00:00.23
jeffekennedy
Good morning everyone this is Jeffe Kennedy author of epic fantasy romance I'm here with my first cup of coffee. Delicious today is Monday may thirteenth I have a. Talk to you about today I wrote down a number of notes. Um, kind of catching up on what's going on with my publishing stuff I have a big meeting today that I am nervous about and have you all been watching this whole thing about the plagiarism. Lawsuit against Entangled um I read the it's not a deposition What do you call it. It's a I don't know the complaint I read the complaint so that you don't have to sorry and talk about that some um, they way. Ah.
00:52.42
jeffekennedy
Let's see where where am I am I life what is art who am I um but I've passed 23000 words on Reluctant Wizard it's I mean it's fine I actually had it's it's better than fine I should.
01:09.88
jeffekennedy
Give myself credit where it's due I did have the highest word count week. Um, since well since before my stepdad died. So maybe maybe that's indicates something um and it's like not hugely better. But I mean that's. That's better than I've done in a while and so I am slowly ramping up productivity again. Um, feeling a little bit clearer headed. so so all that's great. Um I have a meeting today at 11 with my wonderful editor Tor Ali Fisher and with her assistant Editor Dianna and agent Sarah and we are going to talk about the book 2 after ah Never the Roses/Oneira - Oneira 2 and I am I'm so nervous. You all, um.
02:08.95
jeffekennedy
Maybe nervous is the wrong word. But I'm I'm keyed up about it. Longtime listeners will know that I suck to put it plainly at knowing what a book is going to be before I write it. Ah d. You know, like the whole reason that I don't outline that I don't Pre-plot is because I cannot.. It's not that I don't know how it's not that no one ever taught me, It's not that I don't get the techniques and all of these kinds of things. Um I don't know until I write it. And so I kind of start from people asking me this all the time where do I start with a story I start with like character and situation. But usually it's like I have an image of a person and a feel for the character. That is this very nebulous just sort of a sense of the person really a lot of times I don't even know what they look like I just know what it feels like inside their head. Um so I have a sense of a character and this predicament that they're in and. Then I write around that until I figure out what the story is and I don't know how that's going to fly in an editorial meeting people. Um, ah I Really just don't know how this is going to go and I'm I'm worried that they're going to. Um.
03:42.78
jeffekennedy
What more detail from me than I can produce. Maybe I am worrying for not because Alie does know my process she knows that I'm this kind of Writer. So um. And'll be interesting to see who knows maybe it'll be fun. Maybe I am like of getting but to work out for nothing I mentioned this to an aspiring writer friend of mine which I hesitated to mention because um, it's It's hard. When you're an aspiring writer because this kind of meeting sounds like the best thing ever? Um, but I thought I would share that I was nervous about this meeting and my friends said that they would have a literally have a very dramatic surgery I won't know you exactly what kind to have a meeting like this. And it's like yeah you know that's why we call them champagne problems because I can only almost mention this to other authors who are like at my same place because only they will go Oh that sucks? Yeah, instead of saying. I would literally have this radical surgery to have that meeting and to be fair, There's a time when my younger self would have probably offered some sort of dramatic removal of a body part in order to um, have this meeting. So Why am I so worried about it.
05:18.50
jeffekennedy
You know part of it is that expectations thing and younger writers I see ask on social media. They ask me sometimes but you know like when you have a book like never the roses is getting such great reactions. People. Love this book so much and so like even the. The meeting and I mean I I can tell you all that like the the meeting with which the assistant editor put together and you know and and it's great I love that she's so enthusiastic, but she called the meeting um nprr for nevitherosas and. Gasps she put in esterisks book two chat like what if book 2 is not gas gas worthy I mean what if it's doesn't have the same impact. Maybe it won't so for example, um, one of my author friends i'm. Um, not going to say who but that I talked about this too said um as someone who had 2 submission passes strictly based on the performance of the print format of a third book in a previous trilogy I totally get it. This stuff comes back to haunt you for sure. And so I had to write back in all caps not helping and she replied oops sorry take a breath. It will be all fine, but it's obviously too late now. But.
06:49.97
jeffekennedy
Ah, so um I guess 1 thing that I'm worried about is yeah what if it's not as good what if what if my idea what if they don't like my idea what if they say it sucks then what do I do. Ah, it'll be fine right? It'll be fine. Ah take cleansing breaths. Um, but that's the thing right? Champagne problem. It's still a problem and it looks enviable to other people. But it um.
07:28.12
jeffekennedy
Work I'm worked up about it. So anyway, that's that's me that's my life. Um I didn't get my blog post finished yesterday but I was ah I was kind of worthless yesterday. Um, but I did. On saturday have a I got to interview Susan Cooper who is our grandmaster for this year and that was great. It was a terrific interview. Um, and she was the same. She said that she doesn't know what the story is until she writes it too. Which made me feel ever so much better and um and it was really great to get to talk to her and you know what's really cool is like interviewing an author like Susan Cooper who I've been reading since I was a wee young thing and having her. Ask me what I think I mean when you know when we were talking about process. She's like well don't you find that's true and then I'm like Susan Cooper is asking me about my writing process. But um, it was awesome was awesome. So yeah, champagne problems I should not. Shall not complain and I shall not worry whoa though I walk through the shadow of the valley of doubt right? Ah funny how that catholicism comes out 10 moments of crisis. Um, yeah, so oh and I had.
08:59.18
jeffekennedy
Very interesting dream I know I don't normally talk about my dreams and this one is nebulous. So I'm not sure why I want to tell you all about it. But it feels important. Um I often have dreams that take place in various structures and usually I am looking for something within the dream and this is. A standard place that's kind of like a palace on a cliff by the sea and rambling rooms and lots of hidden stairwells winding down the cliff and caves and there's lots of people living there and stuff and I um.
09:38.15
jeffekennedy
Yeah, I'm very often trying to get down to the sea I have a like one of my recurring. It's not quite an anxiety dream. But it's like a quasi anxiety dream is that I am on vacation somewhere with a beach and that. Like days have gone by and I haven't been able to get to the water yet I haven't actually gone down. We've been running around doing things and I'll think I've been here for five days and I haven't even gone swimming yet. How's that for like a I don't know like a lost opportunity thing. Um. I think I have a lot of dreams about big bodies of water and I think that's creativity. So this one was salient because I kind of recognized this place and we were hunting for something I'm always questing for something and usually with a team of people and it's very convivial and I love that and we were. Hunting down and we were trying to get to these sea caves and to the water and looking for the thing and and I had this like inspiration I thought that I needed to go upward instead and I never go upward in and these streams and I went up and I was climbing up and up. And I found myself at the very top and it turned out that it was like the top of a pyramid with the 4 sided parametal shape was crystal and I walked into this room that was made of crystal and I was inside the very very top of this pyramid and.
11:07.50
jeffekennedy
And I found the thing that we were looking for and I thought how I couldn't wait to get back and tell everybody how it was up here that we should have been looking up here and it left me with such a great feeling So Any of you Amateur Dream Interpreters I would love to know what you think?? um. Ah, just know that it felt really good. It made me happy and so that that was a nice thing right? Um, all right in the department of not so nice things. Let's talk about this lawsuit.
11:43.76
jeffekennedy
So I saw somebody reference this and I got a link to the Google doc but I hadn't seen a whole lot of discussion of this online and so forth. So what happened is Lynn Freeman is an author who signed with. An agent. Um, who is Emily Sylvan kim at prospect agency and she had this book and this was quite a while ago I could probably find out exactly when.
12:21.96
jeffekennedy
I will link to this Google Google doc in case, you do want to read it because it is interesting. Um I hear I bragged about having done the research and now I don't know this date anyway, she signed with the agent. She had this manuscript agent said she loved it and. That they were going to go on submission with it and everything was great and it was this um, kind of paranormal romance and they they ended up doing 47 revisions of this manuscript 47 and my author friends out there who have worked with agents on stuff I heard you gasp a collective gasp before sometimes we go back and forth a lot 47 times is is beyond the realm I mean this is like this is not a the book is not working. But she ended up like doing all these notes for subsequent books. She planned out like 4 books not like me and you know she had all these notes and all of these things and meanwhile the agent also had a client named. Ah, Tracy Deebs um who writes as Tracy wolf and apparently they were very good friends as well. Which happens which happens and so I'm going to give a slight caveat here that um you know agents do their best to.
13:54.10
jeffekennedy
Treat all of their clients equally some are better at this than others. So I mean you know like agent Sarah is always very careful to say you know I love all my clients all my lovely clients. You know, really works very hard at being even handed but I know author friends who have left. Agents because like the agent was always on social media riffing with a couple of her other clients and not paying attention to you know there was clear favoritism and it can be a difficult thing when and. Agent has multiple clients and writing similar things that they can only hit up the same editor so many times and so sometimes there's a sense that and I really think that Sarah does not do this but I do know of other agents who do it who like. They won't submit to a particular editor that the author wants because they're saving that editor for 1 of their other clients and maybe it's a business decision but sometimes it's favoritism. So anyway, back to this ah Lawsuit. Um.
15:14.70
jeffekennedy
What happened was is that Tracy wolf sold a series of books beginning with the book crave to to Liz Peletier at entangled and Liz is rather. Well known very open about the fact that she takes a very editorial hand with some of her clients and to the point of you like giving them plot points and saying do this? Ah so Tracy's agent Emily Emily right? make sure I get my name's right? Yes, sold Tracy's series to entangled and Lynn Freeman is contending that they ripped off her story and they went through this Google doc is. Fascinating because it's very difficult to um, prove plagiarism especially when it's um, you know if there's not if there's not exact text copied and it's story I guess because. Usually these kinds of cases get thrown out because it's like tropes are non copyrightable. It's it's not that I stole your book idea. It's that I am also writing the same kind of trope. Um, you know like you can't copyright a happily ever after.
16:42.40
jeffekennedy
You can't copyright you know like oh I had a secret pregnancy in my book and you have a secret pregnancy in your book therefore you copied me that kind of thing doesn't fly but so they really worked hard at putting together. Ah this this complaint. Because it's obviously expensive to do um so the the books in the series that entangled publish are crave crush covet and court and Freeman read all of these books after being put off for years and years and years on her own book. Um, and found that they are incredibly similar like 7 character names are exactly the same and there are all kinds of very specific details that are the same. And so it is kind of fascinating to go through because they have um so many points that are parallel um like both books the heroin is from San Diego um both take place in Alaska. Ah. When Tracy wolf was asked why she said it in Alaska ah, she said because Liz Pelier told her to it was like really that was okay, um, Freeman set the book in a her book in Alaska because that's where she lives and so.
18:16.83
jeffekennedy
There are I mean they go through the alphabet we've gone through the alphabet once we are down to multiple letters I'm like there's even this weird thing where there are a strange appearance. Of vampires that are dressed as 80 s rockers that attack and and it's the same in both books It's like why? Why keep that kind of detail. Ah oh and and they go into. Um, text that appears to be very very close. So um, you know like so did they take they they have said and it might have been in the attended articles that Liz Peletier I think or somebody thought that Tracy Wolf's voice was better suited to the story. She has a much crispr more like saucy urban fantasy type voice and the books have done well ah so like did they did the agent and. Author and possibly editor I'll decide to take Lynn Freeman's story and have Tracy write it. Whoops didn't silence my phone but that was potential spam anyway so anyway I will link to this and I'm really interested to see what happens because um.
19:53.66
jeffekennedy
Wow, that's that's blatant if that's what happened that's gonna be a big deal. So on that note, wish me well on my meeting today and and I will talk to you all on Friday you all take care bye bye.
