by Betty Dravis

Happy Halloween from the latest star in cyberspace–the skeleton on the cover of our Six-Pack of Blood!

Before formally announcing the name of our “baby boy” skeleton and the contest winner, my co-author Barbara Watkins and I would like to announce that this is your last chance for three months to get a FREE copy of Six-Pack of Blood. Yes, my friends, our six-horror-stories anthology is FREE on OCTOBER 27th, 28th and 29th. Pick yours up at  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007Q7FG68/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_alp_GwjEpb0DVJ6RQ  While there, we’d appreciate it if you’d push the LIKE button and consider taking an extra second to Tweet it. Amazon makes it easy to help its authors. :-)

Now bear with me while I tell you the latest news about our skeleton’s name and how he got it.

When Barbara Watkins and I wrote this book we had no idea our cover boy, designed by Matt and Danielle Drake, would be so popular…or that we would feel so much affection for him. He’s an ugly little ghoul, as monsters that grace covers of horror books are meant to be. (Please don’t tell Barbara I said that.)

Barbara surprised me when she began calling him our “baby boy of horror,” speaking of him as though he were our baby. I joined right in and he “grew on us” just as a child would do…well, almost. (You know how real-life mothers think their children are the most beautiful and gifted in the world? Well, that’s how we talked about that bony critter on our cover! And I blush to admit we even baby-talk to him. You know, like Goo-goo, Ga-ga… Ugh!)

Overlooking the fact that he’s just a bag of bones and all skeletons look alike, we love that cover boy (monster or no monster). Could it be because the book he adorns is sprinkled with stardust by so many acclaimed people: Movie Director/Producers Armand Mastroianni and Dimi Nakov, Actress/Producer Katherin Kovin Pacino, Screenwriter Lia Scott Price, Amazon Hall of Fame Top Reviewer Grady Harp, Publicist Paul Payer, Authors John Locke, Janet Beasley and more?

Or is it because this book made international best-sellers of Barbara and me (No. 1 in Horror, U.S.; No. 2 in Occult, Germany; No. 34, Horror, UK)?

Whatever the reasons, over time we came to care for our poor, sweet skeleton with the hole in his brain… We tried to come up with a name for him, but just couldn’t do him justice, so we decided to ask our Facebook friends for help.

On August 16th I wrote a blog, requesting your participation in a “skeleton-naming contest” with the winner winning all e-books published by me and Barbara. To our delight, you eagerly submitted sixty-eight names. We couldn’t believe how versatile and creative you all are. I won’t list all sixty-eight, but you would ROTFLYAO if you read them. Instead I’ll explain how Barbara and I selected the ultimate name:

We each chose five that we liked best and decided to chat on the phone about those names. The five I favored (in order of preference) are: James Bones, Bone Wild, Indiana Bones, Bone-Chilling Bobby and Bloody Johnny. Barbara favored these: James Bones, Jack Marrow, Rib Van Winkle, Bone-Chilling Bobby, Mr. E. Bon-E-Fide.

From that list, it’s easy to see we both favored James Bones and Bone-Chilling Bobby. I told Barbara I could picture our boy bowing as he repeats that famous James Bond introductory line. So even though we agreed on James Bones, we decided to seek his opinion. When he read our narrowed-down list, his bones rattled from laughing so hard when he came to Bone Wild, Indiana Bones, Bone-Chilling Bobby and all the ones referring to Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow character. But when he came to Catherine Zeta-Bones he would’ve split a gut by laughing so hard–if he had any guts left, that is.

We knew he had chosen right, though, when our endearing skeleton stood, bowed suavely before us and said, “My name is Bones… James Bones.”

And when he grabbed a top-hat and joined me and Barbara in the Happy Dance, we puffed up with pride… Like mothers, like son? :-)

Congratulations to long-time Canadian friend Pierre Anthony Tremblay for submitting the winning name for James Bones! He wins copies of all of mine and Barbara’s e-books. Happy reading, eh?

So there you have it! Our baby boy now has the distinguished name of James Bones. Oddly enough, the name was one of the last to be submitted and it came from Pierre Alexandre Tremblay of Canada. Congratulations, Pierre. Please send me your e-mail address so we can get copies of all our e-books gifted to you from Amazon. (Send it to bettydravis@gmail.com) and I’ll forward it to Barbara too.

And that’s not all, folks! Since Joanna Lee Doster, author of Maximum Speed: Pushing the Limit, sent in eighteen names, she deserves honorary mention. With that in mind, we are each presenting one book to her. Please check our list of books on our Amazon Author Central pages to choose one from each of us, Joanna. Let us know your choices and we will then send to you via Amazon.

Happy reading to Pierre in Canada and Joanna in New York…and thanks to everyone who entered, making this the most fun contest I’ve ever had.

Author Joanna Lee Doster with her special dog Jumping Jack Flash who has performed in three New York Metropolitan operas.

And how do you like my enhancement of the Jack Black bottles; just had to put our boy”s name on the bottles for a bit of Halloween fun. (Note my skeleton rings in various colors,) :-) HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

And one more for the road: Wanted to show you the bottles and the rings up close. You like?

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