Mes Noms de Plume

[drazuki]

So my writing all started on fanfiction.net as "Armanda Rose". A mary sue character of mine, since most all fangirls have one. The thing is still up, but don't hold it against me.

I transferred over to fictionpress, writing originally as "TheOrangeTicTac". I changed it to "drazukirose" at some point.

Drazuki Rose was originally just a name I created for my AOL screenname. It combined "dragon" the Japanese suffix -zuki, and Rose was my favorite video game character at the time (Legend of Dragon).

Rose eventually dropped off that name and I became just "Drazuki". Staring at this name, despite it's my penname across the board in everything I do, I find it...less than cool. It's become to generic to me. I'm no longer the anime buff I was, despite I still love the genre. It seems misleading in my mind.

I am unfortunately saddled with it though. I want to shorten it to "draz", bu some people might not get that. But I can't very well publish a physical book with the name "Drazuki" now can I?

But neither do I want to use my full name. My last name is mispronounced and misspelled every time someone tries. It's German and means the direct translation is "twig enclosure", but it suppose to be used for a family that owned a tree orchard.

I still want to keep my first name "Katelyn". I love the spelling and it's just something I've grown fond of. Now, I'm okay with my middle name, Leigh, but that's up for a million different spellings too. And if I used my middle name as my last, I'd want to change "Katelyn" to "KT". It's just...it sounds cool to me. KT Leigh. The spelling irks me though. But I digress.

TL;DR: I need a penname for actual publishing. I love my last name and all, but it's just too hard to spell and pronounce for most people.

Here's what I came up with:

• Katelyn Leigh (first name and middle)
• Katelyn Treekeeper (first name and a 'translation' last name)
• Katelyn Treekeep (same as above, just sounds cool)
• Katelyn Draz (first name and shortening of penname)

Any suggestions?

Comments

[taryfails.livejournal.com]

I personally would just put your first and middle name. :/ Just on the off chance that if someone professional were to, say, take interest in your published works, would you rather have your name or with the surname "Treekeeper"?

[drazuki.livejournal.com]

Good point. But I don't like my middle name too much...*sigh*. Maybe my last name would be okay...

[taryfails.livejournal.com]

Or your real name. Or just a not-as-blatant pen name like Treekeeper or Drazuki. Just keepin' it professional, juuust in case, for a rainy day.

[raiya4.livejournal.com]

I would choose the first on "Kaitlyn Leigh" but if you don't like your middle name too much maybe look through some names in a baby name book or just go on a site and try your name out with some random names "Kaitlyn Pierce" or 'KT Peirce' and etc

[dmlpacker.livejournal.com]

I love KT Leigh. I think that's really clever.

[(Anonymous)]

Someone pointed out it's close to KD Lang.