ALTER EGO ALTERED
Bones is partly based on me and partly based on my books' character. On
TV, Temperance Brennan [played by Emily Deschanel] is a forensic
anthropologist who writes books in her spare time about a fictional
forensic anthropologist named... Kathy Reichs. You'll see more about
that in the upcoming season.
SCIENCE FICTION
I was uncomfortable writing my first book. I didn't talk about it at all
with my colleagues [at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte].
If you write fiction in a science department, you're a bit suspect. If
you do it in an English department, you're a hero. After the novel was
published, my university was supportive. They gave me a sabbatical — which
I'm still on nine years later.
FOR REPEAT'S SAKE
I could do anything in the first book. I created the characters, chose
the setting. In each one since, I have to reintroduce the characters in
a new way for first-time readers without boring return readers.
HER (EXTREMELY INTENSE) DAY JOB
I've seen a lot of violent deaths, and I've seen them in large
numbers — I've excavated a mass grave in Guatemala and worked at Ground
Zero. You have to stay objective, otherwise you can't do your job. On
the other hand, you never want to forget that these are human beings,
not just piles of bones or bloated corpses out of a river. It's the
cases that aren't solved that are hard to forget.
WITNESS PROTECTION
Because of the line of work I'm in and because I testify in court where
defendants generally don't like to hear what I'm saying, I prefer not to
speak about my private life and my family. I have had death threats.
HOUSE CALL
I've been invited to the White House in the fall for the National Book
Festival. Ten of us in the mystery-thriller genre are invited to a
black-tie event and a breakfast. Oh, my God. What am I going to wear?
I'm not a shopper. I want to have the clothes, I just don't want to have
to go through the process of getting them.
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