To celebrate the release of my debut thriller, I created a celebratory slideshow, complete with voice-over and music. When I showed it to someone from a younger generation (not a child of mine, nooo), it was explained to me that my choice of music was “…interesting. And maybe a little over the top.” I believe they thought it was too epic to accompany the pictures of my friends, family, and any lovely soul who bought my book.
To that, I said, “Damn, son, (oops), it’s not epic enough. Do you know what I went through to get to this hallowed place? We’re just lucky the score from Rocky or Top Gun isn’t in the public domain, else the music would be a LOT MORE EPIC.”
Sidenote: I do listen to both those tracks when I’m at the gym. Picture it: old woman curling 12.5 lbs and her phone screen shows this:
Hey, works for me. Everyone has their personal staircase (Rocky in Philadelphia) or their own snowy mountain (Rocky in USSR). Whatever gets you to the top is good. Or, in the case of writing a book, whatever gets you to the end is good. In case you’re not into watching a minute-long montage of beautiful people holding my book, here’s the gist:
Writing isn’t for the weak, and it deserves to be celebrated.
Lauren Stahl, author of The Devil’s Song
When Lauren surprised me with a cake, I was floored. And also feeling a bit of angst. Okay, fine. I had a major case of imposter syndrome because they were making all this (lovely, amazing, heartwarming) fuss over me, but they hadn’t read my book yet. I thought: How about we wait for cake until after you read it? Then you can decide if a cake is in order.
But then Lauren said what she said, what I needed to hear: It deserves to be celebrated. The work of it. Overcoming the resistance of art. The many rejections. All of it. So here I am. Celebrating!!!! I LOVE this little clip and hope you do, too.
KL Griffiths 
This is terrific. but I didn’t even recognize your voice!
Wow, Kelly, this is a great vid. So cool to see all your friends celebrating Spiked!
I love it!!!
Ugh, not anonymous, just me, Rebecca
A lot of people don’t understand how difficult it is to write a book. It’s exhausting. It involves research, plotting, working through moments where you feel like just tearing everything you’ve written into pieces, and fighting writer blocks. So the fact that you did all that and created something that’s really special and intriguing is a huge achievement. I hope one day I can get down to writing a book. Just the very thought of it intimidates me. Congratulations Kelly 🙂 Spiked deserves to be celebrated. With epic music too!
Thank you, Nitin, but you NEED to write a book. You’ll reach people who don’t do WordPress, who would be blessed to see the “wizard behind the curtain.” Truly, I hope you make it happen because you have a ton of wisdom and a life of hardship and overcoming. Be well and at peace in 2024. 🙂
Thank you so much Kelly 🙂 Maybe I’ll actually start this New Year! You are very kind. Here’s wishing you a wonderful 2024 🙂