to survive the battle and it's like, you know, okay, well this is a hella final exam. Uh, but if you fail, we die. ah Tig Notaro is perfect casting for this because she has, I'm, I'm hesitating because I'm not sure if Tig Notaro is a they, but we'll go with, we'll just say they, because they, uh, have that wonderful flat demeanor where that's unflappable, right?
19:51.13
Jeffe Kennedy
um I love the relationship between Teg Notaro's character and Lura, who is ah half Klingon, half Jem'Hadar. And I love... um You know, I think all of the casting is really great. And I like what they are doing with calling up all of these races that are, have been touched upon in the many years.
20:16.25
Jeffe Kennedy
ah It's, it has been a fully satisfying show for me and I want everybody to go watch it. There's definitely going to be a season two. I hope that it continues to be great.
20:27.96
Jeffe Kennedy
And yeah, it's um just go watch it. ah Okay, so on that note, I've already hit my 20 minutes and I'm going to keep working on this word count. So I hope you all have a terrific Friday. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I didn't even talk about any of the scandals in the bookish world at the moment.
20:51.86
Jeffe Kennedy
Maybe we'll talk about them Tuesday. You all take care. Bye bye.