I was working on my website today - I'm creating a whole new look for Samantha, and I plan to launch my new website soon. (uh huh) anyhow - I'm fiddling with links when mly daughter comes up behind me, stares at the screen, and says, "What is that person doing with your picture?"
Not paying attention, I said, "What person?"
"Samantha Winston. Who is she? Why does she have your picture on her site?"
I come back to earth and blink. My daughter is eleven. She is remarkably bright, but at the same time, she has the power to ignore everything that goes on around her for example, this summer we spent ten days with my brother and his pregnant wife. My sister-in-law was six months pregnant and it showed. Plus she went swimming, had a bathing-suit that showed her lovely big tummy - and we talked about the coming baby for nine days. On the tenth day, we were in the car, and my sister-in-law said, "The baby is kicking really hard."
My daughter, who was sitting right next to her, looked mildly interested and said, "What baby?"
"The one in my tummy," said my sister-in-law.
My daughter was thunderstruck. "What?? You're having a baby? You're pregnant?"
Silence as we all digested this. Then I said, "Haven't you been paying attention? What did you think we were talking about, and didn't you notice your aunt's fat tummy?" (Here I get a not so gentle punch on the shoulder from my SIL.) "I mean, lovely big tummy," I amend.
Anyway, it turns out my daughter has this amazing ability to not pay attention. It's not like I don't mention my alter ego at home, or talk about the publishing business or my books. At any rate, I told my daughter that I was, in fact, Samantha Winston.
"But why would you want to do that?" she exclaimed, indignant.
"Because I write books for adults and I write books for children, and I don't want them to get mixed up. I use one name for my children's books, and the other name for books that only adults can read. Is that clear?"
She nodded, her mind already elsewhere. You see, we put the tree up, the lights are blinking, and her next question was..."If Santa Clause doesn't exist, can I open just one of my presents now?"
So she was paying attention to me when I was talking to her aunt on the phone the other day and we were trading santa stories abotu our kids.
My daughter has selective hearing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
There’s whole bushel basket full of insanity related to writing under pseudonyms--well, at least in my house. :-0 My daughter (who’s over 21) teases me all the time about my “multiple personalities.” I think she’s worried that her poor old mom might turn into Sybil. And she’s probably scared to death that it’s hereditary! LOL
Aside from erotic romance, I also write children’s books, horror, nonfiction, and women’s fiction. Each of my pen names has a distinctly different personality, of course. They’re splintered parts of me, with “Daisy” being the closest to a combination of all of me.
Of course, to me this all makes perfect sense…and I don’t know if that’s good or bad. :-0
Yes, I have three names too. I have always done my astrological and psychic work and my non- fiction writing under my "maiden" name. I use my married name for the married life and the work I do for the DH, and I am writing fiction under yet another title.
Isn't is great to be able to create alter-egos!?? And still plead sanity!?
Sanity? You mean we're sane?
LOL
Actually it is funny. Sam was my nickname all through grade school, given to me by my 4th grade teacher, it stuck. So the name Sam feels very comfortable when I wear it.
I was Jenny until I came to France - they call me
Zhenn-ee-fair, lol. Very romantic.
Sam--you're daughter sounds like a hoot. My son is the direct opposite right now, he listens, hears and understands everything we say and he's starting to learn to read and even spelling things outloud is becoming a problem.
I think kids are so fun - they say and do things that are so totally at odds with what we would do sometimes. LOL - my daughter has the ability to concentrate on something and work on it for hours and hours - she is 11 and has already completely filled five notebooks with stories and drawings. At the same time, she can look straight at something and not see it. (like my sister-in-law's tunmmy, or her coat hanging on the next hook ovedr - 'mom, I can't find my coat!' lol)
wynn bexton is of course my pen name for writing historical fiction. But I use my regular name for travel writing. I actually like my pen name a lot and don't mind being called wynn, in fact kind of prefer it. It's a derivitive (welsh) from my first name Winifred and 'bexton' is my mom's Saxon-sounding maiden name (they were from Nottingham).
One of my writer friends asked me the other day what my own maiden name is and why I haven't used it? I don't know why. I do like the sound and feel of w.b. and one of these days will be thrilled to see it on a book cover!
Wynn is a lovely name!
I heard authors were supposed to choose their pen names this way -
The name of your first dog, and the street you live on.
Unfortunately, I didn't think anyone would buy a book by
Lassie 9-H.
:-)
Post a Comment