tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76786789585584481432024-03-12T18:26:31.829-07:00Jon Jeffersonveteran journalist, documentary filmmaker, and writer of The Body Farm novels -- with scientific collaborator Dr. Bill Bass -- under the pen name Jefferson Bass.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-14136548835509737132012-06-20T10:22:00.002-07:002012-06-20T10:22:42.203-07:00Let's Hope This Remains Fiction<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDNnnrW2W4zZtZbuak2qEhQLuad7e4L6QVaBgx2pcE7CwLlFsodtEpYt5gJZ3FIFgqhgdeZxWHZBmxm-u2Cq_v2W7vbZLdUZhtvt5fpgo2sH2A89glaKxadCLoPur3t4CoShaHlVBE3pes/s1600/logo_sptimes_lrail.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDNnnrW2W4zZtZbuak2qEhQLuad7e4L6QVaBgx2pcE7CwLlFsodtEpYt5gJZ3FIFgqhgdeZxWHZBmxm-u2Cq_v2W7vbZLdUZhtvt5fpgo2sH2A89glaKxadCLoPur3t4CoShaHlVBE3pes/s1600/logo_sptimes_lrail.gif" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">I needed a devout villain — two devout villains, actually — for my new crime novel, <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank"><i>The Inquisitor's Key</i></a>.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">The
novel is set in Avignon, France, where a series of French popes reigned
for most of the 1300s. The plot includes two crimes, a medieval
murder and a modern one, so I needed two killers. And because the book
warns about the match-meets-gasoline perils of mixing religion with
politics, both bad guys had to be fueled by a high-octane mixture of
faithfulness and ruthlessness.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Want to know why the villains of <i>The Inquisitor's Key </i>could justly be called the doppelgangers of real men of the past and present? Continue reading <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/lets-hope-this-remains-fiction/1235565" target="_blank">this article</a> over at the <i>Tampa Bay Times </i>to solve the mystery<i>.</i></span></span></div>
</span>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com55tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-42201381566488250472012-05-24T13:23:00.002-07:002012-05-24T13:23:55.353-07:00Knocking 'em dead in Nashville: True Tales from Book Tour<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdGQgemFgeklI-qxlJejv9ob6RoohnzACm7i91BleNQRvDO2np8vEI5uWsIjqGqCmfA0O_jcpAsi0TSuBNjParDqwbn9dny2CfiF1-v4QbTUGO-vePDF7cEKkRYjI7VticamC4JneY5GwA/s1600/page0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdGQgemFgeklI-qxlJejv9ob6RoohnzACm7i91BleNQRvDO2np8vEI5uWsIjqGqCmfA0O_jcpAsi0TSuBNjParDqwbn9dny2CfiF1-v4QbTUGO-vePDF7cEKkRYjI7VticamC4JneY5GwA/s200/page0001.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
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The book tour for <i>The Inquisitor's Key - </i>which led Jefferson Bass from Tennessee to Arizona, then from Georgia to Alabama and back to Tennessee and then Florida - has come to an end. 5500 miles in less than two weeks! And it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without all the kind and hospitable and hilarious folks who came out to the book-tour events. Thank you, thank you, thank you!</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span>A couple years ago, as I was
preparing to head out on book tour with Dr. Bill Bass, I
got an unusual heads-up from a bookstore in Nashville: A guy I’d
written about in a prior, non-fiction book was planning to show up
at our Nashville book signing. The guy’s name was Sam John
Passarrella, and the book chapter I’d written about him – “Fat Sam
and Cadillac Joe” – recounted the abduction and killing of a
fast-talking, Cadillac-driving con man who’d sold Sam a stash of
stolen silver bullion...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span>Read the whole story of what happened during that book-tour appearance over at <a href="http://www.authormagazine.org/articles/jefferson_jon_2012_05_14.htm" target="_blank">Author Magazine</a>. If you had the opportunity to come out to a Jefferson Bass event this year, please leave a comment below if you'd like to share your experience. Who knows, perhaps you will find yourself in a future <i>true tale from book tour. </i> </span></span></div>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-12392510091989225742012-05-21T08:29:00.002-07:002012-05-21T09:00:57.309-07:00Holy Shroud or clever hoax?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhLjrK_Scy7ME4KXismAtBn64drw3-YVPmkA-caAwnzQtUF6y0QoZr74RQbc9Hl3HGwcLEmc7cUovmB9yqCMBsuKOkWNIYJnGUhrVo-QGWyDKYp4AnpKKHlgf_yOXDelqLLYam-91CIGu/s1600/shroud-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhLjrK_Scy7ME4KXismAtBn64drw3-YVPmkA-caAwnzQtUF6y0QoZr74RQbc9Hl3HGwcLEmc7cUovmB9yqCMBsuKOkWNIYJnGUhrVo-QGWyDKYp4AnpKKHlgf_yOXDelqLLYam-91CIGu/s400/shroud-03.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
For centuries, believers and skeptics have played tug of war with the Shroud of Turin, a 14-foot strip of ivory-colored linen bearing the
reddish-brown, bloodstained image of a crucified man. It’s the world’s
most famous relic, revered by millions as the burial cloth of Jesus.<br />
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It’s also a lightning rod, sparking thorny questions of science and faith.<br />
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If the Shroud is genuine – 2,000 years old – can science prove its
authenticity and miraculous origin (and thus prove the existence of
God)?<br />
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Continue reading this op-ed article at Fox News <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/05/20/holy-shroud-or-clever-hoax/" target="_blank">here</a>.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-66937372480293318292012-05-16T07:49:00.005-07:002012-05-16T07:49:39.790-07:00The Ultimate Game of What-If?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOJTXbkk5ehSprZ4FNxW0GxmI_-j-XBeihlDqzLnMC57OStGiQM5_Mk0XbO7N-oKMphULglBN6xrQnONDq5jhV5I3Y9rHVOukcJ-HaFMoaz8TfQT9j6Q6KqYL8PpKX6H_4zEpcETW4XbEl/s1600/Shroud5FaceNegative.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOJTXbkk5ehSprZ4FNxW0GxmI_-j-XBeihlDqzLnMC57OStGiQM5_Mk0XbO7N-oKMphULglBN6xrQnONDq5jhV5I3Y9rHVOukcJ-HaFMoaz8TfQT9j6Q6KqYL8PpKX6H_4zEpcETW4XbEl/s200/Shroud5FaceNegative.jpg" width="135" /></a>For a crime novelist whose main character is a bone detective, it’s the
ultimate case, the greatest game of what-if: What if an ancient skeleton
were unearthed, accompanied by the claim that the bones were those of
Jesus? How would the bone-sleuth—specifically, <em>my</em> bone sleuth,
Dr. Bill Brockton—corroborate or refute the claim? What forensic
techniques would he harness? And who, besides him, might be interested
in the bones—interested enough to kill for them?<br />
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Read more about the ultimate game of <i>what-if </i>in today's guest blog post over at <a href="http://www.omnivoracious.com/2012/05/the-inquisitors-key-the-shroud-of-turin-and-the-ultimate-game-of-what-if.html" target="_blank">Omnivoracious</a>.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-22923696817024882592012-05-14T08:58:00.002-07:002012-05-14T08:58:26.325-07:00My First Rhyme<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLM30EPMQjsDb0qZEXNX4bzauOQarTqiCQNSCh6Cd2B_AF1qCcCmDBudObc9A_5s5qwTXm9oj46nfrFFwGHhy_4I-dcf2vUB41-xYiSbAuc80W1iFwz1lUOn-lo-fTo3BiImcR2Ryugwh/s1600/The-Cat-in-the-Hat-dr--seuss-54085_306_579.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLM30EPMQjsDb0qZEXNX4bzauOQarTqiCQNSCh6Cd2B_AF1qCcCmDBudObc9A_5s5qwTXm9oj46nfrFFwGHhy_4I-dcf2vUB41-xYiSbAuc80W1iFwz1lUOn-lo-fTo3BiImcR2Ryugwh/s320/The-Cat-in-the-Hat-dr--seuss-54085_306_579.gif" width="169" /></a></div>
"I might
be the only murder-mystery writer who gives primary credit (or chief blame) to
Dr. Seuss, but there—I’ve said it, and I feel better, even if Theodore Geisel
is turning over in his proverbial grave..."<br />
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Want to read more about how the not-so-silly rhymes of Dr. Seuss turned a young boy from a tiny town in Alabama into a writer? Today's guest post can be found over at <a href="http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-first-time-jefferson-bass.html" target="_blank">The Quivering Pen</a>. Enjoy!Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-53457909767865951062012-05-09T13:36:00.001-07:002012-05-09T13:36:20.097-07:00Biography of My Dear, Dead Friend 31-01<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT94Zbq3_O9PtGHTfop0hFpLQwdR1Wxrnmm-rRx5vrrs-Et__377dyqhzHde9AE8q2C6Qjabt6j4w5JJcNshDTH2fF-IVeiZOpVLc5I10vZBiyopEZJfZdUgjpsGt9R1A0dVZIwwYDpi0R/s1600/1aBF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT94Zbq3_O9PtGHTfop0hFpLQwdR1Wxrnmm-rRx5vrrs-Et__377dyqhzHde9AE8q2C6Qjabt6j4w5JJcNshDTH2fF-IVeiZOpVLc5I10vZBiyopEZJfZdUgjpsGt9R1A0dVZIwwYDpi0R/s320/1aBF.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Forensic fans are cut from a different cloth from ordinary
folks—specifically, I suspect, from the rubberized fabric of body bags.
When ordinary folks find out I write a series called the Body Farm
Novels, they look squeamish and quickly change the subject. Forensic
fans, on the other hand (and you know who you are, people!) tend to get a
gleam in their eyes and say, “Cool. Can I take a tour?!” Unfortunately,
the answer is “no,” except to people who have compelling scientific or
law-enforcement reasons to go; not enough staff and too many liability
concerns. <br />
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Eleven years ago, I was lucky enough to go; in fact, I spent two months there at the <a href="http://fac.utk.edu/">Body Farm</a> — the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Research Facility — with a television crew in tow...<br />
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To continue reading about my two-month experience at the Body Farm, go on over to <a href="http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.com/2012/05/biography-of-my-dear-dead-friend-31-01.html" target="_blank">Crime Fiction Collective</a>.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-37360068374615880022012-05-08T08:00:00.000-07:002012-05-08T08:34:43.931-07:00Release Day: May 8, 2012 -- The Inquisitor's Key -- and How YOU Can Help<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH8lJ8Nbue943amA3-HOSTHyRBpp3cexuJNzixqskaupYoBDl41CP7gaUQECsJiC6zFGXMhA0QjM6qndZVUI4s_1lRDCTcfOgDeOT70-SoX8di6CONjt4KOZPQZfayGb-tx3tmFdlT9Wib/s400/inquisitorskeyCover.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
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Today, <i><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank">The Inquisitor's Key</a> </i>is officially on sale. As fans of the Body Farm novels already know, <i>The Inquisitor's Key </i>is the seventh and most ambitious novel in the <i>New York Times</i> bestselling series starring ace bone detective Dr. Bill Brockton, who is modeled after renowned forensic anthropologist and founder of the Body Farm Dr. Bill Bass. To celebrate the novel's release -- and to thank you, our dear & devoted readers -- we've decided to give away a whole slew of exciting prizes (...more on that in a moment).<br />
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Many readers have asked us -- on Facebook & Twitter, and from the windows of cars speeding by on the street -- whether there will be an eighth novel in the Body Farm series. What will happen to Dr. Brockton? What will become of the illustrious and storied partnership between Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bill Bass after <i>The Inquisitor's Key? </i><br />
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The truth is that the success (i.e., <b>sales</b>) of <i>The Inquisitor's Key </i>will ultimately determine the future of Jefferson Bass. In other words, each one of you, dear readers, can directly influence the future of Jefferson Bass and support the continuation of the Body Farm series. <br />
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<b>How Can You Help?</b></h3>
If you enjoy the Body Farm series and want to make sure there's an eighth Jefferson Bass novel to look forward to, here are some things you can do to help. Most of these things will cost you nothing but pay great dividends for Jefferson Bass and the Body Farm series. Most of these things you can accomplish in less than a minute, but their effects will linger on and on...until the end of the Internet, which is to say <i>forever</i>...<br />
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—<b>Buy the book</b>. It’s currently selling <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank">on Amazon and everywhere else books are sold</a> for a ridiculously low price. Buy it for friends. Buy it for family. Give it as a gift to everyone you know.<br />
—<b>Review the book</b>. On a blog, review site, or on a
sandwich board in front of your local bookstore. Any mention, especially
noting whatever you really liked about the book, helps immensely.<br />
—<b>Review it on Amazon</b>. Go to the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006180679X?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsus-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=006180679X" target="_blank">Amazon sales page for the book</a> and tell other readers what you liked about it. A quick and easy way to help get the word out and create interest. <br />
—<b>Review it on Goodreads</b>. Go to the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11769020-the-inquisitor-s-key" target="_blank">Goodreads page for the book</a> and tell other readers what you liked about it. You can even copy and paste the same review from Amazon right onto Goodreads. We won't tell anyone!<br />
—<b>Make sure local booksellers carry it</b>. The Jefferson Bass series
seems to have a strong presence in bookstores, but you can always
encourage booksellers who aren’t stocking it.<br />
—<b>Request it from your local library</b>. Making sure
your local library knows that people are excited about <i>The Inquisitor's Key</i> not only increases library
orders -- which account for a surprising number of actual sales -- but allows multiple people in your area to enjoy the book.<br />
—<b>Spread the word through Twitter and Facebook and your own blogs</b>. Nothing speaks as loudly and clearly as word of mouth. Tell
people about <i>The Inquisitor's Key</i> through social media. Share the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/JeffersonBassBooks" target="_blank">Jefferson Bass Facebook page</a> with your friends and family. Ask your followers to follow <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/Jefferson_Bass" target="_blank">Jefferson Bass on Twitter</a>. Ask people to <a href="http://www.facebook.com/JeffersonBassBooks?sk=app_208195102528120&app_data=dlt" target="_blank">read this excerpt of the novel</a>. If you are a blogger, please mention <i>The Inquisitor's Key </i>to your readers.<br />
—<b>Come to the book-tour events</b>. Come have lots of fun -- with Jon & Bill & Mr. Bones -- and bring your whole stack of Body Farm novels for us to sign. Bring friends and family to the events as well (the more the merrier). Post your book-tour photos to our Facebook page. Current <a href="http://www.facebook.com/JeffersonBassBooks/events" target="_blank">book-tour schedule here</a>.<br />
—<b>Go to the blog-tour events and leave comments</b>. Our goal with the blog tour is 1.) to provide unique and free content for our fans and 2.) to reach readers who are unfamiliar with Jefferson Bass and the Body Farm series. Remember what we said about word of mouth? Go to these blog-tour events, even ones that have already appeared, and tell potential readers to read <i>The Inquisitor's Key. </i>Current <a href="http://www.facebook.com/JeffersonBassBooks/app_203351739677351" target="_blank">blog-tour schedule here</a> (and more to come).<br />
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<h3>
Did Someone Mention Exciting Prizes?</h3>
To thank you for your help keeping the Body Farm series going strong, we'll be giving away one copy of each Body Farm novel and one copy of each of our nonfiction books! <br />
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<a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/book/buy.aspx?isbn13=9780060759827" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJibjz-Md7hyphenhyphenrjsCTuWihkI8KfnYw7ICuA12hu5M-e2wr7etX0T8jtA8vIx5kXzrg5XX0SvrQIqoEVSSQ_w4dvNC1PzIJikQzo-VKaRq4WErQg_ZxG-RwosoCRD1UFdUwJCbu66eyBwkKt/s1600/carved_in_bone_pb_cover.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/The-Devils-Bones-Jefferson-Bass?isbn=9780060759902&HCHP=TB_The+Devil+s+Bones" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQDP7KDjs1Wgsoz6oxHVxgwK9u10PRnIcoHxTz3e9zYqrJfhKWdk3Zyxf9uhsCjE-1csQsnwIJZE5p26lSMBD5vTZa7ih_TYGfkK-PLddWGfvOiH8YdvfdYF3YDr4i2bUgXQuPWhlWTa4c/s1600/devils_bones_cover.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Bones-of-Betrayal-Jefferson-Bass?isbn=9780061284755&HCHP=TB_Bones+of+Betrayal" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFxMe_qTATQtdn1wJpXwvW4Gy6DDy5dRAFp_42WCbHbe8F1Wol4Z3mW6f6jqukCFyGKD_84h3frUiLVOeQEBt2xBpZyXDv-_vkGYMPZIUgiWpygtI-IAc_g15IJH3oimRQmRU8VyRqx8u9/s1600/bones_betrayal_cover.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Flesh-and-Bone-Jefferson-Bass?isbn=9780060759841&HCHP=TB_Flesh+and+Bone" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6o4wyTi2USLUGSeIqOu6HMrHL1FVJ9lWxDWQxH7Yy9pMFHpL0kaL3kBiHLBrr9R6W-oK_sdMYLS4ewSQuIYoYaZ_8GCW0o8mLVFt2goHIkqa2NYsoWjvm7TDKKR2_KJ7HW_T0C-nfRASG/s1600/fleshandbone_cover.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/The-Bone-Thief-Jefferson-Bass?isbn=9780061284779&HCHP=TB_The+Bone+Thief" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcWifRWhKyhw-sv7gY9mOOYrMtGJmzkDiSq2X6p2N1nI7OjlpQAHZ4C4Czk2a1OOjPDh24D3j7dcRnqs8rVFm0Z-QYUq44Sxk9KrleaTu7945rMBaeGCyrA1uC8ahynZX6QhTcnATtKRYP/s1600/bone_thief_cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/The-Bone-Yard-Jefferson-Bass?isbn=9780061807046&HCHP=TB_The+Bone+Yard" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfboxOpxqJuRc46ngBdn7GocN2iJ3a2HGKHaWjtvG3m-e7B0xzapIWE1Mz5JjU4nybXWftrZwxW45hJ07wibZY_On_9bYb2janKkGkvrRBCs4Q5NdVodlQ29v790oxekiLxtpd1DrDOj4n/s1600/bone_yard_cover.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Deaths-Acre-Inside-Legendary-Forensic/dp/0425198324/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336442048&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggUNG3uClVl0kCpqC-3u9e2DdyukabomlLQI4fE44EAxSB99xcfXCb-yVjUGm3OphL99CDVIxlDO4Ntu4zQnlOT9kQDUP8nL4V86e65N_N-3wb2YPmlQg3Zx1xFnlWtMKjK0v2gfZw_VjA/s1600/deathsacre.gif" /></a><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Beyond-the-Body-Farm-Dr-Bill-Bass?isbn=9780060875282&HCHP=TB_Beyond+the+Body+Farm" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnaVGpFuNEo0DxRE27ih3QbcP6CggK0GNDTqJVckadtnV4LarjCkMaqu99BnLeCUo_lwWJO6QPOnYN9_VOpDGpxjv5zEwF5UOasreCJ-QBQSg8Y6wkGPJ01IfGamvtBI1BshfEVSgeZhN5/s1600/beyond_the_body_farm_cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<h4>
And...we're also giving away a signed copy of: </h4>
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<a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3XXfc_Pej47C1K9_iApST3F5BxUc7ZRRE7CFrD9EOUwObDFjaJpKT0Y2EGW8u1xg8c8ASD-cwOZdEDdHFFeNvdGDDMMRU7LWiUhvMkefzX4zZlAfFKqTBh9xJZmlAg_JCkPsmC36z9Jv/s320/Cover.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
<h3>
And...we're also giving away two never-before-seen mystery prizes to the two fans who prove to be the most devoted of all! </h3>
NOTE: We'll be monitoring incoming reviews on various sites -- Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million -- as well as your shares & shout-outs on Facebook & Twitter, and your comments on blog-tour events. To determine the winners of each prize, we'll keep track of who is saying what, when, where & how often.<br />
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Surprisingly, many of the objectives I mentioned above can be accomplished in less than a minute. But word of mouth -- your words, your mouth &/or fingers -- will linger on and on and on for all to see and hear. Thank you for everything in advance!<br />
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* <i>Many of the ideas for keeping The Body Farm series going strong originated at Jeff Vandermeer's blog <a href="http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/" target="_blank">Ecstatic Days</a>. </i>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-30930487864934004702012-05-08T04:00:00.000-07:002012-05-08T08:44:54.293-07:00Location, location, location<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7EMp8w97ZJdUZjze9oVO37qy17kQoz53vhzND9_4w3xNSARuH0IWrfYGrGRYllkEl_FosrgtgPEhRm8HR1V_qCdrTfCOcQiUN5Tsc0Cko_9aaERndvDOZIPo8TkHsXfn0fZyGiQQ7pLI9/s1600/AvignonPalaisAerial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7EMp8w97ZJdUZjze9oVO37qy17kQoz53vhzND9_4w3xNSARuH0IWrfYGrGRYllkEl_FosrgtgPEhRm8HR1V_qCdrTfCOcQiUN5Tsc0Cko_9aaERndvDOZIPo8TkHsXfn0fZyGiQQ7pLI9/s320/AvignonPalaisAerial.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's RELEASE DAY, folks, and we're taking a moment to wax nostalgic about researching <i>The Inquisitor's Key </i>in Avignon -- le vin, le fromage -- over at <a href="http://www.bookpage.com/the-book-case/2012/05/08/location-location-location/" target="_blank">The Book Case</a>. Seems like forever since the days of researching <i>Carved in Bone </i>in the beautiful but hard-scrabble hill country of Cocke County, Tennessee.</div>
<br />Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-69856642316112326332012-05-07T09:39:00.003-07:002012-05-07T09:39:50.621-07:00Q&A with Julianna Baggott<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVZRuuH-qHFUrGXw8lvaQmO1tM0O8J7psJGRhcvDGtY5c93DHmk-Kfn_-oVAclQGS6ygkQNwMGmkI7QxaY00WwYd49KtJ4Ftb9nF9kL0Ya_2qv2XohJrUvWogWfSDVbc4m_5tkog0oKRbB/s1600/interrogation-police.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVZRuuH-qHFUrGXw8lvaQmO1tM0O8J7psJGRhcvDGtY5c93DHmk-Kfn_-oVAclQGS6ygkQNwMGmkI7QxaY00WwYd49KtJ4Ftb9nF9kL0Ya_2qv2XohJrUvWogWfSDVbc4m_5tkog0oKRbB/s320/interrogation-police.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Tomorrow -- on May 8, 2012, or release day(!) -- the Jefferson Bass book tour for <i>The Inquisitor's Key </i>begins,<i> </i>with<i> </i>a 7:30 a.m. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/101864669947848/" target="_blank">event at the Farragut Chamber of Commerce</a> in Knoxville, Tennessee followed by a 7 p.m. event that evening at the <a href="http://www.friendsofliteracy.org/2012/03/29/an-evening-with-jefferson-bass/" target="_blank">New Hope Center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee</a>.<br />
<br />
Before hitting the airport, Jon Jefferson sat down for an interrogation, er, Q&A with novelist, essayist and poet <a href="http://juliannabaggott.com/" target="_blank">Julianna Baggott</a>. There's talk of writing & reading &, of course, <i>The Inquisitor's Key</i>, along with an unexpected treat: a little foray into the realm of freestyle rap. You may have to wait a while for <i>Body Farm</i>: the album, but you only have to wait 12 more hours for <i>The Inquisitor's Key!</i> And you don't have to wait at all to check out the Q&A found <a href="http://bridgetasher.blogspot.com/2012/05/12-dozen-with-jon-jefferson.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>. <br />
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<br /></div>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-2640811925986744362012-05-07T08:21:00.000-07:002012-05-08T08:32:12.681-07:00Confronting Evil -- Fictional and Real -- in the City of the Popes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTHaPdUJTUklzL4IQc4cbrL0vbCGDcjX6uJ2mbnXGJtQQ2foilHIVqUMjg-pAkv20qXHaDix7Vm4nrEP5AXs-oQXS3Q_-Jf-lWga_O7_2nLIb0AgeWVSg2lcv_xB3AcwXK8hUFmZ6gqb6x/s1600/hannibal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTHaPdUJTUklzL4IQc4cbrL0vbCGDcjX6uJ2mbnXGJtQQ2foilHIVqUMjg-pAkv20qXHaDix7Vm4nrEP5AXs-oQXS3Q_-Jf-lWga_O7_2nLIb0AgeWVSg2lcv_xB3AcwXK8hUFmZ6gqb6x/s1600/hannibal.jpg" /></a></div>
Talking about ancient and modern villains over at the <a href="http://blog.indigo.ca/fiction/item/1035-a-guest-post-from-jefferson-bass.html" target="_blank">Indigo Blog</a>, specifically the villains of <i>The Inquisitor's Key, </i>and how -- long after Jon's preacher-boy days -- those villains roused questions in his mind about the true nature of good and evil.<br />
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Question: Who are your favorite literary villains of all time?Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-79038730030475745732012-05-05T10:46:00.002-07:002012-05-05T10:53:50.670-07:00Stabbed ribs, barbecued bodies, and other forensic adventuresThe <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank">"<b>Inquisi-Key</b>"</a> blog-tour bus has stopped by Susanne Drazic's blog <b><a href="http://susannedrazic.blogspot.com/2012/05/guest-post-by-jon-jefferson-writer-half.html" target="_blank">Putting Words on Paper</a>,</b> and Jon's reminiscing about lunch with Dr. Bill Bass at a Knoxville barbecue restaurant. While chowing down on ribs, the two men discussed murder cases and forensic anthropology -- normal lunch-table conversation, sure.<br />
Go on over and read all about it right <b><a href="http://susannedrazic.blogspot.com/2012/05/guest-post-by-jon-jefferson-writer-half.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</b> The bus is almost gassed-up and ready to head out.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-3288991984819725642012-05-02T17:26:00.004-07:002012-05-05T10:55:31.769-07:00Book Giveaway: "The Inquisitor's Key"<div class="MsoNormal">As Inspector <span style="line-height: 115%;">René Descartes would say, “Bonjour, mes amis!” … I’m not exactly certain what he’d say next—it’s been too long since the glory days of researching <b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797">The Inquisitor’s Key</a></i></b> in Avignon! & even longer since high school French with Mademoiselle LaFlamme (oh la la, those <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mini-jupes</i> she wore). But I digress … I always digress …</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiclcXeeA75L-wLbcIBix7AcZ0bBF3gSCc3ArwERQWDephiM-Tj0tHiuNC43NCcVOnL5cLUtxLYiNu3DeBjRWo_3C4rkWm0jDDAJMwuhpFj66g36DAvB8ZoXI4fWcZIjV8Ua3Cwjtd3NrfH/s1600/MrBonesReadsInquisiKey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiclcXeeA75L-wLbcIBix7AcZ0bBF3gSCc3ArwERQWDephiM-Tj0tHiuNC43NCcVOnL5cLUtxLYiNu3DeBjRWo_3C4rkWm0jDDAJMwuhpFj66g36DAvB8ZoXI4fWcZIjV8Ua3Cwjtd3NrfH/s320/MrBonesReadsInquisiKey.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Lemme guess: You’re not here solely to admire my stunning good looks in the photo on the left. You’re also here for the giveaway contest! Good timing. In anticipation of the May 8, 2012 release of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key, </i>I’m sponsoring a giveaway of the new novel to reward each and every one of you who downloaded and read the e-story prequel entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madonna and Corpse.</i> We hope you had as much fun reading it as I did—well, honestly—when I pressed SAVE for the last time, then stood up feeling accomplished and went to get a cold beer from the fridge. (Sure, I said it: I, Mr. Bones, actually write all the novels, not Jon and Bill! They just sat back and drank all the beer in my fridge, apparently. Just as well...I don’t have the stomach for alcohol these days. Seems to go right through me…)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Now wait a minute. I sense that some of you are thinking, “I haven’t downloaded and read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madonna and Corpse</i>, but I want to win <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key</i>!” Wait a doggone minute. If you have not already downloaded and read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madonna and Corpse</i>, do NOT go bananas. I’ve come up with a two-step plan to remedy this situation and thus save yourself from a complete breakdown. </span></div><ol><li><span style="line-height: 115%;">Click the following link to <b><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Madonna-Corpse-Epb-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780062219886?AA=index_authorIntro_28652">download <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madonna and Corpse</i></a></b></span><b> </b>(99 cents – how can you lose?!?) from the e-retailer of your choice.</li>
<li><span style="line-height: 115%;">Start reading!</span></li>
</ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitEU47ZnPRy9AUN6EBW4q6zQg4gC-PPyZj-Ca9YEHZ63hc-AXbaecQwQ6OcIgIDGE98Mzkrl-2A-PP5L1C_xsUK4lmGWcT4S4VCdrZdNMBseD5Inf4FX3_K3za1LLo9yzXtcVB69qTXfCU/s1600/MadonnaCorpse_EB1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitEU47ZnPRy9AUN6EBW4q6zQg4gC-PPyZj-Ca9YEHZ63hc-AXbaecQwQ6OcIgIDGE98Mzkrl-2A-PP5L1C_xsUK4lmGWcT4S4VCdrZdNMBseD5Inf4FX3_K3za1LLo9yzXtcVB69qTXfCU/s200/MadonnaCorpse_EB1a.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Pretty simple, right?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">(If you don't own an e-reader, once again do NOT go bananas. You can download <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311" target="_blank">this free Kindle app for your PC</a></b> & read <i>Madonna and Corpse</i> right on your home computer!)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Below you’ll find the questions for this literary treasure hunt. Read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madonna and Corpse</i>, find the correct answers, then email your answers to <b><a href="mailto:JeffersonBassBookGiveaway@hotmail.com">JeffersonBassBookGiveaway@hotmail.com</a>.</b> <span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">We’ll choose the winners on May 7, 2012.</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But wait! You can also score <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">extra points! </b>These points will be factored in when we choose the winners. Wanna know how to score?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><ol><li>Share the <b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/JeffersonBassBooks">Jefferson Bass Facebook page</a></b> on your Facebook Wall & ask—no—command your friends to LIKE us.</li>
<li>Follow <b><a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/Jefferson_Bass">@Jefferson_Bass</a></b> on Twitter.</li>
<li>Write a review of<i> Madonna and Corpse (And any other Body Farm novel):<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Madonna-and-Corpse-ebook/dp/B007MB67UM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333939051&sr=8-1"><br />
</a></i></li>
<ol><li><b><i><span style="font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Madonna-and-Corpse-ebook/dp/B007MB67UM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1336058984&sr=1-1" target="_blank">On Amazon</a> </span></i></b></li>
<li><b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/madonna-and-corpse-jefferson-bass/1109890444?ean=9780062219886&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-MdXm68JZJz8-_-10%3a1&" target="_blank"><i><span style="font-style: normal;">On Barnes and Noble</span></i></a><i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i></b></li>
<li><i><span style="font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13615823-madonna-and-corpse" target="_blank"><b>On Goodreads</b> </a></span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="font-style: normal;">or any other e-retailer</span></i>!</li>
<li><span style="line-height: 115%;">NOTE: You can copy & paste the same review into as many places as you want -- Double, triple, or quadruple your <b>extra points</b>!</span></li>
</ol><li><span style="line-height: 115%;">Leave a comment on the guest blogs we’re posting on our Blog Tour 2012! For instance, <b><a href="http://susannedrazic.blogspot.com/2012/05/guest-post-by-jon-jefferson-writer-half.html" target="_blank">this one</a></b> from today. Go to the actual blog itself and post a comment! If you really want to get crafty and comment on every blog from the first to last, here's the<b> <a href="http://jonjeffersonauthor.blogspot.com/2012/04/gone-roadtrippin-blog-tour-book-tour.html" target="_blank">blog tour schedule</a></b>.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%;">The Questions</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br />
</div><ol><li><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">What did the thief/thieves steal?</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 115%;">What couple does Descartes describe as possessing “movie-star good looks”?</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 115%;">How long ago was it that Dubois “bought the farm”?</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 115%;">Rumor has it that Kensington’s <u>net profit</u> from the sale of the three unsigned Caravaggio studies was how much?</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 115%;">Who is Jack Woods?</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 115%;">What sort of new case will Descartes soon be working on?</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 115%;">Are you excited about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key!?!</i></span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><i>Thanks for playing along. We'll choose the winners on May 7, 2012. Good luck & Happy Reading! </i></span></div>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-52788271530199422012012-05-02T11:25:00.000-07:002012-05-05T11:26:30.337-07:00From Limbo with LoveThe blog-tour bus has arrived at <a href="http://www.poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/2012/05/from-limbo-with-love.html" target="_blank">Poe's Deadly Daughters</a>. <br />
<br />
- A few years ago I complained to a friend – an old, wise friend – that I
felt myself at a crossroads, unsure which direction to head. I was
utterly in limbo, I told him – and I really hated the limbo. He
listened, then he was quiet for a minute; finally he said, “You’re in
the place of not-knowing, and you need to hang out there for awhile.”<br />
<br />
Continue reading at <a href="http://www.poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/2012/05/from-limbo-with-love.html" target="_blank">Poe's Deadly Daughters</a>.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-79292863594991907662012-04-29T11:22:00.000-07:002012-05-05T11:23:02.766-07:00Talking Shop: Plan A, Plan Be, Plan SeeToday, Jon's talking shop -- three tricks he's learned about writing novels while writing novels -- over at Elise VanCise's blog <a href="http://gladiatorspen.blogspot.com/2012/04/plan-plan-be-plan-see-by-guest-jon.html" target="_blank">Gladiator's Pen</a>. <br />
<br />
- I have writer friends whose workspaces are immaculate. I
have friends who write every day, including one who gets up at 5:30 a.m. and
writes for two hours before heading to his day job as a lawyer. I have friends
who make detailed outlines. I have friends who start at the beginning and write
their way forward, in perfect linearity, to the end. That is to say, I have
friends who are neater, more disciplined, better organized, and generally much
smarter than I am! ...<br />
<br />
Continue reading at <a href="http://gladiatorspen.blogspot.com/2012/04/plan-plan-be-plan-see-by-guest-jon.html" target="_blank">Gladiator's Pen</a>.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-44899096970100996572012-04-25T11:18:00.000-07:002012-05-05T11:18:31.784-07:00Writerhead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBNEA-Uw8tJDx9xmFPlSebCSPexk_qmskRcj6_hygUrMVusm994_pihAHAFcq3rN9WhvtepkzO9wWjlId30Qk1q7sI4DM4Yirh2E2mkeouODhyphenhyphenvPpwnXmRBGZtoVBEOjPPnG4kT8Ar_bWI/s1600/Writerhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBNEA-Uw8tJDx9xmFPlSebCSPexk_qmskRcj6_hygUrMVusm994_pihAHAFcq3rN9WhvtepkzO9wWjlId30Qk1q7sI4DM4Yirh2E2mkeouODhyphenhyphenvPpwnXmRBGZtoVBEOjPPnG4kT8Ar_bWI/s1600/Writerhead.jpg" /></a></div>
Today, Jon Jefferson's in the interrogation room over at Kristin Bair O'Keeffe's blog <a href="http://www.kristinbairokeeffe.com/2012/04/25/writerhead-wednesday-featuring-jefferson-bass/" target="_blank">Writerhead</a>.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-80958045755140377462012-04-24T11:15:00.000-07:002012-05-07T19:00:47.514-07:00Putting Faces on the Dead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We're back in the U.S...back in the U.S. of A. for this post over at crime writer Jen J. Danna's blog <a href="http://www.jenjdanna.com/blog/2012/4/24/guest-post-putting-faces-on-the-dead-in-fact-and-in-fiction.html" target="_blank">Skeleton Keys</a>. Along with this forensics-related post, we're releasing an exclusive excerpt from <i>The Inquisitor's Key</i>.<br />
<br />
-One of the hallmarks of the Body Farm novels is that the fiction
incorporates realistic and detailed forensic techniques. The new book,<i> The Inquisitor’s Key</i>, is no exception. One of the techniques that’s used is radiocarbon dating—also called carbon-14 dating, or C-14 dating...<br />
<br />
Continue reading at <a href="http://www.jenjdanna.com/blog/2012/4/24/guest-post-putting-faces-on-the-dead-in-fact-and-in-fiction.html" target="_blank">Skeleton Keys</a>.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-63906758143700553842012-04-23T20:34:00.001-07:002012-05-02T16:02:07.487-07:00E-Publishing, Take 1: An e-story excerpt from "Madonna and Corpse," and a book giveaway!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A few months ago</span>, my editor asked if I’d consider writing an
original short story—something connected to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Inquisitor’s Key</i> in some way. The story would be published electronically (for
Kindle, Nook, and iPad/iPhone readers) shortly before the book’s pub date, to
help build reader interest. It sounded interesting, so I said “sure!” and
starting writing. The resulting e-story—“Madonna and Corpse”—is a “prequel” to
the novel. Set in Avignon, France, it stars the French detective, Inspector
René Descartes, working a baffling art-forgery case just before his world
collides with that of the book’s heroes, Dr. Bill Brockton and Miranda
Lovelady. Here’s the beginning of <i>Madonna and Corpse</i>; if you like this sneak
peek, please <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Madonna-Corpse-Epb-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780062219886?AA=index_authorIntro_28652"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">download the e-story</b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>(99 cents – how can you lose?!?) and
you could win a free signed copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Inquisitor’s Key</i>. The giveaway quiz-contest will be open to everyone who
downloads/reads <i>Madonna and Corpse </i>and emails us correct answers to the quiz
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<![endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></i>May 2nd, so start reading! (If you don't own an e-reader, don't lose hope. You can download <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311" target="_blank">this free Kindle app for your PC</a> & read the <i>Madonna and Corpse</i> right on your home computer!)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 24pt;"> Madonna and Corpse</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps;">The Petit
Palais Museum</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Avignon,
France</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps;">1:
Descartes</span></b></div>
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“Turn off that damned alarm!” René Descartes—Inspector
René Descartes, of the French National Police—waved his arm in a
sweeping arc of annoyance that encompassed not just the bored police officers
and the nervous museum staffers, but also the museum itself, its collection of
ancient paintings, and possibly even their long-dead creators, as if the
artists themselves might bear some of the blame for rousting him from sleep at
one in the morning.</div>
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“We’re working on it,” croaked the museum’s director, a
withered crone named Madame Clergue. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christ,
how old is she?</i> wondered Descartes, jotting her name in a <span style="color: black;">pocket</span>-sized notepad that he’d
fished from inside his jacket. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She
probably bought these pictures from the guys who painted them. </i>Beneath her hastily
donned raincoat, Mme. Clergue appeared to be wearing only a thin cotton
nightgown. Its embroidered collar was unraveling, sending <span style="color: black;">tendrils</span> of thread curling
upward toward her <span style="color: black;">wispy</span>
white hair. </div>
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Unlike Mme. Clergue, Descartes was fully decked out in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">de facto</i> professional uniform—dress
pants, dress shirt, jacket and tie–not because he’d swiftly suited up when the
dispatcher awoke him, but because he’d fallen asleep on the couch at eleven, still
wearing the rumpled outfit he’d donned fifteen hours before. Somehow this had
become his nightly ritual of late: nursing a few beers or a bottle of wine in
front of the television until the news or soccer highlights lulled him to sleep.
As a result, his dreams often hitched themselves to the sirens and shrieks emanating
from the television, creating the odd sensation that he’d not actually fallen
asleep, but had simply switched to a channel specializing in French surrealism.
As the museum’s alarm continued to jangle mercilessly, Descartes wondered if
this, too, might simply be another of those dreams, conjured up to explain a
particularly clamorous sound track.</div>
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Just as he could bear no more, the alarm ceased. Its clang
echoed for several seconds in the stone corridors and stairwells of the vast
structure. In the acoustic void left behind, the silence seemed as close and
dense as fog until Descartes spoke, dispersing it. “And you’re quite sure it’s
not a false alarm, Madame?”</div>
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Mme. Clergue nodded vigorously for a woman of her years.
“Quite sure. Pascal”—she stretched a claw-like finger toward a uniformed guard
hovering in a nearby doorway—“found the door propped open at the service
entrance.” At the mention of his name<span style="color: black;">, Pascal, who managed</span> to look
as self-important as a key witness yet also as sheepish as a guard who’s been
robbed, approached the director and murmured in her ear. She blanched, then
said to Descartes, “If you wish to see the security-camera footage of the
thief, Pascal has it on the monitor.”</div>
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“Sure, let’s take a look.” The inspector followed Pascal and
Mme. Clergue through a doorway into a small, windowless room located just off
the entry hall. Arrayed above a low, desk-like counter that lined one wall, an
appliance-store-worth of small televisions showed video feeds from a fleet of
cameras. Three of the cameras monitored exterior doorways—the museum’s main
entrance, a large loading-dock door, and an emergency exit—and the others
offered wide-angle views of the museum’s galleries. At the center of the
cluster, a larger monitor featured a zoomed-in view of the loading-dock door,
propped open with a stone block. A man, frozen in mid-step, was emerging from
the building. Pascal stooped and snaked an arm between Descartes and Mme.
Clergue to press a button on the console; on the screen, the door opened wide
and the man exited the building.</div>
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Descartes leaned in for a closer look. As he did, he
inadvertently collided with Mme. Clergue, who was likewise angling for a better
view. “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Excuse</i> me,” she squawked. It
was an accusation, not an apology, and Descartes ignored it.</div>
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The man on the screen was wearing black: black shoes, black
pants, black pullover, black cap. His head was bowed and as he emerged fully
onto the loading dock, he wrapped one arm across his face and then turned away
from the camera. “He knows where the camera is,” Descartes said to Mme Clergue.
“Could he be one of your staff?” Using a wooden crate for a boost, the man
scaled a gate and dropped into a quiet street on the other side. To Pascal, the
detective said, “Back up. Let’s watch that again.”</div>
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Mme. Clergue pursed her lips and shrugged, then drew a deep
breath and puffed it out, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pphhtt</i>, in
answer to Descartes’s question. “From this picture, who can tell? Nine men—ten,
if you count the gardener—work at the museum. One is as fat as a pig, so it’s
not him.” Descartes heard Pascal suppress a snicker. “One is tall enough to be
an American basketball player; another could be a circus midget. I suppose it
could be any of the others.” She frowned at the screen as the man re-emerged
once more in playback, then turned and frowned at Descartes, her pale eyes
raking him up and down. “But it could be anyone. It could be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>, Inspector.”</div>
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Descartes raised his eyebrows at her. “You missed your true
calling, Madame Director,” he said drily. “You should have been a detective.”
He gestured at the monitor. “So, with your keen powers of observation, what
other helpful deductions can you share with us?”</div>
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His sarcasm brought a flush to her cheeks and a flash to her
eyes, but she dutifully studied the screen once more. Finally, sighing, she
said, “I deduce that we should hide our security cameras in the bushes, so the
robbers won’t know where they are.”</div>
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Descartes laughed, his irritation unexpectedly dispersed by
the dry, self-deprecating joke. “Touché, Madame.” After a pause he added
kindly, “Also, perhaps it’s worth noting that the man’s hands are empty?”</div>
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She drew a sharp breath, staring at the screen. “Then he’s
not stolen anything? Oh, thank God!” She breathed deeply in relief.</div>
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“Well, he hasn’t stolen <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everything</i>,
at any rate,” the detective hedged. “Does the collection include jewelry? Gold?
Gems? Other small, precious things he might have put in his pockets?”</div>
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She pursed her lips, taking mental inventory, then shook her
head. “Our specialty is medieval and Renaissance paintings. We do have some
artifacts, but mostly sculptures and architectural fragments—the tops of
columns, effigies from tombs, that sort of thing. Nothing of much value. Certainly
nothing pocket-sized.”</div>
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Descartes tapped the figure frozen once more on the screen.
“Could there be a painting under his shirt? Or rolled up in the leg of his
pants? Something he’s cut from the frame and tucked in his clothes?”</div>
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“Heavens, Inspector,” she sighed, “just when I’m beginning
to find you reassuring, you pull the rug out from under me again.” She put a
hand to her chin, a yellow, hornlike fingernail stroking thin lips as she
pondered. “We have a number of small paintings. The only way to know is to
check all the galleries. Shall I go and get started?”</div>
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“Not yet.” Descartes turned to the security guard, who had
rolled his chair away from the counter in search of more personal space.
“Pascal, can you scroll through the footage from the galleries? Starting when
the alarm sounded, and going backward?”</div>
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“Of course.” The guard rolled toward the console again,
parting the inspector and the director. “Starting with Gallery 1?”</div>
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The inspector turned to Mme. Clergue. “Let’s think like a
thief, shall we? What’s the most valuable painting in the museum, and how much
is it worth?”</div>
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“Goodness, that’s a difficult question, Inspector,” she
replied. “Most of our paintings were donated or loaned to us years ago, so it’s
hard to say what they might fetch these days. Take that piece, for instance.”
She turned and pointed through the security room’s doorway at a picture
suspended from the ceiling of the entry hall—a large portrait of a couple
standing side by side. “Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist. That’s just an enlargement,
of course. We paid sixty thousand francs for the painting, thirty years ago.
Earlier this year, a work not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nearly</i>
that good fetched three million euros at auction.”</div>
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“Three million, eh?” Descartes studied the painting with
growing interest. The colors were vivid and vibrant, and the couple possessed
movie-star good looks—sex appeal, even, he was surprised to notice. “But I
thought you specialized in medieval art,” he said. “Surely that’s more modern?”</div>
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She gave him a tolerant smile. “Actually, it’s six hundred
years old,” she said. “But it looks almost contemporary, doesn’t it? Not the
pinched, anemic figures you see in most medieval paintings.”</div>
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“For a religious painting, that’s pretty sexy,” Descartes
remarked. “Which gallery is that one in?”</div>
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“Six,” the director said. Even before she said it, Pascal
had switched the main monitor to the Gallery 6 camera. He scrolled backward
rapidly, the minutes in the time-stamp box spinning down as fast as seconds.</div>
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“Stop,” Descartes ordered. A shadow had flitted across the
screen, so swiftly as to be almost invisible. “Go forward, Pascal. Not so
fast.” The guard reversed the direction of the playback. “There! Slow down,
slow down!” A man entered the gallery, then turned toward the camera so that
his face was clearly visible. “Damn,” said Descartes. </div>
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“Sorry,” Pascal shrugged. “Just me, making my rounds.”</div>
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“Okay. Scroll back the rest of the way. All the way to
closing time.”</div>
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Pascal made two more cameo appearances on screen, each time
turning to face the camera. Otherwise the room remained empty except for the
sundry saints and martyrs lining the walls.</div>
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Descartes turned to Mme. Clergue. “So what else might be
especially tempting to an art thief?”</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pphhtt</i>, she puffed
again, shrugging. “We all have our own tastes.”</div>
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He cocked his head quizzically. “And what’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your</i> taste? What would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> steal, Madame?” She drew back,
shocked, and searched his eyes for signs of accusation. He smiled and winked.
“Me, I’d steal the sexy couple.” </div>
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She flushed slightly, a faint pink suffusing the parchment
of her cheeks, but her eyes twinkled. “Oh dear me,” she fluttered. “Well, if I
were shopping for my personal collection, I, too, might take the … the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">couple</i> that you like. But if I were
hoping to sell it on the black market, I’d go for name recognition and pinch
the Botticelli.”</div>
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Descartes’s eyebrows shot up. “Botticelli? The guy who
painted Venus on the half-shell?”</div>
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“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Really</i>,
Inspector, have you no respect?” She made a piping sound that might have been
either a wheeze or a giggle. “Yes, Botticelli was the guy—the artist—who
painted ‘The Birth of Venus.’ We have—I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hope</i>
we still have—a lovely ‘Madonna and Child’ by Botticelli. In Gallery 11.”</div>
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The guard was already on it. He’d barely begun to scroll
backward when the screen flickered with motion. He stopped scrolling and
reversed direction. For the fourth time, they watched as Pascal entered a
gallery, faced the camera, and then strolled out of frame. Seconds later,
though, he ran back in and—without slowing down or looking at the camera—sprinted
out the doorway he’d originally entered. “That’s when I heard the alarm,” he
explained. He pointed to the time stamp on the screen. “Twelve-oh-eight a.m.” </div>
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Descartes consulted his notepad. “Yes, that’s when we got
the signal,” he said. He chewed on his lower lip. “Do you have a floor plan of
the museum?” Pascal tapped the counter; pressed beneath a glass top was a
diagram of each level. The detective studied it, then pointed with the tip of
his pen. “So when you heard the alarm, you were here. Where were you just
before that?” </div>
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“Directly above, in Gallery 12,” the guard answered. “The
top floor. I came down the spiral staircase”—he indicated the stairs on the
map—“and went through Gallery 11. When the alarm sounded, I ran back to the
stairs and came down here, to see which alarm sensor had gone off.” He pointed
to a bank of indicator lights—a row of steady green LEDs, broken by one
blinking red diode.</div>
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Descartes nodded. “Okay. The video. Keep scrolling backward,
please.” Pascal resumed, but he’d barely gotten beyond his own 12:08
appearances before another shadowy figure began darting across the frame.
Pascal twitched the knob on the control panel. The video slowed, just in time
to show the black-clad man walking out of the gallery. He was carrying a painting,
and for a moment, as he passed through the wide doorway, the upper right corner
of the picture was visible. It showed the delicate face of a beautiful girl,
who appeared to be looking down at the man abducting her. </div>
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Mme. Clergue gasped and clutched Descartes’s sleeve. “Oh
dear God,” she whispered. “I think he’s got the Botticelli.”</div>
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Descartes tapped Pascal on the shoulder. “Go back. Play the
whole thing in real time, start to finish.” The guard nodded and pressed a
button. After a few seconds, the black-clad man entered the screen, moving in
reverse, hugging the young woman to his chest. “No, no,” Descartes snapped.
“Forward, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">forward</i>. Start at the
beginning and go forward.”</div>
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“I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">am</i> going
forward,” Pascal protested. </div>
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“Then why the hell is he moving backward?”</div>
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The guard shrugged. “I don’t know why, but he is,” he
insisted. He tapped the corner of the screen. Sure enough, the time-stamp
numbers were spinning up, second by second. “See?” </div>
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“I don’t understand,” Mme. Clergue fretted.</div>
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“He doesn’t want to show his face,” Descartes said. “Maybe
he’s teasing us, too, knowing we’ll be watching. In any case, he knows where
all the cameras are. He must be an insider.” Mme. Clergue started to protest,
but the inspector raised a hand for silence. They watched with growing
puzzlement as the man stopped and leaned the painting against the wall, fished
an implement of some sort from his pants, and struck the wall three times.
Then, to their utter astonishment, he hoisted the painting from the floor, hung
it, and strode from the gallery.</div>
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There was a moment of stunned silence, broken by a single
bark of laughter from Descartes. “I’ll be damned,” he said. “He’s not looting
your collection; he’s adding to it!”</div>
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“This is very …” Mme. Clergue began vaguely, but Descartes
was already out the door, moving at a ponderous, middle-aged jog toward the
spiral stairs. When Mme. Clergue caught up, he was in the middle of Gallery 11
staring at the wall. Hanging directly in front of him, where it had hung for
years, was Botticelli’s “Madonna and Child.” Hanging alongside it was …
Botticelli’s “Madonna and Child.” <span style="color: #00b050;"></span></div>
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<b><i>THANKS FOR READING. WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS FREE EXCERPT OF “MADONNA AND CORPSE." IF YOU
DID, SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS—AND PLEASE <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Madonna-Corpse-Epb-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780062219886?AA=books_SearchBooks_28652" style="color: blue;" target="_blank">DOWNLOAD THE E-STORY</a>. GET READY TO WIN A COPY OF "THE INQUISITOR"S KEY"!</i></b></div>
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<br /></div>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com185tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-84255109011035473292012-04-20T11:07:00.000-07:002012-05-05T11:08:30.747-07:00The Knights Templar and the Body FarmToday, the blog-tour bus goes amphibious as Jon heads across the (virtual) pond to chat with the folks at <a href="http://wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/jon-jefferson-writes-on-weaving.html" target="_blank">Shots - Crime & Thriller E-Zine</a> about weaving together the Knights Templar and the Body Farm.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-73401627587149151802012-04-17T10:59:00.000-07:002012-05-05T11:04:14.720-07:00Fact/Fiction: The beautifully blurry line Today, the blog-tour bus skidded to a stop at Janice Bashman's blog <a href="http://janicegablebashman.com/?p=1760" target="_blank">The Writing Life</a>, and I'm talking about the blurry line between fact & fiction -- in writing, life, and religion.<br />
<br />
Here's a taste:<br />
<br />
-Writing <i><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/The-Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass?isbn=9780061806797&HCHP=TB_The+Inquisitor+s+Key" target="_blank">The Inquisitor's Key</a></i><em> </em>–
a crime novel set in France – required a research trip to Avignon, a
walled city in Provence, nestled in a bend of the Rhone River. The task
loomed, daunting, even overwhelming – all those wines! all that cheese! –
but someone had to do it, right? So in May 2011, I dusted off my
passport, packed my French phrase book (“La toilette?”), and headed off
for a grueling week. Seriously, folks: authentic forensic detail and
meticulous research are trademarks of the <a href="http://www.jeffersonbass.com/books.html" target="_blank">Body Farm novels</a>, so I had to go. Really I did...<br />
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Read the rest of the article at <a href="http://janicegablebashman.com/?p=1760" target="_blank">The Writing Life</a>.Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-72179758475266279202012-04-16T17:29:00.004-07:002012-05-05T12:07:25.421-07:00Gone Roadtrippin' : Blog & Book Tour 2012!<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe4qMD5QsUyxAEyg-Mj9-YAHVla5monqHHlGRAG1zsC1NhBuSrf5Pm_mZORf3NiD_6TPD7L_e9PVs2qcRGzNotpwokIDfJRsUP5DCzSVUmnFwC_9qypT5TLZD0gtBR7o4xhHqd69qAzSRV/s1600/JonAtBodyFarmGate(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe4qMD5QsUyxAEyg-Mj9-YAHVla5monqHHlGRAG1zsC1NhBuSrf5Pm_mZORf3NiD_6TPD7L_e9PVs2qcRGzNotpwokIDfJRsUP5DCzSVUmnFwC_9qypT5TLZD0gtBR7o4xhHqd69qAzSRV/s320/JonAtBodyFarmGate(1).jpg" width="207" /></a>If you’ve been lurking around the blog lately, you may have noticed that no one's been home for a few days—weeds sprouting up in the flowerbeds, the mailbox bulging. Don’t worry, though. We didn’t intend to pack up and ride out without leaving a little note.</div>
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In anticipation of the May 8, 2012 release of <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797"><i>The Inquisitor’s Key</i></a>, I've decided to embark on a tour across the blogosphere...before I leave for the continental United States book tour. I'm nailing this note to the outside of the (virtual) Body Farm gate: an invitation to each and every one of you. </div>
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Meet up with us on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key </i>Blog Tour 2012—without even leaving your chair!—and then find us on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key</i> Book Tour 2012 in a city near you. On the blog tour, not only will you have the opportunity to go behind the scenes of the new Body Farm novel, but you’ll get inside access to exclusive interviews, book reviews, and book giveaway contests. On the book tour, you’ll be able to meet us—Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bass, the men behind the mysteries of Jefferson Bass—and pick up a signed copy (or two..or ten) of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2p9NDFrzjKGlhVlGlePwPRQoV5vQxT80yVROMJP8HQPCdp-cDgEbwMuWawJskvsGHqE92uU_k5jrLAGOgOro4egN0r7qmHUNmap4SmZU6-_C4gBoWHI4Yd2CaOAb_zcfGEV7iPTD18o9V/s1600/Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2p9NDFrzjKGlhVlGlePwPRQoV5vQxT80yVROMJP8HQPCdp-cDgEbwMuWawJskvsGHqE92uU_k5jrLAGOgOro4egN0r7qmHUNmap4SmZU6-_C4gBoWHI4Yd2CaOAb_zcfGEV7iPTD18o9V/s320/Cover.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%;">Calendar of Blog-Tour Events</span></div>
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I’d be honored, dear readers, if you'd leave comments on the guest blog posts below in support of Jefferson Bass, the Body Farm series, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key! </i>We're trying to get the word out to those who are not familiar—yet—with the Body Farm novels and the great work being done at the Body Farm, but we need <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">your </b>help. Visit these blogs in April and May and show readers that Jefferson Bass has the most diehard fans of all. Tell the world to read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key!</i></div>
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April 7, 2012 – Guest post @ <a href="http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/04/blog-tour-jefferson-bass-author-of-the-inquisitors-key.html">My Bookish Ways</a></div>
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April 9, 2012 – Guest post @ <a href="http://bookbitch.blogspot.com/2012/04/guest-blogger-jefferson-bass.html">Book Bitch Blog</a></div>
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April 11, 2012 – Review of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key </i>@ <a href="http://www.chaoticcompendiums.com/2012/04/book-review-giveaway-inquisitors-key-by.html#disqus_thread">Chaotic Compendiums</a></div>
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April 17, 2012 – Fact/Fiction: The beautifully blurry line - in writing, life, & religion @ <a href="http://janicegablebashman.com/?p=1760">The Writing Life</a></div>
April 17, 2012: Review of <i>The Inquisitor's Key</i> @ <a href="http://www.jennsbookshelves.com/2012/04/17/review-the-inquisitors-key-by-jefferson-bass/" target="_blank">Jenn's Bookshelves</a><br />
April 20, 2012: Weaving Together the Knights Templar and the Body Farm @ <a href="http://wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/jon-jefferson-writes-on-weaving.html" target="_blank">SHOTS Crime & Thriller Ezine</a><br />
April 23, 2012: Review of <i>The Inquisitor's Key</i> @ <a href="http://www.elizabethawhite.com/2012/04/23/the-inquisitors-key-by-jefferson-bass/" target="_blank">Book Reviews by Elizabeth A. White</a><br />
April 24, 2012: Putting Faces on the Dead - in fact and in fiction @ <a href="http://www.jenjdanna.com/blog/2012/4/24/guest-post-putting-faces-on-the-dead-in-fact-and-in-fiction.html" target="_blank">Skeleton Keys</a><br />
April 25, 2012: Writerhead Wednesday @ <a href="http://www.kristinbairokeeffe.com/2012/04/25/writerhead-wednesday-featuring-jefferson-bass/" target="_blank">Writerhead</a><br />
April 26, 2012: The Story Behind the Story: <i>The Inquisitor's Key </i>@ <a href="http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2012/04/story-behind-story-inquisitors-key-by.html" target="_blank">The Rap Sheet </a><br />
April 28, 2012: Q&A @ <a href="http://zeemonodee.blogspot.com/2012/04/spotlight-saturday-welcome-to-jefferson.html" target="_blank">Author's Corner</a><br />
April 29, 2012: Plan A. Plan Be. Plan See. @ <a href="http://gladiatorspen.blogspot.com/2012/04/plan-plan-be-plan-see-by-guest-jon.html" target="_blank">Gladiator's Pen</a><br />
<a href="http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"></a>May 2, 2012: From Limbo with Love @ <a href="http://www.poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/2012/05/from-limbo-with-love.html" target="_blank">Poe's Deadly Daughters</a><br />
May 3, 2012: Picture the Book: <i>The Inquisitor's Key</i> @ <a href="http://bridgetasher.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Divining Wand</a><br />
May 5, 2012: Stabbed Ribs, Barbecued Bodies & Other Forensic Adventures @ <a href="http://susannedrazic.blogspot.com/2012/05/guest-post-by-jon-jefferson-writer-half.html" target="_blank">Putting Words Down on Paper</a><br />
May 6, 2012: Review of <i>The Inquisitor's Key </i>@ <a href="http://www.jeanbooknerd.com/" target="_blank">Book Nerd</a><br />
May 6, 2012: Guest post @ <a href="http://bookpeopleblog.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">BookPeople's Blog</a><br />
May 7, 2012: Guest post @ <a href="http://blog.indigo.ca/fiction.html" target="_blank">Indigo Fiction Blog</a><br />
May 7, 2012: Q&A @ <a href="http://bridgetasher.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Julianna Baggott's Blog</a><br />
May 8, 2012: Guest post @ <a href="http://crimespreemag.com/blog/" target="_blank">CrimeSpree Magazine</a><br />
May 8, 2012: Guest post @ <a href="http://www.bookpage.com/the-book-case/">The Book Case</a><br />
May 9, 2012: Guest post @ <a href="http://crimefictioncollective.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Crime Fiction Collective</a><br />
May 9, 2012: Review of <i>The Inquisitor's Key</i> @ <a href="http://www.dewonthekudzu.net/" target="_blank">Dew on the Kudzu</a><br />
May 10, 2012: Guest post @ <a href="http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">The Writer's Forensics Blog</a><br />
May 11, 2012: Review of <i>The Inquisitor's Key</i> @ <a href="http://www.luxuryreading.com/" target="_blank">Luxury Reading</a><br />
May 11, 2012: Q&A @ <a href="http://www.mysterytribune.com/" target="_blank">Mystery Tribune</a><br />
May 14, 2012: My First Time @ <a href="http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Quivering Pen</a><br />
May 14, 2012: Guest article @ <a href="http://www.beatrice.com/wordpress/" target="_blank">Beatrice </a><br />
May 15, 2012: Guest post @ <a href="http://pattinase.blogspot.com/">Pattinase</a><br />
May 15, 2012: Featured article @ <a href="http://authormagazine.org/" target="_blank">Author Magazine </a><br />
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<span style="font-size: 22pt; font-weight: normal;">Calendar of Book-Tour Events</span></h3>
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If you’re planning to attend one of our book-tour events this year, please click the appropriate event link below, then JOIN the event on Facebook so we know how many to expect at the party! We want to see YOU in the crowd. Please comment at the end of this post as well to let everyone know which event you’ll be attending. Let's see a show of hands!</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/101864669947848/">A Private Event in Knoxville, Tennessee</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Farragut Chamber of Commerce</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">12284 North Fox Den Drive</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Knoxville, Tennessee</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">May 8, 2012 at 7:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/397130393644810/">Fundraising Benefit in Oak Ridge, Tennessee</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">New Hope Center</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">602 Scarboro Road</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Oak Ridge, Tennessee</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Tuesday -- May 8, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Purchase tickets to this benefit <a href="http://shop.imaginationforest.com/Priority-General-Admission-Seat-2000-01.htm">here</a>.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/115642971901455/">Jefferson Bass in Scottsdale, Arizona</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Poisoned Pen</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">4014 N. Goldwater Blvd</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Scottsdale, Arizona 85251</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> Wednesday -- May 9, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/225819224192988/">Jefferson Bass in Woodstock, Georgia</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Fox Tale Book Shoppe</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">105 E. Main St. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Woodstock, Georgia</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Thursday -- May 10, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">5.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/147119598749533/">Lunch with Jefferson Bass in Decatur, Georgia</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Capozzi’s Decatur</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">1355 Clairmont Road</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Decatur, Georgia 30033</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Friday – May 11, 2012 at noon – 3:00 p.m.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">6.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/423885290971195/">Jefferson Bass in Huntsville, Alabama</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Huntsville Madison County Public Library</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">915 Monroe St. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Huntsville, Alabama 35801</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Friday – May 11, 2012 at 7:00p.m.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">7.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/129452567185497/">Jefferson Bass in Nashville, Tennessee</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Parnassus Books</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">3900 Hillsboro Pike</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Nashville, Tennessee 37215</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Saturday – May 12, 2012 at 4:00 p.m.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">8.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/207457472701396/">Jefferson Bass in Knoxville, Tennessee</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Kroger</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">11244 Kingston Pike</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Knoxville, Tennessee</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Sunday – May 13, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">9.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/265124573582426/">Jefferson Bass in Knoxville, Tennessee (2<sup>nd</sup> appearance)</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Books-A-Million</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">8513 Kingston Pike</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Knoxville, Tennessee 37919</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Sunday – May 13, 2012 at 6:30 p.m.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">10.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/115554211910829/">Jefferson Bass in Maryville, Tennessee</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Hastings</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">501 N. Foothills Plaza Drive</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Maryville, Tennessee 37801</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Monday – May 14, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">11.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/357105894341122/">Jefferson Bass in Coral Gables, Florida</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Books & Books</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">265 Aragon Ave.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Coral Gables, Florida 33134</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Tuesday – May 15, 2012 at 8:00 p.m.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">12.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/264783630282769/">Jefferson Bass in Vero Beach, Florida</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">The Vero Beach Book Center</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">2145 Indian River Blvd.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Vero Beach, Florida 32960</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Wednesday – May 16, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">13.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/190159974437141/">Jefferson Bass in Tallahassee, Florida</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Books-A-Million</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">3531 Thomasville Road</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Tallahassee, Florida 32309</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Saturday – May 19, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.</span></h3>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-23173890561580026272012-03-23T09:02:00.002-07:002012-03-25T01:20:26.040-07:00High-Noon Showdown -- Win a signed copy of "The Bone Yard"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0hkGXWUSaB97T-HGHkYJJ_49Uj79ErQdfSWpkmkBfAx7fP3i50d3zA3b3Dv3PSF8FPNlYVN5zBjeG3P-dGFBU_PdQBzqe2QdxO9h7KsndT3-zNP_O2yQlpUJnw5aX-3c-UoJiMU8kQWKr/s1600/high-noon+showdown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0hkGXWUSaB97T-HGHkYJJ_49Uj79ErQdfSWpkmkBfAx7fP3i50d3zA3b3Dv3PSF8FPNlYVN5zBjeG3P-dGFBU_PdQBzqe2QdxO9h7KsndT3-zNP_O2yQlpUJnw5aX-3c-UoJiMU8kQWKr/s1600/high-noon+showdown.jpg" /></a></div>Howdy! I reckon you've come to join the high-noon showdown. The way I see it, the more the merrier when it comes to gunslingin'. Now before you get to scratchin' your itchy trigger finger, take a seat and hear me out. But -- for the love of Pete -- don't sit on that cactus. <br />
In anticipation of the March 27, 2012 paperback release of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Bone-Yard-Body-Novel/dp/0061807044/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0" target="_blank"><i>The Bone Yard,</i></a> Mr. Bones is giving away signed copies of the novel. To make this fun instead of dangerous, I'm suggesting that we all set aside our six-shooters and draw from a different sort of holster, the holster of memory.<br />
The rules of the showdown are simple. This is <b>your</b> chance to become the storyteller at the side of our virtual campfire. What do I mean? In the COMMENTS section of this blog entry, I want you to let loose and draw from your holster of memory. Tell <i>us</i> a story. <br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
Here are examples of what will qualify you as an entrant to the giveaway contest: 1.) Share your favorite book in the Body Farm series and explain why. 2.) Tell us about an encounter with Jefferson Bass, whether at a signing or somewhere else. 3.) Post a photo of yourself with Jefferson Bass, or of you holding a Body Farm novel, on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/JeffersonBassBooks" target="_blank">our Facebook page</a> so we can proudly display it. 4.) Get creative and surprise us: fan fiction, anyone? 5.) Tell us anything you'd want to tell us if we were standing before you in a dusty Wild West street at high noon. . . and you were down to your last bullet.<br />
Do we have an understanding? Don't forget to sign your comment with your name so that your name is entered into the contest! Then -- write an e-mail (with your name) to JeffersonBassBookGiveaway@hotmail.com to let us know that you should WIN!<br />
By sundown on Sunday (3/25/2012), the winner'll be the last one standing. Now: turn on your heel and walk fifteen paces. Ready? Set. . . Draw!Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-44727021242182153872012-03-19T13:47:00.001-07:002012-03-20T06:49:40.250-07:00"The Bone Yard" Book Giveaway<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGqAEi8mCKZ3uykYAfMlG8g34ghW8NcBGqbmg_n69vN9_peaB_CnF6yPIIsmTJy7u3eFzV59pVgaRfpuyHc19SbBlX3RtvtCucnqATagNEOMTkfT5gEuhA13888UzP9MVGbudysTxCBORJ/s1600/Mr.+Bones+and+The+Bone+Yard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGqAEi8mCKZ3uykYAfMlG8g34ghW8NcBGqbmg_n69vN9_peaB_CnF6yPIIsmTJy7u3eFzV59pVgaRfpuyHc19SbBlX3RtvtCucnqATagNEOMTkfT5gEuhA13888UzP9MVGbudysTxCBORJ/s320/Mr.+Bones+and+The+Bone+Yard.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Mr. Bones has agreed to host a few book-giveaway contests here on the blog in March and April. We'll be giving away copies of <i><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank">The Inquisitor's Key</a> </i>in the coming weeks, so check back as often as humanly possible without becoming completely obsessed...<br />
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Today, however, in anticipation of the paperback release of <i><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Bone-Yard-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061807046" target="_blank">The Bone Yard</a> </i>on March 27, 2012, Mr. Bones will give away his beloved copy of the novel to one aspiring sleuth! I promise you one thing -- it's not going to be easy to win. In fact, it might become downright dangerous. So-- do you think you have what it takes to win this <b>literary treasure hunt?</b><br />
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<b> </b> <span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Rules of Participation:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">1. LIKE <a href="http://www.facebook.com/JeffersonBassBooks" target="_blank">Jefferson Bass</a> on Facebook if you haven't already.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">2. SHARE <a href="http://www.facebook.com/JeffersonBassBooks" target="_blank">Jefferson Bass</a> on your Facebook Wall for your friends to see. To SHARE Jefferson Bass, copy and paste this link into your next status update: http://www.facebook.com/JeffersonBassBooks </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> *Include a variation of this message: Please LIKE this page so I can win <i>The Bone Yard!</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">3. Read the following excerpt from <i>The Bone Yard</i>. Answer the questions that follow, then send your answers and your name as it appears on Facebook to JeffersonBassBookGiveaway@hotmail.com</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">4. Then post a comment -- anything you want -- on this blog entry so we have a tally of contestants. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pretty simple, right? Thanks for playing along, and good luck! The randomly selected winner(s?) will be announced tomorrow!</span> <br />
<h2><a name='more'></a></h2><h2> </h2><h2>Chapter 1 of The Bone Yard</h2>I held the last of the dead man's bones in my left hand. It was his skull, which I cradled upside-down in my palm, as comfortably and naturally as an NBA player might hold a basketball. As I searched for a place to hide it, I felt the tip of my index finger absent-mindedly tracing the edges of a hole in the right temple. It was a square-cornered opening, about the size of a small postage stamp, and it had been punched by a murder weapon—a weapon I'd tucked into a tangle of honeysuckle vines a few moments before. The honeysuckle was in bloom, and its fragrance was an odd contrast to the underlying odor of death. Funny thing, I thought, how something that smells so good can grow in a place that smells so bad.<br />
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Chattering voices floated up the hillside, growing louder as the people came closer. If I didn't hurry, I'd be caught with the skull in my hand. Still I hesitated, turning the cranium rightside-up for one last look into the vacant eye orbits. What did I hope to see there—what meaning did I think I might find—in those empty sockets? Maybe nothing. Maybe only the emptiness itself.<br />
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As the voices drew nearer, I finally forced myself to act, to choose. I tucked the skull under the edge of a fallen oak tree, piling dead leaves against the trunk as camouflage. Then a worry popped into my head: Is the pile of leaves too obvious, a giveaway? But it was too late to second-guess myself; I'd run out of time, and the makeshift hiding place would have to do.<br />
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Stepping over the tree, I strolled downhill toward the cluster of people approaching. I feigned nonchalance, resisting the urge to glance back and check for visible bones. A woman at the front of the group—a thirty-something blond with the energetic, outdoorsy look of a runner or a cyclist—stopped in her tracks and looked at me. Her eyes bored into mine, and I wondered what she saw there. I tried to make my face as blank and unenlightening as the skull's had been.<br />
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She shifted her gaze to the wooded slope behind me. Her eyes scanned the forest floor, then settled on the fallen tree. Walking slowly toward it, she leaned down, studied both sides, and then brushed at the leaves I'd piled on the uphill side. "There's a skull beside this log," she announced to the group. She said it as coolly as if it were an everyday occurrence, finding a skull in the woods.<br />
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"Wow," said a young red-haired woman in a black jumpsuit. "Police, one; Brockton, zero. If Dr. B decides to turn killer, he'd better steer clear of Florida."<br />
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The redheaded smart-aleck was Miranda Lovelady, my graduate assistant. The blond who'd found the skull so swiftly was Angie St. Claire, a forensic analyst from the Florida state crime lab. Angie, along with the 23 other people in the group Miranda had brought up the trail, had spent the past ten weeks as a student at the National Forensic Academy, a joint venture of the University of Tennessee and the Knoxville Police Department. Taught by experts in ballistics, fingerprinting, trace evidence, DNA, anthropology, and other forensic specialties, the NFA training culminated in the two death scenes Miranda and I had staged here at the University of Tennessee's Anthropological Research Facility: the Body Farm.<br />
<br />
The Body Farm was perched on a hillside high above the Tennessee River. Here, a mile downstream from the heart of Knoxville, more than a hundred corpses in various states of disrepair were dispersed across the facility's three fenced-in acres. Most of the bodies lay above ground, though some were buried. And in a far corner of the facility, looking like eerie sentinels standing at attention, were three nude men: not standing, actually, but hanging, suspended by the neck from wooden scaffolds. With some misgivings, we had carried out three post-mortem lynchings, so we could observe the difference in the decomposition rate when bodies decayed off the ground, where they were less accessible to insects. We'd hung the three in the most isolated part of the facility, because important though the experiment was—the research data would help us determine time since death when a hanged body wasn't discovered for weeks or even months—the dangling corpses were a shocking sight. I'd seen them dozens of times by now, yet I still found it unnerving to round the bend in the trail and find myself confronting the trio. Their necks were stretched a few inches, their faces downcast, their arms and legs angled outward, as if accepting their grim fate with a mixture of resignation and shame. The NFA class included four African American men, and if I, a privileged white man, felt disturbed by the hanging bodies, I could scarcely imagine the complicated response the black men might feel at the sight of dangling corpses in the woods of Dixie.<br />
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Maybe I needn't have worried. Everyone in the class was a seasoned forensic professional, after all; cumulatively, the two dozen students had worked hundreds of death scenes, and some of those had probably included suicide by hanging. The students had competed fiercely to get into the NFA course, and several had told me how thrilled they were to train at the Body Farm—probably the only place on earth, after all, where cinching a noose around a neck was an act of scientific inquiry rather than of suicidal despair or racist hatred or—very rarely—state-administered execution. Here at the Body Farm, as nowhere else on earth, we could replicate death scenes with utter authenticity, even lynchings or mass murders. This particular NFA class—one of two groups that would rotate through the course this year—included crime-scene and crime-lab specialists from as far away as the United Kingdom. They'd spend the morning recovering scattered skeletal remains and other evidence Miranda and I had planted in this part of the woods. After a quick picnic lunch on a strip of grass outside the fence, they'd spend the afternoon locating and excavating a shallow, unmarked grave where Miranda and I had buried three fresh corpses, simulating a gang-style execution by drug traffickers.<br />
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She and I had spent the prior afternoon digging the grave and then refilling it once we'd laid the bodies in it. We'd clawed into the clearing's rocky, red-clay dirt with a Bobcat—a pint-sized bulldozer—that a local building contractor had recently donated to the Anthropology Department. The Bobcat was a useful tool; it was also—for me, a guy who'd grown up driving dump trucks at my stepdad's quarry—a fun toy.<br />
Excavating the buried bodies in the afternoon heat was going to be sweaty, smelly work for the NFA class. Already, by midmorning, the temperature was above 80 degrees, and the humidity had topped 90 percent; by late afternoon, East Tennessee would feel like the tropics. Divide the year's 365 days by the number of seasons, and you might think there'd be four seasons of 91.25 days apiece, each season serenely easing its way into the next. Not this year in Knoxville; not on this steamy, smelly day in mid May.<br />
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My own body was doubtless contributing a bit to the scent wafting across the hillside, and not as pleasantly as the honeysuckle was. Like Miranda, I wore an official-looking black jumpsuit, the shoulders trimmed with the skull-adorned patches of the Forensic Anthropology Center. The jumpsuits looked cool, as in stylish, but they were woven of Nomex, a flameproof fiber that, ironically, made them hotter than hell. Despite the heat, Miranda and I had suited up to give the training exercise a more authentic look—and to let the trainees know we took them seriously.<br />
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The forensic techs weren't exactly dressed for cool comfort, either. Over their clothes they'd donned white biohazard coveralls made of Tyvek, the slippery, indestructible stuff of FedEx envelopes. Tyvek was feather-light, but I knew from experience that it didn't breathe worth a damn. As the techs knelt, stooped, squatted, and crawled their way up the hillside, setting numbered evidence markers beside the bones and artifacts they found, I could hear, or at least imagined I could hear, the steady patter of droplets on dry leaves: droplets not of rain, but of sweat. If this were an actual crime scene, they'd need to be concerned about contaminating the bones with their own sweaty DNA. I made a mental note to mention that to them once they'd rounded up all the bones. Did the glamorous stars of "CSI" and "Bones" ever shed buckets of perspiration, ever rain monsoons of sweat?<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"># # #</div>After an hour of searching, the hillside bristled with numbered evidence markers—87 of them— flagging the sundry bones, beer bottles, cigarette butts, and gum wrappers Miranda and I had strewn in the woods. The markers resembled the four-inch sandwich-sign numbers restaurants sometimes put on customers' tables to tell the servers which order goes to what table, and I smiled as I imagined a macabre spin on that image: "Number 87? Half-rack of ribs, easy on the bugs?"<br />
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I'd laid all the vertebrae of the spinal column close together, in anatomical order, as they might be found at an actual death scene, so those required only a single marker. Other bones, though, were dispersed more widely, simulating the way dogs or coyotes or raccoons would tend to scatter them over time. My last-minute hiding spot for the skull had actually been a logical place for it. Skulls on a slope tend to tumble or wash downhill once the mandible comes loose; that's exactly what had happened to the skull of former congressional aide Chandra Levy, who'd been murdered in the woods of a Washington, DC, park in 2001. In the case of my "victim," the fallen tree where I'd tucked his skull was lower, I now noticed, than the area where I'd scattered most of the bones. After years of death-scene searches of my own, I'd intuitively picked a natural place for the skull to end up.<br />
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The one thing the students hadn't yet found was the murder weapon. I took a sort of perverse pride in that, as I'd been careful to tuck it deep into the honeysuckle. But lunchtime was coming up fast, and they'd need the whole afternoon to excavate the mass grave. Finally, just as I was about to start offering helpful hints—"you're cold"; "getting warmer"; "really, really hot"—I noticed Angie in scan mode again, her gaze ranging just beyond the ragged circle of evidence markers. Her eyes swept past the honeysuckle thicket, then returned, and she headed toward it, like a dog on a scent. Getting warmer, I thought, but I kept quiet as she knelt at the edge of the vines and began parting the leaves carefully. "Got something here," she said, and then she laughed. "Looks like somebody takes his golf game really seriously." With that, she extricated the murder weapon. It was a golf club—a putter—and the cross-section of the club's head matched the hole in the skull perfectly: a square peg in a square hole.<br />
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The flurry of interest in Angie's find was accompanied by a series of groan-inducing golf-club murder jokes—"fore...head!"; "keep your eye on the skull"; "I told you not to cheat"; and the worst of all, "say, old chap, mind if I slay through?" The chatter was interrupted by a series of urgent beeps from Angie's direction. "Oh, crap," she said, laying the putter on the ground. She peeled off a glove and fished a cellphone from inside her coveralls. Frowning at what she read on the display, she stepped away from the group and answered the call. At first her words were too low to make out, but the tension in her voice was unmistakable, and it was rising. As the tension ratcheted up, the volume did, too. "Wait. Say that again. Kate what? ... What are you talking about? ... When? ... How? ... A shotgun? ... Bullshit. That's not possible. That is just not possible." Her eyes darted back and forth, tracking something I suspected was hundreds of miles away, at the other end of the call, and she began to pace the hillside. "Please tell me you're making this up, Ned. Please tell me this is some really, really mean joke you're playing on me. ... Please tell me you're not telling me this."<br />
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By now everyone in the group was listening, though most were careful not to look directly at Angie. Some people exchanged worried glances; others studied the ground intently, as if the particular twig or bone in front of them held the key to all meaning in the universe. "Oh, shit. Oh shit. Jesus God. ... Have you looked at flights? .... No, I'll just drive. It'll be just as fast. ... Okay, I'm leaving now." She took a few steps down the hillside, returning to where she'd found and flagged the skull. She bent and picked it up, staring into the eye orbits, exactly as I had just before hiding it. "I have to go by the hotel to grab my stuff. ... I'll be there by midnight. I'll call you from the road." She was walking toward us now, head down, still talking. "God damn that son of a bitch. ... Look, I have to go." She snapped the phone shut, shaking her head, a look of bleak dismay on her face as she walked toward Miranda and me. She didn't slow down when she reached us; she simply handed me the skull and kept walking. As she passed, she rubbed her ungloved hand across her dripping face, and I realized she was wiping away tears, not sweat. "I have to go," she said again, not looking back. Her voice sounded hollow and haunted. "I have to go."<br />
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She broke into a jog, ran out the gate of the Body Farm, and was gone.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Questions:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1. Who found the hidden skull?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2. How much land does the Body Farm cover?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">3. What "murder weapon" did Dr. Brockton hide in the tangle of honeysuckle vines?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">4. True or False: On the prior afternoon, Dr. Brockton buried the three fresh corpses alone.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">5. Who was murdered in the woods of a park in Washington, DC in 2001?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Whew. . .wasn't that fun? Now: Send your answers and your name to JeffersonBassBookGiveaway@hotmail.com. And don't forget to leave a comment below!</span><br />
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</span>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-23845295276782653592012-03-11T14:50:00.002-07:002012-03-11T15:16:57.758-07:00Get Your Popcorn & Tell Your Friends: Time to watch the video trailer! (And participate in the reader poll below. Please comment/vote!)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeYRZDjZv5aIf4O6kdYVq_UF5tsMXMlYcE6ONOlT7DpRI3Twqjvoxb55WV1S2kJN-HYBSwESA5lnZS36ak8kn9PQLvjOW0-7P6HEIZLN40PeAgA-0j6o92yGlx8UniIA23FkolSHs_uIKN/s1600/movienight2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeYRZDjZv5aIf4O6kdYVq_UF5tsMXMlYcE6ONOlT7DpRI3Twqjvoxb55WV1S2kJN-HYBSwESA5lnZS36ak8kn9PQLvjOW0-7P6HEIZLN40PeAgA-0j6o92yGlx8UniIA23FkolSHs_uIKN/s320/movienight2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’d planned to write this time about one of the new book’s medieval characters: Petrarch, a 14<sup>th</sup>-century chaplain, poet, historian, and philosopher (a true Renaissance Man – a century before there WAS a Renaissance!) But Petrarch’ll have to wait, because I’m pre-empting him to roll out the new video trailer for the book. Two trailers, actually: one for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzd7hX99ir8"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key</i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,</i> and one for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjNen5gC0ic"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Bones of Avignon</i></a>, the U.K. edition. (As with the books, so with the trailers: the only difference is the title & release date. But hey, watch ‘em both!)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">Putting the trailers on YouTube – and linking to them on Facebook – makes me realize how fast things are changing. It’s an interesting, exciting, and nail-biting time to be writing books. Bookstores are dropping like flies (three of my favorite book-tour venues died between the 2010 book tour and the 2011 book tour, alas!). E-books now outsell printed books. A big part of my “job” now involves getting smart and strategic about using Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and blogs (not just this blog, but also guest blogs, too) to connect with readers. (If Petrarch – and Gutenberg – were alive now, would they be tweeting???)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I wish I were as smart – as omniscient – as Facebook and Google and the folks who buy their data (which is to say, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our</i> data). A few days ago, the mailman delivered two startling pieces of business mail to my house. What surprised me was that they were sent not to me, but to “The Inquisitor’s Key” — at my home address. My own publisher sometimes has trouble keeping track of my address, for pete’s sake … and yet companies that don’t know me from Adam understand that <i>The Inquisitor’s Key</i> emanated from this address. Progress? I’m not so sure … and yet I’m delighted to reap the benefits of cyberspace & hyperlinks. And if I were savvier & richer, who knows, maybe I’d be mining Google and Facebook data to ferret out every man, woman, and child whose cookies & clicks suggest that he or she would absolutely adore the new book.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sadly, I’m not that savvy; sadder still, I’m not that rich! So for now, I’ll just keep posting blogs here and updates on Facebook. Plus tweets on Twitter (@Jefferson_Bass), starting soon, I promise/threaten (depending on your opinion of Twitter). And I’ll steer everyone I can to the video trailer, which I absolutely love! (Huge shout-out here to my filmmaker friend Buck Kahler, of <a href="http://www.nolpix.com/">Nolichucky Pictures</a>, who did a BRILLIANT job making it.) The trailer’s short – 30 seconds – but it packs a lot of punch.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Who knows, maybe this short, small trailer will plant a cyber-seed – somewhere, somehow (are you listening, FB & Google?) – for a 2-hour blockbuster feature film...<br />
</div>After you watch the trailer, stick around for the READER POLL. Please let your voice be heard -- comment and vote for your choice. Here's the million-dollar question: <span style="font-size: large;">Who should play Dr. Brockton -- and his intrepid assistant Miranda -- in the film version?</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/rzd7hX99ir8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a class="cssButton" href="javascript:void(0)" id="publishButton" target=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/KjNen5gC0ic?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-15451306697957048342012-02-27T09:28:00.000-08:002012-02-27T09:28:01.576-08:00The Glory and the Power: Heavenly Daze and Worldly Ways in Avignon<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfsqk9tGnTSrYNlxHz-3Kauj238NfixItEGWRSBRdmVpFPvnV_oKpAtbNTluf8LQ09h7uUDxAa_TZ3dSX49mEFj9BrQKy-2q6dXAR2mzcmCQwa2H1R2jZKn2_o-DZu0GKo7yu18TLThp1X/s1600/Glory&PowerAvignonCathedral&Palais.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfsqk9tGnTSrYNlxHz-3Kauj238NfixItEGWRSBRdmVpFPvnV_oKpAtbNTluf8LQ09h7uUDxAa_TZ3dSX49mEFj9BrQKy-2q6dXAR2mzcmCQwa2H1R2jZKn2_o-DZu0GKo7yu18TLThp1X/s640/Glory&PowerAvignonCathedral&Palais.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The glory and the power: Avignon Cathedral (left) sits beside -- and is dwarfed by -- the formidable Palace of the Popes.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"> Character assassination, mudslinging, Machiavellian machinations, and ruthless power plays: I’m talking about the current U.S. presidential primaries, right? Not exactly, but more on that in a minute. I’m talking—mainly—about the deadly struggles that sent the 14<sup>th</sup>-century papacy scurrying from Rome to Avignon, France: Avignon, the spectacular walled city where medieval mystery meets modern-day murder in <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key</i></a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</style> <![e-->At the end of the 13<sup>th</sup> century, Rome—like other Italian city-states—was torn between two powerful factions, the Ghibellines and the Guelphs. To oversimplify shamelessly—nay, proudly (hey, it’s a blog, not a history book!)—the <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Ghibellines supported the Holy Roman Emperor, while the Guelphs backed the Pope: rival leaders, each claiming to be God’s Main Man here on Earth. In 1298 Pope Boniface VIII destroyed two entire towns, Colonna and Palestrina—he even spread salt on the surrounding lands to ruin them—because they were strongholds of the Colonna family, nobles who sided with his enemies, the Ghibellines. Then Boniface took on an even mightier foe: King Philip IV of France. When King Philip imposed a tax on Church revenues, Pope Boniface excommunicated him, declaring in a 1302 proclamation that it "is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff." </span></div><a name='more'></a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoY8ArmmH3ba2w3vXkbb2HI-s-qC3uxvVsJN16buhvCLQbwXINf7IF0sLWV1Tv7OTe5gKigcmVVcIzgAujnyEPmW5gSRyGYI-p50tKMAjxp3iiRfPLET0dmURbFXH6xqq1upcCAkP8Ipc7/s1600/KingPhilipIV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoY8ArmmH3ba2w3vXkbb2HI-s-qC3uxvVsJN16buhvCLQbwXINf7IF0sLWV1Tv7OTe5gKigcmVVcIzgAujnyEPmW5gSRyGYI-p50tKMAjxp3iiRfPLET0dmURbFXH6xqq1upcCAkP8Ipc7/s200/KingPhilipIV.jpg" width="187" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King Philip IVof France</td></tr>
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</style> <![e--><span>King Philip was not amused; in fact, he was royally vexed. In 1303, a 2,000-man army sent by Philip IV and the vengeful Colonna family captured the Pope, beat him, and nearly executed him. A month after the assault, Boniface died. His successor, Pope Benedict XI, reigned for just eight months before he, too, died—poisoned, rumors said, by the same French agent that King Philip had sent gunning for Boniface. The following pope, Clement V, was careful not to antagonize the French king; in fact, Clement V—the first in a series of seven French popes—was virtually a puppet of King Philip. In a shameful act of cowardice and collaboration, Pope Clement V helped King Philip destroy the Knights Templar, the warrior-monks to whom Philip owed a fortune. (More on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> in a future blog! And watch out for King Philip IV in <i><a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank">The Inquisitor's Key</a>.</i>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So when King Philip “suggested” that Clement V relocate someplace nearer and more convenient than Rome, Clement settled in Avignon—technically outside of France in those days, in territory that was part of the Holy Roman Empire—but just across the Rhone River from a massive French fortress, from which the king’s forces could keep a watchful eye on the papal court. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When Clement V arrived in 1309, Avignon was small, just a few thousand people. But the three popes who followed him—John XXII, Benedict XII, and Clement VI (“Clement the Magnificent”)—transformed <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=350272691671136&set=a.350269235004815.84554.347749991923406&type=3&theater" target="_blank">Avignon</a> into the crossroads of Europe, a booming, cosmopolitan city of 50,000. When Clement VI was crowned in 1342, he threw a coronation banquet for 3,000 guests. On the menu: 1,023 sheep, 118 cattle, 101 calves, 914 kids (young goats, not children!), 60 pigs, 10,471 hens, 1,440 geese, 300 pike, 48,856 cheeses, and 50,000 tarts. At its height, Clement VI’s court cost ten times as much as the French king’s. “Magnificent” indeed!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Such splendor—and the flood of gold florins that funded it—attracted nobles, artists, and musicians from throughout Europe. But not everyone approved. Indeed, a branch of Franciscan monks—the Franciscan “Spirituals”—harshly criticized Pope John XXII<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for not living in poverty as Jesus and his disciples had. In retaliation, John XXII charged a number of Franciscans with heresy—and had four burned at the stake. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But one fierce critic of papal luxury managed to survive—and to thrive—for years. In fact, despite the fact that he called the Avignon papacy “the Babylonian Captivity” (and called the papacy itself “the Whore of Babylon”), a cleric named Francesco Petrarca—in English, we call him Petrarch—became a celebrated historian, poet, and philosopher … all while living on the payroll of the Church he condemned. Petrarch—who appears in <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key</i></a>—reminds me of Beltway politicians who spend years campaigning as “outsiders.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As for the popes who sought authority over all earthly affairs: Anybody besides me see a parallel in today’s megachurch televangelists who want to gain control—“dominion,” as they call it—over government, business, education, the media, and other spheres of worldly influence? In <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780061806797" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key</i></a>, a present-day Dominionist preacher, Reverend Jonah Ezekiel, plays a prominent part. The book is fictional … but Rev. Jonah is, at least to my mind, frighteningly close to fact. What was it Winston Churchill said? Something about failing to learn from history, and being doomed to repeat it …</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Next time: Petrarch, the Celebrity Poet Who Loved to Hate Avignon</b></div>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678678958558448143.post-60061342924999430552012-02-19T17:36:00.001-08:002012-02-20T13:31:39.169-08:00A Tale of Two Covers, or, Which book would you be more likely to pick up in a bookstore … and why?<div class="MsoNormal">Okay, it’s <span style="color: red;">reader participation time</span>, for any of you who are game!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKiiqnZWIHfm9gW3XCyXIgH1lojmdQOGOc9YKQhJ45351psxVG58ciQE9VjHSgKi8AauG76jULzAbVgL_vcCj18Nyq7LfX6RqLtvHOZAVb22uGjJn_Ie4IqidMraCGNG959SBhT_DaQkG/s1600/inquisitorskeyCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKiiqnZWIHfm9gW3XCyXIgH1lojmdQOGOc9YKQhJ45351psxVG58ciQE9VjHSgKi8AauG76jULzAbVgL_vcCj18Nyq7LfX6RqLtvHOZAVb22uGjJn_Ie4IqidMraCGNG959SBhT_DaQkG/s320/inquisitorskeyCover.jpg" width="211" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQcFRN_LakPQmcc68E9jOTMmyBar7QqVa1esiD_cj2g2tfcy7nGlu_gU41v-9VwA7SC0nf7GSVsrDJcX07o-JD9Fl4YE3vzuuv6bZWweMDj1FHVrHIwD0Yqs-iNaKPZmfbUAdiT3J6MeUo/s1600/BonesOfAvignonCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQcFRN_LakPQmcc68E9jOTMmyBar7QqVa1esiD_cj2g2tfcy7nGlu_gU41v-9VwA7SC0nf7GSVsrDJcX07o-JD9Fl4YE3vzuuv6bZWweMDj1FHVrHIwD0Yqs-iNaKPZmfbUAdiT3J6MeUo/s320/BonesOfAvignonCover.jpg" width="206" /></a>Quickly – before you read any further (no cheating!) – glance at these two book covers. If you had just enough time to take a look inside only one of them, which one would it be, and why? Hold that thought, and after you finish reading, tell us your answer in the “Comments” section. Your feedback will make for interesting market-research data!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">And now, <b>A Tale of Two Covers</b>…</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"> You might think that a book’s title would be the first, and easiest thing to write, but you’d be wrong, at least in my experience. The first Body Farm novel’s title, <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Carved-Bone-Jefferson-Bass/?isbn=9780060759827" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carved in Bone</i></a>, came fairly easily. Title number two, <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Flesh-and-Bone-Jefferson-Bass?isbn=9780060759841&HCHP=TB_Flesh+and+Bone" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flesh and Bone</i></a>, was also fairly easy. But after that, they got tougher. If you’ve followed the series, you’ve probably noticed that all six of the prior novels have “bone” or “bones” in the title – a way of giving some continuity to the series, and also of underscoring the emphasis on forensic anthropology: bone-detective work. But sometimes that’s been a stretch, especially with novel #5, <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Bones-of-Betrayal-Jefferson-Bass?isbn=9780061284755&HCHP=TB_Bones+of+Betrayal" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bones of Betrayal</i></a>, which included a subplot about World War II espionage and treachery. It was one of my favorite books in the series, but my least favorite title; it seemed clunky and labored, and I’ve wished countless times that I’d argued more forcefully for the title I wanted, which was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fallout</i>. But at that point we were still committed to a “bone(s)” title, so I lost the argument.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
Fast-forward three books, to novel #7. My working title for the book was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Bones of Avignon</i>. Avignon, France, was the book’s setting, and I liked giving the city – a spectacular walled medieval city – title billing. But the people in Sales at HarperCollins were worried. Will people know where Avignon is, and why it’s important? Will people even know how to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pronounce</i> it? (It’s “ah-veen-YON,” BTW, in case your French is as bad as mine is…). So we kicked around other titles – dozens of other titles. Among them: The Keys to the Kingdom. The Power and the Glory. The Shroud Conspiracy. <span style="color: #061018;">The Babylonian Captivity.</span> <span style="color: #061018;">The Babylonian Conspiracy.</span> The Omega Project. <span style="color: #061018;">The Second Coming</span>. The Blood-Dimmed Tide. The Ceremony of Innocence. Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Slouching Towards Avignon. Crucified, Dead, and Buried. <span style="color: #061018;">Our Daily Dead. There were problems with all of them: Too religious. Not religious <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">enough</i> (in view of the plot). Too obscure. Not exciting enough.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #061018;">Finally we came up with <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/The-Inquisitors-Key-Jefferson-Bass?isbn=9780061806797&HCHP=TB_The+Inquisitor+s+Key" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Inquisitor’s Key</i></a>. “Inquisitor” seemed to suggest both religion and menace; “key” seemed to hint at a mystery that needed to be unlocked. Together (we hope!) the words are intriguing without giving much away. The cover art, I think, does a nice job of suggesting both the medieval religious backstory (thanks to the face framed by the oval of the key) and the modern-day setting of the main narrative (thanks to the glossy newness of the key). So that’s the skinny on the U.S. title and cover.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #061018;">Meanwhile (such a handy word for storytellers, “meanwhile”!), work was proceeding apace on the British edition, which actually, for the first time ever, comes out shortly before the American edition. London is quite a bit closer to France, and to Avignon; the U.K. publisher felt reasonably confident that Brits would know where Avignon was, and wouldn’t be put off by the pronunciation. So although we offered the revised U.S. title, the U.K. publisher, Quercus (publisher of the year last year!) chose to stick with the original title, <a href="http://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/book/The-Bones-of-Avignon-by-Jefferson-Bass-ISBN_9781849160629" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Bones of Avignon</i></a>. Their cover art took a more straightforward approach. It’s not really a spoiler to say that the main plot revolves around a momentous question: Could the ancient skeleton found hidden in the Palace of the Popes actually be the bones of Jesus, as the inscription on the stone box seems to suggest? “Lead with your trumps” goes one time-honored piece of card-playing advice, and in their cover design, the Brits followed that advice in spades.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #061018;">So, there you have it, <b>A Tale of Two Covers</b>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #061018;">But forget all that, and remember instead your initial, impulsive answer to the question at the top of the blog: Which of these two books would you pick up, and why? Please tell us; inquiring minds want to know!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>Jon Jeffersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14893670076052578345noreply@blogger.com46