Who?
Reading the post by guest blogger LL Bartlett (aka Lorna Barett, Lorraine Bartlett) this past Monday made me think about pseudonyms, why we take them, and–in my case–how many I’ve had.
I began my career writing historical romance, and took the name Constance Laux. It’s close to my real name, and the Constance sounds appropriately romancy to me. I did two books under that name, then switched again for just one book. My publisher was doing a special line of 19th Century, warm-and-fuzzy Americana romances, and wanted all the names on the covers to be fresh and new. For that one book, I used my maiden name (don’t you hate that antiquated expression?), Connie Deka. From there, it was back to Constance Laux again. Can’t say for sure how many more historicals I did under that name, somewhere around eight, I think.
At the same time, that same publisher asked if I would be interested in writing a series of young adult horror books. As I mentioned in reply to Lorna’s post, I was interested, but I didn’t know a thing about YA, much less horror. I invented a persona for myself, FX O’Grady, and when I sat down to write each day, I pretended that FX was the greatest YA writer in the world, and just penning another blockbuster. It worked, but that name never went on the cover of the books (thinking about it, I wonder why I never suggested it). Instead, I was Zoe Daniels for three books, then when I switched publishers for another series of YA books, I was Connie Laux–the only time my real, actual, honest-to-goodness name has appeared on the cover of books.
All the while, I was still writing historicals, using the YA work to fill time between books. At about this same time, I was asked to write the one and only children’s book I’ve ever done. It’s called “Fright Knight” and was number #5 in the Ghosts of Fear Street series. The name on the cover? RL Stine. Also the name on the cover of another book I wrote, “Killer’s Kiss.” (A great title, yes?)
About this same time, the historical market started tanking, and I decided to try my hand at contemporary romance. The publisher who bought the first of a four-book series wanted a name that wasn’t associated with historicals so we decided on Connie Lane. I was her for those four books, plus four for Harlequin, and a couple historicals that were published by Pocket.
And Casey Daniels?
Ah, that’s an interesting story! Remind me to tell you how I morphed into her someday when I haven’t used up all the blogging space allowed. I’ll tell you about someone else, too, who has a book coming out soon. Think I’ll save that big announcement for December 2, the day the book hits the shelves.
