Thanks to Katie, I have a link to the list of authors appearing at the RWA Literacy Signing in San Francisco. Every year the Literacy Signing raises Big Money for a local literacy organization, so bring your wallet and your comfy shoes.
But suppose you’re not going to be there, which is a big bummer. Consider alternate uses for the list: pen name selection! You don’t want to use a pen name that’s too similar to another author’s nom de plume. Granted, this list doesn’t encompass every romance author ever, but there’s plenty on there to give you ideas.
My pen name of choice would be a weird combo of my pet’s names and the porn-star name rule of “street I grew up on,” and I have so many pets I have a name for every subgenre. Ergo Grace Reynolds. Or Oliver Reynolds, if I write mysteries. Or Logan Reynolds if I write, say, Westerns. Or Fukui-san Reynolds if I were to write something Japanese. Or Ohta Reynolds if I write sports books or food commentary. The possibilities are endless!
How did you pick your pen name? What’s your preferred faux name, if you’re not using a writing moniker already?
Sophie Mouette: I thought “mouette” meant moist (it doesn’t, oops), and Sophie seemed to go well with it. It’s unique without being omigod fake name (at least, I think so!). I was going to use it as a solo name for erotica in the early 90s, but my first coauthor and I ended up using it together.
Andrea Dale: Switching my first two names with a slight spelling change. My erotica-writing name.
Sarah Dale: Coauthor #2’s first name is Sarah, and people who know us have to put up with “Oh it’s a Sarah/Dayle thing; you wouldn’t understand.” Again with a slight spelling change, because Sarah Dayle has the chance of looking too much like Sarah Doyle, and we wanted people to actually find our books!
There are others, but those are the main ones. I’ve been using my real name for SFF for a looong time, so the romance and erotica got the pen names.
pet plus street equals Wee Mo Stokeswood
(Wee Mo was a mini dachsund from Missouri)
Can’t think of any genre deserving of that moniker.
Pet + Street name?
Lucy Kensington ~ This is actually a pretty decent pen name for just about any genre (filing it for that hypothetical date when I start writing)
Marbles Walnut ~ Hmmm…. Too many euphemisms.
Booger Idaho ~ Maybe if I were writing children’s books aimed at 8-11 y/o boys
I’m not even going to touch my childhood cats Spud McGillicuddy and Sidney B. Vicious
My first and middle initials are C.L., which I blur into the name Cielle (er.. I haven’t quite worked out the spelling of said name, but I know it is a real name). So, Cielle + my real last name.
Now I need to write anything more than short stories – and get anything published. *headdesk*
spamword = elements62. Pen name = elements of real name. But I’m not 62.
My real first name is Michelle which I use mostly because if somebody called out a completely different first name I’d have no idea they were talking to me. But my real last name is French Canadian and a bit tricky to spell and pronounce so I wanted to change it.
Michelle Rowen came from a cross between my grandmother’s maiden name (Rowe) and some sort of magical fairy tree (Rowan). I figured it was a good enough last name for somebody writing paranormal. It frequently gets misspelled so I’m not sure how far ahead I am from my original name, really. 🙂
I also write as Michelle Maddox and honestly I pulled that one out of a phone book because I had to come up with something fast. I liked the alliteration and Maddox sounded a bit more badass for a futuristic action romance author. One can hope.
Word verification: feeling69 How do they know???
Wellllllllllllllllll….
21 years ago, when I was nineteen years old, a size 9, and hella cute, I was waiting at the Daly City MUNI station at 10:30 at night.
I’d spent most of my life in a small town, riding my bike to high school and Junior College. I’d had one boyfriend—I wrote him every night. I eventually married him—he still has the letters.
So there I was, Ms. All-American freckles w/a braid down to my waist, getting picked up by the slime of the humanity. Squared.
And I just didn’t want to give these people my name.
I was listening to ‘Til Tuesday on my walkman—And there was my first name: Amy. (I didn’t know that Aimee Mann spelled her name differently.) My boyfriend’s middle name was (is?) Lane.
I went home that night and wrote my boyfriend (husband:-) that when I was a big-time writer, I’d write under Amy Lane.
And there you go. Eighteen years, three children, and several years as a high school teacher later, on a lark, my husband said, “Hey—do you wanna publish that book you wrote? I thought it was pretty decent.”
I said, “Yeah—why not? I’ll even publish under Amy Lane, like I promised when we were young and I was cute.” (He still is.)
Three years, one more child and three books later, I really am Amy Lane.
(Shannon T.R. McClellan)
if i use the first pet name + first street i lived on formula i get…
rainbow fairy.
*high pitched giggling comences*
I’ve always thought my pet + street stripper name was pretty good (Marguerite Shotley), but I’m not sure how that would go over with a publisher as a pen name.
Pet and street?
Morticia 68—okay, clearly a SF writer
Charlie Shari—possibly romance, very light and fluffy
Lucy Jay—writes chick lit. Tries to be relevant but is just pretentious
Onyx Rolla—AA romance?
Thomas Arlington—True crime novels, definitely.
Maybe hit83 is a clue that I should just stick with Sparrow.
Pet name + street name = Pamela West. I don’t think Pamela West is a writer, and I don’t think I could respond to it.
That said if I ever published I’d have to go the pen name route since my surname is German and unpronounceable. (Props to Ms Neuenschwander up there; I spoke your name aloud for the pure, German joy of it.)
I normally sign here under my other name of TarotByArwen because I am representing myself. For this question, I’m using Marilu Mann which is the name that my best friend (30+ years, y’all, and we haven’t killed each other yet) chose for our first published work. We had thought about Cai Stephan (a combination of her first name and my given first name) but we decided to honor our mothers.
My mother, Marilu, passed away June 2002. Cai’s mama’s maiden name is Mann. We liked the alliteration of Marilu Mann and felt it reflected our Southern roots as well.
So, grin, no stripper names or porn star names…although I am rather fond of Kilo Avoyelles. snort
What kind of novels would my pen name (according to the above mentioned formula) lend to? I’d be “Baby Taylor”.
Pet/Street would be Dominick Lake, or Dominique Lake if I feminized it. Not too bad, really.
I haven’t written any romance, but I have written espionage genre short stories, and I always planned to use my initials + last name for that.
Pet+street would = Tiffany Kemp (not bad, but does sound more YA…)
Other pen names I’ve toyed with after applying such tactics as looking at the pen names and realizing how many bestselling authors have a first name that starts with J, as well as messing around with the numerological implications of the names and the possible subliminal ideas:
Jessica Larimore (historicals)
Theresa Montanari (contemporary and my Italian heritage)
J.T. Meyers (husband’s name is Jerry and it sound more male for sci-fi)
The big thing I’ve always come across when talking with other authors who use and become popular under their pseudonym is that it helps if you pick a first name that is either the same or similar to your actual first name. That way when you are at a signing or a conference and someone calls out your pen name, you don’t ignore them, thinking they are talking to someone else. Although, I’m thinking in Barbara/Caridad’s case, that’s not likely to happen.
Pet’s name+Street’s name = Sicotico Gil?
My mom’s second last name (yeah, we use two last names) is actually Gil so she would not be very pleased…
If I’d researched my pen name before I chose it I wouldn’t have to compete with a butterfly for top billing when googled.
Anyway, Melissa is my real first name. I’m one of those people who can only answer to my first name.*I’ve long ago accepted I’m slow on the uptake.* Blue is my mother’s maiden name.
Now if I had taken my mother’s advice I would have had a very unique writing name not on the list:
Simone Blue
I still might use it (for romantic suspense?).
Lastly, I created my own stripper name:
Melissa Going Down South Blue
Google that and see what you find.
I got mine by anglicizing my German last name and using my paternal great-grandmother’s maiden name.
My stripper name is Dallas…I have a black and white snakeskin cowboy hat, and Dallas just seemed to fit. If I did the pet+street name it would have been Dog Creed…not so sexy, that one.
Let’s see… my ‘net name is my middle name, Renee, plus the VERY obvious “Somebody” – I got tired of taking flack for using a more subtle alias. I’ve never met anyone else with the same first name as me, and I work in Industrial Security, which makes me a wee to obvious for a real name online. When I finish the NaNO romance novel, I’m thinking either first and last real name, or using the Renee in the middle.
After five years of mild multiple personality disorder, I’m shopping for a job that cares a lot less about my off work hours. Wearing a uniform and being told how I’m allowed to do my hair and what accesories to wear are not bonuses, either.
Princess Amhearst? Mouschie Shenandoah? Firestar South 14th? Miss Kitty Salisbury? none of these really work for me 🙁 Although I have the privelege of rooming with someone whose porno name is Daniel Railroad, which makes me giggle.
By the street + petname formula I would be called:
Captain Elm OR Sweetie Elm
My sisters and I had no imagination for pet names.
So I will never use it unless I become an erotica author, but even then it’s rather out there.
I would also not use my real name because my last name is SO common. I would probably pull something from my mother’s side of the family. There’s Aagard, Tillitt, and Brillhart in the last few generations. Those are more fun than Smith.