News

We have a winner for our give-Jason-a-stage-name contest. Ripley is the winning name. There were a lot of good entries, and some that were a little too tongue in cheek to seriously consider. There were also some names sent in that were used for other characters, some minor, but definitely not a name Jason would have chosen. Example: Simon. Simon is mentioned only once but he was the head of the wolf pack before Marcus, who killed Simon to be Ulfric. So, Jason who would have known that and would never have chosen the name. Bad politics.
So some names were minor character names, so couldn’t be used. Some were names of my younger cousins and nephews. That sort of creeped me, because of the whole sexual content thing. Sorry, about that all you guys who picked those names, however unwittingly. But a surprising number of the names are actually already being used in BLOOD NOIR. My hand to God, Lucian is a vampire stripper in this book. So the people who sent it in as a choice for Jason’s stage name, well, I guess you and I were thinking the same way. There’s also a new character named Alex, short for Alexander. Again, all you who sent in that choice, sorry, but again, you and I must be thinking along the same lines. Thorn is a character that I cut out of DANSE MACABRE, but I’m hoping to use him down the road. So, the one person who sent that in as a choice, sorry, but I’ve got plans for that name. Keith is a sort of bad guy in BLOOD NOIR. Again, what are the odds that so many of the names in this new book are choices you guys are sending in? Weird.
There were several names, actually, that I’ve got up on sticky note as characters down the road, but none that I’m sure of that actually were on stage then got cut except Thorn.
So, congratulations to our winner. You will get a signed hard cover of BLOOD NOIR, and written up as our winner in the acknowledgements.
Okay, me again. I wrote the above a little while back, then had to rethink it. Why?
Because Ripley is not one of the names you guys sent in; Ridley is. But remember that whole I am dyslexic thing? I switched the ‘d’ to a ‘p’, and got the whole Alien reference. I mean Ridley Scott did direct Alien, but it is a different name. So Ripley it is, but, technically no one sent that name in as a possibility. So, what to do?
If the fan who sent Ridley in had not sent it, would I have come up with Ripley? Maybe, maybe not. So what we’ve decided to do is give the person who sent in Ridley the win, but technically, nobody won. It’s one letter off, and apparently that day I couldn’t see it. Sorry. The fan who sent in Ridley can say that he, or she, inspired me to come up with the name Ripley.
Even as I write this, I’m still dithering. The copyedits give me a chance to change the name. Should I? Skylar was a pretty strong contender, especially when I figured out that it’s an Anglicized version of Jason’s last name. Kudos to the person who figured that out, you’re smart. But then I often think that about my fans. You guys keep me on my toes.
I’ve taken an informal survey of the women that work here, and asked which name works for stripping. One thought Ripley referenced ripping clothes off. Another thought it referred to ripped abs. We have three votes for Ripley, and a Skylar would do, but they prefer the other. But, in the end, they know it will come down to me. What works for me? No, what works for Jason? I think Ripley, because as he says in, BLOOD NOIR, “Sigourney Weaver is so hot.” She’s a little tall for my tastes, but I guess if you’re a boy and Anita’s height, as Jason is, you better like taller women. Average height for women is now officially, 5′ 6″. Wow, should I feel short?