I was reading Olivia Ryan's news about how she's been able to come out of the closet so to speak and declare that she is indeed Sheila Norton. I am happy to know both of them.
Anyhoo Olivia/Sheila got me thinking about pseudonyms.
Someone else asked me recently if I thought that they should write under their own name and I said that I thought that they should if for no other reason than to avoid confusion when an editor wants to send you a cheque (or other form of payment.)
As some of you know I have been known to write erotic fiction under a not very well hidden pseudonym which Himself chose for me. The reason I do that is just in case my mum ever came across one of them. I don't mind the world at large to know but not my mum.
Having said that, I have seen editions of magazines that I actually have work in sitting on the table in front of my family members and they have never asked if it's me. I think that they probably think that it's someone who shares my name. Like I said in one of my very first posts, writing for publication is not something that someone from my back ground did - in the eyes of my extended family anyway. How little they know me.
I once wrote a children's book which I still dream of getting published one day under a different name. I had the notion that there would be a whole series of them and I wanted them to be published in my grandmother's name.
Maybe one day.
Oh and just one mor ething. To the person that asked me about pseudonyms the other day, thank you. It made me feel great that someone actually asked my opinion on something writing connected.
3 comments:
Hello from both of me (!) and thanks for the mention, GB. It's an interesting topic (pseudonyms) and as I've said, it would not have occurred to me to use one, if it weren't for my publisher asking me to do so.
I do understand your reasons for using one so that your mum doesn't read anything you don't want her to. Although are you sure she'd be upset? My own dear mum was very elderly when my first book was published and I wondered what she'd think of the sprinkling of 4-letter words and sex scenes in it - but she pronounced that she loved it, passed it round all her 80+ year-old friends, and if any of them criticised it she wouldn't speak to them! Bless her.
I actually wanted to use her name as a tribute to her, when I was asked to choose my pseudonym - but for various reasons it was decided it wasn't suitable.
What is it about mothers. When I was younger mine read Catherine Cookson, Belva Plain et al now that she's fast approaching 80 she can't get enough of Tess Gerritson and Michael Connelly. Maybe its not Mum I'm worrying about with the erotic stuff it's the people that she goes to church with.
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