Try your hand . . . pen names

Okay I admit that my reason for this topic is probably going to offend someone.

I don't like my name and havn't since I was a teen. Sorry mom and dad, I just don't like it. Enough to consider a legal name change at one point in time. One of the appeals as a writer has allways been the fact that I could write something and use a pen name. That I could literally be "some one else".

I have played with many pen names through out the years and either kept them for a while and or discarded them when it was time.

I even created a pen name that I ended up liking so much that I eventually used it as a character name. Oh well so much for that one.

So. . . . . I bet you are wondering if I disliked my name so much why my blog, twitter etc. uses my given legal name and why I don't change it.

Well to be honest I'm a chicken and didn't want to offend those two people that gave me my name. Second, I was writing for the LDS market at the time and they don't like the idea of pen names so I established my presence on the internet using my legal name. Besides, I guess it's not such a bad name afterall. :)

My question to you is do you use a pen name or have you considered it? If so, why?

Try your hand. . . . With a twist.

These last few months have been hard on me and my muse. As I have been editing Emergence in hopes that it will get picked up by a publisher, I have realized how much emotion I have poured into this particular manuscript. In moments where I have had the time to draft something new, I have been frozen by the "what if" bug. Not the "What if my character did this". No this is worse, it's the "What if this book is crap and no one likes it?" bug. Followed closely by the "then why draft the sequel if its crap?" thing. Its been a very emotional ride.

One thing I did find that helped me, was a distraction, hense the "try your hand" title.

I am also getting ready for a baby that is due in the end of August. One day when I couldn't stand to look at my computer for one more minute I shut the thing down and went upstairs to the baby's room. I love the room, it is very peaceful in my house of chaos. As I sat there I realized that there was plenty of stuff I needed to do in there. So with no thought about my story I sat on the floor and just started to work on the things that needed to be done.

It was calming and I felt better once I had a stack of things accomplished on that mile long to do list that every mother has. I was actually able to pull up one of my MS that needed work and actually work on it.

Often times we forget that theres a cure in leaving the thing that had frustrated us for so long and in doing something else. I think we get in a rut of doing either nothing or doing the same frustrating thing over and over again that we don't see the option that is waiting just outsie of that "wall of inprisonment" of our own making.

How many times do we only see that one thing that is frustrating us and not see the solution that is right there jumping up and down waving its hands wildly?

For me I leanred a lesson, and I hope I dont forget it soon.

What is your distraction? Do you use it often, or do you let the problem override it? Do any of you use service for others as a distraction? Let me know, I am curious.

Right in my lap.

A few posts ago we talked about Author Platforms. And at that time I listed a few things that were important to me, but had no real platform.

A few nights ago I was reading a magazine that my husbands alma matter sends us every few months or so. Opening the magazine I see an article about a former alumn an amazing young woman named Amanda de Lange who lives in China and runs an orphanage that takes abandoned children, often with birth defects like cleft pallate or spina biffida and finds doctors to treat them and takes these emaciated, almost dead children and turns them into rolly polly happy babies.

I have allways been facinated in the idea of foster care, adoption and would love to adopt an Asian baby. Maybe when my house isn't so full? LOL I am adopted myself as well as my brother and sister.

This article inspired me, especially when the main characters wife in my book runs an orphanage and that is her life's work. It never occured to me that it was a totally good idea as a platform.

So I now have an Author Platform. Foster care and adoption.

To see what inspired me go see The Starfish Foster Home

or her blog chinesestarfish.blogspot.com

Some people may wonder 'why adopt'? With millions of orphans in the world, how can you hope to make a difference? There's so many. This is the answer. . .

"An old man was walking down the beach just before dawn. In the distance he saw a young man picking up stranded starfish and throwing them back into the sea. As the old man approached the young man, he asked, "Why do you spend so much energy doing what seems to be a waste of time?"

The young man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun.

"But there must be thousands of beaches and millions of starfish," exclaimed the old man. "How can your efforts make any difference?"

The young man looked down at the small starfish in his hand and as he threw it to safety in the sea, he said,


"It made all the difference to that one."


Amanda takes very little income and has alot of staff to pay for. All she is asking is either 40$ a month to sponsor a child or help support a nanny. If you have the ability please go support this wonderful cause.

Try your hand . . . Author Platforms

Have you heard of them?

When an author feels strongly about something they use either a message in thier books or thier status as an author to let the world know about thier passion.

For example Michele Ashman Bell has started the Butterfly Box Series. The first book focused heavily on modest dressing. I don't know whether the other books will focus on the same platform, but I was pleased with the book and "theme" of the book. Being the mom of a teenage daughter this issue of modesty is something we deal with everyday.

Tristi Pinkston's new series Secret Sisters has started a sock drive for the homeless because a character knits in the book. Annette Lyon and Julie Coulter Bellon both have platforms dealing with US soldiers stationed away from home.

That said: my question for you is, do you have a platform? Is there something you feel passionately about, something you would etiher write about or speak about even if your book is completely diferent? Have you ever even heard about a platform? Or thought about it?

I don't think there is anything in Emergence that is platform worthy. However, there are things I am passionate about. I am a breastfeeding mommy and tend to be natural in lots of ways. I have asthma so asthma research is something I am concerned about. I also support the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Humanitarian Relief work. Like I said before, modest dressing is also an issue I believe in strongly.

Who knows, I have thought about it but never long enouth to actually decide on or choose an actual platform. I hope by the time I have a contract in hand I have something in mind.

What is your platform or passion? I'd like to hear it.

Try Your Hand . . . Author Taglines.

Okay! time for another attempt at "try your hand". This time we're talking about author taglines. Taglines are the one sentence lines that follow your name, that tell the world about you. You put them on your business cards, put them in your email signatures, and other things to let the world know you write this or that.

While I am good at short things, this one line thing really tried my patience and creativity. How am I supposed to describe ME in one line. I had a hard enough time with the short author bio. So after hours and hours, I found something that EVERYONE but me HATED. So I trashed that one and moved on.

Finally I came up with one that I love and others seemed to like too.

"Science Fiction, secret agents, and bad boys gone good."

What do you think?

What is your author tagline?

I am having so much fun making these homemade book marks, I will draw a random commenter and send them one!

Come on you know you want to. Tell us your tagline and win a cute velentines themed book mark!

P. S. Thanks to Rebecca Talley for the tagline inspiration!

Try your hand. . . Author Bios

I've been thinking about this for a while. Trying your hand at something where everyone who reads this blog is asked to contribute in the comments.

To start this off I am asking about short author bios.

The rules are simple, one to two sentences. List your name, a vague location, your genre, a little about yourself. See easy peasy.

To get us started I will give you mine.

C. Michelle Jefferies writes science fiction, a stark contrast to her rural life in south eastern Utah with six kids, house, husband, and pet birds. Although her heart resides in the stars, she has been known to be distracted by romance and the occasional vampire story.

Okay everyone start posting, I am curious to see what you are going to come up with.