Liz/Cate here!

I have our friend and fellow author Carolyn Wilkins here today and we’re doing a look back on her first experiences with the Wicked Authors, with Barb and Sherry, and what this community has meant to her. Watch the video on YouTube or check out the transcript below!

Liz Mugavero (00:00.984)
Hey Carolyn, thanks for joining us here at the Wickeds.

Carolyn (00:03.979)
Hi, happy to be here.

Liz Mugavero (00:08.141)
So Carolyn Wilkins is, I’m talking with Carolyn Wilkins today and she’s been a friend of the Wicked’s for a very long time. You know, back in our way back days of all six of us. So as we kind of launch into the new Wicked’s 2.0 with the four of us, mine is Barb and Sherry, sadly, we miss them all the time, but we’re gonna make them come back a lot. We’re just talking to some people about, you know, their favorite memories of the Wicked’s, how the Wicked’s have, you know,

been a factor in the local community and in the writing community and that kind of thing because we’ve all known each other for a very long time. So I thought Carolyn would be a wonderful person to come on and talk a little bit about that. So I wanted to ask you, what was your first memory of meeting the Wicked or any of the Wicked?

Carolyn (01:00.235)
Well, yeah, I have a good story about that. I had just joined Sisters in Crime. I was just trying, I think I had won my very first murder mystery out on a small press, Melody for Murder, which was about a teacher on the South Side. Anyway.

Sisters in Crime had this event at a bookstore up in Newton where they would have a long series of tables and all the authors had their books out and it was my very first time I was feeling very shy. I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t really fullyown that I was an author deserving of a table of books. I only had one book, I’m pretty sure. And meanwhile, you know how it is, people got stacks of stuff and I’m like here with my one little book. And I’ll never forget, Barbara Ross said to me, come sit here. And she made space on her table with her 20 books or whatever.

She had all those Maine Clambake books and she made little space for me and she talked to me and she just kind of made me feel welcome and made me feel comfortable, asked me about myself and told me about her and what she did and told me about Sisters in Crime. And then she proceeded to introduce me to Leslie Wheeler who is the woman who is in charge of the Speakers Bureau at Sisters in Crime. She said, Barbara, to me, you should do, you can go and talk in libraries about your book. And I was like, ooh, I can. So she introduced me. In other words, she took it upon herself to kind of take me under her wing and just because she could see I’m sure that I was wicked, uncomfortable.

You know, not feeling very much like one of the crowd. So that was one cool thing and Barbara also on her way out of the Wicked’s was the one who gave me some very helpful information about my current publishing house and my situation once again advising me and offering me wisdom very generously.

I also was one of the other early experiences. Sisters in Crime also does a thing during the Boston Book Fair where they have a booth. And, you know, I didn’t know anything about how to sign up for that or whatever. And I saw it late in the game and all the slots were taken. And Edith just took it upon herself, she said, well, you don’t have mine. I don’t have to do it. I’ve done it a million times. You do it here. And once again, just made space for me when she didn’t have to.

And sure enough, I sold a couple of books and I got to meet some of the other writers, you know, part of it is just getting to meet people. And as a shy person, just getting comfortable with and getting to know other people. And another person who was super helpful to me is Julie Hennrikus. And she gave me tons of advice on writing. If I’m not wrong, she read one of the three trillion early drafts I did of the book that I finally sold and is finally coming out.

This summer, she read a very early iteration of it and offered brilliant suggestions. you know, as you may remember, the three of us were going to actually have an event in Somerville where we were going to help people write and give them techniques for breaking through writer’s block and stuff like that. But we knew.

Liz Mugavero (05:34.018)
Yeah. We need to come back to that. That was actually a really good idea. And yeah.

Carolyn (05:39.453)
Yeah, I think that the pandemic totaled it if I’m not wrong. We got derailed. So what I can say about the Wicked is every single time I’ve had a book to come out, which hasn’t been all that often compared to a creative, but I have.

Liz Mugavero (05:43.011)
Yes.

Liz Mugavero (05:57.476)
But it’s been plenty just because, right? Like a lot of people don’t have any, so.

Carolyn (06:02.719)
Right, well exactly. Every time I had a book to come out, you would generously let me come on and, you know, do my little song and dance about my book. And it’s always felt that a very supportive and warm environment of women. And last thing I’ll say about that, having worked at Berklee College of Music in a predominantly male environment for decades. It was so rewarding to find women colleagues who were supportive and open and helped lift me up. So that’s what I can say about the Wicked. I appreciate you guys.

Liz Mugavero (06:52.3)
I love that. And I have to just say, it sounds like your experience with Barb that first time was like her removing any of the high school trauma of not being asked to sit at the lunch table. Right?

Carolyn (07:03.263)
Well, thank you, because that’s what we and when you’re new in a situation, you know, you do feel awkward and you do feel uncomfortable and it’s nice and sometimes we who are now sort of the established, sometimes you forget how, you know, someone else might feel or how much it means to someone to reach out and just speak to them, you know.

Liz Mugavero (07:31.448)
Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. And I think, you know, that’s one of the reasons, you know, before we jumped on the recording, you had asked me if we were going to, given Barb and Sherry’s departure, if we were going to, you know, continue and all of that. And I think what we had talked about was that, you know, aside from we all still want to continue to write and, you know, be out there and be part of the writers community, we felt really strongly that, you know, we had a role in helping people who are just coming up.

and giving them a place to be and a place to talk about their work and just people, like you said, to feel like you’re part of something. And so we wanted to make sure we still were able to do that.

Carolyn (08:08.813)
That’s right.

Liz Mugavero (08:13.624)
So thank you. Well, we’re not stopping having guests. So we’ll have you back when your book comes out. You have a book coming out this summer. So we’ll have you on The Wicked’s. We can do video. We can do blog. This is the beauty of the new version. We’re doing all different kinds of things. So if people want to do blog posts like we used to do, that’s totally fine. If you want to jump on and do an interview, that’s even better, right? So we’re going to do all kinds of things. And so I look forward or we all look forward to having you back in the summer.

Carolyn (08:20.109)
Perfect.