With the Oscars yesterday and my book coming out this month, I decided to make some Barbie and Oppenheimer themed book promos. If I did word association with 2023, the first thing I’d associate with that year was Barbenheimer, something that everyone seemingly united over. Both are great movies. I love the humour and aesthetic of Barbie and all around, Oppenheimer is a masterpiece: the acting, the cinematography, it did not feel like a three hour long movie.
I reference Oppenheimer in the intro of my book where I talk about why people might like this book even if they’re only into classic rock or only into true crime. You don’t have to be a scientist to like the movie Oppenheimer just like you don’t have to be into sports to like 42. These movies are about people, not science or sports. That’s how I tried to approach writing Crime of the Century. I want it to be a book not just for classic rock fans or true crime enthusiasts, but people who have an interest in other people’s stories.
I think of myself as a classic rock storyteller. I approached writing this book as telling a story about real people and I wanted it to be a book where people can learn about both true crime and rock and roll, two topics that I have had an interest in for a long time. I am confident that I can get you interested in these two things because I’m passionate about these two topics and try to write in a captivating way. My hope is that Crime of the Century is a book that you’ll not want to put down, you’ll want to keep reading more.
Here’s the Barbie promo I did for my book. Remember the “This Barbie is a…” meme that people made last summer? Well here’s mine and I can finally officially say it. This Barbie is a published author and it happened during Women’s History Month no less! Maybe not a best-seller but it’s a book I’m proud of and it’s the book I wanted to write. The outfit was a mix of 50s and 60s. The skirt was from a 50s reproduction clothing brand called Vivien of Holloway and the blouse is a vintage frilly shirt from either the 60s or 70s. Not quite the same pink, but I think it’s a look that’s totally me. In a sea of classic rock blogs where the themes are all quite dark, I tried to be the Barbie of them all and make my website more colourful. But don’t be fooled by the whimsical, playful look of the blog, I take what I do very seriously and pack my blog posts and book full of classic rock knowledge.
Now it’s time for the Oppenheimer themed promos. Eoin, my husband, helped out a lot with them and did the filming, while most of the time I was doing everything for my videos: acting (or rather poorly attempting to), filming, and editing. I loved his insights and I think he did such a great job shooting the video that it created an amazing result that I think is the best possible final promo for my book before the books get shipped out all over the world to my wonderful fans. I had to throw in a reference to one of my favourite TV shows, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, the famous ‘Pepe Silvia’ scene. Now you see what I was getting at in my book cover design blog post where I said I was going to use that conspiracy theory board idea somewhere else, and here it is! It’s also available to watch on YouTube Shorts.
And if you’re wondering why I picked David Bowie’s “Golden Years” as the song, it’s because the costumes for Oppenheimer were inspired a bit by David Bowie’s Thin White Duke era. Unfortunately I do not have cheekbones, a jawline, or blue eyes. Just bear with me.
You probably noticed that in the Barbie photos above I photoshopped my book in because I didn’t get the shipment of books yet. Well, I did get them in time for the Oppenheimer cosplay so here I am… first official photos of me with my book and I’m cosplaying as Oppenheimer. Not bad because it’s an Oscar-winning film and Cillian Murphy won Best Actor, making history for Cork (fun fact: my husband and my cat Bowie were both born in Cork).
Want a cool little fun fact about my family? My grandfather’s uncle, Meyer Weisgal, actually knew J. Robert Oppenheimer. I even made a little video of it on my Instagram:
Recently, my uncle shared an article from The Times of Israel about Meyer Weisgal wanting J. Robert Oppenheimer to be the president of the Weizmann Institute. Imagine if that story ended up in the movie!
I visited the Weizmann Institute when I was in Israel in 2018 and I talk a little bit about it in this blog post.
Crime of the Century is now available to purchase directly from me for an autographed copy.
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