Laura Hickman

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Laura Curtis Hickman
Laura Hickman
Laura Hickman
BornLaura Curtis
(1956-12-07) December 7, 1956 (age 64)
Long Beach, California
OccupationNovelist, game designer
NationalityAmerican
Period1984–present
GenreFantasy fiction
SpouseTracy Hickman (1977–present)
Children4
Website
www.bakingoutsidethebox.com

Laura Curtis Hickman (born December 7, 1956 in Long Beach, California) is an American fantasy author, best known for her works in game design and fantasy novels cowritten with her husband, Tracy Hickman. She was one of the first women to write and publish a tabletop adventure.

Early life[]

Laura Curtis was born on December 7, 1956 in Long Beach, California.[1] She married Tracy Hickman in 1977,[2] and they had four children. Laura Hickman is a Latter-day Saint.[1]

Career[]

a blonde woman in a pink shirt sits between a man in a black shirt and a goatee (left) and a man with brown hair wearing tan (right)
Hickman with husband Tracy Hickman (left) and Nathan Fillion (right)

Early on in her marriage, Hickman introduced her husband, Tracy, to the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.[3] The two decided to co-write modules for the game while living in Provo,[4] resulting in the original versions of the modules Rahasia and Pharaoh,[5] which the Hickmans self-published through DayStar West Media in 1980.[6]:15 Their adventure modules began as "photocopied pages with covers [they] would staple together on the card table in [their] kitchen."[3]

a blonde woman wearing a purple-and-white shirt and a red lanyard
Hickman at Lucca Comics & Games 2008

During the early 1980s, the Hickmans were living in Logan, Utah and were struggling financially[3] after Tracy's business associate left him with $30,000 in debt.[5] Upon hearing that the Dungeons & Dragons publisher, TSR, would pay $500 for new modules,[3] the Hickmans decided to send Rahasia and Pharaoh to the company.[5] TSR agreed to publish the Hickmans' modules.[5] Laura Hickman was one of the first women to write tabletop adventures.[7] TSR offered the Hickmans jobs as well. They accepted, and moved to Wisconsin. Laura and Tracy Hickman spent the hours in the car driving from Utah to Wisconsin developing their idea for Dragonlance,[3] code-naming it "Project Overlord."[5] The Hickmans co-created Dragonlance and Laura was the inspiration for the character Laurana Kanan. Dragonlance became "the first project TSR, Inc. had undertaken that would include adult novels as well as games, calendars, and other spin-off products."[5] Over time, and through the efforts of many others, Dragonlance grew to include half a million game modules and two million books.[5]

The Hickmans have been publishing game designs together for over thirty years,[8] including the popular and innovative Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Ravenloft module in 1983.[2] They published their first joint novel, Mystic Warrior, in 2004.[9] Tracy and Laura hosted a podcast called DragonHearth until December 2010.[10] They also wrote the adventure Out in the Black (2006) for the Serenity Role Playing Game for Margaret Weis Productions.[6]:353 The Whitney Awards highlighted the Hickmans for having "paved the way in out-of-the-box publishing methods."[8]

In 2010, Tracy and Laura Hickman launched a direct-to-internet serialized fantasy series, "".[11]

Hickman has been involved at writing conferences such as Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers.[8]

Works[]

Game supplements[]

Co-written with Tracy Hickman.
For Dungeons & Dragons:

For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons:

For the Serenity Role Playing Game:

  • Out in the Black (2006)[14]

Fiction[]

Co-written with Tracy Hickman:[]

  • Bronze Canticles series [16]
    • Mystic Warrior (2004)
    • Mystic Quest (2005)
    • Mystic Empire (2006)
  • Tales of the Dragon's Bard series[16]
    • Eventide (2010)
    • Blackshore (2013)
    • Moredale (unpublished)[17]
    • St. Nicholas and the Dragon (2012)
  • Swept Up By the Sea: A Romantic Fairy Tale (2013) [18]
  • Sojourner Tales (2014)
  • The Nightbirds series[16]
    • Unwept (2014)
    • Unhonored (2016)

Non-fiction[]

  • Baking Outside the Box: Volume 1 The Goody Mix

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Laura Curtis Hickman". Mormon Literature and Creative Arts Database. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Varney, Allen (August 1998). "ProFiles: Tracy Hickman" (PDF). Dragon. Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast (#250): 120.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Nahrung, Jason (2008-06-28). "Dragonlance duo step in". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane.
  4. ^ Hickman, Tracy. "Tracy Hickman's Works with Laura Curtis". TRHickman.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2009. Retrieved August 12, 2009.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Weis, Margaret (April 1987). "TSR Profiles" (PDF). Dragon. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, Inc. (#120): 91.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Appelcline, Shannon (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  7. ^ "Tracy and Laura Hickman". Shadow Mountain Publishing. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Outstanding Achievement Winners: Tracy and Laura Hickman". Whitney Awards. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  9. ^ Hickman, Tracy (2007). "Battle Cry". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 21–23. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
  10. ^ "DragonHearth Podcast Feed". Listen Notes. Retrieved 2021-08-16.
  11. ^ "Dragons Bard". Dragon's Bard Website. 2010. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014.
  12. ^ "Dragons of War catalog record". BYU Library.
  13. ^ Rateliff, John D. (2004). "Introduction to Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on June 3, 2009. Retrieved March 6, 2007.
  14. ^ "Out in the Black - Serenity from Margaret Weis Productions". Noble Knight Games.
  15. ^ "Title: Heart of Goldmoon". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Summary Bibliography: Laura Hickman". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  17. ^ "Title: Moredale". www.isfdb.org.
  18. ^ "Title: Swept Up By the Sea: A Romantic Fairy Tale". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 2021-07-30.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""