Mine's Sue Denim. I use it for when I write scathing polemics. Many people react and I say, 'Sue me and kiss my 501s.'
It's your choice. I use one, it's Elaine R Chissick, and I use it because my first book, was non-fiction true life and charted the journey I took with my hubs to adopt two children. Hence the reason all the names had to be changed. When I started writing fiction on a serious level, I kept the pseudonym. Mainly because I didn't want to think up another name, as writing erotic romance and working in a primary school doesn't exactly go hand in hand ...
I dunno... It's just not me. lol I think this is the one I'll probably go with. Though I'm debating changing the spelling. Pembrooke maybe. Or Penbrook. It's just strange using my last name as my first name. lol The one letter change makes it feel more like a first name and less like a last name.
I have a very unique name. First name is uncommon and surname is even more unusual. I'd be easy to find on a bookshelf. But... I typically work in a business that causes me to interact with a lot of people. Add to this that I was between jobs during some of my early writing/publishing and that I was writing some decidedly racy content. I didn't want to risk a job offer because someone Googled my unique name and found out I was writing borderline erotica. So... Hating my name anyway, I elected to use a blend of my middle name (David) with my birth family name (I was adopted). Though there are a few other David Wittlingers out there none appear to write non-fiction, so score. It is sometimes a bit disappointing to not have 'my' name on a book cover but honestly I think of myself more as my pseudonym than my own name most of the time anyway. Had it not been for my adoption I would have been named David Wittlinger, so I now get to be who I always should have been.
I've taken Catrin Lewis as my the nom de plume as I, too, teach school, and I write in another, more scholarly, nonfiction genre under my real name. I think I've mentioned in another thread where it comes from; suffice it to say it carries a strong family connection and so feels natural to me. The good joke is that my friends and family (and a lot of high school kids) know I'm writing, and if any of them read my fiction it'll be about impossible to keep my two "identities" separate. Oh, well. If the book is good enough maybe they'll forget about the person they see day by day and focus on the mysterious Catrin Lewis whose name is on the cover.
I've been using Martin White since middle school. I'm starting to think it doesn't fit me--it's a very male-sounding name, and much of what I write is targeted more towards female readers. Still, it seems a bit late to change it now. (I'm starting to wonder if I should bite the bullet and make Feodor Takahari my name for erotic fiction. Martin White's already linked to YA, so using it for erotic fiction might give publishers pause, and I've built up Feotakahari way more than I've built up Martin White..)
There is no way in hell I'd use my real name, especially since I tend to write erotica! I don't need family finding that. I also dislike my first name quite a bit. For years I've been going by Tishana Glenwood. If the stars ever aligned and I somehow got a publishing deal, that's probably the name I'd stick with. I like it, I feel comfortable in the "skin," and it's definitely unique! The only thing I get when I Google it is my own stuff.
Well when I searched my name (minus middle) on amazon, I come to find no one has published under it. Found instead a Gay/Vampire Erotica with my name as a MC and it is going for freaking $15! I might use my real name, or maybe just TRR. Nah, Lord Corneilius Winston McFaddenberg Esquire, but my friends call me Billy. Still playing around with whether or not to just use my screen name though. But would anybody read a book written by a Fantasy creature in the Science Fiction section? I just don't know.
This is exactly how I feel about the topic. Had an interesting convo with a good friend a week ago about this very thing. He was pushing me to use my real name, which is very distinct and there's only one like it in the world. He thinks people who already know me will be more interested if they see my real name, or otherwise just skip over a pen name. I understand his point and it was an interesting talk, but I just can't buy into it. I want the two lives separate. Besides, I figure those who know me socially will learn the pen name anyhow, so the only ones who it will block me from are the ones I want to be blocked, which is the point (for me) to begin with.
Iain Aschendale is my pen name. Like a few people upthread, I'm fulfilling the stereotype of teacher as a frustrated writer, and I don't really need my students knowing that I write horror involving violence against, and by, women, children, men, animals, minorities, majorities, and other assorted ickies. Plus the name my parents gave me is very similar to that of a famous fictional character, which makes me effectively invisible online. Good for a private person, bad for a writer. "Iain" is an homage to the late Iain M. Banks, and "Aschendale" is something that I came up with on my own. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that, after you filter out "Passchendale", there were only three results on google for it, relating to a very obscure anime/manga character. So, privacy protected, name unique, google-able, and (never thought of this until reading this thread) near the top of the alphabetical list. Done, done, and done.
I`m not really sure what I'd ever use when published. I like the way my first initial first initial to my first last name sounds with my second one. M.H.Sweithelm. Even my birth name sounds like an epic writers name. I have no problem with how they sound, but it`s the privacy thing that I think about. As much as I would love to one day see my name tossed about with famous authors (like i`d ever get there but let me daydream!) I am a private person mostly, however, and my name is rather unique. I could use Kinzvlle (Kinzvlle Kinzdorin), but other than being the most obviously fake pen name, ever I`ve used Kinzvlle for years and not sure I want people tracing me back to old roleplaying forums and etc, which you can find by googling it. I wrote down a list of possible pen names once but no idea what I put it. I tend to give my cats elaborate names (Don`t judge me) maybe I`ll steal one of those like, Simon Felix Alexander. We`ll see what I do when the time comes.
My real name doesn't really sound like a science fiction author, so I may very well conjure a pseudonym. Raymond Veritas sounds perfect, but I would be at the bottom of alphabetical lists. Which may or may not matter.
My real name is too much of a mouthful, plus I don't really want people that I know, finding out about my writing. - 'cause then they'd want to read it! No, way. Knowing that people I know will read my stuff kind of scares me and stifles creativity - I can't write curse words if my parents are gonna see this! If it were to make it as far as to get published I would do so under a pen name. I don't have one as of yet, but it's going to be a unisex first name and maybe a Welsh/Irish surname. My real surname is as Irish as you can get but my family is from Wales so I kind of want to include a nod to that.
Another thought... I don't think privacy was on everybody's mind (as much) 20 years ago, 40 years ago, etc. I think the internet and pandoric access to people's lives/details has changed the game in our thinking. I'm not sure pandoric is a word, but I used it anyway.
Chances are that`s more or less the case. Everything you do online leaves an imprint somewhere, making it very easy for a google search to pop up a lot, and more in depth screahs to bring up even more. 40 years ago or so if you wanted to be a reclusive writer just keep a l ow profile, it wasn`t like they could just look up everything about you in a flash. Though a lot of writers did use pen names in that past so that may shoot the theory to bits, granted that depends on the reasoning which depends on the writer.
I'm definitely going by a pseudonym (haven't settled for one yet). The great thing about the internet is that you can literally have your work out there under the name ihateusernames123 or a single first name and it's not a big deal . When I was a kid I dreamt of having my books published under my real name and picture, but oh well... things change. Now I love my privacy and anonymity more than anything.
I'm planning on using a pen name, but haven't thought of one yet. Because I'm hoping to go into the scientific field, I'd rather not have my research writing come up alongside my fiction writing.
I decided to use a pen name as my real name is difficult to spell and pronounce and my first novel is for 9 to 11 year olds. The first name was easy. I had two dogs, Brandy and Brinkley, merged together - Brindy. The surname took longer. I wanted to use my mum's maiden name as mum died many years ago, when I was a child, but Brindy Cox didn't quite work for me, so I decided to use Brindy Wilcox. It looks good on the proofs of my book cover.
I'm amazed at how many people on this forum use or are planning to use pseudonyms. I, too, plan to use one, but it's not so much for privacy as it is to separate me from several other people out there who share my name and keep popping up on a Google search: (no less than) two country singers, a DJ, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and the ex-police chief of Calgary, Alberta. It would be very easy to get lost in that crowd. And the strange thing is: when I was growing up, everyone told me what a unique name I had.
