First Cup of Coffee - May 31, 2024

A round-up today of some great books I've been reading, and an excellent movie rec. Also thoughts on Connectedness (hat tip to Becca Syme), aggressively refilling the well, how to know when to push on drafting vs. when to revise, my new release plan, and why genres "die."

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Transcript

00:02.30
jeffekennedy
Um, good morning. Everyone this is Jeffe Kennedy author of epic fantasy romance I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:13.60
jeffekennedy
Ah, delicious. Today is say it with me people. It is Friday who ah may thirty first last day of may um I be another month will be halfway through the year I I just don't even know how it happens. Um, but here we are aren't we ah I am doing better I am getting back into the groove it did help a whole lot. Go back to the beginning of reluctant wizard and begin revising from there. Um. Thanks to all of you who sent in nice comments about how that works for you and your process I I really love hearing from everyone on what your process is or your process questions I'm always happy to address them here or reply to you there. Whatever you like hit me up on any of the social media places I think I see them all. Ah, if I'm not seeing something you can always go to my website and send an email to the website contact form because my assistant sorts through those and she since. All the ones that are not spam. Ah so like if I sometimes I think I'm missing Facebook comments I'd like see them months later what is up with that anyway. Um, but yeah.

01:44.30
jeffekennedy
I'm happy to address things I'm happy to discuss them into your questions is we don't always get to have that live back and forth conversation. But that is a way that I can um know what you want to hear. It's sometimes difficult to know what you want to hear. You know what? let me endeavor to be articulate. Ah to it's hard for me to know what you don't know there. How's that and I will endeavor to be more articulate than that in answering questions. Should you ask? Um, yeah, so. I have had a good week and bringing may up out of the dregs for overall word count. So even though I have been revising I have been adding quite a few words to reluctant wizard. And I already have not counting today. Obviously um, don't know why I have on here that I've or working days left sorry it's not your problem. My problem. Ah but I've done 37 70 words this week which is. More than I have done in the last three weeks like even when I was theoretically drafting so that's a sign people ask sometimes like how do you know How do you know when you stop drafting and start revising for those of you who have never finished a book and you know who you are because we talk about this.

03:15.26
jeffekennedy
You got to finish the book First before you revise. But if you have successfully finished I'm going to say several books 3 let's arbitrarily call it 3 if you have gone through and you have finished 3 books then you may start playing with this. When do you halt in the drafting and start revising and it's a um, it's a gut thing as I wish that there was some kind of formula that I could give you I know there are people out there who offer to give you formulas and I'm going to tell you a secret. Hard liars they are liars they are just making it up so they can sell it to you? Um, because every book is different. That's like 1 of the things you can count on. It's sort of like um, death taxes and that. Everything you create is going to be different each time you create it I think even the people who really try to make this into a factory process of widgeting. Ah they find that this is true.

04:25.51
jeffekennedy
So um, that made me think of a slight aside I know I have not set the release date for Reluctant wizard yet largely because I just have not had confidence that I can finish this freak them thing.

04:41.56
jeffekennedy
And obviously for those of you who've been listening for a long time I'm waiting on comments on 2 other books and I might have to drop everything and do those so I've been leaving at Lucy Goosey and I've been sitting on the cover reveal at which. And wish that I could show you all the cover. Well I did kind of I gave you the sneak peek on here. Um, but I will get that out there as soon as I think that I can reliably get this book out. Ah I think it's going to be July I really wanted to get it out by the end of the June. And ups that you and that was good jeffie but um I think that was it was a dream a dream I had a dream I once dreamed um and I just don't think that's possible.

05:32.38
jeffekennedy
What I am going to do I don't know I think I've shared this with you all. But those of you who self- publishish and may find this interesting because I've gotten this advice from a couple people and I'm going to try this because you all know that I don't really do Kindle unlimited. Ah, and when I've done kindle unlimited. It's always been with books that have been out before so I'm going to give this a try this time I'm going to put this up for preorder. Don't panic stop stop. Don't panic listen I'm going to put it up for preorder on all of the platforms. Okay, all right? So all of you Facebook readers. You know if you get it on no or Google player. Whatever you will be able to get it. You will always be able to get it to my website because Amazon doesn't pay attention to that. Apparently I hope. But we'll see I may have to Rene on that don't hold me to that one. But so I'm gonna have it up for preorder everywhere once release day hits and I will discount for preorder to so on release day I'm gonna raise the price on. Amazon and take it down everywhere else and put it into Ku for three months and see how it does. Um, yeah and I think that this could be a really useful way to do it and then after.

07:06.98
jeffekennedy
Three months exclusive period on Kindle Unlimited is up then I'll put it up wide again. I'm really interested in this experiment to see how it goes I'm been trying to write this book so that it's a little bit more separated from the previous books in the world. You all will know obviously ah but I don't think I'm going to have pobs from the previous characters in this book. We'll see what happens but this is shaping up to be a much more focused book and as always I was fighting that for a little while and. You know now I'm giving up fighting out letting it be what it's going to be but it's a little bit more of an intensive romance. It's taking place largely at convocation academy. There's a lot of stuff with um learning magic and that kind of thing which is fun to write. So um. Yeah, it's just got a little bit of a different sweep I feel like we did this big epic sweep with the first 6 books this one's gonna be a little more focused and then we might build out to more epic sweep by the end of this book and in the next 2 books. So I think that sounds great doesn't it. Ah. It is what it is because that's what it's going to be. Um, yeah and I was talking about this I did have writer coffee writer brunch yesterday with Jim Sorensen which was really good I was feeling unsettled yesterday morning really for no good reason and.

08:39.68
jeffekennedy
I was thinking a whole lot about Becca Syme who I like very much ah and I think she does great coaching gives great advice but you know with those Clifton strengths and you all have heard me complain before that my number one strength is connectedness and I don't even know. What to do with that or what it means and she had given me the advice because I'd made that comment at some point that for her because she has connectedness to I think that's why I asked her about it. She said for her it meant that when she was feeling unhappy or unsettled. That she needed to connect with somebody and so it was really great to have a long brunch with Jim Yesterday and we talked about all kinds of things and I did come away with my well refilled I think this is part of what I'm talking about with the aggressive well refilling. Is figuring out which things you can actively do to so add back to the well to restore yourself and for me having conversations with good friends is a big piece of that. So yeah. Cheers. Thank you Becca so um, it's something. It's easy for me to forget being an introvert and being someone who tries not to leave my house or avoids leaving my house. Ah.

10:14.48
jeffekennedy
And it's interesting because and I'm ruminating now you know that connectedness with other people is. It's an odd thing because you don't connect with everybody in the same way which is why it's great to have different friends right? You know you have your friends that you. You know like I meet Megan for drinks and we talk about certain things and I had a um, a video call with Darynda the other day and she's doing really well I don't know if I've mentioned but we are going to set up a go fund me for her because the medical bills are really crushing. And she's she's having a hard time and she's not a person who likes to ask for help. But we're gonna be setting that up probably when I get back from nebula conference which is next week so I will do the podcast here on Monday um, it would be interesting to do one on Friday morning while I'm there. With somebody but we know how well I do on that but it would be fun to round up someone who's there to have on the podcast I should just like park outside and as people are going by have them say hello. Um.

11:29.35
jeffekennedy
Yeah, so that different people provide different kinds of connection and I think that um I think I didn't mention on here. But I read the memoir more by Molly Roden Winter about opening up her marriage and. Discovering how to have connections with more people than just her husband more and it's a fascinating read. It's really good. She is brutally honest about her emotional struggles and the things that she went through. Um. You know the things that they fought about and it was it was very enlightening for me to ah discover I don't know different ways of thinking you know like do you have to have a monogamous relationship. To have a truly strong and committed relationship. What is the meaning of love. What is the meaning of connection with other people. Ah so so that was a interesting read I've been branching out in reading but you know just because maybe it's part of the aggressive. Well refilling I also read and I'm gonna have to pause and look up the names I read this book called Vita Nostra that Lexie Chantel reviewed on good reads and recommended I'm still behind on recommending books I should I used to put on my to do list and then it.

13:03.70
jeffekennedy
Started to feel crushing. Um, so I just took them all off but I should do these ah Vita Nostra which translates to our life is by Marina and Sergei Dyachenko and I'm not sure if I pronounce that correctly. But they are ukrainian living in the us and wrote this book in Ukrainian and it was translated to english and it is fascinating. It is a um, kind of dark urban speculative fiction story and um. And it was really a great read because again it made me think in different ways and I've been eating that lately right now I am reading um the idea of you by Robinne Lee I reading the actual book saw the movie first I actually watched the movie twice. Ah, that's the Anne Hathaway movie where everybody was like in health where he doesn't look forty. It's like she's literally 42 um, and I'm really loving the book. Obviously the book has a lot more to it than the movie did. But it's got all this great traveling lots of european stuff. Lots of stuff about soles movements through the art world which are really minimized in the movie because you know they have got something but it's I really recommend that too so those have been my reads lately I'm trying to see if there's anything else but I was.

14:33.98
jeffekennedy
Reading to tell you about? Yeah, there were a few that I just kind of stopped reading because I got tired of it and that was when I realized I needed to branch out Genre Rise Genre wise and read something different. I was reading way too much romantasy and it was starting to feel repetitive speaking of which I do think that this is something that happens with the cycling in publishing and it's happening in indie publishing too. So don't tell me, it's only tried traditional publishing. Um. I Think one of the reasons that genres die and I'm putting air quotes around that is because you get this burgeoning when a genre becomes super hot like this like romantasy is right now that you get. All of these traditional publishers acquiring it. Everybody wants Romanticcy books for their release schedule you have all of these indie authors moving to writing it writing more of it I can think of 3 authors offhand. With just my agent who have moved from other genres like contemporary romance to writing romantasy because it's hot right now and so what happens is is you get a lot of people and absolutely no shade. Absolutely no shade on anybody writing this stuff.

15:58.17
jeffekennedy
Because I know people are having fun with it and you know it's you know they're writing what they want to write. Although some people I'm I'm going to say none. None of them are you know like my my agency sisters being perfectly clear there. Ah, but I have seen a few other people doing this where they're basically well they're chasing the trend and so they are analyzing books I've seen people discussing this where they are analyzing the books out there. It's called writing to market and they write a book that hits all the exact same beats and has all the exact same elements. In order to you know cash in on the hot trend and so what happens is is you get a lot of sameness. So this is what happened I get to give it you know like back. Whatever years it was like when vampire stories were so hot right. And you would get all of these vampire books that were vaguely the same and you would like start reading some of them and think you did I read this before and it's like no, you've just read a dozen other books that are exactly like this and there are going to be readers out there absolutely who want to read that they want to read the same thing over and over and. 1 thing that's traditional publishing is guilty of is that there are always going to be those editors who are like well I want something fresh about something different and it's like but they don't want anything too different what they're saying is is they want a book exactly like the hot book out there. But.

17:32.80
jeffekennedy
Different enough to feel fresh and it's this really weird line for authors to try to tread and my best is ah advice is don't even try because this is a a balanced beam that is rigged against you to mix about 20 metaphors there. Ah but this is what happens you start. You know and I've noticed it like some of the romancy books I'm reading there starts to feel like a lot of saneness and it floods the market with a lot of unsatisfying reads. Um. Maybe they wouldn't have been unsatisfying if they had been in that you know initial 30% or 50 but once a book is like the previous 90% of the books that came before it you start to get fatigue right. And readers get bored and restless and they start looking for something else and that's when the genre dies and I put air quotes around it because you could still publish books in that genre but they have to be books that are. That don't feel exactly the same as what everybody kind of got exhausted by ah so those are my my thoughts on that today other things. Oh I watched American Fiction Watch American Fiction it is so

19:00.46
jeffekennedy
Good. It's amazingly good I kind of want you all to go watch it and let me know so that I can then discuss it without spoilering but basically Jeffrey Wright is a black writer of literary fiction. He can't sell his newest book. He ah his agents. Tells him well they want a black book and and his name is monk his name is Thelonius and everyone calls him monk for short and monk says this is a black book I am black and this is my book and the agent's like no, you know what? I mean and what he ends up doing this is all on the trailer. What he ends up doing is writing this book under a pseudonym pretending that he's an ex-con and a fugitive from justice and he writes this very ghetto book about like the worst stereotypical aspects of black life and of course it sells't as phenomenally. Well. And there's um, there are so many well done things about this movie I'll tell you one that there's ah the agent mentions. This black woman who has written this book along these lines you know with a lot of this very ghetto language and monk goes to hear her reading and he's standing at the back of the room. Listening to this incredibly intelligent articulate sophisticated woman. You know she's gorgeous and she's had this very intelligent conversation with the white woman. Ah, who is the interviewer and looking very thoughtful and serious and she starts reading the book and book yo sharonda and.

20:34.60
jeffekennedy
And Jeffrey Wright just is getting this appalled look on his face. He is so horrified and the audience breaks into applause and a white woman stands up directly in front of monk and eclipses him clapping with enthusiasm her delight eclipsing his horrified expression. And it is. It's brilliant and it is funny and it is insightful and if you write. Ah, even if you don't write, go watch this movie. It's I I can't believe it hasn't gotten more notice. It's it's on prime. So if you're on Amazon prime as let's face it. Everybody is. Ah, you can watch it for free and on that note I'm gonna get one more day of work in I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and I will talk to you all on Monday you all take care bye bye.