Celebrating Two Wicked Years!

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6 May Announcement:  randomly selected winners from their comments on this post are: Ruth Nixon, Tiger Wiseman, Sandy Bartles, Jane Werthmann, Mary Feliz, and Nancy Roessner. Please contact Edith at edithmaxwellauthor at gmail dot com if you haven’t already heard from her. We need your mailing address. And congratulations!

It seems impossible that two years have passed since we started Wicked Cozy Authors. Our very first post was about how we met. For our first year anniversary we interviewed each other. We’d like to say how grateful we are for all our fabulous readers and our regular commenters. Thank you! We love you! And we are each going to give away a book (or perhaps a mug) to six commenters today. So this year Wickeds, tell us one thing that has changed for you this year and one thing you don’t think the other Wickeds know about you.

Sherry: My dream of getting published became a reality last December but it took awhile to sink in. I think because I know so many authors who are published it didn’t seem like a huge deal. About a month ago I was sitting on the couch with my husband one evening and I thought, “I’m published. I AM PUBLISHED.” What don’t the Wickeds know about me —-hmmm. When I was the Director of Marketing for a financial planning company I did weekly stock market reports on a local radio station. I have a good radio voice — which is very different from my regular voice.

Edith: What a fabulous path we’ve been on together! And Sherry, I want a demo of your announcer voice while we’re in Bethesda! For me, in the last year my Local Foods Mysteries contract was extended for two more books, and I landed both the Country Store Mysteries contract and the Quaker Midwife Mysteries contract. This change is both terribly exciting, and very stressful. So far, the books are still flowing out of my fingers. But I have some pretty tight deadlines next year. Gulp. Something you don’t know about me: I was the first human voice to be kurzweilrecognized by one of the first commercial speech recognition companies. Thirty-one years ago I was employee #16 for Kurzweil Speech Systems (the stars of which finally landed with Nuance, of Dragon Naturally Speaking), and I recorded 8000 words twice. I was the only person the system recognized, so I did all the demos and traveled to conventions. Not the best use of a PhD in linguistics, but it was fun. (Somewhere I have a picture of me that appeared in something like Newsweek!)

Jessie: My experience over the past year has been similar to Sherry’s. I’ve been published since 2010 but I work at home and five years ago I had children that were younger and needed more from me. I also had fewer work obligations like speaking engagements or teaching commitments. Over the past year I have come to realize this writing gig is an actual job and that I am a professional writer. I don’t know why it has taken so long for this to feel real but I am enjoying thinking about myself in a new way. As to what the Wickeds might not know about me? Perhaps it’s that before my youngest child was born I was a garden designer.

wickedsbanquetLiz: This past year has been amazing for me also. My Pawsitively Organic Mysteries have been extended for three more books, and I have a new series under contract also that will be out in 2016. Truly blessed, if not stressed! What the Wickeds don’t know about me: I did some radio during my journalism stint. I was the special guest the morning after every city council meeting to talk about what was going on in town. At the time I didn’t care for it, but now I appreciate what it taught me!

Julie: This past year I met my first deadline, and am plugging away on the details surrounding Just Killing Time getting published October 6. I was also co-chair of the New England Crime Bake, a job which I have again this year. It has been a wonderful year in my writing life, that’s for sure. What the other Wickeds don’t know about me? I love cotton candy. LOVE IT.

Barb: Is today really the day? Because two years ago today, something extra special happened, I became a grandmother for the first time to an absolutely amazing baby girl. It’s been a great year professionally. I handed in Musseled Out in July and the Maine Clambake series was renewed for three more books in August. At Level Best Books, we published Best New England Crime Stories 2015: Rogue Wave in November. As to what you don’t know about me, seriously after all these years of blogging, I don’t have any secrets left.

Readers: What’s something about yourself you think we don’t know? Remember, we are going to give away a book (or perhaps a mug) to six commenters today.

Published by Sherry Harris

Sherry Harris is the author of the Agatha Award nominated Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery series and the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Mystery series.

85 Thoughts

  2. congrats & keep on keepin’ on with the blog!!!
    as many times as I’ve been to Orlando/Disneyworld/UniversalStudios/Islands of Adventure, I am finally going to Anaheim/Disneyland/CaliforniaAdventures/UniversalStudiosHollywood in a couple of weeks!!!!!

  3. Am sitting here enjoying my morning coffee on my birthday delightedly reading about all the fun –and hard work — you all are having! I am sure your blogging about how you write and get published will inspire others. Maybe a blog about how you solve problems when you get stuck…… Congrats and good luck this weekend!

  4. Congratulations Ladies on a fabulous two years. Thank you for the enjoyable blog and the wonderful books. I hope to see you at Malice this weekend. Something about me that you may not know is that I am blind in my left eye (since birth). My hubby like to stand on my left and make faces at me just at the edge of my vision. And my close (wise arse) friends keep giving me 3D books. ;-))

  5. I’m pretty new to you blog, but not your books, so you know nothing about me. Let’s see…what to divulge? I was born about three months early. Congrats on all your hard work and success

  6. Congratulations to a bunch of rocking women. You are such an inspiration for us “wannabes” not only because you write great books, but also your terrific attitude towards life in general. Keep ’em coming.

  7. Congrats! I love how discovering an author and a blog leads you to more authors and more blogs. It’s a never ending chain! I am a fairly new follower here, started with Edith’s Local Foods Mysteries. What you don’t know: years (and years) ago I won the Betty Crocker Homemaker Award in high school. For those who ever wondered why that didn’t translate into a love of housekeeping and craft projects, I reminded them that I won that award because I took a test and everything I knew I learned from reading.

  8. Let’s see, it’s hard to think of something the Wickeds don’t know about me. I was pushed down a flight of stairs and fell on top of Billy Squire while he was performing at what was then the Baltimore Civic Center. Don’t worry, I was fine and went on to have more epic falls though not involving such famous people. Well, I’d did fall with Sherry once, but she wasn’t as famous then as she is now!

  9. Congrats on two years. I’ve enjoyed journeying along with you over the past year plus.

    Something you don’t know about me…. I’m pretty much an open book, and if you read my blog you’ll find with all my reviewing I don’t have any guilty pleasures. I’ve reviewed them all.

    Have I mentioned that I was home schooled before? I was home schooled from 4th through 10th grades. I started out at a private Christian school for K-3rd, finished at a public high school, and then went to the local community college before finishing up at a Christian college, so I went to just about every kind of schooling you can imagine during my school days.

    And seriously, congrats to all of you. I’m so thankful I found this blog and all your books. I’m looking forward to reading Julie’s book come October.

  10. Hello Wicked Cozy Friends,

    I’m writing this on the train, heading south a day early to visit with a dear friend for a day before Malice begins. I’m in the middle of celebrating launch week for my debut mystery, Quick Pivot, featuring Maine newspaper reporter Joe Gale. So far the experience has been a blast, and I have every confidence that the fun will continue, especially because some of you will be at Malice as well : )

    Something you may not know about me is that my early education was at the hands of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary at St. Bernard’s Parish in my hometown of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The good sisters loved to teach grammar and usage (diagramming sentences, anyone?) and I credit them to this day for the solid foundation they provided.

    Brenda B.

  11. Happy “Birthday”! I love reading your blogs, not only because Barb has always had an incredible turn of phrase and a fantastic outlook which has inspired me since I first met her during my mis-spent youth in Philadelphia, but because they have given me a chance to “meet” the rest of you. Have loved every book from any of you that I have read. All my writing is legal writing; I am in awe of all your imagination and creativity. Unknown fact: my maternal grandfather, Narte Velikonja, was an author of some renown in Slovenia.

  12. Let’s see, something you wouldn’t know.. I grew up in a house we believe was haunted. It wasn’t scary, just things had happened that made us believe. 🙂 something else, though boring, I learned to read at age three! 🙂

      1. We lived across the street from a library. 🙂 my mom took me everyday. And she read to me as well, so I was an early reader. Have had my nose in a book since then! 🙂

  13. Two years ago I was in Washington DC. I didn’t know about Malice until just before I got there. So close, but so far away. Since I live in California, I think of it as in horseshoes, close is good. Wish I could have hung around outside hoping for an author sighting, but my schedule was set by others.

    2. I’m a fourth-generation Californian, Barbara (born in Pasadena), so I know how far away it is. But you should definitely make a plan to come to Malice on purpose one of these years!

    1. Some day I’d like to visit Alaska but I don’t think I’d ever want to move there! It sounds like your move to Georgia was a success!

  15. Happy Anniversary! I love the camaraderie of this group and how you support one another, as well as other writers. I’m new here so will throw out a bit of trivia. When I was in high school, I was cast as one of the King’s wives in a production of “The King and I.” I had a solo dance number which I am thankful nobody ever captured on camera.

  16. Congratulations on your anniversary, ladies. What fun you must have together. I sold auto parts out of an International step van over the western half of CT in the early 80s and I had a blast! Also I’m a red green color blind which makes for some interesting discussions. I hope that you all share many more years together!

    1. Hey, you’re in charge of people’s money, Kelly. That could be really exciting! thanks so much for stopping by the blog, and we hope you’ll be back.

    2. A fellow accountant cozy mystery reader. We will take over the world, and no one will figure out who or why. (Insert evil laugh here.)

  19. I’m 80 and I’ve had a library card since I was five. When I was in the fifth grade they gave me an adult card so I’d have more to read. I was a lonely only and books were my companions and are still.

  20. What a great two years in blogging. I am hoping mine gets easier. One day I hope to make it to Malice and meet some of you. I learned to read and write at four and wrote my own fairy tales. My favorite Books were Nancy Drew and I still love mysteries the best.

  21. The more I read the more I want to write, is that a crazy thought?! To start trying to write while I am in another career

  22. I love these stories and truly cannot believe I’ve been following you Wickeds all this time. You are a joy to read and follow and are a great inspiration to me, because I have been here reading about your work and have felt, in some small way, a part of this process you work so hard at—and are willing to talk about.

    I’ve been trying hard to think of something you might not know about me. I have become such an open person it isn’t easy to find something new to tell about myself! Oh! Wait! Just thought of something! When I was a graduate divinity student I had a field education assignment to help a local church with its youth program and community food distribution project. The minister interviewed me, and I was approved by the church council. About a week later the minister left town unannounced and I, a second year student, was left to lead a church in Boston. Scared half to death, knowing nothing about church leadership, I stayed on as “The Rev” for two years.

    1. Cool story, Rev! (You KNOW that’s what I’m calling you from here on out…) We’re so happy you’re part of our community over here.

      1. 😉 You are so funny, Edith! And thank you. I am happy to be here and enjoy all of you.

  23. Congratulations on 2 excellent years to all of the Wicked writers here. Enjoy talking with all of you at Crime Bake and here, or course.

    Refreshing break from lawyers, guns and money.

  26. Congrats ladies! You are all amazing in my book and I am lucky enough to actually hang out with you from time to time. Also I was honored to get to be a guest on your blog on social media this year.
    What you don’t know about me (or maybe you do since Liz thinks this is hysterical) ~ In Kindergarden I was riding on the school bus with my pals Kyle & Heather. They were showing me how they could take plastic beads (like you make bracelets with) and put them up your nose and blow them out (at least that was the plan). Well, long story short I thought it seemed like a cool idea, did it and well it didn’t come out. Bus driver had to pull over, ambulance and fire department were called and my frantic Mother and her friend arrived amidst the chaos. I was in the back of the bus, by the time the front of the bus received the story everyone thought it was a BEE up my nose not a BEAD. It wasn’t long before the EMTs explained the truth of the matter lol. So off to the hospital I went to have the bead removed and later placed on the bulletin board in the hospital area as a humorous story. lol Yep, that says a lot doesn’t it lol ~ HAPPY TWO YEARS!!!! =)

  27. I want to be you when I grow up…well, I hope I never grow up..grow older, yes but I hope to always be young enough at heart to enjoy a great mystery! Thanks for everything!

  28. Congrats and thanks for keeping us entertained. Not sure if you know anything about me, so here goes. I have one eye that is 2 different colors, I have m/s, I love gardening but cant do much of it anymore(the heat in TN is horrible for me), I named my rescue (we got him in July of last year) after my all time favorite singer and long time crush Steven Tyler of Aerosmith(his name is Tyler) and I once carved ST’s name in my arm as a youngster. No questions about that one since it was back in the sex, drugs and rock n roll stage for me, lol

  29. Congrats, ladies, what a great group you are! Since I don’t comment often, you know very little about me. How about, along with being a cat and a cozy lover, I am a huge fan of Garfield. Here’s to many more years together for you, and many more books!

  30. Happy Birthday, Wickeds! And many thanks to Edith, Sherry, and Barbara for helping me out this month with my first steps toward a certain publisher.

  31. Thank you all for the hard work (and fun!) you put into writing your books! I have enjoyed them all and hope to for many years to come! Happy 2nd anniversary 🙂

  33. Happy 2nd anniversary! And thank you for all your delightful books! I’ve enjoyed this blog post so much, reading about things you hadn’t revealed before and also the interesting stories your readers told. As for something worth telling about myself I will just say that I love reading and playing Scrabble, and recently took up crocheting and knitting after a break of many years. Reading is my big love and great escape!

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