Nom de Plume...
I was told very bluntly and at some length that Raven Morrison was an awful name to write under if I was doing fiction. (It was goth, it was sooo last century, it was pretentious, it's been done before.) I was heavily encouraged to chose a new name, with a further ten reasons listed why I should.
I was somewhat indignant at first. (After all, it's my bloody name, I've had it commonly since I was fifteen and legally since I was 25.) Queue:
DANFORTH: Then explain to me, Mr. Proctor, why you will not let-
PROCTOR: Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!
But then I considered that actually, I've had lots of names, and I can have as many or as few as I damn well choose. There's been Emma, E, EJ, Raven, Corvid, Wraith, Spinnyone, Mal, Witch, Bean, Kee... What's one more?
So I rather saw it more like this:
Withnail: Hello? ... How dare you? *slams down phone* Fuck you! *storms out of phonebox* The bastard asked me to understudy Constantine in The Seagull. I don't want to understudy anybody, especially that little pimp. Anyway, I loathe those Russian plays. Always full of women staring out of windows, whining about ducks going to Moscow... What do you think of Desmond Wolfe?
Marwood: In respect of what?
Withnail: I'm thinking of changing my name.
Marwood: It's too like Donald Wolfit.
So I spent a chunk of last night making lists of first and last names and then pairing them up and writing them out like a lovesick schoolgirl.
I really liked Eithne, only being Celtic it's pronounced 'AYEN-ya' and I'd never remember that. Morrigan I love, but it would no doubt be looked at askance for the same reasons as Raven. Morgane I couldn't find the right surname for. Brenna I toyed with (it means crow). Valene I liked a lot, although I'm probably the only person who pronounces it VallenAY, so that's problematic.
Surnames were the usual lot - Carlyle, Morrison, Hayes, Murphy, Mortimer with a few extra and sarcastic ones like Hyde and Agrace thrown into the mix.
My favourite by far was Valene Agrace, but she sounds like a character in her own right and not a mere author, so I ended up with Lana Morgan. Lana was the elder sister of Hayes Murphy (patron saint of assassins and gothic screw-ups). And Morgan makes me think of pirates and of Holliday's friend Morgan Earp. Plus it's a letter away from Morgane.
I'm not wild about it as a new mask - it's made too deliberately and it hasn't enough flare. But the Mad Author Lady wanted to send off my stories NOW so I had to cobble something together in a hurry.
I was somewhat indignant at first. (After all, it's my bloody name, I've had it commonly since I was fifteen and legally since I was 25.) Queue:
DANFORTH: Then explain to me, Mr. Proctor, why you will not let-
PROCTOR: Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!
But then I considered that actually, I've had lots of names, and I can have as many or as few as I damn well choose. There's been Emma, E, EJ, Raven, Corvid, Wraith, Spinnyone, Mal, Witch, Bean, Kee... What's one more?
So I rather saw it more like this:
Withnail: Hello? ... How dare you? *slams down phone* Fuck you! *storms out of phonebox* The bastard asked me to understudy Constantine in The Seagull. I don't want to understudy anybody, especially that little pimp. Anyway, I loathe those Russian plays. Always full of women staring out of windows, whining about ducks going to Moscow... What do you think of Desmond Wolfe?
Marwood: In respect of what?
Withnail: I'm thinking of changing my name.
Marwood: It's too like Donald Wolfit.
So I spent a chunk of last night making lists of first and last names and then pairing them up and writing them out like a lovesick schoolgirl.
I really liked Eithne, only being Celtic it's pronounced 'AYEN-ya' and I'd never remember that. Morrigan I love, but it would no doubt be looked at askance for the same reasons as Raven. Morgane I couldn't find the right surname for. Brenna I toyed with (it means crow). Valene I liked a lot, although I'm probably the only person who pronounces it VallenAY, so that's problematic.
Surnames were the usual lot - Carlyle, Morrison, Hayes, Murphy, Mortimer with a few extra and sarcastic ones like Hyde and Agrace thrown into the mix.
My favourite by far was Valene Agrace, but she sounds like a character in her own right and not a mere author, so I ended up with Lana Morgan. Lana was the elder sister of Hayes Murphy (patron saint of assassins and gothic screw-ups). And Morgan makes me think of pirates and of Holliday's friend Morgan Earp. Plus it's a letter away from Morgane.
I'm not wild about it as a new mask - it's made too deliberately and it hasn't enough flare. But the Mad Author Lady wanted to send off my stories NOW so I had to cobble something together in a hurry.