If it had been up to my parents, you'd soon be reading a novel called
TOUCHING THE SURFACE by an author named Kelly Sabatini. Now--all you girls named Kelly out there--it's a great name. Wear it with pride. I love the name for YOU--it's just not the right name for me. Now granted, if the neighbors who lived in our apartment building when I was born, had had a dog named Bruno, instead of a German Shepard named Kelly then I'd likely be a Kelly and be none the wiser. Odds are, that I would have led a well adjusted life, completely oblivious to the fact that I'd be short a Wednesday blog post forty something years later. *grin*
But... even when I was a little kid and my parents told me the whole dog/name story, I always breathed a little sigh of relief. I couldn't help but think that I'd been a little too close to spending my whole life with the wrong name. I'm sensitive that way and Kellypoppins just doesn't have the same effect as Kimmiepoppins. *Phew*
My name had other benefits too. Growing up, I always classified other people by the name that they called me by. If someone walked up and addressed me Kimmie--I just figured that we were related. My family called me Kimmie--they still do. And the rest of the world just called me Kim. I've always liked both names so, it's never been an issue. The only problem was that I also secretly liked my other name--Kimberly--but no one ever used it. I guess I'm just surrounded by nick-namey people. But I like that. It makes me feel loved. Even so, it never stopped me from also wanting to use my "full title", so to speak. At one point in elementary school, I thought about making a public announcement that everyone should call me by Kimberly, but honestly I wasn't that gutsy. Or convinced that I could handle a more "sophisticated" name. So, I came up with a plan. I decided that I would sign all my writing with the name Kimberly. It would be my author name and someday I would use it on the cover of the book I would write. I started to address myself as Kimberly in my diary and I began to sign all my writing the same way...
You can really see where my tendency to write dark, dramatic material started. *snicker*
It wasn't too long ago when my agent,
Michelle Wolfson and my editor
Anica Rissi asked me if I would be using Kim or Kimberly on the cover of my book. For just the briefest minute, I thought about using Kim, because I'll be honest, I'm still not used to people calling me Kimberly out loud. Sometimes I even look over my shoulder to see if they're talking to me LOL! But then I remembered my dreams and I figure they were big enough to carry me along during those years when I forgot what I was wishing for...
What name would you put on the cover of your book?