Monday, January 2, 2012

Name Change

If you are a return visitor to this blog, you may have noticed something different.  My name.

Now, I originally had a long-winded explanation as to why I've decided to go with the pen name Derek Grant over my real name (though Grant is my real name, just the middle one), but part way through I changed my mind.  Here's the simple explanation.  I enjoy my anonymity.  It's really that simple.

Now, I'm not saying that I expect to become the next Stephen King (though that would be sweet) and therefore need privacy for security reasons, but I did find that, since going "public" by having an online presence here and on Twitter, it changed the way I thought about and approached my writing.  I didn't like that.  Writing under a pen name frees me from such self conscious thought.  Now I no longer worry about what a potential employer might think of my writing.  Or the family that lives down the street.  Or any number of people I might run into in my daily life.  I'm not embarrassed by what I write.  Quite the contrary.  I just noticed it was having a negative effect on my own psyche and that was affecting my writing.  And that's bad.

So that's it, really.  I apologize for any confusion this might cause.  Of course, if you never even noticed, then, by all means, carry on...

Derek