Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelly Giles. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kelly , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience came from my experience of being in foster care and then adopted at the age of 11 months. Although I cried the whole night when I was taken from the foster home, my adoptive mom is quick to point out that I was smiling at everyone in church the very next Sunday. From not having a strong sense of roots, I’ve learned to adapt to situations in order to survive.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I obtained my Juris Doctor Degree from Pepperdine University School of Law. I practiced U.S. immigration law for twenty-three years, and continue to practice Canadian immigration law. I’ve written a trilogy of poetry books. “Killing Justice” is my debut memoir, which can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3Y5XKRM & now on all other platforms at https://books2read.com/killingjustice
. I currently live in Culver City, California. I’m passionate about raising awareness about mental illness and the criminal justice system and encouraging others on their healing journey, especially through the arts. My poetry can be found at https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kellyab3/ & my poet website is http://www.kgstoryteller.com/.
Now that I’ve completed my debut memoir, I am working on adapting it for film and/or television.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Empathy, resilience, and a sense of humor have been most impactful in my journey. Empathy can best be developed by engaging with those whose worldviews are most different from yours, in order to better understand how and why they see things so differently. Resilience can best be developed by going outside of your comfort zone, so that you must then learn to adapt to situations and environments that are not those that you are most familiar with. A sense of humor is a lens through which you can cope with even the most traumatic of circumstances, as if you can, with enough time and distance, be able to find the absurdity of experiences which may have felt overwhelming in the moment, it will help considerably with your healing journey.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I am looking to partner and/or collaborate with another screenwriter whose writing style is more visual, more outside/in than my own. From having completed my debut memoir, and taken an Adaptation class through UCLA Extension, I have come to understand that my writing style is more inside/out, as I spend a lot of time in the memoir exploring my inner life and the psychological and spiritual healing journey I’ve been on for the past decade. In order to successfully adapt my story for film and/or television, however, my ideal partner/collaborator would be able to find ways to visualize and externalize that very interior healing journey detailed in my memoir “Killing Justice: A Lawyer Lands in Prison and Finds his Freedom.” Please feel free to contact me at kellyab3@gmail.com in order to discuss a possible creative partnership/collaboration like this.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kellygiles.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellyab303/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077323377913
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-giles-0260269/
- Twitter: https://x.com/kellyab33
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