Arts
“Carmen’s working on a series about children and the courts,” Francine said. “Kids falling into poverty are a very big problem.” “I’m aware of the problem, Francine. I’ll skip over the question of what has made Carmen give a good hoot in hell about children all of a sudden. What does any of this have to do with that coke-head Mark?” “It’s just… she knew Mark fairly well and doesn’t think his death was accidental. She says Mark did drugs too much to do something that stupid.” “So she thinks he did it on purpose? Is that it? He committed suicide over the predicament of his client and child?” “Not exactly,” Francine said. In hindsight I can see clearly how nonchalant she wanted to seem, playing with the gold locket and dropping it inside her sweater, glancing in the direction of the window as if a pretty bird had alighted there. “Carmen thinks Mark was murdered.” -- Weave a Murderous Web, Anne Rothman-Hicks and Ken Hicks They say a writing partnership is like a marriage. In the case of Anne Rothman-Hicks and Ken Hicks, it *is* a marriage. They starting writing together while dating in college and they never looked back. Ken and Anne have written something for everyone. Their books include an international thriller, Theft of the Shroud; books for children and tweens, such as Things Are Not What They Seem (and the sequel they mentioned has been released! It's Remembering Thomas, set during the Revolutionary War); a mainstream adult novel, Kate and the Kid; and their Jane Larson mystery series, which takes place in the legal world they both know well. In chronological order, the Jane Larson books are: Weave a Murderous Web Mind Me, Milady Praise Her, Praise Diana If you'd like to keep track of their many projects, you can go to their website or find their author page on Facebook. Also, I want to give props to their publishers: the Jane Larson series is published by Melange Books, and you can find children and tween books at Muse It Up Publishing. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, a transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura *********************************************************************************************** Transcript of Interview with Ken Hicks and Anne Rothman-Hicks Laura Brennan: It is my great pleasure today to have not one, but two guests: the writing team of Ken Hicks and Anne Rothman-Hicks. Ken and Anne have to date written over 20 books, from children's books to mysteries. Ken and Anne, thank you so much for joining me. Ken Hicks: Thank you for having us. Anne Rothman-Hicks: Thank you very much. LB: So let's talk a little bit about you. You are not just a writing partnership, you're an everything partnership. KH: We do a lot of different projects, including photography and jewelry and stone sculpture and that kind of thing. LB: And you're married. ARH: That's a project! KH: And were married. That's an ongoing project. LB: So how did you meet? ARH: We met at a college dance. KH: Anne was at Bryn Mawr College, and I was at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. They're very close and I think were even closer at the time. And we met, and the next year we had a writing project together. LB: That's fantastic. Now did one of you start writing first and draw the other one in, or was this from the beginning something you wanted to do together? ARH: We were both writing individually but joined up together. LB: So were you writing the same type of things or were you each writing in a different genre? ARH: I was writing poetry for a while. LB: Oh, how lovely! KH: Yes, she wrote very nice poetry. But I think what happened was, when we first met, we were both interested in children's books. I was reading a lot of children's books of the time and Anne had her own knowledge of them. In fact, she was doing a Latin translation of Winnie the Pooh. We decided we'd like to try to do a student project together and ...