First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee – July 15, 2026
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AMONG THE THORNS is out in the world!! I'm burbling about the launch party, the lovely gifts and thank-yous from readers, and talking a bit about the book and writing a "love triangle with teeth." Also about the difference between my Jeffe Kennedy voice and the Jennifer K. Lambert one, and my evolving understanding of the happy-ever-after.
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Thank you for listening! You all take care.
00:01.72
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy. Also writing is Jennifer K. Lambert, author of epic fantasy romance. I'm here with actually my second cup of coffee.
00:18.46
Jeffe Kennedy
Today is Wednesday, July fifteenth And I guess I'm punching 15th because I don't know. I am just like my brain is everywhere. Uh, yesterday was release day for among the thorns and it was a wonderful day.
00:37.72
Jeffe Kennedy
It really was. Thank you all for all of the congratulations and notes. It's um, it's been a little overwhelming. I always forget.
00:48.15
Jeffe Kennedy
like how much, um, release week takes out of me. I mean, it's fun and it's great. Uh, but then it's a lot and I'm still catching up with social media notifications. So if I've not yet replied to you,
01:03.89
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm working on it. Um, so we had the launch party at books on the Bosque last night and it was an amazing event with a great turnout and I am so grateful to everyone who was there. Um,
01:20.75
Jeffe Kennedy
Kara at books on the bus gay and the everyone who works there. Everyone's amazing. So I have to tell you all the beautiful things they did for me. Um, over my left shoulder is a bouquet, a gorgeous, amazing bouquet of a dozen roses, uh, that match the roses on the cover of among the thorns and are the roses that are in the book. And they even did a little card for me that says, congratulations on your release of,
01:51.00
Jeffe Kennedy
Among the thorns books on the bus game. So yeah they're like my my favorite indie now and um, one of the people who works at the store and a reader of these books made these amazing look at these crochet roses one is purple and one is kind of a salmon color.
02:15.70
Jeffe Kennedy
one for never the roses one for among the thorns. Ah, they're incredible and they have like little wires in them so you can like fix the petals and they are I'm I'm just so touched. Ah, I also have over my left shoulder you can see a flower arrangement of purple roses and other flowers from my UK publisher that came on Friday.
02:40.86
Jeffe Kennedy
And I got this really lovely thank you note too. um I won't call out the reader because I don't know if she wants me to, but she sent me this in the mail, this beautiful thank you note. And it says, dear Jeffe, never the roses was phenomenal. It took my breath away. So I was thrilled to win a copy of among the thorns. Thank you so much. And thank you for sharing your gift and talent. Your books are a joy.
03:11.08
Jeffe Kennedy
Isn't that nice? I remember, do you remember like back when, um I think it was cockygate happened and that really kind of psycho author was going on the internet and talking about how readers sent her cards and she was like reading from these obviously blank cards. So I'm just, because of that, I'm going to cover her name because I don't yeah want to name check her, but look, it's a real life unsolicited,
03:42.30
Jeffe Kennedy
Thank you note and um, it means everything to me. And I think I told you all, but when I was at Apollycon, readers were coming up to my signing table and telling them how, some of them in tears, saying how never the roses made them cry. People have been asking me if Among the Thorns is going to wreck them also. And I'm telling them that this is what I'm hearing from people. And you all, of course, will talk to each other and share that um I think it's not as bad.
04:14.49
Jeffe Kennedy
Not quite, yeah but I think it will make you cry. So, I mean, that's, that's, I think what you're going to get maybe with the Jennifer K. Lambert brand is a brand and put that in quotation marks. ah I don't like the idea of the brand, but you know, I think it's probably going to be, yeah, an emotional wreck for you.
04:41.72
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, I did get asked that question last night. Uh, Kara, the lovely events coordinator, uh, asked great questions. She loved among the thorns. She actually annotated her arc with different tabs for the POV of each, um,
04:58.94
Jeffe Kennedy
each character, Sebastian, Rose, and Thorn. So, I mean, she's just kind of awesome. And she said she wrote a review for the Albuquerque Journal that'll show up on Sunday. so that's amazing. And yeah, I'm, I'm having a great time. Uh, I leave in the morning.
05:19.80
Jeffe Kennedy
For Denver, I'll be at tattered cover tomorrow night, Thursday night, July 16th. Uh, at, um, the tattered cover on Colfax talking with the fabulous Mary Robinette Kowal. I'm really looking forward to that. I know a number of my Denver people are planning to be there. So that's delightful. And then on Friday night I will be at the steamy lit bookstore in Miami.
05:47.48
Jeffe Kennedy
So if you are there that would be great. And so I had all of these things I wanted to be sure to say to share all of these fabulous, wonderful things. And now I'm wondering, what else do I have to say? Um, Kara asked great questions. Oh, that's what I was starting to say is, uh, one person on the audience, I think asked, uh, what was the difference between the Jeffe Kennedy voice and the Jennifer K. Lambert voice, which is interesting.
06:18.65
Jeffe Kennedy
And one of the things that we talked about was the happy ever after the HEA and you know, they were, Kara was saying that she doesn't necessarily even like, or need an H E And of course this is like the one rule to rule them all in romance. And I think Jeffe Kennedy, um you are always going to get ah happy for now or a happy ever after.
06:46.78
Jeffe Kennedy
Jennifer K. Lambert, um it's you're going to get happy eventually, but I think there's going to be a lot of heartbreak along the way. And one of the things that we talked about, um and it's so much fun to talk about my books with people who are really good readers, who have who read deeply and say penetrating interesting things about them.
07:14.31
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, and one thing that we were talking about was the love triangle and Among the Thorns and probably this is going be spoilery. So if you don't want to know anything, I mean, I won't spoil what happens, but this is talking about some of the things that do happen.
07:30.65
Jeffe Kennedy
Um,
07:34.01
Jeffe Kennedy
the love triangle is not neat. and tidy And one of the things I wanted to do with this book was explore a very real angsty love triangle.
07:49.75
Jeffe Kennedy
And somebody, i think someone in the audience said that um that mine really has teeth, that I didn't pull the teeth. And I think that's exactly right. And maybe that's what's in the Jennifer K. Lambert voice that's a little different is that Um, I'm not pulling the teeth on things. And I know, i know that some people out there, and maybe you're no longer podcast listeners, think that the Jeffe Kennedy books got too dark. I've heard people say things like that, you know, like that they used to really like my books, but they got too dark for them, you know, and fair enough. You know, I'm, I do not write, uh, straightforward cozy. I know some people call aspects of Never the Roses cozy and sure they're there, but you know, like,
08:37.05
Jeffe Kennedy
My editor said of Among the Thorns that it's like, um she said, it's cottagecore, but it's very dark.
08:48.98
Jeffe Kennedy
And she said, and it is Magic Academy, but with teeth. and And I think that that's true. um With this, you know, with love triangles, I think they're a difficult trope. I find them fascinating. Yeah.
09:07.14
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, but in this love triangle, everybody truly does care about each other. And there's not a resolution where there's an equilateral triangle at the end. You know, this doesn't, I mean, guess that's a spoiler, right? There's no, ah no polycule at the end, uh, I feel like is a little bit of a cop-out. Now,
09:30.46
Jeffe Kennedy
Not harshing anyone's buzz or squicking anyone's yum, ah because I know a lot of books, you know, like the why choose and so forth are, you know, that these are great fantasy romps.
09:43.06
Jeffe Kennedy
But I think when there are actual love triangles in the world, ah this is not how polycules get started. There are strong emotions and emotions.
09:54.17
Jeffe Kennedy
deep feelings and I wanted to explore that I wanted to play with what is that like when Everybody wants genuinely are, you know, decent human beings who want to do right by each other, but they are in this irreconcilable position. And yeah, it's, you know, what, that's the thing is that in an, in a love triangle, 99% of the time, someone is going to get their heart broken.
10:25.14
Jeffe Kennedy
Right. And in this, we don't know who is going to get their heart broken. Maybe everyone. But it was important to me to explore those emotions. And I think that's that's what I'm doing in the Jennifer K. Lambert stuff is delving more deeply into the really emotional stuff.
10:46.71
Jeffe Kennedy
And i I mean, it's not that I don't like now the happy ever after or the what I think of as like a neat and tidy happy ever after because I think I've written plenty of those over the years.
11:03.19
Jeffe Kennedy
I don't want to become one of these particularly female fantasy authors, um, with whom i have been on any number of panels at fantasy science fiction conventions and
11:21.94
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah, i all all different people, right? But there's a certain type that an older woman who's on these science fiction fantasy panels who used to write romance, either pure romance or more romance, who get up there and say, um i felt pigeonholed by romance. I felt trapped by it. I didn't want to keep writing that. um And there is an element of...
11:50.58
Jeffe Kennedy
disdain in there for romance. Like they have grown past it or that they like used to write it, but now they are able to, I don't know, shed that ah now that they've matured and moved on to bigger and better things. I think that's part of what I mind is the sense of that because really all of us as creators, we want to be able to learn and grow, right? We want to stretch our craft and not do the same thing over and over again. So absolutely no shade to that. You know, if you are tired of writing what feels like a familiar trope or familiar story and you want to do something else, you know, more power to you, which is probably partly what I'm doing. It's not that I got tired of writing romance and i probably will still write more Jeffe Kennedy style books. We'll see. But there, know, maybe it's part of getting older in life is that you want to explore these emotions that are not so easily resolved. Maybe that's one way to put it. And so, yeah, that's part of what I'm doing in this book is getting into this more, don't know,
13:08.02
Jeffe Kennedy
This book has been described as having morally gray characters, which I think is interesting because I'm not sure that they are morally gray, which to me means that they don't have a strong ethical compass. Maybe I'm misinterpreting what people mean by that.
13:23.48
Jeffe Kennedy
But, you know, it's not that they are torn between good and evil, which is how I think of it. You all will have to tell me what you think morally gray means. But for them, there's...
13:38.04
Jeffe Kennedy
There is no clear right and wrong. We have cats meowing outside. Do you want in? He does hang on. So unfortunately I lost my train of thought letting the cat in but I think I was kind of done with that rant anyway. um Yeah, I was just on about, yeah, what what the difference is. And for me, and maybe this is something that's changed for me over time, I think a happy ever after can can be mixed, right? I think it can mean a lot of different things to different people. And, you know,
14:19.93
Jeffe Kennedy
I know that that's a little bit anti romance and romance readers get very frustrated, right? This with this, right. Which is part of why the Jennifer K Lambert name is different is to let you know that it's not going to be an uncomplicated a E A. Um,
14:39.70
Jeffe Kennedy
But it's still going to be, I don't know, I think emotionally satisfying and optimistic, and at least overall. um I guess I'm saying that after talking about that someone's going to get their heart broken. um
14:59.13
Jeffe Kennedy
I probably should consolidate what i what I mean by all of this, but you know, Again, maybe it's part of having lived longer now, but, you know, and recognizing that heartbreak is part of life.
15:12.86
Jeffe Kennedy
Just like making mistakes and rejection is part of the journey. You know, like there are there's great. truths around this, you know, like that we don't learn from our successes. We don't learn from our wins. We learn from our losses. We learn from our mistakes and painful as that is.
15:38.84
Jeffe Kennedy
um I think we also learn from our heartbreaks. We, you know, being happy, being in love is fantastic, but that's not necessarily something that we grow from. I think that we can become our better selves through love and through finding people who can be our partners.
16:01.82
Jeffe Kennedy
But I think that also heartbreak is what spurs us forward, which drives us to make change and to learn and to grow. And I know that you romance readers out there, capital R romance, will argue with me because I once made this argument too, that it's like, well,
16:25.24
Jeffe Kennedy
Sure, that's what real life is about, but that's not why I'm reading fiction. That's not why I'm reading romance. And yeah, fair, fair, because i have been that person too. Uh, but I think that.
16:42.46
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, we talk about in romance that it can lead to unrealistic expectations, right? And this is infuriating because usual critics who lob this at us are saying things like, oh, well, it's unrealistic, ah you know, that it gives women ideas, that it gives us unrealistic expectations about, excuse me,
17:08.82
Jeffe Kennedy
I can't remember exactly what I was saying when the cat crossed my desk here, um, on brand cats in New Mexico weather here at first cup of coffee. Uh,
17:20.38
Jeffe Kennedy
unrealistic expectations. Right? And I think some of that that we leap to is oh do you mean that women get uppity if they think they're going to find a man who treats them like a partner like a human being who's interested in her sexual satisfaction and is able to deliver on that. Is that so unrealistic? And yeah that's what some of these people mean.
17:44.92
Jeffe Kennedy
And yeah, fie on them. See, I didn't use a bad word. I was tempted, but I did not. Fie, fie on them, fie them. Sorry, did I mention I'm a little punchy?
18:00.63
Jeffe Kennedy
um Okay, so I think what might be the fantasy that we all want and that we all kind of fall for is that A long term relationship will be all hearts and flowers.
18:19.99
Jeffe Kennedy
So even though we have given up with romance, this idea that it ends with the marriage and the writing off of into sunset, and we've become much more complex on that.
18:31.32
Jeffe Kennedy
I think a lot of us are recognizing that that love, that being with another person or persons is not without its complications. And yeah, we read books for the the fantasy of that, that it's just going to be perfect.
18:50.68
Jeffe Kennedy
But the thing is is, it's not. And there's going to be life and there's going to be heartbreak. And yeah, we don't necessarily read it, but sometimes... Sometimes as writers and as readers, we want to explore that. And I'm absolutely on board with it. Then don't call it romance. Right? Yeah. I would, I would be there too. You know, like if you're going to make me ugly cry at the end and I don't know that there's going to be clear cut H E A, tell me, right? Yes. Fair. Absolutely. Fair.
19:23.54
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, But I don't know. I think that's one reason why I love ah the J.D. Robb series, the in-death series, ah because, i mean, their marriage is only a few years old, right, books-wise, which is funny. But it is one of the few series that really tackles the long-term relationship. And in general, Eve and Rourke have a
19:55.74
Jeffe Kennedy
Terrific relationship. But I like that she explores some of the bumps along the way. And it'll be interesting to see if... I feel like she has kind of...
20:09.02
Jeffe Kennedy
smoothed that series over time, that it had a lot more edge when she started in the 30 years ago. And maybe that's, I think some of that's responding to audience.
20:21.02
Jeffe Kennedy
It would be interesting to ask Nora about that. Maybe she's mellowed, but it would be interesting for them to have some real heartbreak, right?
20:32.85
Jeffe Kennedy
And maybe she won't do that because most the readers of that series don't want that. oh But that is what Jennifer K. Lambert is doing. She said brandishing her crochet roses. I noticed that um the salmon colored rose, I got a little spot of purple ink on it. I had a little um ink pen incident last night when I was signing, but I feel like that is a feature, not a bug. So yeah, sorry for getting a little bit of ink on there, but I don't mind that actually.
21:06.87
Jeffe Kennedy
So, all right, well, I am off on book tour and I will talk to you all next Wednesday. You all take care. Bye-bye.