What’s in a name?
First off, all pre-ordered signed books have been signed, packaged, and will be shipped tomorrow. Any books ordered after today will have a 3-5 business day turnaround (longer in the case of a convention weekend, like Origins this weekend).
And now onto the point of this post – or rather, the purpose of my ramblings:
As I was sitting here, munching on a brick of fudge (don’t judge me), and revising the outline for The Hunter (then I went on to write the first 10 pages, wooo!), I received a text from a friend.
“Spendlove??? Really??? How did you come up with THAT for your pen name?”
“LOL, well, believe it or not, it’s the name I signed for 21 years of my life.”
“Whaaaaaaaat?! Too funny!”
So there you have it – my pen name is not a silly made up name (it’s silly, but not made up), or just a fanciful name I came up with for the purposes of publishing. It is, in fact, my maiden name. It just so happens that I have a memorable, fun, whimsical maiden name – sometimes you just get lucky and life helps you out. 🙂
Which brings up the question, what exactly is my current last name? Well, does it matter? Not really, no. I mean, it’s not a big secret or anything, but part of the reason I decided to publish under a pen name is that I wanted to keep my two professional lives (writer me & U.S. Marine me) separate – well, as separate as possible in this day and age, because let’s face it, THE INTERNET KNOWS EVERYTHING!
Again, it’s no secret that I’m in the Marine Corps, or what my legal last name is – and at conventions, and meeting people, I’m more than happy to talk about these things, but for my author “identity” (especially online) I wanted to create a specific image, because let’s face it, that’s a lot of what a pen name is for (much like a stage name for a musician):
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author’s name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her writings, or for any of a number of reasons related to the marketing or aesthetic presentation of the work. The author’s name may be known only to the publisher, or may come to be common knowledge. (Thank you wikipedia)
To me, using my maiden name was an obvious choice as a pen name, because, as mentioned above, it was unique, and fanciful – perfect for a gal writing YA Lit and Fantasy. In addition to that, it was a name I was already familiar with, and would be easy for me to answer to. Oh, and it has had the added benefit on Facebook of helping me reconnect with many childhood friends! The only frustrating thing was that I wanted a gender neutral pen name (because yes, sadly, sexism still exists among buyers) – I wanted to publish as J.K. Spendlove… but as we all know, there is already another famous J.K. out there (doesn’t matter that those are my real initials too) – everyone would assume I was trying to capitalize on Ms. Rowling’s fame. So, Janine K. Spendlove it is!
Which brings us to how should you go about picking a pen name? This is a great website on guidance for if you should/why you would pick one: http://www.jh-author.com/pename.htm
Still can’t think of one? Well, here is a handy dandy pen-name generator: http://www.poemofquotes.com/tools/pen-name.php Have fun with that!
So, what’s in a name? I suppose whatever you make of it. I’m off to go practice signing Spendlove again… it has been over 10 years since I’ve had to!
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You can now get War of the Seasons, Book One, The Human for your Kindle and your Nook for only $4.99! The iBook version (also for only $4.99) should be due out any day now.
The Nook version still isn’t showing the map (come on B&N!) – Until then, here is a clickable thumbnail to the map so you can know where in the world you are…
Not into reading digital books? You can purchase a signed copy of my book in my shop.
Not into collecting signed books, but still want a physical copy? You can get it on createspace or Amazon.
Want to test drive before you buy? You can now read Sample Chapters here.
Love my book? I’d love a review at any of those places – Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, your own blog… Let me know what you think!
And come friend me! 🙂
Goodreads, Livejournal, Twitter, Facebook, Blogspot, and well, I would say Myspace, but does anyone use myspace anymore? If you do, I’m there & feel free to friend me!
Also, my Facebook fan page only has 67 people who like me *sad*. So, I have succumbed to bribery… the 100th person to “like” me gets a free signed copy of War of the Seasons, Book One: The Human! Come on, can you think of a more awesome prize than that??? Wait… don’t answer that! 😉
GIF TIME!
