I was Googling “Heidi Elizabeth Smith” and found this page. Are you the person who wrote Felines in Fantasy: Cliché or Clichéd? for Forward Motion back in 2002? From the domain name on my URL and e-mail you can guess why I wanted to contact you.

I’ve been trying to define anthrofiction–not only as a word, but as a serious genre of fiction. I’ve got some ideas, and a small cadre of compatriots. I found your essay earlier tonight and wondered if you’d be willing to let me publish it to my website. Attribution, of course, and a link.

ScottyDM

PS: In my unfinished novel I’ve a minor villainess named Nonny Goddard. She isn’t human.

Silma: I’d intend on using the same name per publisher. But it’s not a question of fantasy romance vs erotic romance — while some of what I write could concievably be published under Luna or Tor Paranormals (which people seem to categorise into “romance crossover” even though Luna really isn’t), some of it’s not. I always have romantic subplots, but the romance isn’t always the driving force of the book.

So, yeah … it’s all complicated.

But if you want to do the sane thing, you might stick to one. One reason is that your stories might sell to the same publisher. If all the stories are romance, with perhaps one that’s a bit hotter than the rest, then one pen name sounds good.

But if you’re going to have one erotic romance, a triology that’s pure fantasy, and others fantasy romance, well, quite ecclectic. There’s such thing as “branding,” (as Jordan Summers called it not long ago in her blog), which is a tricky thing. Sure, your readers will get a sense of you as writer under one name. But you’ll also have a label attached to it. It might not be so bad if all you write is romance. Whether is fantasy romance, or paranormal romance, or chick lit, it won’t affect your writing career. However, if you decide to jump genres, it’ll affect you. Many writers who used to write romances are now into contemporary. What’s happening? Their old readers are dropping them like flies. So now these writers must work hard to gain a new audience.

In my own convulated way what I’m trying to say is that you have to make sure that if you decide to use one pen name, your romance readers might buy your pure fantasy books, and viceversa.

But go through the exercise is writing down names you like. I chose Amanda Brice as my pen name because Amanda is my real middle name and Brice is my husband’s middle name. I kept my own name when I got married and thought about using what would have been my married name, but husband came up with Amanda Brice by combining our middle names and I liked it.

As for using multiple pen names, I might use two, but only because my two potential genres are so different. I’m writing chick lit under Amanda Brice and might use it for my YA, or I might use something totally different (Heather Holmes) simply because I use profanity and talk about sex in my chick lit and I don’t know if I want 12-year-olds finding it. I don’t know. I might use a juvenile sounding version of my adult pen name and call myself Mandi Brice. But if it was both adult stuff, then I’d use just one pen name.

I chose Cora Zane for it’s simplicity. Cora is actually short for Corrina. Could you imagine that on a book binding?! Most people can’t remember how to spell it, and half the time people mispronounce it. Not a good name for an author. So Cora it is. Simple is best.