00:01.58
jeffekennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, author of Epic Fantasy Romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.
00:12.21
jeffekennedy
Delightful. Today is, say it with me people, it is Friday, woohoo, June 28th. And I've got a number of things to talk to you about today. I have notes. I want to talk about the definition of romantasy. A few of us have been arguing about that. um World building versus vibes. I'll explain what that's about. um And also I want to talk a little bit about the fact that I have been making progress again, finally, And what I've done to make that happen, spoiler alert, I have relearned a lesson that I think I have learned 97 times before. So all of this coming, I'm going to take a brief moment, hopefully brief. I want to talk a little bit about the presidential debate last night here in the US.
01:02.95
jeffekennedy
um And mostly because, so you know like if you don't want to hear it, skip ahead or you or you may be excused entirely. I and feel like you all watched the presidential debate for the wrong reason. First of all, why did anyone watch it? Why did you watch it? There was no reason to watch it, right? so A presidential debate by the entire point of a debate, right, is especially a political debate, right, is to listen to the two sides and determine ah which candidate best fits your own views, most best represents what you think and who, um I mean debate, right, who best addresses an intellectual argument,
01:53.32
jeffekennedy
ah for their position and what they would do in office. People, we know, we know where our candidates stand. We have on the one hand, um Trump, who is, you know, crypto, not crypto, I want to say crypto, what are they saying? Crystofascist, you know, catering to the far right wing nuts, the,
02:23.63
jeffekennedy
ah conservative right, the Christian right, who want to take rights away from pretty much everybody except for straight white men. And I feel like that's fair. I mean, there are people out there wanting to get rid of no-fault divorce, which is because, let me just read you this meme. Okay, this is sitting Senator Tom Cotton says, men are simple creatures. It doesn't take much to please us. The problem is women divorces almost always their fault. They refuse to be satisfied by what God has given them. Unless they have been victims of domestic violence, they should not be allowed to divorce. Okay. That's where we are on the one side on the other. I don't care.
03:15.18
jeffekennedy
i really don't care um they this whole This whole idea that people tuned into the debate to see if Biden was strong enough to be reelected, if he was going to be engaged or vibrant or inspiring enough, is all complete and total bullshit. I'm sorry, people. But it's it's all irrelevant. That's all drummed up by the media circles um to get people to watch, right? Because they want you to watch. It's also part of how the ah far right is trying to undermine the election and probably undermine is the wrong word. It's how they're trying to win the election because their entire strategy depends upon splintering
04:05.84
jeffekennedy
the vote for Biden. that That's what they're trying to do. So everything you're seeing with the Green Party, everything you're seeing about, oh, is Biden too old? Is he strong enough? Is he engaging enough? Is he charismatic enough? Should Biden step aside? All of this is an attempt to squint to the vote so that Trump can win, because that is the only way that Trump can win at this point. um it's ah It's just crazy. like why I just don't understand why anyone would watch that because you didn't find out anything. You didn't find out anything at all. And all it did was, at least from what I glimpsed on social media this morning, is get people really upset. The other reason that their ah strategy depends entirely on splintering the vote is because the incumbent,
04:58.75
jeffekennedy
in any election, no matter who it is, is strongly, strongly favored to win. I looked up some of the statistics, there's all of these variables, but across the board, no matter who it is, no matter what kind of election, the incumbent is more likely to win. So they're fighting that too. That's why when people are saying, well, Biden should step aside. No, no, then you give up the advantage of the incumbent. ah If the Democrats had Biden step aside to have someone else run, then you're pitting a new ah new candidate against a familiar candidate. um you know It doesn't matter that Kamala has been president, vice president for four years. It doesn't matter for three years, whatever. um No, but you you do not give up the advantage of having the incumbent.
05:49.54
jeffekennedy
and The fact that people are even talking about that is part of this same strategy. So, you know, I understand people are upset. I understand people are worried. um If you're a Trump supporter, why the hell are you listening to my podcast? Please don't, because there's just, um I can't respect anyone who supports Trump. um I just can't. ah There's no reason to. ah the the guy wants to establish an authoritarian government has said so. Yeah, don't. Don't do that. You know, so going back to the debate, ah so nobody went to watch that debate to make up their minds between Trump and Biden. Nobody, nobody. there That was not why
06:41.22
jeffekennedy
The debate was aired. That's not why it happened. ah No one is interested in um weighing the thoughtful replies one way or the other. ah We've had Biden in office. ah We know what his term will be a like. We've had Trump in office. We know what his term will be like. ah You know, I remember going to my first presidential debate for the 1988 election between ah the first George Bush, George Sr. and Michael Dukakis. And I remember being boggled at that time because ah one of the major criticisms against Dukakis was that he was a card-carrying liberal, like that was a really bad thing.
07:28.16
jeffekennedy
and which puzzled me at the time. But I saw that debate live and in person because it happened at my college campus, Washington University. And they debated ideas. They talked about um you know point and counterpoint. That's a presidential debate. what I don't have any idea of what went last night. I can only guess. um But it was a circus, therefore, to get clicks and views, right? All right, so I'm just going to leave it there. But yeah, when you see the hysteria on social media today, just just don't just walk away. It's it's meaningless.
08:09.96
jeffekennedy
All right, let's talk about more interesting things. Interesting things like writing. I've had a good week and it feels so good. I feel like I am finally getting um My momentum again, even without today, I have already had this week, the best writing week I have had since the end of February. Woo hoo. And it is also already my best month since, I think February. Funny how that works. March, April, May, yeah, since February.
08:48.90
jeffekennedy
um We remember February as the Halcyon days. It is going to be my worst June word count month on record. Usually June is great word count month for me. Not so much. But I have i revised my word count goal down from 3,000 words a day to 2,000 words a day. And I have been hitting that this week, ah more or less. um I'm working up. Monday I got 1364, Tuesday I got 1641, Wednesday I got 2168, and yesterday I got 1928. Felt a little bit short, but what that means is is I have been averaging 1775 words a day this week, and I am on track to finish in time for my August 27th release date, and I am
09:50.11
jeffekennedy
but Once I get good at this 2000 words a day again, I'm going to up it, start gradually increasing it. ah So yeah, and and the book is feeling good, ah no longer fighting me. That's one thing about writing every day. um I'm going to, I'm 505 words short of 50,000 words on this book. I'm anticipating it'll come out, I think I've said around 87,000. So tool and ride along, and it's great. I'm so happy, so happy. um I'm also happy I didn't watch the presidential debate.
10:28.85
jeffekennedy
debate I feel like we should put it in air quotes, but I'm not going to keep going on about that. um How did I do this? Gosh, Jeffy, how did you do this? I stopped going on the f freaking internet before I write, and I don't have the internet open while I write. And why do I have to learn and relearn this? I don't know. um I can't look at Discord. and I'll tell you what, I started doing that on Wednesday, Wednesday and yesterday. I made sure I got all of my word count done before I looked at the internet, before I looked at Discord or anything, and son of a gun. Amazing how that works. So, you know, I always think, oh, well, I can do it when I'm, you know, like when I'm on a roll and I'm doing well, I think, oh, I can do this.
11:22.29
jeffekennedy
and but No, Jeffe, you cannot. So um this is life, isn't it? Learning and relearning the same lessons all over and over again. Ah, but there we are. At least there's a solution, right? um So we've been having this argument about what is romantasy, which why are we even arguing? So I was quoted in this article and I will put it in the show notes. This article came out earlier this week, June 24th, so what is that Monday? And it in Paste magazine,
12:08.89
jeffekennedy
um Alana Jolie Abbott wrote it, and she did a phone interview with me. We discussed there. Maybe we did Zoom. I don't remember. It was a little while ago. But the article is what we talk about when we talk about romantasy. And for longtime listeners, ah first apologize for the political rant. It is part of the brand here at First Cup of Coffee. ah Just as any coffee conversation would go,
12:38.80
jeffekennedy
um Romanticism is a portmanteau of romance plus fantasy. And I posted to one of my author discords, a couple of my author discords, ah this article you know saying I was quoted in it. And ah my friend Megan Mulry said that I was the only person who made sense in the article, which was a compliment. um But one thing that my bestie, Grace Draven, said is that she was on a panel last weekend, I think it was last weekend or the week before at Book Bonanza, that was a romantasy panel. And that she had decided that she doesn't write romantasy because every other author on this panel
13:29.97
jeffekennedy
said that they don't do world building, only the vibes. And I've been hearing this a lot, and I have good friends, people who I really like, who declare this. We are only here for the vibes, ah which puts me in mind of the old days, the olden days of paranormal romance, which I would sometimes describe as being romance plus a dash of woo woo. Sometimes the paranormal romance was barely paranormal at all. It was just a little bit of woo woo. This whole thing of fantasy plus romance, but it's just enough fantasy for the vibes.
14:18.18
jeffekennedy
and which I think dovetails with this idea of what my assistant Carien calls ah Renaissance Fair fantasy, right? It's um the turkey legs, the winches, pretend jousting. There's a Renaissance Fair Typically, I don't know, I've never been to one that was authentic and I love a good Renaissance Fair. But a Renaissance Fair does not attempt in any way to create historical accuracy. It's fun. It's basically a
14:55.16
jeffekennedy
a hastily erected amusement park run by high school students. and And I say that with authority because my friends in high school worked at the Renaissance Fair in Larkspur, Colorado um all summer. And my very first boyfriend, that was where he got laid for the first time at Renaissance Fair. And because they would all camp out right while they worked there. And ah I know a lot of people that that's basically what it was there for. um you know, and they would run around and yelling, Huzzah! And that kind of thing. And it really had very little to do with actual Renaissance.
15:38.00
jeffekennedy
And that wasn't the point. They were there. People go for the vibes. They go to drink tankards of ale and I would buy masks. I have a mask collection that I think started at Renaissance Fairs. And, um you know, to watch jousting competitions and you know, eat turkey legs, those great huge turkey legs, which it turns out have an astonishing number of calories. That's a total aside. But I remember the first time I saw it, which when you're going to a Renaissance fair, it's sort of like any fair, you don't care about that, right? i So yeah, this whole idea that
16:21.69
jeffekennedy
there is a subsection of the romantasy audience that does not want world building. Or, as Grace concluded, did not want any world building and only vibes, and she didn't want to ah mislead readers. And we've kind of been debating it. um Sam Nescosta, who I like a lot, and says that she's just there for the fantasy vibes, says that she doesn't see the point of why are we even even talking about Romantasy, except it's a marketing term. And I think that's a really excellent point. It's like, we just want readers to know it's fantasy plus romance. And yes, we already had a term for that, right? As people are rightfully pointing out, we have fantasy romance. We have romantic fantasy. And we have people who debate, which is which.
17:13.33
jeffekennedy
and you know
17:17.99
jeffekennedy
I don't know. that This whole idea that there's something wrong with world building. And maybe that's not what people are saying, but they don't want to slog through world building. Some people say that they don't want to read books with maps because they think that that's going to be an indicator that um that it's all about the world building. And certainly that is a flaw of of epic fantasy which is why we joke about it like the Bulwer-Litten contest has a whole category for the overwritten fantasy novel which delves into cod pieces and snoods and ah these granular details of
18:02.28
jeffekennedy
medieval life, which doesn't matter because it's a fantasy world and it's not really our medieval world. And it's only picking on certain aspects of it. I mean, there's all kinds of things we can criticize here. ah And when I teach world building, which I do from I teach world building from a character driven perspective, I've done a masterclass on that. That was really well received. But one of the things that I talk about in that is you know, that one of the great displacement activities of writing a fantasy novel is the person who does all of the world building first. And there are people who spend years or decades in world building and they have their file cabinet full of everything about this world, but they had never actually written the book. When I teach it, I teach about
19:00.00
jeffekennedy
building your world around what will drive your characters through the story. um But it's more than vibes. So ah um I don't have an answer here. I'm sort of... This is what I'm turning over in my mind. I do know that people who are fantasy readers, science fiction fantasy readers, and very interested in the romantasy boom, have picked up romantic-y books and been kind of shocked and disappointed at how thin the world building is, right? So that's the other direction on this thing. um And of course, i'm I'm a fan of people reading what they want to read. Read what you want to read.
19:47.21
jeffekennedy
ah ah recall a review I saw once where they said, you know, this is a great book to read if you don't want to have to slog through all that world building. And it was a book that I thought had really thin world building to the point of being bad world building. So, you know, everybody gets their thing, but I don't think I agree with this idea that romantasy automatically means no world building. I think authors, especially these new ones on Kindle Unlimited and so forth, are kind of training themselves to say these things because they think that's what readers want. So they're like, no, I don't do all that world building, I just do vibes. um And okay, there's a place for that. It's not what I do. It's not what I like.
20:35.62
jeffekennedy
So on that note, I'm off to build some worlds and some words. I hope you all have a fantabulous weekend. And I will talk to you all on Monday in July. You all take care. Bye bye.
