Joyce Hicks' fiction has appeared in "Passager, "Uncharted Territory", Touch: The Journal of Healing, and others. "An Outing for Betty," the first chapter of "Escape from Assisted living", appeared in "Literary Mama" and was named within the editor's ten-best for 2007. This citation along with receiving an honorable mention for Chicago NPR's contest for "Stories on Stage" validated her interest in the minutiae of family life, particularly at the gateways to new stages. She coached students in writing at a midwestern university for many years and lives with her pets and husband in northwest Ind...