READ AROUND THE RAINBOW ~ Pen Names #RAtR

It’s the last Friday of the month and you know what that means! It’s ᖇEᗩᗪ ᗩᖇOᑌᑎᗪ TᕼE ᖇᗩIᑎᗷOᗯ time!

٩(θ ‿ θ)۶

This month’s topic is…

Pen Names

Not sure how much I have to say on this topic. Do I use a pen name? Yes, I do. Do I have strong opinions on the myriad reasons why people choose either to use or not to use pen names? No, I don’t. If I have any strong thoughts of the matter at all, it’s only the firm opinion that other people’s choices are none of my business.

I often see snippets of controversy about the subject, but I like to live in a drama-free bubble. My thoughts are that each person’s life experience and situation is different, and I trust them to make the choice that works best for them. I don’t care if the reasons are personal or professionally calculated.

Want to use your real name? Go for it. Want to use your initials instead of the full name? I don’t care. Doesn’t matter to me what your motivation is for doing so is, either.

Want to use a pen name? Cool, do it. Want to use something completely unrelated to your real name? Fine. Want it to be somehow meaningful to you such as a family name? Fine with me. Doesn’t affect me as a reader either way. Want to use initials or a gender neutral name? I couldn’t care less. I don’t even care that one of my all-time favorite M/M authors is a woman using a masculine pen name. Pfft. It’s a bit of a nothing-burger to me.

The things people get their knickers into a twist over never ceases to amaze me. I do not care about the sex, gender, or sexual orientation of the author, only that the story is well written.

All this is referring to fiction, by the way. Obviously if it’s supposed to be a non-fiction book about the author’s personal experiences, then they need to be honest about their sex/gender/orientation/cultural background/whatever insofar as it is applicable to the book.

Anyway, how did I come up with my own pen name? I’m not sure I remember the finer details, but I’m pretty sure it involved a paperback book of baby names. I won’t swear on my life, but I’m also pretty sure I found it in the section of girls names, but it turns out it’s gender neutral. Whether that hurts or helps or matters not, I don’t know (or overly care). Then after I settled on Addison for a first name, I flipped through a phone book (yeah, it was back when those were plentiful) until I found one that I thought fit well with my first name of choice.

I remember doing a search for the full name to make sure it wasn’t a common combo, and didn’t see any listings at all of people with that same name, which had been my goal. So I settled on it. Turns out that situation changed very soon thereafter, but I tried.

Again, it’s been a while, but the way I remember it, I simply started at the front of those reference books rather than randomly flipping around. I ended up with two “A” names, which while I don’t remember that having been a calculated maneuver, I did quickly realize it could be beneficial when it came to alphabetical listings, so bonus.

In short, I don’t care if anyone uses a pen name or not. I don’t care if it’s a full name or initials. I don’t care if it’s male, female, or neutral. I don’t care where in the alphabet the name falls. And I don’t care what anybody’s motivation was for any of the above.

Heh…I guess I had a little more to say than I thought when I started writing this!

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WEBRING ~ Read Around the Rainbow!

Be sure to flip through the webring to read your favorite authors’ takes on this topic! For your convenience, here are direct links to the other WebRing participants’ posts for this month’s prompt:

Read around the Rainbow

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