I Need a New Name

Last Saturday I attended the monthly IRWA(Indiana Romance Writers of America) meeting.  In addition to the chance to see many of my favorite writers in person and learn from their experiences we had a program featuring Kim Castillo (writer's assistant to Eloisa James).

Kim talked about her journey and many of the things she does for a best selling author.  It was fun and fascinating to hear about all thing things (from marketing, to social media, to travel to hospitality) that fall within her purview.  One of the things she talked about is an author's persona.

She highly recommended that romance authors have a pseudonym (pen name) for their work.  I had not thought about the security issues associated with writing and doing personal appearances under your real name.  In the world of academia writing fiction, especially romance fiction, under a pseudonym, protects the author from snarky comments from their colleagues. It is way beneath real intellectuals to consider writing romance fiction, even though it pays much better than academic writing.

I have a friend who is a college professor at the college where I work.  She writes non-fiction under her real name and then writes her romance novels under a pen name.

So I decided I need a new name for my romance writing projects.  Here is the rub, I can't think of anything that goes with my persona.  I can give characters in my books names but in thinking about something for myself I draw a blank.

Subsequently I am asking for help.  If you read this would you suggest a name for me?  It seems that many authors use initials for their pen names.  I do not want to do that.  I want a first and last name.  If you know me you can also suggest my persona, it has to be something that is not too much of a stretch but fits who I am.

Any help will be appreciated.