Shaun Meeks's Blog - Posts Tagged "death"
Down on the Farm...a peek
So, there have been a lot of people asking what Down on the Farm is all about. Some want to know if it's a short story, or a novella or a novel. Others -weirdly- wonder if it's a kids story.
Well, let me tell you.
First, the book is a novelette, which is in between a short story and a novella. It's about 11,000 words long, or 74 pages. That's why the print copy is only about $5 and digital is around $1.
Years ago I did some work for the city in the Coroner's Office. When I was there, I was part of the cleaning crew and body removal. Not the best job, but it was interesting to say the least. I'd been thinking about getting into forensics at the time and began to read up on it. One of the things I read about, was a place known as The Body Farm.
If you haven't read Down on the Farm yet, this is the central setting of the book. It's a place where doctors, scientists and anthropologists study death and decay. If that isn't enough to get you interested, here's the opening of the book:
"Her father had been a farmer. She remembered how his coarse hands felt on her cheeks when he would wipe away her tears and would tell her to “buck up, Kiddo” whenever she was hurt. That’s what he’d always called her. Kiddo. Never by her first name, Nadine, or what her friends or mom called her, which had been Naddie. To her dad, it was always Kiddo.
She missed him a lot, especially when she grabbed hold of her tools and went to her own farm. Not that the Farm where she worked actually belonged to her, but she was one of the heads there, so she always referred to it as though it were her own. After she had parked her car and had a quick coffee and muffin to get her through until lunch, she grabbed her tool kit and a camera and then headed over to the fenced off area that lead to the farm. She unlocked the padlocked gate and as soon as she stepped onto the grounds, she was welcomed by that old familiar scent.
Death.
Most people that visited the building close to the Farm never knew what lay beyond the gate where she worked with a team of doctors and anthropologists. Some had heard rumours of the work, and on hot days, the wind would carry the scent of their crops, which caused so many to wince. Unlike her dad’s farm, the Body Farm didn’t grow life, but housed the dead. At that moment, the Farm housed twelve bodies, all in different states of decay and with numerous variables added to them so the doctors could measure rates of decay better. One man was fully clothed in a track suit, while there was a woman nude, tucked into a plastic garbage can. There was a teenage boy clad in nothing but boxers and a wife beater partially buried under leaves and an elderly man that had been encased in a slab of concrete. Three nights before, one of the doctors had conducted fire tests on different body parts and Naddie could still smell the distinct odor of cooked flesh in the air."
Copyright © 2014 by Shaun Meeks
Down on the Farm is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.Down on the Farm
Well, let me tell you.
First, the book is a novelette, which is in between a short story and a novella. It's about 11,000 words long, or 74 pages. That's why the print copy is only about $5 and digital is around $1.
Years ago I did some work for the city in the Coroner's Office. When I was there, I was part of the cleaning crew and body removal. Not the best job, but it was interesting to say the least. I'd been thinking about getting into forensics at the time and began to read up on it. One of the things I read about, was a place known as The Body Farm.
If you haven't read Down on the Farm yet, this is the central setting of the book. It's a place where doctors, scientists and anthropologists study death and decay. If that isn't enough to get you interested, here's the opening of the book:
"Her father had been a farmer. She remembered how his coarse hands felt on her cheeks when he would wipe away her tears and would tell her to “buck up, Kiddo” whenever she was hurt. That’s what he’d always called her. Kiddo. Never by her first name, Nadine, or what her friends or mom called her, which had been Naddie. To her dad, it was always Kiddo.
She missed him a lot, especially when she grabbed hold of her tools and went to her own farm. Not that the Farm where she worked actually belonged to her, but she was one of the heads there, so she always referred to it as though it were her own. After she had parked her car and had a quick coffee and muffin to get her through until lunch, she grabbed her tool kit and a camera and then headed over to the fenced off area that lead to the farm. She unlocked the padlocked gate and as soon as she stepped onto the grounds, she was welcomed by that old familiar scent.
Death.
Most people that visited the building close to the Farm never knew what lay beyond the gate where she worked with a team of doctors and anthropologists. Some had heard rumours of the work, and on hot days, the wind would carry the scent of their crops, which caused so many to wince. Unlike her dad’s farm, the Body Farm didn’t grow life, but housed the dead. At that moment, the Farm housed twelve bodies, all in different states of decay and with numerous variables added to them so the doctors could measure rates of decay better. One man was fully clothed in a track suit, while there was a woman nude, tucked into a plastic garbage can. There was a teenage boy clad in nothing but boxers and a wife beater partially buried under leaves and an elderly man that had been encased in a slab of concrete. Three nights before, one of the doctors had conducted fire tests on different body parts and Naddie could still smell the distinct odor of cooked flesh in the air."
Copyright © 2014 by Shaun Meeks
Down on the Farm is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.Down on the Farm
