Featured Interview With Karen J Hicks
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm, and began spinning fantasies while I mowed the huge country lawn or driving a hay baler as a child. When tasked with writing a novella for my senior accelerated English class, my passion for writing began to burn.
I served for several years as in-house editor for author Steve Allen, wrote screenplays for various production companies and ghost-wrote a travel book for the Auto Association of Great Britain. I worked with Dove Audio, Inc., abridging books for recording and was an instructor for the American Film Institute’s scriptwriters’ program. I also wrote the official bio of Richard Pryor, which appears on his website.
The Coming Woman is my second book. The first was a self-help book titled The Tao of An Uncluttered Life.
I am retired and live in Henderson, Nevada, where I just finished penning a romantic novel and have completed the first draft of a spiritual self-help book. I serve as surrogate mom to my neighbor’s two dogs, which brings me great joy.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have been fascinated with books as far back as I can remember, either being read to before bed, or reading on my own. It was always a wonderful escape for me. While I have always written one thing or another, I didn’t write professionally until the 1990s.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Right now I read everything I can get my hands on by Jodi Picoult. I can’t put her books down. I don’t think there is one important life issue she doesn’t tackle. The other author I adore is Nora Roberts when she writes as J.D. Robb. I am working my way through every single book in her “In Death” series. But I am constantly reading and there are so many others I also enjoy. Kinky Friedman is another. Everyone and everything inspires me.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Coming Woman is about Victoria C Woodhull, the first woman to run for President (1872). When my friend Twya told me about Victoria back in the 1990s, I was shocked that I and very few others people had ever heard of her. I began to research her life and times: the first wave of suffragists, the historical Gilded Age. I discovered Victoria was also the first woman on Wall Street, the first to address Congress, the first to have a successful mainstream newspaper, the first to pass men as the most popular orator. She was arguably the most controversial and infamous feminists of the late 1800s. Her story has it all: power, politics, passion and promiscuity.
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