First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee – April 3, 2026
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Lost toothbrushes and creative genius: are they linked? Yes, I have book brain so I'm babbling today on Romance, reader expectations, language, nuance, inflections, Equus, Now?, increasing word count and other Friday thoughts.
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00:01.69
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy. Also writing is Jennifer K. Lambert, author of epic fantasy romance. I am here with my first cup of coffee.
00:17.76
Jeffe Kennedy
Oh, delicious. Today say it with me, people say it now, it is Friday. Woohoo. April 3rd. um Officially April.
00:31.29
Jeffe Kennedy
I must be in a frisky mood today. ah Did any of you ever do like those acting classes where you had to ah say the word or chain of words in as many different ways as possible?
00:48.79
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, yeah, and that's, I guess that's what I was doing this morning where you would say, like, if your word was hello and you would say hello or hello or hello.
01:04.47
Jeffe Kennedy
and you could do this back and forth. Um, sometimes you do it with two people where all you would say is hello. And you would have like a whole conversation, just saying hello back and forth to each other, with various inflections. Yeah. It's kind of entertaining and it makes you realize how much of our language is inflection and tone and the way that we, well, and body language too, right? ah The way that we communicate with each other is more than just the exact denotation of the words, right? There's all of these connotations and what's implied and how it's pitched.
01:45.50
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, it's a thing. ah When I was in college, I was in the play Equus, which I guess not that many people have heard of anymore. I guess it's like an older school thing. But I played a nurse because I was kind of recruited to do it at the last minute. I was very busy, and I think I had auditioned. I did. i auditioned for...
02:13.59
Jeffe Kennedy
the main role of the young woman, uh, and did not get cast. They cast a much more ingenue kind of girl because even when I was 20 and 21 years old, I've but been what people call an old soul.
02:31.46
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm not, I've never been the ingenue.
02:37.40
Jeffe Kennedy
Just not quite wispy enough for that. I have i um a friend, I was using the word biddable the other day, saying that I've never been biddable female. And she said she'd never heard anyone use that word before. But you know what I mean? know, like I've never been biddable. And I'm sorry that there are women out there who are in the position of being biddable Anyway, I'm sort of chaining from story to story today.
03:12.44
Jeffe Kennedy
I was asked to play the part of the nurse, which was, um, there were like two lines. The nurse was like in the background, but the nurse had, I, I don't remember two, three, four lines, something like that. But one of the lines very notably was now,
03:34.62
Jeffe Kennedy
That's all it was just now question. And in the notes after the show, every single evening, the director would say that I needed to put more surprise into the word now, because the doctor has summoned me and asked to have the patient brought to him like in the middle of the night. And so the nurse says now,
04:02.80
Jeffe Kennedy
now and so he was always like oh you need more inflection you really pack that surprise and shock well there's only so much surprise and shock you can pack into the word now I mean I would love to hear someone who's like an amazing actress you'll like Meryl Streep could do it I don't know she'd use an accent but um yeah it It became a running joke because we would all practice like different ways to say no. No!
04:33.70
Jeffe Kennedy
No! It got to be a little much. I don't think I ever pulled it off to the director's satisfaction. But this is why I became a scientist and then a writer. um The theater life was not for me.
04:54.47
Jeffe Kennedy
There's float pros and cons to that. Okay, anyway, here we are. i am a writer and I'm supposed to be talking about writerly things. ah But who are we kidding? That's never been the brand here at First Cup of Coffee.
05:07.26
Jeffe Kennedy
um I did want to clarify from Tuesday's podcast, Monday's podcast. Let's just say the podcast from the beginning of the week.
05:18.62
Jeffe Kennedy
ah When I was talking in about Innamorata, ah by Ava Reid? I was right.
05:30.01
Jeffe Kennedy
Ava Reid. ah Assistant Carien made grumbly noises at me as she is want- to do because she said it was not that it was a horror, um or a horror romance, but that it was marketed as romance. I don't know. Maybe she doesn't want me to say romance in there at all, but I had to hasten to assure her as I am hastening to assure all of you that I did understand that that was the problem. Maybe I didn't make that clear.
06:03.32
Jeffe Kennedy
But yes, I did understand that the reason many people were upset was that the book was marketed as a romance. And I'm going to put that in air quotes, marketed as a romance. And that people were then upset because ah non-romance things happen.
06:22.36
Jeffe Kennedy
And oh I'm up so many minds on this. um Like a tree in which there are many blackbirds. um
06:35.77
Jeffe Kennedy
Was it marketed as a romance? People say it was, but people also make assumptions, right? um
06:47.72
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm not, I probably should have thought this through before I started talking about I mean, I totally get ah so if assistant Carien felt like it was marketed as a romance to her, then she's discerning. And I think that she pays attention. And so it was kind of a bait and switch. There are a lot of things where the marketing people imply romance or imply romantic elements and,
07:18.26
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't know. It's almost like we need a different word, right? You know, like the the capital r romance isn't quite cutting it anymore. um And i know that this is something that people get upset about. and And I've probably been upset about it in the past. But I noticed that more and more people want to know yeah I'm trying to decide if I want to say it that way. People seem to want to know exactly what they're getting going into a book. Like I see, um
07:50.90
Jeffe Kennedy
ah would i saw a post on the Italian translation of ah Never the Roses, Rose di Mezza Notte. Is that right? It sounded good.
08:03.92
Jeffe Kennedy
I was right the first time. Uh, the second time I've second guessed myself today and been right the first time. Uh, anyway, i i thought it was amusing because even in Italy, someone had commented on this really lovely review of the book saying, is it dark?
08:23.42
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, and I was like a very efficient way of asking if it was dark, e dark?
08:35.29
Jeffe Kennedy
And the person replied to actually i was going to tell you what it said but it doesn't matter that's beside the point. Ah, but people want to know right and so I get it. It comes back to this thing about a book being an experience people want to know what kind of experience they're going to get.
08:53.56
Jeffe Kennedy
um And so, yeah, marketing something as a romance to get those sweet, sweet romance dollars when it's not. Sure, that's a thing that happens. But I don't think it happens all the time as much as people kind of think it does. Because i think there's there is room for things to be yeah not Not exactly what you expect. And I know that this has been a thing with the Bramble imprint from the beginning was that it's romance, but it's not necessarily your standard HEA. And I totally understand. If you want an absolutely predictable...
09:41.53
Jeffe Kennedy
ah not predictable because I really don't like that word. If you like that guaranteed HEA, then, then yes, you should, there should be a way to know that you're getting the guaranteed HEA.
09:56.18
Jeffe Kennedy
And I think that nobody is disputing that there's plenty of room for other kinds of stories.
10:05.66
Jeffe Kennedy
But sometimes I'm wondering where the miscommunication comes in. People blame the marketers, which I'm not a huge fan of marketers. But, for example, I'm looking at Innamorata on the Penguin Random House website.
10:20.15
Jeffe Kennedy
And it says a decadently dark gothic fantasy. um It says gorgeously gruesome. It is called a gothic fantasy by the publisher. So now let's go so ahead and just click to the Amazon listing. It's under science fiction and fantasy.
10:45.43
Jeffe Kennedy
oh and I'm going down to the categories. It's under paranormal fantasy, romantic fantasy and action adventure fantasy.
10:59.00
Jeffe Kennedy
So I'm not sure where it came in that people thought that it was going to be a romance instead of this dark gothic fantasy. And I'm not blaming people for that. You know, um maybe there was. But I also know from personal experience that readers will assume things about my books. You know, ah they assume that it's YA. Yeah. They assumed that, you know, like Never the Roses, I saw some people kind of upset that there wasn't a huge battle scene between the sorcerers.
11:36.38
Jeffe Kennedy
And it's like, well, I don't think there was anything, you know, it it indicated that, yeah, they had never met each other in battle.
11:46.62
Jeffe Kennedy
But I don't know. I think we make these assumptions about what a book was going to deliver. And I absolutely believe in the contract between the reader and the author.
11:58.36
Jeffe Kennedy
a You know, that if I promise you something in a book and I don't deliver, then yes, you have absolutely have every right to be disappointed. And I've been disappointed by books too, but I think that,
12:11.77
Jeffe Kennedy
we really have to pay attention to what exactly is the book promising? What does it say in the copy? What does it say at the beginning of the book?
12:23.61
Jeffe Kennedy
So anyway, Carien, I do know that it's not really a romance. And also I kind of want to read it. It sounds, um, very interesting.
12:37.03
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm not sure what's appealing to me about it. I don't normally read horror or gruesome stuff, but something about that book is intriguing to me.
12:48.02
Jeffe Kennedy
But I don't know. Whatever.
12:52.86
Jeffe Kennedy
Speaking of reading, um i am reading Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold for the second time. I'm reading it from my Vorkosiclub book club because we're reading the entire Vorkosigan.
13:09.43
Jeffe Kennedy
series. I don't know why I stumbled over that. um And it, I think I mentioned this when I read, we're reading them in world order. And so when I read the first book of in the world order for the last meeting, ah she's such a good writer. She's such an amazingly good writer. And it's just refreshing to enjoy that, ah just how seamlessly she brings you into the world.
13:42.33
Jeffe Kennedy
And very quickly cues you as to genre and expectation.
13:50.46
Jeffe Kennedy
i mean I think I have as usual, many thoughts on things. Um,
13:59.70
Jeffe Kennedy
it feels like a lot's been going on in the publishing world in the last few weeks and I don't think I've been talking about it. And there are people who do better summaries of these things than i do, but
14:14.74
Jeffe Kennedy
Things like that an agent has said that he thinks an agent from Curtis Brown said that he thinks that ah some editors have been taking manuscripts and feeding them into generative AI programs like chat GPT to summarize for them.
14:33.24
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, which feeds the machine, right? Once it's in there, it's in there forever. And some recent revelations that despite what the tech companies can play claimed that books are in there, you know like open AI or whatever. I hate to pick any particular one cause I'm not tracking that closely, but that the entire book is in there intact, that you can extract huge pieces, which is absolutely a copyright violation and not what they claimed. Um, Oh.
15:03.86
Jeffe Kennedy
oh You know, and the whole thing about the generative AI slop, the people who are using these things and what it means for self-publishing and what it means for traditional publishing. And I feel like anytime we have these conversations, there ends up being this huge push-pull, this ongoing war between which is better, traditional publishing or self-publishing.
15:29.14
Jeffe Kennedy
And, you know, so many of us do both. And I really do think that Most authors are going to end up doing both, but it's interesting to see, uh, stuff like that.
15:44.98
Jeffe Kennedy
ah I don't remember which publishing house it is just came out saying that they're seeing a serious increase in reading. Um, sales are up like 81% and, science fiction fantasy is a big piece of that. I don't know how much of that they're counting romantasy in it, but probably they are.
16:05.75
Jeffe Kennedy
um i added an extra Bubba in there probably Bubba Bubba Billy. um But that's great. i I think just people reading is great.
16:17.56
Jeffe Kennedy
And I've noticed that I've been watching a lot less... on shows and I think I'm noticing that other people are too. maybe it's just my particular filter bubble, but it's interesting that my mother in assisted living who used to, um, watch TV every evening, you know, like she would have her scotch and start watching TV at five or six o'clock in the evening and watch until like 10 now doesn't turn her on her TV. She reads, um,
16:50.04
Jeffe Kennedy
And I'm just not really wanting to turn on the TV anymore. And I'm, I'm wondering if this is a trend, if we're getting really tired of the, the shows that the various there's good ones. And I'll, I'll watch certain things. Did I, Oh, I don't think I talked about this, that Starfleet Academy is not getting picked up for season three. And I'm kind of broken hearted. But then I saw King Arthur baking on threads using a joke from a Starfleet Academy. So um that we get season two because they did pick that up. It was already a done deal, but they're not renewing for season three.
17:27.74
Jeffe Kennedy
And my friend Jim Sorensen watched Starfleet Academy and he did not love it. um So why did I love it and he didn't? I don't know. We keep going around these same things. I'm probably not making sense today, am I?
17:41.77
Jeffe Kennedy
I've really been increasing word count on Blades Books and The Bandit. I've already done more this week than I have since January. And if all goes well today, knock on wood, light a candle, um it will be my best word count week all year. And that really does seem to take away from other parts of my brain. It's an interesting thing.
18:11.82
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, did I tell you why I left my toothbrush in the cabinet? Yeah, was searching everywhere for it and couldn't find it. It's an electric toothbrush. And that's one of those ones that goes through the full cycle, like, um, 30 seconds, you know, it's like four 30 seconds bits, right? You know, so you're,
18:29.75
Jeffe Kennedy
Inside upper, outside upper, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And so I was mid-cycle and remembered I needed something from the kitchen. So I knew I'd walked out to the kitchen with the toothbrush going.
18:44.15
Jeffe Kennedy
And so I thought, well, maybe I left it in the kitchen because it was not on its stand, its charging stand where it's supposed to be. And that's my usual. um I mean, I'm pretty good about putting things back where they belong for the most part.
18:58.52
Jeffe Kennedy
So I'm searching everywhere in the kitchen. I can't find it. And finally i asked David, I said, have you seen my toothbrush? And he says, yeah, it's in the cabinet with the drinking water glasses. And, and I was aggravated. Cause I was like, you didn't, when you saw it in there, didn't think to say, Hey, did you mean to put your toothbrush here?
19:17.69
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But, um, I was glad that he had at least seen it. And so I was complaining to, to my friend. I was like, he couldn't mention it to me that it was in there. And she said, yep. She said, I hear and affirm your aggravation. But she said, isn't it just the tiniest, teensiest bit funny that you left your toothbrush and with the tumblers?
19:42.82
Jeffe Kennedy
And I was like... Maybe. And she said, you know, if you were a man, if you were a male writer, they would use this as an example of your ah creative genius. And so I think that even though i am not a man, this is now an example that, yeah, I am so preoccupied with the book. I leave my toothbrush in with the tumblers.
20:06.52
Jeffe Kennedy
So on that note, I'm Um, don't expect me to be coherent for a podcast, right? ha You weren't here for coherency anyway. All right. Um, I'm going to get to work. I hope you all have a fantabulous weekend.
20:23.29
Jeffe Kennedy
I hope that, um, yeah, let's just leave it at that. Let's all have a fantabulous weekend and I will talk to you all next week. You all take care.
20:34.16
Jeffe Kennedy
Bye-bye.