Kathy Reichs' Bones are Forever inspired by trip North

Writer and forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs is always balancing two Temperance Brennans.

There’s the younger Tempe of TV series Bones (played by Emily Deschanel) who works at the fictional Jeffersonian and the older, more damaged, Tempe of her book series, who divides her time between Montreal and North Carolina, much like Reichs herself.

As she wrote her 15th book in her best-selling series of crime novels, Bones are Forever, Reichs says she thought only about the Tempe she draws for her novels, and the challenge of developing her character over time. The character on Bones has a different story arc, taken on by a crew of scriptwriters based on her creation.

Reichs herself is still a practising forensic anthropologist and draws inspiration from real-life casework, including the infant homicide cases that inspired Bones are Forever.

In an interview with Radio-Canada reporter Kevin Sweet, she also reveals that a real trip to Yellowknife led her to a storyline in which Brennan must pursue a missing mother in the Canadian North. The transition from gold to diamond mining in Yellowknife is a key detail, she says.

Reichs talked about how she manages the demands of being both a forensic anthropologist and a writer and how she came to work with her son to write her young adult series Virals, featuring Brennan's 14-year-old niece.