6th November 2012

Lady Geeks of the Week: The Baker Street Babes, Part 1

The Baker Street Babes are our Lady Geeks of the Week! The Babes are a group of Sherlock Holmes fans who produce a witty, charming, and highly successful podcast in which they discuss “everything from canon to Cumberbatch, Charles Augustus Milverton to Jude Law, and dancing men to Jeremy Brett.”

Being Geek Chic was chuffed to be able to interview a few of the Babes. This week, we’re featuring Amy, Ardy, and Lyndsay. Next week, we’ll treat you to a few more! Can’t wait another week for more Babes? Follow on Twitter @BakerStBabes.

Read on!

Q: What has led you to your passion?

Amy: My passion for all things Sherlock Holmes was kindled in 2010 when I re-read the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle after the BBC “Sherlock” series came out. I developed a passion for all things Holmesian and wrote my own novel about Holmes and Irene Adler, The Detective and The Woman, which was published by MX Publishing earlier this year.

Ardy: Depends which passion we’re talking. My first passion was reading, and that kicked off everything else, so my answer to this would have to be: the local public library in the town where I grew up. I read widely and indiscriminately when I was a kid, and somewhere in there were Lord of the Rings and the Sherlock Holmes stories, and the rest was history. I also owe a lot to my sixth-form English teacher, who kind of crystallized that passion for reading, and for stories. And, of course, I owe the fact that I’m on the Baker Street Babes to my friend Kristina Manente, who is awesome.

Lyndsay: When I read the Sherlock Holmes mysteries as a kid, I had no idea that massively fangirling over them would quite literally lead to my professional career. I read them so obsessively that I absorbed a lot of Doyle’s style, and my first published novel was a Sherlock Holmes pastiche called Dust and Shadow. Since then, I’ve been a novelist and short story writer and Sherlock Holmes commentator at large, and it’s all thanks to my childhood geek niche. Geeks, be aware: you can really rock this geek thing, and make it work for you. Own your inner geek. All we Babes have found each other through this very specific passion, and it has led to some truly amazing opportunities and friendships.

Q: What inspires you in the world?

Amy: I’m inspired when I see people being creative in positive ways, using their gifts and talents to uplift and encourage others and to bring light into our world. The Internet and other forms of media are amazing at facilitating this because they allow us to experience the joy of what people create all across this earth.

Ardy: People who follow their passions. Whether it’s an artist or a biologist or a musician or whatever, watching someone at work, doing something they love, is always special.

Lyndsay: Bravery, self-sacrifice, heroism that isn’t easy, protagonists who are good but not nice, antagonists who are wicked but sometimes right, noble people who struggle with giant flaws, eccentric forms of unconditional love.

Q: When did you first realize you were “geeky?”

Amy: I’ve always been geeky; I can’t really remember a time when I wasn’t. I started reading Shakespeare on my own when I was about 10, and I’ve never stopped having geeky interests, whether in classic literature, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, or any other of a myriad of things.

Ardy: Probably in school, in the not so fun way that I just didn’t really fit, I was sort of on a different planet from my peers and misunderstood a lot. Probably that’s part of every teenager’s experience, but I always think that for geeks, it’s tougher because there’s all this stuff in your head that you really can’t talk to anyone about. That’s actually one of the reasons that it makes me really happy to see kids at conventions. It’s only later in life, when I went to uni, that I met other people who loved the same stuff I did and were just as happy that there was someone to talk to, that I understood that “being a geek” was a thing and that it was okay and there were lots of others like me.

Lyndsay: I recall pretty clearly telling my mother when I was maybe thirteen that it was okay I had crazy hair and entirely mismatched thrift store clothes because I “didn’t want to be normal.” In retrospect, I have no idea what on earth I was yammering about, since I grew up in a Pacific Northwest mill town and I can guarantee you that I knew precisely zero “normal” people to base my distaste of normalcy on. I was operating in a vacuum on that one. Maybe I’d seen ”normal” people on TV or something and decided it wasn’t for me.

Q: If you could take any historical figure out for a drink, whom would you choose, and what would you drink?

Amy: Wow, that’s a hard question! I’m part Native American, and I would really love to meet Sacagawea and hear all about her life. She’s such an inspiring woman with an amazing history. I’d probably take her out to my favorite tea house and have a beautiful pot of Earl Grey.

Ardy: I think I’d want to have a Gin & Tonic with Queen Victoria.

Lyndsay: Can I say Sherlock Holmes? Please? Oh, all right. In that case, I would really love to take Samuel Clemens out for a stroll through the rolling countryside and have a little bourbon picnic with a bucket of ice and the whiskey of his choice. I would trust his judgment on the subject. I’d want to know all about newspaper reporting during the Silver Rush, and writing Huckleberry Finn, and a complete list of the best pranks he ever pulled, because I am sure they’d be stunners.

Q: What would you tell you 13-year-old self?

Amy: I think I’d tell my 13-year-old self to “just keep swimming” and never give up!

Ardy: I’d tell my 13-year-old self not to be so serious all the time and to take pride in being a geek. To enjoy life. And to never feel ashamed to be spending the summer holidays cooped up in her room with a book.

Lyndsay: I’d tell myself at that age, you know what, Lyndsay, you’re going to stay this geeky, and get even geekier—but it’s going to get so much less lonely later on, so just trust that you’re going to meet more of your peculiar kind. And many other peculiar kinds you’ll get on with like a forest fire.

Q: What would be the title of your memoir?

Amy: The title of my memoir would be People Would Be Less Likely to Think You’re Stupid than that You’re a Man, which is something my sister recently said to me in an attempt to bolster my flagging confidence.

Ardy: My memoir… dear God. “Over the Wires, Between the Bookshelves” would probably be apt, because literally and figuratively, that’s where I spent a lot of time in my life.

Lyndsay: I think it would be most appropriately titled It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.

Post by Emma Bauer, who works as BGC’s official intern. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, history scholar, tea drinker, fashion devotee, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic.

Follow her on twitter: @emmalynnbauer

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6th November 2012

Lady Geeks of the Week: The Baker Street Babes, Part 1

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