Tag: SFF Seven

Leveling Up – Whether We Want To or Not

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

This week at the SFF Seven we’re asking each other: do you look for new skills to try each year? Or with each book?

My first reaction is that this isn’t an annual process for me, but an ongoing one. Because it’s absolutely something that happens with every book. And not because I plan it that way! Quite the reverse. With 65 published titles, I often go into new books thinking something along the lines of “This one will be a fast and easy write because x, y, z.”

I am, inevitably, always always wrong.

That’s not to say that some books don’t write easier than others, but they all pose unique problems. It seems to be the nature of the beast, that the creative process goes to a new and more challenging place every time.

I have two caveats to this:

  1. I do kind of look at this on a yearly basis because of my agent, Sarah Younger at Nancy Yost Literary Agency, who sets up annual chats with all of her clients at the beginning of each year. (She jokes that she has to dig some clients out of their caves once a year for this. You know who you are.) I really love this about Sarah because it’s part of what she brings to the table: long-term career strategy. She says she keeps a goal book for each of her clients and we revisit those goals and set new ones each year. For me, a big part of this conversation is always how can I grow and expand? What do I need to do to level up?
  2. The second caveat is that I save some ideas for when I have the chops to execute them. Writers often talk about (and are asked) where they get their ideas and how we choose what to write next. (See above for that.) For many of us, ideas arrive all the time, but that doesn’t mean we’re ready to write them. The second novel I ever wrote was like that – only I didn’t know that I didn’t have the chops to execute the concept. So, over the years, I’ve gradually been adding skills as the stories demand them. In Shadow Wizard, book one of the Renegades of Magic trilogy, I added extra points-of-view (POVs). That was the first time I wrote in more than two POVs. In book three of that trilogy, Twisted Magic, I had five POVs. Who knows where it will end??

 

Except that someday (maybe?), I’d like to go back and rewrite that second novel. I bet I could pull it off this time.

 

Three Places I Find Inspiration

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Happy New Year!

On this New Year’s Eve day, I’m busy crunching year-end financials in preparation to go to quarterly tax-reporting. Author finances, however, are not the topic of the week at the SFF Seven. Instead we’re discussing a much happier topic: sources of inspiration.

The two are somewhat tied together for me as I’ve spent the last two weeks refilling my creative well. I finished my revision of ONEIRA (final title to come) on December 15 and sent it off to my editor. Since then, I’ve taken a break from writing work – very unusual for me. The time has been consumed largely by Christmas prep, travel, visiting family, and doing business like the above crunching of year-end financials. Looking at this, I’ve realized that I’ve been relying on passive well-refilling: hoping that if I simply leave the creative well alone, that the vast water table of the universe will seep in and top that puppy off for me.

And, to some extent, that’s true.

However, I’m realizing I haven’t been following my new tenet of aggressively refilling the well. That would mean finding ways to actively pour juice into that well. And that’s where inspiration comes in. What are my top three?

Media

I’m putting a lot under this heading, much like my sibling-under-the-skin, Murderbot. One thing I have been doing is a full re-read of this excellent series by Martha Wells. Reading books – particularly brilliantly written ones by authors I admire – is a great source of inspiration for me. I also include listening to music under this heading. While road-tripping, I put my music library on All Songs Shuffle, which unearths interesting stuff I haven’t listened to in ages. A Cat Stevens song – The Wind – turned up, so now I’m diving into a full Cat Stevens song shuffle. What an amazing songwriter, to communicate so much in so few words. Finally, I love watching movies for inspiration. I got a great idea just the other night from a movie and now I’m sizzling to write this series. Though it will have to wait, the sparkle of that excitement adds to my overall feeling of creative flow.

Nature

I’m fortunate to live in a beautiful place. My desk overlooks a spectacular view and my morning walk with the dog is replete with huge skies, distant mountains, and beauty of all kinds. I say I’m lucky to have this – and I am! – but I also sought out this place, because being outside in a beautiful place is super important to me. Just living here refills my well.

Silence

Longtime readers probably know that I’m an advocate of silence for creative flow. By this I don’t necessarily mean the absence of ambient sound, though it sometimes means that for me. I’m talking primarily about the silence of the mind, the emptiness that allows creativity to flow in, that enables us to hear the voices scintillating through the veil, telling us their stories. Taking time off from the “noisier” parts of my life has been invaluable for that.

Huh… Turns out I’ve been doing better at aggressively refilling the well than I thought!

Best wishes for an inspiring 2024 for us all!

 

Me and the Rise of Romantasy

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

A weird thing about me: I’m always a bit ahead of my time. I don’t know why this is, but it’s been true all of my life. And it’s not nearly as cool as it sounds (if it does sound cool). In truth, it’s not a great thing at all, because it means I’m never in the full swing of the cultural zeitgeist. I’m the odd duck, the one not marching along with everyone else.

Many of you have heard these stories of my trajectory (which implies a straight course and steady momentum which would be entirely incorrect). In summary:

  1. No one knew how to market the weird cross-genre stuff I was writing, starting back in 2007ish.
  2. Catherine Asaro told me to keep going and just know that writing cross genre would be like wading through hip-deep snow.
  3. Agent at a conf in 2010 told me my work fell in the cracks between genres. I cried. Friends dubbed me “Crack Ho.”
  4. I didn’t know I was writing Fantasy Romance until Carina Press took a chance on a crazy, cross-genre kid and published my books under that genre label.

 

Fast forward to today and the coining of the term Romantasy.

A number of readers have contacted me recently, having just encountered the term, largely via the new Goodreads Choice Awards category. I’m not sure who coined the term, but the portmanteau of Romance + Fantasy has now come to encompass Fantasy Romance and Romantic Fantasy. This has been occurring first in the Indie spaces and now is moving into traditional publishing as they catch onto the trend. Just last February – on Valentine’s Day – Devi Pillai, Publisher at Tor, the notable publisher of science fiction and fantasy (SFF), announced that they’d created a new imprint: Bramble. Monique Patterson, Editorial Director at St. Martin’s Press, moved over to head up Bramble, which will be SFF + Romance.

In very cool news for me, Monique was featured in Publisher’s Weekly Notables of 2023 and namechecked me! (Along with my friend and colleague, Amanda Bouchet.) Monique said:

Romantasy may be the shiny new portmanteau on the block, but the fusing of speculative fiction and romance, Patterson notes, is nothing novel. She points to series by such authors as Amanda Bouchet and Jeffe Kennedy that would likely be categorized as romantasy now, but came out before the term was coined. It was tough putting out such books in years past, but they “would probably do wonderfully now,” she says.

Isn’t that cool? I was so pleased to be mentioned in this context. From Crack Ho to Trailblazer!

Ain’t that just the way it goes?

 

Stay Offline While Writing!

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog


This week at the SFF 7, we’re asking what is the website you use the most while writing?

I’m going to answer this a bit contrarily. While writing – that is, while drafting – I don’t use any websites at all. I do my best to stay entirely offline while drafting. Anything I feel I might need to look up, I put in square brackets and save for the revision stage. On my most recently completed book, TWISTED MAGIC, I had nearly 200 square brackets when I stopped drafting and started revising, which was at about 75% through.

(Sometimes I draft all the way to the end, then revise; with other books I stop at some point and go back to the beginning, revise from there, then go to the end. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Each book is different. But that’s another topic.)

Now, when I’m revising the website I use the most is… Plain Ol’Google.

(What a world we live in now, where I can write down Google search as an old-fashioned method.)

Now, my Google-fu is strong. I use [word] + etymology a lot to find better words for what I’m trying to say, or that word in another language. I look up specifics on things I want to research more. I look up names. I stay away from rabbit holes, even while revising.

For me, the internet is anti-writing, so I steer clear. Maybe that’s true for you?

Stuck?? Push!

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is what to do when you’re stuck. Stuck writing, I presume, since other kinds of stuck aren’t really what we’re about here.

I’m sure there will be lots of great advice this week from all the contributors on the various tricks and techniques for getting unstuck while writing. Mine is going to be at the far end of the spectrum at Tough Love.

When I get stuck? I push.

I’m a believer in chipping away at that block and smashing a hole through it. Inevitably there’s juicy stuff on the other side. I think the universe sometimes makes us work for it, and that’s what I do.

Now, I will caveat this advice by saying that I absolutely don’t advise anyone beating themselves brainless against a brick wall. Use your head, and not as a battering ram! There are tools for this process; use them. This is where craft comes in and skill, where having a well-cultivated imagination will fuel the process, where having excellent work habits allows for focused attention.

Push through those sticking places – but use your words, not your fists.

 

TWISTED MAGIC Is Almost Here!

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

TWISTED MAGIC is finally (almost) here! Releasing on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, the book is available for preorder now – including in print!

 

***

Their love makes them stronger together… Unless the world rips them apart

Jadren El-Adrel knows he’s a mess. He’s a cobbled-together monster pretending to be a wizard, still unable to master the magic that makes him pretty much immortal and is useless for anything else. Though he’s tried to learn to work with his familiar, Seliah, he’s still terrified to discover what might happen if he gives himself full access to the depths of her powerful magic. Some questions should never be answered.

Seliah Phel got her happy ever after. Jadren loves her; they’re together in a safe and beautiful place; and they’re finally learning to work together as wizard and familiar. But even she must recognize that Jadren continues to stew in his black moods, brooding that only worsens when he receives a missive from home, his horrible family demanding the unthinkable: that they both return to House El-Adrel.

As the denizens of House Phel fight an increasingly pitched battle against the enemies determined to destroy them forever, Jadren and Selly fight their own war—against the past and to overcome their own failings. To become truly stronger together.

***

And yes, there will another trilogy in this world! I haven’t set dates yet, or even titled the trilogy, but I hope to have all three out in 2024. Stay tuned!

What Can I Teach You?

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is classes – what are we learning and from whom?

I have a bit of a jaundiced view of classes targeted at authors these days. There’s such a proliferation of “pay me to make you successful” schemes out there targeted at writers, most of which are predatory. Maybe you’ll learn something? Probably not. Also, unfortunately (to my mind), the ones that seem to be the most successful are those that make people feel good without giving them real, helpful advice or tools.

There are good teachers out there, and good advice-givers of other kinds, but the best way to get good at doing anything is to do a whole lot of it.  That’s why, though I occasionally teach workshops – I really like teaching Master Classes! – I’m mostly mentoring, coaching, and advice-giving through my Patreon. (I know, I know – seems like everyone has a Patreon these days!) Mine is modest in size (and in advice-giving, really) and works mainly to give me a place to offer insights from my experience to people who care enough to invest in hearing from me. We have a terrific, supportive community and I’m really loving it!

Come and join for as little as $5/month!

 

 

 

 

Cover Tough Love

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is “Judging a book by its cover: cover trends and what you look for as an author or a reader.”

There have been excellent posts this week exploring why we buy covers, what we look for and love in covers, even being misled by covers. What I’m going to talk about is what a cover ISN’T for an author. And yes, this is something that’s hard to hear. Stop now if you’re not ready for a little tough love.

What a cover isn’t: It is not an expression of the author’s creativity.

I say this because I’ve heard more than one – usually a newer author – say that they want it to be. I recall one time that my aunt asked me to talk to a friend of hers who was a first-time author working with a small press to publish her memoir. She was super unhappy with the cover they developed and fighting with them about it. I think she fully expected me to give her ammunition in that fight. Instead, I gave her this tough love talk:

The cover of the book is not an expression of your creativity. The BOOK – what’s inside the front and back cover – is the expression of your creativity. You got all those words and pages to convey the story you want to tell. The cover is not, and should not, be an extension of that story.

Now, I’m not saying that the cover CAN’T reflect the story, but a book cover has two jobs:

  1. Catch the reader’s eye in a pleasing, enticing way.
  2. Convey genre or some sense of what kind of story it will be.

That’s it. Simple, but also very difficult. That’s plenty of work for an image and a few words to do. Those jobs don’t need to be further complicated by putting the author’s story-vision into an image. In fact, when authors try to insert that vision, they can get in the way of the primary two functions of the cover.

So, I know it’s hard. I have been there and I have had covers I hated, where the characters looked NOTHING like what I had in my head. I have had covers I loved that did nothing to sell the story inside. I’ve had horrible covers that I’m convinced tanked sales. I’ve had covers that readers rhapsodized over for no reason that made sense to me. When I work with my cover designer on the covers of my indie books, I really have to take off my author hat and put on the publisher one – and remind myself of the two rules. Tough love for myself, too!

Ergonomics for the Healthy Writer and Faroween!

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Guess what? I’m a participating author in Our World or Others: A Faroween Scavenger Hunt October 19 – 29! Visit the FaRoFeb website on October 19 to choose your quest and compete for a chance to win incredible prizes including giftcards, paperbacks, ebooks, and more! There are six main prize packs as well as some bonus quests and games.

Everyone who completes one of the quests will win something! This is for anyone who loves reading fantasy romance, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy romance. Can’t wait to see you there!

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is “Tools of the Trade Ergonomic Edition.” Because, let’s face it, writers are notorious for experiencing various physical pains. Comes of sitting for hours everyday, hunched over a keyboard or paper (writing and reading!), forgetting to move but never forgetting those important snacks that keep our brains going. So, what do I do? I walk!

Yes, I have a walking desk with a treadmill, and have had one for nearly ten years now. Best investment I ever made! The current treadmill is from iMovr and goes from 5mph to 2.5mph. I usually walk between 1.5 and 2.2mph – the variation is really important! I have a hydraulic desk, the same one all these years, originally made by GeekDesk, which I can adjust to allow me to sit, stand, or walk. The minute height adjustments are particularly great, allowing me to have my forearms and wrists flat on the desk, my back straight, and my monitor at eye-level. I also vary them slightly from day to day and even hour to hour, so my body won’t solidify into the same position for too long.

No more butt in chair, hands on keyboard, people – get that writer body moving!

 

 

TWISTED MAGIC and Writing Retreats

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

First things first, if you preordered TWISTED MAGIC, you’ll have gotten a notice that I’ve delayed the release. I know, I know – yet again. (Well, first time for this book, but I really thought I’d given myself enough time.) The new release date is November 28. That should give me plenty of breathing room. (Famous last words!) Seriously, I am at midpoint and on the downhill run. I just knew I couldn’t have it completely done by October 26 (two weeks away!), which was the upload drop-dead date.

Apologies. I know you all are waiting. But it’s going to be awesome!

More on topic: this week’s subject at the SFF Seven is writing retreats. We’re asking each other if they work for us and, if so, in what way?
I’m pretty sure I suggested this topic because this continues to be a conundrum for me. I love the IDEA of writing retreats. When I see writer friends posting about being on retreats, I am invariably envious. I want to go! I want to be there, with the friends, in the pretty places, thinking and talking about writing all day.
In truth, I have gone on very few writing retreats. The only one I can think of in recent years is when I went to Kauai almost a year ago and stayed in the gorgeous beachfront home of a friend along with three other writing companions. It was a fabulous group and we did have wonderful conversations.
I got very little written.
What I think it comes down to for me is that I’m fortunate enough to have a serene home life which is entirely built around enabling me to write as productively as possible. For many people, it seems that going on retreat gives them time and quiet away from the demands of home. For me? Being around people at a retreat is considerably “noisier” than my daily life.
So, I’ve come to face that, for me, writing “retreats” are truly excursions. They aren’t time away; they’re time into.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. As KAK noted on Monday, there can be other reasons to go. But I have to realize I’m not going to be maximizing wordcount.