by Chris Goff

As a writer and avid traveler, I’m often asked, “Do you travel for research or fun?” Good question!

Of course, the answer is both. What starts as travel for a variety of reasons often turns into research, and–for me–travel is always fun. I think most writers find it hard to go places without seeing the potential for stories.

Years ago I was in Israel with my then eleven year-old daughter, who was under the medical care of a doctor living in Tel Aviv. We stayed in a little apartment over Dizengoff Square for two months, and I was fascinated by many of the differences in how people lived there. I was also intrigued by my daughter’s reactions to life in a foreign country.

One major difference was how many soldiers there were, everywhere. And by how vigilant their security was. Most everyone over the age of eighteen served in the military and openly carried weapons. You passed through checkpoints to go in and out of the mall, banks, grocery stores. Backpack bombs had started surfacing again, so my daughter grew ever hesitant to go anywhere. She preferred walking to riding a bus. We took takeout over eating at a restaurant. We sat alone on the beach wall observing people vs. mingling with the crowds.

I was finally able to convince her to go to the movies, and two things happened. One, we climbed a narrow staircase up several flights to the theater and sat where we wanted, away from the crowd. We soon learned, sitting wherever you wanted was not allowed. Before any time passed, a stern usher instructed us to move to our assigned seats. Two, the young couple making out in the seats beside us were soldiers. We could tell by the camo uniforms and the rifle the young man held propped, pointing upward, between his knees. My daughter looked around at all of us bunched together, noted the weapons and whispered to me, “Why do we all have to sit like this? It just makes it easier to blow us all up?”

When we returned to the states it soon became clear, this daughter had developed a healthy fear of older teenagers and hated to go to the mall. While fearless and fearsome in her own right, she has always been a loner and prefers wide open spaces. Makes you wonder. The good news is, she’s healthy, so the medical treatment was worth it!

But I digress. Travel: Research or Fun?

At this point, I just wanted to relieve some of the stress of the trip. To create some fun, I decided we should travel around and take in the sights. We went to Jerusalem, Masada, the Dead Sea, and then spent a weekend in Tiberias along the Sea of Galilee. Passing a street market, we noticed a red car and my daughter pointed it out as being parked in a weird spot. We learned later that afternoon that it had exploded. Fortunately, the only casualty was its driver. En route to home, our car was stopped and the undercarriage searched for bombs.

It was during that trip I was struck with the idea for what later became my thriller, DARK WATERS. At the time I had just turned in my first Birdwatcher’s Mystery and was under contract for four more in that series, but the idea for the thriller haunted me. It took ten years before I started work on that book, and another five to finish it, sell it and see it in print. DARK WATERS is still my favorite book. In 2016, it was nominated for an Anthony Award for Best Crime Fiction Audiobook, a Colorado Book Award and the Colorado Authors’ League Award for genre fiction, and, in 2019, it received a Gold medal from the Military Writers Society of America.

Since that time, as a writer, I have traveled for research AND fun. I’ve canoed in Okefenokee Swamp while researching DEATH SHOOTS A BIRDIE (aka A SACRIFICE OF BUNTINGS). I’ve faced off with buffalo in Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge while researching A PARLIAMENT OF OWLS. In 2015, I spent three weeks in Ukraine, Poland and Germany during Russia’s invasion of Crimea researching RED SKY, the sequel to DARK WATERS. And I’ve traveled for fun. On a recent trip to see our nephew at Camp Grayling in Michigan, I got to see the Kirkland’s warbler and ride in a Blackhawk helicopter. All fodder for a newly plotted Birdwatcher’s Mystery. And our unforgettable trip to Antarctica has resulted in a draft of a new thriller, working title OPERATION GENTOO.

What’s next?

My husband and I will be spending our 43rd wedding anniversary on a river cruise of Eastern Europe. I’m expecting to have loads of fun, and — who knows — maybe come home with a novel idea.

How about you, Readers? What is the most interesting or fun place you’ve traveled?

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