Here it is the night before Vanishing Into the 100% Dark is set to launch, and once again, I am doing my usual Book Launch Eve post for the blog.  This book was as much travelogue as anything.  I’m eight books into my cozy mystery series, and this time I took my characters to one of the most interesting places I’ve visited – Tokyo.  Jake and I visited there in 2017, and again in 2024.  When we took the second trip, I already knew I wanted to set Vanishing there, so I took a lot of pictures of details that might come in handy, and I made notes.  But I think my biggest sense of accomplishment this time around had to do with how much easier it was to navigate Japan this time, than the first time we visited because of our increased grasp of the language and deeper understanding of etiquette and culture.

The pic here is from the 2024 trip, at a fish market in Shimizu.  There was a time I would have been timid about trying raw fish, but now I love it, and this was probably the freshest sashimi I’ve ever had.

I went looking for one of my favorite Anthony Bourdain quotes about travel.  It is this one: “If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food, it’s a plus for everybody. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.”

It’s still a good thought.  But on that same page of quotes, I saw he also said this.  “Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you.”

I think it is this second quote that is more appropriate for tonight.  I know, having traveled to places such as Hawaii, and Mexico and St. Thomas and, yes, Japan, that my perspective is much broader than it was growing up in a small town.  I have a better understanding of food and culture, and how people in different places think about the world.  I feel this helps me have more empathy, and that this, in turn, makes me a better writer.

Looking back at earlier books in the series, Felicity has always been working on ways to show more empathy, as she herself felt she tended to become self-absorbed.  I don’t think that her capacity for empathy has changed so much as her confidence in herself and her comfort with her own ability to communicate.  I think some of that is a reflection of ways I have changed since I started writing her.  It has been a roller coaster of a couple of years.  The first Bean to Bar book came out during the pandemic.  Since then, we’ve had the opportunity to travel, we’ve bought a house, and we’ve adopted two ridiculous cats.  But we’ve also dealt with loss, had a ton of things break, and spent time dealing with isolation and overwhelm.

I always say that when writing a story, you have to test your characters as though with fire to smelt them into heroes.  In some ways, I feel like that has been me.  I’ve been through a lot, but I’m certainly more self-confident and resilient than I was a decade or two ago.

I love writing series characters, because I can show them going through the same type of growth, and I find that the stories I tell about them usually has something to teach me, that my brain is showing me something I need to work on.  But this time – not so much.  I feel like this time, I got to just go on an adventure with characters I’ve been cultivating over the past seven books.  Sure, they had opportunities for character growth.  (Including side characters – we finally get to see Ash arc from a coward to a hero.)  But I think Felicity here gets to use skills she’s been cultivating.  It’s an interesting feeling, as a writer, like something has come full circle.  I’m sure the next book will give her something new to work on.  After all, characters, like real people, have many flaws.  But as long as we are striving to improve, there will always be a bit of hero in us.