Betty Dravis

1106 Grand Boulevard is a marginally fictionalized chronicle of the life and loves of Billie Jean Sloan, the author's big sister. The story begins when Billie Jean, as a tender young teen, runs away to Kentucky to marry the love of her life, Cal, who is seven years her senior. Even though they love each other wholeheartedly, their vast age gap makes communication difficult, and Cal becomes abusive. After he draws a gun to threaten her and it goes off, wounding her, she ends up in the hospital. Her parents refuse to let him near her, and begin legal proceedings to annul the marriage. This all happens right at the beginning of the book!
What Ms. Dravis has done, with 1106 Grand Boulevard, is to take the extraordinary life of her sister, embellish and spin her magic on it, and make it a wonderful story of hardship, suffering, family, passion, deceit, and wonder. Whether you believe any or all of it is irrelevant, this book is truly an amazing journey of growth, which ultimately made me alternately want to BE the main character, then thank God that I'm not.… (meer)

In Saving the GPS Lady, Betty Dravis is at her satirical finest! While the basis of this story is corny as heck, it elicits a wide range of emotion from the reader. From astonished disbelief at the mention of real people being the voices of GPS boxes (or at least the female voices) to the warm fuzziness felt at the envelopment of the lavender mist, I've even felt fear and yearning, right along with these characters. The Snack , Betty's crazy mind again, is a super creepy, super short story which preys on my fears: first, as a parent, the fear of having something bad happen to your kid; and second, a childhood fear of gingerbread men (which ran the gamut from worrying that I was hurting them, to thinking the story, "run, run, as fast as you can..." Was creepy as heck).
Switching Genres (Betty Dravis is the queen!) was freaky in a way that only a woman in power can make you feel. I despise having women in authoritative positions (over me) be it high school principal, boss at a low-paying job (notice, I qualified that, as BOTH of my current bosses are women, but they pay really well, and are super nice) men are much easier to manipulate, and women can be scary as hell! As a Democratic Woman, I STILL didn't vote for Hillary in the primaries... The Devil House by Barbara Watkins : I should NOT have read this right after dinner...fear level is high (don't go into the haunted house!) and nasty ("dropping to her knees, she vomited until there was nothing left in her stomach"-- ewww!) and yet more scary, ( are you kidding me? Don't go down there!!!) I liked the way she wrapped it up (but I'm not gonna share, because that would be spoiling!). In One Scandalous Night in Vegas ( oh, I've had some of those, lol!), Barbara Watkins shows us a MAN'S worst nightmare! Candy, a Vegas showgirl, tells Nick, a one night stand from a month ago, that she's pregnant with his kid. And that is just the beginning! The Stranger (Barbara W) : just, oh my gosh !!! Scary, suspenseful, faith-altering short story genius!!! In conclusion, these ladies are both super-talented authors, who I would be proud to call Friend. Xo… (meer)