The HEA Cafe

Since the day is almost upon us, let me wish you all the very best of the season.

All I want for Christmas ~~~ is a new name!
I always thought I would write under my own name and have done so since 2006. Imagine my surprise when my new publisher asked me to find a new name because they had too many authors with my first name.

The request opened up a couple of  possibilities and a couple of concerns.

The pros:-I could keep my last name
My last name being near the end of the alphabet means my books are always on the bottom shelf in the corner. Always. So I could pick a last name that came in the middle of the alphabet, at eye level, which sounded like a pro to me.
The cons:- People who were reading my current books wouldn’t be able to find me.

I would lose my author brand.
Who would I be?
In the end I decided to go with a completely new name, and a new website, but I would still keep writing under my own name, for other publishers, but to deal with the reader issue,  I would have my new persona contribute to blog with my old persona and we would be bff’s.

So here I am, meet the new my new best friend forever.   Ta daaa.

Ann Lethbridge, writing for Harlequin Historicals. My first book comes out with them as a short story in the Undone line, cover shown here. It is called The Rake’s Intimate Encounter. It will be available in January from e-harlequin.com. I love the cover and I must say I am very excited to be writing for Harlequin. This novella  is a prequel to my full length book ~The Rake’s Inherited Courtesan which is out in April 2009.

Next time I will tell you how I set about choosing the perfect new name.   Or at least, perfect in my humble opinion.