First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee – May 1, 2026
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The magic of habit-building and why I find my routines so helpful - and dealing with the chaos when they're disrupted! Also, the saga of Killian's brush with death. (Or so I was panicking would be the case, but he's okay!)
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Thank you for listening! You all take care.
00:00.98
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.
00:17.27
Jeffe Kennedy
Delicious. Today is say it with me, people, it is Friday, woo whoo um the first of May. And ah if you're on video today, you'll see that for no particular reason, I am a symphony in green today. ah Yeah, I don't know why I like forget to wear green on St. Patrick's Day. But today, today is a green day.
00:43.51
Jeffe Kennedy
Today is a heavy work day. um I feel like it's been chaos for a couple of weeks. Those of you who have listened to me for a long time know that I'm very much a ritualized writer. um And in some ways, a very ritualized person, very wedded to my routine.
01:05.49
Jeffe Kennedy
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day because so part of the drama this week is that I got home Sunday night from apollycon and um and I don't think I said anything about it on Tuesday's podcast.
01:21.94
Jeffe Kennedy
But Killian was clearly not feeling good. He seemed to be OK on Sunday night. But then he was not feeling good on Monday morning and I was i'm worried about him and I could tell that his behavior was weird.
01:40.22
Jeffe Kennedy
And he seemed to be in pain and I couldn't tell why. and I thought, well, that maybe he was blocked up, you know, constipated. And David said, oh, he thought he thought Killian had hairballs. And that's the usual thing. And Kelly didn't seem to think much of it. Kelly was here until yesterday.
01:56.31
Jeffe Kennedy
And so i let it go for a couple of days. I let it go all day Monday and he was not feeling good, wanting to sleep in this cubby in the closet.
02:09.27
Jeffe Kennedy
And his eyes were really watering and he had goopy stuff around his mouth. And I Googled a few things and I didn't see anything in particular for symptoms. And it's funny because Laura Darnell, you sent me a note, I think, randomly about some kind of virus going around for cats.
02:30.94
Jeffe Kennedy
yes She said that bobcat fever spread by the Lone Star Tick is rampant. um Neither of these are are phrases I've heard before. Neither bobcat fever o nor Lone Star Tick.
02:48.86
Jeffe Kennedy
So, yes, maybe I did mention this on Tuesday's podcast because, Laura, you sent me that like around one o'clock my time on Tuesday. So anyway, ah yeah, bobcat fever, I'm looking it up, is a tick-borne disease. The lone star tick, however, is prevalent in the southeast, south, central, and midwest parts of the United States.
03:11.90
Jeffe Kennedy
Wooded areas. We don't have many ticks here in the southwest desert, but I appreciate the tip.
03:20.41
Jeffe Kennedy
And for the rest of you in those areas, watch out for that. To continue the story, though, of Killian on Tuesday, midday, he was not getting better. ah He would like seem to get a little better and then he would crash again and he was clearly miserable. And yeah.
03:40.69
Jeffe Kennedy
So I called the vet, um, mid morning Tuesday and, uh, could not get an appointment for like a week. Right. But they said that they have a deal where they have same day appointments and that if I called Wednesday morning at 7 30 in the morning, right as they open that I could maybe get a same day appointment.
04:06.51
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, meanwhile, I had all this other stuff going on because I'd gotten back from this trip. Kelly was here. of I think I told you we went to see project Hail Mary in the afternoon. I'm trying to finish this book on, um, Tuesday.
04:24.98
Jeffe Kennedy
i did this stuff, you know, like trying to make a plan with Killian and then, um Kelly moved out of the casino for one night and bunked in with me for a night because Mary Robinette Kowal was here with her husband, Rob, and with Elsie, who is more famous than any of us, and Guppy, the guest puppy, who is now permanent puppy.
04:50.22
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, so they stayed in the casita overnight and they brought lunch with them. So we had a lovely lunch and, uh, sat around and chatted for a while. And then Mary Robinette fortunately had work to do also. So we worked for a few hours.
05:06.10
Jeffe Kennedy
And then Kelly and I cooked dinner and we invited Arkady Martine and Vivian Shaw to come over as well. And we all had a lovely dinner.
05:17.02
Jeffe Kennedy
um i'm I'm still working on fixing up the dining room, so it doesn't look as nice as I wanted, but at least I have a dining room now with a big table. So I'll put that picture on the show notes. It was a great dinner. It was really fun, but I felt like only half my attention was there because I was fretting about...
05:33.40
Jeffe Kennedy
making this call at 730 in the morning and was I was starting to worry that Killian wasn't going to make it through the night. Um, because you know, one thing that can happen is boy cats can get, uh, their urethra backed up and they can go downhill really, really fast.
05:50.39
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, but I do give them cranberry powder, prophylactically. So, but, and he didn't seem to have a fever. So I called 730 Wednesday morning, got my appointment at one o'clock. So that was great. Still Dwight half the day. ah And then, sat around, know, did some work, but also sat around talking with Mary Robinette and Kelly for a couple of hours that morning, which was great. I mean, these in-person conversation opportunities are, um rare and precious. So, but I wasn't getting as much. much work done as I wanted to. um So I try to balance these things, right?
06:34.78
Jeffe Kennedy
So we had a great time sitting and talking about our careers and state of the industry and that sort of thing.
06:42.17
Jeffe Kennedy
and And then they left. They headed back up home to Denver. And I was able to do a little bit more work and then took Killian to the vet.
06:56.34
Jeffe Kennedy
And I have to tell you about like this funny conversation i had with the vet tech because they have the vet tech. it's like ah It's like going to the human doctor, right? You know, like you have to go through the whole med tech thing first, which is I don't know, a little irritating because, you know, like they have their scripts there. They have their things that they have to to go through.
07:21.05
Jeffe Kennedy
And so he is like going through all of the things. And for some reason, they can never find Killian's vaccination records. It's like every single time they can't find it. And I don't know why.
07:35.19
Jeffe Kennedy
So we go through that and he weighs Killian and takes his temperature, no fever. So I was right about that. oh But one of the things I told the vet was that he hadn't eaten or drunk since Sunday evening, I was sure. um He was refusing water too. And at one point he went and hid in the garage because I tried to get him to take some water. And he hid in the garage where I could not find him for most of the day. And that was a little...
08:03.18
Jeffe Kennedy
stressful also but he finally came out ah but I said that I knew that he had lost a pound and a half in the last two weeks weighed my cats weekly i had not weighed him the previous Wednesday because I was flying to Apollycon but I knew he was 16.5 pounds the Wednesday before and when I weighed him Wednesday morning, this Wednesday morning, he was 15 pounds. So, you know, I told him that on the phone. So we weighed him and he said, well, yeah, he weighs 15 pounds, but that's the same that he weighed last time he was here.
08:41.24
Jeffe Kennedy
And, and I kind of did the head tilt and I'm like, yeah, but he, gained weight since then. And he's lost it in the last two weeks. I know that for sure. And this guy is like, no, no, you that's not right. And even shows me the sheet. He's like, look, last time he was here, he weighed 15 pounds. And I'm like,
09:03.38
Jeffe Kennedy
That was a year ago, more than a year ago. This cat's turning four in August. He's a Maine Coon. He's still, um, putting on mass. I mean, I said a lot of these things and, and the guy goes, no, he was 15 pounds last time. And he's 15 pounds. Now your scale is off by two pounds.
09:24.69
Jeffe Kennedy
That's a deliberate pause. I'm just going to let pause and let us all collectively head tilt. It was the most bizarre conversation. And I'm like, can we just get the vet in here already? Um, so the vet came in and she was great.
09:40.92
Jeffe Kennedy
She was really terrific. And she started looking at Killian's eye and said that it was bulging out a little bit. And I thought that was just like a misery thing. But she said that her cat had this. And, oh, what with the vet tech, he had tried to look in Killian's mouth. And as soon as he tried to open Killian's mouth, Killian like,
10:02.36
Jeffe Kennedy
yeah um very loud yowl that swiped at him and since i was kind of annoyed about the whole your cat did not gain and lose weight conversation your scale must be wrong um i kind of didn't mind i was like oh i would like to yell and swipe also so She says that one thing that can happen is that something can go up in the roof of the mouth. She said happens to dogs too, like a splinter, and it can get lodged up there in the sinus and behind the eye and cause an abscess.
10:40.76
Jeffe Kennedy
And that it had happened to her cat too, who's an indoor cat. And Killian's mostly indoor. He's outdoor right now, which is great. His usual pattern. ah He goes out on his harness.
10:53.46
Jeffe Kennedy
So she said, you know, they, she never figured out like what her cat did. She said, the thing is, is she was going to have to sedate him and put him under, to, ah even be able to examine.
11:08.15
Jeffe Kennedy
But at that point, if there was an abscess, she'd try to lance it. And so my appointment was at one. And one of the things I'd angst it about was I had my therapy therapy appointment. I'm in therapy now. i know I mentioned, um, that's a running joke. Um, I had my therapy appointment from two to three, but amazingly enough, the therapist appointment was, our office is like literally across the street from the vet.
11:38.62
Jeffe Kennedy
And so the, and but I was worried about, was I going to make my therapy op appointment? And there was, I can have to cancel and would have to text. And I didn't want to, because after next week, my therapist is, I missed last week. And then after next week, she's going out of town for like six weeks. She's going back to China. So I'm going to have to soldier on without her.
12:01.50
Jeffe Kennedy
And so I didn't want to miss my therapy appointment, but I'm also worried about my cat. And I also had a hair appointment at 3 30. My, my life is, is a nightmare people. So I'm like, how am I balancing these things? So right now it's about 1 30 and she says, I'm going to have to heavily sedate him to examine him and then maybe try to lance this.
12:25.85
Jeffe Kennedy
And she said, can, are there some errands you can go run? And I'm like, well, as a matter of fact, my therapy appointment across the street is from two to three. Can I just come back at three? And she said, that's perfect.
12:36.98
Jeffe Kennedy
So I love it when the universe does this like it's like okay this is the the order of things and don't fight these things. So I did um from my therapist's office while was waiting because I obviously got there a little early texted my hairdresser and said I'm really sorry but I think I can't you know had to take my cat to the vet and i don't think I can make my hair appointment. So we were able to reschedule that for next week.
13:04.66
Jeffe Kennedy
So, because i must be beautiful. ah We have priorities, people.
13:15.45
Jeffe Kennedy
So, have my therapy appointment, go back, and the vet meets me, and she says, so, that's absolutely what the problem was. And she said that when she went in, and and cover your ears, because, um,
13:30.97
Jeffe Kennedy
Some people don't like hearing this, but she said, you know, usually she lances it and some fluid comes out. She said she lanced it and pus just poured out. And so I think it may have been there for a while. He's been fussy about his mouth. Um, I'm thinking for maybe two years and we thought he was just fussy about his mouth, but I think maybe he's had this waxing and waning for like a couple of years.
13:54.10
Jeffe Kennedy
So she's like, he's going to feel so much better now. Yeah. and And he does. he's so much better people. ah When they called me, so that was all like on Wednesday, right? When they called me yesterday, he was still in some pain, obviously.
14:10.84
Jeffe Kennedy
And so they prescribed some pain medication for him. So when I took Kelly to the airport yesterday morning, I stopped and picked up the pain meds and then that's done the trick. wanted to go out.
14:24.16
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, when I brought him back from the vet Wednesday afternoon, after he got over being fully woozy, he was like, like up eating his cat food for eating his kibble for like 20 minutes. So he was hungry. And then he laid down next to his water dish, which is, he likes to be, um, lazy lion and lie next to the water dish. Um,
14:44.92
Jeffe Kennedy
And, you know, so he sleeps and then puts his muzzle in the water and drinks. And so that was all good. So and then yesterday morning, yesterday afternoon, after I gave him the pain shot, like half an hour later, he was wanting to go outside. And so and last night he was doing his normal things.
15:05.27
Jeffe Kennedy
So cheers, he's better. And it wasn't that expensive either. So that was nice. I think it's interesting because the vet has me down as a paying customer because they, ah they do treat people who, or treat the pets of people who can't pay. And so I'm, I'm fine with subsidizing them.
15:27.16
Jeffe Kennedy
So, ah but as part of all of this, when I was reporting to one of my friends, the whole drama with Killian, ah she said, you weigh your cats every week. That's incredibly organized, a level of organization that she felt like she couldn't reach. And I said, you know, it's a habit. It's this habit.
15:47.67
Jeffe Kennedy
I do weigh-ins every Wednesday. And, you know, I'm a big believer in this. If you build these habits, then they carry you through. And it's true of writing. It's true of many things. If you're just in the habit of getting up in the morning and making your bed and then doing yoga, then you will start to automatically do that. And, yeah, Wednesday is weighing cats day. And so I don't have to be organized. I have the habit.
16:16.45
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, but like this week is totally disrupted. Um, I feel like, you know, like Monday Kelly and I went to see the movie, which was weird.
16:26.62
Jeffe Kennedy
And then Tuesday with the house guests and dinner and dinner and guests. And Wednesday I ended up driving into town. Um, was it only what No, no.
16:38.17
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah, I guess just once doing all of those things yesterday i had to drive to town and back twice and I talk like that's a huge journey It's it's 20 minutes, but still for someone who never leaves their house. It's a lot So yeah, I had to take Kelly to the airport and pick up day paying meds and came back Did a little work in the afternoon. i had to take David to the dentist came back today Today, people, I'm not leaving my house. I may not leave my house for the rest of the weekend.
17:11.26
Jeffe Kennedy
oh I have my rescheduled hair appointment Monday.
17:26.94
Jeffe Kennedy
sorry. I tried to pause and it said it failed to pause. So you just got two massive sneezes. I'm really sorry. Apologies. I really thought it had paused.
17:39.12
Jeffe Kennedy
Alas, Zencaster's being wonky this morning.
17:44.12
Jeffe Kennedy
ah I apologize for your eardrums. I really do. ah So... Yeah, I think that if all goes as planned, I should not need to leave the house until Monday morning at 11 get my hair done. Because this weekend I am going to work on the book.
18:08.79
Jeffe Kennedy
I am. have been revising. 70% revision. to the revision um I'd hope to be 80% through by today so that's not terrible. I'm going to crank on it and finish this revision today unless I collapse. I'm starting to adopt the method though of like working for an hour and then if I'm feeling really depleted.
18:32.92
Jeffe Kennedy
ah Often I'll go do something, like dishes or, you know, pick stuff up or, you know, some kind of weeding, some kind of manual mindless chore. I've also started doing naps. I might have become one of those writers who's like, right in the morning, take a nap.
18:49.92
Jeffe Kennedy
Right. Have lunch, take a nap. Right. I might be mixing up my, my habitual schedule that way, but the naps are starting to feel very restorative. So I don't know that's an age thing or just, uh, an in life thing.
19:07.83
Jeffe Kennedy
Anyway, um, yeah, I'm going to finish this revision today, which um will take me up through I've got 17,500 words to go.
19:22.10
Jeffe Kennedy
So if I write 3000 words a day over the following six days, I can do this. um It's going to be cranking pretty hard. So I think that this whole right nap schedule might be the way to get myself through it.
19:38.79
Jeffe Kennedy
Oh, excuse me. That was my Bluetooth speaker being intrusive. Maybe that didn't come through. Not like those explosive sneezes. I still feel bad about that.
19:50.55
Jeffe Kennedy
Ah, so it goes. Um, yeah, so I'm really, it was great having people here. I loved having Kelly visit. I loved having writers over and hanging out. Um, I'm really happy also to return to my hermitous lifestyle and,
20:13.02
Jeffe Kennedy
with my cat okay now and focusing on this book so um next week on Tuesday morning I go to San Antonio for an overnight speaking of disruptive schedules I have to fly to San Antonio to go to I believe it is I had to look at my schedule to check this time. It paused like it would have been okay if it didn't pause shaking my tiny fist.
20:40.86
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, it's the mountain and mountains and planes, independent bookseller association. So we're doing this. Um, what is it? It's the romance.
20:55.67
Jeffe Kennedy
author something none of these things. Oh, here romance author. It's my fault not theirs. Romance author speed round and signing reception. Uh, so it should be really fun and I'm glad I looked at this because they had told me that they would send me the questions for like the speed round stuff so I could be ready. Um, they're intended to be answered in 30 seconds or less.
21:19.61
Jeffe Kennedy
ah So I see that they put the questions here in the wonderful Google sheet that the tour team puts together for me. It's a good thing I saw that because I didn't realize the questions were there. So now I can study.
21:36.15
Jeffe Kennedy
um But that's just an overnight. I stay overnight and then I come back very early Wednesday morning, flying into Santa Fe so I can have my last therapy appointment before the long hiatus, at which point I will have to self-medicate in any number of ways. So.
21:58.52
Jeffe Kennedy
so I think that's all for now. I've gone longer than 20 minutes and I'm going to get to work and finish this bloody revision and hopefully write lots and lots of words this weekend. I'm going to do laundry and write words and that's my whole plan. We have a winter storm coming in, so I think it'll work out just fine to tuck in and do that.
22:22.23
Jeffe Kennedy
So I hope you all have exactly the weekend you want to have. um Think about building a habit to carry you through 30 days of doing the same thing every day. Builds a habit. Start small.
22:38.33
Jeffe Kennedy
And yeah, you all take care. Bye bye.