Caitlin Hicks

PLAYWRIGHT. AUTHOR. PERFORMER. PRESENTER.

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The child I was: would she know me now?

Lit Brunch with Writer’s Radio A live literary conversation exploring a theme in the company of writers, creatives, & readers. The inaugural event, scheduled for Saturday May 4th 2024, explores the following theme around a light brunch at the west coast gardens and studios of Writers Radio in Halfmoon Bay. Readings and animated discussion with audience participation will be recorded live for later broadcast. The child I was: would she know me now? This question

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Hospice & Hospital: A Broken Heart

Before we knew he was lost to us. One day Andrew fell over. He just couldn’t hold himself up. There was a time in the recent past year when he lived in a wheelchair in a rehab center.  His ex-wife had Power of Attorney. No one seemed to know what he ‘has’. From my home, it would take at least 19 hours and 24 minutes to drive to Andrew, not counting the ferry or an

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The joy of Andrew, #13

Subject: belated birthday greetings Sent: 15/9/20 12:43 AM Received: 14/9/00 10:05 PM From: Andrew Hicks Dear, How are you? HAPPY BIRTHDAY late. I am sorry I did not communicate with you concerning the anniversary celebration of your birth. Anyway, I hope you had a most excellent and triumphant day. How many Earth years are you, exactly? Isn’t it amazing that all of us have lived as long as we have? Have a wonderful day, even

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Creating a Sell Sheet for your novel

As an author, we all need publisher support when interfacing with news outlets, literary festivals, libraries and contest/prizes. It’s just a fact that an author is taken more seriously when represented by her publisher. And Gord keeps saying, “If only this novel were in the hands of that special person, who could just recommend it to a friend . . . ” His confidence comes from the overwhelming support and excellent love I received with

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Vietnam war: front page of The Pasadena Star News

“January 7, 1968. Dear Diary, Today the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour hit number 1 on the charts, a duck hunter accidentally shot a whooping crane already going extinct, and Bing LaBelle finally made it to the front page of the Pasadena Star News: Bing LaBelle (St. Francis Class of’66) home from Vietnam in a coffin.” – Kennedy Girl, p 1. With KENNEDY GIRL, Caitlin Hicks draws us back to 1968 in America.  Deftly painting the

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The fiction of KENNEDY GIRL: “Your own life is within it”

A conversation with a friend after reading KENNEDY GIRL Finished “Kennedy Girl” this morning plus the discussion topics which followed.   Much to say: writing was excellent, kept my attention throughout.  You have a gift for vivid imagery,  especially in portraying feelings.  I was going to say, “I felt like I knew Annie” but then in a way I do know her.  No, you write fiction but your own life is within it, and naturally so. 

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A vicious beating just for having a white girl in his truck with him

Kennedy Girl Review by Kay McCracken   I enjoyed reliving American history of the tumultuous 60’s through the eyes and emotions of Annie Shea in Caitlin Hicks’ new novel Kennedy Girl. Annie is the compelling protagonist in Caitlin’s first best-selling novel A Theory of Expanded Love. In this sequel novel Annie is getting ready to go off to college, although she and her Conservative Catholic father don’t see eye to eye on where she should go. Annie

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Metamorphosis in the Turbulent Year of 1968

A Review of KENNEDY GIRL by Walter Herbst Kennedy Girl is an entertaining and provocative book that takes place in the turbulent year of 1968. Having written two books on the JFK assassination myself, what made the book so compelling for me is the historical accuracy of the events that unfold as a backdrop to the main story. The main characters of the book are two teenagers, Annie Shea and Lucas Jones. Annie is white

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Of life, of death, of growing up through an inflection point in the history of America

Skeletons in the Closet, a review of Kennedy Girl by Craig Brunanski My grandson Lex is a fan of all things Halloween. His collection of animatronics ranges in size from hand puppets to giant monoliths that brush the ceiling; our rec room is nearly impassable. Today, just as I’d finished reading Caitlin Hicks’ novel, Kennedy Girl, Lex presented me with his latest addition. This one, the size of a five-year-old, was dressed in a tuxedo,

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Stunning read!

Hi Caitlin,  I have just finished Kennedy Girl.  Sitting here feeling wowed at your deeply moving story.  I read A LOT and rarely do I need to just sit and absorb the feelings of the characters and the profoundly moving story.  The tragedies of the 60’s don’t seem to have taught us much by looking around societies today. Stunning read! Awesome work and no doubt bound for success! Odessa (Bromley) June 9, 2023 ______________________________________________________ Isn’t

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First GOODREADS review: “I simply loved both books”

Kennedy Girl and A Theory of Expanded Love by Caitlin Hicks Review by Carole Harmon of Writer’s Radio Other reviewers of Caitlin Hicks’ inspired novels have often burst into superlatives. I feel much the same way. The two novels follow the transformation of Annie Shea from a gawky twelve year old, desperate to make her mark as # 6 in a Catholic family of thirteen children (fourteen by the novel’s end), into an unstoppable seventeen

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Reviews: an essential way to connect

One of the first people I shared my first novel with (A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE ), George Payerle, said something that I will remember for the rest of my life. I had given my manuscript to him to read because I didn’t know if it was any good at all. And I was told that George would know. George was a writer – who figured in the Canadian writers landscape; he was one of

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Our first Amazon & Goodreads reviews

Kennedy Girl and A Theory of Expanded Love by Caitlin Hicks reviewed by Carole Harmon   Other reviewers of Caitlin Hicks’ inspired novels have often burst into superlatives. I feel much the same way. The two novels follow the transformation of Annie Shea from a gawky twelve year old, desperate to make her mark as # 6 in a Catholic family of thirteen children (fourteen by the novel’s end), into an unstoppable seventeen year old

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A few words on KENNEDY GIRL: Isn’t that why we read fiction?

PJ REECE, Writer, Author, Blogger “I love Annie because she’s a freedom fighter all the way.’ Every story is an “escape” story. And in Caitlin Hicks’ Kennedy Girl, escapes are in progress on many fronts. The protagonist, Annie Shea is escaping childhood. Her black boyfriend, Lucas, is running from the L.A.P.D. in the immediate aftermath of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1968. And Annie’s brother, Bart, is hell-bent on reaching Canada to escape the Vietnam

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Word on the Lake Writers Festival: In good company

We’re not done yet. We are still breathing; it is still our time. Those of us whose hearts are still beating after all the recent onslaughts, we are living our lives second by second. There is only now. And yet. A writer writes things down, and by necessity, these events take place on the page, and the act of writing puts them in the past. Word on the Lake Writer’s Festival in Salmon Arm. I

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Keynote at Word on the Lake Writer’s Festival

This moment. The stage set with all the microphones and cords and gear for Valdy. For all of us. Blu Hopkins, who worked as sound tech standing there behind his big beard patiently calculating prior to showtime. The night before we flippantly asked Alan Harrison, the Mayor of Salmon Arm, to keep it concise, so I could use the short time deliver the keynote with confidence (!). We were tongue-n-cheek.  He had invited Gord to

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KENNEDY GIRL arrives with ‘BABY LOVE’ book cover

The day was scorching and the woman’s name was Darcy, who has been delivering packages on the Sunshine Coast for about seven years. She’s really strong. The boxes were heavy. But she wrapped her arms around them and hoisted them up, like nothing. My books arrived with her, all dressed up in these excellent covers designed by Gordon Halloran. When I look at that little peanut on the cover, the attention-grabbing image of those two

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RFK words to live by in 2023 – from KENNEDY GIRL

‘I don’t think it’s up to us here in the United States, to say that we’re going to destroy all of South Vietnam because we have a commitment there. The commander of the forces at Ben Tre said we have to destroy that city in order to save it. So 38,000 people were wipe out or made refugees? We here in the United States – every human being that’s in this room – we are

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Take my recipe, please!

Mother Marcelle's Spaghetti, as discussed in my podcast, "Some kinda woman - Stories of Us"

Sign up for podcast and writing updates and receive a copy of the infamous “Mother Marcelle’s Spaghetti” – a favourite that fed a family of 16 in the 60’s