Monday, May 4, 2015

PRAISE HER, PRAISE DIANA BY ANNE ROTHMAN-HICKKS & KEN HICKS Interview & Giveaway


PRAISE HER, PRAISE DIANA
 BY
 ANNE ROTHMAN-HICKKS & KEN HICKS
Call it life imitating art—author Maggie Edwards publishes a chapter of a book detailing seduction, murder and castration by a protagonist named Diana, and suddenly a woman code-named Diana begins to mimic her actions in real time. Women who have been abused find Diana to be an inspirational figure, and begin to fight back in her name. Soon violence erupting throughout New York City threatens to spiral out of control. As the police try desperately to identify Diana, Maggie's high-powered lawyer, Jane Larson, finds herself at the center of an investigation that threatens to upend the entire world around her.

BUY LINKS



ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Anne Rothman-Hicks and Kenneth Hicks have been married for a little over forty years and have produced about twenty books and exactly three children so far. At press-time, they still love their children more.
Their most recent novels have been set in New York City, where they have lived for most of their married lives. Anne is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College where, in nineteen sixty-nine, as the fabled Sixties were drawing to a close, she met Ken, who was a student at Haverford College. They don't like to admit that they met at a college mixer, but there it is!

Together their books include Theft of the Shroud, a novel; Starfinder, a non-fiction book about the stars for children; a series of books on individual names for children (for example Michael's Book, Elizabeth's Book, John's Book, Jennifer's Book, David's Book, Amy's Book); and, most recently, Kate and the Kid, Mind Me, Milady, and Praise Her, Praise Diana, three adult novels, and a middle reader/tween novel, Things Are Not What They Seem.

Ken and Anne have a website with the address set out below. There they have links to some of their books and display images that they hope will be used in future efforts. In case you were wondering about the website address, "R" is for Rothman, "H" is for Hicks, and 71 is the year of their marriage. No secret codes or numerology anywhere. Sorry.

Author Links



 INTERVIEW
Where are you from?
Ken grew up in Abingdon, Pennsylvania, which is a suburb to the northeast of Philadelphia.  Anne was born in New York City, lived in Westchester County with her parents from age 8 through college, and returned to New York City at her first opportunity. We have lived together in New York City since 1973.

Tell us your latest news.
Melange Books LLC has accepted our latest novel for publication in 2016.  Like Praise her, Praise Diana, our newest book involves the Jane Jensen character, a lawyer in Manhattan who loves her work a little too much sometimes.  Ken is a lawyer and his knowledge of the courts of New York has been useful in all three of our recently published adult novels.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
We both were voracious readers as children and wrote stories and poems while in elementary school.  From that point on, the idea that we were writers grew naturally and was never very far from our minds.

What inspired you to write your first book?
When we were undergraduates (Anne at Bryn Mawr College and Ken at Haverford College), we arranged with a professor to do an independent study writing project together. A book for children called A Moon and a Tune came out of the experience.  Although it now resides in a closet somewhere, we have essentially been writing together ever since.  Over the years, we have published four adult novels, two middle reader novels, ten non-fiction books for young children based on popular names, a non-fiction book on the stars for children, and two photography books.

Do you have a specific writing style?
We write in many different genres—mystery, thriller, mainstream, and middle reader/tween fiction. After writing together for many years, we have developed a style, which has realistic characters, settings and dialogue.  Although Anne’s first attempts at writing were poetry, we try not to be overly wordy or self-involved or precious.

How did you come up with the title?
One of the main characters in Praise Her, Praise Diana has written a novel in which a woman by the name of Diana is seeking revenge for a rape by seducing and killing men.  When the work is published in serial form, a woman begins to imitate the character in that book-within-the-book and calls herself Diana also.  We chose the name Diana because that was the name of a Goddess in ancient times, and there are myths in which she killed men who happened to see her while she was bathing.  “Praise Her, Praise Diana” is a line from a short poem that becomes a kind of mantra for certain women and a call to action in the novel.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
There are several messages.  The first message is that rape is an act of violence, not of sex. The book deals with the effect of rape on a woman’s life and the myriad ways that sexual violence and the threat of sexual violence can affect the lives of all women.  A second message is that the need for revenge can destroy the individual seeking it.  Lastly, the book expresses the thought that a person must be able to forgive and seek forgiveness or the memory of a past event can be inescapable and devastating.

How much of the book is realistic?
The book is completely realistic in most details, although in many cases the specific circumstances have not occurred in that exact way.  For example, we have imagined a radical group of feminists who support the Diana character and who begin to perform violent acts against men to publicize their message.  We are not aware of any such group and have never belonged to one, and yet their tactics mimic those of other radical groups in their use of violence, intimidation, torture and death.

Are experiences based on someone you know or events in your own life?
The statistics on rape are astounding.  Some say that 3 in 10 women have been sexually assaulted.  Other studies put the number much higher.  It is not hard to find examples. The scenes portrayed in the book are based on events and emotions we have observed and experienced during the course of our own lives and those of our friends.

What books have most influenced your life?
Ken loves the way Charles Dickens creates characters and tells a story, but there are many other authors he admires greatly, including William Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut, and Elmore Leonard.  However, a novel called Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo affected Ken in major ways.  He read the book in high school and it was so different from anything he had read previously that it changed the way he viewed writing and life in general. 

Anne also enjoys Kurt Vonnegut as well as Jeffrey Archer and Ken Follett.  She is the type who reads voraciously for weeks at a time and seems to absorb very little, although in the end she comes up with some bizarre and interesting ideas and themes.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Anne thinks William Butler Yeats is a very inspiring writer.  His poetic voice has gotten her through lots of severe self-doubt.  For Ken, William Faulkner’s writing has a similar inspirational effect.

What book are you reading now?
Anne is reading Winds of War by Herman Wouk.  Ken is reading the Bible in preparation of another book we are developing.

Are there any new authors that have grabbed your interest?
Anne has been reading many contemporary authors, such as Jodi Picoult and Maeve Binchy. Ken tends to read history and classics.

What are your current projects?
We are finishing a middle reader book in which a girl and her friend are attracted to carved faces on old buildings that come to life.  We are also working on a multi-volume mainstream series that will cover the lives of the characters over a twenty-year span of time.

What would you like my readers to know?
We believe that Praise Her, Praise Diana is an important book with pressing themes about women in today’s society.  The subject matter is sometimes outside the comfort zone of women, but virtually everyone who has read the novel has said they were glad they did.  We hope that your readers will take the leap and give it a try.  We think they will find that it is a compelling story with interesting and realistic characters.  Many have said that the message of the novel resonates with them and that the story stays with them long after they have finished reading.


GIVEAWAY

$35 Amazon gift card


11 comments:

  1. I think the book cover is very eye catching!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the book cover is appealing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is one of the best books I've read in a very long time I highly recommend it to lovers of suspense and thrillers, those who admire exquisite writing, and those who like their reads to deal with important social issues. I simply can't rate this book highly enough.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think the cover is very eye catching.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Definitely caught my attention! Great cover!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looking at the book cover makes me want to read the book.
    That's how interesting it is.
    thank you

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm definitely a fan of the book cover!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The book cover looks awesome!

    rounder9834 @yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think the book cover looks great.. very creative.

    ReplyDelete