Top Ten Reasons to Use a Pseudonym -- Psycho? Flying Monkeys? How oh how do I WARN YOU???

What music should I use?


I’m thinking maybe that screeching music from Psycho? While Janet Leigh is getting stabbed in the shower?

Or no, maybe that sort of chanting song the flying monkeys are singing while they march into the Wicked Witch of the West’s castle. Oh WE oh we OHHHHH uh (can you hear it?)

I need to set a tone today.

A suspenseful tone. While I tell you all what I’ve DONE!!!????

MARY, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE????

In October I’ll have my first release as the pseudonymous Mary Nealy.

Here’s a little bit about it before we talk more.

Ten Plagues

By Mary Nealy

A demon possessed serial killer acts out the Ten Plagues of Egypt on the city of Chicago.


An inner city mission pastor draws the attention of a madman and becomes the focus of his rage.


A lady cop with the spiritual gift of discerning spirits gets the case and is confronted with an evil unlike any she's ever known.


The pastor and the cop race to stop a murderer, knowing that the plague of the first born and the plague of darkness are being saved just for them.


And I’ll tell you just a bit about the background of this book because it’s how I met RUTHY!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve told this before, skim if you must, though it’s an adorable story.

I won the Barclay Award with this book. A long, long time ago. Decades. I don’t remember how long but I think I chiseled the manuscript on granite. Or was it papyrus, Ruthy? It’s a memory that is lost in the mists of time.

So, I won. Big time. Out of a possible 100 score I got…maybe 99.5. I can’t remember but it was great.

Come to find out I’d been discrepancy judged. Of three judges I got 98, 99 and 62. (or was it a 32, Ruthy??) So they dropped that mean old bad judge and brought in a fourth judge who gave me a 100.

And I won. Oh, wait, I may have mentioned already that I won, so ignore this second note of the fact that I won!

Soon thereafter here comes an email from some mysterious and cruel person calling herself Ruth Logan Herne. And did she write to tell me she was wrong, wrong, wrong? Oh no. She wrote to tell me she LOVED Ten Plagues and she’d STILL busted it and here’s why……..

She said it was too edgy. Too murderous-rampage-y. Great book but let’s face it chickadee, you’re never gonna get this published in Christian fiction. Never, never, never. And it’s too Christian to get published anywhere else. Never, never, never. And the other judges were all writing secular so her opinion, harsh though it was, was more useful than theirs.

So, though she loved the book, she thought she needed to save me and guide me down a more promising path. (Did the word cowboys ever come up, Ruthy? Another memory lost)

So, being as I’d won ’n everything, it was easy for me to be forgiving. Plus I figured she was right. Plus I fell in love with her honesty and sass and courage to not just slam the book but to be all grown up and tell me why.

And beside I won.

Well, to prove how all-knowing and wise Ruthy is, TADA…..
Ten Plagues releases October 1st.

I used a pseudonym for the book and that’s what I wanted to talk about today. Getting a chance to say to Ruthy, “Neener, neener, neener", is just a fringe benefit.

A Rose by any other name will still alienate her readers if Lil Rosy steps too far outside her brand.

I love Ten Plagues. I think it’s as fun as anything I’ve ever written and it is a fiercely Christian book, with far more spiritual content than many of the books I write. But it is DIFFERENT. And that’s why I wanted the pseudonym. If you pick up Ten Plagues and ask yourself, “I wonder what state THIS cowboy’s ranch is in?” you’re in for a shock.

And I don’t want you to be shocked. I want you to read it, but KNOW WHAT YOU’RE PICKING UP. ALSO KNOW THAT ROMANTIC COMEDY WITH COWBOYS IS STILL MY FIRST LOVE AND THE NEXT ONE COMES IN FEBRUARY. ALSO KNOW THIS IS A ROMANCE. I THINK READERS WILL FORGIVE A ROMANCE NOVELIST ANYTHING IF THERE’S STILL A HAPPILY EVER AFTER. (that could be wishful thinking on my part)

This is me from back in the day when no one would publish my books and I was on a wild ride, writing whatever I wanted. Whatever entertained me. And this just entertained the stuffin’ out of me.

So, because many of our Seekervillagers, and a few Seekers, too, have different ideas in their heads, outside their brands, I’m going to give you:

The top ten reasons 

you might want to publish under a pseudonym

10) You write romance and your name isn't romantic. Gertrude Hogg might wanta think about a pseudonym. (Please, Dear Lord God in Heaven don't let any Seekervillagers be named Gertrude Hogg) Part 2 of #10, related, because your name is possibly stupid. So Myrtle, you really married a guy named Snarfblatt? Wow, that’s so wonderful. You must be MADLY in love. Pick a pseudonym, sweetie.


9) You just got a contract for erotica and you don't want your mother to find out. (You should never publish ANYTHING your mother can't find out about. That ought to be a law.)

8) You are changing genres. Yes, if you’re going from western romance to romantic thrillers you probably ought to warn your readers. Same goes for romance to women’s fiction. And Christian fiction to Vampires.

7) Your name is Nora and you’re married to the love of your life, William Roberts. Give up. Your name is never gonna come up first in a Google search. NEVER

6) Your name is twistable into something that sounds like a porn site. Ask my friend Carol Cox about that one. And no, she didn’t change her name, but it’s been interesting at time.

5) You work somewhere at a day job where your privacy is important. Though I suspect any effort you make to write with true anonymity is a failed effort.

4) To hide your gender. See Leigh Greenwood and Alex Kava on this one. Yes their gender is out now but not at first. In fact I met Leigh Greenwood, a very successful romance novelist, at RWA and he said he’d come out of the closet and admitted he was a man several books ago.

3) Because you’re prolific. And you want to write more books a year than your publisher will let you.

2) Because your name is generic. Ask my sister Linda Swenson about this one. A lovely name and a lovely woman. But go google her name. It didn’t even come up. I got ‘narrow search’ instead of hits.

1) Your name is impossible to spell. Hello Mary Connealy. HOWEVER, the upside of an odd name is that the website for your name is most likely not taken. AND I picked Mary Nealy but it was by no means my first choice. I found naming myself surprisingly embarrassing. Go see the suspenseful side of ME. http://www.marynealy.com/

And now here, in public view for the first time anywhere (unless I’m forgetting a place) is a trailer for Ten Plagues.

Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for the first ever in the known universe giveaway of

TEN PLAGUES

Click on the title to buy
Then all that remains is to

Be Afraid!