Kaki...it's all yours.
Jo
We all have those moments. Moments when every word we utter is brilliant. When the planets have aligned exactly right and everything is absolutely ohmigod freaking PERFECT. We’re hot. We’re cool. We’re invincible. Nothing can stop us.
Except a loved one, of course. They have such an endearing way of keeping one firmly grounded in the mundane, don’t you think?
Picture this: 7-something PM, July 1st. Washington State, a world away from the RWA National Convention in New York. My loved one is grousing in the next room about what we’re going to eat for supper while I’m in my office, staring at the computer screen, waiting for the next tweet from the awards banquet to pop up.
(Loved one) “Sandwiches OK?”
“Whatever.”
“You gonna fix them, or should I?”
“Whatever.”
“I guess that means I will.” (More grousing)
Then suddenly there it is: “Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner wins First Book.”
OMG! I blink. It’s still there. I close my eyes for at least three seconds, open them, and IT’S STILL THERE! Jumping up, I rush into the other room. “OMG! I just got a RITA!”
“Just gotta read a what? And where’s the sandwich meat?”
“In the fridge. A RITA! It’s a thing! A statue! A statue-thing. All silver and shiny and FABULOUS!”
(Peering into the open fridge) “What are you going to do with a statue?”
“Put it on my desk. The hood of the car. Make it into an earring. Whatever.”
(Straightening with a zip lock bag of something reddish) “But you don’t even like statues. You never use the one I gave you for the garden. What kind of meat is this?”
“That wasn’t a statue. It was a fountain-thing of a kid peeing. Every time you turned it on I had to run to the bathroom. Sniff it.”
“Sniff it?”
“The meat. The point is, I got an award that comes with its very own statue. I’m practically famous.”
“Smells like pastrami.”
“Maybe I’ll put it in the garden. Right in the middle of the pansies. Like a little RITA shrine.”
“Practically famous, huh?”
“Well, almost semi, anyway.”
“That’s nice.”
“Yeah, it is. Make mine on rye.”
Kaki is an award-winning author, a horseback rider, a wife, mother, and long time resident of the Northwest (though she grew up in the Southwest!). PIECES OF SKY is her first novel, and she has since published 3 more with 2 on the way! For a complete list of Kaki's books, check out her website.
Are we excited? You bet! Surprised? Not at all. Joanna has told me several times how she felt when she first found Kaki's query, and then when she read the manuscript: "I remember reading the query--it made me laugh. Kaki is so good at having you on the edge of your seat, then crying the next minute, then laughing in the next, and the first time you see that is in her query. When the manuscript finally came in, I read it that night. In full. Until the wee hours of the morning. Brady and Jessica's romance and the setting of RosaRoja just swept me away. I came in the next morning with the manuscript hugged tight to my chest, and said, 'Nancy, you've got to read this one. Now.'"