Alternate Personas

Job hunting! Addergoole is turning out tamer than I expected, but, still, when people Google the "Jane Farfegugan" that is me when I'm looking for work, I don't want Addergoole, and some day, the far less tame Wild Ones' Blood to show up.

Same thing with family, too.

~Lyn

OK, I can kind of understand that, but... why? Addergoole, even if it were more explicit than it is now, is still no worse than most books you can find on shelves, and I've never heard of published authors being turned down for jobs because they wrote some racy stuff. If anything, you'd think it would be a good selling point: you can show that once you have a project, you stick with it; you're self-motivating; and you have a decent grasp of your native language and are able to communicate clearly through your writing. All of those are valuable skills on the market. It's a lot different than posting drunken frat party photos of yourself on MySpace.

Same curiosity with family. I may be a little abnormal in coming from a family of readers, but I've never written anything I'd be afraid to show my family (hell, I wish I *could* convince them to read The Peacock King, and they've loved my short fiction).

The Irk name's been attached to me since high school, and when I took it onto the internet about ten years ago, it was just another name to call Erica Bercegeay. I've been Irk for the whole time I've been a writer, so I don't think I could divorce the identities. It does mean you'll find my deviantArt and other pages if you google my name, which means employers will find it as well. I'll live with that, especially now that my job searches are in Portland where peeps aren't nearly as conservative as they were in Louisiana. Cleaning up the Erica Bercegeay occurrences in google is too much effort and not worth it anyway.

I never consciously made this decision, it just sort of happened.

It made sense at the time?

I was out of work, scared, and applying at colleges and places where I really wanted to present nothing of myself except a professional facade. Now, I don't think it would be such a problem.

My family, on the other hand (not my parents, my extended family), would balk at Shahin's panic attacks, be uncomfortable by Chapter 3, and by the scene where Emrys grabs Shahin's collar. A friend of mine tells a story of her mother seeing a hickey on her neck and saying, rather pointedly, "love shouldn't hurt:" yeah.

I don't let my family see anything of me I haven't preplanned for them to see.

~L

I chose to do it because of my history in fan fiction. I wrote a heck of a lot of fan fic over the years, and those stories still pop up at the top of Google searches if you search on my name (or my maiden name.)

It's not that my later fan fic was terrible (we won't discuss the early works), but fan fic does have a bad rap.

Also, I've spent all 11 years of my married life getting my name butchered. If half my own family can't remember/pronounce/spell it, as well as co-workers, survey takers, doctor's offices, and anyone actually READING it written down and printed out . . . (takes a deep breath) Well, let's just say that I shudder to think what would happen in publishing circles.

I used to have my name as SoraKainomori and it still is in certain places just because I'm too lazy to change it. For me, my name is so unique that you'd eventually see the connection between the two. I just googled my name a bunch of things came up some are good and some are actually pretty sad. I figure if you're going to try to dig up some dirt on me it might as well be from me. You're not going to find anything that I didn't tell you myself. Plus when people do google my name it would be pretty cool if there are like "Wow, she doesn't just write this silly story, she does this and this."

Well, I don't change my name or anything. Mostly, in regards to social networking, I had a pretty active life on myspace/facebook before I ever decided to use it as a marketing tool. While it seemed cool to write blogs decrying how much I hated my ex-boyfriend to my friends, it didn't seem so much like the kind of thing I wanted my readers to know about, I guess.

Because I hate my real name And actually most of my friends in real life do know me as Clare.

Also, I have what I guess is pretty much a phobia of letting my family read any of my writing.

Well... my name changes with my husbands so I've always found it easier to stick with the pen name Miladysa...

Joking aside, I like the freedom Miladysa gives me to express myself freely on the internet without drawing attention to myself in rl.

I live in a very small town, work within a sensitive field and my real name is unusual. It wouldn't be hard to find me in a google search if my real name was ever to appear in one and I prefer it to stay that way.

Gabriel is my middle name, and many of my friends call me that, so it's not much of a stretch. As far as the surname, Gadfly is a billion times easier to spell than my real last name, and I'm a sucker for alliterative names.

I don't use a pen name because of content or family or anything like that. My mother reads my website, and possibly some of my other relatives do too, and I refuse to work for an employer that doesn't respect my free-speech write to create whatever literature I choose.

I guess for me I use it in part because it's a marketing tool. It's easy to remember, it's unique enough to be recognizable anywhere on the web, and I think (I hope) it makes me stand out.

Initially I used a pen name because I was writing stuff with sex scenes in it, which, after I read a mainstream urban fantasy novel I bought in a grocery store (*cough*Laurell K. Hamilton*cough*), I realized is not out of the mainstream in the least. But it's too late now; everyone knows me as MeiLin, and I'm okay with that. It's like putting on a coat. I put on MeiLin and I'm ready to write.

I wish, like writingnessie, I had chosen a different pen name than my fanfic name; I just last week got bitten in the ass by that. My fanfiction.net page came up as the fifth result for my name--the rest was my original work--and so I was kept from the program at Orycon. I wasn't given an official slot on the schedule despite being asked two years in a row to read at the erotica reading. I was a "fanfic writer," because of ONE HIT on my Google results. (I'm working on being less angry about this.)

Now, I think it's not a bad idea to have pen names for the different kinds of writing one does. I use my original name for my nonfiction, MeiLin for my fantasy work, and if I decide to do some other kind of writing, I might choose another name for that.

Initially I used a pen name because I was writing stuff with sex scenes in it, which, after I read a mainstream urban fantasy novel I bought in a grocery store (*cough*Laurell K. Hamilton*cough*), I realized is not out of the mainstream in the least. But it's too late now; everyone knows me as MeiLin, and I'm okay with that. It's like putting on a coat. I put on MeiLin and I'm ready to write.

I wish, like writingnessie, I had chosen a different pen name than my fanfic name; I just last week got bitten in the ass by that. My fanfiction.net page came up as the fifth result for my name--the rest was my original work--and so I was kept from the program at Orycon. I wasn't given an official slot on the schedule despite being asked two years in a row to read at the erotica reading. I was a "fanfic writer," because of ONE HIT on my Google results. (I'm working on being less angry about this.)

Now, I think it's not a bad idea to have pen names for the different kinds of writing one does. I use my original name for my nonfiction, MeiLin for my fantasy work, and if I decide to do some other kind of writing, I might choose another name for that.

I'm glad MeiLin brought up using different names for different types of writing. That, actually, is completely my intention as I move forward with my writing. I write various things from paranormal romance to high fantasy to urban fantasy to science fiction to erotica. I even have a few items that could probably be turned into something YA. When the time comes, I'll probably use a different name for the erotica and yet another different one for the YA. Possibly even a different one depending on the flavor of fantasy and science fiction I'm peddling.

@MeiLin - I'm sorry to hear that news about Orycon. Whoever came up with that decision is a muppet!

As MeiLin and WritingNessie mentioned - husband-person and I might write some YA, which will be under a totally different pen name than the Addergoole stuff.

My pen name is also, like many screen names, so much a part of me now that it's just like putting on a different hat, like MeiLin said - except when I'm in Day Job mode and sign an e-mail to a disgruntled fan with my IRL name :-/

My initials - A. M. - are my real initials. I'm just using my mother's maiden name instead of my last name.

Why? Because I'm not a big fan of my last name, and also due to the job hunting/googling things people have mentioned already.

I don't have the fanfic problem (I was one of those people with japanese-y pen names, back then), and I don't really mind my family reading the stuff - most of them know my pen name, actually.

Lastly, I did my MA thesis on author names, and the few things I did discover (re: boring linguistic analysis) made me realize my mother's maiden name was probably better suited as a brand for my kind of writing than my real last name.

Finally - I like keeping things separate. I don't want readers/online friends/etc mixed with IRL people, and with the existence of places like facebook, you need two separate names to keep things neat.

Interesting conversation!

I'm using my real name for the reasons Char gave up here. That said, I almost adopted a pen name for SLB because of the sex, despite most of it being rated R. Hell, I still don't heavily promote SLB on my Facebook page for that reason. I'm FB friends with many of my coworkers and some family members, and most of them are quite conservative. Their views won't change what I write, but I don't want to hear any crap about it.

Happily, so far I've yet to suffer any negative consequences from less-than-mainstream content in stuff signed with my real name.

Also? I hate my last name, but I'm too lazy to legally change it. It's often butchered, but at least it's short.

I'm with you! T. & I had been married 6 years before I got around to getting my driver's license & social security card in the correct name despite using it on everything else (including taxes & checking accounts) from day 1.

She was someone with 500 people to vet. She thought she knew who I was, got the Google hit to confirm it, spent 10 seconds on my site and "didn't see any subscribers or way to subscribe," and that was that. I don't blame her--see "500 people to vet." I didn't even know I was being considered for a panel until last week, when I should have had information in to the committee in August. Part of this is my fault, part of it is the friend who was organizing the panel's fault. I wasn't actually sitting here waiting for someone to call, but I sorta was. Next year I'm applying for the pro discount. I'll have the book out and all kinds of other cites to "prove" that I'm a real writer.

I kinda wish I had gone with a nom de web back in 1997 when my serial started, but since I didn't, that ship has sailed. To paraphrase the great NewsRadio, getting something off the internet is like trying to take pee out of a pool. Unfortunately my name isn't that common and I'm easy to track.

But I don't really have a reason to hide except being extraordinarily shy. There's nothing in ASF I wouldn't show to anyone I know, even my young niece (since she's a pretty mature gal for 13). As far as fanfic goes, I only posted one scene of an American Gothic fic, part of a round robin in 1996/7 or so, and that too is under my real name. My web life is an open book!

This is something I'm really curious about. Erica Bercegeay is more a rider tacked onto my writing than Irk is, and I've always wondered if I should get a pen name. There aren't that many Bercegeays in writing, at least, but it's hard to spell, long, and for some reason impossible for anyone outside of southern Louisiana to pronounce.

(Not kidding: my personal business cards say "bur-suh-jay" under my last name, so people can say it.)

By your thesis research, should I look into the new last names market? I do have some family pride attached to it and my family, on the whole, doesn't READ BOOKS so I'm not embarrassed by anything I might publish under that name. So I'd only change it for marketing. Might be too late - can't really tell yet.

There's another thing sort of percolating around here - the last name on my driver's license is something I got from my husband. Now, I love T., but I'd been sort of whuffling as I started thinking of writing - did I want to use *my* name, the one I got from my father and wore until I was in my mid-20's, or did I want to use T's, name which I've gotten comfortable with but is still a little foreign (no-on can spell the stupid thing) after seven years?

The fact that the "Alder" in Thorne-Alder came from my dad's writing days and the "Thorn" came from T. makes the whole argument a little silly, I suppose - but Lyn Thorne-Alder is a name that is entirely me.

I don't know if that makes any sense at all, however.

MeiLin, that sucks. But you've got the right attitude for next year. Good luck. I hope they don't think they have you pegged. (But my thinking might be more negative than usual since I'm bereaved tonight... lost my old Lab.)

I use my real name on the Internet everywhere that has to do with writing or my other profession, homeopathy... except on Twitter where I post as @Chevenga, and do my tweets from the character's point of view, which I started kind of on a whim. I wonder whether it's a good idea. I've never had the urge to use an alias. Not sure why, when virtually everyone else seems to. I've never had any bad consequences from that, knock on wood.

I like being able to separate my writing from my RL. I work in a very highly regulated industry, and having a different umbrella to put my hobby under is very useful for compliance purposes. I chose my nom de screen years before I started this job, though.

I wanted a name that reflects my personal beliefs. I am a Christian, and I wanted a name to show that. The rose of Sharon is a wildflower used to reference Christ in the Bible; since my goal is to be more like Him, there ya go.

I knew it! Song of Solomon, right?

@gabrielgadfly Yes, 2:1. Refers to the Beloved, who called herself a simple wildflower in contrast to the cultivated beauty of the Lover. Also considered a reference to Christ. This verse also gives some insight into the name of my brand.

@sharontrose Shouldn't you be using a Rose of Sharon for an av instead of an American Beauty standard rose? ;D (Personally, I LOVE the white variety of Rose of Sharon. I want to plant some once I settle somewhere for good.)

@charnanigans I just picked the first rose image that I liked, rather than hunting up a good jpg of the actual flower. Yes, I'm somewhat lazy.

The usual reasons for the pen name. I am aspiring to a field that requires a lot of writing - and oftentimes, any writing that isn't part of your research is frowned upon as a waste of time. So I'd prefer, for now, that my RL name and my weblit name not be linked.

Maybe once I get tenure, I can unmask. But that's a long way off.