First Cup of Coffee – May 18, 2026

The Battle of the Roses and Gophers commences! Also, my weekend at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival and what I learned about writing from listening to Susan Orlean. 

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Love, Lies, and Ley Lines

MAGIC REBORN

Never The Roses

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Among The Thorns

Blades, Books, and the Bandit

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Thank you for listening! You all take care. 

Transcript

00:01.78
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.

00:16.44
Jeffe Kennedy
Delicious. Today is Monday, May 18th, and um I'm lying, this is actually my second cup of coffee. It's already 11 in the morning.

00:29.50
Jeffe Kennedy
i don't even know where the time has gone this morning, but I will tell you one thing. um I'll tell you where all the time has gone, but I will tell you one thing is that My favorite rose bush got decimated by a gopher and I'm like, I'm having a whole thing about this. I'm having fits. I'm so mad. Um, so yes, I've been doing research this morning. I have bought gopher cages and I have looked up how to save this rose. I'm going to try to save this rose.

01:10.78
Jeffe Kennedy
But apparently one thing you can do is put, um you buy these gopher cages, which are only $12 each, what a bargain, and you plant them, ah plant the rose inside of them.

01:23.45
Jeffe Kennedy
And then the gophers can't get to them and chew the roots. Apparently gophers love rose roots. And I'd lost several roses over the winter to gophers. And now, now this one, and I just, it was my favorite rose. It was by the Casita. I know I've only had it for like a year, but it bloomed all summer and into the fall and it like stayed green all winter. And I'm just, I'm so mad. ah For those of you who have been listening for a long time, you know about my various rodent, um,

01:58.36
Jeffe Kennedy
What is it? Battles. yeah The ongoing epic war against rodents living in New Mexico. it is such a thing.

02:09.77
Jeffe Kennedy
gopher baskets. And now I read this great post from a gal who saved a rose that had been chewed up. The roots have been chewed up by the gophers. And so I'm going to implement her technique and I feel really bad for the roses that I pitched over the wall is dead. I kind of want to go look at them, but I think they might be actually fully dead stuff. Mostly dead.

02:33.18
Jeffe Kennedy
There's a uh, excellent princess bride reference for you.

02:39.06
Jeffe Kennedy
So yes, I will go buy more roses and plant them inside the rose baskets. Hooray.

02:48.09
Jeffe Kennedy
Yes, I know it's like compared to the world being on fire, this isn't that important, but the roses give me joy. And yeah.

03:02.68
Jeffe Kennedy
And otherwise, I slept a long time. um I spent the whole weekend at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, i'll which is, um well, is is I want to say is run by my my bestie, local bestie, Megan Mulry, the fabulous, the stylish, the incredibly competent. ah Megan Mulry is the executive director of the festival,

03:31.74
Jeffe Kennedy
This was her second year doing it. And last year was so stressful, learning the new job and doing all the things. And this year, she was floating on clouds. She was the queen. Everything ran so smoothly. it was just incredible. She did an amazing and amazing job, as did all of her staff. And I had ah a great time working it.

03:59.35
Jeffe Kennedy
It's interesting doing these things because so they had me stationed at the security checkpoint. Um, and I'm putting air quotes around that. Although there was a sign that said security checkpoint and basically it was a table that goes across half of the hallway.

04:17.40
Jeffe Kennedy
And the point there is for me to check lanyards and badges. And make sure that, um, the people going through there are only the ones who have, um, access to the exclusive lounge for the big dollar donors, big dollar ticket buyers, uh, for the author green room, ah the volunteer lounge, uh, the, um, quiet listening room for people with hearing disabilities. So it's,

04:54.68
Jeffe Kennedy
you know, not incredibly secure, but it was amusing because I was there most of the weekend. I was perfectly happy to be there for most of the weekend, but people kept commenting on how, how long I was there. And I was like, yeah, you know, here to support Megan, happy to be here.

05:13.67
Jeffe Kennedy
But, um, You know, people recognized me. I had my hat on. And, you know, they were teasing me about being very tough. And I was like, tough but fair, tough but firm. was like, I have no weapons. i You know, it's like there are some people who... um Yeah, I don't know. It it was a an interesting, um insight into human nature. Uh, it was amazing how many people ignored the sign that said security checkpoint and just walked on by. And I would, you know, obviously I'm not, but I'm not being TSA. I have not, um, like at the concert, some people offered me their bags to look through. I'm like, no, I i don't want to look inside your bag. Really?

05:59.71
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, and, and people asked me if anyone really gave me trouble and and, and I would say no, um, no one was aggressive. There were a couple of people who looked sour. They wanted to know what was passed there and why they couldn't go in there. Uh,

06:15.99
Jeffe Kennedy
There were, but for the most part, people were gracious. And it was sort of um a downside of the positioning in that the water fountain with the bottle refill station, which all of us in New Mexico are very conditioned to use, you know, we all carry our flask and we look for the water refill stations. And it was behind the desk. So I would let people through there to go fill up their water. And I would joke with them, you know, they would say, can I I just fill up my water. I'd be like, yes, but don't be causing trouble back there. And know, like 99.9% of the people laughed. And one woman, when I said that gave me the dirtiest look, like, how dare you tell me not to cause trouble? I'm just like, okay.

07:02.58
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, it's interesting who, uh, humor falls flat with.

07:09.88
Jeffe Kennedy
But for most part, you know, I could see the color of the lanyard, you know, like bright green for the authors and presenters, purple for the people who got to go into the exclusive lounge and, you know, orange for the volunteers. So it was pretty easy to just see people walking through and, you know, most people knew that they could.

07:29.85
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But, you know, occasionally there would be someone who did not have their lanyard on or did not have the correct color. And I would say, can I help you? And every once while, I would say maybe over the course of the weekend, I had like five people who would just say no and keep walking and be like,

07:49.66
Jeffe Kennedy
okay. Uh, I wouldn't chase them down. Although I did chase down a couple of people who like turned and went into the exclusive lounge and kind of stood there looking around and I would go after them and say, can I help you? And they would be like, well, can't I be in here? And I'm like, Oh, actually you need a purple lanyard. Um, and one person was not happy about that. One person was like, Oh,

08:13.66
Jeffe Kennedy
And they're like, well, how much money do you have to donate to be in here? And I was like, well, at least $1,000. And they're like, oh. And it's like, no, I i didn't donate $1,000 either. I didn't even buy tickets. I'm just there being a volunteer um for which I am, because it's my job, for which I'm paid nothing every Friday afternoon.

08:36.89
Jeffe Kennedy
There were two people who kind of got past me. One of them, and I don't know when she got through it. might have been when someone else was at the table. um there was It was kind of odd because she went into the exclusive lounge, and I saw her in there at one point, and she was getting food. And I could see she did not have on the lanyard. And, you know, it's one of those things like where this is not...

09:07.19
Jeffe Kennedy
This is not a huge deal. This is not the end of the world. It's, you know, like you're not going to go tackle them to the floor and say, you know, grab the food out of their hands. But yeah, I could see she was like going through the snacks that were put out for people, you know, to have in this lounge. And, um,

09:25.46
Jeffe Kennedy
And she came back later when I was at the table and said, well, can i go back there? I was allowed to go back before to get hot water. and And I was like, oh, I saw you getting more than hot water. and And I said, oh, I'm sorry, they've put it all away. And she was like, oh, okay.

09:43.51
Jeffe Kennedy
And then there was another woman who came through and she was looking for a quiet place to, ah have a zoom call with like her book group.

09:56.50
Jeffe Kennedy
And it was funny because she was very upset when she came up to me at first. And, you know, we don't want people to be upset. It's supposed to be a a fun thing, right? It's supposed to be this great event, you know, and you want everybody to be happy. And she was like, I spent over a thousand dollars to be here, which surprised me. Cause then I thought she would have had a purple lanyard, but you know, whatever.

10:18.29
Jeffe Kennedy
oh And, you know, she's like, and I can't find a quiet space and all of this. Is there not anywhere I can go? Can't I go back there? And I said, you know what? Sure. You know, go back down to the end of the hall there. There's like a little lounge area. I said, it should be quiet enough for you to do your your Zoom call. And I said, you know, and I...

10:38.07
Jeffe Kennedy
I was joking with her. I said, but don't be causing trouble. I'm going to trust you on this. And she said, oh, yeah, okay. So, you know, I promptly forgot about her. I can't tell you how many people I talked to over the course of the weekend. She comes up to me later, her bag bulging. with snacks and she says you totally shouldn't have trusted me she said I went into the what turned out to be the volunteer lounge and I got candy bars and I got snacks and this has just been great I've been doing the zoom calls and um yeah but you shouldn't have trusted me I'm like okay that's great um but you know it's like

11:15.61
Jeffe Kennedy
there were so many people there, like 20,000 people. It's like, you know, if 20,000 people had been going back and stealing volunteer snacks, then it would have been a problem. But, you know, like, it's interesting how there's like always a couple of people who figure that they're special, right? It's that main character syndrome or something like that.

11:38.36
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, yeah. Yeah. and so otherwise people were very, very nice to me and, uh, I enjoyed joking with people and we were all having a great event and I got to hear some, um, a couple of the authors speak.

11:55.91
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, my favorite was, i could have probably heard more than I did, but, um, have to think about how much I want to say about that.

12:08.02
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, But one person that I really did want to hear from or was interested, I was curious to hear from, and then ended up loving was my favorite person to listen to was Susan Orlean, um, of the Orchid Thief fame and, um, countless essays in the New Yorker. And she was fantastic to listen to so smart and such great insights.

12:33.05
Jeffe Kennedy
Um,

12:35.86
Jeffe Kennedy
And she said ah she was talking about writing about things that people think they don't want to know about and how she has all of this curiosity. And then she ends up writing about these mundane things that people take for granted, like writing about libraries and how they work, um grocery stores and how they work. ah she was telling a story about how she was invited to write about Macaulay Culkin, who was 10 years old at the time, and that she didn't find it very interesting to talk about or to think about interviewing Macaulay Culkin because he was so far from being the average 10-year-old, right? And instead, she ended up interviewing and writing about a 10-year-old boy in New Jersey, about what his life was like.

13:28.50
Jeffe Kennedy
And one thing that she said about this was when you're writing about things that people don't think that they want to know about, right? You know, you're you're enticing the reader into reading something that they didn't know they wanted to know. And she said that it's like doing a striptease, right? you're You're taking off your clothes to entice them to come. And she said, and you don't start with taking off your socks, right?

13:59.42
Jeffe Kennedy
And I loved that. I loved that idea. And I think that's such a great way to think about hooks. You know, as writers, we are always talking about what's the hook. ah Well, the hook is not taking off your socks first, right?

14:16.34
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, she talked a lot about being curious and wanting to learn and that that's where a lot of her ideas come from. She also talked about reversals and how sometimes reversals are the best thing that can happen, even though they feel like they're terrible at the time, that a reversal will be the thing that can actually, um,

14:41.11
Jeffe Kennedy
lift you up and add new light to the story. And she talked about like with the orchid thief, some of the things she had assumed she would have, um,

14:53.30
Jeffe Kennedy
with some of the people that she was interviewing and how that would work. Uh, and then like one person died and someone lost their job and this kind of thing, and that she thought it had killed the project. And she talked about the thing that I feel like all writers talk about where you get halfway through the project and then you are certain that it is, um, a disaster that this is dead, that it's a career ruiner, that it's just not going to work. But then,

15:22.26
Jeffe Kennedy
working through that reversal and how what a difference that can make to the story that it she said she's learned to trust the reversal and I love that.

15:34.62
Jeffe Kennedy
She also talked about confidence, not just confidence in yourself as a writer, but confidence in your reader, in them being willing to go with you into the story.

15:47.42
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And i I love that idea, too. You know, we talk about respecting the reader. ah We always talk about um having faith in our readers and loving them.

16:00.12
Jeffe Kennedy
ah I like this idea of having confidence in the reader.

16:08.47
Jeffe Kennedy
So yeah, that was um great to listen to her talk. ah Not all authors are interesting for me to listen to and I think some of this is a disconnect between what readers come to hear what readers come to a literary festival to hear and what I want to hear.

16:28.44
Jeffe Kennedy
um And it's funny because the interviewers ask different questions than I would ask. And maybe that's fine because maybe they know what the readers want to ask.

16:43.42
Jeffe Kennedy
I did listen to Judy Blume being interviewed. And it was very interesting to um sort of see her and hear her talk about her books and what her books meant to her. um the It's funny because she is someone who very famously writes very frankly, right, about...

17:09.05
Jeffe Kennedy
bodily functions and the sufferings of adolescence and early sexuality and that sort of thing. And the interviewer was an older white man who was clearly very uncomfortable.

17:23.77
Jeffe Kennedy
what that kind of thing. She said something about ah wet dreams and he like, I don't know, was visibly uncomfortable and said something about, ah you know, like having interviewed someone else and how they never talked about wet dreams. And, and she was sassy with him and I was glad because it was like, you know what?

17:44.90
Jeffe Kennedy
you're you're interviewing a person who one of their most favorite books is about beginning menstruation. Uh, what, what do you expect here? Uh, I was disappointed to hear that she is no longer writing. She says she's done writing. She has her bookstore and she loves running her bookstore.

18:06.68
Jeffe Kennedy
And a friend of mine pointed out that she's 88 and after 50 years of writing that she could probably retire. Um, she wanted her last book in the, like in the unlikely event to be the one that stood for her. And I guess, I guess that's fine. I mean, obviously it's fine. She can do whatever she wants, but, um,

18:29.18
Jeffe Kennedy
It made me think about, is there a point at which I will stop writing? And I commented to my friend that I think that I will probably be one of those writers who dies at her desk, um body draped over, you know, my half-finished manuscript.

18:44.89
Jeffe Kennedy
Maybe I'm wrong. We'll see.

18:48.89
Jeffe Kennedy
So it was a stimulating weekend, um much socializing, and so I think I slept really long and hard last night, woke up late, and Yeah, but I'm only doing business today, so it doesn't matter.

19:05.41
Jeffe Kennedy
So it goes, ah but bu bum I think there will probably be no podcast on Friday. i am going to Denver for the high school graduation of my eldest grandchild.

19:22.14
Jeffe Kennedy
How is this possible? um And so we will be there Wednesday through Friday. I'll see. Maybe I'll do a podcast from there, but I'm thinking I probably won't. So I hope that you all have a great week, and I will talk to you all later.

19:38.90
Jeffe Kennedy
You all take care. Bye-bye.