PSA: Naming the Names

[rolanni]

My name is Sharon Lee. This is not just my "professional" name; it's the name that's on my driver's license, my Social Security card, my passport, and on all those fiddley little pieces of paper you have to fill out when they hire you to do a day-job.

It is perfectly true that I am married to a man surnamed Miller, and have been for Quiet Some Number of Years. However, even back in those Dim, Dim Ages during which we plighted our troth and began our lives together, it was permitted that a lady keep the name she walked into the courthouse with, if she chose to do so.

Which I did.

The byline on the work I do with my co-author husband is Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. This is not a clever indication that my name is actually Sharon Lee Miller. It's not.

This PSA is brought to you by the congruence of three people in three days referring to my work as having been written by "Sharon Miller." Last I looked, Sharon Miller was a romance writer, and a fine one; but she is not me. Nor am I her. Please do not confuse us. When in doubt, look at the cover of the book you're reviewing.

Thank you.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

And the market index on Stoopid Futures rises again!

names

[(Anonymous)]

Visited Scottish graveyard - her maiden name, married to his name. Interesting thought, there.

[gilraen2.livejournal.com]

I understand your feelings, Sharon. After having a judge charge me $50 to change my name BACK to my birth name after and early and disasterous marriage, I swore I'd never change it again. I've been married to Kent for almost 30 years now, and we have kept our separate names that whole time. Worst have been family members - my mother appended Kent's last name to mine until the day she died, and his family kindly sent birthday and Christmas checks to me using his last name.

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

Family . . . my brother, whom I love dearly, does the same. (My parents, they got with the program from the first. But not my brother.)

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

I hear you. Believe me, I hear you.

names!

[(Anonymous)]

Aaaand. I got married the same year you did. I was not a spring chicken, and having successfully carried my name a reasonable number of years, I kept it. My mother-in-law was so offended she rescinded the wedding gift, my Grandpa was confused (but at his age I under-stood), and my Dad mostly got it figured out except on the insurance policy he got for me. I Cannot figure out going through the insanity of a name change. Dealing with schools was occasionally challenging, and taking small children overseas. Sigh.
Fancy rich folk have been doing it for decades. And apparently it has fallen out of fashion... those girls will learn.

names

[(Anonymous)]

sorry, above posted by me, Nanette.

NAMES

[bridget a wheeler-gehrling (from livejournal.com)]

I did just the opposite, thinking that it would save me some trouble.
So much for that idea; I get mail for all sorts of variations on my name.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Way back in the dark ages I had to write a letter like that to *Social Security*, which wanted to make my last name Jamison. Not only no, but hell no. And last time I married, I toyed with the idea of changing it again. The mountain of paperwork deterred me.

[saruby.livejournal.com]

I admit to being a bit disappointed when my sister took her husband's name. The thing is she waiting several months to do it officially: bank accounts, Social Security card, etc. Personally, I saw no reason for using her husbands name. I think she mostly did it for her in-laws.

I myself am not in a relationship where I can marry, but when it is legal, I still won't change my name or hyphenate it. Although we have left that option open for our son when we finalize his adoption.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

or we could talk about your husband, Steven Lee.. grin.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the way the bookstore databases work, Steve's name is often dropped from searches and sometimes from book listings. Which is not only grossly unfair and very annoying, but makes it harder for people who are looking for work by "Sharon Lee and Steve Miller" to find what they want.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Yup. Mentioning no names, but a certain large online bookseller does that a lot, either dropping his name or returning results containing any combination of the four names it happens to find, including someone called "Lee Miller". Mind you, their database system seems to be a heap of dingo's kidneys at the best of times, it managed to tell me that (a) a particular book was still currently being packed (as it had been for a couple of days), and (b) it wouldn't be delivered for almost a month, while (c) I actually had it in my hand delivered already. I made comments about them not talking to themselves, and then realised that talking to myself doesn't help much either...

("I talk to the trees -- that's why they lock me away...")

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I spelled your names--yours and Steve's, along with your publisher's--for a librarian on Wednesday whose shelves are woefully lacking. Hopefully this means that you'll be on another library purchasing list sooner or later.
Personally, I use my husband's name: the legacy of a childhood of spelling difficult parental names (my parents each having kept their own) and marrying someone with one just as bad, so that my kids only have to repeat one spelling over and over and over.
Holly--who generally lurks.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[gilraen2.livejournal.com]

and then there's our friends Joe Champion and Linda Hooker. She decided NOT to concatonate and hyphenate the two names. Wonder why?

[elbales]

This made me laugh immoderately. Thanks!

Back in the dark ages

[lois johnson (from livejournal.com)]

When I married at 19, I changed my last name from Bishop to Johnson. Nineteen years later when I'd had both names an equal amount of time, my husband asked me which one I'd like to use. I stayed with Johnson, but since there were so many and I was a scientist, I use the whole shooting match, first middle maiden and married. It's the only way anyone knows which Johnson I am...

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

My favorite was a friend who took her husband's name -- but then felt he should take her last name as his legal middle name. Which he did. Her family was amused, his horrified.

I kept my name through everything, difficult spellings and all. My pseudonym will be easy to spell!

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

It amuses me that people thionk my name is Krinard because that's my wife's.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

There are of course people who know me personally who simply assume that my husband is Steve Lee, and people who know Steve who assume that I'm Sharon Miller. That's an easy, social, error-of-assumption and also easy to sort out.

[(Anonymous)]

While it is undeniably true that you are not "Sharon Miller" a search for "Sharon Miller" on bn.com brings up numerous Sharon Lee & Steve Miller books, which can't be bad for your sales.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure. If you're looking for a Romance, SF isn't going to quite hit the spot.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, my name is Teri, and when my husband and I got married 17 years ago, I also kept my maiden name. The big wrinkle is that my husband doesn't like his last name, so our daughters have my last name. This has caused no end of grief with schools, and once we got stopped at an airport by a USA border guard because he wouldn't believe he was their father - it was when I corrected him about legalities of naming in Alberta that the supervisor waved us through! Thankfully, those difficulties have ceased since we got passports, and travel with long form both certificates.