Official press page for Jeanne D'Aout's novel "White Lie" about the secret of the Knights Templar, the life and times of relic hunter Otto Rahn and the enigma of Rennes-le-Chateau.
Happy New Year everybody! Immediately we start with some updates on the book front: the new 2013 updates of both the hard copy and the eBook version of White Lie are now for sale at Amazon! The eBook version for Nook, Kobo, Sony etc. is also available (see www.jeannedaout.com).
On IMDb
I now also have my own IMDb page (International Movie Database). Just click on the link and google "Jeanne D'Aout". With the "Raiders of the Lost Past" done, I am looking forward to doing more work for documentary and film projects to promote this region and its fascinating unknown history.
Discover Occitania (group tour)
We are also proud to announce the first official WHITE LIE TOUR in 2013, a group tour through southern Occitania with me as your guide. The tour will be organized by Barinca Travel (SARL and member of the APT - Ambassadeurs Professionnels du Tourisme). For more information, click here.
I am very much looking forward to my trip to the States in February 2013, where I will be promoting not just the book but most of all the message that I am trying to convey. I am also hoping to find a literary agent who can represent me in the film world.
I'll be available for interviews, so do contact me as soon as possible if you want to make an appointment. In my previous blog below you will find the dates and places.
Hope to see you in the States or in France!
Warm hugs from Occitania!
February 18th to 21st: Los Angeles
February 22nd to 26th: Las Vegas
February 27th to March 3rd: New Jersey/New York
If you would like to meet Jeanne (e.g. for an interview), you can make an appointment with Jeanne directly: E-mail: books@jeannedaout.com.
For literary agents, press, media and production companies: Free eBooks, the synopsis for a possible movie based on "White Lie" as well as a treatment for a documentary on the historical topics of the story, can be requested at books@jeannedaout.com.
Many people have requested the direct link to the documentary "Himmler and the Holy Grail" for which Jeanne was interviewed. It aired on the British television a few weeks ago.
"I am excited to inform you all that since the release of my book "White Lie" several thousands of readers from all over the world have read my little story! I have done a number of interviews for TV documentaries and radio shows, I've written a chapter for a new book on the Cathars, and on February 18th, 2013 I will fly to the US on a Coast to Coast tour, which will bring me to Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York City for meetings, a talk show and other activities! I am very much looking forward to this adventure!
"White Lie" has always been written as a pre-script, hoping that one day a fabulous screenwriter and an amazing producer & director will pick it up and develop the story for the big white screen. Although this is still my dream and I am working very hard to fulfill it, I am, however, thrilled to see so many people around the world enjoying the book, and asking me to write a sequel. So, I am happy to tell you that I am currently doing some research for the sequel to "White Lie", which will hopefully bring me to Jordan. It will again deal with a big enigma and forgotten history.
It was great meeting several of my readers this year and I'm hoping to meet many more in 2013! In the meantime, do follow me on Facebook (Jeanne D'Août), where I share my latest news and adventures! Bye for now!"
Jeanne***
Special eBook Edition
The special eBook edition of "White Lie" is now available! Click HERE to order your copy for only US$ 2.99! (Nook, Kindle, Sony Reader, etc.)
Las Vegas Talk Show Event
Would you like to be part of my live audience at the Sandie Sedgbeer talk show on Saturday, February 23rd, 2013 in Las Vegas? I'm going live between 11:00 and 14:00 hours. Location: The La Quinta Inn, 3970 South Paradise Road, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hope to see you there!
On Radio Out There!
Click HERE to listen to my interview on Radio Out There!
On UK TV
I'm in the documentary "Himmler and the Holy Grail" on the Yesterday Channel on Friday 7th December 2012 at 21:00 hrs UK time.
Contribution for The Cathar View
The Cathar View is a new book on the Cathars written by 25 contributors who live in the area. I am one of the contributors. More information can be found on this website: www.thecatharview.com
We are very happy to announce the release of the Amazon Kindle version of "White Lie"! After many requests for an e-book version this is the first step to making this fascinating story available for your e-reader.
The truth is out there and it is much more unbelievable than fiction. Thirty years ago, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ exploded at the box office. The adventures of Indiana Jones were pure fantasy but the man he was based on was very real. His name was Otto Rahn.
- The Real Indiana Jones…
- Where the Da Vinci Code stopped…
- Mysterious coincidences
- The Knights Templar’s Secret Quest
- Grail Lore redefined
- The Cathars, the Grail and fairy tales
- The mystical message of ‘White Lie’
The Real Indiana Jones…
Indiana Jones is a pop-culture phenomenon - Spielberg saw to that - making the charismatic relic hunter, who was willing to risk life and limb to outsmart the Nazi’s and beat them to discovering the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail, impossible to forget. Was Indy pure fiction?
Not quite.
'White Lie’ is a story about forbidden history, hidden relics and the adventures of a group of people who get involved in something much bigger than themselves. It combines the mission of the Knights Templar - the warrior monks who legends claim discovered a sacred treasure beneath Solomon’s Temple - with the relic hunter Otto Rahn. Rahn’s search for the Holy Grail in the years leading up to WWII chronicled in his book ‘Crusade Against the Grail’ brought him to the attention of Heinrich Himmler. Eventually, Rahn himself became a victim of the Nazi regime, and in ‘White Lie’ he gets to tell his real story. Many respected researchers believe Otto Rahn was the role model for Indiana Jones...
Where the Da Vinci Code stopped…
Jeanne D’Aout has a bit of Indy in her, too. Fascinated by unraveling mysteries at a young age, she settled in a mysterious part of southern France where she befriended author Henry Lincoln, the man whose work inspired Dan Brown to write the Da Vinci Code. Becoming a tour guide in the region, she happened upon many incredible clues that would lead to her amazing discoveries and create the basis for her new book, ‘White Lie’, which is about finding the true Grail.
The success of the Da Vinci Code showed that the world was ready to explore what other parts of history have been hidden from us all. What Dan Brown did for the Bloodline legend, Jeanne D’Août hopes to do for the original teachings of Jesus. Jeanne has made it her life’s work to uncover what was once hidden, connect the dots and with solid research, risk–taking and rolling up her sleeves to bring its fascinating story to light.
She simply continued where the Da Vinci Code stopped...
Mysterious coincidences
Digging for the truth behind the real Otto Rahn, Jeanne read everything available on the subject and talked to people who knew him personally. Stumbling upon an amazing documentary called ‘The Secret Glory’, produced by filmmaker Richard Stanley, Jeanne felt he was someone she had to speak with. It was clear that Richard was an expert on Rahn, the man and his mission, and had gained access to those who knew him best. Mr. Stanley, however, proved virtually impossible to find.
One day, as luck would have it, a friend invited Jeanne to come to Montségur, a mysterious mountain in the South of France. He knew of someone who could show her one of the caves that Otto Rahn visited frequently. Her tour guide, however, turned out to be the elusive filmmaker Richard Stanley himself.
Later, Mr. Stanley generously opened up his Rahn archive to Jeanne, which allowed her to complete White Lie and tell the true story of Otto Rahn, the relic hunter that would one day become the role model for Indiana Jones.
The Knights Templar’s Secret Quest
From 1129 to 1307, the Knights Templar fought fiercely alongside the Crusaders to conquer Jerusalem and take back the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Templars, however, had a second agenda; a secret quest which would later create the far-reaching and romantic myth that they had actually found the Ark of the Covenant beneath Solomon’s Temple. But was it simply a myth, or could there be some truth behind it? ‘White Lie’ looks beyond the myth, following historical clues which would eventually lead to great discoveries.
Grail Lore redefined
The period between the 11th and 14th century was a violent time: the age of the crusades, of wars and plagues. Because life was so bleak during this time, people tended to hold on to their beliefs in the supernatural to give them hope, like the relic of a saint or the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, especially the tale of Parsifal and the Grail. In this atmosphere, the Grail legends were born. Grail lore was popular because it was a means to hold on to dreams, hope and the possibilities of miracles in a medieval Europe where life itself was hard and short.
The travelling minstrels called the Troubadours were popular all over Europe and especially in the southern provinces of France. They sang of courtly love and chivalry. Thanks to them, the Grail legends were spread all over Europe through their songs. The first story of Parsifal and the Grail and the Wounded Fisher King was told by troubadour Guiot de Provence sometime in the 12th century. Then it was copied and shaped by Chretien de Troyes and only a few decades later by the German writer Wolfram von Eschenbach. Centuries later, Otto Rahn became enamored with the Grail myth and believed there was more to the story than a minstrels song. He felt they were very real and set out to find proof.
The Cathars, the Grail and fairy tales
Otto Rahn followed the Grail path to the south of France, in one hand holding the Parsifal story by Wolfram von Eschenbach and in the other the story of the Cathars of Occitania. To Rahn, the Cathar Castle of Montségur was the Grail castle Montsalvasche from the Parsifal story, and the Cathars themselves were the legendary guardians of the Grail. But instead of a physical Grail, Otto found something much more profound and life-altering. The female principle had been lost since the beginning of Christianity, because from that moment on, God would be seen as a male diety. This original belief in a God that was both divinely male and female has always been guarded by storytellers, artists, painters, sculptors, masons and many secret brotherhoods throughout the centuries, hidden cleverly in paintings, sculptures, architecture and most profoundly in fairy tales.
Otto found out that this lost female principle of God is the true Grail, kept alive in the Hermetic Teachings and by those who had chosen to hold on to a much older form of Christianity. One of these groups, the Cathars, known as the ‘pure ones’, were burned at the stake by the church for these beliefs. Many centuries later, Rahn was transformed by what he had learned and counted himself a believer. His patrons, however, wanted a physical grail and the power it was purported to hold. A relic Rahn just could not find…
The mystical message of ‘White Lie’
Eventually, the path of the author has led her to write ‘White Lie’, weaving these seemingly separate subjects into one big adventurous web. But the book also contains a mystical message for the reader to discover...
The ‘Da Vinci Code’, ‘Angels and Demons’ and ‘The Lost Symbol’ spent many weeks on the NY Times Bestseller list proving there is a critical mass curious about what has been hidden and fiction has proven a clever way to present the facts.
L.J. Marini - New York
“Throughout the ages, good and bad have always fought. The black army against the white army, millennium after millennium, believing that the world would end at some point in time. But what is it all about? Not religion or politics. Not power or possession. It is about conduct. About choice. Love knows no religion, race or politics, for it rules the realm of the heart. The Universe bends because of Love, and the Earth kneels before it, for Love is God.” – Jeanne D’Août
“White Lie reveals more shocking truths than any book since The Da Vinci Code, including the identity of the real Indiana Jones. It would not surprise if it was adapted for the big screen soon.” - Andrew Gough, Writer, TV Personality and Editor in Chief of Mindscape Magazine
On camera The author is available for interviews and documentaries.
Jeanne has already been interviewed for many radio shows, a TV documentary and a live TV talk show. There are many stunning locations in southern France. Jeanne knows many fabulous places and can help any film crew to get the best shots. We also have a ground operator to help organize film trips (transportation, accommodation, meals, logistics) and have the possibility to open doors (churches and other places that are normally closed to the public).
