Much More Than A Group Blog!

I’ve been part of a group blog for nearly nine years. The six Wicked Authors were all starting our careers as mystery writers when we started the blog in 2013. Today we have eighty published books among us.

But our blog is so much more than a five-days-a-week web presence. Each of us would tell you she couldn’t do it without the others.

So pour a cup of tea, dear readers, or a glass of wine, and I’ll tell you a story. Because that’s what we do.

Once upon a time, there was (and still is) an advocacy organization called Sisters in Crime. It was founded in 1986 by a few pioneering women crime writers (yes, Sara Paretsky was one), who realized their books weren’t getting the big reviews or being nominated for the big awards. They decided to do something about it, and now the members number in the thousands.

Fast forward to about ten years ago. The New England chapter of SINC is one of the biggest and most active. I had met a number of members at monthly meetings, conferences, and workshops. I was working on my first novel and had a few short crime stories in juried anthologies, but I didn’t have an agent or a book contract. 

A New York agent contacted the president of our chapter saying he was looking for authors who would be willing to work on a cozy mystery series proposal. (Cozy mystery – think Miss Marple or “Murder She Wrote.”) She sent the offer to the chapter membership.

I knew this was an opening I couldn’t squander. Agents almost never go looking for authors; it’s entirely the reverse. Within a month he sold my first cozy series to Kensington Publishing. I soon learned that three other friends in the chapter – Jessie Crockett, Liz Mugavero, and Barbara Ross – had done the same, with the same success. Sherry Harris and Julie Hennrikus, two other friends, were also writing but missed the initial window with this agent.

We were seeing the success of other group blogs around that time, most notably Jungle Red Writers, a group of women crime writers more established than we were. They had built a community of commenters – and fans. The six of us wondered if we could do the same.

Soon enough Sherry and Julie landed series contracts, too. We were all New Englanders writing cozy mysteries. The intensifier “wicked” shouts New England, so we founded Wicked Cozy Authors: Mystery with a New England Accent. The first post went up in time for Liz Mugavero’s first book release in May 2013. 

We settled on posting five days a week to be sure we could fill all the spots. Wednesdays are designated as Wicked Wednesdays, a day when we all chime in on the same topic. We each take one solo day a month. At the beginning, we invited three Wicked Accomplices to blog once a month with us, but all three have slid off for various reasons over the years. 

We invite other authors as guests. We sometimes feature a mysterious picture to write an opening line for or run a post telling our fans what we’re reading that season. Occasionally we spotlight an expert. We’ve hosted a private investigator, a funeral home director, and an independent editor, among others. After a few of us branched out into also writing historical and traditional mysteries, we rebranded as the Wicked Authors.

Behind the blog, we six cemented our friendships. We see each other at conferences, but once a year we meet in Maine for a long weekend. We schmooze over wine, solve the problems of the publishing industry (as if!), and help each other plot (fictional) murder. We couldn’t do it last year, naturally, but are hoping for a reunion in the fall. And we celebrate and grieve personal events like weddings and births, illnesses and deaths, as all true friends do. 

In addition to in-person meetups, we’re always on group emails behind the scenes. Authors have plenty of things they want to share — but not always publicly. Series contract not renewed? Group virtual hugs. Best royalty check ever? High fives. We share gripes and triumphs in equal measure. We’ve had series orphaned by a press closing. We’ve had Agatha Award nominations (and one win). We’ve complained about snarky reviews as well as rejoiced in starred ones. 

You could say we’re in competition with each other for contracts, for sales, for awards. We are. But readers are hungry for new books, and we want each other to succeed. By now several of us write more than one series, and many of us have a pen name or two. And when one of our boats rises, all of ours do.

How do we know the blog is a success? First, our viewer and commenter numbers continue to rise, year over year. Second, none of us, the six original bloggers, has quit. Third, when we attend mystery fan conferences like Malice Domestic or Bouchercon, fans get excited when they see one of us and say, “You’re one of the Wicked Authors!” We even went on book tour together in 2019. 

What makes the blog a nine-year success? We each pull our own weight and are responsible for “wrangling” two different months a year. The wrangler invites guests to fill any blank spots on the calendar. She comes up with Wicked Wednesday topics to match the month’s theme and writes the intro to our monthly newsletter. She also puts out fires, should they arise. 

As a group, we also assess our efforts and regroup if a particular feature falls flat. We’re not afraid to try new approaches. In fact, we started a Facebook group last year, and our monthly newsletter is relatively new, too.

We have different strengths and commitments. One of us is a whiz with numbers and stats. Another is brilliant at graphics. Another comes up with great monthly themes. One of us busily and happily writes three or four books a year. Two are holding down day jobs in addition to writing and blogging. Three hold important volunteer jobs with SINC. Everyone has family commitments. But we all chip in to share the posts, comment on them, and generally get the word out, no matter whose month it is. 

It’s this spirit of cooperation that makes the blog work. I know these women have my back. They know I have theirs. We are much more than a blog. We are each other’s lifeboat.

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Find out more about THE WICKED AUTHORS on their website: https://wickedauthors.com/

Follow them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WickedAuthors/

Featured in Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2016/04/24/murder-they-wrote/asE9zXGm30LUk6vqnalOuM/story.html

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Agatha Award-winning author Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she pens the Country Store Mysteries and Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. A past president of SINC New England, she’s a member of Mystery Writers of America and a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime. Maxwell lives with her beau and energetic kitten north of Boston, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook. Find her and Maddie at EdithMaxwell.com, wickedauthors.com, Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, and on social media.

A CHANGING LIGHT

A Changing Light, the seventh historical Quaker Midwife Mystery, releases April 13. Midwife Rose Carroll sees signs of progress and change everywhere in 1890. Her New England mill town presents its annual Spring Opening, when world-famous carriage manufacturers throw open their doors to visitors from all over the globe.

This year’s festivities are tainted when a representative from a prominent Canadian carriage company is murdered and plans for a radical new horseless carriage go missing. Faced with the question of whether the two crimes are connected—and a list of suspects that includes some of Amesbury’s own residents and any number of foreign visitors—Rose delves into a case with implications for the future, even if the motive for murder is one of mankind’s oldest.

MURDER AT THE TAFFY SHOP

Murder at the Taffy Shop, written as Maddie Day, releases in all formats on March 30. In the second Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery, bike shop owner Mac Almeida exercises her mind by puzzling out fictional clues in the mystery novels she reads and discusses with her Cozy Capers Book Group. But now Mac’s friend Gin has found herself in a sticky situation.

After wealthy genealogist Beverly Ruchart is found dead outside Gin’s taffy shop, the candy maker becomes a person of interest. When it’s revealed that Beverly was poisoned the night Gin brought a box of taffy to a dinner party at Beverly’s house, she’s bumped to the top of the suspects list. It’s up to Mac and the Cozy Capers crime solvers to unwrap this real-life mystery. This time they might have bitten off more than they can chew . . .

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing