Authors fake their names and bios?

Today in class, my instructor saw me reading Destiny's Way, and she said that she has a friend "that writes those novels".

When I asked for her friend's name, she said that she couldn't tell me, that her friend wouldn't like for her name to be given.

So, I noted that there have only been two NJO novels by female authors, but my instructor said that her friend goes under a false name, so that one of the guy authors might actually be a she.

My instructor then went on to say that a lot of authors fake their bios, too, so there's no way for readers to track them down because there's a lot of nutty people out there...

I never thought about writers using false identities before...

Is this true? Do any of you know for sure?

 

I can guarantee you that the Star Wars authors are, for the most part, who they say they are. And even when they use psuedonyms, they don't fake the pictures and they don't fake the bios.

If you're interested, Dave Wolverton also writes novels under the name David Farland.

 

Actually, the term is "pen names", or "pseudonyms".

For instance, Samuel Clements' pen name was "Mark Twain". It's a normal practice of many authors.

KJA, has a couple of pen names too(one that is a combination of his wife and him, "Gabriel Mesta"). Jude Watson also has a couple of pseudonyms...

 

Jack McKinney == James Luceno + Brian Daley
Richard Bachman == Stephen King

Plenty of people use psudonyms, but only Richard Bachman has died... ("cancer of the pseudonym")

I think there was a rumor going around that Dafydd ab Hugh over writing for DS9 was Peter David writing more graphically violent stories under a pen name -- but that was likely just rumor.

 

I always wanted to write a Great American novel and not tell anyone it was me. I'd have it published under a pen name with no bio info or anything. Kids would read it in school, it would be on the NY bestseller list. Then on my death bed I'd 'fess up.

Course I need to write a good novel first! The only flaw to my plan!

 

Robert Jordan is James Oliver Rigney Jr., I think. He took his pen name from a Hemmingway novel.

 

Diary of Ellen Rimbauer Edited by Joyce Reardon with an afterword by Stephen rimbauer == Stephen King(or so I've been told)

Of course in that story, it never once tells you in the back of the book or anywhere what author wrote the book, because the author wanted the book to seem like a "real" document.

"Plenty of people use psudonyms, but only Richard Bachman has died... ("cancer of the pseudonym")"

Well, not exactly true, both Joyce Reardon and Ellen Rimbauer died, over the course of the diary, "my life at rose red", and the movie "Rose Red".


"I think there was a rumor going around that Dafydd ab Hugh over writing for DS9 was Peter David writing more graphically violent stories under a pen name -- but that was likely just rumor."

Well, now that you mention it, the doom novels that were written by him didn't have any about the author page, I was curious to who he is. I guess it's possible that it was a pseudonym, and the author didn't want to give up his real identity.

 

Names yep. I'd definitly use a pseodonym if I wrote novels. I even have one picked out already for if I ever do.

About the bios I'm not so sure... but if the author is a female who is using a male pseodonym, then the bio *could* be altered from 'her' to 'his', etc...

But I doubt it.

 

The husband and wife writing team of Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch (who wrote The New Rebellion) once wrote a DS9 novel under the pen name of Sandy Schofield,I believe.

 

overlord: they've written several novels together under the Schofield psuedonym, including at least one Aliens novel, in addition to the Star Trek stuff.

 

This is the most Star Trek conversation I've seen on this board.

L. A. Graf is actually Julie Ecklar and Karen Cercone.

 

Well, Jude Watson MIGHT be a pen name. I know she writes under other names, I remember from an interview, but I don't know which, if any, of the names are really hers. But for all the adult SW books, I'm pretty sure all the authors are using their own names.

 

Valyn,

Are you sure your teacher meant NJO, not just Star Wars, or even just generally sci-fi when she said "those novels"?

 

Perhaps, her friend writes, Star trek?

You know there are the people that don't destinquish between the two franchises. Which is silly, since they are different. I like both though, don't get me wrong.

 

I have to say that I wouldn't be exactly... surprised... if Troy Denning and WJW turned out to be Zahn and KJA...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Schofield wrote the 'Aliens' novel 'Aliens: Alien Harvest'.

Gabriel Mesta wrote the StarCraft novel 'StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga'

According to my friend, who's a huge Stephen King nut, King has only used one penname, "Richard Bachman", which he used to write such stories as 'The Running Man' (which is an awesome book), and 'The Long Walk'.

 

Syntax! What's this about a Starcraft book??

I played the PC a few weeks some years ago before realising just how addictive it was. I then made a heroic choice: my studies, or Starcraft. I chose more hours for studies, and got rid of the game.

What is this book like? Is it formal, like a proper novel, or just some childish filler item, like that thin Doom book I once saw lookign at me from some shop shelf?

 

There are three StarCraft books. They're all really, really cool. The most recent one is the best one, actually, and the Gabriel Mesta one is arguably the worst (it isn't BAD, it's just the worst of the three). The three books are:

#1 - 'Liberty's Crusade', by Jeff Grubb
#2 - 'Shadow of the Xel'Naga', by Gabriel Mesta
#3 - 'Speed of Darkness', by Tracy Hickman

No idea if any more are planned or will be coming out.

 

J. Gregory Keyes. The J was added on to make his name sound more interesting, I guess. I think the only novels by Keyes that don't have J are his Star Wars productions. And even then its only "Greg Keyes."

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Same author. That is not much of a change, but it is interesting.

 

Well, my instructor did know that I was reading Star Wars and not Star Trek, as she made a comment as to how she sometimes reads the latter but has never read the former.

She said that her friend also faked the bio in her NJO novel, saying she lived in a different state when she lives here in Florida.

It never occurred to me for a writer to fake his/her name. And why would Stephen King fake his name? Wouldn't they want their real names to be associated with their work, especially if their proud of the said work?

 

The J. -ory were dropped on THE BRIAR KING as well.

Michael Crichton has a couple of psuedonyms.

 

Is their a purpose for the fake identities? Are they for security issues? But why would an author need more than one fake name? And why would someone that's already well-known, such as Stephen King or Michael Chriton(sp?), use fake names?

And how do you all know the truth behind their fake names?

 

Stephen King wrote his earlier novels under the psuedo. I think he switched to his name one he realized he'd sell well. Since then I think he's only published one novel under the Bachman name.

Also, often authors will use different names for books in different genres, so as not to "confuse" their fans.

And sometimes, if an author isn't selling particularly well, he'll "start over" with a new name.

 

"The J. -ory were dropped on THE BRIAR KING as well."

I wouldn't know anything about that. . .

 

Something random i remembered from the trhird grade...

THe NAncy Drew and THe bobsey twins series are written by the same author.

And Michael Crichton Wrote A case of Need under a pen name, but iirc its come out under his name recently