First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee – March 23, 2026
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
I went on a bit of a rant today about writers using generative AI, along with a deepish dive into the Shy Girl controversy and why it really annoys me that I might have to declare I don't use that shite to write my books. SPOILER: I DON'T.
The video breakdown of SHY GIRL is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbeKTa5xhZo
***
Romance fiction readers believe in Happily Ever Afters. 💛
That’s why I’m proud to support @VOWforGirls and the Every Girl Deserves Happily Ever After Sweepstakes.
Enter weekly for a chance to win:
🍷 A luxury Napa vineyard getaway!
📖 A signed copy of Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid!
📖 A signed hardback of Never the Roses - with sprayed edges! - by yours truly!
Every entry helps support community-led efforts to end child marriage and protect girls’ right to choose their own future.
Because every girl deserves the chance to write her own love story. <3
Enter now at VOWforGirls.org/happilyeverafter Use PROMO CODE JENNIFER for extra entries!
#EveryGirlDeservesHEA #RomanceCommunity #AuthorsForGirls #TurnLoveIntoAction #VOWforGirls
***
Indie Booksellers! You can buy my indie books direct from me at discount!! Submit a Request for an order here
New Releases ~
Preorder ~
Socials ~ @jeffe_kennedy on all platforms :)
Upcoming Events ~
Tuscon Festival of Books is March 14th-15th this year! See you there! https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org
Follow me on Amazon or BookBub
The posture correcting sports bra I love almost more than life itself can be found here
Thank you for listening! You all take care.
00:01.78
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy. Also writing is Jennifer K. Lambert, author of epic fantasy romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.
00:15.67
Jeffe Kennedy
Delicious. Today is Monday, March 23rd, 2026. Normally I'd be doing this podcast on Tuesday, but I have some people coming in town tomorrow, so I'm going to spend some time with them. So I thought we'll get this out of the way today.
00:33.43
Jeffe Kennedy
Also, i have something to share with you. I'm uploading this video elsewhere too, but I wanted to let you all know that I am partnering with VOW for Girls again this year. I think this is a really important cause.
00:50.52
Jeffe Kennedy
ah Their mission is to end child marriage full stop all around the world. They do really great work to enable these girls who are forced into marriage at ridiculously young ages to enable them to instead have lives as human beings and choose marriage for themselves if that's something that they want.
01:14.52
Jeffe Kennedy
Really important stuff. um So I have contributed to this before. And this year, ah they're doing this deal with this Happily Ever Sweepstakes.
01:27.16
Jeffe Kennedy
And I am partnered this week with Deanna Rayburn, who I've known since forever. i think I've talked about some of the stories about Deanna Rayburn and how much I like her. I messaged her when I got this on Friday because, like, I don't keep track of things. I'm sorry.
01:44.63
Jeffe Kennedy
And I said, oh, we should do like a joint video, but she had efficiently already done hers. So, uh, you'd get just me. ah So I did that, but I also wanted to talk about it here.
01:58.75
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, so there's the happy, happy ever after sweepstakes. Um, and it's this amazing deal. Okay. So it's a getaway to Napa, which is You have to go. I mean, it's it's fantastic. So three nights, wine tastings, amazing views.
02:20.85
Jeffe Kennedy
They're going to throw in a signed copy of Rachel Reitz, Heated Rivalry. You also get a signed copy of Never the Roses. Um, and when you enter this supports the Val for girls mission.
02:35.93
Jeffe Kennedy
So I'm going to add in the link to my show notes here. Uh, that's where you can enter and use the promo code, Jennifer, uh,
02:47.48
Jeffe Kennedy
all caps J N N F E r and they'll give you a quarter more. They say 25% additional entries. I mean I think that means like for every entry you get a quarter of an entry. So like four and you get an additional one.
03:04.28
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't know. I don't make the rules. Ah, so anyway, ah, please please support that. It's really a great cause.
03:16.76
Jeffe Kennedy
I had to reload the ah puzzle box with treats because Gillian was a demanding cat. What can I say? Uh, all right. So, um I wanted to know if you're on video, I am drinking out of my Jaguar mug, uh, yet again. And i just want to let you all know that I am not drinking out of it every single day.
03:39.24
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, it's just sort of working out that way, but it's my new precious.
03:46.49
Jeffe Kennedy
I suppose I could drink out the same mug every day. There are people who do that, right? All right. I love Dan Savage's story on that, um, which is a great story for polyamory. Actually, you know what? I'll go ahead and retell it quickly because I realize I'm referencing something. Most of you don't know that I do love to listen to the Savage podcast and And he um was talking about how he has this mug and he's very specific about this mug that he has. and He says what it is. I don't, I didn't retain that. Anyway, he has this mug that he loves and he and his husband have been working through polyamory over the years.
04:28.28
Jeffe Kennedy
And his husband had a boyfriend stay overnight and And which was, you know, great. And everything was, you know, worked out and doing well and all of this sort of thing. And apparently this is a long-term boyfriend now because he's like part of the family now. But so the boyfriend stayed the night and everything was great. And they're in the kitchen and the boyfriend picked up Dan's mug from like its sacred spot next to the tea kettle or the coffee pot or what have you. And everybody went, oh,
05:04.34
Jeffe Kennedy
And this new guy, poor new guy, like froze. And he's like, what? And they're like, no, no that's, that's Dan's mug. And Dan said, you can have my husband, but you cannot have my coffee mug, which I feel like says so much.
05:22.74
Jeffe Kennedy
Ah, okay. So I actually have things to tell you. I wrote them down. Uh, so we talked about VOW for Girls do that. Oh gosh, it's been such a such a week, such a week in the writing community. There are so many things to talk about.
05:40.57
Jeffe Kennedy
One thing I want to mention is um long are we going to have to talk about generative AI for the rest of freaking lives? i mean, apparently the answer is yes.
05:52.34
Jeffe Kennedy
And we can talk about this latest brouhaha with shy girl by ah author Mia Ballard, which got cut by Hachette was a self published book got picked up by Hachette was going to be published and then.
06:08.83
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, they have determined that it was written with generative AI quotation marks still makes me mad that they're making us call it AI when it's not.
06:19.22
Jeffe Kennedy
It's not artificial intelligence. It's a large language model or a language learning model. I forget LLM anyway.
06:31.64
Jeffe Kennedy
I feel like I shouldn't be ranting already, uh, this early in the week, but
06:38.58
Jeffe Kennedy
I did spend time over the weekend listening to ah Frankie's podcast, two hours and 40 fricking minutes. I was like, no way is anybody going to listen to this whole thing.
06:49.30
Jeffe Kennedy
Reader, I listened to the whole thing and I was fascinated. So Frankie is this young person, I believe Canadian has a book club, And did this basically blow blow by blow breakdown of shy girl by Mia Ballard. I believe he and I think he's he I didn't see any indication that he goes by a different pronoun but forgive me if I get it wrong.
07:15.77
Jeffe Kennedy
I should default today but. ah He does this blow-by-blow breakdown, which is not easy to say, of Shy Girl and why it's A, terrible, um B, badly formatted, and C, almost certainly written by Generative AI. And that was posted a couple of months ago, I believe. And I will put that link in the show notes as well.
07:46.20
Jeffe Kennedy
in fact, let me remember to bring that up. So um i ah i listened to all two hours and 40 minutes. It was fascinating. I learned a lot because Frankie is a very insightful reader. And it was fascinating to hear just what he picked out as being bad writing. Yeah.
08:08.09
Jeffe Kennedy
And some of the things that he talks about in terms of how a reader participates in the book, like what his expectations for the book were and where the book satisfied them, where it was surprising in a good way, when it was surprising in a bad way. So I think for you authors out there, it's actually very interesting to listen to for that reason alone. I think it's interesting to listen to for other reasons. But yeah, I really did learn a lot, like when a metaphor isn't hitting or ah he talks about
08:46.01
Jeffe Kennedy
why he thinks it doesn't work because, uh, he says, we're no longer there where we've already moved past this when the author says, you know, like, oh, here's this thing. Um, and it's very useful.
09:01.45
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, I'll leave it at that. But so anyway, ah he does break down all the ways that it is probably indicative that it is written by generative AI, at least in part.
09:17.54
Jeffe Kennedy
That's right. Killian does not approve of using generative AI in your work. Uh, and And what I was going to lead into with this, but I'm not being organized about it, is I did want to say that I am reading a book by a favorite author that's coming out from my same publisher, from Bramble. And I noticed, I mean, it's ah it's an advanced reader copy, so a lot of it's to come. They put TK.
09:45.91
Jeffe Kennedy
But there's there's an author's note saying no part it. of this book was written with AI something like that and and I know some authors are putting that on there and it's like do I have to do I have to do this do I have to put in my books that I'm not using generative AI to write my freaking book.
10:09.43
Jeffe Kennedy
i I find it insulting. i i am I don't want to have to put that in there because, no, no, of course I'm not using stupid ass.
10:23.13
Jeffe Kennedy
stupid a that writes things for me. I am a writer. am clearly very passionate about this. Why? Why would I use that? But then why is anybody using it? I i don't understand. um So do i have to put this disclaimer in my books? I mean...
10:44.79
Jeffe Kennedy
I feel like I have to say I also didn't plagiarize anyone. um maybe That would be a funny thing to put in there. Maybe I'll do that. No kittens were murdered in the making of this book. ah I might put a list. In fact, you know what?
11:04.60
Jeffe Kennedy
Because I think it's stupid that we have to. oh I, I paused. i made a note. I'm going to actually ask my editor if I should put that in among the thorns. um I think it's stupid that we have to say we're not doing something that clearly nobody should be doing. It's like, um yeah. do Do I need to have a name tag saying i am not a murderer or a pedophile? I mean, maybe we do these days.
11:30.10
Jeffe Kennedy
ah
11:33.18
Jeffe Kennedy
And am I conflating generative i ai use with the worst morally reprehensible breaches of human conduct conduct? Yes.
11:43.83
Jeffe Kennedy
Yes I am.
11:48.54
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, there's been a lot of discourse of course, a horse of horse, uh, I go right to a horse is a horse. Of course, of course, all of the discourse online about this and what's happened. Okay. So chronologically, ah this Frankie posted this video, which went viral, whatever that means 40,000 likes,
12:15.70
Jeffe Kennedy
oh back in January I just checked and now there was a New York Times article about it. Hachette pulled the book from publication. It had been self-published. They took it off the market. They republished it apparently with nobody looking at it, which is whole problem in and of itself. ah But yes, this happens. There's a lot of acquiring editors out there who are snapping up popular self-published stuff and then just throwing it on the market in the hopes of...
12:52.41
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't know another 50 shades. Everybody wants that. At least they want the money. Uh, and then continued a accusations. It's been run through an AI detector, which is yes, made by a big software company who's also doing generative AI. They said it is.
13:17.85
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But the author has since admitted that although she did not use generative AI to write the book, that she had a friend from a book group volunteer to edit, edit the book. I'm using air quotes a lot today.
13:35.64
Jeffe Kennedy
And she apparently used generative AI. And then this gal never looked at it again and threw it up on the market. And So we all have many, many questions here, right?
13:48.47
Jeffe Kennedy
So many questions. It's.
13:53.17
Jeffe Kennedy
Like, how do you how do you possibly have someone do a global edit on your book that you don't review or that you review and think this is fine?
14:05.46
Jeffe Kennedy
i'm I don't know. I frankly, I i suspect shenanigans. um I don't know Mia Ballard. She is an author of color. Yeah.
14:17.70
Jeffe Kennedy
She's repeatedly said she didn't have money to do this or that. Uh, another problem with shy girl when it was self published was that she um, stole the artwork for the cover. She took an image off of Pinterest and used that for the cover and then did the whole gosh I didn't know you weren't allowed to just use people's artwork that you find on the internet and use it for profit.
14:42.78
Jeffe Kennedy
i'm I'm sorry, color me extremely skeptical here. of I think that it's, I think that the accusations of using generative AI in the book were so convincing that Yeah, frankly, I think that's a cover story. I don't know. i I find the fact that she did use generative AI to write the book and got caught and you know is suffering the consequences a far more likely
15:17.78
Jeffe Kennedy
outcome or situation than that this friend used it to edit the book. Um, I don't yeah, it's ah it's and that she didn't know and didn't see and.
15:31.82
Jeffe Kennedy
Ah, frankly I don't know people but i yeah, you know, it's it's all of this like I guess the get rich quicking stuff. Um,
15:47.10
Jeffe Kennedy
I I don't understand people who don't want to write their own books. Yes, it's hard. Yes, yes, I've been doing this for 30 years and it's freaking hard and it doesn't get easier and I'm sorry but um.
16:01.27
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah. Anyway I did have a point here. But I suppose I've I've made it. um Oh, I know part of what I want to say is that what I'm seeing as a lot of the discourse is people saying things like um how are we taking the word of this AI company saying that, yes, this is generative AI. I'm going to wear out my fingers doing air quotes on this whole thing.
16:32.98
Jeffe Kennedy
but Um, yeah, they're wearing me down which is their intent right? I don't remember to do their quotes every time. The way that the tech bros have co-opted this term and forced it down our throats is I don't know I guess another issue I am ornery this morning who knew?
16:52.47
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But yeah, I'm amazed by how many people saying, well, this is really dangerous because anyone could be accused of using AI to write their books.
17:03.96
Jeffe Kennedy
And you know what that sounds like to me? Do you know what I hear with those words is I hear all of these guys saying,
17:15.80
Jeffe Kennedy
Well, all of this stuff on sexual harassment and believe women and me too is creating an environment where any guy's life could be ruined for just saying the least little thing.
17:30.98
Jeffe Kennedy
Doesn't it sound exactly like that? Because I realize that there are false accusations of people using generative AI to write their books out there.
17:44.70
Jeffe Kennedy
um But also, i think if you're not using generative AI to write your books, then you don't have anything to worry about. Just like if you are not a creepy guy saying uncomfortable things to women and doing weird creepster things, then you don't actually have to worry about being accused of rape.
18:14.61
Jeffe Kennedy
the The incidence of false accusations is so low, and then it's used to justify this culture of that nobody should be held accountable. And, a you know, I'm sorry for what Mia Ballard is going through. I'm sure it's awful. But also, these are consequences. This is what happens when you use generative AI, when you are not careful about your art and yeah I don't know come after me if you want on this because like I said I don't know this person I don't know more than any of this except that it sounds like there are a lot of good reasons to think that the book is not well written and there's a lot of hallmarks of generative AI writing and and now the book has been pulled.
19:14.68
Jeffe Kennedy
So I think I'll just wind up on that note since this turned into a complete rant on shy girl, uh, check out Frankie's video. It really is instructive and, um,
19:28.85
Jeffe Kennedy
And please, please support Vow for Girls. Enter the sweepstakes. There are other things you can enter. um Really great cause. Let's give these young women across the world a chance to live their own lives.
19:43.90
Jeffe Kennedy
And I hope you all have a great week living your own life. You all take care. Bye-bye.