Tag: Thorn

First Cup of Coffee – February 14, 2022

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog, Podcast




Transcript
00:00.00
jeffekennedy
Good morning everyone this is Jeffe Kennedy author of fantasy romance and romantic fantasy who even knows I’m here with my first cup of coffee. Ah, ah oh the angels sing. Ah today is Monday February Fourteenth happy Valentine’s day to all of you. Um I’ve never been a huge fan of Valentine’s day and it’s it used to be painful when I was single. I think it’s one of those holidays that like if you are in a relationship. You really don’t care that much. It’s like ah and or every day is valentine’s day depending on how sickening you want to be ah. But and if you’re single and don’t want to be It’s painful I think even if you’re single and you do want to be It’s painful because if you’re happily single. The other three hundred and sixty four days of the year and then valentine’s day rolls around and all of a sudden you feel like all of your choices are called into question and yes I’ve been that soldier so it’s um, apparently spring here. It doesn’t. Necessarily feel like spring. Although the dates are getting longer nights are growing more warmer. Sorry um, this is how my brain works. It’s chock full of like song lyrics and especially from broadway musicals at any rate. The sun is warmer. The days aren’t that much warmer but the birds the birds have decided it spring. So now I’m looking out my window at the portal and there are finches that are trying to make sort of this top spiral of. Wisteria vine up in the corner of the portal work for a nest and I just don’t think it’s gonna happen I don’t know they’re very determined I have did say to this is like totally off topic. But that’s what you guys have to. Are used to hear it first cup of coffee I got this suet because the Bush tits have been coming through Bush tits are adorable. There’re these tiny little birds and they come to in the flock and they cheep madly. You mostly know they’re there. Could you hear that cheekki deede d dede and they’ll just swarm to suet and so.

02:45.42
jeffekennedy
Been I’d been seeing them around so I grabbed a suet for them at the grocery store. You know like 1 those ones with chock full of meal worms and brought home and I could not find our little suet feeder bracket. This is like part of my life I don’t like to talk about is the fact that here we are back to Valentine’s day every day is Valentine’s day been with David for 31 years Love him. Best partner in the world in so many ways the band cannot organize shit to save his life. Ah, and when we moved into this house. There’s this workbench in the corner of the garage. And there’s this one relay long side and then a shorter side and so I said oh hey, why don’t you take the whole long side for your tools and I’ll take the short side for my gardening bench. Okay so David is one of these people was it is it a man thing it might be a man thing. So. When he sees an empty space. He doesn’t think oh that is the empty space where x thing normally lives or there’s that empty space that Jeffie keeps open on her gardening bench so that she can actually do gardening bench things. No he thinks. There’s an empty space where I can set my shit down I know that we have a suet feeder bracket. It is buried somewhere I I eventually he kicked me out of my gardening bench you guys he kicked me out and I I went without protest he he had like this brilliant plan. Brilliant plan. He’s like oh if you moved your gardening supplies out back then I’ll have room to organize the rest of my tools reader. He did not organize his tools I don’t care I took all my I just like fine. Took everything that could stand the elements and I even have a little bin out there to put things in there’s a couple things that stay inside like wedged in the corner. Ah and now the whole thing’s a disaster. He always thinks that if he can get my stuff out of the way that. That will like magically solve his problems hope springs eternal right? Anyway, that’s a digression that I did not mean to get into but anyway suet feeder could not find the bracket thingy so I like wedged into the wisteria vine where it’s pinned against the post. And and it was great and the Bush tits came and they were merry and all was well and then yesterday the suet gone stolen I think coyote stole it little fuckers. So I I bought I went on Amazon and bought one I’m supposed to come tomorrow and so.

05:32.82
jeffekennedy
I know I know you all care. That’s my um saga of the suet feeder. Um, birds are what in the nest. It’s actually nice to hear their spring songs. Valentine’s day halfway through February ah, okay, so. I did work all weekend I may be slightly manic and punchy I don’t actually I feel good I’m I’m feeling fine I made it almost all the way through my revision I did slow down Friday Saturday Sunday I did not get too many as many pages but I was also adding a lot of words so it. It felt like good work. It didn’t feel like bad slow work. But yeah I definitely slowed down. Um Friday 35 pages Saturday 30 pages yesterday 27 pages so I’ve made it through. 333 pages of 344 written so far I am a little shy of 93000 words like 11 pages left to revise right? Um I’m guessing at the 13000 words for those of you who not familiar I figured that by where the beats are so like where my f 1 word count is where my midpoint word count is at 2 climax. At this point I think I’ve made it through actually I think I’ve written all the way enough to be. Um, act 3 climax let’s see because I figure x 3 climax no not quite so act 2 climax I was figuring was going to hit somewhere around 92500 words I’m sorry scene 7 words at Ninety Two Thousand five hundred words transcript is going to hate all these numbers. The transcript is not handle number as well. Um, and then x 3 climax will be at about 95000 words and then partly because this is third book in the trilogy and this is the way it’s working out those are dramatic beats. But I’m going to have a couple of chapters of resolution of things that need to be handled are not necessarily big dramatic beats but they’re really important for the story in the world and for setting up the next book I’m definitely gonna be writing at least one more book in this series. Probably a lot. Which I know makes you guys happy. So yay who knows when have to figure out that storm princess comes after this. So um I had a point. What was my point. Oh.

08:21.72
jeffekennedy
So yeah I worked Saturday Sunday doing all that revising adding a bunch of words. Yeah, so you know like last week even though I was totally revising the whole time I um I wrote almost 7000 words last week which is a lot if I’m just revising. So I’m clearly adding deepening and yesterday I added another 1500 so making it. So yeah I’m I’m guessing I’m going to end up somewhere around 105000 words. So yeah, I’ve got like 13000 words to. Write and polish this week can she do it probably probably I’m at least I’m feeling energized so that’s good thing and I know more or less what it will be about all good things. Um, so I actually have notes look at this I have all kinds of notes things that I wanted to mention to you guys? Um, currently reading Juliette Marillier’s Daughter of the Forest Jeffe you haven’t ever read Juliette Marillier’s Daughter of the
Forest before why? no. You guys I have not why I don’t know she was like never on my radar I don’t want know why and then when the mark of the talla came out I got a um hair flip starred library journal review and. They compared it to JJuliette Marillier and so I bought Daughter of the Forest then which I think came out like 2000 and was you know and I’ve tried it I know I’ve tried it a couple times over the years and totally bounced. It’s very interesting. How my attention has changed I don’t know if it’s pandemic I’ve I had bounced off Thorn before too and this time just dove right in. So what is it I don’t know. Ah, but anyway I you know sort of been looking for my next thing to read. And let’s see what had I just finished reading I think I was talking to you guys about it. oh I read a a couple of things um oh I finished reading abandons and deaths that was fun and then I read a couple of things that I didn’t love so I won’t mention them although I like them enough to keep reading for what it’s worth I read this one story that.

10:58.51
jeffekennedy
Heard people talk and talk and talk about it a while back and now I haven’t heard much of it since and it was just very math. It was a fairy tale retelling I must be on a kick and because um, daughter of the forest is also a fairy talele retelling right? of um, is it what was it the swan prince. Something like that. You guys will tell me ah I just can’t think of it right now. I I have brain I’m like reasonably articulate but then other things it’s like no I have no brain I would say a sofa meeting on Saturday and. Was trying to think of a word and I couldn’t come up with I was like you guys I oh I screwed up someone’s name. Oh. It’s so funny because it’s Nathan Lucas I know Nathan Lucas’s name and it’s there on the Zoom only had it backwards so it was Lucas, Nathan which I guess was a relic of his day job and and I called him Luke and I’m like why the. Talking my call Luke and I I felt so bad and and they were all laughing at the um like really guys. It’s just words anyway. I’m enjoying daughter of the forest I will talk about it more later there is a thing I really want to talk about today absent of digressions. So there were some conversations I saw lately about um, Kindle unlimited and just to remind for those of you who don’t recall or don’t know Kindle Unlimited is Amazon’s subscription reading service so you pay your fourteen ninety five a month and you can read an unlimited number of books that are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited it’s also called kdp select from the author publishing side. Um, and it was very interesting listening to these gals talking about sort of their struggles with. Getting readership getting page reads someone was complaining that they’d gotten negative royalties and you get negative royalties because Amazon lets people return your books and they were upset saying you know that it’s not fair that readers shouldn’t be allowed to return books that they’ve read which. You know it. It is a problem and I occasionally get my books returned and there is a pattern where you could see people working their way through your series I saw someone else commenting on this where you could see them see a book gets bought returned next book in the series gets bought return next book in the series gets bought in return. And there are readers who will freely admit that they do this that they buy and return books because they don’t want to have to pay for them and yeah, it sucks that they’re allowed to do this. But if you are taking advantage of the kindle unlimited ecosystem. This is partly.

13:49.51
jeffekennedy
What you get, you know everybody loves Kindle unlimited when it’s paying big bucks for page reads but it does teach readers that they can get books for free and you know sucks. But that’s there it is um. 1 thing that I think people have to keep in mind authors have to keep in mind is that these people who do this are a minority the ones who do the read return read return there. There are some they freely confess to doing it. they’re they’re freeloaders they’re just always going to be that way. Most of my readers buy my books even the people who get the arcs of the books then go back and buy the book. They are awesome. They support authors these people that won’t pay for books. They’re gonna pirate it or figure something out. They’re just um, you’re never gonna convert them. They’re they’re just sort of like the. The crowd of humanity sorry but you guys are it’s a shitty thing to do. Um, you’re basically saying that you don’t value what the author did. That’s the next step in this. Okay, so there’s the. Unrepentant people who just won’t pay for books ever because they’re shits. There are the people who do buy the book and feel like it wasn’t worth it and they’re going to return. It. So some of these um authors were saying that they would never ever do that that they would never return a book. But one of the things that the Kindle unlimited ecosystem. Also promotes is this minimum viable product idea that a lot of people because a lot of authors because it is a free thing. That they they don’t go for the same quality because you know that’s that’s the big marketing push right? is that you say oh you can read this book for free. Why not? Well if somebody buys the book and reads it and thinks that it’s. Not worth it that they shouldn’t you know that it’s um that they’re disappointed in the book. Then yeah, then they can return it and that’s part of our society right? You buy something and you think it’s not worthwhile. You don’t want to keep it. You return. It. Some of that’s writing a book. That people want to keep and reread. Um, it’s not easy I know it’s not easy, but that’s the thing so then the other thing that I wanted to talk about and I’m kind of running out of time because I digress too much. But I think I can get through it is.

16:38.40
jeffekennedy
Some of these girls we’re talking about how en kinddle unlimited you come up with a different pseudonym for each subgenre in its I was thinking about this because basically what they’re doing is they are wanting to communicate this is the trope that you want to read for free that is. In fashion or whatever in Kindle unlimited and I mean yeah, it’s um, it’s a marketing approach know you’re taking they’re taking advantage of the Amazon algorithm but I wanted to give some history for this because in publishing. Um and in reading and writing that. The the brand of the book or story has always been associated with the author’s name right? Readers follow authors. So when you talk to readers about who do they like to read and and this is sort of like. How it was before kindle unlimited right? You know that people would always talk about. Oh you know I love Grace Draven’s books a little shoutout for my bestie I love Grace Draven’s books I’ll write I’ll re day think Grace Draven writes we all have our favorite authors that way our bookshelves are full of authors that we love to read their book. We love their voice. We love the kind of story. They tell now there was a. Huge push for a long time especially in like the early twenty ten s maybe before that I mean it’s been true all along where the publishers were really trying to establish themselves as the brand um harlequin is one of the few who was successful at this where you would read. You would pick up a Harlequin category romance because it would promise you a particular kind of story experience and readers almost didn’t care who the author was they would after a while follow certain authors but it was like oh you know I love harlequin blaze you know and they remembered and you would. You could get a mail to you. You know, get your harlequin blaze every single month. That’s a particular kind of branding right? But for the most part publishers have not been successful as establishing themselves as the brand of the book because readers are never going to be oh. I love harper voyager books I’m going to read every harper voyager book I can get my hands on right? Just doesn’t happen. They’re going to follow authors, readers associate stories with authors except now with.

19:15.29
jeffekennedy
This camillailla unlimited working of the algorithm and I don’t know if Amazon wanted to do this on purpose I kind of think they didn’t but basically you’re you’re getting people to follow the algorithm you’re getting to follow the subgenre trope. You’ll like. Monster romance monster romance is great but you’re getting all of these readers who want to read a monster romance and you have all of these authors using pseudonyms for their monster romance books and then they may have I mean there are people who have like 5 6 7 pseudonyms for all of these subgenres that they write. So do you see? What’s happening is these authors are no longer creating a loyal readership to their brand to their name. Um you as the author that is the biggest most critical piece. Of brand marketing that you have um and it’s it’s being set aside to pursue the algorithm to try to get the reads in the category. Um, and that’s that was what all of these little notes were about because it it occurred to me just occurred to me and I feel like I almost want to write like an article on this because I think it’s it’s not good for authors. You guys, you are. It’s like authors are voluntarily giving into this handing over the branding to a publisher because. In many ways. Kindle Unlimited is now the publisher right? So now this branding is happening in these little subcategories and it no longer matters who the author is because everyone wants to just jump in and take advantage of. Whatever hot trend. It is that and I and I chimed in and said you know this is I write as myself for everything I know I’ve been hinting at that. Maybe I’m going to do this new new project that would be under a pseudonym. We’ll see because it would be a real departure for me. So far that hasn’t happened. Um, but even then it would probably still be Jeffe Kennedy writing as because for better or worse I have a strong brand associated with my name and I’m so glad that I have that and someone was even saying to me. Um that they were. I got this great cover and I’m going long sorry I got this great cover for Prisoner of the Crown. That’s been translated into Czech and the cover for it is oh my god Orgasmically gorgeous.

21:59.30
jeffekennedy
Which is so great because the us cover for it sucks. Donkey balls I’m sorry it does I hate it and it’s better than the first one they tried to give me but so I was just sharing this with some of the gal saying you know here’s my beautifulful cover and you know here’s what the us one was and when the gals commented she said well. You know that us cover I would pick it up because your name is on the cover but otherwise I would not whereas the Czech cover I would pick it up. Not caring who the author is and that’s what we want right? We want to get those new readers and win them to our author brand with the story inside. But. That was part of what kicked off this thinking and I’ll put the Czech cover in the show notes or you know on the photo on the podcast. But um, I’m I’m really interested to see how the transcript handles Czech what do you want to bet. It’s check (it was! I fixed it everywhere else). Um, yeah so i’m. Um, excited about that cover. Um, keep in mind that you want those readers who say I would buy that book because your name is on the cover and because they feel that loyalty to you. They will buy your book and they won’t return it because. They’re loyal to you and they want to keep your books lots of thoughts for this Monday wish me luck on getting this 13000 words and change plus revised this week that’s gonna be interesting I think I can do I can I think. I will um, talk to you all tomorrow you all take care bye bye.

First Cup of Coffee – February 11, 2022

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog, Podcast




Transcript
00:00.67
jeffekennedy
Good morning everyone this is Jeffe Kennedy author of fantasy romance and romantic fantasy I’m here with my first iridescent cup of coffee.

00:19.58
jeffekennedy
We just gotta take a moment to say for that today is say it with me is everyone ready. It’s Friday Woo Whoo um whatever day of the week is an actual Friday for you. I hope that you can take a moment to celebrate the existence of fridays.

00:47.12
jeffekennedy
Ah, today is 2/11/2022 lots of twos and ones today seeds and soil we’re working them hope 2023 really is the manifestation right. Ah, so um, yeah here we are here we are then I I have a little bit of a tired at this point it was funny Lexi Chantal hi Lexi who often listens to this podcast. Messaged me last night and asked me a question about something. Um, what date I preferred for an event and I was like I had absolutely no, no fucking clue what she was talking about frankly and I said remind me what this thing is. And she said you know this thing that you asked me to put together that you assigned to me for SFWA so I was like oh that thing my god had totally dropped out of my brain although I will argue that that is um, successful delegation. And successful trust in your volunteer that you can hand something off and never think about it again until they ask a question about it which unfortunately I told her that I would participate in this thing not unfortunately I’m happy to participate Lexi. It was just funny. Because right now I’ve got I’m trying to get better at compartmentalizing because I am fighting this ah you know what? our deputy executive director Terra Lemay calls it the curse that being president of SFWA makes you lose a book a year whichever whatever that means. Ah, book for every year that you are president a book. Um each year that you would have write written and didn’t I don’t know anyway, I’m I’m fighting this particular I don’t want to call it a curse. What is it. It’s a um. Dire prediction I’m trying to fight this because since I write full time I should be able to do this. But what I find is that it it has to do with mental bandwidth because you all know that I I always go back to the. Picking cotton thing. You know that writing isn’t picking Cotton running an organization like SFWA isn’t picking Cotton um, and and I have family who picked cotton my.

03:35.86
jeffekennedy
Great grandparents were sharecroppers in North Carolina Scottish um known and even my grandparents didn’t pick Cotton but you know my my grandfather worked in a furniture factory. So I mean there’s hard labor and and I will often freely invite it or not tell people that the hardest job I’ve ever had in my whole life was being a cocktail waitress that was the worst that was the most grueling work and I am so glad. I have the education and intelligence and privilege and all of those things that I was able to make my living in ways that was not being a cocktail waitress because I got paid way better for doing way less work. But. Ah, it’s one of those fundamental unfairnesses of the world. Tip your cocktail waitress as well people. Um they they seriously deserve it anyway. I probably went on a couple of different tangents. There. So let’s see not picking Cotton ah, but. There is a thing of mental bandwidth that mental bandwidth is a thing and one of the things that I’ve discovered is especially the way I write a book I mean I I know I’m fortunate in that I write a book pretty much from beginning to end and then I hold the whole story in my head. But. Holding out entire book in your head especially as you get into the final week of writing it is um it it takes up a lot of mental bandwidth right? It takes up there. There’s a little finch that just landed on my window ledge and is peering in at me. Ah. What that was a sign from the universe little redfinch and the blue birds of happiness are outside so all as well. But 1 thing I’ve discovered is that being president of SFWA. Does require a certain amount of of mental bandwidth as well and I’m trying to get better about compartmentalizing and I was talking about this with Kelly Robson the other day because she was talking about. Ah. How much of she feels like writing occurs in the back brain when she’s not actually writing and she’s had a very difficult several months here and she’s been grieving and she said she thinks that maybe grieving was taking up a lot of that. Um you know that back brain and she wasn’t um.

06:18.92
jeffekennedy
You know it was like the well wasn’t refilling and I can see that I don’t think vine’s the same way because it’s not grieving but I told her I’m really trying to figure out ways to not think about SFWA stuff when I’m not doing SFWA. Or getting distracted by birds now. There’s a ah flicker out there. Very beautiful flicker big bird I like looking at the birds because they are merry you get points if you get that reference. So. Um, compartmentalizing. It’s a big thing because the and in some ways I’m doing better because the book is edging everything else out so yesterday. Oh I haven’t even opened my um oh well I won’t but well hold on. I don’t have to tell you to hold on but I do anyway pause. Okay, so yesterday went faster than Wednesday did Wednesday I only made it through 32 pages though I added over 2000 words Yesterday I added 1300 words and I made it through 59 pages which was better. But that means I’m on page two forty One of 3 34 they have gone up you alert readers will notice. So I’ve got 93 pages left on this revision I’ve got. Ninety Thousand four hundred and seventy nine words so 15000 words to go which theoretically I can get done next week 15000 en thousand work week 3000 words a day does it give me any time to revise so I may do some work over the weekend. Sort of see how I feel but yesterday required you know some adding of words and still some pretty intense mental work and there’s still 1 thing that I’m trying to decide even woke up this morning thinking about it which is that. Back brain working on the story. You do want that to happen but I was thinking about where I could if I need to put this thing in if it’s important to the cascade of the story. I’m not convinceded yet. But I won’t sit here and think about it while you guys are watching and listening I’m I’m gonna let it go for now I’m not gonna revisit it this morning I’m going to come back to it and decide. It’s breaking me that I’ve got like this.

09:03.49
jeffekennedy
You know what? this is this little poofy thing on my sweater for those of you on visual. It’s because I don’t ever lay flat to dry right? when you wash your clothes when you’re supposed to lay flat to dry I put them on hangers and hang them. We have a big 4 poster bed and I hang them from the struts on there but everyone’s want to get like this poofy sleeve thing. What I’m wondering is I know my mother lays some stuff flat to dry but does anybody else in the world actually lay stuff flat to dry I mean if I had everything that I’m supposed to lay flat to dry. When I do Andrew was actually laid flat to drive and it would like I would have to have them I anywhere’t know all over the floors and stuff where does this come from who has a place where you can lay stuff flat to drive I know that that’s a total digression but I’m wondering these things. Let me know if you have an answer very important question. So anyway, um I did get that work done yesterday and then I was just depleted I was brain dead and I more or less took the entire day off of. Stuff with stuff I answered a couple of emails but I just had to have an afternoon of doing not much at all I mean like I emptied the dishwasher and we went for a walk. We went for a walk in the outside it was. It was nice enough to go. Walk outside so that was pleasant and I don’t know I didn’t do a hell of a lot else I’m reading I’m reading um J D Robb’s Abandoned in Death which came out on Tuesday and that’s really fun because I fintished – fintished? – I finished a work. Um, um, we’ll just see how this comes out on the transcript I’m doing a pretty good job of not editing too much although I do have to go through and fix names because it’s not right if names are wrong. There is some profound wisdom for you. It’s not right if names are wrong, but you could. Mark that down make a tattoo of it ofsh my brain my brain is empty you guys ah so anyway, um, what was I even saying fit to oh I finished reading Intisar Khanani’s Thorn and I loved it. I really did it is um, especially because the romance is not only slow burn but it’s.

11:47.94
jeffekennedy
Barely there but it’s really earned by the story. Um I appreciated that the way that the story flows and it’s really one of the big divergences between the way she did her goose girl retelling and I did because mine of course has sex. Because my stories always have sex and hers. Not only doesn’t but it barely has that romance it’s it’s implied that the romance will come later. There’s the beginnings of it I guess. And but I do feel like the way the story goes that’s some you know it I do think that it makes sense and I I think it’s a gorgeous book I think she did a beautiful job of writing this book. I loved it. Um I do think it’s funny that um one of the. Faro fep gals Lisette Marshall like her books a lot or was it her that that some these gals have conversation Stephanie Prater SL Prater and Coleen Crowley, Vela Roth, Maria Zuniga – hope I got that right? anyway. Ah they were having this conversation about authors who have sex in their books also address other bodily functions whereas other authors who I you know I I don’t like to use the learn word clean because it drives me crazy. But. Ah, have off the page sex or no references to sex at all also tend not to reference bodily functions which I think is an interesting insight because and they were I saw it because they mentioned me I think lizette mentioned me. Because they were joking about how dark wizard opens with Gabriel and his aggressive peeing. You know he arrives on the land of his enemy and the first thing he does is is pee on it and and I think that’s funny because my characters do. Have bodily functions of all kinds and I think that’s very interesting that those of us who write on the page sex also are more willing to embrace more willing or we’ll leave it at more willing that that within text we also. Discuss the body in all of its many functions. It’s enticing or not whereas in a book like Thorn. There’s um, almost a.

14:35.50
jeffekennedy
I’m trying to think of what the word I want is the the characters become you know I mean they’re very rounded and real characters. But they become almost avatar-like in a way in that they don’t seem to have human bodies other than where. Injuries are concerned. There’s not much else about their bodies and even the injuries were I don’t know like a step removed and I think it just has to do with like where we where we root ourselves. It’s it’s more of ah of an intellectual. Approach. It’s more in the head or in the spirit even as opposed to being rooted in the body I know that Grace Draven writes much more rooted in the body like I do that something that we have in common. It’s. Just an interesting thing to think about so let’s see oh. So then I finished thorn fat I should do something I realized I hadn’t noted that I’d finished thorn. And started reading abandoned in death on my spreadsheet and I don’t like it if I get my dates behind very important things. so um so yeah it’s really It’s always fun to read Nora she’s she’s good for especially when i’m. Drafting this intensely It’s really good for me to have these really competent writers in my head.

16:16.12
jeffekennedy
Sometimes people ask me if I worry about what I’m reading leaking into the story and I don’t I think I’ve talked about it here before once or twice but you know people who plagiarize other works are doing it on purpose. The. When they say that it’s subconscious or inadvertent. That’s an excuse we we are what we take in It’s a way of refilling the well. Um, yeah so I read abandoned and deaths quite a bit yesterday afternoon. Did a few things. Not a lot. Not a lot and we watched oh you know what? we watched Little Miss Sunshine had not seen that I think since it came out back in 2006 and I did not remember that Steve Carell was in it I mean it’s ah it’s a great cast. Um, you know Alan Arkin and Toni Collette who I love I think she’s amazing and I’m not gonna be able to think of his name. He wasn’t as good as it gets it might come to me but also Abigail Breslin she got you know was nominated for best supporting actress in that movie. She plays a little girl paul danow is in that but Steve Carell plays Tony Collette’s brother who tried to commit suicide and I was thinking. Well how did I not remember that and it turns out that Steve Carell was kind of a nobody and. 2006 he was a relative unknown in hollywood and but that same couple of years and it took him 5 years to make the movie and it it said that the producers and directors were a little hesitant who cast Steve Carell because he was so unknown but then by the time the movie came out. He had just won um maybe an emmy for his first year in The Office season. 1 of The Office and and also 40 year old virgin had come out and so he’ had like rocketed to superstardom. So I just think that’s really funny. I have to figure out the name of the guy Greg Caner you guys probably all knew this you were probably all shouting it at me all right? So ah yeah, I’m just going to get back to revising today at least now I’m into the stuff that I wrote more recently let’s just see. Yeah I am I am now into the stuff that I wrote three weeks ago so it’s much more alive in my head which is good and bad. Ah, it’s good to have that distance get that distance from the charm of recent composition right? But also it.

19:10.53
jeffekennedy
Feels more um, alive does that make sense I’m not going to search for more words I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to think of or maybe it was the day before what is time who am I trying to think of what’s the word for like if you leave school. And it’s like well not ditching and is it. It’s was it dropping out or was it skipping um being delinquent I was really having a hard time if only you guys were there too. Yeah, a little speaker on my desk and tell me these words when I need to think of them. But anyway so we’ll see we’ll see how far I get today. We’ll see how I feel I may work over the weekend to give myself buffer time and then I will probably take the following wake off see like I’m learning. Um, trying to learn anyway. I hope that you all have a wonderful Friday I hope that you have a wonderful weekend whether it’s time off for you or not I hope you are productive I hope that your brain delivers the words that you need when you need them. And I will talk to you all on Monday you all take care bye-bye.

First Cup of Coffee – February 8, 2022

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog, Podcast




Transcript

00:00.31
jeffekennedy
Good morning everyone this is Jeffe Kennedy author of fantasy romance and romantic fantasy I’m here with my first cup of coffee. I did a little bit less half and half today still works today is Tuesday February Eight Twenty Twenty two ah how are you guys. Um, so yeah, I’m ah.

00:41.55
jeffekennedy
I’m ah clicking along here I I got up to do something I paused because I didn’t want to forget to do it. Um. Went out for drinks last night with some fun writer people. Lezli Robyn who is in town editor at galaxy’s edge. Um, um. It ended up being a funny evening but I’ll I’ll tell you ending of the evening I think is funny but she was there and Emily Mah and then Twig and I’m thinking oh Twig Deluje yeah ah Twig is the manager at Beastly Bookstore and then also Jim Sorensen and Jack who writes as some jmbarton he he does the podcast I interviewed him on here anyway. So it was 6 of us. And we had this great table by the fire at Rio Chama which is one of my favorite bars and it was um, terrific conversation. Very fun evening. We sat there a long time like 3 hours I think so so that was that was awesome. It was really fun. And so and I gave Leslie a ride because she is blind she has like ten fifteen percent of her sight and cannot drive so and she’s staying at George R Martin’s house in 1 of his casitas has kind of like oh. Walled compound deal and so when I picked her up she was waiting at the gate for me and had just newly discovered freedom because there’s a um, you know a lot of times way that these gates work on these walled places. For those of you who do not live in a walled compound. Ah there’s a sensor so when you pull up in your car to the sensor it automatically opens the gate but she had discovered that a human being was not big enough to trigger this sensor so she was like. There has to be a way for a person on foot to do this and and she’s she’s funny and we were just cracking up about it because I was like were you like dancing around in front of the sensor trying to look big like a car and she’s like I was who you laugh but I was so anyway she found out the trick which is surprising.

03:18.96
jeffekennedy
And I won’t say it on the podcast. But so she was like no I’m free I can leave the compound whenever I want to so she you know triggered the gate and opened it and came out so then I dropped her off again at like eight thirty or something and it’s cold. It’s been cold here the last. Couple of weeks really the coldest we’ve been all winter and snowy and it’s Santa Fe and so we were a you know dark compliance dark sky city so you know not many streetlights so it’s pretty dark so I take her to the gate and I said um. Do you know how to get back in. Do you have a code and she said no but I’ll just text George and and he’ll let me in so she texts George and George does not reply because he had some other guests come in and she’s like you know he probably has his phone like and it’s just sitting off to the side and I said I know I know. So then she tries George’s assistant but it’s her day off 1 of George’s assistants it’s her day off. So she’s not picking up the phone and so then I call one of our other mutual friends and ask if she knows because I know she’s been to George’s house a number of times and I said do you know the gate code and she said no so i. Call Melinda Snodgrass who’s like George’s best friend I was like do you know the code or you know and she’s like oh are you out with Lezli I said yes I’m trying to take her back but we’re trapped outside and and Melinda’s like I don’t she said every time I’ve gone there. It’s been opened for me like well yeah, good for you. So finally Lezli gets through to 1 of George’s other assistants who gives her the codes. It was just funny quite the quite the shenanigans and then Lezli said um, she said well I I could just walk from here and I’m like don’t be selling I’ll drive. You. The rest of the way. Yeah, which was good I get because it’s like you go off around and behind the big house and then down and you know like there’s a number of little casitas and stuff and she’s like in the very last one I was like okay yeah, definitely dropping you up. So. It was just an entertaining evening I may have had a little too much wine as my mother says I was over served ah but not that much I mean I was I was fine to drive obviously but feeling a little rough. This morning but progress on gray magic is going well I’ve got um I got through 70 pages yesterday. Oh I guess I should say I went back to the beginning and and longtime listeners will recognize this pattern in me i.

06:08.98
jeffekennedy
Mentioned yesterday that I hit about 87 almost eighty 8000 words on the book. Well, that’s after yesterday right? Anyway, I’m at 87 8 28 it’s probably going to be somewhere around 106 to 9000 words. So I’ve still got 20000 words to go? Um, not that I’m concerned so I decided definitely go back to the beginning yesterday now begin my revising. And so and I made it through 70 pages 70 of 322 so and it was pretty solid. Um, you can tilt by my speed that that was um, yeah I didn’t have to do a lot I ended up adding. Let’s just see here. Added 543 words and deleted 52 that’s not too bad. I don’t cut everything I delete. But if I cut like if I remember I put into an outtakes document just so I can kind of keep track of how much I’m deleting so we’ll see I do feel like I’m getting a better. Fix on the arc and remembering things so I would like have my little notes of things that I have to remember to wind up for the end which was good because I was concerned I was forgetting some things and it’s giving me ideas on winding it up. Not that I didn’t have plenty but it’s always good to kind of know what I’m doing. Ah, so other things. Um, so I’ve been reading a lot while I read a lot all the time but I’ve been reading thorn by Intisar Khanani hope I’m saying the name right? And. Grace had told me a long time ago to read it and I bought it a long time ago and you know languished on my kindle as books are wont to do and oh my god you guys. It’s so good. It is just so good. So it’s a goose girl retelling and some of you may know that I did a goose girl retelling Heart’s Blood and so it’s fascinating to me to see the ways that Intisar and I both use the same story elements in similar ways only she’s like.

08:38.27
jeffekennedy
So much cleverer I think she did such a better job now I’m like insanely jealous that she did such a better job than I did ah but of course mine’s a novella so I’m going to cling to that excuse that she did a full novel and so hers is naturally richer and more complex than i. I really love how she solved the problem of and I feel like this is not a spoiler right? because it’s goose girl fairy tale which has been out for a long time was ah at the workshop on Saturday when I was teaching it I was talking about. Meeting romance expectations and I said um yeah, like for example, Romeo and Juliet is not a romance. It’s a tragedy because the lovers die at the end and somebody what spoiler alert is like yeah you know that’s like what’s what’s the rule of if it’s been out for at least 100 years then can spoil the ending so that have to take a moment to be amused by that that spoiler. So anyway, spoiler alert on the goose girl if you are not familiar with the fair tale. It’s one of my favorites. So the princess is traveling with a lady-in waiting to meet her this prince of a foreign kingdom to whom she is betrothed to go and marry him and along the way the lady and waiting forces. The princess to trade places with her and. Masquerades as the princess goes and marries the prince and the real princess is forced to become a gooseg girl and it was something that I struggled with and it’s interesting when you do fairy tale retellings and I was. Touching on this a few weeks ago talking about the difference between like when do you do it or retelling when is it. You know to what degree do you cleave to the source material because it can be well. It can be challenging and I I think to the detriment of the story sometimes. If you cling too closely to the source material and you can’t make it justify itself within the I’m waving my hands in the air if you are not on video but this I’m I’m thinking of the. To me stories are like a globe for some reason I always come back to this idea of a globe. It’s like this big bubble and it’s full of all this stuff and like the shimmering surface I don’t know why that’s my mental image of a book but it but it is for better or worse know what your process is own. It.

11:26.29
jeffekennedy
For me. That’s what it looks like you know if you have read Nora Roberts Born in Fire I’ve I really love Born in Tire. It’s one of my favorites of hers. There’s a scene where Maggie gets drunk and passes out in the meadow as as an irish artist will do. And she’s looking up at the moon and then she creates that globe for ah the guy who is like a Roarke prototype I forget what his name is in the book. Anyway, that’s that’s the story image for me that that globe that she thinks. So if you can’t so so your story has to have this internal integrity. It. It becomes its own thing which is I think partly why I think of it like a bubble because like you know like you blow it like a soap bubble. You you keep breathing air and air into it and it grows bigger and bigger and then eventually it detaches and it goes floating off which is why I talk about like books feel like they take a little piece of me once they detach there’s that little bit of essenceence goes off with it. That’s why I think it’s exhausting when you finally release a book because like that packet of energy that’s inside the globe goes with it anyway, I’m waxing philosophical today at least it’s not self-excoriating. That’s a joke for bonds of magic readers I put in I created a house name. Yesterday that I tickled me immensely some things I put in just because I think they’re funny. You guys will have to see what you think. So um I keep losing my original thread here. So when you’re doing a retelling if you are determined to cleave. To certain story elements for the sake of cleaving to the source material and it doesn’t vibe with the internal integrity of your story then it’s a problem so when I did my goose goal retelling. I struggled with justifying. How did this lady in waiting overpower the princess and force her to change places. What did she have on her. What did she do to her and I had it. Developmental edited at the time and the editor pushed me on it and I I don’t. Don’t think it worked very well I don’t like the way that she pushed me on it I think what Ansar did is is superior far superior and I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that part of it is magic. It’s like duh. Why didn’t I think of using magic because I’m not as.

14:15.28
jeffekennedy
Smart just into sorrow I don’t know and I haven’t ever met her. But if she listens to this. She’ll probably be amused but she also did I thought it was interesting that we did similar things with the character of the princess and why. And sort of her arc what it takes for her to to sort of overcome this problem and and it’s interesting. A lot of our beats are the same. So but I’m sure that comes from the source material. Anyway, it’s a really good book. Um i’m. I’m I’m really interested to see how she ends it I’m excited to read it. 1 thing I did over the weekend because I had finished a book that I was doing a blurb for and so i. Kind of finished up my reading obligations and so that’s why I was kind of going back through my my tbr the the leaning tower of to be read books and trying to decide. What was I going to read next and I briefly settled on persuasion by Jane Austen because I had not read persuasion ever and full caveat I have read Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility all more than once I have never read I’m looking at my bookshelf now I’ve never read Mansfield Park or Northanger Abbey though I have copies of them on my shelf and I had not read persuasion and I bought it a while back for Kindle I think I don’t have a paper copy of Persuasion and I know I watched one of the I don’t know how many there are but I had watched one of the. Movie versions of it was my friend Margaret and she had said that Persuasion was her favorite and had bought the Kindle book some years ago when I was sort of casting about for something to read and I was looking for something of a particular style and a lot of people it said or someone had. Chimed in I I feel like it was more than one saying oh well if you’ve never read persuasion. You have to so I started reading it and I was so bored and I wasn’t liking it I mean and I kind of want but I was almost gonna post on social media being like is this just me because then I went and looked up. Um, you like to see if people say because I know that people feel like Mansfield Park and Northanger Abey are not her best works but you know persuasion they were sort of waxing and it was like the Jane Austen society or something. So of course they’re going to say nice things but they were saying that it was what that it’s one of her most popular works.

16:59.21
jeffekennedy
Which surprised me, do we think that’s true I mean what would be the empirical evidence for that none but I don’t think it’s and they said oh well and then it’s infused with this perspective of a more mature woman because it was her last book and I mean i. I should resonate with that right? Um, ah so I got through I read to like 20% of Persuasion and I was not having fun for a while I thought well I just need to settle into the pace and the language you know it’s different and like. 20% I was like I do not care about this heroin I don’t care about any of these people I’m really tired of reading about the silliness of the discussions around the children and so forth. So I I bailed so is this just me what am I missing on persuasion. Um. Please let me know or even better. Let me know that’s not just me because it’s like I’m so not getting it and I didn’t love the movie either. Even though my friend was rhapsodizing over it and I was like okay well maybe it’s because I haven’t read the book you know because I do think especially with books like Jane Austen or Henry James some of these books from that era you you get a lot more out of the movie version if you’ve read the book and you have all of that nuance but I did um, discover a lovely quote when I was looking up. Is it just me that I’m not liking persuasion and this was something that her brother had said about her he had said an invincible distrust of her own judgment induced her to withhold her works from the public till time and many perusals had satisfied her. That the charm of recent composition was dissolved and I threw that up on social media. But I love that because there’s the charm of recent composition. There really is something to that that like what you’ve just finished writing. It’s hard to see it clearly and when we talk about like the kill your darlings thing I think a lot of people don’t understand that that’s like only after some time and distance when you can step back and see things that you have put in there. Well like if you make up a house name just to amuse yourself. But that’s a tiny thing I get to keep that because at heart harms nothing. But if your darling is for example, cleaving to an element of the sourcement material because you feel like it’s important or you should then then that’s something to evaluate.

19:46.37
jeffekennedy
Once the charm of recent composition has dissolved. So. That’s why it’s interesting for me to go back and start revising from the beginning because it was interesting to read stuff that I started writing like back in November because it’s taken me a while to write this book and yeah, there is no charm. Recent composition. In fact, there’s like sometimes little recognition. It’s like oh god I put that in there. So I thought that was good insight. So on that note I’m going to get busy, get my shit done as as they say. I hope that you all have wonderful Tuesday I hope that you are getting your own shit done in a way that is pleasing to you and rewarding and I will talk to you all on Thursday you all take care bye bye.