Happy for Evan
Harboring excitement for others creates its own joy
I am so eager to wrap up work and get through the evening’s activities so I can curl up with a book. My pre-order arrived on my porch this afternoon and I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time: Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam. Let me rewind a bit…
BookTok
I joined TikTok in December of 2021 when I came down with COVID for the first time. After I slept, lost my sense of smell, organized my quarantine space, and regained my sense of smell, I found TikTok to be a pretty delightful way of passing some time. I had heard of #booktok and as both an avid reader and secretly aspiring writer, I was excited when Sci Fi and Fantasy reviews and recommendations appeared in my feed. (Shoutout to the first BookReviewsKill TikTok I fav’d!)
Evan’s account (BookReviewsKill) became a mainstay in my feed, and then in my podcast queue. His podcast by the same name became a must-listen when he and his cohost started a read-through-discussion of Steven King’s Dark Tower series, which was a favorite if mine stretching back to the early 2000s. With gunslingers, sentient (insane) trains, and settings that ranged from post-apocalyptic cities to antiquated Western-style fantasy towns, what’s not to like?
The Creative Journey
What drew me in the most, though, was hearing Evan hint at and then share in detail his big creative pursuit: becoming an author. I love hearing about people’s creative process, especially when they demystify it and pull away the “magic” that so many fans assume must be gifted to artists. I don’t mean to demean the real magic of art, but I’ve heard from enough artists by now to know that it’s intentional effort, not some divine gift, that brings creation to the page or canvas.
Evan’s shared experience was a fresh window into this world, and it felt authentic and inspirational. Writing is hard. I have no idea just how hard it is to write anything longer than a few thousand words, but it takes work, and grit, and luck. Evan would dole out updates on the podcast or in social media posts, at times with details and at times of hints of exciting things brewing. He interviewed other authors, dissected the craft, and ultimately shared the story of how he turned an idea into a draft, then into a revision, then into a contract with an agent, then into a book deal, then into further revisions, and finally into the book now sitting next to my computer.
Understanding Community
The real magic of art is the experience, and the community around it. Which brings me to my point of this quick post: you feel a unique kind of gratification when you cultivate excitement for someone else’s achievement. Parents often get to feel this for their children, but we have so many opportunities to do it for each other. It should be easy, but we let so many things get in the way. Like art itself, it takes intentional effort to get outside your own head and really pull for someone else.
I don’t know Evan. We’ve never even interacted on social media or the Discord server he runs for the BookReviewsKill community. But it’s so fun to see his hard work pay off and to see someone achieve a dream. I’m truly thrilled to hold this book in my hands after hearing about it for so long, and I can’t wait to step into its world tonight.
I do know other aspiring writers and creators who are putting in the hours to chase their own dreams, and I absolutely cannot wait to write this type of post for them.