First Cup of Coffee - September 13, 2024

A story about how an indie bookstore cheated me (if you didn't see it on Threads), my friend who died and people trying to dig for scandalous information, plus my excellent progress this week!

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Transcript

00:02.53
jeffekennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, author of Epic Fantasy Romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:14.11
jeffekennedy
Delightful. Today is, say it with me, people, it is Friday. Friday, September 13th, Friday the 13th. Hope that's a lucky day for you, for me, for us all.

00:30.54
jeffekennedy
and been an eventful week. What with the ah debate, I'm going to put that in air quotes, debate yeah for the between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump for the US presidency. oh I didn't necessarily want to watch it. I know I castigated y'all for watching the Biden-Trump debate asking why he did it. um I only watched this one because David wanted to watch it.

01:01.08
jeffekennedy
But I was glad I did. I was so impressed with Kamala. And because I am a Swiftie, as you all know, from way, way back, I was actually on Instagram real time when Taylor Swift's endorsement popped up. So that was a nice bit of history. um I was never one of these people who was like, Oh, Taylor needs to do this already. Uh,

01:28.20
jeffekennedy
I always knew she would endorse at some point and we know she's a mastermind that she would pick her moment. I think it's like the new Swifties that they like have no faith. But it's been kind of funny because this week a number of my friends have been contacting me knowing that I'm a Swiftie and that they aren't necessarily and they are like, saw what your girl Taylor did. Well done. So yeah, it's it's just amazing. Apparently in the

02:00.68
jeffekennedy
In her Instagram post endorsing Kamala Harris, she linked to Vote dot.org, and in the first 24 hours after her post, Vote dot.org got 450,000 hits of people checking their voter registration.

02:17.64
jeffekennedy
ah So it's been kind of fun watching d ah the manga trolls spinning and trying to complain about Taylor. I saw one where this guy was saying, well Taylor Swift is a billionaire and she's not like you. She's not at the grocery store trying to figure out how to feed her cats and She doesn't care about you. She's not going to help you. And it's like, well, she actually donates tons of money to food banks in every city that she plays in. Apparently in England, from her heiress tour, the amount of money she gave to food banks for her concerts is more than the government has given them.

03:03.30
jeffekennedy
um And besides which, Taylor does know how to go to the grocery store. ah She doesn't say really bizarre things like, you go to the grocery store and show your grocery ID.

03:16.17
jeffekennedy
And then you have to pay $100 a pound for cereal. Bet you anything, Taylor knows exactly how much cereal costs. She cooks. She bakes. She grew up as a regular person. She did not grow up a trust fund child. So anyway.

03:37.61
jeffekennedy
It's been funny watching them trying to both say that celebrity endorsements don't matter and then also trying to figure out ways to undermine the Who is arguably the most popular entertainer around the world right now?

03:56.02
jeffekennedy
So um I Do have actual writing things to talk about today. Well, kind of. I do want to tell you all a story um about about people wanting gossip. It's an interesting thing. It's on my mind this week for reasons. ah First, I do want to report in on my progress ah I have had a great week and yesterday I actually hit over 3,000 words in one day. um I hit 3,040 words and it is the first time in a long time that I've gotten 3,000 words in one day. ah So how long has it been, Jeffe? You may well ask. And I'm not sure that Jeffe knows. I don't know if I

04:51.65
jeffekennedy
can tell you. Let me see if I can tell you.

04:58.44
jeffekennedy
It's not a definitive answer. It might be a year ago, July, July 2023. Interestingly on writing Never the Roses, I was hitting those levels. Now writing book two in that series, I'm hitting those levels. ah Do you think this is supposed, to the thing I'm supposed to be writing people?

05:20.73
jeffekennedy
um So yeah, I'm having fun writing this book. I've had a banner a week so far with a rose in the mirror. um I have, I mean.

05:33.83
jeffekennedy
yeah i'm doing i'm on track i'm doing a good job uh i had a slow start to the week for one reason or another but i have so far this week done uh over 8 000 words 3 000 of them yesterday which was awesome if um if i stay on track i should have my best week ever this week um topping Last, I mean, ever, all year, sorry. What is time? ah But I should be, I might be even last week, if all goes well today. so So that would be awesome, huh? I'm very happy, it's feeling good. So let's rely.

06:27.03
jeffekennedy
So I, um, I posted a thread about my experience with purple firm bookstore and I, um, yeah, ah I posted that on Wednesday. I've been trying to do like a little micro blog thread on Wednesday and I really got amazing results on that. I think I'll link to it rather than reiterate the story here. Um,

06:55.44
jeffekennedy
Well, maybe I could do a quick reiteration. um I haven't talked about it. I don't think maybe I had, but I was hoping that we could resolve this situation. So I hadn't wanted to get out there and skunk on them. But essentially what happened with Purple Fern is this new bookstore in my neighborhood. um A year ago, June, June 2023,

07:20.13
jeffekennedy
they I think it opened in like, I don't know, April or May, something like that. I was walking by my little shopping center here in my unincorporated neighborhood outside of Santa Fe and saw this new bookstore. And of course, as one does, and you see a new bookstore, you go in and introduce myself. I was all excited.

07:40.48
jeffekennedy
And they asked if I wanted to do an event with Melinda Snodgrass. And, you know, yeah, I'll do anything with Melinda Snodgrass. We always have fun together. So they set up this event for us in June. As I'm walking in, and, you know, like we emailed about this, she got information from us, got like our websites and everything. As I'm walking in, Melinda's walking out. And I'm like, whoa, what, you know, and it's still like 15 minutes before the event.

08:09.08
jeffekennedy
And I said, what's the deal? And Melinda says, well, they don't have our books. They have like two of her wild cards books with George, right? You know, the George R. R. Martin connection there. Because Melinda's been besties with George since, you know, early 90s forever. Before he was George, as she puts it. ah So Melinda has to go home to get her books. And of course, I just turn on my heel and Well, actually, the and let me correct, the the bookstore owner ah sort of comes out right then as we're having this conversation in front of her shop and she's like, oh yeah, I wasn't able to get any of your books because your books aren't on Ingram. Now, for those of you who don't know, Ingram is the is the distributor to bookstores. They have almost a monopoly. And I said, yes, they are. And she goes, no, I look, they're not. I'm like, okay.

09:03.94
jeffekennedy
i I'm hybrid, right? I traditionally publish and self publish. My publishers are professionals and they have my books on Ingram. I am also a professional. I put my books on Ingram. I can see them on there. I know that they're there. So she doesn't have any of my books. So, and didn't think to mention this ahead of time,

09:35.81
jeffekennedy
She also tries to say that she hasn't been able to get in touch with me, even though she had my email address. Later, it turns out, let me do ah a little bit of a spoiler reader. ah My emails had gone to her spam account and she didn't know how to check her spam email. i that moment Melt emoji. So, I go home, get a big box of my books.

10:03.28
jeffekennedy
the event starts late because we have to do this. ah She sells several of my books at the event. And I ask her what she wants to do, you know, like how she wants to handle this. And she says, well, I don't know, you know, because I'm a blah, you know,

10:20.84
jeffekennedy
doesn't know her business, obviously. So she I say, okay, look, I'll give you the same deal. I give Beastly Books, George's bookstore in town, ah which is an incredibly generous deal, people, where I say I sell my books to the bookstore at cost, at my cost, ah and then they get to keep the profit.

10:45.44
jeffekennedy
So let me reiterate, I do not turn a profit on this deal. oh It's worth it to me because A, this is how I support an independent bookstore. Their profit margins are not high. This is something I can do for them. that i I'm not operating at a loss, but they get the profit on my books and they have my books on their shelves. And so it's a promotional opportunity for me. Beastly Books,

11:14.30
jeffekennedy
awesome. I mean I get tagged front by people on social media who say they were visiting Santa Fe and wandered into the bookstore and Beastly Books pointed them to my books and they ended up buying a trilogy and buying this and buying that and it it's great. so So it's worth it to me. So I offer this gal the same deal. She's a brand new bookstore owner and she says great. So she picks out all the books she wants. I go home, put together an invoice and send it to her. It's about $150.

11:44.89
jeffekennedy
She does not pay it. She does not pay it then. She does not pay it with a mouse. She does not pay it on a house. She does not pay my invoice for over a year. Despite repeated reminders, I took paper copies into the bookstore. Every time I emailed one and then like take one into the bookstore, they'd say, Oh, we don't get your emails. So,

12:14.56
jeffekennedy
I had finally decided that I was going to go in and reclaim at least all of my books that she hadn't yet sold. Remember that she's like made a profit on the books she has sold. ah But I'm at least going to go get them and revise my invoice and send her one last invoice for the book she had sold on General Principle. But I kept putting it off because at this point I was angry. I was so angry. um You know, it's I'm a small business too. It's it's not going to break me, but it's the principle of the thing and I'm out that money, right? I'm out that money and I'm out that stock.

12:52.82
jeffekennedy
so I finally screw up my courage, screw down my anger, ah pick a day when I'm like feeling fairly zen, go over there. And on that particular day, they are papering over the windows and saying, um close for filming to the weekend. And I'm like, oh, of course you are. And I make a bet with myself that they are never going to reopen. Reader, they never reopened.

13:22.16
jeffekennedy
wet bye ah like a week or two ago and papers down off the windows. The shop is empty. All the books are gone, including my books, which she does not own and she stole.

13:34.89
jeffekennedy
So, um here's my business loss. I told this story on threads and did copy it. Not all indie bookstores, not even exclusive to any bookstores, but it's a shitty way to treat authors. why Why do you do that? I mean, she's clearly terrible at her business and no no wonder she went she probably went bankrupt. um Did not know what she was doing. And took my money with her. Last night, somebody messaged me and said that they would like to pay that invoice ah in honor of our book community. And it was the nicest thing. And I said, she didn't have to do that. And she said she wanted to. um so So we'll see. I don't feel like it's fair for her to have to pay it, oh but ah it really meant a lot to me, it moved me.

14:26.94
jeffekennedy
ah So that was kind of my my down story for the the recent past. I wanted to talk a little bit about you like people wanting to know things. And I understand that we are creatures of of gossip.

14:46.86
jeffekennedy
um but and And I know I've come out very strongly on the side of that. A lot of the social frowning on gossip is,

14:59.07
jeffekennedy
ah so it's the patriarchy, right? You know, not wanting women, especially, you know, like, oh, women gossip. It's like, well, you don't want your oppressed people talking to each other, right? Because there's there's power in us communicating with each other.

15:14.69
jeffekennedy
But there is this thing because I ran into an old friend, someone I hadn't seen in a really long time. She stopped me. She called my name actually over in this same little shopping center. It's partly why it's on my mind. And I actually walked past her. I saw this woman on her phone and had walked past her. I was intent on my grocery acquisition errand.

15:38.86
jeffekennedy
And she called my name behind me and I turned around and she said, I thought that was you in your hat. You know, i I'm just st distinguishable. And I almost didn't recognize her because her hair was much shorter and I'm terrible at recognizing people. um And we had used to be fairly good friends and then... please start now Sorry, that's my speaker.

16:00.18
jeffekennedy
I was listening to some of Becca Syme's podcasts yesterday while I was crunching royalties on Clifton Strengths stuff that was interesting. I'll talk more about her later.

16:13.73
jeffekennedy
So anyway, this gal. ah Oh, Becca Syme, by later I mean like next podcast, not today. ah So this gal and I are doing the, how are you, you know, oh I'm good, you know, it was, you know, like how how are each of your kids, how's your husband, this kind of thing, right? A really long time since I last talked to her. She had emailed me, I want to say two years ago,

16:40.01
jeffekennedy
after a very long time of no contact asking if I want to get together and I said yes and then she said well actually they were going to Europe for like a month and she would contact me when they got back and I said okay and then she never did. oh well ok um So then she asks me a question about a certain scandal and And I said, well, it's a lot of trauma. It's a lot of noise. and And she's like poking at me for more information. And she says, oh, yeah, like this other mutual of ours, who I wasn't sure who she met at first. And then she reminded me, I was like, oh, and she's like, yeah, we talk every day. And she told me about it. I'm like, OK, but still not giving you any information.

17:26.20
jeffekennedy
And it reminded me of, um you know, especially a very casual acquaintance to me. You know, if a friend comes to me and says, so what happened with this deal? um I'm gonna tell you, you know, well we'll let's have a glass of wine and I'll tell you everything. of Someone like that, you know, doesn't talk to him forever, you know, like trying to dig for salacious information, I just, um yeah.

17:53.61
jeffekennedy
She just left a bad taste in my mouth. And it reminded me of my friend Anna, who I knew forever ago, probably 30 years ago, back in Laramie, Wyoming. And Anna was kind of a force of nature. She had two young sons. ah We met in a writing class. She was an excellent writer.

18:17.13
jeffekennedy
um And i i I just adored her. I loved her. um But she was wild. She had issues. um she Her husband was a professor. She worked as a waitress a lot of the time. We would go out after writing class and she would want me to stay out in the bar later. And she would always say, Jen, you can sleep when you're dead. I'm like, yeah, but I have to be at work at 8 a.m. So I have to be awake for work.

18:44.35
jeffekennedy
But she would always say that you can sleep when you're dead. um And she had a meth problem. and um Yeah, and there it was. ah She was also incredibly lively and generous and so much fun. And she gave me these earrings that I'm wearing today and the honor of her because I knew I wanted to talk about this. ah We were at a bar one night and she was wearing them and I admired them. ah For those of you not on video, they're these beautiful, they're sort of a a green stone, kind of a green slate and then wrapped around with copper wire. And so I

19:22.91
jeffekennedy
admired them and she handed them to me and I wore them for the rest of the evening and then gave them back to her at the end of the evening. And she had told me that she had gotten them from a girl from Prague. They had swapped earrings. I've got a little bit of a hair in this one. In one of the spirals.

19:42.78
jeffekennedy
ah that will take more work than this. ah So I handed them back to her and she tried to not accept them. She's like, no, no, you keep them. I'm like, no, I'm not taking her earrings. And then she gave them to me for my birthday. She wrapped them up in a package and gave them to me. And other people like in our The writing group didn't like her. They didn't approve of her. There were a couple of the older ladies who um wanted to kick her out. They thought she was too wild and she was this wild. She was also great at giving critique and she was a wonderful writer. And ah yeah, and so, but we fell out of touch because she was really spiraling and getting even wilder and really doing the math

20:28.74
jeffekennedy
And there was no falling out. It was just, a I don't think, you know, how how it goes, right? Just a little bit of a distancing on our parts. She was no longer coming to our our writers group. We had started this crit group outside of the class. um And she was struggling. She was having a hard time. And then one day I opened up our local newspaper and saw her obituary.

20:55.87
jeffekennedy
and saw that she had died and it said after a few days in the hospital with an asthma attack. And I knew it was the meth, right? Obviously it was the meth. You know, it's a nice way to say asthma attack, right? She did have asthma, but but anyway. ah And so I was full of grief and I'm out in my garden.

21:21.11
jeffekennedy
and my phone rings and it is my boss's wife. who like she's come to parties at my house, but I don't know her very well otherwise. And she says, well, I saw the obituary in the paper. And I said, yes, it's very, very sad. And she said, well, isn't she your friend wasn't she your friend? She said, because i thought I thought I met her at your Christmas party. And I said, yeah, she was at our Christmas party and she she was a friend and it's very sad. And she's like, well, well what happened? And I said,

21:56.77
jeffekennedy
newspaper says it was an asthma attack. And she's like, well, she seemed fine at Christmas. And I realized that she had called me entirely to dig for the gossip, to know what the real thing was. And you know, and hell, if I was going to tell her, right, I'm not going to do that.

22:14.14
jeffekennedy
And I thought, wow, what audacity to do that, to call someone that you know. I don't know. Now we talk about parasocial relationships. And I'm not sure what that would have been. You know, like the circle of friendships. Let's see. You know, like my boss is not really my friend. So he's like, I don't know, third circle out. So she's like fourth circle. I don't know. But yeah.

22:37.20
jeffekennedy
Anyway, I wanted to tell you all that story. I don't think I have any kind of take-home message, but I was thinking about it and thinking about Anna and thinking about, you know, sometimes things just aren't our business, right? On that note, I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and I will talk to you all on Monday. You all take care. Bye-bye.