Tag: podcast

First Cup of Coffee – February 7, 2022

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog, Podcast




Transcript
00:00.00
jeffekennedy
Good morning everyone this is Jeffe Kennedy author of fantasy romance and romantic fantasy I’m here with my first cup of coffee. Ah, so good. Okay, so alert listeners ah may have heard in the sound of my voice watchers may have noted that I’m back to my morning watte. I started doing it again yesterday. Oh and it’s um, it’s everything. So um, I’m gonna talk a little bit about the. Insulin resistance and intermittent fasting. So if you have trouble with body image stuff or eating disorder stuff tap out for today or closures for a few minutes. So 1 thing that I did over the weekend was I did some research on stevia and whether or not. It really causes an insulin spike and I found um a number of studies on it. There’s a lot of disagreement because there are some studies that say yes, it does and others that say no, it don’t and but I found a double blind study that seemed like it was really well done. Well controlled and they found no impact on blood sugar or insulin from stevia and then I’m still doing the intermittent fasting I’m still doing the sixteen eight I’m getting great effects. So I might i. Um, down about £8 already and which is fantastic and I feel better. A lot of you may know that I start doing this because grace does it grace drven and she’s been having such great effects with clearing brain fog and sleeping better. You guys I’m sleeping so much better. It’s really interesting. Um, yeah so I’m feeling energized feeling good. Um, that’s um and it’s it’s very doable for me. So if you haven’t heard me talk about it before the sixteen eight fasting you basically fast for 16 hours and you eat during an 8 hour window um and and in general you can eat whatever you want I’ve been doing some other things too I’ve been ah I’ve tried to cut out all added sugars from my diet done.

02:41.39
jeffekennedy
I’m having very little added sugar which is amazing because I have a sweet tooth but I don’t miss it when I have a real sweet craving I’ve been doing what 1 doctor suggested and I have some raspberries or blackberries with some whipped cream just actual heavy cream that I’ve whipped up and put a little. Vanilla extract and I find makes it taste fabulous. Excellent sweet dessert adding more fiber to my diet raspberries have great fiber so and things like ah. I made my own refried beans yesterday I should include my recipe because a case anybody cares, you guys may not keep care. You’re not here for the recipes. There’s a bunny on the port portal. That’s why I keep looking at hey bunny. Um, oh yeah, refried beans. So yeah I make my own refried beans because we both love beans refried beans. We live in New Mexico but David can’t do spicy stuff. He can’t do anything that’s too acidic or too spicy and um and. You know, like even the really good organic grief fried beans. Just don’t do that well for us with just never feel good after eating them I think they use weird lards um, so this recipe I’ll just tell you guys and be only for the people who listen? Oh no better. We have the transcript now right. So what I did was um, heated some olive oil do the extra virgin olive oil in a pan and then two fifteen ounce cans of organic pinto beans rinsed and you cook them in the ah heated olive oil and just keep mashing them up as you cook them. De gal whose recipe I found she added tomatoes. But um, none of the belladonnas do well for David so I didn’t add tomatoes instead I added some um cumin I added cumin and salt. And some chopped up cilantro at the end. My mom would not like that if she were here I would not add this cilantro for her and they turned out great and then I made some Jasmine Rice I toasted some sunflower seeds and I sauteed some mushrooms. And mix those all into the brito mix with. We have 1 thing. That’s great about New Mexico is that we have local tortillas and so I have local tortillas that had no added sugar. You.

05:24.55
jeffekennedy
1 thing they do to try to do is cut down on refined carbohydrates. But if you can find like a refined carbohydrate that has a lot of fiber that helps counteractive. So these have good fiber in them and and put some cheese on there some cheese and avocado. They were really good burritos. I mean you all could spice it up if you live with people who can handle spicy stuff. But um I find I don’t miss the spicy stuff I’m happy to to eat stuff fairly bland for for David that’s an easy one for me. You know my mom used to make this wonderful pork green chili and we can buy amazing green chili here and then you put the green chili on top of the tortilla ah top of the burrito. That’s really good too. So anyway. um um I was just really pleased with all that I’m really happy with the results grace said told me that the stuff she had read she and I have read some so slightly different stuff but that it would take about six weeks for the intermittent fasting to really have an effect. On on the insulin resistance and so forth and I’m hitting about five weeks now and I can really tell a difference. So now I am even though I am outside of my window. it’s it’s not it won’t be my eating window until about eleven thirty this morning and it’s still eight fifteen I’m running a little behind. Um, but I decided to go ahead and have my half and half with my coffee and my stevia and see if I can. And and not eat anything else. They say you could have a small amount of half and half and cream this may be more than a small amount but I’m gonna experiment with that because I really love my morning. Latte. So we’ll see what works. And I did you weeks and weeks of and and I want to say uncamp uncontaminated. But that’s not fair, unacceorized coffee. So anyway, um I need a signal. Like an an all clear for when I stopped talking about content morning stuff. Maybe they just tapped out but I I am ah very aware that for some people. It’s very difficult to talk about anything that has to do with governing eating or or weight loss or so forth.

08:10.32
jeffekennedy
So let’s see um, busy weekend I did a workshop on Wednesday afternoon after a bunch of SFWA meetings. Lots of SFWA meetings but they were really good SFWA meetings. They were really productive. You know we have just an amazing board and just. Fantastic people who are members of sofa I mean they just really are wonderful people. We have fantastic volunteers. Yeah, and so the board was um, we had some really thoughtful discussions about a couple of things on the table. Ah, but talking about nebula conference this spring how we want to handle that and people have just such great thoughtful input I’m really grateful grateful for them and then taught the workshop in the afternoon I had 4 people in the shop. With me and then some people came in online and it was they were sort of on this little laptop far away. So I couldn’t really see who was there unless they had like their big name across and their camera off. So I knew a couple of you who were there and when gal said that she said. At the end when I was doing q and a and I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name but she said I have coffee with you every morning and I thought that’s so lovely. It’s it’s one of the maybe unexpected ah consequences ripple effects of doing this podcast because. You know for me I put it here and I send it out and unless some unless people send me comments. You know I don’t really know who’s out there who’s listening or reading the transcript now that we have the transcript and she but you know so then I run into people when I do stuff and they say oh yes. And listen here coffee your podcast and I drink my coffee while you talk and I love that? Um, maybe I’m just in a gratitude mood this morning but I’m I’m grateful for all of you who listen in and and say lovely things to me. So then oh yeah, so where there’s a girl in town who is the editor of Galaxys Edge Leslie Robin and Leslie and her friend Ava who is headed up to Kevin J Anderson’s all stars writing workshop retreat deally. She was in they were both in town and sort of um chips passing in the night ava just happened to be driving through Santa Fe on the way to Denver color springs sorry from Tucson to Colorado Springs and and Leslie was remarkably in town.

10:57.35
jeffekennedy
Got something in my eye there I had to go deal with it. What was a cat hair. What why Why? try to hide the fact how do I get cat hairs in my eyes I don’t know how do cat hairs get everywhere. 1 of the great mysteries of the universe. So um, let’s say I was talking about the weekend. Oh yeah, and so Leslie was really fun. We all went out to dinner afterwards and had a had a great time. And then yesterday I did my I didn’t stay completely unplugged but I stayed largely offline I did take care of a few things on the computer I also cleaned out the closet of doom which looks much better now. It’s. I mean it’s not like I’m not gonna show it to you guys. This is the closet my office because my office is technically a bedroom I guess like did I suppose our houses are big enough where they have rooms that are dedicated offices is that what I’m trying to say and. This one is technically a bedroom. Although it has things like you could see behind me like it has this power strip and stuff. Of course I have my desk set up so I can look out the window which I think I’m I’m weird that way. So it’s like a bedroom closet. You know, like as the clothes rack and at everything but I also have a. Bookshelf in there and a file cabinet and keep my coats in there. There’s a higher shelf but it’s um, full of things like writing books and copies of arcs. You know like I have a lot of my own books. You know like these couple of shelves are all my own books. But. Ah, that one’s like various arcs and copies of things that I’ve kept like 1 copy of a lot of magazines when I used to do a lot of magazine writing and that sort of thing poetry also lives in there for no good reason other than the fact that I don’t access it as frequently as other books. I.Ah rearrrange my office to mostly have the books that I can see while I’m working being the books that inspire me the the ones that I’ve loved so they’re out of order so there which would really upset the librarians among you I’m sure but I used to keep. Like all the books from a single author in one space which is logical but finally I decided it’s my office in my study I had a friend who didn’t like to call her writing space an office she called it her study and I tried it for a while and I always revert to office I I felt like I care. So.

13:45.44
jeffekennedy
I have the books from those authors that I love most within eyesight and within an easy grab reach. So so why am I talking so much about this about the closet of do. It’s just really was an accomplishment. It did take me mostly the afternoon I pulled everything out. And it’s got all my mailing stuff in it. So now. It’s much better organized I did throw a bunch of shit away. 1 thing that was striking about it though is how much of the shit I have from conferences. Both that I’ve received from conferences and then I give away at conferences a whole lot of that stuff is swag is stuff that I would hand out and I guess I could mail it out now. But it’s really funny to look at that stuff and be well I mean. 3 years ears three years out from having you know, almost two and a half years since last time I was at a conference. What was last one I went to was world con in dublin right? 2019 which is amazing to think about because that was a long time ago now right? and before that. When was the last comfort you know a lot of this stuff was for like the the reader conferences and I don’t know it’s a bunch of silly shit. So I threw a lot of things away a lot of it has just started to feel ancient to me now like I had a whole bunch of those. Um. Karina wine tumblers. plastic wine tumblers it’s like okay that’s I’m not keeping I threw away threw away a lot of k karina stuff sorry karina people but it’s like I just don’t have much identity with that press anymore. So that was good. You know how good purging can do so. So yeah, now, everything’s much more accessible I threw away a lot of old phone cases because I guess I was keeping these phone cases with the idea that they would maybe fit some other phone but 1 thing they do is they make sure that like the phones are all different all the time right? So you don’t. Like why am I keeping these old phone cases stuff like that. so so yeah that felt like a ah productive weekend to me where are we at on the book I have two weeks to finish this bloody book and. I don’t want to influence how you guys feel about it I do think it’s good book. It’s just um, taking a lot and I know I say this every single time every single time when I’m finishing a book I’m at 87000 words I only got a thousand words on friday.

16:35.74
jeffekennedy
But at least I got a thousand words I think today I am gonna start going back and revising from the beginning. Um I on Friday I figured out some solutions to some things which is good and I have been mulling at the back of my mind over the weekend. We talk about that a lot you know like. Even when you’re not actually writing you’re still percolating on the book and I know some I’ve figured out some things I just had to think more about Nick and Gabriel and how they would handle this situation. You know I think I talked about this some on Friday but it’s funny how like you can have this conception of how the story will go and you think you could be able to just type it out but the story doesn’t always cooperate that way. It’s like no one doesn’t want to do that. Maybe other writers can do that. But I can’t so so yeah, looking at our progress count spreadsheet 87000 words I think I’ve got about 18000 to go I do know how. This book is gonna end I mean or more or less I mean there are some things I know some things I don’t so so yeah I think I will start back at the beginning so I can get I’m having a little bit of trouble with Gabriel’s character arc at this point. Um, what I want him to do. Is not what he’s doing I should probably just stop fighting that right? Gabriel’s always been an interesting character to me. He’s and I know a lot of you love him. Ah, he’s always kind of taking his own roads. You know Nick takes her own road too for that manner. Is probably why they’re so meant for each other. So anyway, um, the big dramatic thing I want Gabriel to do he is refusing to do yeah so um, we shall see we shall see how it goes and so wish me luck. I do have a really open weekend next weekend and depending on my progress this week I may work through the weekend and just try to get her done. Get her done powder river litter buck if you have been to Wyoming or no wyoming things you will get them and. Oh yeah I don’t have time to talk about anymore I should make myself a note my my aunt sent me an article from the new yorker that was in there in the fall. Maybe people talked about it I usually miss most internet curvefuffles I don’t I curate very heavily I will only things that bring me joy and.

19:26.25
jeffekennedy
But she sent me this article that it was ah it was confusing because it was a review of a book and the book was about how Amazon has changed publishing and then apparently the book had a lot of things wrong in it and the author of the article who was discussing the book. Pointed out some of the things that were wrong in the article but then also had things wrong that they said in the article and I couldn’t tell if they had like pulled that wrongness from the the book from the source material and not fact checked it in which case I’m really surprised that. New yorker didn’t fact, check these things like for example, those some of you will know and I won’t go on too long because I’m about out of time but like they said that Kdp was Amazon’s publishing program where authors get paid by patriots if it’s like well. That’s just factually, not true you that’s there’s you know and I’ll I’ll talk well ah really quickly for those of you who don’t know kdp yes is Amazon’s program where you can go in and self-publish but where you where authors get paid by page reads is kdp select and that’s. Where people can subscribe to Kindle unlimited and read an unlimited number of books for their monthly fee and authors are paid by patriots but under Kdp you also sell books and my aunt had asked me. She said she was curious about my experience with Amazon and i. I don’t do kimda unlimited except for occasional experiments. So I mean it was just not correct and and misleading and and I wonder if it’s deliberately misleading because you know the new yorker tends to be 1 of those um remaining. Outposts of literary snobbitude where they also trotted out the um debt like half of self- publishing authors make less than $500 and I think they just said less than $500 I think that was like full stop so reader listener. I make more than $500 on myselfpublished books. Thank you very much I know you do too some of you who are listening so anyway it was aggravating. Um, if you want me to I’ll put a link to the article. Although I hate to give them clicks but it it was a puzzling article I I wrote back to my aunt and said well that was a. Whiplash over read you guys should read it and tell me what you think? Okay, anyway. I’ve bowed on long enough when I need to be writing so I will um, talk to you all tomorrow you all take care bye bye.

First Cup of Coffee – February 4, 2022

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog, Podcast




Transcript
00:00.00
jeffekennedy
Good morning everyone this is Jeffe Kennedy author of fantasy romance and romantic fantasy I’m here with my first cup of coffee.

00:12.75
jeffekennedy
Today is say it with me today is Friday um, February fourth I knew that why did I look I knew what it was but look anyway. Um yeah, chill me here. And Santa Fe this morning we were in the negative digits when we woke up, but my our outdoor thermometer is showing ° now but the sun’s shining on it. Everything here is about sunshine people tend to be confused that it’s cold in New Mexico but we are high altitude. Um, my house is at about 6 60 8 hundred feet and we get snow and we have mountains and it’s not all hot desert quite a lot of New Mexico Northern New Mexico is like foot pills and mountains. It’s always surprising to me that people don’t know that. But of course there are people who also think that it’s Mexico so there you have it? Ah so happy that it’s Friday um I ended up not going to the dinner last night I wasn’t feeling great I was feeling a little. Rundown on headache and you know in this new world. It’s like well if I feel not wonderful if I feel ever so slightly sick like my glance felt a little sore and I thought well I don’t want to give covid to george r um, so. I stayed home. Also it was really cold out and I was um, you know I’ve become a wimp I’ve become a deliberate wimp after living in Wyoming for 20 years when we. Forged through all kinds of terrible weather when we dealt with um, you know, drove through white out on black ice. Um everything I mean basically living where we especially where we did in Wyoming but I think it’s true of a lot of Wyoming. You know if you let the winter weather stop you. It’s going to stop you from doing anything at all, you know you go out like two or three months of the year so you know you get really tough about it. But it’s not fun. David and I often talk about the sort of the Wyoming. What’s I want to say aesthetic and that’s the wrong word. Um credo manifesto value.

02:57.93
jeffekennedy
More maybe it’s a more of this um of being tough. You know like you’re very tough and you put up with all of the difficulties of the weather and not having some things not having conveniences and it’s ah it’s a measure of character that you. Put up with all of this stuff and and people kind of compete with each other for like how terrible something is. It’s like oh you know let’s live. They’re like oh I just came up this road with black ice and it was white out and I couldn’t see. I was having to drive by the delineator posts which are the posts along the side of the road. You know that have the little reflectors on them I have driven by the delineator posts more than once because you can’t see the edge of the road or the line on the road. So you’re marking. You know hoping you don’t go off the road in between delineator posts. That’s why they’re there and so oh I had to drive by delineator post to get there and someone else be like oh well that’s nothing I had to go over Togwotee pass and you know blah blah blah blah blah it’s um, it’s a weird kind of competition for who’s overcoming the most. Difficulty. So when we moved to Santa Fe it was just ah, almost an indescribable relief to live somewhere that was not so harsh where the ground. You know, like even if it’s ° here and ° in Laramie Wyoming it’s a totally different ° because the ground stays where we’re here and all of our house plants started growing larger I mean it’s just um, just amazing. But we have snow occasionally. But rarely enough that like when it is really bitter weather which you know last night there was a wind chill advisory out I don’t think they ever give maybe they do maybe they do now but like in Wyoming they didn’t give wind chill advisories because you were just gonna tough it out but you know like here they give a. Ah, windchill advisory and that’s like why go out why leave my house if I don’t have to I don’t want to so funny funny stuff so let’s see um so yesterday yeah I don’t know what was my deal yesterday. Um I did not get my 3000 words reader. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth I got 578 words although I did see somebody else proposing a challenge saying um, who wants to you know, try to get at least 500 words today.

05:40.75
jeffekennedy
And I and it made me feel better because I thought well at least I already got 500 words so I got um it was a very slow first hour of writing 530 words and then the second hour I got 48 words and I admit I did start dorkking around because I just um, either the manuscript is pushing back or I was tired or both. But anyway I hit something of a wall I meant 86000 words I’m guessing this manuscript is gonna be 106000 so um, I’m gonna see what happens today I’m gonna poke at it I am at a penultimate climactic scene. Obviously if I’m at 86000 words I’ve still got that I’m expecting 106000 we can do that math right. About 20000 words to go and I just have to have it done by February eighteenth so my cheerleaders are all like you can do this. You’ve got this I do need some time to revise it. So. So yeah, I’m I’m kind of at my climactic action scene and. Ah I don’t know how they’re gonna do it I don’t know how they’re gonna do the thing they need to do I kind of know what happens after this I’ve got an idea for a number of things that will resolve after this and even Darynda was saying you know it’s too bad. You don’t write out of order. And and I said you know I was even considering that I was feeling stuck enough that I was considering maybe I will skip this scene get to the outcome write the rest of it and then come back and figure out how I get to the outcome. But I think I’d have to rewrite it. I think I’d end up rewriting too much of it because too much changes as I write. Do you know and like the emotional arts changes. That’s that’s 1 reason why I don’t write ahead because it just um, it doesn’t blend later. So. Thinking hard about that and I think I I don’t know it feels like um you know it’s this interesting. It’s probably not interesting to watch me sit here and gaze off into space. But I’ve sort of been um, doing this for about the past. Not quite 24 hours but 22 hours mulling over this There’s something that needs to happen in this scene and and I may be overthinking because I feel like it needs to be more actiony you know, like yesterday.

08:22.37
jeffekennedy
And I’m sorry I didn’t talk to about it till the end of the podcast but I find it very interesting watch I’ve completed the first season of the expanse which adapts about the first half of leviathan wakes. Except to make sure to put my s on the right part I don’t know why I want it to be leviathan’s wake does not mean the same thing maybe Leviathan’s wake should have been like the last book but tying Daniel didn’t ask me and it would have confused everybody. It’s a terrible idea Jacky um. In the wake of the leviathan will be my next book. Dear Leviathan is not asleep. Ah, okay, so so yeah I I guess I’m feeling I’m really noting the ways in which the. Dance series amped up the action and the tension making things much more 1 thing after another and I know some of that is the visual medium because and and people say oh, it’s such an exciting show. And I’m not someone who normally looks for excitement. Um, but oh by the way you know it’s I’m I’m almost certain I’m right about season when ending halfway through Leviathan wakes they did take in some stuff from. Later books in the series like I was reading this in the trivia anyway, um I am Db Trivia is my friend so they took some stuff and characters from the second season and added them in ah to because it was like context that was only revealed in internal monologue. And good for them. They did not resort to the much loathed voiceover I really do not like the voiceover as a of solution I’m not sure anyone does sometimes I suppose it can be done well. But for the most part it’s like and then. I wrote you know ers was thinking this I don’t know it was it was neat to see the visualization of stuff that occurred only in internal monologue like um, Holden’s family and I do like the addition of alma of the ambassador. Um I’m not sure exactly what her. Don’t remember what her title is but it does give that perspective of earth and I think it does help connect people to give them a frame of reference since we are currently earthbound as a species. So.

11:09.39
jeffekennedy
But I’ve I’ve know that where it season one ended was I noted that it was midpoint in the book as I was reading because I thought it was an interesting choice for midpoint. That’s the author brain doesn’t to quite kick off and I almost always notice midpoint of the book I notice. The first 25% is what they’ve put is the climax and what stakes they’ve set by then and then I noticed the midpoint those are the 2 things that no matter how caught up I am I always noticed that part and it’s always interesting to me when neither one is notable I was like oh but. Leviathan wakes midpoint was like okay this is turning point in the story I know that they also worked with Melinda Snodgrass who is really great at 18 react structure and does plot breaks according to it so she’s going to have a little session for us. In a couple of weeks and I’m very interested to learn from her. So yeah I guess I’m I’m thinking because I feel like this needs to be a more action-y scene that I’m making it because I always I don’t know why I always try to make things be Maybe it’s because of who I am as a person you know it’s like I always try to I always do the Taoist approach email the what? ah you know, asking myself. What am I really trying to win here but in fiction. There is a real stake and something that they’re trying to win and I think I know need to I know what needs to happen. It’s just funny. You know you would think that it’s like okay I think it needs to be boom boom boom point five five action action. This is what I need to write and then when I try to write it. It just goes new. Ah, ah you think I could just make myself type the words. But for some reason it just doesn’t work that way I guess maybe because spinning the story is more than typing words. There’s a take home message for you. You guys can that can be my tagline so anyway um yeah so I’m teaching the workshop tomorrow I mentioned that yesterday there is a link to register in the show notes. Um, transcript is working so I’ll do that I noticed that um on my free trial of this pro version of it that there’s like things I can do. There’s like an intro and outro or I could do like dramatic piano.

13:56.30
jeffekennedy
Or drums. Oh It doesn’t let me do it while I’m Recording. Ah or I could do the ballpark the drums not funny I feel like this is not on brand for Me. Could do Traumatic piano.

14:21.46
jeffekennedy
So anyway, maybe who knows if I do the pro version. Maybe I will actually become more pro. The transcript is probably worth it right? $20 month yeah ah but but pop up. So I’m forging on right when I go back and revise I tighten up the tension too. I I tend to add in more conflict and more ticking clocks. So I don’t know if I’ll talk about that in the workshop tomorrow. We’ll be live streamed a couple people will be there live on site but otherwise it will be live streamed I will try to answer questions. It’s kind of funny because I do have a talk planned but then Twigg. The beastly books manager. He’s so funny I could tell you like what he texted me I mean I’m just there for like it’s an hour long talk right? and then have an hour for questions and stuff just in case and um. He says I’d love to hear about your process examples who you read for information for inspiration how you got started etc. These are simply suggestions and I fully trust your expertise on how you want it to flow and it’s like well I can talk about all of that stuff. But it’s actually not the topic of the workshop I could. Spend a long time talking about all of those things. So anyway, um I will try to start out with that frame of talking about how you weave romance into sf f and then if you have questions out there. You can let me know ahead of time I’ll say. If I can incorporate it along with twigs long list of things and yeah, yeah should be fun I have a very busy day tomorrow I have like wall to wall meetings tomorrow culminating in this workshop. So. Will attempt to be full of perqutute. Um and we’ll see how I do I’m moving this book forward. Yeah, all right? So let’s see do I have anything else to report to you guys I think I don’t um. Ah, can’t tell you that things are looking up for Grace and her husband he should be discharged from the hospital today and they have a plan going forward. So the the worst crisis is over at this point cross our fingers.

17:00.27
jeffekennedy
Grace is very hopeful that this will not happen again. I’m hoping that for her too because she needs to get some sleep and retro books not necessarily. You know in that order. So if you listen to this grace darling. We are all thinking of you. You know that because I’ve been talking to her but ah. Other people are as well. So and wishing best Mr Draven so um so yeah I hope you all have a wonderful weekend I hope it is both restful and productive in whatever proportion you need that to be and. I will talk to you all on Monday you all take care bye bye.

First Cup of Coffee – February 3, 2022

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog, Podcast



Transcript:

00:00.37
jeffekennedy
Good morning everyone this is Jeffe Kennedy author of fantasy romance and romantic fantasy I’m here with my first cup of coffee. Oh and I didn’t even sip from it because I started thinking. Ah, excellent today is Thursday February Third Twenty Twenty Two 2 3 two zero to 2 hope you’ll are working on those manifestations right Um. Love goes out to Grace darling this morning. She posted a Facebook that she’s dealing with medical emergency with Mr Draven and so far things are are okay-ish but sending her good thoughts and sending him. But that’s. I did talk to her last night and this morning. So um, she’s holding up. She’s holding up but she could use support. Um, so here we are. Thank you all for the kind messages about the transcript. I believe that it’s recording the transcript again today I don’t see it doing it I’m gonna pause. Well, it’ll be an experiment. It seemed to me like last time it showed me that it was going to do the transcript but maybe it just doesn’t automatically I may have to toggle the settings. So all in all, it wasn’t too painful. Um I did edit 2 things. First of all, it spelled Jeffe J E F F Y I noticed that the um auto captioning on Instagram does the same fucking thing. It’s not Jeffe with a y like family circus. Jeffe with an e thank you? What was the other thing. Oh it didn’t handle the numbers well because when I said something about it being 2 2 2022 it did like um T O O T O and then I don’t know it it barfed it up. So I had to fix that other than that I didn’t really read it. It exported it allowed me to export to text and I changed the text wrap. Um and for using the formatting and text editor and then I just pasted it into the blog post. So um.

02:33.10
jeffekennedy
So Yeah I know a few people read it and and seemed Happy. So Apparently it was at least Semi-coherent. It doesn’t add as many periods as I think there should be so something about the pacing of my speaking. Does weird things with grammar which is not surprising to me at all because like grammar is just so not my thing which is probably surprising because I I do write very clean I should be specific. Punctuation is not my thing. Um. I Do not have strong opinion opinions about Commas Periods Semicolons colons most of them I do know how to use most of them I choose not to I know some people have like a passionate a love affair with semicolons I don’t understand. How you can have emotions about punctuation Frankly I like to sneeze there That’s God punishing me for not having emotions about punctuation Apparently Commas Commas I Actually do not believe there are real rules about commas people try to make up rules about Commas. I Think that’s why people and love the Oxford Comma because it’s like a Comma rule that they understand It’s my opinion I know that a lot of people don’t agree with me but it’s like all the other Comma rules seem to me optional because it’s always like well except and when and. Some people say you just put a comment in whenever you would have a natural break when speaking and other people say no, that would be wrong. Um, like I said I don’t care I almost never argue commas with copy editors unless it’s a situation where I really want that. Brief break before the next phrase.

04:32.67
jeffekennedy
So um, what else What’s going on. Got my three thousand yesterday it was really nice because I got a thousand before I met up with Duranda we start meeting up again. Um, she’s logging through that book you guys. She’s working away on it. Oh I did successfully um, move the release date for gray magic it is set now for February Twenty Eighth I can’t move it again or Amazon will come to my house and. Take away my cats and paint a big scarlet letter of some sort I was trying to be with either there but I I don’t know what letter it would be. It would be like um shirker or something a scarlet s on my garage. It’s funny because and and I’ve mentioned this but Amazon is the. Only retailer that punishes us for not for moving our release state when we have a preorder and they’re like to main turn or good customer experience. So they’ve backed off on the strictness of it so they let me move the release state for gray magic to February Twenty Eight and I did get the scolding notice saying we let you do it. You pushed it again. Oops you did it again and but we are not going to punish you this time. But if you do it again. You won’t be able to do pre-orders for a year and you’ll lose your pre-orders which is. Point that dund is in and she says um that she does not care because she’s not gonna do any preorders for which I don’t blame her for some people you guys I just looked at this and like it stopped recording again and I have no idea. When it stopped I’m gonna have to like glue my eyes to this countdown I don’t know if there’s I don’t even know what I did this time. It’s weird it’s weird I don’t know why it’s doing this and I I have no idea. Where I was what I was saying um so we’ll just bullet point. The recap here. Ah I wish it was an easy way for me to look back at what I was doing without like having to stop and splice. But I can’t. Um, anyway, you’ll hear me talking about it but storm princess I’ll set that new release date I realize for gray magic I have to still do the description and get the tagline to revven.

07:19.94
jeffekennedy
Because the cover’s still temporary. You know it’s just funny. You know like all of these little things. All of this businessy stuff. It’s been great for me to finish my words earlier in the day because then I have the whole afternoon to do business and that makes a huge difference. Today. However, reader will not be 1 of those days because I overslept I slept till six thirty and so I have not written any words yesterday before I met Duran I think I said this already but I already got a thousand before I talked to her and so then I was done. Um. By like noon which is ideal. Yeah I was done by 1130 and that’s just um, checking make sure the clock is still going. Um, that’s just the best. Oh if I could do that every day I would be very happy. Um. But so it goes not doing rider coffee today because we’re doing rer coffee dinner this evening. Also we got a fair amount of snow and it’s very cold. So everybody’s tucking in this morning. Oh. And then the other thing is is I do have a link now to the workshop that I’ll be teaching on Saturday I’ll be teaching it at beastly books here in Santa Fe but they’re limiting the attendance to 6 in person people. Um. And I think I said this before but because I don’t like talking to an empty screen. It’s the worst I really like to if I’m teaching I have to be able to see pay faces and okay I’m pausing I wonder if my previous pause was when I sneezed and I forgot to unpasuse. Or it didn’t quite unpause. You know how like if you’re in a Zoom meeting and sometimes it like mutes without you realizing it because there’s the keystrokes I didn’t move the keyboard today I should have but we won’t keep pausing I’m getting too free with that pause button. Ah, but anyway the workshop will be streamed online live so it’s going to be at 3 p M mountain time on Saturday February fifth so if you want to um, join the in and watch it live then you can ask questions and stuff. And I am talking about writing cross on romance or crush on yeah romance with you know sff so I will try to I just got that link yesterday late yesterday I was gonna put it in the blog post by I didn get them time so please um, share share with your friends.

10:09.33
jeffekennedy
It’s free and could be a lot of fun. It’s always more fun if there’s more people there. So um, I’m going to make myself 1 more note getting free with that pause button resume fun. I swear I have got I’m not gonna pause this time but I will tell you guys on my to do list I have 1 2 3 4 pause 13 141516 17 eighteen I have 18 items under business. I categorize my to- do list in an an attempt to balance my day I don’t know how well it works. Um I have some things I put timing on I try to keep sifus stuff to 30 minutes to an hour a day um it doesn’t always work out that way I try to do like an hour on finances every day and then I have doing the blog post and pointing. You know when posting it and then I have appointments and and business. And then household I also have a household and then promo which I really need to I always end up like moving I’m supposed to spend 30 minutes on promo every day not counting podcast promo and I haven’t been doing that and I really need to um. Really need to get that a plus marketing figured out on Amazon I have like Tiktok videos to watch on how to do tiktok not participate in pick Tiktok. It’s um, yeah, just sometimes feels like more more than I can get to. However, the good news is is I got. All of the royalties crunched for January paid all the bills yesterday got those funds dispersed. So that’s always a good thing. Get all that stuff sent out but that is 1 thing about my unplugging on Sundays I could tell it’s really good for me. But. It’s like a lot of times on Sundays I was doing all that business catching up and but and I ended up having so many meetings on Saturdays now that I’m not getting all of that business stuff done on Saturdays but you know like last Sunday I didn’t go online at all and i. Went down to tomayall with my friend Katie Laden and we did spa and lunch and it was all very relaxing but it was like there were a lot of things on my to-do list that didn’t get done how how do you how do you handle that you know right.

12:57.87
jeffekennedy
I guess you face the fact that some things on your list aren’t going to get done. Um I sometimes feel like I need a second assistant because Assistant Karine is very busy and so she hasn’t been able to get to everything anybody want to do anyone want to figure out Amazon fucking a plus marketing for me. That would be awesome who would pay you I would pay you anyway, let’s see what else Um, but but bu boom but boom I think I was not paused for very long because there hasn’t been that much elapsed time. Have a sifwa board meeting this afternoon. Um go sif what hasn’t been too bad but I I feel like I’m getting behind on that stuff too. But I don’t know. Got to prioritize the writing of the books right? That’s just just how how it goes. Um, that’s 1 thing that I’m thinking about with this new project Sarah was asking me about timing about it and I was like okay fortunately.

14:16.49
jeffekennedy
Fortunately I think that um if if all goes well it should be lucrative. It should be worth my time so that will be ah hopefully I mean that’s sort of that that will be the go. No go at this point I think is whether or not. They agree to what Sarah suggests we ask for because it will take a fair chunk of my time and if that happens then we will come up with a code name and and I need to talk with Sarah about how open I should be about. Um, um, and with this other gal with how open I should be about what I’m working on because we know I’m a blabber mouth right? I’d like have to talk about what I’m working on.

15:07.60
jeffekennedy
Dinner tonight I mentioned with the writer coffee people. It’s going to be with George R Martin will be there and there’s a gal in town whose name I’ve forgotten but I will know it tomorrow and I will tell you guys about dinner. So that should be fun even though it does mean leaving my house in the cold and snow sacrifices must be made so okay, well I guess I don’t have tons of stuff to say today and I do have tense to do so I think I will hop off. Slightly early apologize for like bloopers again, what is with this week I blame all the twos the twos and threes what do you think I mean well the first one was on January thirty first but clearly something is like. Going backwards or forwards retrograde or andterot grade or dorsal grade. Oh I should mention that um I have been watching the expanse and you know what? and this is a whole huge topic. So maybe I’m not leaving quite yet but it’s been very interesting to see ah a good instruction in storytelling. To see how the screenwriters adapted the book to the series and if you are interested in tightening your stories and amping up tension conflict and action. What I suggest you do is read Leviathan’s wake no I always want to do that leviathan’s wake it’s leviathan wakes by James I say Cory Ty Frank and Daniel Abraham read the book. It’s it’s a it’s a book worth reading. Ah. I could quibble some choices but you know we can always quibble some choices they did a great job writing this book it very interesting to me one of the things I objected to about the book is they went with this kind of noir tone and it takes place in the belt which is like a very blue collar place of that. Asteroid belt around Jupiter and saturn sort of in those outer planets maybe just around saturn and lots of miners and workers and that sort of thing and they call them the belters. So. It’s a really wealth out out world and very interesting that way.

17:46.83
jeffekennedy
But because I think it’s because of the duwar theme There’s like tons of references to prostitution and it’s always female, always female prostitution and I think it’s because like they have this very noirre detective and so they’re like sort of ran with that theme. But very interestingly in the adaptation to the series. Um day they took out a lot of that there are occasional references to sex workers. But it’s handled in a much more I don’t want to say woke. But. It’s handled much better and there’s references to both male and female sex workers and even a moment where which I aim why wouldn’t anybody tell me how adorable Amos is love that actor where he says it’s honest work. It’s good work and it pays better than other work and I thought oh yeah, but my point and I did have 1 all evidence to the contrary is that it’s fascinating to see I think I do think you should read the book first because then it’s really interesting to see. What they did putting it on the screen. 1 thing they did was they condensed characters and I noticed this happens quite a bit I think that happened with a song of ice and fire becoming game of thrones and I think it’s a good lesson for writers. It’s. You know why did you bring in this new character when you could have used this other character and that’s what this existing character especially secondary characters. In fact, almost entirely secondary characters. So it’s fascinating to see how the show did that. Also. It’s really interesting to see the ways in which the show created tension where there was not tension in the books. So like within the initial Crew Holden’s crew is pretty much a happy crew to begin with but the show. Has initial tensions there and I think it’s to keep that conflict and interest going to to make it exciting I’m learning a lot from it because I tend to want things to be happy in my books and I don’t introduce tension between characters as much as. Like these screenwriters do so definitely worth studying that kind of thing besides which it’s a really well done show and fascinating to fascinating to see very enjoyable so all right.

20:27.25
jeffekennedy
On that note I’m really gonna go start getting some my shit done I Hope you all are getting your shit done too and I will talk to you all tomorrow morning you all take care Bye bye.

First Cup of Coffee – February 1, 2022

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog, Podcast




 

Transcript:

00:00.46
jeffekennedy
Good morning everyone this is Jeffe Kennedy author of fantasy romance and romantic fantasy I’m here with my first cup of coffee.

00:14.32
jeffekennedy
Pretty good I’m getting used to it today is Tuesday I was going to say Tuesday seven forty of Tuesday february first we are now officially into the second month of 2022 Tomorrow will be 2/2/2022 but I’m not going to podcast so we have to take note of it today. Um, you know all that fertile soil right? Keep prime in that soil year of the tiger to happy Chinese New Year um yeah what does it mean? What does it all mean it’s like we can’t predict anything anymore. It’s who knows who knows what the year will bring.

01:03.30
jeffekennedy
Um, so let’s see um I am trying something new. Um I am doing the I I record this on Zencastr every once while someone asks me what I use to record this and. Um, it was Leslie Penelope who gave me the recommendation. It’s been a great recommendation. So I use Zencastr to record both the audio and the video and it’s great because when I have guessed which I haven’t done for a while I guess but when I do have guess I can just send them a web link. And interview them and so forth and Megan we should have you on I should interview you you should come on the show sometime and then you could see how Zencaster works too because she was one who asked about it so they have a um I use the free plan because hey. You know I don’t make money on this podcast though you can contribute just I never remember to say these things there are other people who are much better about this than I am yet like they have their whole spiel at the end saying remember to click like remember to subscribe um, donate to the podcast. Send me your money I not that great at it every once’s while someone donates to the podcast. You can find it by. Um there’s like a little heart if you’re listening or I think it’s some like in the show notes on Youtube but anyway. I already pay for the buzz sprout side because that’s what I use to upload to all of the podcast places but Zencastr I’ve been doing the free version and it’s um. I could go up to pro which is like $20 a month which would make my total out lay $38 a month between buzz sprout and Zencastr which I mean it’s not a lot but considering that I don’t really have any direct income that comes from this i. Just try to be aware of that anyway, the pro plan offers a transcript option where I will automatically transcribe the podcast which I know you guys are asking for and yes I want to be accessible I’m hoping that there’s a fourteen day free trial. So we’ll try it out if you look at the podcast or I’m at the transcript I mean let me know what you think I’m going to try not to edit it because that’s where I got bogged down when I tried it before I tried otter ai and it was pretty good. But.

03:49.36
jeffekennedy
Way I talk because I change subjects a lot and I change topics midsentence and I have run on sentences I’m sure this is like 1 big run on sentence if I looked at the transcript. As a writer. It drives me up the fucking wall I just cannot look at this and not edit it. So for like a 20 minute podcast when I tried the transcript before I was spending an hour editing it at least. Which reader this is not time well spent not for me so I’m going to try the free or not free the free trial but the free transcript option and see if it. Works well enough because I figure $20 a month is probably worth it to be accessible min nervous spencer I am looking at you. You do not need accessibility. You just don’t like listening to stuff just putting that out there. But. You would benefit also so we’ll see we’ll see let’s see what else is going on. Um I’m glad you guys were amused by yesterday’s podcast um yeah it was a comedy of errors. It was the bloopprint podcast and I don’t know what the deal was although today I very cleverly with the wisdom of experience moved my keyboard and put it aside so it’s not near my coffee. So at least we eliminate that factor of bloerness see now I’m thinking about this transcript and I’m thinking what is it going to do with words like bloerness. It’s gonna I don’t know make it something german I’m not going to obsess. I’m really not going obsessed about this I may be obsessing a little bit. Ah so anyway, yeah, yesterday was funny I’m glad I could give you a laugh hit if. Inadvertently.

06:24.89
jeffekennedy
So let’s see yesterday I did get my 3000 words it was a slower day. Um, it took me longer longer and slower those 2 things go together. We are on sesame street. Um, true. Oh I can look on this screen Jeff Eighteens so it was a total elapse time of nearly five hours and it took me 3 hours and 15 minutes so about half an hour longer I don’t know why I was feeling. Well clearly discombobulated yesterday that I like couldn’t figure out the podcast recording thing that I’ve done you know guys know how many podcasts I’ve done now I guess I passed like the 500 episode Mark. But what. Could tell you because I actually I’ve done 593 podcasts. Can you believe that so you would think one would think that I would know what I was doing by now. But now although I have changed. Technologies a few times over that this this is 5 years This is my fifth year of doing the podcast. Um I started it in well we can answer this question too. Um.

07:55.75
jeffekennedy
Let’s see is this right is this was I keeping track season 2 here season 1 oh I didn’t really keep track that first season of my episode numbers I’m not sure why I only started keeping track of those. And um season two. So I did 80 episodes in season one and I know I started somewhere around July I could probably look up the actual date. So amazing when I was having lunch with my friend who writes is Katie Lane cowboy romance the other day she was saying very nice things about the podcast and saying that she admires my consistency on this and I’ve mentioned this from time to time. But every time someone gets me to try to upgrade what I’m doing on this podcast I dig in my heels because. This is how I established consistency. She said that she felt like you know consistency is what you really need to do in order to establish a podcast and have it be successful and she asked how my numbers were and I said well they increase all the time which is great. Um, but. You know doing it for 20 minutes 4 days a week with pretty low tech where I don’t edit I don’t revise the transcripts. We are not going to revise the transcripts. You know it keeps it low effort. So. A lot of people who are doing podcasts. You know are really going for that. Let’s monetize this let’s make it hugely successful. Let’s make all kinds of money. Um I already admitted that I make no money on this podcast I bake money. Everyone’s well not just donating. But. It used to be you know like Kensington would do those ad spots but then they stopped. So I guess I feel like not everything in life should be about making money and and I’m touched on this briefly yesterday when I talked about um that not ah. The idea of monetizing creativity I don’t agree with Elizabeth Gilbert that’s whose name I was trying to think of when she says in big magic where she says that you should not that you should keep your day job.

10:30.20
jeffekennedy
Because if you connect money to your creative work then you’ll stifle your creativity and I think that’s pretty nice thing to say if you’re Elizabeth Gilbert and making huge money on. Appearances and so forth I mean it’s really easy to say once you’re making big money on your books and it’s it’s a place of privilege right? I mean you keep your day job because you need to pay your freaking bills. Um, but if you want to make a living as a writer you. You are attaching money to to your creativity. There’s just no way around it right? You’re creating this thing that then is a source of money for a whole lot of people which is cool about it because there are a lot of people who get money from what I’m doing I mean. Jeff Bezos is making money off of me right? not that he needs his percentage of my books but he gets it right? All those people who work for Amazon who work for Google play and bars and noble kobo ah smashw words I’m helping to pay their salaries I pay my. My cover designer I pay my editors I pay my formatter. They’re all making a living off of this thing that I’m making out of nothing. So yes, it’s monetized that said. I do think that there’s something to be said for having things in your life that are not monetized that are simply for the joy of it I remember meeting a poet laureate and I can’t recall his name right now. No surprise. He lived in the midwest and he was an insurance salesman for his entire career and wrote poems like did a thing they wrote 1 poem but a night and he ended up being the us poet laureate and wonderful poems but was interesting to me. He came and talked at. University where I was up in Wyoming he also painted and he said that he he sold his poems. You know he’d gotten to the point in his career I mean by the time you’re a us poet laureate. Hopefully you’re making at least something off of your poems. Um. But his paintings. He said he very deliberately refused to sell his paintings even though he had had offers that galleries had offered to carry his work and so forth. He only gave them away to people because he said he wanted to have a creative outlet that wasn’t monetized and I think that that’s.

13:14.35
jeffekennedy
Important um, now is that why I don’t monetize the podcast. No probably if I could you know make money off of this that that would be nice and I would but I also don’t want to get so into this relentless marketing. And that’s why I haven’t done really well with some of the podcast groups that I’ve been invited to and that kind of thing because they all talk about you know like things like grow your show and you know implement this and what technology you’re using for that and. How do you? You know? How do you advertise and how do you reach this market or that market and you know it’s like something for something I’m putting 20 minutes a day into just so I can sit here and chat with you guys? No I’m not gonna do that. Ah like. 1 of my friends said oh you should buy a ring light I’m like no I’m just not going to buy a ring light I’ll get sit here and look at my face on the laptop and it’ll be fine. Although I do get a facial did I mention I’ve never loved a facial as much as this one and now I want to go like get one every month or every other month. I might do it so vanity vanity all is vanity and chasing after the wind. Um, oh I actually have something actually have something of substance to discuss today. Oh I have 2 things of substance I’m gonna save this since I actually wrote it down. Um I think it’s funny because we watched a movie last night called drunk bus like a bus for drunks drunk bus and it was funny. It was ah it was a good movie and what was really interesting. Is that it had the same ending as the movie that we watched the night before which was called elsewhere and I know that some of this could be because David found drunk bus because he was looking at. We’ve really been using more of the if you like this movie. You might like this one I take their algorithms getting a little bit better so it could be that this was a similarity and I’m going to talk about the endings of these 2 movies. So if you don’t want to hear it you might you know, put your hands over your ears and do the la la la. But it’s not like they’re twist endings or anything. There’s nothing earthshattering about these endings. What I found really interesting was that they resolved the story in the same way for both and it was almost a lack of resolution. So cover yours if you don’t want to hear the ending. But.

15:58.33
jeffekennedy
Both of these movies were about ah a guy a white guy. Um, who is kind of hapless and both reeling from previous relationships with women and elsewhere. It’s his wife died 2 years before and he’s like still grieving. In drunk bus. It’s that his girlfriend left him and both of these are like that’s part of the plot. No spoilers there and so they’re both sort of haplessly finding their way through life and these places where they are one’s in a beautiful place and one’s in a miserable place. But. And the and the movies kind of like about them finding their way out of this morass of both of them are really grieving right? grieving loss and trying to figure out who they are and their friends yell at both of them for like not making decisions and not getting their shit together and the both movies and it. With the guy leaving town leaving and we don’t know where he’s going and neither one of them. Do we know where he’s going. It’s it’s completely unresolved that way but they’re both heading off at least they’re not staying where they were and I found that really interesting. You know like is this? um. I mean I think that they probably both are arguably millennial generation because they had like guys in their thirty s and so maybe that’s a metaphor for the millennial generation about you know, not making a decision but at least we’re gonna go somewhere else I guess. Found it really funny. You guys noticed this trend is this a thing. Maybe it I mean I have an n of two. So I’m not gonna obsess about I’m using the word obsess a lot today. Um, oh so then this is I dropped my sticky. But I remember what it says I saw through nik novelists incorporated I’m a member of that they’d sent out a thing saying that someone was looking to do ph d research on creativity and would we be willing to do an hour long interview to talk about our creative process and you guys know I like to talk about my creative process. So I thought oh okay I’ll do that so you know click on the link to get more information and it’s a study through a university and this gal’s you know, studying creativity. But what they would do is. Audio only you turn off the video but it’s through Zoom and for an hour you talk as you write you talk about your creative choices as you write I’m going to stare into the camera now.

18:52.41
jeffekennedy
I mean I can’t even I’m I’m almost wordless but not for long but what what I can’t imagine trying to talk as I write. Um i’m. When I’m writing I’m there typing away I’m type type type typing I’m I’m streaming the the world and the characters and I just yet like I said I’m sputtering. Um. I almost wrote to this gel and maybe I don’t know. Do you guys think I should because there was an opportunity to like email and ask questions but I want to email her and tell her your study design is really flawed I’m sure that’s what she would want to hear like from former scientist. A former neuroscientist turned. Writer of fantasy romance. But she’s gonna get a very particular kind of creative process by by going at it this way. It’s just um, it’s kind of mind boggling to me so those of you who are listening who are writers. Do you think you. Could do that is that something you could do is actually narrate as you are writing I could see how it might work if you are someone who does like research and world building that you could say okay now. I don’t even I don’t even know how that would work now I need to name this character so I’m going to go to behind the name dot com which is what I do and I’m going to search for this meaning. Ah I just can’t even can’t even but I don’t need to. So and I probably will not email this for ph e d student and give her my opinions on creative process. However I will rant to all of you about it because that’s what you don’t pay me for ah that was a good hook right? Okay, well. I hope you all have a fabulous Tuesday and I will be back to rant it you about creative process on to other things on Thursday so you all have a good week and I will talk to you Thursday bye bye.