An Interview with Baer Charlton

Multiple-award-winning and best-selling author Baer Charlton is a Social Anthropologist by degree, but his many interests have led him around the world in search of the unique.

During his travels as an internationally recognized photojournalist, Charlton saw many incredible sights. He explored the natural habitat of the mountain gorillas in Rwanda, was the podium for a Barbary Ape on the Rock of Gibraltar, and even kissed a kangaroo in Australia. Maybe he was just monkeying around, or maybe these were wild experiences that will stay with him forever.

Charlton’s passion for sailing has driven him to submit assignments from various countries and even from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a five-mast sailing ship. He has spoken on five continents, plus lecturing at sea. He has driven vehicles from two wheels to eighteen. His love for sailing and skin diving has taken him around the world. His crossing of mountain passes has been in sunshine and snow.

Raised in the mountains and deserts of California, Charlton experienced the heat of Death Valley and died one night from hypothermia. Doctors and nurses have saved him and stitched him back together more times than a professional hockey team.

Within every person, there is a story. But inside that story is an even more memorable story. Those are the stories Charlton likes to tell.

There is no more complex and wonderful story than those coming from the human experience. Charlton’s stories are all driven by the characters you come to think of as friends or family.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

My mother taught me how to set type for her printing press the summer before I was four, so I learned to read upside down and backward. As I worked out words, I reached for the cool books wrapped in leather on the bottom shelves of my parents’ library. Soon, my mother and I were creating stories. When I was 26, she died, but left me the notes of our stories. Mixed in with the stories was a single tiny piece of yellow paper. The word she wrote was the one thing she could never bring herself to try: Publish.

It took me one month from the day I found the note to my first sale. The story appeared in Ryder Magazine.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

I wanted to write an open-ended series. The original protagonist was male, a drunkard, ex-cop, Air Force washout, and barely getting the job done. I battled for a few months to write the first three chapters—and they were shit. Then one Saturday night, a tall Indian woman sat down on my bed and woke me up. She said, “You have me all wrong. Get up. We need to go fix this.”

By nine o’clock and a pot of coffee, I was just starting chapter eight and knew where the next four books were going.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

Growing up, I used to hunt out the warm springs in the valley. One I knew was so alkaline, it would eat the flesh off a jack rabbit’s body in a month. But people soaked in it because the alkaline did wonders for their skin. Just don’t stay too long.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

Willie Nelson, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crystal Gayle, Kris Kristofferson would all have some input on the track.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

Off and on for 50+ years, I have been a Professional Picture Framer, truck driver, woodworker, welder, and strong-arm debt collector.

What books did you read (for research or comfort) throughout your writing process?

Master mystery writing books, featuring the styles of authors such as Louise Lemoore, Tony Hillerman, and Rodrick Thorpe.

What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?

Buy the cheap typewriter earlier and burn it to the ground.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

My characters. I don’t worry about sticking in a genre—I write people. I want readers to recognize a character walking down the street.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.