First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee – April 28, 2026
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I'm back from Apollycon and cranking hard on Blades, Books, and the Bandit for the next two weeks. Also, how I've fallen in love with Mark Rothko and Project Hail Mary (Amaze Amaze Amaze!), a visit from Mary Robinette Kowal and Elsie, and continuing ruminations on multiple pen names.
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Thank you for listening! You all take care.
00:01.50
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,
00:16.31
Jeffe Kennedy
which is delicious. Today is Tuesday, April 28th, and I'm back from Apollycon.
00:27.45
Jeffe Kennedy
It was a terrific conference, um, a little bittersweet and that for many of us, it's probably our last Apollycon. Uh, and this, I think this was my fifth. I was trying to count.
00:41.05
Jeffe Kennedy
It might've been, i think it was my fifth. Uh, and, um, yeah, it was great to see everyone. It was very well attended.
00:52.31
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, so many people came to my table with, um, copies of never the roses.
00:59.93
Jeffe Kennedy
And I love it that almost all of them had taken the dust jacket off. And in fact, one had a friend with her who had like made her take the dust jacket off. She's like, no, no, this is the point. You take the dust jacket off so that you can, um, protect it and save it.
01:17.66
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I love the, the book collector people. ah I'm still having this ongoing thing of people not realizing that I am the same person that I am Jeffe Kennedy and Jennifer K. Lambert. I don't know if other people using pen names have this problem. um I know that for many people, they don't want the pen names to be connected. And so that's, um it becomes a challenge in the other direction.
01:49.18
Jeffe Kennedy
But Yeah, trying to consolidate these pen names is interesting for me because I had a lot of people coming to my table looking for one or the other, one or the other of me and saying, um I didn't realize that you were also. And I said, I i contain multitudes and maybe that's okay. You know, like maybe that's fine. But But I am um open to suggestions on how to make this more clear. Maybe, maybe there's not a way to do it. I think what's happening is a lot of people have picked up Never the Roses and read it and loved it. Thank you. have people coming to my table crying, you guys, um you people, you all. And that was, that's monumental. That's just amazing to me.
02:45.27
Jeffe Kennedy
A lot of people saying it came to them at exactly the right time. And I, I love that. Um, but yeah, I, so I think people were coming to my table looking for Jennifer K Lambert and seeing Jeffe Kennedy with my 73 published titles and being like, being aware of that,
03:14.58
Jeffe Kennedy
name in the sphere. And some people had said they'd never read my Jeffy Kennedy books and wanted to know where to start. Um, so, so yeah, I'm, I'm working on ways to consolidate that.
03:32.31
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, other high, I mean, it's, it's a long sign, you know, sequence of signings. Um, But yeah, I sold quite a few of my indie books. I had a lovely time seeing people. The Bramble pock Cocktail Party hi be be or Pocktail Cardi was delightful.
03:58.62
Jeffe Kennedy
and we had some really nice weather in DC. It was interesting seeing a lot of the resistance stuff in town in DC. Uh, I got to see some really cool art, which is, um, yeah, was just a ah fun excursion for me.
04:18.17
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, One thing for me about like going to art museums or art galleries is I see so many things at once that I sort of get full. um and like the images come back to me later and it's very interesting to me to see which things, um, you,
04:40.79
Jeffe Kennedy
I am not articulate. a Maybe it's because I'm thinking visually. Which things um strike you in the moment and you forget? And which things um linger in your mind? But I am going to tell you that I have officially, and I feel like this is huge, um officially developed an appreciation for Mark Rothko.
05:08.34
Jeffe Kennedy
if If Sydney were still editing, there would be like a little fanfare or something. um But we can go, ooh. Nobody cares, right? Absolutely nobody cares. Not even Mark Rothko, who is has passed from this world and who I had mainly heard of because of the Dar Williams song and still didn't really know who the painter was or why his work was important.
05:38.97
Jeffe Kennedy
And so um I went to the Phillips collection in D.C., which was really cool because it was originally collected by Phillips. And so a lot of it is in the house and then in an annex. And so you get to see one person's sort of personal create.
05:59.00
Jeffe Kennedy
creation. ah I really am not articulate curation of, um, of the art that he felt like was important or that appealed to him. And so there's this one room that he apparently designed along with Mark Rothko, um, for,
06:16.73
Jeffe Kennedy
that is meant to oh give you the maximum viewing experience for one of Rothko's paintings. And if you're not familiar, maybe I'll put one on the show notes, but the the paintings are, appear to be at first, basically a swath of color, you know, like maybe a few colors, but it's like a big canvas with a little bit of color on it. And I've always been like,
06:40.78
Jeffe Kennedy
i'm I'm not as much of a cretin as those people saying my three-year-old could paint that. But also, it just didn't sing to me. I didn't get it. And so the docent was explaining in this room, like the lighting is fairly dim. It's a very quiet room. And there's a bench in the center because the way to view these paintings is they are meant to be contemplative. They are meant to be meditative And, you know, longtime listeners know that that is my jam. So you are meant to sit on the bench and contemplate the painting.
07:20.09
Jeffe Kennedy
And if you do this, if you contemplate it in the low light, the you begin to see depths. And see you begin to see movement. And there's all these very subtle shadings within the piece. And it it's amazing. And I am officially a convert because now I want to sit and look at Rothko paintings all the time.
07:47.35
Jeffe Kennedy
ah I'll just see if there's some displayed here in Santa Fe because, yes, I really did find that to be a Ooh, do I want to say transcendent?
08:00.73
Jeffe Kennedy
Certainly transformative experience. It really did, um, altered, altered the bravely legs. Jesus, what's wrong with me today?
08:12.54
Jeffe Kennedy
The brain waves in my life, in my mind. Um, I kind of like brain legs. Um, anyway, ah it really did change how I was seeing the world and how I was feeling and where my mind was at. And wow, that's amazing art, right? um
08:40.92
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah, so let's see. I'm trying to think of what else can I reveal?
08:50.36
Jeffe Kennedy
there are ah ba bla I did work on, let me try this. I i worked on Blades Books and The Bandit yesterday. i have officially gone back to the beginning and started revising. It's very funny on Monday afternoon because Kelly Robson is here and I may have said this on the Tuesday podcast um that she was asking me where I was at in the book and I told her and the, the official answer is about 62,000 words out of 80,000. And she said, Oh, so this is the point at which you usually go back to the beginning and start revising. And I was like, you know, funny because I decided to do that just this morning when I get back from Apollycon.
09:38.36
Jeffe Kennedy
And indeed that is what I did yesterday. And I got through 65 pages. So I'm happy with that. The book is feeling pretty tight. Uh, did not require a lot of revision. People often ask me, ah with my process of not being able to pre-plot, not outlining ahead of time. The assumption is, is that I will spend a lot of time revising and I do not.
10:04.57
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, it depends on the book. We had this conversation at the, uh, Bramble cocktail party at Apollycon.
10:14.97
Jeffe Kennedy
And there were a couple of people there. i I tell you all, it is funny being this age because there are now so many of these younger authors. I mean, not that young, you know, like in their thirties, who are having their early books come out. And when they, you know, I introduced myself, they're like, Oh my God, I grew up reading your books. Um, and it's, it's really gratifying. Cause they're like, Oh, I know who you are. I love your books. And that's an amazing thing, but also,
10:51.64
Jeffe Kennedy
When did I get old? And I'm not old. Right. Uh, but still yeah it's, it's funny. Uh, but they were, we ended up in this conversation where people were asking about my process and they're amazed that I don't have to do tons of revising.
11:12.92
Jeffe Kennedy
And my, I think it was my publicist, Libby was standing there. Somebody, you know how cocktail parties are. You forget who was standing next you or who was part of which conversation. But, um, it was one of the tour people. I think it was Libby who said, yes, but also how many books have you written? And when I said, well, I have 73 published titles, you know, of course everyone goes, cause that sounds like such a big number. It is a big number. Um, but the point is, is that, you know, she was saying, you know what you're doing at this point, you know, how to write a book.
11:44.60
Jeffe Kennedy
Um,
11:48.60
Jeffe Kennedy
do I though, do I really in the midst of a book, it never feels like it.
11:55.58
Jeffe Kennedy
um But I did make good progress on the revision yesterday and I may be a little brain drained, but the next two weeks are going to be a push. um I've got to finish the revision this week, right to the end by next week and get it uploaded. i think I can do this. I think I can. i think. i can think But it's going to be pretty intense. So if I punt on podcast um of the next three, that's why I nearly punted today.
12:31.37
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, today's going to be kind of a busy ish day because um, Mary Robinette Kowal is coming to visit along with her delightful husband and delightful cat Elsie. They are coming to stay in the casita tonight. So Kelly Robson who is still here is going to come in and bunk with me and Mary Robinette, Rob and Elsie will stay in the casita and Elsie will officially test out the catio, which has been tested before, but it will be given the Elsie test. and It'll be interesting to hear if she has comments on it. Um, but yeah, that's kind of cool, right? I love having like my little mini writer con where people are coming to me.
13:18.10
Jeffe Kennedy
And maybe we'll send up a flag and invite a few people from in town to come hang out or I'm going to wait and see what everybody wants to do. ah So I need to get my revisions done early, get this podcast up, get the revisions done early so that I can socialize this afternoon.
13:38.14
Jeffe Kennedy
Yesterday i worked very intensely and that was great. And then Kelly and I went and saw Project Hail Mary, which I get, I get, the I get it now. I get the hype. um I hadn't read the book.
13:52.34
Jeffe Kennedy
But i don't think I read Andy Weir's first book, The Martian, either. I just saw the movies. um But i I loved it. I loved it. Two hours and 46 minutes flew by. It's wonderful. it's um If you haven't seen it it's wonderful.
14:11.90
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, it it was really great to see something that's about people triumphing. um Not really, even though they're the stakes are dire and dark, ah it was...
14:27.42
Jeffe Kennedy
It was really fun. And it was fun to see authorial choices that are different than what I would make. um i I probably would not have had the alien be as charming. And it was delightful to see a charming a alien. I did not know... that amaze, amaze, amaze came from this movie, but I understand why people have glommed onto it. I kept seeing that with the, uh, integrity moon launch, uh, moon mission. Uh, people kept commenting amaze, amaze, amaze, and it's perfect.
15:02.47
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, it's the, it's the, um, the battle cry for, for a new age, you know, let's, let's get rid of this fascism and authoritarianism. Let's get these people out of here and get back to cooperation, to doing things for the good of everyone, not to increase the wealth for a few greedy monkeys who want to hoard all of the bananas and enslave the rest of the monkeys.
15:36.34
Jeffe Kennedy
I include us all as monkeys in this scenario, just to be very clear. And um yeah, amaze, amaze, amaze.
15:48.57
Jeffe Kennedy
What else do I have to tell you? Maybe not that much. Maybe I'll keep today short since I do need to get to work so that I can play with my little friends later. But I will do my best to talk to you all on Friday.
16:05.37
Jeffe Kennedy
You all take care. Bye bye.