What's in a name?

[frost_light]

A watcher emailed these questions in, and since there are a few FFF members with pen names (and maybe more than I'm aware of), I thought it made for an interesting discussion. So, here are the questions

Comments

[anywherebeyond]

I'm using my own name for Shadowed Summer, and I have two other books planned that are similar genre/age range, for which I'll also use my name. However, I have one book in revisions and another planned, which are older, more contemporary, and lacking any magical realism at all, and I think I'm going to ask my agent to shop those under a pseudonym. I know I'm trying to build a brand in myself right now, and I think it's worth it to have the freedom of two different names, for the two different kinds of texts that interest me.

-Saundra Mitchell

[jackiekessler]

Jackie Kessler's my real (married) name. It's my real name because damn it, I'm proud of what I write, and I love seeing my name on the cover of a book

[swan_tower]

I use a pen name because my legal name, Bryn Neuenschwander -- well, that's really all I have to say, isn't it? Nobody can spell or pronounce it, and people often mistake "Bryn" for "Bryan" and therefore expect me to be a guy. I've known since I was ten that I would be writing under a pen name.

As for how I chose Marie Brennan -- Marie is my middle name, and "Brennan" came out of Bryn + N. I wanted something that was still "my name," just rearranged.

[rj_anderson]

Oh, but I have to say -- what a beautiful name! Your real one, I mean.

[swan_tower]

But nobody can reproduce it. They recognize it when they see it again, but ask them two weeks later what it was, and all they know is that it was really long. And that it started with an N.

Unless you mean just my first name, in which case, scratch the part about it being long and starting with an N. :-)

(Thanks for the compliment, though.)

[rj_anderson]

Well, I especially like the Bryn part, but the Neueschwander (if I got that anywhere near right, I can proudly say it was by memory; if I got it wrong, I will leave it uncorrected to the proof of your point) has a music of its own.

[stacia_kane]

I initially started using a pen name because I was writing (and still do write) erotic romance, and didn't want to do that under my own name, given that our last name isn't common and my husband...well, he works a regular job, and I didn't think he needed to have his coworkers reading excerpts out loud during lunch. :-)

When I started writing UF I knew I would need a different name for the same reason Jackie listed above--I don't want readers thinking they're getting something they're not. Two different genres, two different names. I don't hide the connection at all, but I don't want people to get confused as to why Stacia's books are suddenly so explicit or why December's are not.

[b_sheridan]

Sheridan is a pen name though the Barbara is all mine ^_^

My legal name is a mishmash of consonants thanks to the Polish heritage and my married name was already taken by a multipublished mystery author--Barbara Parker (which I didn't find out until I'd published my first short stories in small press 'zines way back in the day).

~Barbara Sheridan