The writing bug has bitten, and I'm prancing away at my notes and guidelines and outlines for NaNoWriMo. But a good writer (which I'm not) does research. And so in an effort to become a good writer, I wanted to do research myself. Without leaving my home. Or going to the library. Or stopping at a morgue. So.

I called The Body Farm.

And I spoke to Dr. William Bass, author of Death's Acre. He has worked with Patricia Cornwell and the like.

And he was very kind and very helpful and while I knew I was bugging him, I didn't get the feeling I was bugging him. He is a very warm person, and a very knowledgeable person, and he gets to talk about decay for a living. And he told me to call back anytime I needed more help.

So, I will share for you what I learned about decay:

• We decay faster in heat (I know, everyone knows this)
• We decay from the inside out, and scavengers work on the outside.
• We decay in one week on the surface, or on top of the ground. It takes two weeks for us to decay in water, and about eight weeks when we are buried.
• Flies are the first to come and start scavenging. If someone dies from a gunshot wound or a knife wound, flies will have a nice buffet and a body will go even faster. If there are no wounds present, the flies go for eyes, mouth, orifices...yeah. Okay, that's icky.
• Flies don't scavenge if it's 52 degrees Farenheit or colder.
• Rivers don't freeze in the South.
• Rivers used to freeze in the South, so I have to consider that for my novella.

I'm not going to say much else. A body, some water, and a story.
That's where I'm starting.