John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #159: Your Pen Name

"Do not ask the name of the person who seeks a bed for the night. He who is reluctant to give his name is the one who most needs shelter."

-Victor Hugo

Weekend Assignment #156: You've decided to become a writer under a pen name. What pen name do you choose? Because, after all, writers use pen names all the time - sometimes to maintain anonymity, sometimes to start a new career when their writing career under their real name has crashed and burned, and sometimes just because they want a different name than the one they were born with. You can assume any of the reasons for taking up a pen name. (No fair using a name that's taken: Your pen name can't be "Steve King" or Jonathan Grisham" or some such.)

Extra Credit: Using this Anagram Maker, share an amusing anagram of your name.

-John Scalzi (By The Way)

Hmmm.What if I told you that I use a pen name to pen my blog? Would you kick me to the curb? Would you turn your back on me? WINK! When I first began blogging, a lot of folks were using fake names, because they felt like they had a little more freedom to write their innermost feelings in their blogs and journals with a little more peace of mind. It is the Internet you know. I considered maybe using a different name, it had been a rough few years leading up to when I first began Ellipsis, and after all, what's in a name... right? I pondered it. Seriously. I consulted my friends, thought about it some more. Sigh! In the end, I am who I am. Right? So, Carly Gordon it was and Carly Gordon it shall stay. It's who I am.

But it's not like I never used a nickname in my whole life. For a long time I went by Chloe. It was a nickname hand picked for me by a dear friend. She thought I looked like a Chloe. One day she and I were having a "girl's day out," and over lunch, we were discussing baby names. She was due in about 5 months, and as we considered names, she asked me if I had ever wished my name was something different. I hadn't really thought about it till then, but when she said she thought I looked like a Chloe, I had to smile, because I had a cat named Chloe, when I was a little girl, and also, I used to wear the perfume Chloe. I told her I liked the name, and so, from then on, within a certain circle of friends, my name was Chloe, but that was a long time ago, and in fact the last person to call me that, Mr. November, recently moved away. Now I am just plain old Carly again. No worries.

Names are such strange things anyway. We have no choice over what our parents name us. So we could end up with a god-awful name like the one I heard on "Raines" the other night, "Harry Paratesties." LOL. Or "Luke Warmwater," which is a real name by the way, I happened to come across when I worked for the ad agency. LOL. Or that awful pen name chosen for Miss Crump on the Andy Girffith show, "Helene Alexian Dubois." Does that sound like a good name for an author of children's books? Yuck!

I don't know if I will ever write a book at this point in life, it seems that some of my dreams have been seriously boxed up, and placed on a shelf. Who knows? My best friend "H.P." has been insisting that I write a coffee table book about the Bay Area, as seen through my camera lens. He's a dreamer. :) And he is probably my biggest fan, not just my best friend, so he has all kinds of dreams for me, and all kinds of encouragement for me as well. Everyone should have a friend like "H.P." I think I will know him, well into my old lady years, where he will still be nagging me, I mean encouraging me to write that book. LOL. WINK H.P.

Ok, let's pretend I write that coffee table book, and for whatever reason I choose to use a pen name, what name would I use? Ondine Monet is a great screen name, but Alan has always thought it sounded like the name of an exotic dancer. Well, that would never do. I could use a combination of my screen name and my real name. Ondine has her own legend, so that's kind of cool. Sure. How about,"Ondine Gordon." Hey, that's not too bad. Yes, I like that. Here is how it would appear on the cover of the book...

Ellipsis

The Bay Area In Pictures

By Ondine Gordon

Extra Credit: Hows this for an amusing anagram for Carly Gordon? "A Corn Dry Log." ROFLMAO! Now that's feminine. Tee Hee.

-OndineMonet
"Another Bay Area Moment"
Fort Point
San Francisco, California
October, 2006
Afternoon