00:02.16
jeffekennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, author of Epic Fantasy Romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.
00:12.72
jeffekennedy
Oh, delightful. Today is Monday, July 1st. First day of a new month, kicking off the second half of 2024. Just time flying by. Happy to report that I did well on Friday on my words. I also had a very fun weekend of hobbing and knobbing with writerly people. So that was, yeah, it was great. And I will tell you all about it. ah So last week I did manage to get, ah I got 2,000 words on Friday, so I'm hitting this new lower word count goal, which is really helping. i I'm getting there. And so, um in fact, last week was my best word count week all year.
01:08.30
jeffekennedy
all year, people. So we could talk about this, talk about goals and so forth. um It was also the best month I have had since January, which is a surprise, January, May, April, yeah. um Oh no, since February, but still the before times. So yeah, I'm just really happy with that. I'm happy with the productivity and getting myself back on track, staying offline, trying to stay off of things.
01:45.66
jeffekennedy
that The dog was lying in my office doorway, groaning, wanting attention, so I had to make him leave. So I lost my train of thought. um I think I was just talking about staying off the internet, ah getting the words done before anything else. That's always the key. One of the things that I was doing this weekend, yesterday morning was I sat and talked with, I'm gonna be telling this out of order. Do you all hate me for doing stuff out of order? um So it goes.
02:18.21
jeffekennedy
ah Yesterday morning I was talking with Mary Anne Mahonraj and then and her friend Roshani, two of the people who are here to do a writing retreat. They're staying at one of the casitas on George R. R. Martin's property, the compound. um And we call it a casita, which means little house in Spanish. But it's it's actually like for most of us would be a house. In fact, probably the casita is bigger than my actual house.
02:49.64
jeffekennedy
But I went over there in the morning after getting the laundry going like a good kitty cat and I took Roshani who is like Mary Anne Mahonraj's lifelong friend and a pediatrician and aspiring author. I took her grocery shopping. I ended up taking her to three grocery stores. Sorry Roshani. I took her to Trader Joe's first because it's closest and I thought we'd be able to find what we needed there and we've got everything but two things and then Natural Grocers is across the street from Trader Joe's and I was like, oh, we can get those things there. And she expressed doubt and rightfully so. So then I ended up taking her to Smith's where I should have just taken her in the first damn place. But then we went back to the casita. I feel like I should put that in air quotes.
03:37.25
jeffekennedy
ah There's a number of casitas in the property, which is partly why they call it the compound, which is just great. I mean, that's author goals, right? You know, that ah that's one thing that George can do with the money. He bought this amazing walled property, the amazing gardens. I posted pictures of those. And then he has all of these small houses that people can come and stay in. And I would love to have that someday.
04:04.86
jeffekennedy
So, um So yeah, then we came back and Roshani cooked breakfast for us, which was incredible. It was so good. Both Roshani and Mary Anne Mahonraj are amazing chefs and they love to cook. So I've just reaped the benefits of this. um so i um and So while Roshani is cooking for us, I sat and talked to Mary Anne Mahonraj and gave her um advice on various projects that she's working on, the market and so forth. And then over breakfast and a little bit afterwards, she asked me to talk to Roshani about the things she's working on and also giving her advice on like being a mom and
04:50.75
jeffekennedy
taking care of other people in her family and being a busy pediatrician. And she's great. She works with trans kids and, you know, she's one of these incredibly devoted doctors like we need out in the world. And so then, you know, so I was giving her advice as I often do to all of you here and on the mentoring discord, ah how to write anyway, ah making it happen, right? and And then Mary Anne Mahonraj talked to me, frankly. its It was a little bit of an email weekend for me because another friend was here. This is the downside of telling it out of order. ah Susan Lee, who I've known for several years now, Clarion grad, journalist, had some stories a while ago, ah has a ah resume gap, as we're calling it these days, because she parented. And now she's getting back into it.
05:49.38
jeffekennedy
And Susan is a good friend. So we were having these very heartfelt conversations and Marianne wanted to talk to me about being a caretaker. um Everyone came over Saturday evening to have drinks at my house, which was fun. And ah they got to meet my husband, David, many of them for the first time and who has Parkinson's. And, you know, it's always funny when people like get to meet him. and after hearing about him and stuff. But so Marianne was having the, um let me have the heart to heart conversation with you about, do you need to respite? And oh, look, I got emotional, which is great because all of my friends are really checking in with me and supporting me on all of that. So and it's it's this irony because there are such exciting things happening in my career.
06:47.20
jeffekennedy
um Oh, that made me emotional. But yeah, you know, it's just, um it's the good and the bad, right? And and it's funny because people keep remarking on that. They're like, oh, you know, it's funny because like you're having such amazing things happening in your writing career. And then these other things are really hard. So it's really good to have friends who care about you, right? so um Hopefully that's the end of the the weepy portion of our our episode.
07:24.15
jeffekennedy
um So let's see, let's backtrack. Susan got in on Friday, and she came to my house, and she got to meet David for the first time. And then she and I picked up Roshani, and we went out to lunch at Tomasitas. We had a great lunch. We had margaritas. And then we went and picked up Mary Anne from the airport. Well, but first we walked around. we They wanted to go to Seret and Sons, which is an architectural salvage place here in Santa Fe and very fun. and we went to a couple of shops and then we picked up Marianne from the airport and did kind of a quick turnaround at one of those things where like we were running out of time for things
08:07.16
jeffekennedy
And we went and had dinner at Paper Dhosa in Santa Fe here, which I hadn't been to before. I don't typically go eat Indian food. It was so good. Oh, it was so delicious. And it was really fun because George joined us and a couple of his assistants and it was, they had us off in a nook and we could hear each other really well and we had great conversations. And so like that's the only thing is that for me, I spend so much time by myself in the silence and writing and out here in my, everybody left my house. That was nice too. Got to enjoy the views.
08:45.99
jeffekennedy
and It was, you know, I like started to get exhausted from all the conversation, especially these folks like Mary Anne Mohanraj and Roshani are from Chicago. And they, I finally said, you know, like they talk faster than I can hear. It's just really, it's it's hard for me. it's so i don't I know I'm not on the spectrum. i like i Well, I've done an online test. ah But I think part of it for me, and I was talking to Susan about this, is that I i do listen to people. I'm a very close listener. I'm an active listener. And so when there's a lot of people talking or people talking very fast, it's draining for me. So I'm loving the conversation, but also can I tired?
09:30.69
jeffekennedy
um So then on Saturday morning, oh, Susan and I met up. I went and picked her up and there was a big pride parade in Santa Fe, so that was i mean like lots of things going on. and i picked up Susan and we went to Clafoutis, which is she loved as much as I do. And we sat and we got to have a long heart-to-heart conversation, which was nice, but also emo. She talked about her emo things. I talked about mine. And we finished and we went driving. We went out and drove around Tesuque and Bishop's Lodge Road, for those of you who know, and just enjoyed the beautiful landscape and talked about stuff.
10:12.69
jeffekennedy
And then I dropped her off and came back home to deal with some SFWA stuff for a few hours. And then I went and met them all at Beckett, Georgia's. And we sat around in Georgia's living room. Oh, and the night before after Paper Dhosa, we went back to George's and had port and conversation. And that was really great. Until then, yeah, Saturday afternoon, we sat around with George. and um I'm trying to think of who else was with us. I might have just been that core group. Oh, another friend, a nonfiction writer, Alec Lee was with us for a part of that time. um And one of George's minions who's producing a play for him was there. She was really interesting.
11:00.22
jeffekennedy
And George started regaling us with stories of conferences in the 70s and ah the naked skinny dipping parties. And we talked a lot about about genre and the community and how things have changed and how things haven't changed and he told us about several skeletons and it was great. it was um It's just really it's a fun thing for me to you know get to have really wonderful writers around and have these wide-ranging conversations about stuff.
11:38.06
jeffekennedy
ah And so then um oh yeah so then after that I went home and got the house fixed up a little bit and everybody came over here for drinks and then we went to um a restaurant Sazon which was I had not been there either it's more upscale and it was so good the food was so amazing And it was really a delightful gathering. Again, a few other people came along. ah They came to my house too. ah Tiffany Trent and Anne McLaughlin, Melinda Snodgrass came by and we had just a
12:16.40
jeffekennedy
Again, a great conversation, although Sazon was really loud. It was really loud and it was hard to hear people. ah Twig was there, manager from Beastly Books, and I was telling him like the progress on Things for Never the Roses, and he told me some super exciting things that I feel like I can't pass along, but he was telling me, I don't know, it's just really exciting from his perspective as a bookseller. So like I feel like I've had these this up and down all weekend. And I was out very late. Our reservation wasn't until 745. And as many of you know, I'm often like getting into bed with my book. so And I knew with that big of a party, we were going to be there forever. And yeah, I got home at midnight.
13:08.10
jeffekennedy
but and We got several big rainstorms. By the time we left Sazon, it was um pouring rain. and By the time I got to my car, it was completely drenched. My dress was still wet the next morning. so Yeah, it's been great. We've been getting monsoon rains every night. Apparently, like I saw Albuquerque got a third of the whole monsoon moisture, average moisture in one hour of a storm. We've been getting just dumped last night. Again, the rain just poured during the night, which is fabulous. I'm so happy. Everything's really burgeoning and greening out.
13:51.70
jeffekennedy
So um yeah and then so then that leads me to yesterday I went over and talked with them for a while and that was also gratifying because they were both so receptive um so excited to hear what I had to say and were referring to my advice is like pearls of wisdom and it is um we were talking some about the whole you know like giving advice for free thing I was mentioning that I have my discord now and you know part of that is to you know so I'm not giving advice for free so much um
14:29.96
jeffekennedy
And I, but I kept just including them because they were, you know, they were like, we know that this is, you know, your time is really valuable. And, but they are friends or friend and friend of friend. And it is always, I feel like this is advice for you all that it is always gratifying to give advice to people who listen. um It's amazing how many people ask for advice and then kind of be like, oh, well, but I'm not going to do it that way. Which is, of course, everyone's prerogative, but A, you don't have to tell me.
15:07.23
jeffekennedy
And B, you make me feel like I've just wasted my time and energy. It's like, well, why did I even, why did I even spend my time thinking about this for you and giving you my best advice? So, um, I think it's something people just aren't aware of. They think that they're, I don't know, um, asserting themselves or maybe they're just not even thinking, uh, but, I would be very... yeah i so it's It's very meta, right? The advice I have you have for you on advice is to be sensitive to the fact that if somebody's taking the time to give you an advice,
15:53.47
jeffekennedy
Even if you don't agree with it, don't don't stomp on it, right? don't Don't act like it's worthless. And so it was really great for me to, you know, I spent time thinking about these projects that Marianne and Roshani were working on. You know, they were trying to prioritize which thing they should work on and I gave them suggestions. And they ah were really appreciative. And we'll see if they do it. you know Some of it comes down to you know what you write next has to do with your guts, right? But yeah, it was a really good conversation. and And pursuant to all of this, the um Romancing the Vote fundraising auction is live. And I have donated six months of author coaching, personalized author coaching.
16:44.41
jeffekennedy
ah It's starting at $1,000. The last time I donated this for the midterm elections, I think it was, it went for like $1,600. So I felt confident setting this at $1,000 to start. ah One of my mentees said she was tempted to do it. and I'm like, I feel like I've already told you everything I know, but this would be very personalized. So, I will put the link in the show notes. Would love it if you all get out there and bid. It is for an incredibly important cause, right?
17:22.62
jeffekennedy
um One of the wide-ranging conversations we had was about prioritization of, you know, where do you put your money? Where do you put things? And I was giving the example of, in Wyoming, the black-footed ferret restoration program was valuable because the black-footed ferrets are very cute, but all of that money to restore this very niche species oh arguably could have been you know, put towards saving the Amazon rainforest, which has a much greater global impact. And one person was arguing that we shouldn't be paying attention to anything but global climate change, that elections don't matter, none of these things matter, ah except for global climate change. And one thing, it was because George was talking about having this money now, and he's older, and planning for his legacy and where he's going to leave money, and
18:22.85
jeffekennedy
where to donate things. How do you decide where your money will do the most good? um You know, so I feel like this lecture election is super, super important for many people. um wait We cannot allow Trump to be elected. That's my line in the sand. If you disagree with me, we've already covered this. You shouldn't be listening to this podcast. So I will put the link in the show notes. Please go bid um early and often.
18:54.40
jeffekennedy
and um I don't know if I'm going to do a podcast on Friday, since the end of the week is 4th of July, and I might be off with some people. so But definitely on Monday. So i I realize I said that in a very US-centric way. 4th of July comes to all parts of the world. In the US, s it's Independence Day, and it's going to be a long weekend for a lot of people, and the end of the visit from the remaining writers.
19:26.15
jeffekennedy
Alright, you all have a fantastic week and I will talk to you later. You all take care. Bye-bye.
