Publisher: Excite Books
Date of publication: September 2013
Bridget Ross is a woman with a shameful
secret. Despite a life full of success and close friends she denies herself her
true desires in penance for the crimes she can't take back.
Connor Reynolds is a man without a purpose. His own tragic past prevents him from putting down roots and pursuing his dreams.
Reflection
Their paths collide forcing them to face the ultimate question … is their love worth confronting their deepest fears and insecurities?
To Use or Not to Use …
by Elene Sallinger
… a pen name that is. This
seems like a simple decision, but in reality it's a deeply personal one. For
some, they absolutely must use one or suffer the consequences. For others, it's
a simple convenience.
There are definite advantages to using a pen name and few
drawbacks.
I use a pen name out of necessity.
In my personal opinion, the climate here in America
surrounding erotica is still such that you are taking a risk if you expose your
legal identity. People are still losing jobs once they are discovered to be
writing erotica in their personal time. While the post-50 Shades era is
a bit more accepting, we also see Amazon and Barnes & Noble filtering out
erotica in blatant acts of censorship. The overarching message is that erotica
is bad and we must protect the masses from it. That makes me somehow wrong for
writing it by default.
Bottom line, we still live in a culture that abhors
admitting we all love sex. Even worse if you admit to liking kinky sex. Worse
still if you proliferate the idea that sex and sensual exploration of all kinds
are worth writing about and sharing.
Additionally, I am not a full-time writer. I have a regular
day job for my state government designing training curricula. I also live in a
conservative, traditionally “red” state.
Before moving to the Southwest, I lived in Alabama and before that
Virginia. All red states. All conservative. And I've worked full-time jobs as
an employee the entire time I've been writing. Long story short, it is not in
my best interest to advertise that I write erotica. Especially erotica
involving BDSM.
The climate of the areas in which I live and the employers
I've had, means that I have to consider more than just my personal feelings
about what I write. Left to my own devices, I'd use my legal name. I have no
shame about what I write. But, I'm not an island, and my situation means I use
a pen name.
All of that being said, there are definite benefits to using
a pen name and even blockbuster authors have been known to do it. Steven King
also wrote as Richard Bachman, Nora Roberts writes as J.D. Robb, even the
prolific J.R. Ward has written under the pen name Jessica Bird. The benefits of
using a pen name are pretty succinct.
First, it allows you to write outside of your genre without
effecting the “brand” you've built. This is something I already do. The
narrative non-fiction pieces I have out used a different name. The same holds
true for the literary fiction pieces I have in the works, they won't be
published under Elene Sallinger.
The converse of this is that should any disasters occur, –
writing gods forbid – with the use of a pen name, you can simply abandon it and
start fresh with a new name and all the bad mojo dissolves with the old name.
Lastly, there is the privacy element. Fans are wonderful,
stalkers are scary. I've had an experience with an overzealous fan and the fact
that my legal identity was protected was a huge relief.
So, in the end, the decision is a personal one based on each
person's individual needs and requirements.
I use one, others don't. All that matters is that you're comfortable
with your decision.
---------
Thank you for having me!
About the author:
Hailing from Washington, DC, Elene Sallinger
first caught the writing bug in 2004 after writing and illustrating several
stories for her then four-year-old daughter. Her writing career has encompassed
two award-winning children's stories, a stint as a consumer-education advocate,
as well as writing her debut novel, Awakening - a novel of erotic fiction that
won the New Writing Competition at the Festival of Romance 2011.
Website: http://elenesallinger.wordpress.com
Twitter: esallinger
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