Thursday, May 24, 2007

What's in a Name...

(First, three quick things. First, my faboo cp/wp Anna J. Evans had a release yesterday, her Naught Nuptial quickie (short story) with EC. Check it out here. I loved this story when I read it, so you will too.

Second, my friend Annie, as you all know, just got a great deal with Ace books!

Third, my friend Bam made herself a sweet sale to Liquid Silver Books!

Congrats to my awesome friends.)

Okay. Now.

I'm pretty sure all of you know that "December Quinn" is not my real name. Because it's not. I love it, I answer to it, I'm used by now to being called it. But it's not my real name, it's a name I created specifically for my erotic books. For a number of reasons which I'm sure I don't need to detail, I decided that keeping my identity rather more secret while writing primarily about people having sex in a variety of positions, places, and orifices, no matter how romantic the story may ultimately be, was a good idea.

My real name has other distinct disadvantages. I've never particularly liked it, for one. My married last name has an unfortunate similarity to a vulgar word (all it takes is one lazy vowel sound) which again, if you're writing erotic, you want to avoid that. Plus, and this is rather more personal, not long after moving to the UK my husband fell out with his father, for reasons too complex to go into here, and they haven't spoken in about a year. Suffice it to say that my husband has never particularly cared for having that man's name--he's thought of changing it for 25 years--and we don't want to anymore.

So we're changing our name. And the reason this matters to you is, we're changing it to the last name of my new "other psuedonym"" Stacia Kane.

And the other pseudonym is news to you because it is the name under which Juno Books will be publishing Personal Demons early next year as a mass market paperback!!

So although legally my name is not yet Stacia Kane, it will be (okay, I'll probably keep my actual first name, which is Stacey. But "Stacey Kane" was already taken as a domain name, and I've always liked Stacia a little bit more, although it still doesn't thrill me. But it sounds good with Kane, and the hubs and I are sold on Kane.)

Nothing changes here, although I may add "Stacia Kane" to the title of the blog, because when the new SK site is up and running I'll simply direct that blog here as well. The name change is simply for branding purposes; I want people to know that when they pick up a DQ book they're getting HEA romance with (most likely) lots of sex; when they pick up an SK book they may get a more ambiguous ending with less focus on romance and less sex (though they'll get some sex either way, never fear. There's what I think is a cracking hot sex scene in Personal Demons and there will be more in future books too.) Hopefully they'll like both. I don't think the voice is all that different, just the subject matter and focus.

So there you go.

Wheeee! I sold my urban fantasy!!!

37 comments:

Bernita said...

Wunnerful, wunnerful news, December...unh...Stacia...unh...You GO, Girl!
( I feel like my MIL who called the roll through all her family before she got to the right name!)

Tempest Knight said...

Congrats on selling your urban fantasy! *pom-pom swish*

Ann Aguirre said...

congrats :)

Robyn said...

Congrats, though I'm sorry to hear of the troubles in hub's family. These decisions can be incredibly difficult but ultimately for the best. Praying for you guys.

Stacia said...

Thanks Bernita! It's still December, it's whichever you like. Believe me, when your real name is Stacey you learn not to be picky about what you're called or how it's spelled (Tracy, Daisy, Stephanie...Stacey Stacy Staci Stasy...) People ask me how it's spelled and I say "However you want." :-)

Thanks Tempest! Ooh I get a swish!

Stacia said...

Thanks Annie! And again to you!

Thanks Robyn! At this point we're just looking to close an old wound, really. My FIL was never much of a father.

Anna J. Evans said...

Hey D!

You know how thrilled I am about this sale. I LOVE Personal Demons and can't wait to get it on muy keeper shelf. I've said it before, I'll say it again, one of the best books I've read this year.

I am a little sad that we won't be the stacey F squared anymore, but it will probably be less confusing for the editors we share in common.

Hugs, girl, and thanks for pimping my release.

Anna (who is also really a Stacey but likes Anna much more :))

BernardL said...

Congratulations on your sale! Names are a serious matter when thinking about changing them in reality. It makes ancestry a difficult endeavor for future generations, and your husband’s name has roots probably traceable back to the beginning of recorded history. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision.

Stacia said...

Anna, you came out as a Stacey too! Lol. We actually won't be initiating the name change until we're settled in one country for good. Right now there's too much documentation as far as immigration etc. we'd need to change and passports that would need replacing with new visas as well, it just isn't cost-effective. So in a few years, I think.


Actually, Bernard, his family has been traced back to the 16th century. We do have the geneaology, though, so at least our kids and future generations shouldn't get lost.
Thanks!

Rhian said...

Congratulations Stacember!!
That is awesome news and we're gonna all be wonderfully loopy with all the drinkin' and partying and carrying on in celebraiton for everyone. Wahoo! you rock girl!

Naomi said...

Congratulations! I remember seeing this on Evil Editor's blog some time ago and thinking it sounded great. I'll look forward to reading it :)

Camille Alexa said...

GO woman! You're on fire! (In a good way--not in a tragic call-the-ladderhouse way.)

Stacia said...

Lol, Rhian, Stacember. Seriously, I've been going by December for some time, if that's the way you guys think of me, please continue.
I'm waiting for the weekend to do my celebratory drinking. But believe me, I will do some drinking!

Hi Naomi! Wow, thanks! And thanks for the comment too--your blog is great. I agree with you about monsters...but I still can't help but find them sexy. :-)


Thanks lb! I'm pretty sure we're about to head into a slower period though, because I have some real writing work ahead...sigh.

Erica Ridley said...

Whoo! Congratulations!

P.S.
I like Stacember, too ;)

pacatrue said...

Congrats indeed. Is it just me or are you selling about one novel per week? Maybe you should change your name to Nora.

My best friend in high school went through some of the issues your hunk of love is going through, in that his father had been abusive, and so in 10th grade or so, he ended up changing his name to his mother's maiden.

I think you should go with the December theme, though. And instead of becoming a Kane, your hubs can become August. August Cack. No that won't work. August Manehood. Yeah, that's better. Or was Kane not the potentially vulgar word? Because even I can't come up with a way to make Stacey vulgar. There's no way that "throbbing" can be a first name, is there? If you give it a posh enough accent, I can almost imagine someone in England introducing himself as "Throobing Manehood, Earl of Worcester."

You may use this name in a future novel.

Anonymous said...

Was it Kant? or Focker? I'm dying to know! And cogratu-adu-lations, baby! I can only hope that when I finally get off my ass and stop making excuses why it's not the right time to query, I'll be half as successful as you.

I had been meaning to ask someone, though, what if some of your stuff is erotic, and some is more mainstream, but it's all set in the same fantasy world, with the same history and cultures and races and languages and stuff? Same pseudonym? Different one? I'd be looking possibly at different publishers for the differing styles. Will this make contractual issues unnecessarily complicated as far as the options clause is concerned? Is this an issue for anyone else?

What do I do? Tell me, Stacember. I must know! I must! It's the one lingering little thing keeping me from firing off my equery.

Anonymous said...

OMG I you sold your book!! How cool! I wish to gushingly contratulate you and express my jealousy! Way to go!

Rebecca said...

Wow, how exciting....big Congratulations!!!!!
Stacia Kane, December Quinn....both great names!

Serena said...

Congratulations! What perfectly fabulous things are happening for you. I love the name Stacia. It has such an exotic ring to it. I'm so used to calling you December that I may have to write myself a sticky note. LOL.

McKoala said...

Well done! Congratulations on selling your great story. Looking forward to seeing it in print! Do you still need an agent or are you going to deal with Juno direct?

Name-wise, I may move my head to 'Dacey'. That's quite pretty.

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Congrats on your sale, no matter who you have to be on the cover!

Anonymous said...

Woohooo! I can't help getting bouncy! I love hearing about all these sales! I've been wanting to buy one of your books for a while, I think I'll wait for Personal Demons because I love urban fantasy.

I chose my pen name for the same reason your husband wants to change his. I cannot stand most of the family attached to my last name. I am officially estranged from them for many reasons which directly threaten the well being of myself and my children. And I'm not legally married to my husband (we're handfasted). So I just use my first and middle name, Michele Lee. My husband has such a great last name for erotica though... Lush. Too bad Michele doesn't roll off the tongue like Lush does.

I've been thinking of pen names lately, because I have a lot of ideas in different genres but I don't know how I'd manage all of them. Maybe just a page for each under my main webpage? Different pages for each?

Unknown said...

Thanks Erica! Do you think I should register the doman name stacember.com, and just have one big site for everything? :-)

Paca and kis, I literally laughed out loud and read those to my husband. Kis, you're not too far off with "Focker", actually. It's not Focker, but it's close.

Paca, I dream of being like Nora. I think we all do. :-) But most of the stuff I've been selling is backlog, really. I only made three sales in all of last year but wrote like seven books. So a lot of that stuff is just catching up now. But I do try to work quickly. I want to get my name out there, out out out!

Kis...I don't know, actually. I think I'll blog about that and open it up to opinions. I know EC is doing a new line of books set in a particular world, and the erotic books in that world will be EC and the non-erotic will be Cerridwen. So hmm.

Unknown said...

Hmm, okay, not sure why I just posted as Stacia...

Stacia said...

Thanks, written! I'm really pleased, it doesn't actually seem real though!

Thanks Rebecca! I think when you've never liked your name you spend a lot of time coming up with new ones, lol.

Thanks, Serena, I do like it better than Stacey. But please, you can still call me December! I love December, it's fine!!

Stacia said...

Thanks McKoala! I meant to email you but was hardly on the computer yesterday thanks to a fussy toddler. Couldn't have done it without you and your excellent crit. Mwah.


Thanks bunnygirl! Are you back from vacation now?


Thanks Michele! (Lee is my Mom's middle name, I've always loved it. I wanted to use it for one of my girls but neither first name goes well with it, darn it.)

I thought at one point about using my maiden name but it isn't the most euphonious either. :-)

My feeling is, it depends on how much you write in each genre. I'm setting up a new name for the UF because I hope to do a lot more of it. My non-erotic romance, though, is staying under DQ because I don't plan to write a lot of non-erotic stuff, and it's all romance anyway, so I'm not going to bother.

So if you write horror and wrote a horror erotica I wouldn't choose a new name, but if you're writing a HEA romance with a light tone you might want to. Just my opinion. I'm going to have a new site for SK, too, but that's because I have to keep the under-18s off the DQ site.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I knew the name change decision has been coming for a while although colour me surprised on the choice! It's a good choice though. It will flow really well with everyone's names.

Congrats on the book sale! I know you've been excited about it for a while.

Anonymous said...

Call yourself what you want, to me you're awesome!!

Anonymous said...

that is so exciting, december!!!!!
hurrah!!!!! and i like your fake erotic authoress name. =D cyn

Stacia said...

Thanks elle! Yeah, it certainly has been coming on for a while, I'm glad you like it!

Aaw, thanks Seeley! I think you're awesome too. :-)

Thanks Cyn! It is exciting, the more I think about it the more excited I get!

Sam said...

How cool is that! Picking your names! Kane is very nice, and Stacia is great!!
Congrats on selling your book, and that's terrific news about Juno Books! They have wonderful cover art!!

JC Madden said...

Congrats on the sale! Did you go on your own or did you send through an agent?

Stacia said...

Thanks, Sam! I can't wait to see my cover art--you're right, theirs is beautiful!


Thanks CJ! I went on my own, no agent. :-)

Stacia said...

Oops. Sorry, I meant jc!

Anonymous said...

Wow thats a lot of information!

Congrats on your book sales, you are going to be super rich soon, if you arent already!

I wonder if your husbands surname was the same as a famous philosophers.. one "uh" sound and it would be a pretty nasty word. :) But maybe im thinking of a different name.

Anyway, I love Stacia Kane!

The name I use for singing Ive been using so long that I dont even remember my real name most of the time. Add Isabella and I'm surely a mess.

Sometimes I wonder which is real.

Stacia said...

Lol, I don't think I'm even scraping the bottom of the moderately well-off barrel, Isa! Maybe one day, but I'm not counting on it. :-)

It can be confusing, can't it?

Sylvia said...

Hmm, I definitely think of you as December although the mixed handle will probably shift that.

The only Stacia I know is in http://www.marrymemovie.com

I said it before but Congrats again. I ran out of evil editor and came a'stalking the minion blogs. Neat stuff!