Names will never hurt me

I'm not fond of my real name. Most of the time I forget I have it; I'll happily hold conversations with random strangers without ever introducing myself, and when they ask for my name I'll flounder for a minute and try to remember what it is. When "Your name on a ---" tawdry gifts are involved I tend to look at L before I look at G. I answer to my internet username more readily than the name my mother gave me. Someone using my full real name in conversation tends to throw me for a loop. (Or just make me cringe.)

So it's not really that surprising I'm going for a pseudonym, right? I mean, I don't want to get stuck signing a name I don't like, or grimacing if I see my work connected to it. It would seem counterproductive. I don't want to be downplaying any actual publication success I get just because it has my name unfortunately attached to it. "Yeah, that one's mine, just don't show me the name on the cover, okay?"

Lea Fletcher, on the other hand, I have been toying with using for six or seven years. I like it. I like the diminutive "Leaf" available, I like the connection to archery, I like that nobody's currently publishing under that name (someone who shares my real name has apparently published a couple of economics textbooks), I like the fewer letters, I like that it's closely linked to what I've been going by online for a decade - Lea and Lali works for me. I'll quite happily answer to it, and proudly point it out on the shelves or in magazines if I get the chance.

It doesn't seem to cause any complications when it comes to publishing, either. Copyright is simple enough, payment likewise, and I don't mind if my real name's in the small print. That's much less off-putting.

I expect a lot of people I know will tell me I shouldn't bother and should just use my real name anyway, not least since it would allow for old acquaintances from real life to see my work and buy for nostalgia value or to see if I turned out to be any good after all... But hey, if I'd got married it would be a different name and that effect wouldn't apply anyway. And I have every intention of spreading the word via Facebook and email and popping back to my old school to give my English teachers a copy if I ever do get out there. I'll make sure they know, if that happens. I don't need to use the old full name for that.

So when I submit Hanith to the British Fantasy Society this week, it'll be as Lea Fletcher. Because I have identity issues.

And I don't want my grandfather to find all my LGBT sword and sorcery and have a heart attack.