K.A. Johnson
Author
Chipped
Chip lived in Isabelle’s pocket for 25 years. He was her talisman—that little voice in her head that gave her the courage to travel from the slopes of Kilimanjaro to the beaches of Southern France and beyond. When she’s killed in a tragic accident, their magical bond unravels. Shared memories fade. Without his beloved human, Chip fears he’ll become nothing but a silent lump of stone.
Isabelle’s niece Sara lives on the family farm under the strict control of her husband. Chip awakens one day to find he’s been shipped to her in a box of Isabelle’s belongings. Still grief stricken, he’s yearning for Isabelle’s voice and only pays attention to Sara because she sneaks into one of Isabelle’s journals to escape her own bleak existence.
This isn’t the life Isabelle would’ve wanted for Sara, but Chip isn’t her talisman. He couldn’t help even if he wanted to; she can’t hear him.
Sharing Isabelle’s words, however, might just give them both the strength they need to carry on.
The Author
In the early ’90s, Katherine and a group of friends decided to do a “Nat Geo Holiday” in Africa. They each got to choose one adventure they’d dreamed of during their youthful reading of the magazine, and someone chose the climb up Tanzania’s Mt Kilimanjaro. Such a trek has the possibility to change a person’s attitudes (both of their world and their abilities) and Katherine was no exception. Years on, the events and challenges of that climb continue to rattle in her brain and have inevitably crept into her writing.
And yes, she owns a stone hippo named Chip.