Name on the Book!

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MakanJuu

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Ok, I'll go ahead & give it, since no one got it.

Tucholske= Two-hall-ski

That one's a bitch, huh.
 

Taylor Harbin

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I have no idea what people would think of my name: Taylor Harbin.

Taylor is a unisex name, but is common among women. I was named after James Taylor, but then Taylor Swift ruined everything. I've met less than ten other males named Taylor.

Harbin is a name so uncommon that most of my mail is misspelled in one way or another. It's also a city in China.

I never seriously entertained the idea of a pen name.
 

LupineMoon

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I imagine N. A. Knoll as a satirist or something similar.

My pen name at the moment is Susan Leigh.
 

Animad345

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Susan Leigh: Could be a mainstream novelist, but my first thought was 'romance.'

Joeyta Dutta. Said exactly as it is written, if you can believe it!
 

KateSmash

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(Oooh this looks fun! Going to do a bunch so no one hits me for using too many name possibilities.)

Joyeta Dutta: Lit fic, maybe of the generational family melodrama type in a Non-US setting.
Susan Leigh: Mainstream, with a bend toward women's fic.
Stephy/Stephanie Kay - Contemp YA
William Abel - Mainstream, maybe mystery
Maxx Borchovski - Thrillers
Lee Raven - Thrillers or romantic suspense
Maggie Maxwell - Contemp YA
Kia Wimbush - more Contemp YA
Talia Liben Yarmush - Dark Lit Fic
Thomas Lorcroft - Hard SF
SL Huang - Science Fiction of moderate hardness
Kassidy Silverman - Mystery
Michelle Athy - Thrillers
Niall Roach -
Rachel Frank- Contemp YA
Belinda Rees - Mainstream/Women's Fic
Nora Moon - SFF (I blame the "Moon" part)
Kia Stone - Romance
Marian York - Fantasy
James Page-Martin - Fantasy
M.K. Moore - Humor (probably because of the Moore)
Cheyenne Shaffer - Romance
H. Cassel - SF
Devon Karter - Thrillers
Chris(tian) Tucholske - Magical Realism
Ariane Vai - Thrillers (I prefer "Vhai" btw) maybe Romantic Suspense
Nancy Burke - Mystery
Rand Lee Rich - Another mystery (more toward thrillers)
Kira Silverman - Mystery
Marian Crane - Mystery (closer toward the cosy end of the spectrum)
Kia Huntington - Mystery
Alexis Bright/Emily Oliver - MG for both
Deborah Linney - Mainstream, edging toward Lit
J S Fairey - I preferred this over the others. It could go anyway, really.

-

And now me!

Katrina Haggard or Kate Haggard

And then Eliot St. James as a pseudonym for something off-brand I'm considering.
 

LupineMoon

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Susan Leigh: Could be a mainstream novelist, but my first thought was 'romance.'

Joeyta Dutta. Said exactly as it is written, if you can believe it!

Hm... I might change my mind about my genre. :p
 

ohheyyrach77

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Talking to my grandma about pen names. She told me I should publish under her grandma's name.

Bertha Viola Cooch.

No, I'm totally serious. Her full name was Bertha Viola Cooch.




I'm not publishing under that, it's just too funny not to share.
 

Melanii

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After being kind of called back to this thread (someone recommended it to another), I realized that my name gives off the wrong vibe, lols.

Stephanie IS my real name, and Kay is my middle name. Since I don't write contemporary anything, it's off the mark. :p Though someone said "cutesy YA romance" and that DOES sound cute. O_O

Oh dear.

My real name is Stephanie Southwell, but I have several reasons for not using that name.

1) Stephanie Southwell seems too long
2) I've been dating this guy for five and half years, and we plan on getting married soon-ish; my last name would change to Lawson
3) It sounds ugly

I don't like the idea of using a new name, since I want to see something I, and others around me, would recognize on a book. I'm still kind of thinking about it. :p
 

benluby

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If Dr. Seuss had a niece,
and in her name he had a say,
could even he devise a better one,
than that of Stephy Kay?

I totally see kid lit in that name.
Kay Stephy would be chick lit.

William Abel...do it yourself type books? It really doesn't ring any particular bells. So that name would cause me to pick the book up if I could only see the spine of it just to find out what the cover looked like, to try and pinpoint genre.

Maxx Borchovski...War and Peace type epics.
Lee Raven? How could you not use that as writing paranormal Native American lit? That just screams magic and Native Amerrican to me.

M. Austin... I'd have to pick it up to see the genre, although Western comes to mind.

TA Maxwell... okay, time for me to be honest. A lot of times when I see just initials on the front of a book I walk away. It's either a woman writing in what is typically perceived as an all male club, or a male attempting to enter a heavliy female dominated club, and attempting to hide their gender. I like names, initials usually cause me to walk away.

Kia Wimbush? Almost a fantasy writer's name. It just has an asian flair, with a hint (thanks to the last name) of a Tolkeinish type flavor to it.

The Dark? Why not try Mia LaFell? That's just one, but it shows female. I don't know.

Talia Liben Yarmush. That is hardly boring. It's got a lot of different directions it runs in, and would make me look at the book further to see what it is, exactly.

Thomas Lorcroft sounds like a pen name. No insult, but I try to avoid pen names. That's how I wound up reading a book by an author I didn't like anymore, then realized he still sucked.
Please note that isn't personally directed at you. This is merely my perception of said name.

SL Huang; Pretty much any genre, but the last name is asian. I'd guess, if I didn't know the genre, Sci-Fi or historical fiction from the Asian perspective, similar to the Last Samurai.

Anna Spargo-Ryan; Political stories primarily. Strong female characters dominating it all.

Michelle Athy; I really couldn't pinpoint any one genre with this.

Niall Roach; This one has a ton of possiblities. If I saw a pot leaf or any marijuana references on the book, I'd swear it was made up, but otherwise? Comedy comes to mind.

Lots of names here!!!

I write under my name, Ben L. Hoover, Sr.
 

benluby

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Talking to my grandma about pen names. She told me I should publish under her grandma's name.

Bertha Viola Cooch.

No, I'm totally serious. Her full name was Bertha Viola Cooch.




I'm not publishing under that, it's just too funny not to share.

That name just...OMG. It really only has one genre that screams from that name to be written in, and I don't think I need to tell you what it is. But the first name, combined with the last...shudders...
 

flapperphilosopher

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What an interesting thread! I feel I'm too influenced by other's opinions of the earlier ones so I took the last dozen or so (sorry if I missed any... still having morning coffee!!). When people had a couple choices I picked the one I liked best.

Ben L. Hoover, Sr.-- John Grisham-like political/legal thrillers, or non-fiction historical
Katrina Haggard--sci-fi or fantasy
Joeyta Dutta--women's fiction
Susan Leigh--contemporary, literary, or historical fiction
Taylor Harbin--YA
Deborah Linney--romance, chick lit, contemporary
J S Fairey--literary
Emily Oliver--historical fiction
N.A. Knoll--mystery
Kira Silverman--YA, fantasy, sci-fi
Rand Lee Rich--thriller
Nancy Burke--contemporary, historical fiction, thriller

My name is Anna Krentz...
 

thisprovinciallife

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Anna Krentz writes WWII romance.

Bertha Viola Cooch writes epic fantasy featuring bad-ass old ladies a la Queen of Thorns from ASOIAF :).

My name is Reese Pyne (Reese with a long e)
 

Elly_Green

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Ben L. Hoover, Sr. - historical fiction, biography (older history-makers or government/political) figures... this name sounds old and so I expect older-type topics

Anna Krentz - murder mysteries, perhaps mystery-romances, but I doubt it

Reese Pyne - YA, especially those of an apocalyptic-urban fantasy tilt... you know, all the rage these days

My pen name is Elly Green.

NO CHEATING by reading my signature!!! :)
 

benluby

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Ben L. Hoover, Sr. - historical fiction, biography (older history-makers or government/political) figures... this name sounds old and so I expect older-type topics

Anna Krentz - murder mysteries, perhaps mystery-romances, but I doubt it

Reese Pyne - YA, especially those of an apocalyptic-urban fantasy tilt... you know, all the rage these days

My pen name is Elly Green.

NO CHEATING by reading my signature!!! :)

Truthfully, with a name like Elly Green, I would think sci-fi in the vein of the Avatar movie. Strong natural elements, all about mother earth and such.
Elly is just a nurturing name (my grandmother was, in fact, an Ella, so they are pretty close to me in meaning) and green? Well. That's pretty much been hijacked.

(And I write action and zombies. Odd combination considering my name.)
 

what?

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Lee Raven is perfect for mystery / thriller. It's the "Raven" that's doing it.
To me it is the "Lee" that reminds me of Lee Child, one of the most popular thriller writers today. The "Raven" waters the thriller writer down to urban fantasy.
Cora Austin
Don't do place names as a last name. Sounds like a figure from a cartoon. Place names for first names is cool, currently (Dakota Fanning, Looking for Alaska), but may fall out of fashion quickly.
Max Raven
Reminds me of Alex Rider. Sounds like MG or YA action with a mystery touch.
 

what?

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Ok, I'll go ahead & give it, since no one got it.

Tucholske= Two-hall-ski

That one's a bitch, huh.
There's this famous German writer, Kurt Tucholsky, whose name is pronounced /tuˈxɔlski/ in IPA or two-chol-ski (with the "ch" pronounced as in Scottish "loch"). It's a common name in and around Berlin. I didn't know what to make of the "e" at the end of your name, which looks like an Americanization to me. Do you have German ancestors?
 

Yasaibatake

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I never thought about how my name would sound compared to my genres, but considering this morning I just settled on the name(s) I'm hoping to be published with, this seems like a timely topic!

Anna Krentz - historicals or political thrillers
Reese Pyne - YA romances. I think it's the y in Pyne that's making me think romance-y for some reason
Elly Green - science fiction or science fantasy makes sense to me too

I have works going in two very different genres, so I decided I needed two different names in case I ever manage to publish both of them (both names made out of different parts of my actual name):
Brittany Fleer
Aleece Brenner
 

cornflake

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After being kind of called back to this thread (someone recommended it to another), I realized that my name gives off the wrong vibe, lols.

Stephanie IS my real name, and Kay is my middle name. Since I don't write contemporary anything, it's off the mark. :p Though someone said "cutesy YA romance" and that DOES sound cute. O_O

Oh dear.

My real name is Stephanie Southwell, but I have several reasons for not using that name.

1) Stephanie Southwell seems too long
2) I've been dating this guy for five and half years, and we plan on getting married soon-ish; my last name would change to Lawson
3) It sounds ugly

I don't like the idea of using a new name, since I want to see something I, and others around me, would recognize on a book. I'm still kind of thinking about it. :p

I think it's more melodic than with Lawson, which, obviously, would only ever be your name if you chose to change your name.

Cornflake? Corn Flake? C. Flake?
 

Jperez6

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I think it's more melodic than with Lawson, which, obviously, would only ever be your name if you chose to change your name.

Cornflake? Corn Flake? C. Flake?

I agree. Southwell has a much better rhythm than Lawson, and I don't feel any huge genre differences. Corn Flake sounds like a parody/comedy writer, but C. Flake could be a very popular MG series author. One of those long running, multi-volume things like the Boxcar Children or Sammy Keyes.

I'm really glad this thread exists. I've been worried about how my name brands, especially with the Hispanic last name (don't seem to see a lot outside of kid lit, for some reason). How do you guys feel about J. Perez?
 

what?

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Everybody seems to use names based on or appearing like nouns ("Raven", "Cornflake"). To me these names sound static and like a comparison (that person is like a Raven somehow). I wonder if some genres could be better expressed through a name derived from a verb, such as:

- Robert Kills
- Brendan Walks
- William Burns

or more hidden:

- William Burnt etc.

Names from verbs sound more active, representing what a person does (if they are present tense), or more directly descriptive (if they are past tense) than "noun-names". Robert Burns burns with passion for something, Robert Burnt has been forged or crippled (or both) by a terrible past.

Also, changing the names somewhat makes them more poetic and less clumsy:

Cornflay
Ravem
Burnes

To me, a great name evokes something but does not clobber me with it.

Just a thought.
 
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what?

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How do you guys feel about J. Perez?
Personally, I'm not much enarmoured of abbreviated first names.

Perez itself evokes competency and skill and fits a writer of serious literary fiction equally well as that of any genre.

A first name might change that impression.
 

Melanii

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I think it's more melodic than with Lawson, which, obviously, would only ever be your name if you chose to change your name.

Cornflake? Corn Flake? C. Flake?
I totally plan to change my last name. :p

So I have realized that using "Kay" does sound kind of girly and feminine, and people might think I write light-hearted everything. Which is totally not true. I've been thinking that anything "light" I write would use "Kay", but I'm not sure about anything else.

Strangely, I've been curious about what name I should REALLY use. XD
 
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