Jeffe Kennedy's Blog, page 167
February 16, 2016
Asking for Help
Did I show you all one of my very favorite Christmas presents? Yes, I’m easy to please. And I love, love, love my ceramic red 2015 Starbucks mug. It makes me happy every time I use it. David even suggested my coffee ritual for my discussion Sunday on Word Whores on a vice that helps my writing.
Coffee, however, is a vital nutrient, not a vice.
The other day as I was running, a song I’ve long loved came up in the rotation. Are You Out There? by Dar Williams from her End of the Summer album. Here it is, if you care to listen.
At any rate, the lyrics struck me hard when she says:
Are you out there, can you hear this?
Jimmy Olson, Johnny Memphis,
I was out here listening all the time
And though the static walls surround me
You were out there and you found me
I was out here listening all the time
She’s referring to DJs on radio stations she listened to as a teenager. She talks about them some here, though I think the live version isn’t as strong as the studio one. I found myself wanting to reach out and talk to her about this song. I’ve often felt this way about singer/songwriters like her, that I’ve been out here listening all the time. I wonder if she ever got to meet or talk to those guys in person, to tell them that, like I’d love to talk to her.
Maybe what we mostly do is write these things down and send them out into the world, and hope that someone’s listening.
Speaking of hope and making contact, I’m taking a bold new step. (Well, it feels bold to me!) I’ve started a Patreon. Two of them, actually.
What is it? It’s a website interface that allows people to support creators of all types. You can look at the overall here. Basically the way it works is that we can pledge a certain amount of money – $1, $2, $3, etc – that we pay every time an artist produces a “Thing,” whatever their thing may be. In my case, I’m offering two kinds of Things – stories for readers and focused mentoring for writers.
This will be a terrific venue for us all, I hope. For me to reach out to you for help, and for me to give you, my most passionate and loyal advocates what you want most from me.
Ever since I left the Day Job – or, as a friend puts it, since the day job left me – I’ve been piecing together ways to try to make it writing full time. One of the greatest challenges is the lack of steady income. I get pulses of income, but nothing like the steady salary I once had. Also, I have new expenses like paying for my own health insurance. We’re adapting, but the more sources of reliable income, the less scary things are.
This is where the Patreon comes in. Every time I produce a story via Patreon, I can be assured of a certain amount of income in return. Every time I produce a writing lesson or provide assistance via Patreon, I’ll know I’ll get money to pay the utility bills. In return, you all get access to exclusive stories and conversations with me that it would be difficult to get to you any other way.
Also, I really appreciate all the offers of help and support – this is a way for me to accept that. Asking for help can be a scary thing and not something I’ve ever been particularly good at. I’m working on it.
Are you out there, can you hear this?
Indeed.
Thanks everyone – it’s so wonderful to know that you ARE out there!
February 14, 2016
What It Means to Write Drunk and Edit Sober
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! This photo is from a couple of weeks ago, celebrating 25 years with my valentine. Never imagined I’d find someone who is such a wonderful partner for me, or that we’d be together so long. Every day I give thanks for him.
This week’s topic in the Bordello is how our personal vices actually aids in our writing. Stop on by for my take on the adage, “write drunk, edit sober.“
Also, I’m teaching a webinar this week on Navigating the Lines of Consent in sex scenes. Should be big fun!
February 12, 2016
Checking the Competition
I did a post the other day on the RMFW blog, about authors being competitive with each other, and why they shouldn’t succumb to that BS.
February 9, 2016
Essential Writing Tools
Thanks to KAK for posting on Sunday, while I was off at Daytona Beach watching ripped young men from the Embry Riddle Air Force ROTC do crunches. Oh, and being on panels, etc., at the Coastal Magic Convention. Damn, I love my job!
Thus, I’m over at Word Whores on a rare Tuesday talking about our topic this week of our favorite writing apps. What do you *really* need to be a writer? Find out from us!
February 4, 2016
I’m over at the February 2, 2016
Forbidden Romance and Fictional Bar Names!
First off, big congrats today to bestie and all-around lovely person and Zen influence on my life, Anne Calhoun, on the release of THE SEAL’S SECRET LOVER today! This novella kicks off a super sexy romantic suspense series of three novellas and three novels. I’ve been in on the brainstorming and these are unique storylines with Anne’s trademark high-stakes emotional angst. Here’s the blurb for this one:
Logistics director Rose Powell agreed to chaperone her grandmother on a guided tour of Roman ruins on one condition: her brother Jack would come with her. But when Jack backs out, his best friend and fellow SEAL Keenan Parker takes his place. Without a working cell phone, Rose’s orderly world drifts into dreamy days and hot, secret nights in Keenan’s bed. Keenan left the Navy but never made it any farther than Istanbul, much less to a viable future. Until he does, he’ll show Rose things she didn’t know about herself. Can he give his heart and his future to the woman he promised his best friend he’d never touch?
See what I mean? Go snag it now!
In other news, last week I finished drafting my story for the upcoming DEVIL’S DOORBELL anthology. In the course of writing, I discovered I needed to name the bar that the heroine frequents. So, I posted this to Facebook:
Okay folks, I need to name a bar. Contemporary U.S. Something in the name should evoke heaven, hell, angels, demons, the devil. Anything along those lines. And… go!
I got over 150 suggestions, counting duplicates!
Of course, I couldn’t use all the names and there were so many great ones, I thought I’d share them here. Feel free to use! In fact, please DO, because it took me *way* too long to sort these…
A Dimensional portal
Ace of Spades
Afterlife
Angel’s Roost
Apocalypse.
Armageddon
Asylum
Baal’s Asylum
Bedlam
Beyond Good and Evil
Bitchbox,
Black Star
Bob’s Road Kill Grill – “You kill ’em, we grill ’em!”
Brimstone’s.
Broken Halo
Carrie Nation’s Delight
Cemetery Gates
Chains
Cherubz.
Church
Club Beyond, .
Communion
Constantine’s Smoke
Crooked Halo
Dam Site Inn
Dante
Dante’s
Dante’s Circle
Dante’s Fire
Dastardly Spirits
Devil’s Backbone
Devil’s Dew
DewDropInn
Diluted Atheist
Duality
Elohim’s Den
Elysia
Elysian Fields
Elysium
End of days
Exodus
Fallen Saints
Firewater Shack
Flaming Wings
Forbidden Fruit
Gargoyle.
Genesis
Gethsemane
Hades
Hades by Nigh
Handbasket,
Heaven & Hell
Helen Back
Hell Raisers.
Hell with the Lid Off
Hell’s Half Acre
Hell’s Kitchen,
Hellvard
Hemingway’s Delight
Holy Spirit
Horn & Clove
Horns ‘n Halos
I Like It Like That
Inferno
Judgement Day,
Last supper steakhouse
Limbo
Lividicus
Lost Soul Watering Hole,
Lost Souls
Lucifer
Lucifer’s Pub
Lucifer’s Taphouse
Mephistopheles Mezzanine
Nailed Spirits
Nexus
Old Scratch’s
Pagan Spirits
Paradise Lost
Pearly’s gate
Pentagrams
Perdition
Preach,
Purgatory
Rahab’s Roadhouse
Reality Rehab
Revelations
River Styx
Sacrificial Blood
Saints & Sinners
Sam’s Fight Tavern
Satanic Bites.
Satan’s Tavern,
Seraphic
Sinnerville,
Soul and Sacrifice
Soul-stealers bar and grille.
Spirits.
Stone Club Baby Head
Streetcleaner
Styx and Stones
Tavern in the Circle
The Abyss
The Altar
The Chamber,
The Crossroads
The Crypt
The Devil’s Fork
The Devil’s living room.
The Devil’s Waterhole
The Emerald Cross
The Fallen
The Hourglass
The Inferno
The Last Judgement
The Morningstar
The Nailed Redeemer
The Ninth Circle
The Office
the Redeemed Soul
The Rogue Angel
The Serpent’s Tavern
The Seventh Circle
The Stygian Crypt
The Tarnished Halo
The Third Ring
The Trilogy,
The Y’all Come Back Saloon
Tomb
Underworld.
Unknown Redemption
Unrepentant Spirits
Vodun’s Delight
Wings
Wish
January 31, 2016
Writing to the Market – Is It *Always* Anathema?
This is like one of those “Can you spot the X?” photos. Can you spot the quail in this pic? While the others in the covey are scratching around and eating, one will get in a high spot and be the lookout for predators. At first I thought I hadn’t gotten a good photo – several were out of focus – and then I zoomed in and wow!
Love how he’s looking right at me, too. 
I’m over at Word Whores today, talking about when you *should* write to the market.
January 26, 2016
I’m January 24, 2016
Five Ways to Combat Bad Writer Habits
This week I put out on Amazon a short read. It’s a true story I wrote some time ago, that was originally published in a literary magazine, about one of the most unsettling experiences of my life. A brush with the unseen that I don’t care to repeat!
At Word Whores this week, our topic is “My Bad Habit as a Writer.”
Which took some thinking about, really. Not that I’m ALL THAT or anything… but I have rather ruthlessly weeded out my bad habits over the many years. Like… twenty years. And I’m still a work in progress, which I suppose is part of the point. So, rather than focus specifically on my own bad habits, former, existing or future, I thought I’d give five ways that I’ve developed to identify and eliminate bad habits.
January 17, 2016
Five Things I’d Tell My Newbie Writer Self
This is our neighborhood roadrunner. She comes by fairly frequently and checks things out. Not easy to get a good pic of her either! This isn’t the best shot I got (too much background, not *quite* in focus), but I love how it captures her purposeful stride.
Also, if you haven’t yet read THE MARK OF THE TALA, it’s on sale at Amazon for only $2.51. Great time to pick up a copy!
