Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 12:37:00 -0600
From: <samlubell at verizon.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Aliases
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Ted wrote
>So I repeat: why *should* people "spend a second to connect the
>names. Just like with any other alias."? Most aliases are used by
>criminals or people trying to hide their identity for dishonest
>reasons.

What about pen names?  Many authors take on pen names because they don't want their professors/employers to know they write that "Buck Rogers stuff".  I think Hal Clement took on that name so his science professors wouldn't know he was misusing what they were teaching him.  And then there's the poor sad case of Megan Lindholm, the writer of such wonderful books as Wizard of the Pigeons and Cloven Hooves, who when bookstores switched to a system that tracked sales was forced to change her identity to Robin Hobbs, a writer of much more commercial (but less literary) fantasy.  Harry Turtledove, when he wanted to ensure people would not mistake his strictly historical novel for another one of his many alternate histories, actually translated his name into Latin.  And then there are all the science fiction writers who write mysteries under a different name so that bookstore clerks would put the books in the right sections.

So sometimes there's a very good reason for an alias.