Countdown to My Zombie Wedding Release - Day Five!

This is the story of how Edward’s ex-boyfriend, Bone, came to be. Back when the idea was to make My Zombie Boyfriend as a web comic, my wife and I wanted Edward to have an associate who worked in the morgue. Makes sense—necromancers need bodies. The web comic didn’t make it much past Edward resurrecting Kit—my fault—but we had a character design and even a few sketches for the proto-Bone (and another character, who, with slight modifications as to gender and relationship to Mariel, will be introduced in My Zombie Wedding).

Years passed. My Zombie Boyfriend demanded I write it, in novel form. The original manuscript was just over 50,000 words, and then I started publishing short stories and got distracted. By the time I was ready to look at it again, the publisher’s minimum word count for novels had gone up to 60,000 words. I needed to add...something. Lots of it.

Enter Bone.

I didn’t anticipate that he’d be such a fan favourite, but him getting such overwhelmingly positive feedback definitely helped shape his role in My Zombie Wedding—and it’s a big one. Bone fans, eat your hearts out. (Or you can eat one of Bone’s—he has two).

My wife and I knew from the beginning that Bone wasn’t human, or at least not entirely, but we never really fleshed out (heh) what he actually was.

I didn’t know. Bone wasn’t telling me. Typical. So I left it vague in My Zombie Boyfriend, and waited. Thought about tracking down my demonology book and seeing if anything jumped out at me.

After it had been published, my wife was rereading My Zombie Boyfriend when she pointed out something interesting to me—how Bone addresses Edward. I thought I’d had Bone call Edward ‘Ed’ consistently, mostly just to be a dick, but she noticed several key instances where Bone actually uses Edward’s full name. She thought I’d done it on purpose (which I wish I could say I had, but I can’t. She’s always finding these happy accidents in my writing). It made her think of the fey, and the importance of names—especially true names.

Speaking of true names: Bone tells Edward that his real name is Boniface but he hates being called that and prefers going by Bone, but that’s just a cover. In reality, the opposite is true—Bone (or rather, Bein, which is Bone in Icelandic) is his actual name, Boniface is just what he uses for show when it comes to humans.

So. I knew Bone was some sort of fey creature, but not what. That’s a big place to start. Before I got out my book on demonology or Faeries by Brian Froud (a book that scared me shitless the first time I read it as a hapless nine year old, when one of my mother’s ex-girlfriends gifted it to me, along with Gnomes and Giants. Probably warped my brain forever) I started writing My Zombie Fiancé and that took me in an entirely new direction—Icelandic magic.

Without giving too much away - you'll have to read My Zombie Wedding to find out exactly what Bone is - let's just say that guided me toward finally reaching an accord with Bone about what on Earth he is. We're both very happy, and we hope you will be, too. If you have a theory about what he might be before the book comes out, I'd love to hear it!

Learn more about the Undead Canadian Series here.

Subscribe to my mailing list for 25% off My Zombie Wedding

* indicates required

Email Address  *

First Name 

Last Name 

Day Four