This is my very first public appearance under my new pen name, Susan Fox. After writing short stories, novellas, and single titles under the name Susan Lyons for Kensington Aphrodisia, Berkley Heat, Harlequin Spice Briefs, The Wild Rose Press, Freya’s Bower, New Love Stories Magazine, and Woman’s World (shall I go on? – no, you get the picture), it’s going to take some adjusting to being Susan Fox.
But I like her. She gets to write for Brava! When Kensington moved the second book in my Wild Ride to Love series from Aphrodisia to Brava, they asked me to come up with a pen name. I wanted to remain Susan because I couldn’t imagine getting used to answering to a different first name. So, because it’s fun and easy to remember and I have a fondness for the animal kingdom, I suggested Fox, and Kensington agreed. So, please join in christening the brand new writer, Susan Fox (yes, she does accept presents – LOL).
(By the way, I hold in reserve Susan Wolfe and Susan Tyger just in case I have to come up with more new names in the future. So no-one else claim them, okay? Susan Cougar is up for grabs, though!)
In case you’re wondering, my first Brava, Love Unexpectedly, comes out in April, so I’ll tell you all about it next month. I’ve staked myself a blog spot on the second Wednesday of each month.
For now, I’m interested in people’s thoughts about pen names. Is it just me who gets confused easily? Personally, I’d rather all writers stuck to one name and the book covers gave the flavor of the story, rather than writers using different names for different types of books. But I think I may be in the minority. How about you?
Well, sometimes it is rather confusing for me. But once I get used to the new name it’s okay. I know there are a lot of authors who use different names for different genres.
Yes, there sure are, Linda. For me, it really helps if there’s some similarity between the names, which is what I tried to do when I picked my pen name. But then, I’m bad at remembering names anyhow, so it’s a real challenge for me to remember that 2 or 3 quite different names all belong to the same person.
As a reader, the tough part for me isn’t keeping the pen names straight. Usually I don’t really notice if one author has two pen names. It’s when I’m conducting business. I work with dozens of authors and many of them use a pen name, but then I also know them by their real name, and yes, perhaps another pen name or two as well. And just to really mess with me, some of them have writing partners! My contact list is huge and sometimes confusing.
Oh yeah, Alice, that sounds incredibly confusing. I’ve found it really hard when I know people by a real name, a pen name, and maybe a second pen name. When I meet them at a conference, I have to peer at their name tag to figure out which hat they’re wearing today. I can’t imagine having to deal with this kind of thing with dozens of authors!
I’ve read categories in the 90′s by a Susan Fox. Were they your books?
No, Laurie, that’s a different Susan Fox. I was first published in 2006. And the only stories I have with the Harlequin family are three Spice Briefs, out this January, February and March.
If all the writers who have multiple pen names turned purple tomorrow, there’d be lots of purple writers in the world.
Color me purple,
Emily Bryan/Diana Groe
LOL, Emily/Diana. Purple would be really helpful.
Then if maybe the various names could be tattooed on a visible body part!