Scholars have a fancy name for ancient texts that claim to have been written by someone who clearly isn’t the author. The word is “pseudepigrapha.” It’s a way of admitting that we know who didn’t write something, but we’re not fooled by the attribution. The modern equivalent, to some extent, is the pseudonym. The pen name. Nom de plume. Nom de guerre. Assumed name. Alias. Most pen names can be traced to an author’s real name by those very interested. Even famous writers use them. For many reasons. Stephen King, for instance, even after becoming famous, has written under a pen name from time-to-time. And J. K. Rowling used her initials so that it wouldn’t be obvious she was a woman. Those of us who make a living doing something else sometimes use pseudonyms because of our jobs. That’s why I do it. Now that my first novel is under contract with Parisian Phoenix, I’ve been thinking about the ...
Blog of a struggling writer.