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?