Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Writing Group => Topic started by: stacer on September 07, 2006, 05:18:19 AM
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I've decided that my ideas for pen names suck. Or at least, I'm not satisfied with them. My childhood choice, Anastasia, kind of implies a romance novelist or something. I can't really use--well, don't really want to use--my real name as a pen name, since there's already an author out there using Stacy Whitman, and her books have titles like Shackin' Up: The Single Girl's Guide to Living in Sin.
Since I'm actually thinking this time I might finish this book and start submitting it (which is kind of funny and all, because it may be the only book I ever write, but even so...), I think I need a good pen name. Not top of the list of things to think about, but it's 1 a.m., I wrote today, and I can't sleep. Besides, it's been rather quiet round these parts.
Here's the short list of pen names I've thought of.
Lynn Whitman
Anastasia Lynn
Whitman Lynn
Anastasia Whitman
Yes, they're dumb. I'm most drawn to Lynn Whitman because it's my middle name. I suppose I could use S. Lynn Whitman, but that feels a little to General Authority-ish for me. Should I use a family name or something? Blair Whitman wouldn't work--that's my dad's name as well as a family name. Blake Whitman sounds like a man. Stacy Blair is apparently a world-famous piccolo trumpet player, but that's a little on the obscure side, compared to someone who wrote another book. Oh. A quick google also reveals that someone by that name is a pr0n star.
I know we discussed pen names here a while back, but I'm too lazy to find the thread. What do y'all think? Just use my middle initial and call it good? Try to use EUOL/Dave Wolverton's middle-of-the-alphabet pen name system and pick a pen name starting with F or what, N, was it? What would you do in my situation?
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Here's a list of family names I like, just as fodder for the brainstorming.
Templeton
Shaub
Seaton
Blair
Massingill/Masingale/Massingale
Klein/Kline (perhaps I'm related to Calvin or Patsy)
Histed/Hested
Hayes
Halbroeder (now wouldn't that be a fun one? especially paird with Anastasia)
Clark
Barr
Baltozer
Johnson
Frisk
Diel
Rogers
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Templeton
Shirley Templeton can't be serious
Massingill/Masingale/Massingale
isn't that a feminine hygiene product?
Klein/Kline (perhaps I'm related to Calvin or Patsy)
what about kevin?
Hayes
Rutherford would B. so proud
Halbroeder (now wouldn't that be a fun one? especially paird with Anastasia)
Oddly, I have nothing to say about that
Baltozer
Balthezar would get the Battlestar Galactica crowd
Frisk
Frisky Frisk!
Ok, to be serious, I tyhink you are putting a lot of stock into the idea of someone in a different genre having the same name as thou. And if you insist, you're finding funny reasons not to like names "too General Authority?" What's that about?
And what would be wrong with Stacy Lynn?
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Oh, I forgot that one. It's okay, I suppose.
It's not so much that she's in another genre. That doesn't matter--it's the whole googling my name thing--what will someone find?
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Thanks. I'll send.
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you could use S.L. Whitman
works pretty well for my mother, she uses T.S. Wiley
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So many choices!
Well, I've always been a fan of alliteration, so perhaps you could try the S names?
Stacy Shaub
Stacy Seaton
S. L. Shaub
S. L. Seaton
I kind of like Stacy Seaton. But, really, there are a lot of good family names to choose from. I like Lynn Whitman, too, and if you're leaning toward that, it's great. I think it really comes down to what YOU like.
And of course you should decide on a pen name before finishing your novel! That's part of the fun of planning to be an author. Me, I've decided to just use my own name. Not any YA authors with my last name, as far as I know, just a SL journalist. And, I like my name. I've had it awhile, and I'd like to keep it, even if I get married, and this way I will (without having to refuse to change my name). Now I'm published in the Friend under that name. Yay!
Besides, how else am I supposed to show all those people in high school and college I finally accomplished my goal if it's not the name they knew me by on the cover? Because, I mean, that's why I'm doing this of course--to show them all!!! ;)
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Stacy Whit
Stace Whitman
Lynn Stacer
I dunno, tough question. I can understand the desire to avoid association with that other Stacy Whitman's books. I'm not a big fan of pseudonyms myself though.
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I like:
Stacey Winter
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Use 'Evil Undead Over Mistress'.
Hey, it'd sell books, right?
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No thanks. I think EUOL's wife might have claim to that kind of pen name.
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My first thought was to spell your first name backwards, but that gave me YCats which probably isn't what you're looking for. Instead, how about just rearranging the letters? Styca Whitman has a certain ring to it...
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Personally I think the "porn name" method is fun: pair your middle name with a detail like the place you were born or grew up, the season you were born in, your first pet's name, etc.
MattD
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Using Boyd as a spring board for success... how about Kitty-Lynn Whitman? I'm more partial to the first two names than the last. Clark might be a good chaser instead of Whitman, or maybe Johnson. It does currently bring up someone's blog on Google, but at least there are no pr0n stars in the first few pages of a search...
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Speaking from personal experience here . . . You do NOT in any way want to have your last name, real or pen, end in a W
Go to any bookstore and you will find that the W authors are always always always on the very bottom shelf where even toddlers have to bend over to see them. I have already determined that any of my national work will be a pen name: Jules Hartman. H and N are typically in the eyeline of browsing readers. I'd suggest going to a few different bookstores and getting a feel for the way the alphabet shelving works in each one. Then find a last name that will get you the most prime shelf-space.
I believe with all my heart that my last name is a deterrent. I love my husband in every fathomable way, but I'm ditching his last name at the next book. :)
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you can say that about extreme ends of the alphabet, like W, but even then it's only a generalization. it depends on shelf size and where the series books are and how they put the series books in and do they run up against the Graphic novels? or do the graphic novels start on a shelf below the last fantasy book? and what about the game books?
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Jules, what you've said is one of the major reasons Dave Wolverton uses David Farland now.
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I think I've decided that if I ever get published (and who are we kidding here, I may never finish the first draft--I just think the idea of a pen name is a fun discussion topic), it'll be with my own last name, and I'll just have to have really really good PR.
Okay, I haven't decided that. I haven't decided anything. But I do like my name.
For discussion: what other parameters would you put into choosing a pen name, in more generic terms than my personal name?
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Actually, I do kind of like Anastasia Lynn. It sounds like a pen name, true, but it still has a nice ring to it.
I think a pen name should be distinctive, yet not flagrant. It should stand out just enough to be memorable without distracting from the books themselves.
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If you're thinking marketability, something short that can be splashed across the top of a book cover in huge letters (and visibly on the spine) works well. Robert Jordan, Robin Cook, Robin Hobb, Tom Clancy (whether or not these are their real names), etc.
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I like the idea of a pen name, but I also like having my own name to avoid confusion.
If an author is changing genres or writing adult novels suddenly when they were writing children's before, a pen name is a nice courtesy to their readers. Janette Rallison uses a pen name for her LDS fiction, but her own name for her national work.
I think short names that fit in nice large letters on the cover are a great idea, and something to consider. My friend, Jeff Savage, writes horror and that's his real name. Lucky dog :) How cool to writer horror and have a last name like Savage!
When I was young, I wanted the pen name of Alexandria Austen (I was into alliteration and loved Jane Austen) Sadly that name sounds like it belongs on the cover of a bodice ripper. I figure the pen name I've pretty well settled on will work for me since everone calls me Jules, and Hartman is the name my paternal grandfather had before he was adopted as a slave to the people who needed someone to work their farm. So the name works for me on all levels.
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...
Now there's a story there.
Where did this story happen, with your grandfather? When?
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During the depression my great grandfather abandoned his wife and seven children. Without any way to feed her children, my great grandmother put them all in an orphanage. She felt so despaired at having left her kids in such an awful place, she went back and reclaimed the oldest, Mary. The rest were all adopted out to various families. My grandfather was adopted by the peterson's. He was seven. The peterson's had no children of their own and since they were getting on in years, they needed someone to work the farm (I actually own the land the farm existed on and have set up my house and a cute little store on it)
They beat my grandfather like he was a worthless work horse and even made jokes about the five dollar bastard horse they bought. He had a nervous breakdown when he was ten and the sheriff told Mr Peterson that if he beat my grandfather any more, they'd end up killing him. So the beatings lessened but didn't cease. My grandfather (in spite of all this) grew to be a good man. He was a good husband and a good father. I really think he grew up good because as a small child he'd been raised with love. He ended up having seven kids. A few years after my parents were married, they received a strange phone call from a woman named Mary. She was all grown up and her mother was dying and her mother's only wish was to see the children she gave away all those years ago in the same room together. Mary was trying to find them all.
So on the death bed of my great grandmother, her estranged children gathered, and were together for the first time in decades. She died the next morning. The kids all stayed in touch and were very good friends for the rest of their lives.
It's a sad story and a beautiful story. I've gone several times to write it, but my cousins might not like that very much . . . Maybe someday.
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Have you read Jack Weyland's Peppertide? Vaguely similar situation, though not that extreme.
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I think it would be fun to use an anagram of my real name http://wordsmith.org/anagram/
I know it's silly but I had fun.
Here are a few of mine:
Aen Elderberry
Red Ranbeer
Rare Bender
Bard Rene Leery
Rye'en Reel Drab
Render E. Bleary
Bean Reeldryer
By Leer A. Render
Rye, a Rebel Nerd
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That first one is cool.
I always thought my name (Sarah Bylund) was sort of... bland. Okay for the scholarly stuff I have published, but I think I'd choose something more splashy for a pen name if I ever finish *and* publish my novel.
Maybe something like Sarah Carapezza. I heard that last name recently and, well, it's got a nice rhyming quality with my first name and the Zs make it even cooler.