Living the Dream

I used this photo (Thanks to Craig Chrissinger for taking it!) a couple of weeks ago, but it’s too appropriate for this week’s topic to pass up using it again. Our topic at the SFF Seven is our fantasy dinner party. We’re asking which SFF authors and characters you’d invite to a soiree.

The thing is, one of the best perks of being an author is getting to make other authors be your friends. So my fantasy dinner parties have mostly happened! Case in point: above I’m having dinner with Martha Wells, Darynda Jones, and Kelly Robson. Yes, it was a great conversation. I feel so blessed and fortunate that I pretty much get to have my fantasy dinner parties on a regular basis now.

Last week I got to have dinner with Amanda Bouchet, Maria V. Snyder, Jennifer Estep, H.R. Moore, and Maria Vale. On another evening, I sat between Juliette Cross and Chloe C. Peñaranda, later joined by Carissa Broadbent.

The one person I have yet to meet in person – and hopefully have dinner with! – is Neil Gaiman. But I do have his cell phone number and have chatted with him on the phone, which gives me all kinds of happiness right there. Since it’s a fantasy, Anne McCaffrey, Tanith Lee, and Vonda McIntyre could all come back from the dead and join us.

My younger self would be thrilled.

 

First Cup of Coffee – January 12, 2024

The TWISTED MAGIC audiobook is on its way! Also thoughts on reading subjectivity, how reading a book even a few years apart can totally change, sample bias, residual impacts of the pandemic, and writing the whole book.



First Cup of Coffee – January 17, 2023

I’m explaining how to decode the message when agents & editors say a genre is dead. Also thoughts on whether writing cross-genre is actually hip these days, why Murderbot is cool, and an exciting new cover reveal!



First Cup of Coffee – December 15, 2022

More on worldbuilding – including my thoughts on how we worldbuild in EVERY genre, even nonfiction – and how this is the ninth secondary fantasy world I’ve built and trying to be at peace with *research*.



Jeffe’s One Rule of Character Leveling-Up

This coming Friday, July 30, at 6pm Mountain Time, I’ll be joining these great friends and powerhouse Fantasy Romance authors for an online panel! Tickets are free for this event sponsored by Love’s Sweet Arrow bookstore in Chicago. Join me, Jennifer EstepL. Penelope, and Lexi Ryan for a chat moderated by Jen Prokop. Ask us anything!
Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is “Leveling-Up: Is it necessary for protagonists to continually gain power/ability/expertise as a series progresses?” Come on over to learn my One Rule. 

A Peek Ahead at Release Week for THE PROMISED QUEEN!

THE PROMISED QUEEN comes out in one week!

        

I had a super fun conversation with the gals at Paper and Vices. You can listen to our wide-ranging discussion of The Forgotten Empires and Bonds of Magic, the possible exhausting complications of Reverse Harem romances, genres, and traditional vs. self-publishing. Listen here. 

On release day, Jennifer Estep and I will be hosted by The Ripped Bodice for a free, online discussion of all things romantic and fantastic (in the best sense of the word). Register here.