-I'm Betty Allen Langley.

One of my favorites on PBS is The Lawrence Welk Show.

Watching it with my grandmother and my mother years and years ago as I was growing up, it was just a favorite.

I was just fascinated at the dancers and the singers and Lawrence Welk.

He was just amazing.

I love going back to my childhood and watching The Lawrence Welk Show just like I did years and years ago.

So important.

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-Straight ahead on Tennessee Writes, we're meeting an author who writes two very different genres of books, cozy mysteries and dystopian thrillers.

Jennifer Hicks, or J. Hicks, as she signs her books, lives in West Tennessee with her family.

That includes a beloved chihuahua.

She studied fine arts at the University of Tennessee in Martin and went on to get her doctorate in education at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville.

She was a teacher for 10 years before she started writing books, 16 of them on Amazon at last count.

When she's not writing, she's busy selling her stories at local book fairs.

She's a big fan of the Golden Girls, and who isn't?

Pour yourself a big cup of coffee and find your favorite comfy chair because Tennessee Writes starts right now.

-Books about Tennessee.

-Books that come from Tennessee authors.

-Books and stories with a Tennessee twist.

-West Tennessee PBS presents Tennessee Writes.

-Hello, and welcome to Tennessee Writes, the show that goes beyond the book to meet with the author like you've never seen them before.

My name is Peter Noll.

We are about to get up close and personal with another Tennessee writer, from their childhood, how they began writing, where their stories come from, and what advice they have for you if you want to write your own book.

Plus, we put them on the stopwatch as they try and answer questions in the lightning round.

-Today, Tennessee Writes welcomes Jennifer Hicks, a University of Tennessee Martin graduate.

She went on to get her doctorate in education from Trevecca Nazarene University.

She taught language arts to teens for 10 years before beginning her writing career.

Her books include cozy mysteries and futuristic.. She lives in West Tennessee with her family, including a beloved chihuahua named Poppy.

Tennessee Writes welcomes Jennifer Hicks.

-Welcome to Tennessee Writes, Jennifer.

-Thank you for having me.

-Thanks for coming in.

Jennifer Hicks, J. Hicks you sign your books.

When you google J. Hicks, J.L.

Hicks, there's a ton of authors.

-There really are.

-The first time I did it, there was somebody, and it said they wrote an award-winning Star Trek episode.

Then it was like, oh, they live in Arizona.

I'm like, "Well, that can't be."

-Yes, it's a very common name.

-There's a ton of them.

How does that work when you're an author and there's other authors with similar-- -Well, I tried to shorten my name to make it-- because my name is Jennifer Lynn Hicks, which is even more common.

I tried to fix it, and I failed miserably.

-Where were you born?

Where did you grow up?

-I was born in Memphis, but I grew up in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

-Okay.

You currently live in?

-Rutherford.

-Rutherford, David Crockett County.

-That's correct.

-You said you're related.

-I am.

-How so?

-He is my eighth cousin.

My dad's name is David Crockett, well, was, and my brother's name is David Crockett Jr.

-Wow.

Do you have a Crockett family reunion?

-We used to, but, really, the age of the people who do reunions is passing.

-It's sad how that is happening.

-It is.

-You've always been in Tennessee.

-Yes.

-You went to UTM, University of Tennessee, Martin.

What did you want to do?

You did fine arts.

When you were going there, what did you think, "I'm going to do this for the rest of my life"?

-I was going to do theater, and I was lucky enough to get an audition with a very exclusive school.

I was not able to go, and so I left school for a while, and I returned in my 30s to finish up my bachelor's.

-When you said you wanted to do theater, .. -I did acting and directing.

-What plays were you in?

-My favorite one was called The Dining Table.

It was a lot of vignettes about how the family needs to sit at the dining room table and what comes out.

-What made you pivot and go, "Oh, I'm going to go into teaching"?

-Honestly, I was driving down the road, and there was a billboard that said, "In 18 months, you can have your master's in education."

I thought, I could, so I did.

-Advertising works, everyone.

Advertising works.

You picked Nazarene in Nashville.

-Yes.

That's interesting, because I started out in preschool in a Nazarene school and finished my schooling in Nazarene.

-Life does come full circle, doesn't it?

-It does.

-You taught language arts.

What does that mean exactly?

-English.

It's a way of saying English.

I taught writing and literature, logic.

-To teenagers that you just taught English?

-Yes.

-Okay.

Where did you do that?

-At Crockett County in Alamo.

-Did you like that?

-I did.

I love kids around that age.

They were eighth graders, so 13 years old.

I relate to them.

-What do most people not know about teachers?

-They work too hard.

Whatever you think that level is, it's much higher.

-I was talking to my barber who cuts this beard, and his wife is a teacher.

We were talking how it really is a labor of love.

-It really is.

-My brother is a teacher.

I've spent a day with him, although he teaches physical education, so it's dodge ball.

-It's really important.

-He does special education, physical education, but you're on your feet all day.

-Yes.

-There is just an energy .. especially younger- -It's the group dynamics.

--that it sucked the life out of me, and then teachers do it every day.

It really is a labor of love.

Why did you give it up to become writing?

Because you quit after 10 years, right?

-I did.

I had a medical break.

Actually, I started writing a story with my students.

They would say they couldn't write.

I would put it on the whiteboard, and I just started typing a story one day.

Said, "Yes, you can write.

See, this is how you do it."

I got done with that portion of it.

I was like, "Kids, this is good.

I think I'm going to keep it."

That was how I started.

-You haven't looked back.

-No.

-Did you ever envision, when you were a 10-year-old girl, that you were going to become an author?

-No.

No.

No.

I loved English.

I was really good at it.

No, I never thought I would write.

I was a poet.

I always liked to write poetry.

Then when I was doing my fine arts, I did a little bit of playwriting, but long-form writing, I never thought that I would be able to do that.

-Do you substitute teach?

Do you ever go back to teaching?

-No, I do not.

-Talk to me about how you keep going with writing, because when I follow your social media, it's like I'm going to crank out more pages.

It's almost like you're trying to psych yourself up to keep on writing.

-That's exactly it.

-Tell me about that.

-I do a lot of goal planning, but right now, I'm trying to do more routines and habits so that I can be productive in a shorter amount of time and give my full energy to what I'm writing.

-As a journalist, which that's what I studied to do, it's always that deadline.

You have a six o'clock newscast to get written for.

That deadline rules the day.

-Yes.

-If you're working for yourself, yo.. there's no deadline unless you've got a publisher calling you saying, "When's your next draft coming?"

-Right.

I goal-set for that so I know what I want to do in a year.

-How good are you at that?

-I'm pretty good.

This last year, I've been a little slower, and that's okay because I'm finding my footing with a new routine.

-What's that routine?

-I write every day with my friend Jessica White online, and we co-write and we call it body doubling.

-Now, I did notice that you have a writing retreat.

You've been to that.

What is a writing retreat?

-It's where a few of my critique group authors go and we just write all week.

-Where do you go?

-Branson.

-A hotel?

Oh, Branson.

It's like a Vegas.

Do you not go anywhere?

You just sequester yourself in a cabin or something?

-We do go see a couple of the sites and stuff, but mostly we write and we share what we've written and get good feedback.

Feedback is important.

-Okay.

With all the social media, we've heard from other authors that, hey, they have to be on social media.

That's how you get your name out there.

What's your preferred social media?

-Probably Facebook.

That's J. Hicks mystery or just Jennifer Hicks.

-Talk to me about the two different types of books that you write.

The cozy mysteries versus the dystopian.

-I love dystopian.

That's where my heart is.

Even the cozy mystery has a touch of dystopian in it.

Some people say that they're dark or depressing.

I don't see it that way at all.

The main character has such hope that they can make a change in a world that desperately needs change.

-You do a little bit of a crossover?

-Yes.

A little bit for the mystery, but it's still cozy.

It's in a single town, and insulated.

[music] -Jennifer, let's dive into your book.

This one is The Case of the Seminar Sleuth with Aggie Burns.

I don't want to give it away, but it is a fun, cozy mystery read.

You have called it a cross between Golden Girls meets Agatha Christie.

Give a read- -With a little bit of Murder, She Wrote.

-All those very popular.

I got a little sense of Nancy Drew when I finished it, too.

I was a big Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew fan.

Give our readers the elevator pitch about the book.

-This is a cozy mystery series.

This is the first in the series.

-Mystery Mavens, right?

-Mystery Mavens.

It is about a secret society of women, the Mavens, who solve mysteries in a very insulated town.

-The book is set in western Arkansas, the Ozarks.

-Right, in the Ozarks.

-How did you pick that setting?

-I wanted to do the mountain.

I liked the idea of a cove for the mountain, but my main character is actually from a fictional town in Tennessee called Kyles Ford.

-It's a fictional town in Arkansas as well, because I googled it and I didn't find it, because I thought, "Is that near Eureka Springs?"

-Yes, that should be about the same space.

-I wasn't just imagining that.

At first, I thought, "Oh, it's a big retreat," but then it's like, it's very secretive.

-Yes.

-She meets all these characters.

Aggie Burns, where does that name come from?

-Aggie is Agatha Christie.

Burns, I just like the sound of it.

-It's a salute to Agatha Christie?

-And her daughter's name is Christie.

-Okay, because my grandma's name was Agnes, but we called her Grandma Aggie.

I always pictured her in this, the Agatha Christie genre just really spoke to me throughout the entire book.

-Good.

-Why should somebody read this book?

-It's a fun read.

It'll keep you guessing.

I don't know if you cared for the puzzles in it, but it's got a few little puzzles that keep you interactive.

-I did because she's a puzzler.

Aggie is a puzzler, and there's actual puzzles throughout the book.

I didn't take time to solve them because I'm trying to read a lot of books for Tennessee Writes, but if you like puzzles, and there's all types of puzzles, it isn't just crossword puzzles, all types of word puzzles and figure-it-out puzzles are throughout the book, so if you're a puzzler, you'll especially love this.

-Yes.

-Let's do a few finish-these sentences about your book.

The one word that best describes my book is- -Funny.

-I hope my book leaves people feeling- -Happy.

-The number one reason I wrote this book was- -I always wanted to write a mystery.

I didn't think I could do it.

I didn't feel like I had it in me.

This idea came to me, and I was like, "I can do this."

I'm very proud of how it turned out.

-The number one lesson I want people to learn from my book is- -Love yourself.

[music] -Jennifer, now is the time for the Tennessee Writes lightning round.

It's where we ask our authors a series of quick book-related questions and see how many you can answer in two minutes.

If you don't know an answer, just say pass.

The clock of two minutes is going to start after my first question.

Are you excited?

Do you want to play?

-I do.

-Okay, let's go.

Two minutes is on the clock.

If you could have any world leader read your book, who would it be?

-Pass.

-What book are you most embarrassed to admit you read?

-Fifty Shades.

-When is the last time you checked out a book from a public library?

-Right now.

-What book has most influenced your life?

-The Good Earth.

-What author do you most admire?

-Agatha Christie.

-What's your favorite magazine to read?

-Writer's Digest.

-What is the name of the font used in your latest book?

-I think Garamond.

-Name the last book you finished reading.

-The Lazy Genius.

-On average, how many books do you read in one year?

-Roughly 25.

-If you could have a book signing in any city in the world, where would it be?

-My living room.

-What distracts you the most when you're trying to write?

-Dog.

-On average, how many audiobooks do you listen to in one year?

-10.

-What is your favorite book of all time?

-A Prayer for Owen Meany.

-Name a book you are reading right now.

-I went blank.

Pass.

-How many versions of your book did you write before it was completed?

-Three.

-If you were stranded on an island with only one book, what would that book be?

-The Bible.

-Do you prefer paper books or e-books?

-E-books.

-Roughly, how many books do you own?

-500.

-What is the first book that made you cry?

-Terms of Endearment.

-What author, living or dead, would you most like to have dinner with?

-Agatha Christie.

-Where would you go for dinner?

-Pass.

-What book took you the longest time to finish reading?

-The Stand.

[music] -Jennifer, we always love to hear authors read from their books and hear the words spoken by them that they wrote.

Would you mind reading a short selection for your book?

-I don't mind at all.

I'm glad to do it.

-This is from your book, The Mystery Mavens?

-Yes, The Seminar Sleuth.

-The Seminar Sleuth.

-"The woman behind her gasped.

Aggie turned.

'I can't believe it.'

A dark woman with tortoiseshell glasses ru.. through her large brown tote.

'Where is it?'

Aggie's stomach tightened.

This is where her daughter would tell her to offer some comfort, some camaraderie.

'Is everything okay?'

The words came out more miffed than helpful.

Aggie softened her tone.

'Do you need help?'

'Ah, here it is.

I'd lose my head if it weren't attached.'

The woman held up the invitation.

'It's been one of those mornings.'

Aggie smiled.

'Yes, it has.

The type of things aren't usually my cup of tea, but my daughter, Christie, encouraged me to make friends.

So here I am.

How am I doing so far?'

The woman chuckled.

Heat rose in Aggie's cheeks.

'Sorry,' she muttered.

'I'm told I'm the social equivalent of a talking sausage.

My ex-husband, Brian, insists I lack basic people skills.'

Aggie stopped.

She'd gone from one extreme to the other, flying her freak flag.

The woman dead stared and the awkward silence grew.

Aggie cut her losses and turned away.

How inept could she be?

The woman tapped her on the shoulder.

'I'm one of you,' she held out her hand, 'Mary Jo, fellow oddball.'

'Oh, thank goodness.

Someone who understands.

I'm Aggie.'

The two stared at each other with nothing further to say until Mary Jo burst into a friendly laugh.

'You're as bad as I am.

You want to hear a secret?

I love awkward moments.

I thrive in them.

It's like watching a drama in Vogue.'

'I aim to please.. [music] -Jennifer, there is someone sitting out there right now that's thinking, "I can write a book.

I've got a story to tell."

What advice do you give to them?

-First, sit down in your chair.

The authors call it butt in chair, B-I-C.

Write.

Make it a priority in your life.

You have to set everything else aside and do it.

The biggest piece of advice I have is don't hoard it.

You want to share your writing as soon as you possibly can because you won't start growing until other people read it.

-You have a lot of writing partners and you almost have a team that shares your work, you share it, you swap it, you critique it, you have a critiquing partner.

Tell us about how important that teamwork is.

-There's different type of writers.

You obviously want to get somebody who's close to the same genre.

You have to decide what genre you're going to write in.

Well, some people don't.

You want that feedback to be pushing you to get better all the time.

You have to be able to take constructive criticism.

That's really hard at the beginning, because when you first write, I'm sure other people have told you, it's your baby, and you're hesitant to give that away, but you'll never make it what it needs to be until somebody else reads it.

-When I started in television 30-some years ago, I would write a story for the news, and then we had a process where the editor would read it and maybe make a change.

The anchor would read it, maybe make a change.

Assistant news-- executive producer.

It was like, by the time it got on TV, it very much did.. what I wrote.

I took that personally at the beginning, and then I learned t.. on something, the better it is.

-It is.

It is better.

-What advice would you tell somebody who has a day job?

-Keep it.

Don't go off the deep end.

Again, you prioritize your writing and let what naturally flows out of that.

It is totally different to write as a job.

It takes a lot of self-discipline.

You think if you had all the hours in the day, that you could create everything.

Really, if you're motivated.

I work two hours a day right now on writing, with some peripheral marketing stuff.

I used to write all day long.

I used to write until midnight every day.

I wasn't more productive.

I just sat and stared at the screen longer.

You can do what you need to do, as attractive as it might be to quit the day job, hold on to it.

-Since we talked about there being so many J. Hicks, J.L.

Hicks, what's the best way people can stay in contact with you and follow your work?

-Jennifer Hicks on Facebook or J. Hicks Mystery.

Both of those lead to me.

Jennifer Hicks is my personal one, but it showcases the same things.

-That's on Facebook.

Do you have a website?

-I do.

I have jhicksmystery.com and jlynnhicks.com.

-They're both the same website?

-No.

J. Hicks would be my mystery, and J. Lynn Hicks would be my dystopian.

I'm trying to marry them together, but it's a hard combination.

-If you had to pick, "I'm only going to write cozy mysteries, dystopian thrillers for the rest of my life," what is it going to be?

-I will always write dystopian.

I will always write dystopian.

-Really?

What's your all-time favorite dystopian?

-I taught The Giver, but I love them all.

I love The Hope and The- -You mean you taught it when you were a teacher?

-For 10 years.

I love a young person looking at a world and saying, "I can do something about this to make it better."

-That genre was really hot for a while?

-Not so much anymore.

-Then it dried up.

-Well, it was hit so hard.

-Yes, because you had The Mockingjay movies, The Hunger Games, you had The Maze Runner, you had The Giver.

There was a lot of them, and then they fizzled.

-Right.

Over-saturation.

-Yes.

We have come to the end of this edition of Tennessee Writes, sadly, Jennifer, but we want to thank you for coming on- -Thank you.

--sharing about yourself.

Your journey to becoming a writer, and about your book and your books.

Before you go, would you sign your book for us?

-Absolutely.

Happy... reading, J. Hicks.

-For comments about today's show or to suggest a Tennessee author for a future program, email us at tennesseewrites@westtnpbs.org.

Tennessee Writes, on air and streaming now.

[music] -The program you've been watching was made possible through the generous financial support of West Tennessee PBS viewers like you.

Please visit westtnpbs.org and make a donation today so that we can continue to make local programs like this possible.

Thank you.

[music]