Writer's Journey: The Pen Name
To pseudonym or not to pseudonym…
Everything I’ve ever released has always been under my own name. Every blog post, book, piece of art, review…
All me.
I was adamant for the longest time that it was always going to be that way…
Until about a week or so ago.
I’d been set to send off the current WIP (a rom-com) to a traditional publisher. But the truth is, what I really want to do doesn’t fit with a lot of traditional publishing wish-lists.
So….
After a rabbit-hole dive back into indie publishing, and finding some like-minded fellow authors who love romance, as I do, for the journey of two people finding the best parts of themselves every bit as much as they love the hot passages, I’ve decided…
yep.
I’m going to indie-publish this new rom-com under the name Sloan Wilder.
Mom was the first to suggest Sloan, and I immediately thought of Wilder as a nod to Billy Wilder, since my rom-com has a Hollywood setting.
I also love the way it sounds like Joan Wilder, one of the main characters of the Romancing the Stone series. Also a movie, and Joan Wilder was also a fictional female writer. (Plus, Kathleen Turner is a real-life fellow Missouri girl—who, for a time, went to the same university I graduated from!)
As a child of the ‘80s, I ate up Romancing the Stone…back in junior high, I was at a friend’s house when we decided to pop it into her VCR. As soon as it came on, there was Joan Wilder, bawling her eyes out as she typed up the final sentences of her latest novel. My friend just started laughing and said, “Oh, my God, that’s going to be you.”
So…it just seems a perfect fit: Sloan Wilder.
I’ll be writing more about the journey. Suffice it to say I’m really excited about this one.
Bring on the bawling-while-typing. Come on—if you’ve ever written anything, you know it’s a great feeling.