Why I’ve chosen a pen name

Happy new year, everyone, and happy new decade. The last ten years have brought some significant changes for me: deciding to leave employment and set myself up as a freelance consultant, being gifted two gorgeous granddaughters, and above all, the start of my writing career. Today, I’m going to explain why I’ve chosen a pen name for my historical fiction, Juliette Lawson, instead of my real name, Julie Cordiner.

Writing a novel has been a quiet desire during the last ten years, a mixture of dabbling when I could, and waiting patiently until I had more time away from my busy career to devote to it. But fiction requires a very different approach to non-fiction, so I’ve spent a lot of time learning the craft of writing. Thank goodness for all the experienced people who share their knowledge with authors in books, online courses and writing conferences, so that we can develop our skills.

During 2019, I’ve rewritten my first novel, ‘A Borrowed Past’, recognising that I’ve learned so much since I first began. If you want to see more about how I’ve approached it, my earlier blog at this link tells you all about it. I’m in the last stages of editing it, and I’m hopeful that I will be able to publish it in February (and that’s not just because 2020 is a leap year and gives me an extra day, honestly!).

In November, as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I wrote a first draft of the second book in the Seaton Carew Sagas series, so I’ll be returning to that soon to redraft and revise it. It involves smuggling, so I need to do a bit more research first (I’m savouring that thought, as it’s one of my favourite parts of the whole process).

Getting ready to publish

For my school funding books, I chose to publish independently. The subject matter is time sensitive, so the traditional publishing route was never going to be quick enough, and I can update the books whenever I need to reflect significant changes. I’m also a self-confessed control freak! It’s been very satisfying so far.

So, I’m indie publishing my novels as well. I’ve invested a lot in manuscript assessments, mentoring, writing and editing courses, and cover design to make sure my books are as good as they can be. The times when self publishing was regarded as vanity publishing are long gone, and I aspire to be as professional as the best indie authors.

I have therefore been getting everything in place ready to publish my debut novel, including commissioning a beautiful cover design and writing my book description. As we get closer to the publication date, I will of course do a cover reveal and let you know more about the book.

The pen name question

Before my cover designer could send me the final version, I needed to take a decision on the author name. My initial concern was that I might cause confusion by using my real name, when it’s already in use for my non-fiction. The online book sellers present suggestions to readers for new books based on their browsing history; just sign in to Amazon and you should see your own tastes reflected in the books that are recommended for you, linked to your past purchases or searches.

Whilst I’ll probably have some cross-over between readers of my parish history and the historical saga series I’m developing, it’s less likely to happen with my school leader followers, and lovers of historical fiction will be equally puzzled to see books about school funding appearing in their searches!

It  therefore became clear that I needed a different author name for my novels, which would allow me to have a separate author page on the various retail sites.

So first of all, I tried a small change, adding my middle initial: Julie A Cordiner. Seeing your own name on a book cover is a thrill, but I had a strong inkling that it wasn’t quite right for my fiction. Cordiner is quite a matter-of-fact sounding name, which is fine for non-fiction books where I need to build trust in my technical knowledge. But to me, there was something about it that simply didn’t convey the right tone for a historical saga author. So I decided a different pen name was needed.

Choosing my pen name

Well, as so often happens when I’m faced with a completely open choice, I was stumped for a new name! I tried various traditional names, like Ava, Sarah, Emily, Louisa and Sally, but it was hard to imagine using them. I spent ages on Amazon, trying to get inspiration from existing names in the historical saga genre, while making sure I didn’t duplicate any.

Eventually I took to Twitter, and consulted author friends on there. Someone suggested I tweak my first name to Juliette. That seemed an excellent idea, since it was much less likely to give me an identity crisis! It wouldn’t be good if I was at a book signing or author talk and I completely ignored someone who was calling out my author name, would it?

What surname should I pick? I played around with a few options, then decided it was better to have something meaningful. I consulted my account at ancestry.com, where all my family tree information is stored, looking for something that fitted with Juliette and gave the right sort of vibe for historical fiction. Eventually, I decided to stay close to home; I chose Lawson, as a tribute to my dear grandmother. I have happy memories of visits on a Saturday during my childhood, practising on her piano and ‘helping’ with the laundry by playing with the poss-tub and putting clothes through the mangle to squeeze out the water. She used to get quite excited watching the wrestling on TV on a Saturday afternoon, but as soon as the football pools results came on, my Grandad insisted on absolute silence, convinced that this week would bring him a big win. It never did.

Oops, I digress… nostalgia isn’t what it used to be! So, the decision was made: my pen name is Juliette Lawson. There aren’t any other published authors of that name in historical fiction (or in any genre it seems), and the domain name was available, so I transferred my previous site to it. And here we are!

I’m now starting to set up various accounts on social media as Juliette Lawson, as I plan my book launch. So far, I have a Twitter account: https://twitter.com/juliette_author. By the time I write my next blog post, I hope to have more set up.

As well as this blog, I’ll be starting a community (free to join), where I’ll be producing a monthly update on my writing progress, with goodies such as deleted scenes, as well as news and chatter about historical fiction, my research, and the inspiration behind my novels. Watch this space for information on how you can join the community, and you’ll be among the first to see my cover reveal. It’s all starting to feel exciting!

What I’ve been reading

I’m happy to report that I exceeded my target of 50 books to read in 2019, achieving 54 books. I record them all on Goodreads, which is a great way of keeping track, and you set your target in their Reading Challenge. My most recent reads from the historical genre are:

Glenda Young: Belle of the Back Streets and The Tuppenny Child

I love Glenda’s books; she’s a relatively new author who also writes about the north east, specifically Ryhope in Sunderland. I’ve been to her author talks and like me, she loves the historical research aspects. She writes about lower-class women who have to find courage to make their way in the world and rise above the limited expectations that everyone has of them.

Clare Flynn: The Pearl of Penang

Another favourite author, Clare never fails to transport me to different countries and engage me in her beautiful descriptions of locations. This time it’s Malaysia, and a book with an intriguing premise, of a woman who is so bored with her life that she decides to travel to a strange country to accept an offer of marriage from a widower of whom she only has vague memories. When she arrives, things don’t quite match up with her hopes and expectations. Evie’s struggles and her efforts to make sense of her new life are captivating.

Jennifer C Wilson: The Raided Heart

It was a pleasure to read this tale of family loyalty, power struggles and romance. There are some deliciously evil characters here, as well as a feisty heroine you are driven to cheer for right through the book. Choosing the 15th century as a setting is a brave move, but it works well, especially in using the fascinating background of the Border Reivers in Northumberland. The descriptions provide a clear picture of the surroundings and I liked the short chapters that conveyed movement through the narrative. Very enjoyable.

Phillipa Gregory: Tidelands

I’ve loved all of Philippa’s early books, and most of the Tudor and Plantagenet series, but I’m sorry to say her later books just haven’t given me the same enjoyment. It feels as if the historical aspects have been shoehorned in, and my editor brain tells me this book needed a significant pruning. Too many repetitive descriptions of the tidelands area and not enough action made me impatient with it. It’s sad when you have to abandon an author, but I feel it’s time to move on.

Polly Heron: The Surplus Girls

It was a pleasure to receive a pre-publication copy of The Surplus Girls from Corvus Books, the first in a new series set in 1920s Manchester. Polly Heron is the pen name of Susanna Bavin, whose writing I love. This was a joy to read, bringing home the difficulties that women had after the Great War, when so many men had perished.

The heroine, Belinda Layton, is forced into a prolonged period of mourning for her fiancé Ben who was killed in action, but she’s straining to get out into the world. She has a nightmare of a family, and faces challenges at every turn of the page. There’s a fairly big cast of characters, but the interactions between them are handled very well, and everything is neatly tied up at the end. I can’t wait for the rest of the series!

Until next time, happy reading.

Juliette xx

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