Bali Why?

 Wendall -- every other Thursday

My newest Cyd Redondo mystery, Cheap Trills, set in early 2007, drops on October 30th. 

 

Here's a quick synopsis: After her mother secretly books an Eat, Pray, Love tour to Bali that goes horribly wrong, travel agent Cyd Redondo heads off to save her, facing down songbird smugglers, snake removal experts, thieving monkeys, a runaway funicular railway, and an underground Tupperware network, all while trying to keep three endangered Bali starling chicks alive in her Balenciaga bag.

To be honest, it’s a miracle that the novel got finished at all, since I could have easily spent the next five years researching this amazing island, its rich flora and fauna, its unique and compelling culture, and its heartbreaking, and often violent, history.

Many of my friends, who write traditional or cozy mysteries, face the challenge of coming up with new murders and storylines in the same location or community, book after book. My challenge, in writing a Romancing the Stone-inspired, “fish out of water” mystery, is that I have to create (and research) a whole new world for every book.

That’s part of the fun, since I love doing research, but it’s also time-consuming and there’s always the temptation to go down a million different rabbit holes and either never get to the writing, or weigh it down with too much information

Cheap Trills was particularly tricky, because the story has so many moving parts. First, I had to try to understand and capture the physical location of Bali—from active volcanos to black beaches, rice fields, monkey forests, and holiday resorts.

The stacked infinity pools at the Hanging Gardens resort, the model for the hotel where Cyd stays in Ubud.

The Balinese are known for the effectively engineered rice fields all over the island.

Then I had to take in and communicate parts of its culture—from cremation ceremonies to daily offerings, cockfighting, traditional dance and theater, the belief that redheads (like Cyd) are demons, and the sacred holiday of Nyepi.

Many Balinese children begin their traditional dance training when they are only three years old.

Cremation ceremonies are extremely important in Balinese culture, and should occur only on auspicious days.

I loved reading books on Bali, especially The Island of Bali by Miguel Covarrubias, which is still considered the ultimate text on Balinese culture, even though it was published in 1937.

 

My Bali research also included questions about how brakes work on a funicular railway, how snake removal experts work, 

Apparently, everyone knows Ron.

why Indonesia was suddenly the largest global market for Tupperware, and whether more people do indeed die from falling coconuts every year than they do from shark attacks.

Many Indonesian women hold "underground" Tupperware parties to create their own income.

Because the book takes place a year after Elizabeth Gilbert’s book hit the bestseller list, I also had to research the effect of the Eat Pray Love phenomenon on the island, as well as all the travel complications possible in the journey from Brooklyn, and what seniors could and couldn’t expect in terms of discounts, ADA,  emergency medical care, and the correct 2007 exchange rates from rupiahs to dollars.

Since the book also takes place soon after Bali made the news for a terrorist bombing as well as the arrest and execution of a group of Australian drug smugglers, I also researched crime in Bali and all the ways tourists can wind up in Kerobokan prison (which discourages escape by being surrounded by grasslands full of cobras!).

An excellent book on both the beauty and the darker side of Bali.

All of my Cyd Redondo books deal with endangered species and wildlife crime, so I needed to know as much as I could about Indonesian bird markets, songbird competitions, and smuggling onto and off the island, as well as the breeding and feeding habits of the threatened Bali starling.

The Bali starling, the only bird indigenous to Bali. In 2007, when the book is set, there were fewer than 10 in the wild.

Songbird competitions are held all over Indonesia. Over 70% of households have a pet bird.

I was extremely lucky to have two experts helping me in this area. Dr. Chris R. Shepherd was the head of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia for twenty years, now runs the Monitor Conservation Research Society, and spent many years actually counting illegal songbirds in the markets of Bali and Jakarta. Lori Rogalski has traveled to Bali to volunteer at the starling sanctuary there, and as part of the LA Zoo’s Avian Conservation Center, helped hand-raise two clutches of Bali starling chicks.

Bali starling chicks need worms (dropped vertically) and live crickets whose legs have been torn off...

And my research wasn’t only for Bali--I feature a Bay Ridge Brooklyn baby shower, so I did a deep dive in the hottest party trends, as well as into how many power outages are sparked by Mylar balloons every year!

A particularly unpleasant baby shower trend in 2007--"chocolate" filled diapers.

All in all, it was a wonderful time, for which I'm grateful.

A Balinese daily offering.

As my other Murder Is Everywhere compatriots will know, with so many research balls in the air, it’s hard not to drop one or two. So, see you on the other side of release day, where, if you are kind enough to read the book, I will await your verdict.

As Jeff mentioned a few weeks ago, pre-orders are vital for an author’s standing with their publisher, so if anyone is interested in the book, here are places you can order it now.  Of course, requesting it from your local library is just as wonderful.

 

LINKS:

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Cheap-Trills-Cyd-Redondo-Mystery/dp/1960511203/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1697586680&sr=8-1

Barnes and Noble:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cheap-trills-wendall-thomas/1143827402?ean=9781960511201

Through your local independent bookstore via Bookshop.org:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/cheap-trills-wendall-thomas/20290359?ean=9781960511201

 

--Wendall