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A Field Notes notebook and pen next to a cup of coffee on a cafe table.

Adventures, The Writing Life 0 comments

Observing the World Like a Writer

Cheri Baker

October 9, 2018
After a month on the road it feels great to be home again.

Seattle is where my family and friends are, and along with missing them I’ve also been yearning for the ordinary comforts of home: our local coffee shops, my comfy writing chair, and my mechanical keyboard with Cherry Brown MX switches.

We had a fun time on our fall adventure. After Bouchercon, we scraped enough airline miles together to visit Amsterdam, Cambridge, and London at one week apiece. We were in tourist mode most of the time, visiting museums and taking walking tours. And the sights were often beautiful.

Tall narrow buildings in Amsterdam crammed together along a canal. A yellow canal boat in the foreground.
Amsterdam
A top-down view of British pub food, including a round steak and ale pie with mashed potato and gravy. A round white plate on a brown table.
London Pub Food
The Sherlock Holmes Pub in central London. Gold leaf letters on the sign beneath a leafy canopy.
A pub in Central London
Narrow punting boats along the edge of the River Cam on a sunny day in Cambridge UK
Punting boats along the river Cam in Cambridge (UK)

Observing the World Like a Writer

While this wasn’t a working vacation, and I had little time to write, I did practice my observational skills. That’s something I’m trying to get better at, because good fiction is often inspired by real life. At home I tell myself I’ll jot down my observations on my cell phone, but how often do I follow through?

Spoiler: not very often.

And even when I do remember to capture an interesting snippet of dialog, or a clever turn of phrase that I’ve heard, notes on my phone tend to disappear from my brain. So during this trip I tried something different: carrying a small notebook and pen.

A Field Notes notebook and pen next to a cup of coffee on a cafe table.
My September 2018 Notebook

To my delight, a paper journal worked much better than my phone for observing the world. Whenever I noted something interesting, I wrote it in the journal. Paper beats pixels, at least in this case. A notebook can be flipped through in a way that digital files cannot, jogging the memory and inviting new connections. And handwritten thoughts seem to stick in my memory better. Besides, it simply feels more writerly to scribble in a journal.

What did I capture while we traveled? Here’s a partial list:

Notes from Bouchercon panels, including the names of authors I met, and interesting tidbits I heard about publishing and writing.

The following quote by Van Gogh, from the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

The painted portraits have a life of their own that comes from deep in the soul of the painter and where the machine can’t go.

A reminder to look up author MR James of Cambridge. We took a Ghost Stories tour in Cambridge, and his name came up a lot. He’s considered the father of English ghost stories.

Two scribbled pages of description about the large Orthodox Jewish family that sat near us on a train outside London.

The names of forty different types of clocks I saw inside the British Museum’s clock room. So many clocks! And so many sexy nouns. Here are just a few:

Sectric Motor Clocks
Musical Table Clock with Automata
Orrery
Planispheric Astrolabic Clock (1560)

I also captured little snippets of overheard dialog. Public transport is excellent for eavesdropping. I caught some hilarious banter from people arguing about Jesus on a public bus.

I have no specific plans for any of these notes, they are enriching my mind. Together they form a kind of mulch from which a story can grow. And if I hadn’t written them down, they’d be gone by now.

Embracing The Ordinary

It’s October now, and my first little notebook is full. Time to switch to a fresh one, and apply those same habits of observation to my life here at home. Listening is something you can do anywhere, no plane ticket required. Although I still think a city bus is an ideal place to discover new characters.

Still, I’m grateful for a chance to fill my eyes and ears with novelty from time to time. And travel is a wonderful source of novelty.

But for now, if you’re in Seattle, and you say something interesting or weird on a Metro Bus, look around. I might be the woman scribbling in a brown paper notebook, listening for the weird and the wonderful, ready for that next spark of inspiration. šŸ˜‰

Good Stories 0 comments

Behold the new Doctor!

Cheri Baker

October 8, 2018
It’s time for a new season of the BBC’s Doctor Who! And as a fan for the last twenty years, I was eager to see what the new Doctor (played by Jodi Whittaker) would bring to the role.

The new Doctor Who stands on a hill in shadow with the Tardis visible on a distant hill.

I won’t spoil the episode, which was an enjoyable introduction, but I will tell you what I liked the most about this iteration of the Doctor: Her self-awareness and joy.

It was something rare and lovely! An expression of positivity that doesn’t sacrifice strength or vulnerability. Here’s a tiny snippet:

There’s this moment when you’re sure you’re about to die. And then…you’re born! It’s terrifying. Right now I’m a stranger to myself. There’s echoes of who I was and a sort of call towards who I am. And I have to hold my nerve and trust all these new instincts. Shape myself towards them. I’ll be fine. In the end. Hopefully.

The Doctor has always been brave and wise, caring and fierce, and all those qualities are still there.

But this something extra that Whitaker brings? It excites me very much.

The first episode is currently available for free from the BBC America site.

Essays 0 comments

Goodbye Summer

Cheri Baker

October 6, 2018

It’s hazy and gray outside today. Pumpkin Spice lattes have taken over the land, and a jacket no longer feels optional when going outside.

Goodbye, Summer! You were beautiful and bright.

A view of downtown Seattle from the air. The waterfront is visible, the sun is out, and a small seaplane is coming in for a landing.

Hello, Autumn! I’m so glad you’re here.

A pair of Converse-clad feet, standing on bright green grass specked with small autumn leaves.

 

seattle skyscrapers lit up at night

Book News, Essays 2 comments

This Dark Emerald City

Cheri Baker

September 3, 2018
 

As I wrap up the third draft of The Assistant I’ve been appreciating how fun it’s been to write a brand new series. This book is unlike anything I’ve written before, which makes the work both challenging and fun. My favorite combo! Here are some of the major differences:

It’s a suspense novel instead of a traditional murder mystery.

I’m telling the story in third-person instead of first-person.

My heroine is more flawed, yet still awesome.

And I’m telling a bigger story that will unfold over multiple books.

It’s all new to me! And while my next book is a bit darker in tone than my previous ones, I think fans of my last series will like this one too. Both series are crime stories, set in the modern workplace. They both feature smart female protagonists with a knack for getting themselves into trouble. And just like the Kat Voyzey Mysteries, my new series is set in my hometown of Seattle.

But even so, it’s a different Seattle than the one you might know.

The Dark Emerald City

Did you know Seattle has a dark side? Beneath our cheery reputation as a coffee-fueled tech hub there exists a culture rooted in corporate ruthlessness. We gloss over our sins, and we love to blame whatever big company is currently in ascendancy (these days, that means Amazon), but Seattle’s ugly side has always been here. It goes right back to the time of our founding.

I’ve rooted The Assistant in a fictional version of Seattle, but if it feels real to me, that’s because I’ve brushed up against the dark side of Seattle. I love this town, but you can’t truly love a place without seeing its flaws, can you?

In my next book, I invite you into a world of corporate power, a place where ambition, greed, and progress are seen as the highest virtues. Into respectable businesses where a quiet brand of warfare is quietly being waged, well beyond the reach of the law. And into our dark emerald city arrives Jessica Warne, 23 years old and ready to shine.

The Assistant will be the first novel in a new series called Emerald City Spies.

I’m attending Bouchercon this week. (Hooray!) And the following week I’ll send out a sneak peek of the new novel to my newsletter subscribers.

Click here if you’d like to sign up for that list.

Book News 0 comments

Celebrating Amateur Sleuths at Bouchercon

Cheri Baker

August 8, 2018
Hey friends! I’m attending Bouchercon: The World Mystery Convention in a few weeks, and if you’ll be in Florida in early September, I hope you’ll stop by to say hello!

The guests of honor for 2018 include Karin Slaughter and Ian Rankin, and the panel discussions look great. I’m especially stoked aboutĀ Bring a Shovel – How to Move a Body, because in my daily life it’s difficult to find a venue to discuss the nuances of hiding a corpse. šŸ˜‰

Celebrating Amateur Sleuths at Bouchercon

At Thursday at 5pm I’ll join five other authors to discuss one of my favorite genres: amateur sleuth novels! Our panel is called The Butler Solved It, and it’s going to be tremendous fun.

Why do I love amateur sleuths? These fictional characters remind us that ordinary people can do extraordinary things, and that justice is something we can all strive for. Sure, our sleuths get into scrapes, and they may hilariously bend the rules, but at its core, an amateur sleuth novel is about a person trying to do the right thing. These stories affirm that you don’t need a badge or a title to stick your neck out for someone.

Besides, isn’t it fun to imagine you might solve a crime?

Get Your Sleuth On!

And if you’re an amateur sleuth fan, I invite you to check out the books written by my fellow panelists. I’m downloading a few to take with me on vacation next week.

Ingrid Thoft’s novel Loyalty is about an investigator in a family of lawyers who is forced to ask the question: When your family’s on the wrong side of the law…what side are you on?

William Boyle’s novel The Lonely Witness tells the story of a witness to a crime who decides to hunt down the killer herself!

Susan Cox’s novel The Man on the Washing Machine won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition. Her protagonist is a photographer named Theo Bogart.

Mariah Fredericks has a sleuth named Jane Prescott. She’s a ladies maid in 1910 New York, and well-positioned to use her intellect to catch a killer in A Death of No Importance.

And Jill Orr’s novel The Good Byline features a quirky library assistant named Riley Ellison who finds herself in more trouble than she bargained for when she writes an obituary for a woman who recently committed suicide.

And if you like workplace sleuths with a touch of humor, check out my Kat Voyzey series. It’s about an HR director who becomes a sleuth when a beloved coworker is murdered. Kat is determined to get justice for the woman’s family. (PS: Book one is currently free!)

Thanks for reading about my first-ever author panel! I can’t wait to spend a couple days talking books, murder mysteries, and amateur sleuths with people who love those things as much as I do.

Bouchercon 2018, here I come!

Adventures 0 comments

A Visit to the Mob Museum

Cheri Baker

July 2, 2018
Last week, Patrick and I went to Las Vegas for our anniversary. We wanted to soak up some sun, lounge by the pool, and escape our ordinary routines. Temperatures hit 112 degrees, making poolside the perfect place to read Dune for the first time. Some quiet time with my sweetie, a cold drink, a lounge chair, and a book? It was a nice trip.

Vegas is a great place for eavesdropping. We overheard an elderly veteran holding forth about his friend who won a purple heart for being hit in the head with a can of Spam. In Vegas, the cast of characters is always colorful. It’s like Disneyland, but only if all the characters were hopped up on cocaine.

Instead of seeing a show, we went to the Mob Museum. Housed in a historic court house downtown, the museum contains an impressive collection of artifacts, stories, images, and exhibits. It highlights the history, practices, crimes, and prosecution of criminal syndicates in America. And because my next novel is set against a backdrop of organized crime, I was especially curious about the topic.

A photo of the exterior sign to the Mob Museum, National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement.
The museum is located in downtown Las Vegas.
A photo of a machine gun with a circular magazine holder.
A Tommy Gun. Also known as a Chicago Typewriter.
A map of the united states with orange squares marking the cities with known mob activity. The northeastern US has the heaviest concentration.
A map of known crime syndicates. Interestingly, Seattle isn’t represented.
a man and a woman standing in front of a concrete wall. The wall has height markers printed on it. Both people are wearing fedoras and holding up a sign, as if arrested.
Celebrating our anniversary in style.

What an educational day! I learned that the organized crime groups we think of as ā€œthe mobā€ arose from ethnic gangs that formed in the slums in cities like New York, Chicago, and Milwaukee. They operated illegal businesses, offering services that legitimate businesses wouldn’t touch, such as prostitution, gambling, alcohol, and loan sharking. And when vices became legal (for example, the end of prohibition), the mob funneled their money and power into legitimate enterprises. Did you know the mob infiltrated the hospitality industry? I didn’t!

A chalkboard with the word HOSPITALITY in the center, and many smaller words around the edge, including restaurants, concessions, cigar stores, and flower shops
Mobsters were business people. And they were criminals.

The Fall of the Mob

The rise of television played an important role in the decline of organized crime. In 1950 a Congressional committee was formed, led by Senator Carey Kefauver. The committee conducted hearings in cities across America, questioning mob bosses and witnesses while the public watched the bad guys squirm on live television.

The Mob Museum is housed inside a courthouse where some of those hearings took place over sixty years ago. You can sit on the wooden benches inside the restored court room and watch video clips from the hearings held inside. This was very cool! And just for fun, in the basement of the museum there is a prohibition-era speakeasy, complete with a hidden room behind a painting, and some truly mediocre coffee. (They also serve alcohol.)

The Return of Organized Crime?

Does the mob exist today? Fedora hats and tommy guns may have gone out of style, but corporate crime and government corruption are far from extinct. In real life, we can vote corrupt politicians out of office and support journalists that shine a light on the moral rot behind unethical business practices. And in fiction, we love stories of the good guys and the bad guys. We love to watch them battle it out.

My next project is a series of novels about a young woman ensnared in a world of corporate espionage, blind ambition, and organized crime. And while the notion of mobsters in Seattle might feel fanciful, if you replace the word Mob with the word Corruption, it feels much closer to home, doesn’t it? Why carry a briefcase full of cash when a shell company or a SuperPAC can serve the same purpose? Why bother to put a price on someone’s head, when you can run a bot-campaign against them on social media and destroy their reputation overnight?

Organized crime has gotten an upgrade. And I can’t wait to share my next book with you all! Stay tuned.

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Clever Spies

The cover of The Assistant showing a young woman in profile with an image of Seattle filling the center of her body.

Plucky Sleuths

Cover of the book Involuntary Turnover

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