We had the good fortune of connecting with Greta Kelly and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Greta, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Even the word risk can set a person’s teeth on edge. There’s something inherent about it that can make a person feel vulnerable. That’s because, at its center, risk isn’t about external factors. Risk isn’t about how things end. But how they begin. And that’s with a very simple question: are you willing to bet on yourself?

For a long time, my answer to that question was no.

The idea of being an author seemed so far out of reach to me, so wildly unattainable that I didn’t even take a creative writing course in college. I put my head down and I went for that business degree. Hell I was so afraid of declaring that my true passion, my true dream, was to be an author that for years I never told a soul that I wrote books in my spare time.

But despite the fear, (or perhaps, in spite of it) I could never put the pen down. Story after story unspooled in my brain until I finally landed on one that I couldn’t shake. One that made me feel brave. Made me want to take a risk. And that risk happened to be in the form of a writing conference across the country in New York City. It might seem like such a small risk to take, but for a Midwestern girl, only starting out professionally it was a huge risk, a huge investment in the future that I wanted to have. It was my statement to the universe that this was who I wanted to be. And the universe replied, because it was at conference where I met my first agent. I don’t know if I would even have a career in writing right now if I hadn’t gathered my courage and decided, one fateful day, that I was worth the risk.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
There is an inescapable truth in writing that there is no one “right” way to write a book. This makes the act of actually writing book both incredibly freeing and incredibly frustrating, because the only way to learn is by doing. But there are two main camps in the writing world: people who write by the seat of their pants, and people who plan out the bones of a story and then go in and write it.

I have a very linear brain, so you’d think I’d have started out with a solid outline, but no. For a long time I clung to a very romantic idea of writing where I’d just sit down and wait for the muse to arrive, writing the story as it came to me.

Well let me tell you something, my muse is chatty as hell. In fact she won’t shut up, so the book that I wrote this way wound up to be 600 pages of total garbage. Sounds like a huge waste of time, doesn’t it? But in the end, there are no wasted words. It was all prelude to the stories I would one day write.

In art (as in life) the best thing you can do is to get out of your own way. Relinquish the idea of how you think things should work, and create the things that you love in the ways that work best for you!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When I’m in Scottsdale, my favorite way to enjoy a day of rest and relaxation is a visit to a bookstore and a visit to the spa. My tops picks for both have got to be The Poisoned Pen in the Old Town Art’s District and the Spa at the Boulders Resort. The Poisoned Pen is a really cool independent bookstore that specializes in fiction. They always have a ton of really awesome events too! So if you ever wanted to meet an author in the wild, or get the perfect recommendation for your next bookish obsession, go check them out!

And do I even need to talk up the spa at the Boulders Resort at this point? It truly is the place to be still and reconnect with yourself and nature.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I can truly say that my newest book,  The Queen of Days, wouldn’t exist were it not for my siblings. The book surrounds a group of chaos gremlin thieves begrudgingly deciding to save the day against impossible odds, so it might sound odd to compare them to the people I love most. But at its heart the book is about family– and the brilliant thing about family is that means so many things! They’re the people you grow up with and the ones you find along the way. And for me, they are the first people who read drafts of my books, and the ones I go to when edits get me down. They are my biggest cheerleaders. My biggest supporters. So to the siblings bound to me by blood and by choice, this one is for you! Thank you!

Website: www.gretakkelly.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gretakkelly/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GretaKKelly

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gretakkelly

Image Credits
I took all these pictures myself, thought the book cover was created by Harper Collins publishing

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutArizona is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.