Higgs, Liz Curtis 1956(?)-

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HIGGS, Liz Curtis 1956(?)-

PERSONAL: Born c. 1956; married Bill Higgs, 1986; children: Matthew, Lillian. Education: Bellarmine College, B.A.

ADDRESSES: Home and offıce—P.O. Box 43577, Louisville, KY 40253-0577. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Radio broadcaster, 1978-88; public speaker, 1978—; Today's Christian Woman magazine, columnist.

MEMBER: Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society, Novelists, Inc.

AWARDS, HONORS: Council of Peers Award for Excellence, National Speakers Association; ECPA Gold Medallion for Excellence, 1998, for children's Parable Series; ECPA Gold Book Award, 2004, for Bad Girls of the Bible.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Does Dinner in a Bucket Count? Ninety Laughs for the '90s Woman, illustrated by Carol L. Cornette, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1993.

One Size Fits All: And Other Fables, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1993.

Only Angels Can Wing It, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1995.

Reflecting His Image: Discovering Your Worth inChrist from A to Z, 1996.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Have I Got News for You!:An A to Z Faith Lift for Your Sagging Self-Esteem, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1997.

Forty Reasons Why Life Is More Fun after the Big4-0, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1997.

Help! I'm Laughing and I Can't Get Up, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1998.

"While Shepherds Washed Their Flocks" and OtherFunny Things Kids Say and Do, illustrated by Dennis Hill, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1998.

Bad Girls of the Bible: And What We Can Learn fromThem, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 1999.

Really Bad Girls of the Bible: More Lessons fromLess-than-Perfect Women, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2000.

Mad Mary: A Bad Girl from Magdala, Transformed atHis Appearing, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2001.

Rise and Shine, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 2002.

Contributor of articles to Today's Christian Woman.

FICTION

The Pumpkin Patch Parable, illustrated by Nancy Munger, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1995.

The Sunflower Parable, illustrated by Nancy Munger, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1997.

The Parable of the Lily, illustrated by Nancy Munger, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1997.

The Pine Tree Parable, illustrated by Nancy Munger, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1997.

Go Away, Dark Night, illustrated by Nancy Munger, T. Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1998.

Mixed Signals, Alabaster Books (Sisters, OR), 1999.

Bookends, Alabaster Books (Sisters, OR), 2000.

Thorn in My Heart, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2003.

Fair Is the Rose, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2004.

Whence Came a Prince, Waterbrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 2005.

Contributor of novella Fine Print to anthology Three Weddings and a Giggle, Multnomah Publishers (Sisters, OR), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Liz Curtis Higgs began working in the late 1970s as an outrageous radio "rock jock" with a lifestyle to match. Her commitment to Christianity in 1982 played a large role in her career move to public speaking and writing, including her authorship of more than twenty fiction and nonfiction books. Higgs began her writing career with the 1992 humor book Does Dinner in a Bucket Count?: 90 Laughs for the '90s Woman. She followed that up with another humor book, One Size Fits All: And Other Fables, but began to question whether or not she was making a difference with her writing. As a result, she turned her focus to writing both fiction and nonfiction books based on her Christian faith.

Higgs is the author of several very successful Bible study books, most notably her "Bad Girls of the Bible" series. The inaugural book in the series, Bad Girls of the Bible: And What We Can Learn from Them, became a Christian best seller. Instead of talking about Sarah, Rebecca, and other "good girls" in the Bible, Higgs writes about Jezebel, Delilah, and Lot's wife, characters whose shortcomings Higgs believes speaks to many Christian women who have led imperfect lives. In Bad Girls of the Bible, Higgs writes about ten women whom she places into four categories: "First Bad Girl," "Bad to the Bone," "Bad for a Moment," and "Bad for a Season, but Not Forever." Each chapter begins with a contemporary retelling of the relevant Bible story and then follows with explanations and commentary on the text. Higgs also includes four lessons to be learned at the end of each chapter. A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented, "Higgs retells these biblical stories with rollicking humor and deep insight as she teaches about the nature of sin and goodness."

Higgs continues with her "bad girl" theme in Really Bad Girls of the Bible: More Lessons from Less-than-Perfect Women and Mad Mary: A Bad Girl from Magdala, Transformed at His Appearing. Really Bad Girls once again focuses on the fallen women of the Bible, and this time Higgs categorizes them as the "Bad for a Reason," "Bad, but Not Condemned," "Bad Moon Rising," and "Bad and Proud of It" types. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that "Higgs does such a remarkable job telling their stories that many of the Good Book's 'bad girls' become downright sympathetic." The reviewer also called the author "a refreshingly astute biblical commentator."

Mad Mary focuses solely on the life of Mary of Magdala. In the contemporary fictional account of Mary, Diggs tells the story of a fallen woman living in Chicago who, as noted by a reviewer for Today's Christian Woman, is "desperately seeking someone to save her from herself." In her commentary on the story and Bible verse, Higgs argues that Mary was not really a bad girl and that there is no evidence in the Bible that Mary worked as a prostitute. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that, "although biblical scholars have long rejected the idea of Mary Magdalene as a scarlet harlot, few books have offered these ideas to the hoi polloi; Higgs, with her conversational style and characteristic humor, is the perfect author to popularize such scholarship."

In addition to her bible study books, Higgs has written Christian fiction for both children and adults. "A fictional story based on biblical principles has the power to penetrate a reader's heart more quickly [than nonfiction], and often at a deeper level," said Higgs in an article in Today's Christian Woman. The author's early fiction includes several picture books such as The Pumpkin Patch Parable and The Parable of the Lily, which tells the story of a young girl who gets what she thinks is a box of dirt and gardening instructions in the mail and throws them away in disgust. She later discovers that the dirt she threw into her backyard has grown into a beautiful Easter lily. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted, "Higg's simple declarative text, interspersed with short Bible passages about parallel events in Jesus's life, should prove a welcome challenge to beginning readers."

The adult Christian novel Missed Signals tells the story of Belle O'Brien, a woman who has lost her job and is looking for the right man. Melissa Hudak, writing in Library Journal, commented that the "bouncy romantic tale of a devout Christian woman looking for love should please most readers." In Bookends, Higgs chronicles the return of Emilie Getz to a small town in Pennsylvania to write a book about the Moravian church she attended as a child. Soon Getz is involved with a man who initially antagonizes her with his familiar attitude. "Higgs's . . . characters are far from perfect (or kind), but their courtship is one of the more unusual ones in Christian fiction," wrote Melanie C. Duncan in Library Journal.

Higgs is also the author of Christian historical novels set in eighteenth-century Scotland and based on stories from Genesis in the Bible. In Thorn in My Heart Higgs draws on the Old Testament characters of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel as she tells the tale of Leana McBride and her younger sister, Rose, who are competing for the love of the same man. Jane Johnson Struck, writing in Today's Christian Woman, noted, "I found Higgs's tale of love lost and gained—with its complex cast of characters who wrestle with their faith, their relationships, and the consequences of their choices—difficult to put down." A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that "Higgs's fine writing will satisfy historical fiction aficionados."

Fair Is the Rose explores Genesis 30 through the story of Rose McBride, whose family refuses to allow her to marry her true love while Rose's sister embarks on a marriage and the birth of a child. The disillusioned Rose and a friend subsequently become involved with a witch whose prophecies begin to come to fruition after Rose returns home from college. Kaite Mediatore, writing in Booklist, noted that the novel "will satisfy romantic historical fiction fans and can also be suggested to readers of historic inspirational fiction." A Publishers Weekly contributor commented, "Admirably, Higgs keeps her protagonists multifaceted and readers' allegiances shifting as the story unfolds." The third book in the Scottish trilogy, Whence Came a Prince, focuses on Genesis 31-33 and 35 and was published in 2005.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2004, Kaite Mediatore, review of Fair Is the Rose, p. 1036.

Courier Journal (Lexington, KY), November 13, 2001, Beverly Bartlett, "Bad Girl Lessons."

Library Journal, June 1, 1999, Melissa Hudak, review of Mixed Signals, p. 96; February 1, 2000, Melanie C. Duncan, review of Bookends, p. 68; April 1, 2004, Tamara Butler, review of Fair Is the Rose, p. 80.

Publishers Weekly, review of The Parable of the Lily, p. 76; October 26, 1998, review of Go away, Dark Night, p. 62; July 12, 1999, review of Bad Girls of the Bible: And What We Can Learn from Them, p. 91; July 10, 2000, review of Really Bad Girls of the Bible: More Lessons from Less-than-Perfect Women, p. 59; February 5, 2001, review of Three Weddings and a Giggle, p. 68; August 27, 2001, Jana Riess, "PW Talks with Li Curtis Higgs," p. 79; August 27, 2001, review of Mad Mary: A Bad Girl from Magdala Transformed at His Appearing, p. 79; February 10, 2003, review of Thorn in My Heart, p. 161; Feruary 2, 2004, review of Fair Is the Rose, p. 59.

Today's Christian Woman, May, 2001, "Fiction as . . . Bible Study?," p. S7; November-December, 2001, review of Mad Mary, p. 101; May-June, 2002, "Writing as Ministry," p. 61; July-August, 2002, Liz Curtis Higgs, "A Good Cry: God Can Use Anything We Surrender to Him—Even Our Tears," p. 64; May-June, 2003, Jane Johnson Struck, review of Thorn in My Heart, p. 68; January-February, 2004, Liz Curtis Higgs, "Leap Year: Is It Time for a Radical Sabbatical?," p. 64; July-August, 2004, Liz Curtis Higgs, "It's Not about the Benjamins: On Our Family Vacation, We Learned the Best Memories Are the Kind Money Can't Buy,lrquo; p. 64.