This week we’re talking about pseudonyms, and whether or not writers should use them.
It all depends I suppose on whether the writer wants to preserve his/her anonymity. My debut novel ‘The Porn Detective’ was written from the heart, and a good part of it was true to life about a dark time in my own marriage. I did not want my immediate family to read it for obvious reasons, and so changed a name slightly that I saw handwritten on the sleeve of a dubious-looking DVD I found ten years ago during my porn detective days and used that instead.
Fortunately those days are all behind me now, and last week I retired The Porn Detective from publication. Writing it served a therapeutic purpose at the time, but now I’m glad to see the back of it. Sam and I have moved on from those dark times, and to be honest the whole scenario feels as though it happened to somebody else, as we are different people now. I’ll always remember it though, as it served to kick-start my writing career, and so quite a lot of good came out of it. Sam and I worked everything out, and I got to live true to myself at last.
Other people have their own reasons for writing under a pseudonym. Some use a variety of names for different genres. Even J K Rowling used one to write a detective novel, although the press soon found out (she was furious). I have managed to write quite anonymously for 3 years now, and also write non-fiction under my real name.
Sam is proud of my writing achievements, and doesn’t want me to hide my light under a bushel anymore. The trouble is that Stevie Turner is the name I’ve been writing fiction under for 3 years, and so I’ll probably carry on with it as I haven’t ever written any fiction under my real name. Even Sam calls me Stevie quite a lot of the time. I’m used to being Stevie now, and so I think I’ll keep her!
What do you think about pseudonyms? Link up below if you have anything to say on the subject.
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Stevie Turner 
I use a pseudonyms because I wanted to include my last husband with our books. Sahara was a name Bob was known by in another life before I met him. I always think of it has a male name, but everyone else sees it as female. LOL. TBH, I like hiding behind the anonymity of a different name. I’m not much for the lime-light.
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I see Sahara as a female name too. Yes, it’s good to be anonymous!
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Thanks for sharing Stevie. I love your ‘Stevie Turner’. My mother’s nickname for me was Stevie! Had forgotten that she did. It’s great that your husband has rallied around you and your writing. It’s nice to have family support on something that is so important to you.
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Thanks Stephany.
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Everyone keeps giving out my first name instead of just the initial. It’s interesting how it can be disrespected inadvertently.
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Reblogged this on aurorawatcherak.
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I had never done Facebook (or any other social media) until about 7 years ago, when my daughter convinced me I should use it to keep up with family and friends. The day after I set it up, I went to work and one of my coworkers was packing up her desk. She’d been fired because someone had asked her (on Facebook) how her day had gone. She wrote “You know how some days are – you just can’t please anyone.” Our Executive Secretary read it, felt that my coworker was talking about either herself or the Executive Director, went to the ED (who was evil, by the way) and that was it — my coworker came into work the next morning to find she was out of a job.
And people wonder why I use a pen name.
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Yes, it’s much better that way. Thanks for the re-blog by the way.
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I think the rule of thumb is this: If you’d feel comfortable knowing your boss, coworkers, kids, neighbors, clergy, etc MIGHT one day read your book/blog/web persona…then go ahead and use your real name. If you’d be embarrassed to have people read your content, use a pen name. The world is getting smaller and smaller. LOTS of employers use Google as part of their background check. I know people who use pseudonyms on Facebook and Twitter for that reason alone. If you wouldn’t divulge it in a job interview, use a pseudonym. 😉
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