First Cup of Coffee - February 3, 2025

My weekend with Darynda and a report on her and thoughts on the joy of writing and living life the way we want to. Also a special FaRoFeb present! And listening to audiobooks at higher speeds - why is Audible against it?

Everything FaRoFeb 2025 is here! https://farofeb.com/farofeb-2025/

Darynda Jones's Kickstarter is here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darynda/the-beep-and-osh-trilogy-exclusive-collectors-editions

Visit JenniferKLambert.com

RELUCTANT WIZARD is out now and audiobook is live!! https://www.jeffekennedy.com/reluctant-wizard

You can preorder STRANGE FAMILIAR at https://www.jeffekennedy.com/strange-familiar and MAGIC REBORN at https://www.jeffekennedy.com/magic-reborn

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Transcript

00:01.02
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning, everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, author of Epic Fantasy Romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:11.04
Jeffe Kennedy
Ah, delightful. Today is Monday, February 3rd, 2325. Are we all ready for February? that le the The end of January there got a little grim.

00:26.81
Jeffe Kennedy
um Things are not yet looking up. But let me tell you folks, you know, I just got back from visiting my friend, Darynda, for those of you who are friends and fans of Darynda Jones. It was great to see her. she's She's doing well. I want to talk about that a little bit. I'll tell you catch you up on her. But, you know, I, blah, blah, blah.

00:50.42
Jeffe Kennedy
Just trying to figure out where I was going to start on this. um Friday afternoon I went and got my hair done, so I think it looks okay, knew more red than it was. ah Definitely needed it on my poor roots.

01:06.75
Jeffe Kennedy
ah So I went and got my hair done, had a glass of wine. um It had felt like kind of a long day. I guess I could do my update on, there's not a lot to tell you on Strange Familiar. ah I didn't have a bang-up day by any stretch on Friday. I um i only got 550 words on Friday. I was definitely on a tired. So yeah, I passed midpoint. I've passed 44,000.

01:37.82
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah, it is what it is. I'm almost certainly going to have to push the release date. I've i've got like this little cowlick. Where did this come from? ah But I'm just going to wait and see what it is. Today is the editorial meeting for book two and have the Never the Roses series, which we still have named.

01:59.19
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But anyway, I was going to go look up. I wrote down a couple of ideas for names, but I'm not going to do that right now.

02:09.72
Jeffe Kennedy
So I was glad I decided not to drive to Portales on Friday evening because I was just tired. I was worn out. I often hit that. Longtime listeners will know I hit that Friday tired and so You know, after that I came home and I answered a couple of emails but then um just settled in, had a really nice Friday evening. um Yeah, know it was it was very low key. And so then I got up and I left early Saturday morning and drove to Portales.

02:46.37
Jeffe Kennedy
And other than at one point when I turned on my computer to show Darynda the videos of um the Domingo sketches from Saturday Night Live, which I may or may not be somewhat obsessed by. um If you know, you know. And if you don't, it's not that big of a deal. but they're They're hysterical and I showed her and we were just rolling laughing. So that was great. But otherwise I didn't look at anything on my computer. I didn't look at social media. um I didn't look at anything news related. I get my news basically from social media. um And nobody down there was talking anything election. um I think they might be a mixed enough community. They're on the conservative side, but there's a university there. ah But people just did not talk about it.

03:37.46
Jeffe Kennedy
And I have to tell you, it was restful. It was really nice just to, everything about it was great. It was great for me to have that time away. It's a three hour drive, little over three hours, 15 minutes through, you Southern and Eastern New Mexico, big vistas, not much traffic. So it was just very peaceful.

04:04.80
Jeffe Kennedy
As I mentioned, I listened to the audiobook of Strange Familiar and took a lot of notes on my voice memo, which gets all of my words wrong. I think it's funny, House Elal always comes out as House Hilo. Must be like the way I say it fast. But it should be enough for me to get some grounding from on the books. I'm glad I've got that done.

04:29.37
Jeffe Kennedy
I've made it through like 13 of 30 chapters. Interestingly, I was listening to it at one and a half speed, which is what agent Sarah had suggested I do on audio books. When I said, I just don't like listening to audio books. I do like doing it for catching myself up on a series because I don't have to pay super close attention. And so it worked really well for it to go at like one and a half speed because I could just kind of listen and then When I was reminded of some key point that I needed to follow up I could do that Make my posit and do my little voice note And I listen to music some and sometimes I just turned it off and

05:14.28
Jeffe Kennedy
sat and quiet and thought about things. so So that was really nice to do both directions. And then just to hang out with Darynda, um I took a bunch of my tip-in sheets, a whole box of them, and so now I'm up through eight inches of my 64. So that was great just to sit there and talk with her and ah sign.

05:37.95
Jeffe Kennedy
And

05:41.07
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah. cail And we talked about writing stuff and ah went and met with a bunch of people from Portales who are writers and aspiring writers and answered questions for them. And that was fun. And then she and Amber Knox and I watched Wicked. Jordan and I had been wanting to go see Wicked together. She still hadn't seen it. So we watched it on the big screen TV together and Amber came over and did that. And that was lovely on Saturday evening.

06:11.46
Jeffe Kennedy
And then on um Sunday morning, we just kind of hung out during the and night, took a walk, and then we went out for kind of brunch. Only it was a steakhouse, so it wasn't very brunchy. And I drove home and I was a little tired, so it didn't occur to me to turn on my laptop. um So now I have some catching up to do. Over 300 spam comments on the blog, but that's okay. So,

06:41.88
Jeffe Kennedy
i I understand now why so many audiobook listeners speed up they the speed of the audiobook because it does make for an interesting difference. I'm not sure I would listen to a book I wanted to pay attention to that way, but I can see what people are saying that your brain does start to assimilate. It does catch up with it.

07:09.51
Jeffe Kennedy
And I don't know if you all have been following, but there's been kind of this weird thing that Audible, which is Amazon's audiobook company, has started this campaign. They've had several ads out on social media now um basically dissing people who listen at faster than the one time speed.

07:32.32
Jeffe Kennedy
um like they've been putting out memes about how people who do that are like missing the point and they're not really enjoying it and they had like this little reel with an audiobook narrator talking about how you know like it's her art and her craft and this kind of thing um and the reception at least within the bookish community that i've seen is everybody's like why is audible suddenly so worried about the speed that we're listening to audiobooks. Why are they trying to make us feel bad for listening to it fast? And I've seen a couple of things where people are guessing that maybe because of that audible wants to start inserting ads within the audiobook listening and so they don't want you to be listening at super fast speed. It's an interesting theory.

08:26.71
Jeffe Kennedy
um you know And i I kind of love my community that everybody is immediately questioning what their agenda is. It's like, okay, well, this must have to do with money. Because otherwise, why could they possibly care? Or maybe they want to start like Spotify um charging by minutes listened, right? So if you're listening into it at a faster speed.

08:51.35
Jeffe Kennedy
oh But it's not something that's within Audible's control. Your player allows you to speed up the speed. So ah that seems to be like their initial campaign is to try to make people feel bad about it.

09:06.13
Jeffe Kennedy
ah But um I think I'm now totally on board with the faster listen. And maybe if I do listen to an audiobook, I will listen to it at a faster speed. It might be the slowness. I can see y'all's point. It might be the slowness that allows my mind to drift. That's my main reason is that if I am listening to a book that's not mine,

09:28.96
Jeffe Kennedy
i It kicks in my story brain. My story brain starts going in, I start thinking of other stories, and I miss the book I'm listening to. I don't pay attention.

09:39.34
Jeffe Kennedy
So, Darynda, as many of you know, she is ah she has been struggling with breast cancer.

09:51.36
Jeffe Kennedy
She has been doing a Kickstarter ah for those of you familiar with Darynda's World. It's a beep and osh trilogy. So I'm going to link to that in the show notes. I think it's only up for ah a few more days. It's like behind my thing now. Well, anyway.

10:13.69
Jeffe Kennedy
I think it's only up for a few more days. ah So here's your chance to get in on the Kickstarter and help get some money to Darynda. I went to see her because I was worried.

10:27.62
Jeffe Kennedy
and You know, she's at that point where, you know, she and she's talked about this freely, you know, she's done the chemo, she's done the radiation, she had a double mastectomy, um she finishes the reconstruction surgery this spring. um She's supposed to be doing more chemo and doesn't want to, and that's what I wanted to talk to her about.

10:51.35
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And i'm I'm feeling in a much better place. Yes, you know that's because it's all about me and my needs. I wanted to make sure she was making smart choices. And this may come as a shock to many of you, but she's such a smart ass via text message that I can't always tell when she's being serious.

11:15.53
Jeffe Kennedy
So um yeah. One of the things that really came clear to me is that, you know, cause she stopped taking the chemo pills. She it was making her really sick and she couldn't write. And I was arguing that her life is more important, but after visiting her, I mean, yes, I agree that her life this is the still more important than anything else, but she was really happy to be talking about writing.

11:47.32
Jeffe Kennedy
And we spent a lot of time talking about her plans of what she's going to write next and what she's going to do. And we talked about some of her stories and she's got, you know, like the next couple of years mapped out for what she wants to write, what she wants to get done. And I was thinking about that, you know, because when you, when you get to this place where you're dealing with a chronic disease,

12:15.72
Jeffe Kennedy
And David and I have talked about this a whole lot with his Parkinson's. It's like you you have to make choices for your quality of life, right? How much of your life will you devote to trying to get rid of this disease? ah out And how much of it are you going to devote to actually living your life? Because I think we've all known people David's brother had cancer, a lung cancer, small cell carcinoma, and he spent the last few years of his life um trying to get rid of it. And yes, you do a certain amount of that, right? But I mean, like he did all of the experimental treatments. He did all this stuff where he was like constantly in the hospital and constantly sick. And David had said to him,

13:10.20
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, maybe you should think about what things you still want to do in your life before before you die, you know, and go do some of those things. And his brother didn't. And talking with Darynda, you know, and and maybe she'll be fine. You know, right now the the cancers contained, we don't know. but where We're in a waiting phase. And I think those of you who've dealt with this kind of thing probably know exactly what all of that means.

13:39.54
Jeffe Kennedy
you know, we'll find out more in March, we'll find out more in May. But you know, what's the point of saving your life if you're not getting to live your life? And You know, and that was something that really became clear to me, you know, during the camp right when she's taking the chemo and she wants to be able to write. And I can't say that I would make a different choice. I would probably make the same choice because, you know, writing her books is what gives her joy. That's what's meaningful to her.

14:13.54
Jeffe Kennedy
and And that is for me too. And I had a a professor in college who got colon cancer, Professor Hadas, who is a long time listeners will know he was immensely influential on me. He was the one who was the non-practicing Orthodox Jew and had a very strong spiritual life and philosophical resolve.

14:36.33
Jeffe Kennedy
And when he found out he had colon cancer, he had the surgery to have it removed, but he ah elected not to do radiation or chemotherapy because he wanted to spend his last days in the classroom teaching because that was what gave his life meaning. That was what gave him joy. And so, you know, I think we end up with these balances, right?

15:00.98
Jeffe Kennedy
you know you You want to save your life, but you also want to do the things that give your life meaning and joy. And you know sometimes those things can be feeling far between. And so um it was good to see Darynda feeling happy again, to see her feeling excited. um She was really happy I came to visit her and happy that we could just sit around and talk about writing i our favorite subject.

15:27.68
Jeffe Kennedy
So, um, there are thoughts on that. And so it was good for me. It was good for me to go do that and good for her. So all's well. And then, okay, so editorial meeting, which we all know I'm freaking the fuck out ah about this afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes. Um, we just got an inquiry on German rights for Never the Roses. So that's great.

15:55.60
Jeffe Kennedy
I already gave you all update on Friday about the marketing and publicity meeting. I think everything's just going great there. We're very excited for all of these things coming up.

16:12.29
Jeffe Kennedy
and

16:15.58
Jeffe Kennedy
Yeah, moving strange familiar forward. Still hoping I can get that finished before I have to start the revision of book two. um Working title, always the thorns arose in the mirror, we don't know. I guess I'll find out today if they've got a preferred working title. And, oh, and then I probably should have said this at the beginning, I'll make, excuse me, blah, blah, blah.

16:42.49
Jeffe Kennedy
another i'll Maybe I'll try to do a reel. But it's the beginning of February. And so it's fantasy romance February and the Faro Feb crew is doing a whole bunch of give giveaways. So um what shall I give away? I'm going to give away

17:09.29
Jeffe Kennedy
Totally. I planned this, right? I planned this really well. Okay. I am going to give away ah five copies of Reluctant Wizard.

17:21.36
Jeffe Kennedy
I'll do four eBooks, format of your choice, one print for US. I think we'd better keep it US because Canadian Postal Service is still kind of crazy. So if you're in the US print copy, what you do is um follow me.

17:43.91
Jeffe Kennedy
and follow FaRoFeb, I will put the ah link in the show notes and you can comment here or any of the places, and you know, anywhere you see this podcast. I will make an Instagram reel too, if that's easier, but this is ah on Instagram ah also. ah So yeah, comment anywhere, tell me ah what you would like a book or a print.

18:12.54
Jeffe Kennedy
And um I don't know why you love fantasy romance. And then I will do the drawing in a few days. I'll i'll try to tag a note when I've closed the giveaway. So follow me, follow FaRoFeb and comment. So, okay, I'm going to get that set up.

18:42.83
Jeffe Kennedy
And I'm going to get to work. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Wish me luck on the meeting today. And I will talk to you all on Friday. You all take care. Bye bye.