My family and my adult friends know my nom de plume. After all, I hope they'll buy my book. My students I'm keeping in the dark about it. It's no secret to the older kids that I'm writing a novel, but I'd rather they not be able to look it up once it's published. The sex, violence, and cussing are mild compared to what's in a lot of books, but I wouldn't put it past some parents or school administrators freaking out if they thought I'd marketed the thing to their tender darlings. That said, I wouldn't put it past the kids to find out my pen name somehow, anyway. In that case, I have to hope they'll discover I've written a workplace novel instead of a school story or a work of SciFi fantasy and will leave it alone.
I finally figured out what I want to use. It's a play on my first name. Those who know me may be able to make the connection if they know I'm a writer. Otherwise, no. It's something easy to remember since it's technically still my name just split in half and I will never forget it. I've had this in mind for quite some time but didn't feel like it was "distant" enough from me. But it's sufficient. Thanks for allowing me to get my crazy thoughts out, y'all.
Iain Aschendale is my pen name. It's a combination of an homage to my favorite author, Iain Banks, and the Aschendale is something I made up that I don't share the rationale behind. Plus side that I wasn't thinking of at the time (I haven't posted to this thread yet, have I?) is that the surname starting with "A" will put it near the top of any alphabetical list, if I ever get something worthy of publishing, that is. My writer friends all know me as Iain, some of my real friends and family know about both names, and like @Trina Lynne said, it's a brand. Were I ever to appear in public as a writer, I'd definitely be Iain.
I just randomly came up with Luci Fette. Oh God...that's gold. But no it's not my pen name. Sorry, carry on.
I'm not published, but my username is a candidate for one. S A are my initials but if I was to be asked for a forename I'd pick Samantha. Lee is a surname in my family tree and of the family surnames I knew it sounded nicest.