To pen name or to not pen name

With Halloween at the end of the week, it seems like a good time to talk about my darker side.
I started my writing career with time travel fiction. Then I entered Ant Timpson’s ‘Make My Horror Movie’ competition, and that pulled me into a very different genre.
I didn’t win. But I couldn’t let the idea go, so I adapted that competition entry into a complete manuscript and published it as ‘Painted’.

During the very dark days of the Covid lockdowns, ‘Painted’ was considered by Netflix. Many thanks to my agent at the time for the work she put in. Netflix ultimately didn’t pick it up, but for a while ‘Painted’ was sitting in a Stephen King sandwich on Amazon, which is a screenshot I’ll be keeping forever!
This post isn’t about missing out on Ant’s competition, or on Netflix. A few years ago I started kicking myself for not choosing a pen name for my horror books. Even shortening my name to my initials would have helped differentiate the two. People told me that I “should have” used a pen name.

But I don’t regret that decision anymore. Not having another pen name has simplified my writing life. I write in two very distinct genres. People who like time travel but don’t read horror, don’t read my horror books, and that’s okay. It’s a bit like people who don’t like pineapple on pizza (heathens). They can pick the pineapple off and enjoy the rest.
The NZ Listener also named ‘Painted’ as one of the Kiwi books they’d like to see on screen, which I’m pretty chuffed about.

And if by any chance Netflix are reading this, ‘Painted’ is still available.
#Halloween #Publishing #Painted