That by which we call you, by any other name, would write just as well.
I kinda doubt many of you noticed, but as a blogger and avid writer, it is my job to blog about this anyways. I changed by pen name; it used to be Ginny Moon, but after some thought and soul-searching, I decided to shift it to Kenna Moon.
If you don't know me personally, you may not know that [Whatever] Moon is not my real name. Some people dislike the idea of writers using pen names, and I can understand why. It seems a bit insincere and places distance between the writer and the reader. I choose to use a pen name instead of my real name for a couple of reasons:
1 - My last name is a bit... awkward to write out, especially nowadays. I like my last name, and I've never really had any problems with it in the past, but I'm not so sure I want it emblazoned in silver on printed novels.
2 - Call me old fashioned, but I am kinda intending to get married one day. Most females authors who've published before they got married use their maiden name after they're married when publishing future books. It makes sense, but it's also a little awkward to married and refuse to take your husband's name, and this of course compounds onto reason 1.
3 - I plan to be a famous best-selling author one day with book signings every week and readings twice a month, and if everyone knows my real name I'll be accosted on the streets and asked to sign books everywhere I go. Yes, this is an unreasonable expectation and completely vain of me, but if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, right?
For the past several years - probably since I was at least 12 - I went by the pseudonym 'Ginny Moon' whenever I wrote anything. The 'Ginny', you might guess, comes from J. K. Rowling's character in Harry Potter - a friend of mine said she thought I looked like Ginny, because my hair, which isn't red at all, looked to her a bit red in the light. This stuck, at least with me, because Ginny was and is my favorite character in those books (not the movies - she hardly even in the movies). The 'Moon' came from a pen-and-paper forum RPG character of mine. It is a bit fantasy cliche, but 'Moon' isn't as bad as 'Dark' or 'Raven' or 'Hawke' or 'Kain'. Plus, it sets me up for niche writing, doesn't sound outlandish, and mildly suggests a pen name all at once!
I finally decided, however, that I had to get rid of the 'Ginny'. For one, it's a reference to someone else's character (and if you're going to refer to something with your pseudonym, it should really be a famous writer, not a modern character). But mostly, and I know I'll get some hate for this: I don't really like J. K. Rowling. She's a one-hit-wonder who happened to write a quaint little story and got the rest of the series commissioned. Her books were mostly OK, but her last one was pretty much terrible, and somehow got split into two movies even though there was hardly enough plot to fill one book (The two movies idea was probably mostly for the money). We've yet to see her try her hand at something new, and even when she does, everyone's going to expect her to write it within the Harry Potter universe because she has no experience writing outside of it. I like the story, but having 'Ginny' as my pen name suggests a writer I do not want to be.
So, officially, I decided to change it. It's not like I've ever really gotten anything published, right? The whole point of my pen name is to keep my anonymity, but the only people so far who would be familiar with my pen name are people who know me personally anyways. Better to change it now than later.
When I got home from school, I went to BehindTheName.com, the website whose Random Name Generator I always use when trying to come up with character names. They give you good background info and name meanings for all the names in their database, as well as allowing you to search by ethnicity, so I've always found it super useful. I hit their generator to search for some normal sounding Euro/New World/Literary names, and finally found the name Kenna. Kenna is the feminine form of Kenneth, which either means Handsome or Born of Fire, depending on the etymology. I think I'll go with the Born of Fire definition, so as not to add to my presumed vanity.
Kenna is perfect, because my email address, and well as most of my forum or website usernames, have been "KenGirl." This name I also chose as a pre-teen - as a reference to Rurouni Kenshin, my favorite Manga/Anime series, the manga that first got me into manga and the story that first got me into deeper, more serious stories. Sure, for my professional career, I'll probably want to change my email address, but for now Kenna Moon sounds good, fits with my niche, and I like it. So what if it took me all of five minutes to decide on it? Technically, I've had the fake surname for years.
Anyway, I'm going as Kenna Moon from now on - I'll answer to it, I'll respond as it, and I'll write, freelance or professional, with that name. Y'know, as long as whoever publishes freelance work doesn't mind publishing a pseudonym (It'd be so awkward having articles and essays under my real name and fiction under my pen name). Hullo interwebs, I'm Kenna!
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