Caitlin Hicks's Blog: Book Reviews, page 5
November 7, 2022
Finding a cover for KENNEDY GIRL
This is a really fun stage of the process. We’re experimenting with cover images to capture the essence and communicate themes, add some mystery. Have a look at these and tell me what you think: you’re in a bookstore and you see these covers – Without words, which one would you pick up and what does it suggest to you?
Here’s a short description of the novel:
An uncontrollable series of events transform the lives of two teenagers the night of RFK’s assassination when a black dancer and a white singer chase his ambulance through the streets of Los Angeles. A suspenseful road trip from California to Canada in 1968 as they escape. Features ‘unforgettable’ Annie Shea, from the author of award-winning A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE.
Please I invite you to comment on these covers. What do they suggest to you?
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October 25, 2022
The Spark of Annie Shea
Caitlin Hicks reads at The Sechelt LibraryNovember 4, 2022 7 pm – 8.30 pm
On the heels of the NYC Big Book Award for her first novel A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE in audiobook, Caitlin Hicks will read and perform from the three of her works that feature the fiesty, outspoken and rebellious character Annie Shea. The reading is sponsored by The Writers Union of Canada.
Performing excerpts from the play SIX PALM TREES, and reading from the novel A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE, Hicks will also give audiences a glimpse of her upcoming novel KENNEDY GIRL, featuring Annie Shea in 1968 – five years hence from THEORY.
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October 18, 2022
Local girl makes good
The audiobook release of Caitlin Hicks’s novel A Theory of Expanded Love has been recognized by the NYC Book Awards, another in a series of accolades for the Roberts Creekbased writer’s 2015 fiction debut.
The NYC Book Awards are an annual competition judged by experts representing segments of the book industry, including publishers, writers and editors. Hicks’s audiobook was honoured in the category of Distinguished Favourite, which recognizes overall excellence. The announcement was made by the NYC Book Awards in late September.
The novel also netted literary awards after its original publication in 2015, including the Best Inspirational Fiction prize from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
Hicks contributed her own voice to the novel’s audiobook version, which was completed in late 2021. Her husband, playwright and filmmaker Gordon Halloran, oversaw technical production for the recording.
A Theory of Expanded Love had its origins in a semi-autobiographical play written and performed by Hicks. Six Palm Trees opened at the Nexus Theatre in 1991 before touring internationally.
In the play, Hicks developed the character of Annie Shea, whose sharp wit becomes a coping mechanism for girlhood in a Roman Catholic family with 14 siblings during the early 1960s.
The parallels to Hicks’s own upbringing were so pronounced that the play’s renown resulted in real-life family tension.
“So when I wrote A Theory of Expanded Love, it was another exploration of that whole situation with a different emphasis,” said Hicks. Annie Shae returns as the book’s narrator, navigating faith and family revelations through the eyes of a precocious young woman.
“I thought to myself, we’ve got to think of something that’s just so blatantly not true that my family is going to think [the story] is not really about them,” said Hicks. Halloran suggested a plot device: a priest who served alongside Annie’s veteran father during the Second World War becomes short-listed for the papacy. The celebrity connection — no matter how tenuous — confers imagined status on the family.
“As soon as I conceived that, I was off and running,” Hicks said. The storyline complemented Annie’s appetite for grandiosity. “She ends up exaggerating things and lying on the spot. And then later thinking, ‘I just committed a venial sin.’ In a family that holds up an image of everything being perfect, naturally [the protagonist] is going to slide in there and not be perfect.”
As Annie matures, she labours to reconcile her staunch Catholic faith with surprising betrayals by her parents, sublimating guilt into defiant humour and independence.
According to Hicks, the character of Annie proved so popular with readers that she will be the subject of a forthcoming sequel: KENNEDY GIRL. The novel is set in the aftermath of Robert Kennedy’s assassination in 1968.
In addition to her work in the realm of fiction, Hicks is a prodigious memoirist and playwright. She was a literary contributor to CBC Radio’s Morningside program and her touring play Singing the Bones was adapted for the screen in 2001.
Excerpts from A Theory of Expanded Love will be read by Hicks at the Sechelt Library on Nov. 4 during an event sponsored by The Writers’ Union of Canada. The audiobook edition is available at chirpbooks.com; Hicks maintains an active web presence at caitlinhicks.com.
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Hicks will read and perform from her three works featuring Annie Shea: Six Palm Trees, (the theatre comedy/drama)A Theory of Expanded Love and upcoming novel KENNEDY GIRL. The event takes place at the Sechelt Library on November 4, 2022 at 7 PM. The reading is sponsored by The Writers Union of Canada. Admission is free, but contact: Ask for Gillian Smith to reserve your seat: (604) 885-3260
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October 11, 2022
The Spark of Annie Shea
On the heels of
The NYC BIG BOOK Award
Caitlin Hicks entertains with her
Theory of (Expanded) Love,
her stand-up Six Palm Trees and
about-to-be-released Kennedy Girl
On November 4, 2022 @ 7 PM, at the Sechelt Library, Caitlin Hicks will read and perform from the three of her work that feature the feisty, outspoken and rebellious character, Annie Shea. The reading is sponsored by The Writers Union of Canada.
Performing excerpts from the play, SIX PALM TREES, and reading from the novel A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE, Hicks will also give audiences a glimpse of her upcoming novel KENNEDY GIRL, featuring Annie Shea in 1968 – five years hence from THEORY.
SIX PALM TREES sprang from The Tarragon Theatre’s playwrights unit and was conceived and co-written with artist Gordon Halloran. It features Annie Shea in a theatrical presentation (90% stand-up comedy) performed at a family reunion to celebrate the sale of the family home. In the performance, Hicks as family clown Annie, chooses 14+ people from the audience to stand in for her Shea family. The play was performed hundreds of times on tour in California, British Columbia, Toronto, Oshawa, Edmonton, Amsterdam, Galway, New York – to standing ovations and excellent reviews.
A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE, Hicks’ first published novel, is a coming-of-age story of tradition and redemption about a feisty adolescent on the cusp of her teen years in a huge, noisy Catholic family. The story takes place in 1963 and explores themes of self-discovery, loyalty, betrayal. The novel won many awards, including iBooks Best New Fiction for Spring, 2015, alongside other well-known writers: Sara Gruen, Judy Blume, Kate Atkinson, Clive Barker and others.
KENNEDY GIRL is due to be released in November from US publisher Sunbury Press.
An uncontrollable series of events transform the lives of two teenagers the night of RFK’s assassination when a black dancer and a white singer chase his ambulance through the streets of Los Angeles. A suspenseful road trip from California to Canada in 1968. The novel features ‘unforgettable’ seventeen-year-old Annie Shea, who was twelve in A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE.
https://www.caitlinhicks.com/wordpress/fiction-2/kennedy-girl-a-new-novel-by-caitlin-hicks/
At the November 4th event at Sechelt Library, Hicks will read from all three works and answer audience questions. Audience members can sign up to pre-order a copy of KENNEDY GIRL. For cookie lovers, Annie will bake a batch of Shea Family cookie favorites!
Contact: Caitlin Hicks, 604-886-3634
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September 27, 2022
A Theory of Expanded LOVE & NYC BIG BOOK AWARD
A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE, the audiobook, wins ‘Distinguished Favorite’ in NYC BIG BOOK AWARD
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Caitlin Hicks / caitlin@caitlinhicks.com / (604) 886-3634
Author Caitlin Hicks receives international recognition through the
NYC BIG BOOK AWARD®!British Columbia, Canada — The NYC Big Book Award recognized A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE in the category of Audiobook Fiction as a distinguished favorite.
The competition is judged by experts from different aspects of the book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, book cover designers and professional copywriters. Selected award winners and distinguished favorites are based on overall excellence.
A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE is a coming-of-age story of tradition and redemption about a feisty adolescent, on the cusp of her teen years in a huge, noisy catholic family.
When the Pope dies, and a family friend is short-listed to become the first American pope, Annie creates a hilarious campaign of lies to increase the heavenward status of herself and her family, but soon is haunted by her own dishonesty.
When she discovers a wedding photograph of her mother next to a soldier who is not her father, when ‘The Hands’ visit her at night, as her sister faces a scandal, Annie realizes her parents will do almost anything to maintain their reputation in the parish.
Questioning all she has been taught and torn between her own gut instinct and years of Catholic guilt, Annie takes courageous risks to wrest salvation from the sequence of events set in motion by her parents’ betrayal.
2022 was a record year for books awarded NYC BIG BOOK AWARD due to the high level of quality and diversity books submitted, worldwide. Journalists, well established writers, small and large publishers and first-time indie authors participated in high numbers. Entries were received from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. Cities such as Ann Arbor, Edmonton, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Philadelphia, Santa Cruz, Singapore, Toronto, Vancouver were among the entries. Winners were recognized from Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malta, Sweden, and the United States of America.
Awarded titles hailed from Blackstone Publishing, Friesen Press, Gatekeeper Press and Greenleaf Book Group Press. Exemplary children publishers included Mango and Marigold Press. Independent presses such as Gibbs Smith Books, Koehler Books, Rowman & Littlefield, and She Writes Press earned winner and distinguished favorite awards. AuthorHouse, IngramSpark, KindleDirect, and SDP Publishing were among the self-publishing platforms. Lastly, HarperCollins, MacMillan, and Penguin Random House were among the large publishers that entered.
“We are elated to highlight these authors’ books, recognize their excellence, and share their achievements,” said awards sponsor Gabrielle Olczak. With our newly formatted website and expanded reach, “We look forward to showcasing these titles to a larger audience.”
See more about A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE, visit caitlinhicks.com
To view the list of NYC Big Book winners and distinguished favorites, please visit:https://www.nycbigbookaward.com/
YouTube Channel http://youtube.com/c/IndependentPressAwardSpringNYCBigBookAwardFall
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September 21, 2022
The Night Shift
When everyone else is in bed, that’s when it sinks in. I couldn’t believe what kind of life I suddenly had. I lost my job, my family, my friends. They just deserted me. How could this be happening?
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September 2, 2022
This is How We Love, Review of Lisa Moore’s new book
House of Anansi Press, August, 2022
Review by Caitlin Hicks
“From far away, a lawn mower”
A story within a snowstorm which includes not only the many phases of wind, wet, frost, snowflakes and sleet of Canada’s eastern provinces, but also the generational history of its characters and personalities, this is how we love tosses them all into the air and observes them falling backwards and forwards and head over heels into deep snowbanks and icy wet ditches as digression by digression, a narrative emerges. The stabbing of Jules’ twenty-one year old son, Xavier serves as the opening and connecting incident, and becomes the backbone of the novel, as the author interweaves her rich tapestry with backstory.
Literary Princess of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and arguably, of Canada, (Margaret Atwood is Queen) Lisa Moore is not an easy writer to follow; her narrative, wildly digressive; not always written in sentences. And with the number of inter-connected personas, the histories, generations, and descriptions, this is how we love needs, at first, to be read carefully and / or repeatedly to remember who’s who and to feel the cohesion and craftmanship emanating from every page. Her descriptions are fast and furious, leaving a succinct impression with few words: “From far away, a lawn mower.”
In a poetic style that is highly descriptive and intricate in its focus, Moore moves forwards and backwards in time, always landing squarely in the middle of a well-remembered scene, or within inches of an exacting vision of another character. “Her name was Geraldine and she had glasses with big, thick lenses and clear plastic frames that had yellowed. . . The reflection of ceiling lights from the hall on her glasses made it impossible to see her eyes, but I could see grit where the lenses fit into plastic grooves of the frames. I could see fingerprints.”
The overarching story, that of Xavier’s stabbing and his progress in the hospital ICU during a magnificent and terrifying snowstorm is made thick and suspenseful by the inter-connectedness of the characters and Moore’s deep understanding of those moments of isolation, of near death, of the interior dream-state. In the ambulance, Xavier:
“I want to stay alive, he said. Bubbles of blood in the corner of his mouth. He could taste a rusty foam.
“They will know I love them, he thought, and it was like a weight had been taken off his chest. . . even though he wanted to hang on long enough to communicate this one idea, this thing: He loved Violet. He loved them all, but Violet. What a load of agony that he couldn’t tell Violet, that she wasn’t there with him.”
These people that ‘Xay’ sees before him on the stretcher, are his mother Jules, his father, Joe, his half-sister Nell, his aunt Helen, uncle Gerry, his grandmother, Florence. And a host of others. But first, nothing can be understood without the essential story of Xay’s great grandmother, Bride Peach. Xay’s girlfriend, Violet. And anyone captured in one of the many vignettes so carefully curated and presented in each chapter.
It almost comes as a surprise that one of the most compelling characters in the story is Trinity Brophy, an instigating force at the centre of the stabbing incident. As a child, Brophy is raised by a practical and closely controlled professional foster parent, Mary Mahoney. Out of survival necessity, Trinity lives by instinct, tracing her investment in Xavier’s life back to their play as little children – and to her abandonment by her mother. A virtual orphan at seven-and-a-half, Trinity becomes intensely human through her emotional trials and her scattered life.
The remainder of this review is posted on New York Journal of Books site: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...
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August 14, 2022
Finally, I’ve Seen the Face of My Grandparents Killer
She knew his last name—Arlt. And his rank in the Waffen SS—Unterscharführer—equivalent to that of a sergeant. She knew he had been stationed in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. But she was haunted by missing details.
Here is Claudia Cornwall, reading the story of her discovery:
Finally I’ve Seen the Face of My Grandparents’ Killer
The story about Claudia’s discovery was first published in Tyee on July 9, 2022 under the title, “Finally I’ve Seen the Face of My Grandparents’ Killer” and then reprinted on July 22, 2022 in BC BOOKLOOK under the title, “Picture of a Killer.”
Above, CLAUDIA as a child, with her parents. You can learn more about Claudia Cornwall, writer & author on Wikipedia. All her published work is available on Amazon.
The post Finally, I’ve Seen the Face of My Grandparents Killer appeared first on Caitlin Hicks.
The Face of My Grandparents Killer
She knew his last name—Arlt. And his rank in the Waffen SS—Unterscharführer—equivalent to that of a sergeant. She knew he had been stationed in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. But she was haunted by missing details.
Here is Claudia Cornwall, reading the story of her discovery:
Finally I’ve Seen the Face of My Grandparents’ Killer
The story about Claudia’s discovery was first published in Tyee on July 9, 2022 under the title, “Finally I’ve Seen the Face of My Grandparents’ Killer” and then reprinted on July 22, 2022 in BC BOOKLOOK under the title, “Picture of a Killer.”
Above, CLAUDIA as a child, with her parents. You can learn more about Claudia Cornwall, writer & author on Wikipedia. All her published work is available on Amazon.
The post The Face of My Grandparents Killer appeared first on Caitlin Hicks.
August 8, 2022
IT DID NOT START WITH JFK
The Decades of Events That Led to The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
By Walter Herbst
Sunbury Press, October, 2021
ISBN 10: 978-1-62006-874-8
Review by Caitlin Hicks
The detailed history of society, culture and country in the four decades prior to the assassination of American President John F. Kennedy, reveals a fascinating – and disturbing interpretation of events unfolding in the years leading up to the ‘unsolved’ mystery of that fateful day in Dallas, Texas.
The cover image of IT DID NOT START WITH JFK, a relaxed portrait of the 1963 U.S. President leaning on the backseat of the convertible where he was mortally wounded seconds later, reflects his sense of power and entitlement – and his absolute cluelessness to the dark forces swirling around him.
Walter Herbst, author of IT DID NOT START WITH JFK has created a two-volume, meticulously researched oeuvre covering historical events as early as 1924, which build a case over decades revealing the forces that led to the assassination of JFK. Published by Sunbury Press, the work reveals uncanny similarity to today’s events. It’s written and annotated like a PhD thesis, backed up by pages of references.
With summary after story after incident, the author proves with his tome that good journalism is born of natural curiosity. Herbst’s compelling journey creates associations based upon questions he asked himself as his research led him to the formulation of his theory. He begins with attempted assassinations, military coups and murders of world leaders from 1961 to 1964, all liberal governments, the dirty work mostly at the hands of the CIA, including the leaders of Turkey, France, Iraq, Syria, Guatemala, Italy, Ecuador, Dominician Republic, Honduras, South Vietnam, Gabon, Cuba, Brazil and Bolivia. He spots the obvious similarities.
Herbst asks questions that lead to his unsettling discoveries support his theory, “the assassination of JFK was a domestic conspiracy consisting of an elite group that wanted to change the country at the expense of what most Americans wanted.”
Using names, dates, treaties, political appointments, arrests, murders, testimony and other numerous facts available in plain sight, Herbst points out “For in the 1960s, the United States was on the verge of accepting coexistence with Communist nations, promoting the inevitability of racial equality and expanding social programs that elites believed destroyed self-determination.”
The link between the fascism that lingered after World War II, fear of Communism, the Vatican, the US Military and belief in rightness so characteristic of Catholic Church, produced “an organized effort throughout the world to remove pro-Communist governments from power and when necessary, to assassinate leaders who stood in the way of this occurring.”
With names, dates and the re-telling of events taking place in plain sight of American citizens, Herbst sets up the dynamic that still existed in 1963 – when this cabal decided once and for all, that John F. Kennedy had crossed the line. But not before his readers can add it all up for themselves.
As early as 1932, Herbst points to attempts to overthrow FDR by fascist elites. At the time, a bill was passed in Congress providing World War I veterans additional compensation to be paid in 1945. In the summer of 1932 over 20,000 veterans (dubbed ‘The Bonus Army’) marched on Washington demanding payment. Addressing the crowd was Major General Smedley Butler. The protestors were dispersed by General Douglas McArthur and his military contingent. But the following year, FDR abandoned the gold standard, which delinked the dollar to gold. FDR was then able to print money to fund his social programs, and his opponents feared runaway inflation and bankruptcy on the heels of the Great Depression. And when FDR officially recognized the USSR on November 16, 1933, Herbst notes: “the potential for his violent overthrow became more serious.”
Major Butler then became involved with a “right-wing group of wealthy Fascist Americans whose intent was to overthrow the United States government.” Big money, including the DuPont’s and JP Morgan, planned to use Butler to assemble 500,000 men in Washington to take over the US government. But Butler smelled treason and revealed the plot to the House of Representatives. After its exposure, the story quietly disappeared – as the conspirators were much too influential to be charged with anything, but these members of The American Liberty League subsidized groups such as the facist and anti-Semitic “Sentinels of the Republic” and “Crusaders” who considered lynching Roosevelt. Attempts and plots were made on FDR’s life and in January 1940, 18 members of a “Christian Front” splinter group were charged with attempting to overthrow the US government by seizing the White House and installing a military dictator.
“Wealthy elites in America wanted to stop anyone who supported a Socialist agenda,” writes Herbst, and then he goes on to describe Louisiana Senator Huey Long’s “Share Our Wealth” program which proposed a redistribution of wealth, a guaranteed income for every family in America, pensions for the elderly, aid for schools and other such ‘Socialist’ evils. Long was assassinated on September 10, 1935.
Herbst cites right-wing paramilitary groups such as The Square Deal Association, the Liberty League, The John Birch Society, who were so infused with fear of the Left that they believed the only way to stop them was through armed revolt.
“During the cold war, the radical right seized upon an abnormal fear of communism to create an atmosphere of hysteria. . . they wanted . . an unprovoked first strike against the Soviet Union and China to eliminate communism once and for all.”
Herbst’s narrative creates a teeming picture of society in the decades prior to JFK’s shooting: with famous players such as Charles Lindburgh, who was a proponent of eugenics, Henry Luce, the radical right-wing publisher of Life magazine (who purchased the Zapruder fil and locked it away so no one could see it), Pope Pius XI, who blamed Jews for the Bolshevik takeover of Russia and supported Mussolini and fascism, Mafia boss Lucky Luciano who funded stay-behind armies fighting communism in post-war Europe and many ex-Nazi war criminals, brought to the US as part of Operation Paperclip. General Douglas MacArthur, Charles de Gaulle, Fidel Castro, Chiang Kai-shek, Lyndon Johnson, Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife Marina – , even Joe Kennedy and the entire Bush family – Herbst has an historical back story for each, weaving their relevance into his tapestry.
Herbst studies the growth of the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned against: “The Military-Industrial Complex and their radical right, Christian, racist, White Nationalist supporters perfectly fit the definition of fascism. Extreme military nationalism defined them. The believed in American superiority . . racial segregation and eugenics. A social class system was part of their core values, including the purging of undesirables from society. The subordination of individual interests for the national’s good was another way of saying self-determination was their God-given right guaranteed by The Constitution. . . These people were beyond right-wing; They were fascists in every sense of the word who were willing to fight and die to preserve their American way of life in the 1950s.”
He tracks the abundant influence of The Mafia, the backstory of The Korean War, even the beginnings of the Vietnam War, when Vietnam asserted itself against France as an independent country. IT DID NOT START WITH JFK is more than an investigation into the death of JFK; it is an indictment of powerful forces within the United States who, while trying to preserve their country in their own image and likeness, commit all forms of treason, betrayal and murder in the United States and around the world.
The research is obvious in this stunning who-done-it; sometimes it sounds like delicious gossip, at others, the telling of deadly secrets. Taken together, Herbst’s impressive life’s work clearly re-defines the cleansed image of the happy nuclear US family relocating to the suburbs after the war, with Mom in the kitchen loading the gleaming dishwasher, Dad home from work at the office, living a modern, democratic existence, “with truth and justice for all.”
IT DID NOT START WITH JKF is retrospective history, a page-turning adventure into the political past, peopled with the global elite gone horribly wrong. It’s a sober reconsideration of our beliefs. A must-read.
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