Words, Women and Fellowship

It has dawned on me this holiday season that I belong to and treasure three groups that are mostly or all women and all revolve around words. They are Sisters in Crime, the Book Ladies, and Story Circle Network Works-in-Progress.

Sisters in Crime is the biggest, but not the oldest I don’t think. And the sisters have welcome some brothers into their ranks. Back in1986, mystery writer Sara Paretsky spoke about the graphic sadism that was being found in many mysteries, and author Phyllis Whitney spoke out about the lack of recognition of women as writers of mystery. Those talks ultimately led to the formation of Sisters in Crime. Yes, folks, it was founded with a feminist agenda. Today the organization has about 3600 members and 48 chapters worldwide. The “mother chapter” is a bit large and impersonal for me, although I do monitor the listerv one day a week.

But I am more active in the Guppies subchapter. Guppies either stands for “going to be published” or the “great unpublished,” but so many members who have moved on to publication stay active because the chapter is warm, welcoming, and full of information from marketing to construction. Guppies also offer a wide range of online classes for members. I served one two-year term on the board and was reluctant when my term expired. At the time, two or three years ago, a man was president.

If I hadn’t joined Sisters in Crime, I doubt I’d be published. From them I learned about agents, blurbs, blogs, everything I know, and from them I got the sense of self-confidence that I could do this thing I’d wanted to do for years—publish a mystery. I found my first mystery publisher through them; later their shared expertise gave me the impetus to jump into indie publishing.

I’ve not met many of the Guppies, because mobility issues and age prevent me from going to the many conferences where there is always a gathering of Guppies, be it in the hotel bar or a nearby restaurant. But I’ve become friends with several on the listserv, and I treasure those friendships.

The second group, a bit more personal, is the Book Ladies, which I’ve mentioned a couple of times lately. Anywhere from five or six to twelve or fourteen ladies meet once a month for breakfast at the Old Neighborhood Grill. Sometimes we talk books, sometimes we talk politics (we inadvertently ran off the one conservative in our midst, during George Bush’s presidential campaign). We have no agenda, no dues, nothing beyond one member who sends out a monthly reminder. We’re mostly a grey-headed group these days, but most of us have had a career that involved books—lots of librarians, a few authors, booksellers, teachers, etc. We too share personal news, and we recently had a lovely Christmas breakfast at a member’s home. I was one of the founders of this group back in the ‘80s, and that’s why I think it pre-dates Sisters in Crime—or comes pretty close. I really look forward to the breakfasts, though these days the restaurant is noisy, and I miss a lot of the conversation.

The third group is the smallest and the most personal. In the online Works-in-Progress subgroup of Story Network, about ten or twelve of us chime in regularly, at least on Mondays to share plans and goals for the week and on Fridays, as brazen hussies, to share good things that have happened to us during the week. On Wednesdays, I ask the group what they’re reading—great way to get suggestions for your own reading list. As a mystery writer, I’m sort of an oddball in this group because most of the women—and membership is women only—are memoirists. It comforts me that Susan Wittig Albert, who founded Story Circle Network, is a mystery writer and keeps reminding me that mysteries serve a real purpose. In this group we share writing triumphs and tragedies, as well as personal news, and I feel that I know many of them really well, even though I’ve only met two members. We rejoice together, we mourn together, we worry together, and we cheer for each other.

What conclusions can I draw from belonging to these groups? Not many. It doesn’t mean I hate men—I don’t. Does it mean women are more engaged with words than men? Not at all, though probably it’s still true that women who write get less recognition than men, but it’s getting better every day, thanks to organizations like Sisters in Crime. Do I think women tend to confide and support each other more? Maybe so.

But what it really means to me is that I’m lucky to have found my niche in the world. It took me a long time, and I’m grateful for these groups. Writing still is a solitary experience, when you come to put words on paper, but it's wonderful to have cheer grups.