Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Pseudonym.

Pseudonym who?

Pseudonym? More like, pseudon’t use one if you want to keep your readership!

Well, folks, it’s official. After trying to hide behind the mysterious moniker of A.G. Bennett (a name chosen late on a Friday night, three gins into the evening) I’m dropping the pen name. And let me tell you, it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

There were were plenty of reasons why I decided to use a pen name in the first place. For one thing, I was scared shitless that everyone would hate my first novel, Shepherd’s Derelict, and I’d be forced to flee the country in disgrace. But so far, the three people who’ve read the book left nice reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. So I’m feeling more confident. I definitely didn’t want my picture books getting mixed up with my adult books, but that doesn’t seem likely, in retrospect. Lastly, I was worried that my family wouldn’t like it, dealing as it does with difficult subjects. Turns out, they are my biggest fans!

As time went on, I started to realize that maintaining a pen name was just too much work. No one knew who A.G. Bennett was – not even my own mother. And every time I tried to juggle two separate social media accounts, I felt like I was losing my mind. Who has time for that?

And then there was the fact that I never responded to the name. Seriously, it was like I had some sort of split personality disorder or something. People would call me A.G. and I’d just stare at them blankly, like “who the heck is that?” It was getting embarrassing.

But the real kicker was when I realized that I felt like a big faker. I mean, who was I trying to fool? Sure, I might have been able to creep off into the shadows if everyone hated my writing, but what about the people who actually liked it? They deserved to know the real me, not some made-up persona.

So here I am, folks. No more A.G. Bennett. Just plain old me. Sure, some folks might be scandalized by some of the stuff I write, but at least they’ll know it’s really me.