Travel with Jacqui Jacoby & Giveaway!

 

End Games

I’ve been traveling since I was a kid of about nine. My mom took me to Philadelphia to visit the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin. I was a history buff even back then having already read several children’s books on his life. Visiting him was more than my little heart could take. Ben’s grave is located against one of the walls. The bricks were removed and a fence installed so you could see him plain and clear. Now visiting cemeteries has never been on my creepy list. My mom asking me to lay down beside his grave to ‘see who was taller’ … okay, that crossed into the weird though for my whole life, I’ve been able to say I was taller than Mr. Franklin.



            Visiting graveyards is not as strange or morbid as it seems. I study the people I’m going to visit, learn about them. I read both Douglas Fairbanks Jr. biographies before taking him flowers.

            Three white carnations, three purple irises. No card. That’s my signature bouquet. I take them flowers to say thank you.

           And I have been doing this my whole life. I’ve crossed state lines, borders. My visit to Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris was one of the most amazing trips. However, that is a very bizarre location as it’s hundreds of years old and the ‘streets’ are lined with tiny mausoleums about the size of a phone booth. You walk those streets and you do look behind you to see who is following.

            I walked those streets to find Jim Morrison. Though not a huge Doors fan, I know his legendary stature. There was a police officer and a cat holding vigil by him.

            My kids had to out class me. They only wanted to see Chopin. And they did, taking him each a rose of a different color.

            Some of the older cemeteries I have been to do have history…that includes, in some cases, vampire rituals in the past in the night. Once I discovered  a collection of deceased pigeons who had been used for rituals.

            Not any of this plays into the Dead Men series or anything to do with Travis, Ian, Jason, Quinn or Evan. The vampires in the world I created do not hang out in cemeteries … though it might be fun to stand at some of my favorite spots in Hollywood Forever and ask Jason, “What do you think of that marker?”

            “Mine would have been cooler,” he would say.

            While Quinn would punch Jason’s shoulder and say “Computer geek. You would be lucky if they gave you a plaque.”

            I love history. I like to see the people who made it up, though most recently I’ve been spending time in Hollywood, California. My husband and I rent airbnb’s in the Hollywood Hills, some houses built in 1922 and sleep there wondering what happened in these walls? What happened to the people who made these places home?

            I have visited Marilyn Monroe dozens of times. Quinn would love to visit her as he is an old movie buff and can quote dialogue from her movies.

            Anton Yelchin is a close one to my heart. He was the same age as my son when a freak accident robbed us of his talent. I’ve spoken to both his parents while they keep daily watch over their only son. They have more class than anyone I have ever met.

Billy the Kid at Fort Sumner with PALS still carved along the top. My kids were into the old west.

            Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher, together forever, are about a 100 feet from Bill Paxton of AlienS fame. We really loved his “Game over man, game over.”

            Jason would like that angle as he loves Sci Fi.

            I stand in a cemetery, sometimes for research – Magic Man had a strong cemetery angle—and I feel at peace. I stand there to appreciate the people who made up our histories.

            Travis would want to visit the cemetery chapel to read a Catholic book and see the stained glass.

            Ian /Stuart would walk slowly with his hands in his pockets, reading the names and imagining the people who had died when he was so young.

            Evan would chase the ducks.

            For me, traveling through states or other world places is a license to look into the history of where we are going and see who to visit.  Next August we’re going to Springfield, Illinois to meet Mr. Lincoln.  And in my pocket, I’ll be carrying my Dead Men. It’s the only way they get to travel that distance.

           

About the Author Jacqui Jacoby



Award-winning author, Jacqui Jacoby lives and writes in the beauty of Northern Arizona. Currently adjusting to being an empty nester with her first grandchild to draw her pictures, Jacqui is a self-defense hobbyist. Having studied martial arts for numerous years she retired in 2006 from the sport, yet still brings strength she learned from the discipline to her heroines. She is a working writer, whose career includes writing books, teaching online and live workshops and penning short nonfiction.

 

 

 

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Travis Ricci, Ian Stuart, Jason Sullivan, Quinn Nelson and Evan Harris—before the Dead Men debuted in Dead Men Play the Game, these five guys had lives which took them across the Pacific Northwest, making their own history which could be no one's, but their own.
          They faced funny, they faced sadness, and they made sure each one of them was standing when the sun finally rose each day.

 

 

 

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