Today we said our last farewells to Dashiell. Since we moved to Lawrence nearly a decade ago, Dashiell, the Raven Book Store’s cat, has been an institution – greeting us with his special blend of stoic indifference from his sunlit front-window throne or eyeing us with vague heavy-lidded disinterest from some carefully selected book-lined sanctuary. Today, the Raven Bookstore’s omnipresent first citizen retires, and with him goes a piece of us. To commemorate our final audience with the great one, I purchased Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars, and it’s the perfect choice. I met Ryka briefly years ago at the Southern California Writers’ Conference – she gave an outstanding performance based on her book He Mele a Hilo. At the time, I was seated next to my editor, Jean Jenkins, and I recall how Jean beamed with pride as Ryka stepped to the podium. Jean had been Ryka’s editor.
Light from Uncommon Stars features a renowned but idiosyncratic violin teacher in search of the next great prodigy. That theme strikes a special chord, since it brought back memories of Jean, who was always on the lookout for the next writing prodigy. Her edits and feedback were delivered with an eye to bringing an ingenue writer up to professional speed. I’d thought I was an accomplished writer going in – I was not. Jean showed me how much I had still to learn, and provided me the tools to stretch myself toward that goal. She edited all my earlier books, but passed away shortly after completing my fourth, Hanged Man’s Gambit. A special poignant angst accompanies the thought that she’ll never see how her mentorship shaped my latest novel, Shady Fortunes. Ryka also gets it – she acknowledges Jean at the end of Uncommon Stars:
“And, most of all, Jean Jenkins, my first editor, who midwifed the earliest drafts of this book, yet left this world before she could see it come of age. Cheerleader, drill instructor, mentor, and reality check – you will always be a most uncommon star.”
Our futures inevitably bear the imprints of our losses. As I read Uncommon Stars, I’ll be watching for Jean’s uncommon sparkle reflected in Ryka’s accomplished prose.
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