Most first-time novelists never actually become first-time novelists; in most cases “first novels” end up abandoned as real life overwhelms the time commitment and intellectual energy necessary to take a book from concept to completion. Those lucky enough to finish sometimes never find a publisher, ending up instead with dashed hopes and a pile of rejection notices that begin with “While we found your book intriguing and well-crafted…” and end with “…and we’re sure that your work will eventually find a publisher.” It’s easy to understand what T.S. Eliot meant when he wrote that “most editors are failed writers. But so are most writers.”

Local novelist Kerry Reichs isn’t a failed writer. Instead, the first-time novelist not only completed her book, but she also managed to get it published by a highly respected publisher at Avon, a division of HarperCollins. A former D.C. lawyer, Reichs took a sabbatical from her job, headed west to L.A. to write her novel, and emerged from the experience with The Best Day of Someone Else’s Life, the story of a 27-year-old woman named Kevin, who’s been cursed not only with a boy’s name but with the awful prospect of being involved in 11 marriages in 18 months, a tribunal that lends itself to both high comedy and poignant insight about modern relationships. You can join Reichs at her book launch party tonight at The Park at 14th at 6 p.m.

DCist chatted briefly with Reichs, who is now writing full time and leading a peripatetic existence that has her frequently criss-crossing the country in her Mini Cooper.