2016 Garcia Memorial Prize for Best Novel Goes to Karen Evancic's WHEN A RED BIRD FLIES

Austin, Texas - Arizona novelist Karen Evancic has been awarded The Garcia Memorial Prize for her debut novel, When A Red Bird Flies. An annual award presented in conjunction with the national Reader Views Book Awards, The Garcia Memorial Prize is awarded to the best fiction book of the year.

Inventive and inspiring, When A Red Bird Flies is a touching tale about two women whose roots start in the rich Kentucky soil but whose lives quickly take very different turns.

About the book: It's 1954 and Lillie Mae Garrett lay alone on an empty hospital ward in the small farming town of Franklin, Kentucky. Abandoned there by her husband and left to die, she begs for death, welcoming it with every ragged breath. Day after day, when death does not knock, she lay with mountains of regret and without any hope for redemption. But she soon discovers that fate sometimes has other plans. Lillie is befriended by a young nurse who proves to Lillie that though she may lay dying, she still has importance and purpose. While recounting her life stories to the nurse, Lillie is visited by a small red bird who whispers a sweet song in her ear and reminds her that it's never too late to change one's life's course. Catherine's journey from sharecropper's daughter in Kentucky, to Depression era wife in Detroit, to an up-and-coming entrepreneur in Los Angeles is riddled with adventure, heartache and disappointment. But Catherine perseveres: in her world, heartbreak is only a challenge to be conquered. But there is one heartbreak even the tenacious Catherine can't seem to overcome. Desperate to become a mother, Catherine's greatest struggle is one over which she has no control. And that struggle requires something of her that she wrestles to embrace: faith. As her life unfolds and she yearns for children, she journeys slowly towards reaching an understanding that sometimes life is just as it should be. But when the lives of these two vastly different women eventually cross, they'll discover not only what brings them together, but the true meaning of love

A mesmerizing story about faith, hope, love and redemption, When A Red Bird Flies will stay with readers long after the final page is turned. A tender and touching tale, When A Red Bird Flies introduces an extraordinary new voice in the world of women's fiction. Karen Evancic's confident debut novel is an exceptional story exceptionally well told.

Karen Evancic is a part-time registered nurse in obstetrics, a part time independent writer, a full time mother to three children, and a proud Air Force wife. She is also a veteran who grew up in a military family, and calls Arizona home. Currently residing in Olympia, Washington, she's lived in two different countries and eight different states. She holds a BS in Nursing from Arizona State University and an MA in Criminal Justice from American Military University. When A Red Bird Flies is Evancic's first novel.

Published by Front Porch History Press, When A Red Bird Flies is available in trade paper and eBook editions. When A Red Bird Fliesis available where fine books are sold.

The Reader Views Awards is an annual literary awards program that recognizes excellence in independent publishing. Founded in 2005, Reader Views (www.readerviews.com ) is based in Austin, Texas. The Garcia Memorial Prize honors the life and memory of Garcia, one of the finest Old English Sheepdogs to have ever roamed the earth.

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