Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: WHAT WILD WOMEN DO by Karma Brown

Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new release, WHAT WILD WOMEN DO?

Karma Brown: I have this memory of being about seven years old and sitting cross-legged in a rustic, wood-beamed lean-to at the Great Camp Sagamore in the Adirondacks. It was the height of summer, and everything smelled green and lush. We had little money when I was growing up, but my parents had a bountiful network of friends and a keen sense of adventure, and that was how we ended up being invited to stay at the camp. It was around 1979, and I am certain only mere fragments of this memory are accurate. However, the feeling of that place wormed into my younger self—the wonder of its history (Camp Sagamore had originally belonged to the gilded Vanderbilt family, and the cabin where my family stayed had been Gloria’s), the isolated beauty of its surroundings, and the fun to be had, including hours spent hand-setting pins with my sister in the camp’s open-air bowling alley. In many ways WHAT WILD WOMEN DO began simply as a love letter to my 1970s hippie-infused childhood, and that first magical visit to Camp Sagamore.

Jen: Let’s start with Rowan. What’s going on in her life?

Karma: Rowan is a thirty-year old screenwriter, who has reluctantly moved back to her hometown of Ann Arbor with her fiancée, Seth, after struggling to find success and make ends meet in L.A. Seth is a novelist with an unfinished manuscript who also runs a YouTube channel that unfortunately, in Rowan’s view, seems to be his priority. She’s often roped into creating content with Seth for the channel, something she despises doing (but she’s a team player, and loves Seth). The two of them decide to spend a month at an isolated cabin in the Adirondacks, to help them find the solitude and creative space to finish their respective projects. However, Seth remains distracted by his YouTube channel and ignores his manuscript, while Rowan uncovers secrets about an abandoned nearby great camp (Camp Callaway) and its former owner, Eddie Callaway—a socialite turned feminist—who disappeared from the camp without a trace in 1975. As the mystery unfolds and Rowan’s relationship implodes, she’s forced to confront her decisions, as well as her hopes for the future.

Jen: How are Rowan and Eddie alike despite being almost fifty years apart?

Karma: While Rowan and Eddie appear to be completely different women—one a modern-day screenwriter, engaged to be married, struggling to find her footing, and the other a 1975 feminist who left her gilded socialite life to help other women find their “wild ways” at her family’s great camp—they are both on a journey of self-discovery. Eddie writes, “I am on a path with a clear beginning but no end. There is no room to be tentative with our intentions…time is a fickle thing.” While this is a lesson I gave to Eddie to relay to the reader, it’s one that becomes a beacon for Rowan throughout the pages. In some ways Rowan’s life begins where Eddie’s stopped, and while their lives look nothing alike, they share the desire to squeeze everything they can out of this one, great life.

Jen: In what ways do you relate to the two main characters, Rowan and Eddie?

Karma: I turned fifty as I was finishing edits, and I think Eddie, in particular, offered me a platform to work through some of the challenges I was experiencing as an aging woman. I also like to write characters who are seeking, and achieving, agency, and I learned a lot from Rowan and Eddie. I relate to Rowan’s ambition to create something tangible in a modern world perpetually driven by viral trends and 24-7 news. Similarly, like 1970s Eddie, I am heading into my third act of life, when women become nearly invisible, despite their wealth of experience. So I hold elements of both Rowan and Eddie inside me…I suspect they have always been there!

Jen: Tell us something fascinating you learned while researching the book and how it connects with the characters in the story.

Karma: One of the more fascinating facts I learned is that trees become stronger and more resilient when they get tossed about in strong winds. The back and forth sway of the trunk and branches is what helps the roots get a sturdier hold on the earth. It felt like the perfect metaphor for what Eddie and Rowan are going through in their respective lives.

Jen: Who was your favorite character to write and why?

Karma: I think of settings as characters as well, so I’m inclined to say writing Camp Callaway and the vast, isolated Adirondack Forest were favorites of mine. As for the human characters, I would probably choose Eddie Callaway. Not only could I relate to her stage of life and valued her wisdom, she was fun to write because of my 1970s childhood. She allowed me an opportunity to include some of my beloveds’ memories of that era.

Jen: What do you hope readers take away from this remarkable story?

Karma: I hope it sparks a curiosity to explore, and to seek out adventures and new experiences, regardless of age or stage. We only get this one life, and personally I want to take advantage of it, whenever and however I can.

Jen: What’s on your TBR stack?

Karma: Truthfully, so many I don’t have space to list them all! But a few that I plan to get to soon: SHARK HEART by Emily Habeck; Lauren Groff’s THE VASTER WILDS; LET IT DESTROY YOU by Harriet Alida Lye; and two others publishing in early 2024—A MAN DOWNSTAIRS by Nicole Ludrigan, and HOW TO SOLVE A MURDER by Kristin Perrin.

Jen: What’s the best way for readers to stay connected with you?

Karma: Best place to find me these days is on Instagram.

Jen: Sneak peek! What’s your current work in progress?

Karma: All I can say right now is that I’m working on a new book, which veers into a new genre (one I’ve not written before). Also, I’m having the most fun writing it!

Jen: Thanks for stopping by to chat about your fabulous new release, What Wild Women Do. I can’t wait for your next book! Please come back again.

Karma: Thanks, Jen, for the wonderful questions! Happy to come back anytime.

WHAT WILD WOMEN DO by Karma Brown

An aspiring contemporary screenwriter, a 1970s socialite-turned-feminist, and the camp in the woods that ties their stories together forever, in #1 internationally bestselling author Karma Brown’s new novel about ambition, betrayal, and the wildness that exists in all of us.

Rowan is stuck. Her dream of becoming a Hollywood screenwriter is stalled, and so she and her novelist fiancé, Seth, retreat to an isolated cabin in the Adirondacks to hopefully get out of their creative ruts. There, Rowan finds herself drawn into a mysterious and unsettling story—that of socialite-turned-feminist-crusader Eddie Callaway, who vanished in these same woods the summer of 1975 and was never heard from again. A handbook found in the abandoned ruins of the Callaway camp gives Rowan glimpses into who Eddie was, and then a fateful discovery offers clues about what might have happened to her. Soon, Rowan finds herself with a story potentially more shocking than Eddie’s notes about sun salutations and pineapple upside-down cake would indicate.

As Rowan learns more about the enigmatic Eddie, who got a second chance at life after a profound loss, she discovers the camp leader’s greatest wish: to help other women unlock their true, though long-repressed, “wildness.” However, Eddie’s methods and wild ways weren’t welcomed by all, and rifts between the camp owners threatened her mission, perhaps perilously. As Rowan draws closer to the truth of Eddie’s unsolved disappearance, she realizes that the past may hold two keys: one that reveals what really happened to Eddie Callaway, and another that unlocks a future beyond her wildest imagination.

Women’s Fiction Historical [Dutton, On Sale: October 24, 2023, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593186350 / eISBN: 9780593186367]

About Karma Brown

KARMA BROWN is an award-winning journalist and freelance writer, who probably spends too much time on her laptop in coffee shops. When not writing, she can be found running with her husband, coloring (outside the lines) with her daughter, or baking yet another batch of banana muffins. Karma lives just outside Toronto with her family.

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About Jennifer Vido

Jennifer Vido writes sweet romances set in the Lowcountry filled with southern charm and hospitality. In between chapters, she interviews authors for her bi-weekly Jen’s Jewels column on FreshFiction.com. Most mornings, she teaches an arthritis-friendly water exercise class for seniors before heading to the office to serve as the executive director of a legal non-profit. A New Jersey native, she currently lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescue dogs and is the proud parent of two sons who miss her home-cooked meals. To learn more, please visit her website.

Gull Island

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