A Writer by Any Other Name

By Mary Sutton / @marysutton_73

I've got names on the brain lately.

If you're a Shakespeare fan, you're familiar with Juliet's thoughts on the topic of names.

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;

I've written in multiple genres and I love them all: mystery (police procedural and traditional), romance (with and without sex), and middle-grade fantasy. I don't want to stop writing any of them. But I've worried about the whole name vs. pseudonym thing. I thought I had put it to rest when a published author I knew advised not to worry about it because maintaining multiple "brands" (an author's name is essentially her "brand") is difficult. If people can't read the genre on the cover, that's their problem.

But then I saw this post on The Naked Hero about following authors across brands. Now I'm second-guessing myself. And I'm really good at that.

To a certain extent, this is all putting the cart before the horse. I haven't been published yet. But chances are that middle grade fantasy will be the first thing to hit the virtual shelves. If I use my true name, am I going to have to come up with another name for everything else?

Argh. It's enough to give someone multiple personality disorder. And maybe that's how cross-genre authors feel.

So, dear readers, what do you think? Would you follow an author across genres if you really liked her writing?

Image courtesy of cellar_door_films used under Creative Commons

Dangers of Character Love

by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73

I'm in love. Not just with my husband - with Trooper First Class Jim Duncan.

Don't worry, he's not a real person. He's a character - my character, my protagonist from a series of short stories. In my mind's eye, he looks a bit like a younger Mark Harmon.

I love Sally Castle too. She's another character, Duncan's sidekick. Or maybe a secondary protagonist. Not really sure what you want to call her. And, she looks a little like Angie Harmon, one of my favorite TV attorneys (maybe that says something about me and the name Harmon).

I've written a story about these two. Actually, I've written several. And they are giving me heartburn as a writer right now.

Recently, someone suggested that maybe I just need to "give up" on these characters and find some new ones. But I can't. See Jim and Sally are begging, no demanding, that I write their stories. I started a project for this fall fully intending to create some new characters. But I just couldn't get going on it. The voice was all wrong. And in my writer's ear, I heard Jim and Sally talking to me. In an outraged tone, they said, "Why are you trying to give away our story?"

(This is where you start thinking of calling the men in white coats. Unless you're a writer, in which case you completely understand.)

I gave Jim and Sally the story. It flew out of my fingers. It's still a shitty first draft, but it's a good story (I think). So is the one I'm working on - their first story. Even my editor said I've got something good here, with good characters. Jim Duncan is a hard-working, divorced man just trying to do a good job as a Pennsylvania State Trooper.

And there's the rub.

See, once you write from the POV of someone in law enforcement, you've gone into the genre of "police procedural." I so did not want to go into this genre. Procedurals are hard. You have to get the details right. It's a lot of research, a lot of work to make your character not only likable (which I've done according to the editor), but realistic. And thus the heartburn.

Yeah, I could walk away and tell Duncan that I just can't write his story. That I'm not good enough. That I don't want to be in his world. Some would say just take him out of that world, but I can't do that either. He'd be a fish out of water - and I can't do that to him.

And somehow, I think Jim and Sally would find a way to exact their revenge if I did.

Have you ever fallen in love with one of your characters?