Anyone else have your pen/stage/ alias name picked out, or is that my own little oddity? I mean, aside from those of you who have actual pen or stage names. Or, um, aliases.
I've published one story under a gender-neutral-to-male pen name, mostly because, on the rare occasions that I actually finish a piece of writing, it's usually a little odd and whimsical and I'd rather not have readers see my very feminine actual name and have that influence their reading. The one story I published got some praise in a letter to the editor by the guy who wrote the screenplay for The Crow, so I guess that's a win.
I may or may not pull it out again, or make up another one, if I finish anything else. I do like the gender-neutralness, and I also kind of like the occasional oddball writer like Brian O'Nolan/Flann O'Brian/Myles na gCopaleen/Brother Barnabas/who knows who else, who used pseudonyms with glee and abandon and whose works scholars are still chasing down and accidentally stumbling over because he used so many names. Though I'd have to be about 9000% more prolific to get even close to O'Nolan's status.