Wed, Nov 25 2009
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Something Familiar Star BeaconRicker chose Oregon, where she worked for a series of newspapers. Covering crime and city government didn't get in the way of her creative writing, however.
"The creative stuff comes whether you want it to or not. It just comes," she says. "The other stuff is just work." Writing news stories taught Ricker to write tight, brief prose and poetry, as evidenced by the works in "Something Familiar." Most of the poems occupy only one page. Her work as a journalist also gave Ricker fodder for creative grazing. Her poems are about real people, incidents other people told her about and "poetic moments" she recorded. "A lot of it is just that, that's really where my work is going lately," she says. Three years ago, Ricker and her husband, Reed Burch, returned to this area so she could earn her master's degree in professional writing from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. While the degree hasn't paid the teaching-job dividend, Ricker does work with words: She handles publicity and production for a book publisher. Her writing career has gone in many directions. On the nonfiction side, Ricker has written about body building and fitness (she's a body builder herself), agriculture, domestic abuse and natural resources. Her poetry and short stories have been published in Yankee magazine, Talus and Scree anthologies, PanGaia, Coffeehouse, Voices from the Edge and others. She's also been published in Paris-Atlantic (France), Poet's Voice (Austria), One Earth (Scotland), Cambrensis (Wales), Nova and The Third Alternative (United Kingdom). In selecting material for her book, Ricker first selected works that had been well received in magazines/ journals or that had won awards. She asked those in her close circle of literary friends to review her selections and respond to their inclusion. Finally, she made sure the material remained cohesive and consistent with the book's overall flavor. Ricker's employer is serving as distributor of the book. She drew upon her experience there to create anticipation for it's roll-out later this month. Readers who received advance copies posted glowing reviews at the amazon.com site and Ricker created a Web site and Blog for the book launch. She even had a Flash teaser trailer made. In short, she's creating a lot of buzz. Ricker's debut tome is small, only 72 pages, but it is tightly packed with strong, thought-provoking writing. Although many authors would like their first book to be three or four times larger, Ricker sees a benefit to brevity. "... this seems to be a consumable size," she says. "It can be read in one sitting, and I think that's a really good sign. The object is to get it read." online: www.mightykat.net Order the book at: tinyurl.com/fymsd Blog: mightymix.blogspot.com 
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