Comments on: PART 4: To Pseudonym or not

By: Jo

Jo — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:52:16 +0000

Well, of course, in those days, we always did change our names, that's kind of what getting married was about. Its actually a damned nuisance when you have to change passports and all other legal documents.

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:31:44 +0000

Jo, I used Noramly as a surname. Incorrect really, because Malaysian names don't work that way, but I was married in Oz in the 60s and I was stupid enough to think you had to change your name when you married.

By: RobB

RobB — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:23:05 +0000

I can't see why it would be a worry. I suppose 150 years ago, it was necessary for Georges Sands not to use her real name (though I think it was an open secret). Almost every writer who used names like A. B. Cee was assumed to be a woman even when it was not the case.

If it's a case of keeping your identity secret from your friends and family, I can't see that disguising your sex is important. I rather like pseudonyms that aren't names at all like "Seeker" or "Phoenix", although one wouldn't want to go overboard with long, pretentious names.

By: Marina

Marina — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:33:43 +0000

The gender one bothers me. That and the privacy issue are the only reasons I'd consider using a pseudonym. Though probably any male fooled into picking up my book by a non-gender-specific name wouldn't find the story described in the blurb to his taste anyway. I guess my stories are "female" stories, if female means more about characters and less about car chases.

Then there's the other side of me that wants everyone to know if I ever get published, so caution will probably be thrown to the winds anyway.

By: RobB

RobB — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:48:20 +0000

I think I had this crazy idea that if I read enough of what women wrote, I would somehow get into the way women think, which would give me an advantage in chatting up. I quickly realised how silly this was, but this was also an era when female authors started coming to the fore, and I had become bored with Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum and I really hated the much lauded Heinlein. In fact, I discovered that I was already stacking my bookshelves with Ursula Leguin and the like. I've just checked my "Authors" folder of bookmarks: out of about 50, only 6 are male and I don't think Chalker and Farmer are still alive.

By: Jo

Jo — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:43:50 +0000

I know I used to read boys books when I was a kid, girls books too of course, but Biggles (if you have heard of them) was one of my favourites back then.

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:29:52 +0000

That is fascinating, RobB. I'd love to know what brought about the change.

Do you think that kind of a change is common? You know, boys will be boys, girls will be girls into girly stuff, but most adult readers are more balanced?

By: RobB

RobB — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:57:17 +0000

Until I was about 30, I would have fitted your gender description, although I'd have to do some searching to check which female authors were writing back then. Now, I find I read almost exclusively female authors, so as I am approaching 70, that means more than half my life.

By: Jo

Jo — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:58:12 +0000

If Noramly's name is just Noramly, is your married name really Glenda Noramly (or Glenyce)? I discovered a year or two ago that Spanish wives don't take their husband's names under normal circumstances and your husband's name is just the one name as I undersstand it?