​

​

(I’ve moved things around a little this month. Pardon the dust!)

The Unwanted Turns 11: This March marks the 11th anniversary of my first YA novel, The Unwanted. (Well, my first published YA novel, at least. There are a few others in the metaphorical drawer.) Since then I’ve published a YA novella and am currently working on another YA novel, which is currently being knocked into shape by a freelance editor friend of mine. While you’re waiting on that one, go check out my first one if you’ve never read it. It’s about a boy who finds out his mother isn’t dead like he’s been told his whole life.

Also? She’s an Amazon.

​Ruth Compton of the American Library Association said: “Ricker’s prose transports readers into the world of bullies and redemption, love and loss, and prophecies and being the chosen one. Readers are also treated to Jamie’s snarky comments throughout the book–which left this reviewer laughing out loud.” Which was pretty darn nice of her to say!

Saints and Sinners: At the end of March I’m heading to New Orleans with my partner Mike for this annual LGBTQ+ literary festival that takes place in the French Quarter. This is one of our favorite cities, and it’s been a long time since I’ve caught up in person with some of my favorite friends and writers—and hopefully will meet some new ones over the festival!

Okay, on with the show.

Do you recognize a life-changing moment when you see it?

A lot of the stories and books I’ve written have centered on life-changing moments for the characters. I’ve been thinking about those kinds of experiences recently but, more specifically, what happens after those moments.

I don’t necessarily mean something traumatic. It could be something like fulfilling a personal goal, reaching a professional milestone, taking a bucket list trip, that sort of thing. After you’ve done it, and a little time has passed… then what?
​

I recently started writing a short story about a woman who—well, she doesn’t exactly get abducted by aliens, more like they stop and ask for directions and she says, “My bag’s packed, where are we going?” A hundred days later, they drop her back on Earth, in the wrong country, in the middle of the night, and basically say, “It’s been great, we’re going someplace humans can’t follow, maybe we’ll see you sometime.” How do you go back to a normal life after something like that?

This is not a new concept, obviously—you’ve heard of Doctor Who, right? Anyway, life-changing events don’t require interstellar travel. In my case, it was grad school.

Back in 2012, I quit my job, uprooted my life for two years, and moved to a foreign country to get a master’s in creative writing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Fast forward two years and I finished my degree, packed up again—and moved back to St. Louis.

My friend James said at the time, “I hope you’re taking notes because that is going to be one rough transition. It’s bound to make for an interesting essay.”

Boy, he was not wrong. That return to life as I’d known it was rough. Sometimes, it still is.

I don’t necessarily have an answer to that question, what do you do after a life-changing event. It’s been ten years and I still don’t have an answer to my life-changing event in particular. I know that life back in St. Louis was unsatisfying. We’ve since moved to Illinois, but that’s not as big of a transition as Vancouver, or outer space, obviously. James is right that it would make an interesting essay, but

I’m hoping it makes an interesting short story in its own way.

Anyway, if ET came along and offered you a lift, would you hitch a ride? I’m pretty sure what my answer would be. My bag’s already packed.

And that’s all for now. See you next month!