Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

I wanted a pen name because I read somewhere that romance novels are popular with men in prison. Originally I used Kate Racy for my adult novels and Beige Racy for my teen novels, but my agent made me change them. Imagine! Starting over, I decided to stick with my real given name, Jennifer, so that if someone calls to me at an RWA conference, I will turn around. I gave my agent a list of family names, and she chose Echols. It did not occur to me to Google myself beforehand, but now it turns out I had a supporting role as a nurse in The Notebook.

Since my name (Sonja) is not really pronouncable by the general public (at least the non-Norweigan general public), I’d have to go with pen name. My friend Skye, on the other hand, came ready-made with a great romance novelist name. I think it just depends on what your parents gave you to work with. :-)

Sabrina Jeffries chose a J last name because her agent told her something about “J magic” wherein books by authors with a J at the beginning of either their first or last names (Julia Quinn, example) seemed to fly off the shelves.

My chosen pen name (if I ever get published- ha)is Ramona Norwood. Where’d I get it? It’s my porn star name. (Name of first pet + name of the street where you grew up.)

I chose mine because “Dahl” is the only part of my real name that’s even close to being cute or sexy. My real last name wouldn’t sell shit. And, yes, I had my name picked out years before I really started writing. Anyone else?

I chose a pen name for prosaic reasons--my real name is well known in certain SF circles, and if I ever write a SF novel I wanted to have that name in reserve.  Sometimes publishers insist on different names for different genres, or the author does it to denote different genres, i.e. J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts, Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle/Jayne Ann Krentz.

But it was easy picking a pen name.  I just pulled my middle and my husband’s middle name together to see how they’d sound, and it worked.

I don’t find that writing as “Darlene Marshall” frees up my inner smut muse or anything, but I have heard that from other authors. 

If I used Sonja’s “porn star” method I’d be “Princess Oliver”.  If I was doing it with my current pet and street I’d be “Yofi 30thPL”, which isn’t quite as euphonious[g]

romance writer (if I was writing paranormal I’d use it!). So I’m going with my middle name (Kalen). And I think my real last name (Fuller) doesn’t sound as good as my step-dad’s last name (Hughes), which also happens to be the name I used most of my life.

So I go from freaky NorCal hippie kid (Tonda Fuller) to very Brit sounding lady (Kalen Hughes) merely by manipulating the names I already have.

I have about a 4 page start on a book.  I got bored w/my people and never got any further.

IF, by chance, I could figure out what the hell to write and how to write it I’d choose a pen name.  My first name is great, but the last would have to go.

I would choose my Grandparents last name and add an R...Samantha Hartke..

Well, maybe not...it doesn’t look very good…

Sam

I always admire writers who use their original names that NOBODY can spell.  It’s very noble of them.

I’ll try googling them once, and if I’ve got the spelling wrong - sorry, but I’m mooooving on.

Nadia Cornier and Bob Mayer had exchanged emails abou this, and Nadia then posted about it on her blog, Agent Obscura: http://www.livejournal.com/users/agentobscura/2006/01/08/

Tonda said: ‘So I go from freaky NorCal hippie kid (Tonda Fuller) to very Brit sounding lady (Kalen Hughes) merely by manipulating the names I already have.’

I’m in the UK, and I’ve never met anyone called ‘Kalen’. Was that a typo for ‘Karen’? ‘Kalen’ sounds sci-fi to me.

As I inch closer and closer to publication (I have started to talk about “my” agent now, although nothing is yet signed) I have thought about this and decided to stick with my own name, not least because I have appeared on the TV under it with “romantic novelist” attached (though its all looking a little unromantic at the moment).

I might do the pseudonym thing if I were to start writing in a different genre style.  Porn Star name would be “Mavawok Long” (I can’t for the life of me remember where Mavawok came from).

My pen name is my maiden name (yup, my legal first name is MaryJanice).  It makes me happy to see MARYJANICE DAVIDSON splashed in big shiny letters which take up half the cover.  It is my eternal hope that all the mean girls in high school will see that name and feel a stab of envy.  “Now, as I look back upon the ruin of a life that peaked when I lettered in cheerleading, I realized it all went wrong when I hid Davidson’s leg warmers in the boys’ locker room.” Yeah!  That’ll learn ‘em.

(My husband, who has no idea how cruel girls can be and how much I dreaded high school at times, said: “Really?  That’s why you use your maiden name on the books?  So the cheerleaders feel bad?  No, come on.  What’s the real reason?  Hon?  Mare?  Hello?")

When I sold an inspirational (inspirational=nothing below the shoulders) novella to Barbour Press, the editor asked that I make up a name.  A pen name for my pen name, so an inspirational fan wouldn’t stumble across a racier Davidson book by mistake.  So I came up with Pohl, my ma-in-law’s maiden name.  Janice Pohl, kind-hearted inspirational romance author.  Thus making me, as my best friend pointed out, the only person she knew whose alter ego was...good.

Julia Quinn chose Q to be close to Amanda Quick, rather than far away from her.  I guess she figured if you’re hunting down the Qs for a Regency author, maybe you’ll go for the other one, too.

As an academic with the beginnings of name recognition, I’d probably choose a psuedonym just so Google searches go easier.  I’d probably choose my middle name, Samantha (not the other one--Gaye!) and some variation of my mother’s maiden name.  But I might just stick with my own name.  ::shrug:: Gotta write the damn book, first!  ;)

Pohl seems an unlikely pen name for a “nothing below the shoulders” book.

Get it? Pole? Get it??  PAH-HAHAHAHAHA

Gawd, I crack myself up.

I’m still pondering Mavawok Long.

I picked Summer because I got my first erotica contract during a blizzard and Devon because it was in the phone book--and my sister had fond memories of Devon, England.

I picked Kate Rothwell because it’s my name. I was going to be Maggie but that’s a cat’s. If I were doing it again, I think I’d have used another name for those books too. Some of the letters I get are . . .odd.

I’m pretty sure someone out there with my porn star name—Penny Montgomery --is already writing Harlequin Presents.

If I ever publish anything (the possibility is remote) it will be under a penname, because my real last name is hard to pronounce correctly and easily twisted into potty-humour forms.

My friend Snookie and I decided to choose last names that’d put us next to our favorite and most popular authors on the Romance shelves. We figured: that way, when Laura Kinsale is between books and her legions of fans come to scour the K shelf, there’s Kingston! And Snookie chose to be near Gabaldon.

In addition to googling our respective pennames, we also checked out many, many, many bookstore shelves to be sure of the placement. Now we kinda feel like tools for using that method. Like we know anything about marketing? HAH.

I am glad that I kept my real first name, though. Can’t imagine being called anything else. And absolutely can’t imagine my real last name plastered across a book.

My pen name for my erotica is my great, great grandmother’s name. I wanted something sharp sounding with a soft ending.

If/when I’m published, I’d like to be Susannah instead of Susan.  And since my married name starts with W and my maiden name with S, I’m thinking of pulling an ancestral name from earlier in the alphabet--my top candidates are Fowler, Fraser, Fancher, and Lightfoot.

I’ve toyed with the idea of using something like Beal, Bean, or Beasley just to get myself shelved between Mary Balogh and Jo Beverley, but I’d rather stick with a family name, and none of my ancestors had the foresight to have a B name.

I would/will use a fake name because my family would be both proud that I was published, but not so proud that there were shirtless men on the covers of my novels. I tossed the idea out there (about the writing), and my parents said, “Fine, but not with your real name.” Then my mom started making me really dirty pen names… My pornstar name is not suited to any literary pursuits: Chica Landon or Chica Jollyville. Truly pornstarish. I might as well be Tits McGee.

If I ever sat down and wrote a really outstanding work of literature, I would want to save my real name for that so as to cause the most envy.

My real name already belongs to a porn star.  She can have it - I never liked it, anyway.  My mother has already apologised to me on several occasions, some of them public.  She says it sounded nice at the time, but she also admits to having dropped twenty IQ points while pregnant.

My future nom de plume changes almost as often as my hair color.  Currently I am vibing on the names of literary villainesses.  That, or characters played by Maria Montez. 

I’ve no shortage of pen names in mind...published works of fiction, however, are a bit more difficult to come by.

Tits McGee.  LOL!  I dare you.

Because I am STUPID, I took my husband’s name when I married him (okay, gimme a break, I was in love).

To all you kids at home: DO NOT DO THIS. IT IS STUPID (erm, I mean, don’t change your name, go ahead and fall in love and get married).

Now then. Here’s a quiz for you kiddies; married, legal name: Erin Nowjack; maiden name: Erin O’Brien.

Which the fuck name would you want on the cover of your book?

If you guessed Erin O’Brien, you are right! Now hop on over to Amazon and part with ten measly fucking bucks and buy a copy of “Harvey & Eck.”

If you guessed Erin Nowjack, you are wrong! Now hop on over to Amazon and part with ten measly fucking bucks and buy a copy of “Harvey & Eck.”

It is the best book you will read all year. I know. I wrote it. It is better than Bridget Jones Diary, laugh-out-loud-funny and if that ain’t enough, there’s even a nice fat vibrator in it.

I love you.

Erin

When I’m published (almost finished the first draft!) I’ll be using a pseudonym because it’s my work and I want it associated with my name, ie: a name I’ve chosen for myself, not one foisted on me by my father or my (ex)husband.
I’ll still be using my own first name - ‘cause I like it - and I’ve decided to borrow my maternal grandmother’s maiden name, again because I like it and it feels right.

I think I’ve annoyed my mum, though. ”But your father’s name is your name...”

I used my real name and at times (like when I’m opening an email from someone who lives near Ohio and thinks one of my characters is real) it was a mistake. I’ve considered taking on a pen name but I already write paranormal erotic so unless I took up writing about donkey sex (I got a visual...it was NOT pretty) I’m not sure what good it would do.

To do again, I’d try to put my maiden name in there somewhere. The family name dies if my brother doesn’t pull through and have a boy. Well, it’s safe to say that the idea of him reproducing is a skkkeeeerrrryyyy thing.

I had to choose a pen name for my erotic books because I was already published as a children and YA book writer. I don’t mind that adults look up my children’s books, but I wouldn’t like it if a child accidently got hold of one of my erotica books. At least like this I keep both genres seperate.
If I change genres, I think I’d change names as well. So many people associate authors with just one genre, and that’s all that they’ll buy.

Ann is my real first name--like there weren’t already enough Anns in romance writing! But my real last name is more suitable for a laboratory geek than a romcom writer, so I chose Wesley Hardin.

I’m distantly related to the infamous gunslinger John Wesley Hardin, so I chose it partly for name recognition. It’s also my grandmother’s maiden name and I thought it had a nice lilt to it.

My porn star name is Poppy Pilgrim. LMAO. Wouldn’t make a bad pen name either!

I plan to take a pen name when I get published.

For various reasons, but mostly because I’m Chinese, and most other Chinese can’t pronounce my last name, much less uh, people of other races.

I may or may not keep my first name, but my surname...Probably not.

Simply must have pen name (assuming published manuscript and all that).

1: I’m elected and may run for re-election: the public has a bed feeling about elected officials who enjoy sex.

2: My first name is not spelled the way it’s pronounced and is often mispronounced, and my last name *is* spelled the way it’s pronounced and is often hopelessly mangled.

...or a *bad feeling. Although “Bed feeling” can work in context I suppose.

a bed feeling eh, Suisan? So no kitchen tables in books if you want to stay in office?

I would like to write in different subgenres, so I plan to take pen names for each one in order to avoid confusion. I have some ideas but nothing solid. In the meantime, I just go by my own name which most people manage to misspell and mispronounce.

Really, though, those worried that if they ever hit it big it wouldn’t be with their own name so people they wanted to dis wouldn’t know it was them are crazy. When you’re sitting on Oprah’s stage, no matter what your name is on the book cover, it’ll be your own face on the TV screen, right?

I only wish I had such major problems.

Because I write erotic romance, I decided to use a pen name rather than my real one. Because I teach full time in the local high school, I decided to use a pen name rather than my real one. Because my husband had qualms about his name being associated with erotica, I decided to use a pen name rather than my real one.

LOLOL

After three years of publishing, my husband is no longer concerned (he’s seen the paychecks), my school (for the most part) doesn’t care and in fact likes the fact they have someone with practical experience teaching creative writing, and I’ve discovered branding as an advertising concept works wonders. People know what they’re going to get when they buy a Diana Hunter book: some discussion of bondage and the D/s dynamic.

Now, should I decide to write something DIFFERENT? Then I have another decision to make. Do I write under the same name, and hope my readers don’t care that I switched genre? Or do I change my name and lose all the readership I’ve worked so hard to gather?

Diana

I went with my middle name because it’s at the beginning of the alphabet (my real last name starts with a W), and it also means my good friend/CP Bella Andre will sit together at big booksignings, not to mention we’ll be shelved together too.  I also kept my real first name so I wouldn’t get confused with the dual identity thing (I can barely keep track of how many scoops of formula i’ve put into a bottle for my son, much less remember to answer to another name).  Though as my other CP pointed out, I probably should have put an “e” on the end of my name since that’s how most people spell it, and people will have trouble finding my books.  And as a writer of erotic romance, I do worry a bit about the prison thing. 
But my pornstar names would have rocked:
Germaine Montana (first pet, first street)
Mandy Lockwood (second pet, second street)
And if I used my current info, I could be Joey Buckeye. Sweet!

I use a pen name for some of the reasons already listed--I write erotic romance, I’m a nurse and people can get weird about their medical professionals lovin’ da boinkage, and I don’t want my ex-husband’s name on my accomplishments.  (Not that I hate him or anything, he’s actually a big fan of my writing and just fixed my car for me.  Weird, huh?)

So… Amelia Elias I became.  Mostly because my real name is quite generic and, to my mind at least, not the least bit sexy.  Besides, Amelia is close enough to Amy that I don’t have any problem answering to it--and most of the time I say, “Call me Amy,” anyway.  Elias is ‘alias’ with a different first letter.  Clever, ain’t I?  *yuck yuck yuck*

Plus, all of the above is easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and easy to remember.  And the url was available, which, I must say, has to be taken into account when you write ebooks.  Readers want a website.

But as far as the freaky emails and letters go… where are MINE, huh?  I mean, come on!  All my friends have gotten nekkid pics in the mail and freaky emails and one has even got IMs from a scary chick who claims that the hero from one of her books is visiting scary chick in her dreams.  Where’s MY psycho, eh?  (And much love to my friend with the psychos--she tells them all to buy Pandora’s Box.  She’s trying to sic the weirdos on me, but in the meantime, I’m getting more sales!  Whoot!)

My pornstar name is Sugar Tulip. Hmmm...just as well I’m waayy to short and round (not to mention middle-aged) to ever be a pornstar.

I’m not pubbed yet, but I’ve been using my penname on the web for a while. ‘Bronwyn’ is my actual name, but ‘Parry’ is an old family name. My actual surname is fairly common, and here in Australia there are a fair few women with the same name - there were three of us working at my small-town uni at one stage, and when I was a consultant there was another consultant with the same name working in a slightly different field - yep, we got each other’s emails.

Bronwyn Parry sounds okay, will be shelved somewhere towards the middle of the bookshelves, I’ll remember to answere to Bronwyn at conferences, and it looks okay in my scrawled signature.

If ever I change genres, though, I’ll probably use a different name. I suppose I could write erotica as Sugar Tulip ;-)

I actually went with my real name...and there are times I wish I hadn’t. I have 3 daughters, 2 of them in high school. I wasn’t very happy when, last year, the local paper (bunch of romance-hating, literary snob asswipes) did an article on romance novels, calling them porn, and put a picture of me and my first book beside the article, naming me as a local romance author. I was mentioned nowhere in the article, it had nothing to do with me, they just wanted to single me out because I’m local.

My daughters were asked about it by kids at school, and by a couple of teachers. And I was VERY unhappy.

Fortunately, I have a great RWA chapter here and they deluged the paper with letters so I got a sort of backhanded apology.

I’d think long and hard, though, if I had it to do over again.

Leslie Kelly

One of the main reasons writers use pen names is when their career starts to falter. Buyers at the various chains look at their track record see less than fabulous sales and either don’t order more of their books or order very few. As a result they get offered lower advances by their publishers or get dumped altogether.

The only way to revive such a stalled career is to pick a new name. It worked very well for Robin Hobb (big-time fantasy writer) who started out under her own name as Megan Lindholm. While the Lindholm books were well reviewed they did not sell.

If your publisher never wants you to use a pen name consider yourself lucky!

My father is a fundamentalist minister.  I went with a pen name partially to keep him from suffering any backlash from my writing, and also because my true first name is mispronounced 85% of the time, and I didn’t want my ex’s last name on my books.  Now the new husband wishes I wrote as me, but I like being anonymous.

I never thought of using my second pet/second street in a combination before, so when I saw Jami’s above I felt I must share my porn star name: Duke Steele.  Strong enough for a man, though made for a woman!

I went with a pen name just for my kids’ sake.  They do not need the backlash heaped on top of the other pressures of growing up.  It’s taken me a while to get accustomed Alessia Brio, but I’m comfortable with it/her now.  I chose the name based on its meaning & association with one branch of my ancestry (Italian).  It’s much girly-girlier than I, but it fits the romance genre.

Good grief, y’all, check out Alison Kent’s web page (above) and her new Blaze. GOES DOWN EASY. That has got to be the best Harlequin title ever!!! Did you come up with this one, Alison? I need this book. Backlash indeed!

This is such an interesting subject. I just blogged about it in my “Five Minutes to Choose an Alias” post and got some really fascinating answers. It was all so interesting that I followed up with a writing exercise for generating character names (or pseudonyms) three different ways--my current post. It’s a lot of fun, so please feel free to pop over and participate.

Later, I’ll be gathering all the information from the comments to both of these posts and putting it all into a separate one that includes links to each commenter’s blog.

I use a pseudonym because my real last name is hard to spell, pronounce and remember--not the best idea for the cover of a romance novel! Daisy is my grandmother’s first name, Dexter comes from Cary Grant’s character CK Dexter Haven in Philadelphia story, and Dobbs is a shortened version of my maiden name. I’ve been Daisy for so many years that the name is as much a part of me now as my real name.

Did you come up with this one, Alison? I need this book.

I did, Jennifer, but not without a lot of help from my dh brainstormer!  Glad you like it!

And on the pseudonym issue again, I chose the last name of Kent because it was my younger brother’s name, and he was killed in a helicopter accident in 1987.  The Alison came out of a book of baby names that said it sounded intelligent, bwahahahaha!

It is the best book you will read all year. I know. I wrote it. It is better than Bridget Jones Diary, laugh-out-loud-funny and if that ain’t enough, there’s even a nice fat vibrator in it.

Now that’s a great deal, Erin!  A book and a vibrator for $10??  Are the batteries included?

I’d have to go with a pen-name because my first name is so ridiculously spelled.  My name is Caryle, but pronounced Carol.  (Darn you, Dad, for that stinking silent “e")

Anyway… my porn star name is just a bit ridiculous:  Poochie Havendale, so that probably won’t work.

My movie star name (middle name and mother’s maiden name) is: Renee Monroe.  It’s a nice combination, but I’ve seen at least two other Monroes that write romance. 

Maybe Renee Havendale?  *shrug* ... might work. 

Who knows, ladies, you might see a book from Renee Havendale sometime.  If I ever get around writing…

Caryle

This was a biggie for me.  Actually I wanted Robin Owens but the website had been snatched up (I now own it, too, but tried and tried to get it).  I’ve been worried about Robin D. Owens because I’ve used my middle initial for years in my signature (I’m thinking of becoming someone else)...and there is the identity theft issue.

I am a maiden (**snicker**) so no married name and I wouldn’t use any of my ex SOs (SOBs? nah, a couple weren’t bad).

I wanted Rowen Powers.  My family laughed.  Passing your first book contract around the dinner table (so Mom knows that you weren’t lying for the last eight years when you ducked out of family stuff saying you were going to write), and having your family LAUGH, oh, the trauma.

I have a couple of names waiting in the wings, and no, because I’m a scorpio, I won’t tell you.

However, my porn name would be Amber Beach, which is, of course, a book by Elizabeth Lowell (and I happen to live on Lowell).  But the nearest cross street is Moncrief.  I kid you not.  Amber Moncrief.  Could you ask for anything more?

Robin (who is now very worried)

The Blazes always have clever little titles, but I agree that GOES DOWN EASY has a whole lotta sass. 

Good one Alison.

I chose my pen name simply because my own last name sounds too hard for romance (it’s a VERY Italian name). I went with my own first name, just dropped one ‘e’ and chose my zodiac sign. Leo. So that’ show I came up with Rene Lyons.

I have to admit, I’m not so hot for the idea of a pen name. Not necessarily because I want to impress my exes (one ex in particular, it’d probably be better if he never found any book I wrote, ahem) or the people who pissed on me in school, but I don’t want to have to remember who I am at this point in time, answer to “Jane Doe” in public, etc. Sounds like a pain to me, especially if the pen name is the one that becomes massively famous.

And besides that, I can’t think of any that would be interesting anyway. (That pet + street name thing doesn’t work when you named your pets strange things. Or only had boy pets.) I also actually LIKE my last name and hate all of the family last names but that one, and the idea of not being allowed to use it irritates me.

Oh well, it’s not like I’m even close to having a writing career at this point in time to need to worry about it yet.

My married name is hard to pronounce, easily mocked, and rather distinctive, plus my husband has a large professional practice in a small town. A smut-writing wifey isn’t the best accessory.

My maiden name I’m saving for when I write something my mother can show her church group. I’m dead serious. She’s been as supportive as she knows how to be, given that she wouldn’t touch my books with a ten-foot-altar-candle-snuffer, and I owe her that much.

I chose Selah March as my smut-writing handle because March is my birth month, and Selah is a classic Puritan name, and I’m perverse that way.

I’ve picked a pen name for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that my last name is easy for people to misspell or mispronounce.

I gave the pen name considerable thought and went with one I liked the sound of.

I’m considering this question from a marketing point of view, as the novel I’m about to launch upon the world is a gay romance novel. I’m thinking something gender-neutral would be best, as what little there is in the genre is written by men (or at least women publishing under men’s names).

My porn name is Princess Summerleaf, which sounds more like a character than an author.

My porn star name is Sprite Fredana, which just doesn’t make any sense. (Is Patty Fredana any better? Butternut Fredana? It just gets worse.)

And I can’t do the Middle Name + Mother’s Maiden name, because I’m named for my mother, which means I’d end up writing as her. Not good.

(Verification word is own71--I think that’s a hint to stick with my own name. Too late.)

I looked at all the names in my family tree.  Now I have a number of pen names.  I stick with Jaye Patrick because I think it works.  Jaye is the first initial of my real name and Patrick is my grandfather’s first name.  I don’t think Mahala, or Piety Piety, or Martha, works as well

if i were to actually get around to writing anything i think i’d use my online name.  i don’t think i’ve ever used my real name online and it’s frightfully plain.  besides, i like Aimey Zailia Antillies its silly and my second character i ever came up with.

and porn name: Penny Bicroft, just doesn’t really do anything for me.  its kinda boring.

I think for the purposes of fame, it’s not that big a worry. The fact is, even if you hit it big, you’re really well-known only within certain circles. Unless you’re Stephen King or your mug’s been on Oprah, the general public won’t know you or care much. Writers don’t get movie star fame. Thank God.

That said, I went with my maiden name. For one, it’s the name I had when I first had dreams of writing for a living, so seeing that name on a book kinda fulfills that dream. Also, my married name? Not the sort of thing you want to launch on an unsuspecting public. Lani is hard enough to pronounce on its own; couple it with a German moniker big on the consonants and stingy with the vowels, and it’s just too much of a headache. I don’t want to make it any harder for readers to find me than it already is.

Plus, I like keeping my personal and professional separate. If I ever do hit it big enough that people start to know the name, then it’s automatically separate from the kids.

Also, I can’t pretend to be someone I’m not. God help me if I ever write under another name. I flirted with the idea at first, and at the suggestion of another author, I signed up for some loops under the pseudonym. It was a disaster. I kept signing “Lani” to every post. As it is, I never know what to sign on anything; throw a name in there that’s not even mine, and my feeble brain would pitch a fit and quit.

I’m using my real name on my book. None of the pseudonyms I came up with sounded even remotely plausible (though I don’t think I ever got into “Beige Racy” territory!) and besides, it’s my book, and part of the marketing angle is that I’m writing something familiar. It would be weird to say that if I’m pretending to be soemone else.

I find it interesting that a lot of the people here who want pseudonyms want it for a degree of secrecy. I know plenty of people who write under pseudonyms, and very very few who don’t tell their family and friends what it is they’re writing. You need those people to recruit for signings and stuff (like Diana Hunter said). Furthermore, the people who would mostly likely disapprove are probably the ones who wouldn’t be scouring the romance shelves.

I will take a pseudonym is a publisher requests it or if I’m writing in a different genre. I believe in branding your name.

The reason why I chose to pursue publication under a psuedonym is because I have built up my real name in my day profession and am somewhat well-known now.  My colleagues in my day profession are expert searchers who would easily find out what I write were I to publish under my real name.  I’m writing erotic romance and erotica.  I’m not that keen on having what I choose to write bite me in the ass when job hunting.  I am proud of what I write and chose a name that has great meaning for me.  Like Indiana Jones, I’m named after the dog.  I’m also used to answering to the name as it’s so close to my real name that my mom would mix us up.  My “fake” last name is a family name, and the women from that line of the family have always been ahead of their time.  The other reason I chose these two names is because I have this little thing for names with two syllables.  In regards to myself, names with with a differing amount of syllables just sound weird.

When I got married, I decided to hyphenate.  One of my co-workers said, “Jeri Smith-Ready?  That sounds like an author’s name.” I thought, hmm, actually I hyphenated because I didn’t want to sound like a hair care products manufacturer, but writing books?  That might be fun.

If I ever take a pen name, it’ll be my grandmother’s name, Nita O’Donnell.  I think she would have liked it, especially if it were for a spicy book.

So glad to hear about the “J” phenomenon, Sonja.  (And what the hell’s wrong with people who can’t pronounce Sonja?)

I would (er… really hope to!) publish under a penname.  Not only do I write erotica, I write gay erotica, and I don’t particularly want homophobic loonies sending me hate mail and death threats.  And, unfortunately, homophobic loonies can be found in my extended family, and I would be devastated if my *parents* got hate mail from their rabid relatives.

Meanwhile, on a tangent, when I was growing up, two of my friends’ mothers’ wrote romance novels together ("Janet Joyce"-- a combination of their first names) and all the heroines in their books were named after the daughters and their friends (including me, although I had to share my spotlight with Kathy S. and Katie C. as all 3 of us were Katherines!)

I have nothing to publish, so this is a moot point, but I just wanted to add that according to the accepted formula, my “pornstar name” is…

POLLY HENTHORN.

Um, sounds a bit more like a Dickensian chamber maid than a smoldering tartlet.

“Cor blimey!  Fancy a little slap and tickle before I serve the gruel, sir?”