KAT RICKER RELEASES FIRST BOOK: SOMETHING FAMILIAR, POEM AND SHORT STORY COLLECTION

September 16, 2006 (PRLEAP.COM) Business News
72-page paperback
ISBN 1590281527
Distributed by Ingram
Available now on Amazon

Kat Ricker is releasing her first book, Something Familiar, published by Trillium Press. Top Amazon reviewer Rebecca Johnson says “this is one of the top 10 books you should read in your lifetime.”

The book contains the best of this award-winning freelance writer’s short stories and poems from the last 14 years. Many have previously appeared in publications in America and abroad (Yankee, Paris-Atlantic in France, Poet’s Voice in Austria, Kaleidoscope, Cambrensis in Wales). Ricker’s appeal is delivering clear storytelling about characters readers recognize, from life in smalltown America, the farm, to the strange conversations of otherworldly matters heard on the metro bus.

“Some of my best reading experiences came from books for reading class in elementary school. Some of those stories have just as much power in my mind now as they did then. Stories for life. That's the experience I hope I can provide to others through this book,” says Ricker.

Ricker (mightykat.net) holds a master’s degree in professional writing from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. She has worked as a newspaper reporter and correspondent for several award-winning newspapers (articles in Capital Press, Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon; Pittsburgh Post Gazette). Her magazine articles (UFO, Lapidary Journal, Farm Progress magazines) have covered diverse subjects from coffee to crop circles, with a concentration on fitness-related topics (Muscle and Fitness, Natural Bodybuilding & Fitness, Oxygen, International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship).

The book includes illustrations by Kate Ramunno-Finney, recipient of the Margaret Evans Award from the Butler Institute of American Art.

MARKETING COPY
What would happen if a stranger revealed his deepest secrets to you? Would you see wolves in the Yukon, black walnuts in October, orbs from another world? Would you look into the eyes of a mermaid? Would you turn from the eyes of the law? Whatever happened, could you ever forget it? Slip into something magical, something comfortable, something familiar. (Watch the web trailer at mightykat.net)

ACCOLADES

"Rooted in diverse, down-to-earth experiences, Kat's poetry and stories lift readers to the sky on the wings of her imagination."
– William Marr, past president Illinois State Poetry Society (Autumn Window, Arbor Hill Press)

"Completely engaging. This is poetry for people of all backgrounds."
–Blogcritics

"If you are a writer, this is one of the top 10 books you should read in your lifetime. The writing style teaches you more than a book on writing ever could. Something Familiar awakens a new beauty in the everyday existence and contains the essence writers seek and few ever find. Kat Ricker has captured a magical connection between souls within a world of words."
– top Amazon reviewer Rebecca Johnson, The Rebecca Review

"Kat Ricker has both eye and heart combined with the gift of hearing the unspoken story. At one moment, she magnifies what has been unnoticed, and the next she moves us to the far-reaching implications of the human heart. She reopens our eyes and hearts so we can "be whole once more."
–Dr. William Boggs, professor, Slippery Rock University, poet (Greatest Hits, Pudding House Press)

"Take something familiar and be able to reveal its freshness, take something simple and be able to reveal its subtleties: this is what Kat Ricker does with words that evoke poignant and delicious images and emotions of the everyday and the unfamiliar."
–Dr. Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Senior Lecturer and Writer, Deakin University, Australia