Pick my pen name

If you’re new here, I have a dilemma, and what better place to go than the blogosphere to solve my problems? My problem is simple: I have a number of exceptionally boring science publications. The science isn’t boring, but there’s something about the process of “just the facts, ma’am” that manages to desiccate a paper down to the common cure for insomnia.

And let’s face it, as a writer, I don’t want to be associated with science papers so boring even I fall asleep when I read them (and I really care about them!). And that means it’s time for a pen name.

But how does a person pick a pen name? I’ve seen some people just announce it, and I’ve seen people have contests, so I decided to go with a contest. It’s a simple thing, I’ve got a list of possible pen names (subject to publisher approval, of course) and a list of prizes. Vote for your favorite pen name, and comment below to be entered to win a prize of your choice! (and who doesn’t like prizes!)

See, easy as pie.

The poll is in the side bar and it will be open until May 19^th at 11:59pm, and you have until then to enter for the prize. I know that people have different things that they want in life right now, so I thought I’d go ahead and put out a prize list that has something for everyone.

Here are the prizes:

A $25 dollar gift card for Amazon or Barnes and Noble (your choice)

A full beta read of your manuscript (up to 120k words). This is a beta read where I give you feed back on the overall arc of your story, characters, and emotional impact.

A line edit of your query and first thirty pages. This would include things like grammar and spelling, as well as an inclusion of

A custom binding of your manuscript (up to 120K words, they start to look lumpy after that). I will typeset, print and bind your manuscript into one book (cover paper of your choice from my collection).

And if none of those prizes strike your fancy, I’ll donate $25 dollars to Crits for Water in your name (or even sponsor you for a Kat-Crit, if you’d prefer).

How about those prizes! One lucky winner will get to pick whichever prize they want.

Now, since there’s no way for me to check to see if you actually voted, this is all on the honor system. Comment to enter and vote for a pen name (you can even vote more than once if you’d like). Anyhow, this contest is helping me out, so you don’t need to follow to enter (though, I’d love it if you did). Just comment and vote. Easy peasy. (do make sure that you leave your email in the comment so I can contact you in case you win, I promise not to spam you).

Now for the names: It’s hard to come up with names that seem like real names but don’t have five thousand other people with that same name. And names have power. People have a lot invested in names, so I don’t want to just have any old name. I spend forever picking names for my main characters, so I usually go generic until a name really catches my eye. Here’s the list of names to vote for:

Bridgett Ardin

Mithryl Kitras

Rena Rockford

Roslin Falkirk

Legara Leoria

And of course, if none of these seems like a good name, feel free to make a suggestion in the comments or hit none of the above. Thanks for voting!