What's in a name?

“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (Romeo and Juliet) - William Shakespeare

I find myself wondering about names today. We all have them; some of us like them, and some of us want to change them. My youngest daughter currently wants to change her name to Sally. My youngest son changed his name in second grade to John Smith. He even signed all of his work with the new name. Although now that he is in sixth grade, he denies any knowledge of having done so.

Many authors use different pseudonyms, from Nora Roberts on down the line. I think it makes sense. You know what you are getting when you buy a book by J.D. Robb, and you know what you are in for when you buy a book by Nora Roberts. However, you also know the same person writes them.

As I branch out into other genres and heat levels of writing, I have also taken on a pseudonym for my sweet romances: Ashlyn Barré. This is not to hide my identity, but to differentiate between my sweet romances and my erotic romances. Both of my websites link to each other, and I invite readers to explore whichever heat level or genre they are interested in reading.

Writing as Ashlyn Barré, I will soon be releasing a novel, previously published as Sometimes in September. September’s Gold (Rosa Romance Publishing) has been completely rewritten and expanded to over twice as long. This is the romantic time travel novel that I always intended to write the original as, yet it emerged as a short story in its first life. I am proud to have this book come out as Ashlyn Barré’s first, and I hope you’ll enjoy it too. It is targeted for release in first e-book, and then print, possibly this November.

So what do you think about pseudonyms as an author or a reader? To me (in both respects), they make sense. How about you?