Behind the Scenes of The Women Who Love Murder: The Mesdames of Mayhem

It will be fun, I told myself. Usually when I say that, said fun experience turns out to be exhausting (sanding and staining the back deck), terrifying (the chair lift at the Great Wall of China), or something I’d never want to do again (the Ferris wheel at the Ex).But being part of a doc should be fun, right? And you know, it was! But it was also pretty nerve wracking for reasons I’ll go into.Let me explain: I am in a recently released CBC GEM short doc, titled Meet The Women Who Love Murder: The Mesdames of Mayhem. You can find it — and us — on YouTube along with the tagline: “Delve into the dark minds of a collective of murder mystery writers and learn of the creepy, sometimes twisted realities that inspire these women’s stories.”

Some of the Mesdames of MayhemBut what is the Mesdames of Mayhem? We’re a group collective co-founded in 2012 by Madeleine Harris-Callway and Donna Carrick because they wanted to publish a book to find more readers for Canadian women mystery writers. That book was Thirteen and it’s been followed by three more anthologies and, most recently, In The Key of Thirteen.But — why the documentary? And how? Documentary filmmaker Cat Mills came to hear some of the Mesdames give a talk at the Beaches Library; she said we sounded really interesting and that she’d love to do a short doc on us.We were excited but nervous. “We’re not interesting enough to warrant a documentary,” we kept insisting to Cat and she kept reassuring us that we were, indeed.We first met Cat in November 2018 and she started interviewing and filming in earnest in January. Cat initially wanted to follow the making of an anthology – how we make the decisions about the cover, the editing and the submission process — essentially, document the publishing journey.But the focus shifted along the way from being about the book to being about the authors. What made us tick? What goes on inside the darkness of our heads? There were times Cat’s insightful questions left us feeling like perhaps we had said too much. But we trusted her and I guess we all truly did feel like there was a story that we wanted to tell because we happily kept at it.Well, in truth, not everyone was initially convinced this was a good idea. There was some trepidation within the group about whether we would be portrayed in a comedic and potentially negative way. This was a valid concern since we’re all serious writers and we know that the genre is considered to be the poor relation in writing, often elbowed out by our revered literary siblings.And, as an Inanna Publications author, I feel a responsibility to always be mindful that I am representing Inanna, even when it comes to other published works and so that was important too.Close to a year passed and we met with Cat in our homes; we had a garden party to discuss the launch and the anthology and we enjoyed a tremendously exciting stills shoot at The Darling Mansion, a risqué upmarket Airbnb in the west end of Toronto.And then, finally, the documentary aired!I was pretty terrified to watch it. I was at my day job, as acting assistant art director at Hello! Canada, and I rushed off to find an empty boardroom and watch the documentary on my phone.I’ll admit that my first thought was, Lisa, you are so old! My thoughts swung to Botox and then I chastised myself — one should embrace the aging process — and then I faced the irony of my mention in the documentary of South Africa being a vain and materialistic society!

A shot of crime writer Lisa de Nikolits in Meet The Women Who Love MurderWhile it’s hard to see oneself onscreen, I was riveted by the documentary. I learned so much about my fellow Mesdames. I found the documentary to be chilling, funny, and heart-breaking.Cat had let us know that she’d filmed hours of great footage and that editing the doc was really tough. In the end, she focused on four writers: myself, Donna Carrick, Melodie Campbell, and Jane Peterson Burfield. I’ve worked so closely with our publisher, Donna Carrick, for many years and I had no idea about her story. I cried. (I won’t tell you what that story is, no spoilers here.) Nor did I know Melodie’s or Jane’s stories — Cat dug deep and got the goods! Cat also teamed up with CBC producer Felicity Justrabo and it really was such a pleasure working with them.

L – R: Lisa de Nikolits, Cat Mills, and Felicity Justrabo at the launch of In The Key of Thirteen. Photo by Vickie Sparks.So it turns out we were right to trust Cat. We even made Cat an Honorary Mesdame at the launch party of In The Key of Thirteen.Meet The Women Who Love Murder is great viewing, affectionate, and probing. But, see for yourself. * * *Thanks to Lisa for sharing the backstory behind Meet The Women Who Love Murder: The Mesdames of Mayhem, and to Renée at Inanna Publications for making the connection. Find Lisa de Nikolits’s books for sale on All Lit Up, including Rotten Peaches, No Fury Like That, and The Nearly Girl.