Sherry Harris's Blog, page 3

January 7, 2025

Wicked Authors Goals for 2025!

January is the time for planning, and for goals! As the Wicked Authors move forth, we had a fun conversation about our goals are for the Wicked Authors this year.

Behind the scenes, we are working on the new Wicked Authors logistics. Why? This conversation will give you some insights into our why, and into what we hope 2025 brings.

One thing for sure: our Wicked community is what matters to us.

Here’s the video version:

And here’s the podcast version. P.S., our podcast is being distributed on Amazon and Spotify, and coming soon, on Apple. Please subscribe and comment wherever you get your podcast episodes.

Friends, have you set goals for this year around your reading or writing?

View more on Sherry Harris's website »

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Published on January 07, 2025 01:00

December 31, 2024

Happy New Year!

We’re back! As you can see, we’ve updated the website a bit. But don’t worry, all of the content is still here. And we’re adding more, in all sorts of formats.

We’re looking forward to connecting with all of you in 2025! And we wish you all a healthy, happy, book-filled New Year!

We’ve also lauched a podcast! Listen to this episode here.

View more on Sherry Harris's website »

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Published on December 31, 2024 21:47

December 13, 2024

All Good Things…

As the saying goes, all good things eventually come to an end.

You’ve heard the news that Sherry and Barb are leaving the Wickeds (just the blog, because they will always be Wickeds at heart). So while that piece of this good – actually great – thing is coming to an end, there is another chapter that the rest of us are writing.

In the meantime, we wanted to get together for one last hurrah to reflect on the past 12 years, what the blog has meant to each of us, and what we all mean to each other regardless of the blogging piece.

You can watch the whole thing on YouTube. We’ve also included a transcript below.

As always, thanks for following along with our journeys. We’ll be back in January with new, fun Wicked content.

Happy Holidays and so much love!

xo, Liz, Julie, Jessie, Edith, Barb and Sherry

Transcript:

Liz Mugavero (00:00)
Hello, Wickeds.

Liz Mugavero (00:06)
We’re here with a very special episode of The Wicked Authors today. It’s special, but it’s sad special, I think, because this is the last time that the six of us are gonna be together on this platform. So we’re gonna let Barb and Sherry talk for a minute, and then we’re all gonna have a little conversation together. So let me hand it over to Barb to explain what’s going on.

Barbara Ross (00:30)
Hi, Wicked and Friends of the Wicked. We’re here today with a little special episode of the Wicked to let you know that as of the end of next week, Sherry and I will be leaving the group. As we’ve tried to impress on our friends here, we’re not dying. We are merely not participating in the blog anymore. So we will still be in your orbit in some way, but we won’t be regularly posting or responding to comments or inviting guests or all of the many activities that happen on the blog. So we’re going to process that a little bit all together and I hope that you all find something interesting about that as you watch.

Sherry Harris (01:25)
Yeah, it was a really hard decision. know Barb and I arrived at it independently of each other. And my gosh, we’ve been through a lot, We’ve been through so much together from getting first contracts to losing contracts to getting new contracts. And I certainly couldn’t have done it without you. And I’m trying very hard not to cry.

Sherry Harris (01:55)
I love you all very much and I love our readers and the guests that have been with us all these years and I’ll miss that. sure I’ll be around though, like Barb said.

Liz Mugavero (02:10)
We are certainly gonna miss you so much and we don’t want to make today too sad because we don’t want everyone to cry so we’re gonna try to do a little celebrating but I think we are gonna be a little sad so.

Julie Hennrikus (02:22)
Yeah. It’s definitely a change and a time of change and something that, you know, doing a blog like this for as long as we’ve been doing it is a lot of work. And so I think I respect the decision and I, you know, I know that you’re going to come back and do things and have news to celebrate and chime in on the comments and help us move this forward. So I am forever grateful to both of you for so many reasons.

Liz Mugavero (03:01)
Yes, we’re going to make you come back a lot. We’re going to invite you as special guests all the time.

Jessica Ellicott (03:07)
whether you like it or not.

Barbara Ross (03:13)
I’m just hoping we’re not that terrible, you know, that worst kind of guest that gets you the post at the last possible moment with lots of copyrighted photographs and a vague giveaway. I hope we’re not those people.

Sherry Harris (03:24)

Hahaha!

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (03:35)
It feels a little to me like, I know you’re not dying. And I’m very, very happy about that. But it’s a little bit like losing a sibling. you know, heaven forbid I should lose one of my three siblings. But, you know, we’ve been such a unit. And yeah, I’m going to cry too, Sherry. It’s been really special.

Sherry Harris (03:45)

Yeah, it has.

Jessica Ellicott (04:09)
Yeah, I don’t think that we would have made it this far without all six. Each of us, I think, brings something special to the group. even though you will be around in the orbit and the ether, it will be a profound change. And it will be a profound, profound loss because you have brought in each of you have brought in your own ways something that has been so valuable and so pleasurable to spend time with.

Barbara Ross (04:39)
Yeah, that’s lovely.

Sherry Harris (04:40)
Thank you.

It is. I have to pause to wipe tears.

Liz Mugavero (04:49)
So try to stop crying by talking about some of our favorite memories, our favorite milestones from our time together. I’d love to hear those from you.

Sherry Harris (05:00)
So.

One thing that I really remember is the day Julie got her contract for the Clock Tower mysteries. And they weren’t Clock Tower mysteries, sorry. But because that meant we all had a contract and it was just such a great feeling. And we’re all so happy that we were all doing this together. So that was a big moment for me.

Barbara Ross (05:41)
Yeah.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (05:43)
I was looking back on the pictures from our photo shoot, which turns out to be 10 years ago. I didn’t realize it was 2014, but it was. And I was looking through, we have some regular shots of the six of us walking down the street near Jesse’s or the old Orchard Beach House. But we have some that we haven’t used like for banners and for the blog. And I was looking through, I have a folder of some of those. It was just so fun to, you we all got a little bit, got nice stuff a little bit. And it turned out we all wore black, which we did not plan. And most of us had scarves on and we just were having so much fun. And it shows how we’ve been so close personally in addition to professionally. And you can just see it in those pictures because we’re laughing and we’re holding hands and we’re doing goofy things with our legs. And it was a really special, really special time.

Jessica Ellicott (06:56)
I was thinking. One of the things that I was thinking about, it’s also a sort of photo thing, is how much fun it was when we would take around our biggest fan, whether it was someone who won the contest or if one of us was missing going to a conference and their photo on the fan stick and then taking pictures with so many people that we would get to meet at conferences. And it was such a great icebreaker with people you hadn’t met yet. And it was such silly fun to do that and then to mail the fan to the person who had entered the contest to get the fan. All of it was just ridiculous and such a lighthearted pleasure.

Sherry Harris (07:42)
It was. It was.

Barbara Ross (07:44)
My memories related to fans too, when Liz asked this question, which is one of the first, I think it might have been the second or third Bouchercon that most of us went to. We decided to do a giveaway of church fans because it was either the end of August or the first week of September in New Orleans.

And I got there early, I was in charge of finding a rallying place. And via the blog, invited lots of, we invited anyone to come and chat and get a fan. And there were two things about that. The first was, astonishingly, people came. I mean, I just had visions of us standing there, sort of off the beaten path in the lobby of whatever it was, the Marriott or the Hilton trying to give these fans away. But the other thing was, in the beginning, all of us wrote cozies. And it was really, in a Bouchercon community, the very thin edge of the wedge of claiming cozy pride in that community. And now that’s, you know, the inciting incident. I mean, no one remembers it, I’m sure, but now…

We’ve come so far in 10 years in terms of people knowing who we are and knowing that these books are available to read and knowing that we actually write mysteries, crime fiction. So that’s a really important memory for me.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (09:22)
And they appreciated the fans because it was hot.

Julie Hennrikus (09:24)
I had this… Yeah, it’s really hot. I remember that too, Barb. That was actually my memory that I remembered is the sort of the success of that. And having the bags and giving those out at different conferences and being, if we were all together, somebody saying, where’s Jessie or where’s Liz? I mean, I think that’s probably happened.

Julie Hennrikus (09:54)
But you know, was definitely, we branded ourselves as a unit and I think if any of us had tried to do this blog by themselves, it wouldn’t have been this successful. And you know, I do think our friendship does shine through and that’s one of the things that makes a difference.

Liz Mugavero (10:20)
Yeah, I have a lot of memories from the, well, from everything, but from the retreats especially, and they all kind of blend together, but I just feel like it’s such a great example of like, you know, it was a business thing, but it was also a friend thing, and we always had so much fun, except for that first year when I got stuck in book jail, but I don’t think I’ll suggest it when I get there. So actually, book jail is all because of me, that term that we use often, because I am always the one in book jail.

Liz Mugavero (10:45)
And I think I was the one who started the fan thing because I couldn’t come to that first conference. So I was the first person who ended up on the fan and then it was Sherry. Right? That picture pops up all the time.

Jessica Ellicott (10:55)
You were the first person to You’re why we needed the blog because your book was coming out at Malice and then Sherry said let’s do that and then we said, somebody said let’s do it before Liz’s book and then it was off and running. It’s all about you Liz.

Sherry Harris (11:08)
Well, it’s so crazy to me still because we started talking about it in March and all of a sudden boom, boom, boom, we’re May 1st, you know, and I couldn’t believe you all got it together that fast because I’m certainly not a doer kind of computer person.

Sherry Harris (11:37)
I love a good idea, but I don’t want to do it.

Liz Mugavero (11:41)
I think about how far we’ve come, Sherry, from the days of like, did I post this right? To like putting up, you know, how many posts have we done over these years? It’s crazy.

Sherry Harris (11:48)
Yep. Yep, Edith helped me a lot with those first posts. I sent them all to her.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (11:55)
She would say, would you check this for me? I’m not sure I did it right. So yeah, I’m pretty sure you always had done it right, but I understand wanting backup.

Barbara Ross (12:06)
Yeah, it’s fun. It’s fun looking at those monthly statistics from that first year. It’s like 10 views, 100 views, 1000 views, you know.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (12:07)
And backup is what we do.

Sherry Harris (12:20)
Yeah.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (12:20)
Yeah. So for people who don’t know, Barb has always been our data person. she goes in, how many readers have we gone up this year over last year, all the different kinds of statistics you can look at. Barb has got her, had her finger on them the whole time. And we appreciate that because I have no idea where we are. We’ll have to hire her as a consultant.

Jessica Ellicott (12:37)
We’re never gonna know any of that again.

Liz Mugavero (12:51)
So what about a moment or an experience or something that happened during our time together that either surprised you or taught you something new about writing, publishing, community? mean, publishing is probably the easiest one there, but I’d love your.

Julie Hennrikus (13:12)
The thing about writing that I love about the Wicked’s, but also the other writers I talk to, is that there’s no one way to do it. And we are all proof positive of that because no two of us do have the same process. And we all jump around to different processes depending on what the situation is. So there’s that.

Barbara Ross (13:26)
Yeah.

Julie Hennrikus (13:41)
But the publishing journey, I would advise anybody who wants to get published to get good friends who are also writers to support you and to have your back. Because you need people to be supportive during the, you know, tough times and to celebrate you with you during the good times and to keep you moving forward. You know, ultimately you have to do that yourself. But, you know, we’ve all had ups and downs and twists and turns on this journey. You know, I’m certainly on a perpetual roller coaster these days, but you couldn’t do it without other people being there and to sort of let you know that you’ll get through it or let’s figure this out or strategizing and things like that. So writing, it’s always good to have friends for inspiration and we’ve certainly done that for each other or okay, let’s spend a couple minutes talking about this book or this character. But the publishing journey’s not for the faint of heart and it doesn’t get easier and so you need friends and that’s what we have.

Barbara Ross (14:40)
Absolutely.

Sherry Harris (14:50)
Yeah. I have to, talking about everybody’s different process, Julie, I’ll never forget. We were on one of our retreats. I think I was writing my third book in the Sarah series. And you said, where are you? And I said, I’m writing the end. And you’re like, wow, that’s great. And I go, yeah, and then I have to go back and write the middle. And your face was so horrified that I was writing the end without having written the middle.

Sherry Harris (15:19)
I always wish I would have had a picture of that.

Julie Hennrikus (15:24)
I’m less of a rigid plotter than I was, but I still can never, I could never write the end, because it changes. So yeah, I think I would still have that horrified look on my face,

Barbara Ross (15:43)
Yeah, I mean, I think the most important thing about friends on a writing journey and on the publishing journey is to answer the question, am I insane? Because both when you’re writing and when you’re publishing, you
ask that question on a regular basis. So having a group of people to whom you can turn and say, am I the crazy one here? Is enormously helpful. I always say to people, you know, a lot of people say, well, I’m an introvert. I don’t know how to navigate this and how to meet other people and how to be at a writers or a readers conference. And I always say, first of all, the networking we did certainly is not going up to Stephen King and asking who his agent is. It was turning to one another in like a line for a buffet and saying, what do you write or what do you read? And we all started out more or less together. But as our careers have gone on, there’s always been someone who had been down a little one road or another a little further that you could turn to and say,

Am I crazy?

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (17:08)
And it’s also been so…

There are gripes that writers sometimes have that we don’t want made public. And we can open an email thread among the six of us and go, can you believe what so and so and so and so, perhaps someone in the publishing industry, perhaps, you know, what they did. I’m furious about this. And we’ll all go, you’re absolutely right. I had the same experience or whatever. We’re not going to put that on Facebook. We’re not going to put that on Instagram or Twitter.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (17:43)
But we need to talk about it. We need to see if, not so much am I insane, but can I stop myself from writing an angry email or jumping out the window? So that’s been huge, that level of support behind the scenes that I think most of our readers have no idea about, but we couldn’t get as far as we get as writers without it, without that.

Sherry Harris (18:11)
I think one of the great things is we have lifted each other up, but I think the blog has allowed us to lift lots of writers up. And that has been a big blessing that has come to all of us from the blog.

Julie Hennrikus (18:29)
Yes, I completely agree. You know, especially when we’re able to help celebrate a debut for a friend or somebody we know or somebody we met at a conference and sort of give them that platform to say, we have a fabulous group of readers on this blog and, you know, they want to meet you and they want to find out about your book and to offer that opportunity to people is really meaningful.

Liz Mugavero (18:56)
I certainly underestimated or just didn’t know how much needed this would be, this group. I I knew that having a community, you know, I kind of thought about it in a, yeah, that would be great kind of thing when I was starting out, but I had no idea. I never would have made it this far without you guys for sure. And I also have to say the other thing I learned about writing, and I have to thank Jesse for this one, is about the whole spectrum of plotting and pantsing because I never thought I could any kind of a plotter. I thought I was just a, know, wing it until I want to throw myself off a balcony kind of person. And then I realized that there is an in-between that you can get to make your life a little easier. So thank you for that, Jessie.

Jessica Ellicott (19:38)
You’re welcome. It’s my pleasure to help keep you on the balcony.

Jessica Ellicott (19:45)
I think the thing that I’ve, one of the things I’ve been most surprised at, I would not be surprised if this is true for most of you as well. Maybe not Sherry, because she’s so friendly. But I always, always despised group projects when they were assigned in school. Like so much loathing. It was just like, okay, just give me the stuff and I’ll do it.

like just really didn’t want to do it. And I’ve been so surprised at how much of a pleasure it’s been to tackle a group project that was really a group project and that it turned out pretty well, I think. You know, I feel like that has been so shocking. Not that I was thinking that it wouldn’t be fun to get to know all of you more and do a thing with you, but it has been very startling to me that it could be so organically lovely.

Barbara Ross (20:48)
I think that’s true of our writer personality, right? Anyone who wants to create their whole world, create all the people in it and tell all those people what to do is not a group project fan.

Jessica Ellicott (20:59)
Exactly.

Jessica Ellicott (21:06)
I think a lot of us are a little bit bossy too.

Sherry Harris (21:06)
Although…

Barbara Ross (21:10)
Yeah, a little control oriented.

Sherry Harris (21:12)
But each of us have been active in Sisters in Crime in some capacity with Crime Bake and so maybe we’re more group project people than we think we are.

Julie Hennrikus (21:12)
Good thing.

Liz Mugavero (21:28)
I think it’s when you love something too. When you start to love something, when you start to know the people in the orbit, when you start to see what things like crime bake do for the writing community and for writers, then you kind of want to help. Sometimes the group part of it could be annoying, the, not this group, the, know, the big projects. But the sentiment of wanting to contribute, I think, because of what it’s offering might be part of that.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (22:01)
One thing that surprised me about the writing blog posts for 11 years is that I like writing essays. Like that’s a, it’s a completely different skill set than writing a book or a short story. I mean, it’s a little more similar to a short story, but it’s not fiction. And you can compose it and there’s a flow to it. And it can be 300 words or a thousand words, but not usually a thousand.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (22:31)
But writing essays, which is what our blog posts are, non-fiction essays, it’s fun. I’ve enjoyed it. That surprised me. I had written a few essays in the past, but not like that.

Julie Hennrikus (22:47)
Speaking of which, think Barb’s series this year on writing needs to be turned into a book. So just tossing that out there to keep you a little bit busy. We look forward to hosting more of The Wicked’s 2.0 when you publish that book, Barb.

Barbara Ross (22:47)
Well, thank you. That’s very kind.

Sherry Harris (23:06)
Where have you heard that before, Barb? I even heard that the other day.

Barbara Ross (23:10)
Yeah, but. And Bill has also said that I didn’t think the world was waiting with bated breath for advice from a mid-list cozy writer, however, so I decline.

Sherry Harris (23:28)
I think you should, I think you should do it.

Liz Mugavero (23:30)
I we covered this a little bit, but how has being part of the Wicked shaped your career or even your personal life?

Sherry Harris (23:45)
It’s so enriched mine. I knew you all in varying degrees. I didn’t really know Jessie very well because I moved back to Virginia before you all met her. And what a blessing it has been to get to know each of you individually and as our group. just, you’re my rocks. So thank you.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (24:17)
same.

Julie Hennrikus (24:18)
Yeah, I’ll never forget at my book launch for Just Killing Time, which is the only book I’ve had a party for, but I was, you know, wasn’t sure what to expect in this. And my nieces were there and Becca came up to me and said, Aunt Julie, one of your bookmark ladies is here. And it was, it was Edith helping put bookmarks on all the chairs and stuff, but she’s like, one of your bookmark ladies, like one of those women who’s important, because I would talk about going away or I’m doing this or I’m doing that. So one of my bookmark ladies. I always love.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (24:55)
Yeah, showing up at each other’s launch parties and panels. We’ve done that all for each other over the years. that’s like, I think, was it last year at my Murder Uncorked launch party, there was Julie and Liz, they just popped up. I didn’t know they were coming. It was really good., you know, even after all these years. And I remember we all went to Jessie’s book launch for the first maple book in your library next door.

Julie Hennrikus (25:25)
Yeah. Yeah.

Barbara Ross (25:28)
And Jesse’s younger boys were boys when we went to that.

Julie Hennrikus (25:32)
I know.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (25:32)
Little kids, Yep, Yeah.

Jessica Ellicott (25:33)
They were. Yeah, they were.

They were kids.

Barbara Ross (25:40)
Yeah, I’ve I’ve told this. I’ve told this story many times, but when my father retired, he said, you know that 10 minutes at the beginning of every meeting where people say what they did that weekend and what movies they’ve seen and what their kids are up to. said when I was working, I used to hate that and I was always why can’t we just get down to it and get the work done and.

Barbara Ross (26:08)
when I retired, it was the only part of work that I missed. And for me, that’s what this has been. I moved from my day job community into this community. And it’s really the things that happen in the white space that are just so meaningful to me. It’s as Edith was saying, it’s the emails, it’s the pep talks, it’s…

driving to Jesse’s house for a plotting session. It’s just been so uplifting and so great where we write alone to feel a part of something.

Sherry Harris (26:49)
Mm-hmm.

Liz Mugavero (26:52)
And you ladies are 100 % my friends. mean, aside from all the book things that we go to and the emails and the phone calls and the personal stuff, mean, Julie and Edith came to my dad’s funeral.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (26:52)
Amen.

Sherry Harris (27:06)
Yep.

Julie Hennrikus (27:08)
Yeah. Well, you know, we were there for each other through all the goods and all the bads and, know, you show up when you need to show up and.

Barbara Ross (27:22)
Edith and I have both had grandchildren since we started. It’s really sort of we’ve been on a life’s journey as well as a writing journey.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (27:35)
Yeah, parents dying, family members up and down.

Jessica Ellicott (27:43)
Yeah. I think one of the things that’s been such a big part of it is that it’s not all that easy to make friends, new friends, when you’re an adult. And you have to put more effort into it. You’re not bumping up against people because you happen to be herded into the same classrooms because you’re in the same locale in the same age. And if you’re working alone on an independent thing like a book that doesn’t push you up against new people to meet without effort either. You really have to get out of yourself to go do that. And to have the pleasure of making five new friends as an adult is, it’s a banquet. It really has been such a delight.

Barbara Ross (28:22)
Thank

Yeah, so true and it happens again when your kids are grown, right? I was like, when you’re not standing on the side of a soccer field or going to a PTA meeting, how do you like meet people? was a complete mystery to me.

Jessica Ellicott (28:44)
Exactly. Yeah.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (28:45)
Check.

Yep. Yep. Yep.

Liz Mugavero (28:55)
So what about the funniest or the most memorable blog post or interaction that we’ve had? I I was definitely gonna mention your series, Barb, that Julie already mentioned. So that’s definitely stood out as something in our photo shoot that you mentioned, Edith. There’s just been so many funny or fun things that we’ve done, the Wicked Wednesdays, and just kinda coming together like that. What stands out to you guys most?

Sherry Harris (29:19)
One of the things I remember is when we were doing the Wicked’s mini tour and we were in Wolfboro and a man in the audience asked us if we drank when we wrote. We were all kind of like, huh? How do we answer this?

Barbara Ross (29:25)
Yeah. Yeah.

Julie Hennrikus (29:42)
That was fun. That whole tour was fun, but that Wolfboro was amazing. Yeah.

Sherry Harris (29:48)
Yeah, that was awesome.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (29:49)
Yeah. Yeah.

Barbara Ross (29:51)
They are amazing up there at the library and the Friends of the Library and the Women’s Club. They’re just fantastic, fantastic job. I think that’s the Hemingway, write drunk, edit sober that he quoted to us. Yeah.

Sherry Harris (30:06)
Yeah.

Jessica Ellicott (30:08)
Yes, it was. And we all just sort of sat there stiffly, like, looking at each other, like, how should we answer this?

Sherry Harris (30:13)
I think somebody finally made a joke and we moved on.

Jessica Ellicott (30:24)
I’m sure that’s how it went down.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (30:25)
I was thinking about, I don’t remember who it was. there was a hashtag in one of our posts to somebody, Louise Penny maybe, or somebody, and we got thousands and thousands of views because people ran across that. Do you remember who that was to?

Barbara Ross (30:50)
I think it was about maps in books and I think we still get views. Last year we had a huge post where someone made a mistake in the name of one of Jane Austen’s characters and all these, I mean, tens of thousands of Jane Austen fans had to come in furiously to say how wrong it was. And I’ve never wanted to correct it in the post because it so much traffic.

Sherry Harris (30:50)
It was hot.

Sherry Harris (31:14)
I remember I had to keep not approving a certain very angry woman’s response to that. I was like, my gosh, quit writing. I’m not going to approve this. It’s mean.

Jessica Ellicott (31:23)
Yes.

Barbara Ross (31:26)
Ha

Yeah, the the Jane-ites are a pretty feisty group.

Jessica Ellicott (31:38)
We should all be so lucky to have such passion directed at us so many centuries after we’re dead.

Sherry Harris (31:38)
Thank

Yeah.

Barbara Ross (31:47)
Absolutely. For me, it was the post so I can’t even remember now. It must be nine books in. I broke up the central couple in my main series. And to this day, I got an email about that two weeks ago. I mean, to this day, people…

Barbara Ross (32:15)
and Goodreads comments and Amazon reviews and people contacting me through my website. So the nice part about the blog was it was a very mixed reaction, honestly. I mean, the one thing it taught me is you can kill anybody. I have never adhered to the cozy rule that the victim has to be a bad person, you know, you can you can kill anybody. But if you fuss with a romance, that’s a whole, you know, third rail. So the blog post enabled me to kind of lay out that the reaction had been mixed, trying to say to everyone, well, I know you passionately believe what you believe, but there is another perspective. And I send that link out to this day saying, if you’d like, you know, to read about some other people’s reactions that might be a little sander than yours, here you go.

Sherry Harris (33:11)
It’s the.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (33:15)
Great.

Julie Hennrikus (33:16)
Well, Sherry wrote her in defense of Cozy’s post, right? Wasn’t that a Wicked’s post? And because of that, you know, there’ve been a couple of nonfiction anthologies written, you know. So that was also part of the traction of we take and took the work seriously and didn’t look down on the genre and the subgenre were writing in and don’t…

Julie Hennrikus (33:46)
It doesn’t need excuses to be made, but it’s, it’s, this is an ongoing, I’m not gonna say battle, but challenge for cozy writers is that people assume it’s easy and that they’re lesser than, and that’s absolutely not true. So, you know, I’m, I’m proud of Sherry for having sort of put that flag in the ground and we all rallied around it. And now other people are, we’ve got a couple of academic books out about that very topic.

Barbara Ross (33:54)
Art created by women for women always struggles for proper respect and recognition, always. And craft created by women for women.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (34:25)
Mm.

Sherry Harris (34:31)
But I think, you know, when men read our books, they like them.

Barbara Ross (34:35)
Yes!

Liz Mugavero (34:35)
Yeah, I was surprised at how many male readers I picked up along the way.

Sherry Harris (34:40)
same. Me too. I had a general arranged for me to meet with a book group in Virginia because he loved my book so much. And so, you know, they’re out there.

Julie Hennrikus (34:53)
Yeah. Hey, listen, my dad’s one of Barb’s biggest fans and he also, he was very pro the breakup. He’s like, yeah, she should have kicked him to the curb. You didn’t show her respect. You didn’t introduce your girlfriend to your friends. You can do better than that. He’s very impassioned about himself. There’s that too.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (35:19)
I’ve got, you know, Jay Roberts is like a really big fan of mine. I apparently have several dedicated shelves on a bookshelf in his house for my books, my short stories. And his friend asked, some years ago, I had some Edith Maxwell author mugs made, and his friend Ann said, can I get one of those for his birthday? So I mailed it, you know, that’s there on the dedicated shelf. Yeah, we have males.

Barbara Ross (35:45)
that’s what a thoughtful friend and what a lovely present.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (35:50)
We have male fans.

Yeah.

Sherry Harris (35:55)
Yeah, that’s another thing. I mean, when we started the blog, Jesse, Barb, and Edith all had one book out from smaller publishers. And I don’t even know what the latest count is, but do you have any idea, Barb?

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (36:09)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Barbara Ross (36:15)
No, I haven’t kept up our list, but it’s gotta be close to 100, right? Among us.

Jessica Ellicott (36:15)
Yeah, Barb.

Sherry Harris (36:17)
you

Yes.

Jessica Ellicott (36:23)
it’s definitely got to be there. More than that, because I’ve got 19 in print. Yeah.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (36:26)
I have 35.

Sherry Harris (36:26)
you

Barbara Ross (36:28)
Yeah, I think it’s probably over 100. And Edith just got to 35. Yeah, so it’s more than 100. I have 21.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (36:31)
Yeah. 35. Yeah. Yeah.

Sherry Harris (36:38)
Yeah.

13.

Liz Mugavero (36:41)
have almost 19. 19’s coming up soon. If I can finish it.

Jessica Ellicott (36:47)
You’ll finish it. Stay on the balcony.

Barbara Ross (36:48)
You say that every time, Liz.

Sherry Harris (36:55)
That’s pretty amazing.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (36:57)
It’s pretty amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

Liz Mugavero (37:03)
All right, so what final message do we want to share with our readers who’ve supported us as the six Wickeds on this journey?

Sherry Harris (37:14)
Just thank them for being here. mean, when I first started writing a blog post, I was like, does anybody care what I have to say? And I’m still somewhat astonished that people would read the blog and comment. So thank you to our readers, and thank you so much, my dear friends.

Julie Hennrikus (37:35)
Yeah. And, you know, we are sad about this parting, but we are also going to continue, you know, and this is the last blog post in 2024. You know, in January, we will be launching the new Wicked and we’re still figuring out what that looks like now. Sherry and Barb are always welcome.

Barbara Ross (37:48)
thank you.

Julie Hennrikus (38:04)
to come back and visit or if they decide they miss us so terribly to come back as a contributor. So, yeah, this is a tough transition. And one conversation was, do we go on with just four of us and we decided to say yes? So it’s bittersweet, but we’re gonna do it. And, you know.

and be so grateful for the last 11 years.

Barbara Ross (38:38)
And I think Sherry and I wish you all the luck in the world.

Sherry Harris (38:45)
Yep. Absolutely. No, you’re not.

Jessica Ellicott (38:46)
We’re going to need it without two of you.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (38:50)
Totally, totally gonna need it. Yes.

Julie Hennrikus (38:56)
So thank you to everybody. Thanks for putting this all together. we’re looking forward to celebrating the holidays and reflecting on the wonders of the Wickeds.

Liz Mugavero (39:14)
We love you and we will miss you every day. Thank you so much.

Julie Hennrikus (39:17)
Yeah. Thank you so much, both of you. That could be the hashtag for this post.

Barbara Ross (39:18)
same but again #notdying.

Liz Mugavero (39:28)
I know. That just made me stop almost crying. Thank you, Barb. Can I count on you, Barb, for that?

Julie Hennrikus (39:37)
Maybe that should be the title for the entire Wicked’s 2.0, #notdying.

Julie Hennrikus (39:44)
And that’s a New England thing.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (39:51)
We’re gonna miss you guys.

And Barb, you’re just going to have to come back and do statistics for us every year. You’re just going to have to.

Jessica Ellicott (40:00)
Like an audit.

Barbara Ross (40:01)
Well, since Sherry and I are going to crash the retreats, I’ll just show up with my numbers in hand.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (40:06)
good. Great. Awesome. Thank you.

Sherry Harris (40:08)
you

Jessica Ellicott (40:11)
That’ll be the cost of entry.

Barbara Ross (40:18)
and a bottle of wine as per the usual.

Sherry Harris (40:20)
Yeah.

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day (40:20)
Yes. And Sherry can bring the pizza.

Sherry Harris (40:24)
I’ll order it.

Liz Mugavero (40:30)
Thank you, ladies. We love you so much.

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Published on December 13, 2024 01:19

December 12, 2024

Saying Good-bye to the Wickeds

The moment we’ve all been talking about for a week, and that I’ve been anticipating since May, has finally come. This is my last post as a member of the Wicked Authors. Partings are difficult and this one particularly so.

I will miss my fellow authors and readers. Some of the relationships created here are among the most meaningful in my life. I have appreciated every one of you—your contributions, posts, and comments, and your general good cheer. What a lovely place this has been—and no doubt will continue to be.

As I have assured my fellow Wickeds repeatedly, I am #notdying. I’ll still be around on some social media platforms and can be reached via my website. I extend that invitation to all of you. The Wickeds have said I can visit as a guest author if I should ever be published again. So maybe I’ll see you here. Not shutting the door. More of a “so long” than a “farewell.”

Take care of yourselves. Have great holidays. And thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
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Published on December 12, 2024 02:51

December 11, 2024

There Will Be Tears – Saying Goodbye to the Wicked Blog

Sherry who learned after eleven years of blogging that one should not try to do a post when one is tired!

Some of you will have already read this as I inadvertently sent it out Sunday night. This version has pictures and one update near the end of the post.

As you now know, last spring at the Wicked’s retreat, Barb and I made the difficult decision to leave the blog. Trust me, this did not come easy—no one wants to break up the band and we arrived at the decision independently. I was shocked when Barb said she’d decided to leave and relieved that I wasn’t the only one who knew it was time for a change. As Barb said to me, this blog has been an important part of our lives.

Our readers and guests mean so much to me. We wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for you. When we first started the blog, we were relative unknowns – only Barb, Edith, and Jessie had published a book and those were with small presses. As we strategized, we really wanted to get a big name to join us. When Sheila Connolly said she’d do a monthly column, we were thrilled and have missed her wit and wisdom. Kimberly Kurth Gray wrote her terrific Detective’s Daughter posts and Susannah Hardy/Sadie Hartwell joined us to share her thoughts on writing. Our first blog had zero comments. In our first five posts we had a total of six comments. Only one wasn’t from one of us.

A rare picture of all of us together!

Two big highlights for me were our fun photo shoot with Meg Manion Silliker and being featured in the Boston Globe. When Meg started the photo shoot you’ve never seen a stiffer bunch of women. Then she suggested walking down the street. Meg snapped the moment of us laughing that we use for our header and so captures who we are.

In the end though, so much of the blog has been about the six of us. We went from unknowns, and some of us unpublished, to all of us having multiple books published, and all of us being nominated for awards. We’ve shared joys, disappointments, laughter, tears, and frustrations. There have been grandchild born and we’ve mourned the loss of loved ones. We’ve stayed up late into the night talking at our retreats. I love each of the Wickeds for their uniqueness.

Barb—She’s one of the smartest women I know–both left and right brained. She’s also funny and loyal. While I’d seen Barb (along with Edith and Liz) at some New England Sisters in Crime events, I didn’t get to know her until we both rode home with Edith from Seascape in 2009. Barb is the one who told me that her agent knew an editor at Kensington who was looking for someone to write a garage sale-themed mystery. And, as they say, the rest is history.

When we first met in 2009 at Seascape with our friend Christine Hillman Keyes from Australia.

Edith—when we first started the blog, I’d never written a post before. I was terrified. Fortunately, Edith was there for me, and I sent her my first few posts. She’d do some editing or make suggestions until I was confident enough to handle it on my own. I’m not sure Edith knows how much that kindness meant and still means to me. Edith is a font of energy, fearless, and if someone needs to be asked something, Edith will do it.

Hallie Ephron moderated a panel with all of us at her local library.

Jessie—I didn’t know Jessie when we started the blog. I’d moved back to Virginia before the other Wickeds met her. Jessie has unfailing generosity, an optimistic attitude, is a wicked talented plotter, and always makes time for me even when she’s busy. She also introduced me to cider donuts. I haven’t decided if that’s a good thing or not!

Julie—Many of you have heard this story before. In 2005 Julie and I happened to sit at the same banquet table at Malice Domestic. I’d recently found out that the Air Force was sending us to Hanscom AFB and I did not want to move to Massachusetts. But that night there was Julie being Julie by making connections and welcoming strangers. She told me to join Sisters in Crime and to go to Crime Bake. Both of those things were life changing not only because it led to being published, but mostly because it led to our friendship and to meeting the rest of the Wickeds. Julie and I have had so many adventures together from standing in line waiting anxiously to pitch our books at conferences, to plotting one of my books on a two-hour drive, to sneaking out of a conference and touring Vancouver.

At a Malice Domestic conference

Liz—We also met at Seascape. Edith, Liz, and I were in the same small group at the conference. When my roommate, Christine and I realized Liz had a long commute, we asked her to spend the night with us. I will never forget the three of us sneaking around the building at midnight looking for a rollaway bed and giggling. We eventually found one, dragged the mattress to our room, and stayed up all night talking. Liz laughs easily, her passion for animals is unsurpassed, and she’s always trying to improve herself, which makes me want to do the same.

A reader asked on the Monday blog post why we were leaving. It was a good question and thought I’d tell you my reasoning. My husband retired two years ago and I love spending time with him. We’ve been traveling more and so it’s nice to do it without worrying about the blog. I’ve also written over 140 individual posts and fear becoming repetitive or boring. I wouldn’t ever want to let the Wickeds or our readers down.

All these women have my back, call me out when I need it, and love me through all my flaws and insecurities. I can’t imagine having been part of a better group. While I may not be blogging with them anymore, I know we will always be part of each other’s lives. Thank you Wickeds for everything you’ve done for me. I love each of you deeply and fiercely.

At our retreat last May

So dear readers, you’ll be happy to know that I didn’t short out my keyboard writing this, but I came close. There were tears. Thank you so much for being on this journey with us. May you all have wonderful people in your life.

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Published on December 11, 2024 00:46

December 10, 2024

On Friends

Edith writing from north of Boston, where December is cold and windy, just like it’s supposed to be at this time of year in New England.

Back in September, I’d meant to write a post about friends, but veered into a cover reveal for Scone Cold Dead, instead. With the end of the year in sight, and the end of Wicked Authors Rev 1 also nearing the end (sniff), now seems like the perfect time.

This is one of my favorites from the Wicked Authors photo shoot we did back in 2014. These women hold a special place in my heart for true friendship as well as support in all things authorial. Together we have laughed and cried and griped and celebrated. We’ve held each other up, tried to figure out the craziest corners of the publishing industry, and boosted lots of other writers in the process. I couldn’t have gotten where I am in this last best career of mine without my Wickeds.

I have other close friends in the writing community too many to mention, except I’ll take a stab (in semi-random order): Ellen, Leslie, Leslie, Alexia, Annette, Catriona, Kellye, Alyssa, Nancy, Debra, Connie, Laurie, Valerie. Lucy, Hallie, Hank, Debs, Rhys, Jenn, Julia. Dru, Grace, Josh, Art, Tara, Kristopher, Jay, Amy, Terri. Kate, Susan, Brenda, Ang, Leslie, Stephen, Carolyn, Nicole, Dale, Joanna, Edwin, Kim, Liz, Bruce, Dick. Holly, Nancy, Beth, Susan. The late but never forgotten Sheila and Vicki and Ramona. And more. These are the friends I see in person sometimes only annually when we squeal and rush to hug each other, the writers and reviewers I can ping privately about questions, successes, and woes.

My Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen gang are all special friends (and some have already been mentioned).

I love when we chat around the kitchen table on the first Sunday of the month and when we communicate behind the scenes, much like the Wickeds do. I’ve also made friends with fans, who are certainly too many to number, but I appreciate every one.

I also have long-time non-writer friends from high school and college. When I see my high school bestie, Cindy, it’s like no time has passed, even though it’s been fifty-four years since graduation. Here we are on a visit back to Temple City High school (in the San Gabriel Valley south of Pasadena) in 2019.

Last fall, when I was in California launching Murder Uncorked, I met up with several close friends from college days at UC Irvine. The next picture is after my lunch with Mike, a longtime San Francisco resident, and the following one is of Linda and Jon, who live in the Alexander Valley!

My friend Jennifer and I became fast friends during our first week of graduate school in Indiana nearly fifty years ago, and we’re still close. Our kids and now their kids are like family, and we all spend every Easter and Thanksgiving together.

About thirty years ago a group of moms in my town decided to form a movie group. We dubbed ourselves the Flick Chicks. We (a core of the originals and a few new ones to fill in the gaps) still meet every month or so for appetizers and drinks (or gummies), but we often forgo the movie and just catch up with each other or play games. This is most of the group last fall.

I also have friends among my fellow Amesbury Friends (Quakers) whom I can always count on. To wit, I am blessed by being rich in friendships. (And in family, but that’s a different blog.) This richness is reflected in the fictional friendships I write.

For my author life, my friendships with Barb, Julie, Liz, Sherry, and Jessie have been the richest and most important. Mwah to all five! I am more than delighted that Barb (#notdying) and Sherry have promised to crash our future in-person retreats.

Boothbay Harbor

Readers: Share a long-time friend or two. Do you also have work friends who mean a lot?

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Published on December 10, 2024 00:46

December 9, 2024

Wicked Breaking News

By Julie, Liz, Edith and Jessie

There are many ways to share this news, so we’re going to do it a few different ways. First, with this video. The transcription for this video is available at the end of this post, or you can turn on the closed captioning. The summary is below.

The long and the short of it is this. Barbara Ross and Sherry Harris have decided to say goodbye to the Wicked Authors as regular contributors. This wasn’t an easy decision for them, and it is bittersweet for all of us. As our faithful readers know, we are more than just blogmates. We are close friends. On Friday we’ll have a post with all six of us reflecting on these eleven years of being Wicked Authors together.

The four remaining Wickeds will be moving forward, and shaking it up with new ways of delivering content, and some different posts/essays. For the last two weeks of this year we’ll be updating the site, so there won’t be new content. But fear not, we’ll be back on January 1.

This week Sherry and Barb will post their final entries. And, as mentioned, we’ll have a tearful farewell on Friday.

Readers, you are the reason for the success of this blog, and we thank you for that. We’re lucky to have eleven years to look back on, and to be able to look forward with excitement tinged with a bit of sorrow.

Transcription Wicked Breaking News Download

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Published on December 09, 2024 01:00

December 6, 2024

Surprise me! Please!

by Julie, pondering the mystery author brain in Somerville

Curiosity is necessary for a mystery writer. How does this work? What does that forensic evidence mean? How would an investigator figure out the type of shoe worn in mud?

The problem is, not only are we curious, we do deep dives into subjects. We watch true crime dramas and take notes. We listen to podcasts about investigations and question everything while doing frantic Google searches about the case. We watch Dateline like it’s our job. Because it sort of is.

No matter what genre we write, we need to know the mechanics of crime. But lately I’ve been wondering–does that make enjoying the genre more difficult?

When I hear about a coffee cup or piece of gum being tossed, I roll my eyes. OF COURSE that will come up later for DNA or for prints. Please, oh please, surprise me and let that be a MacGuffin, and not criminal or investigative oversight. (A MacGuffin is a plot device in a story or film that drives the plot and motivates characters, but is usually unimportant or irrelevant in itself.)

Since my job is to create puzzles and snares, it is difficult to surprise me. Instead I see the plot holes that the denouement leaves open. I expect the worst of people. I long for the “old” days when I’d be delighted by a plot, or a surprise. Now I either expect them, or dissect them, or both.

Do you find that you aren’t surprised any more? That the twist doen’t twist as much?

I do have some hope for my holiday TBR pile, but I won’t be surprised if I’m not surprised.

Mystery lovers, do you worry that you know too much?

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Published on December 06, 2024 01:15

Suprise me! Please!

by Julie, pondering the mystery author brain in Somerville

Curiosity is necessary for a mystery writer. How does this work? What does that forensic evidence mean? How would an investigator figure out the type of shoe worn in mud?

No matter what genre we write, we need to know the mechanics of crime. But lately I’ve been wondering–does that make enjoying the genre more difficult?

Do you find that you aren’t surprised any more? That the twist doen’t twist as much?

I do have some hope for my holiday TBR pile, but I won’t be surprised if I’m not surprised.

Mystery lovers, do you worry that you know too much?

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Published on December 06, 2024 01:15