I would like to begin this post by pointing out that I don’t typically jump into things that may affect me in a big way without a lot of research and thought.
As an example, when I came up with the name “Lynne Maris” for my romance author pseudonym, I ran it through several searches. Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and a few others. I felt confident in my choice after this research. No one had the name “Lynne Maris”, or if they did, it was sufficiently different that one could tell the difference just by the spelling. I didn’t do just one search, no, no.
I did several searches, over a period of months. I didn’t stop at the first three listings on my searches, either. I dug into each rabbit hole until even Alice would ask “where are we going with this?”
While slapping together my manuscript for publication, I searched again, just to make extra double certain that “Lynne Maris” was an okay name to use.
Imagine my surprise when I find out, late September 2026, “Lynne Maris” has published a romance novel, “Tamed,” in 2008.
We are not the same person. I don’t know who she is, but she published well before me, so I would’ve thought she would’ve popped up, at least once, while I was digging around the internets.
I have extricated my book from her author page, to discover another issue: Goodreads/Amazon requires different emails for different pseudonyms. I cannot lump R L. Arna and Lynne Maris under SquarePeg Books, unless I publish under the name “SquarePeg Books” as the Author.
So, I’m working on solving that. I’ve got another email I can use. Actually, it isn’t that hard to forward all emails to one address, except for one teensy problem:
Technology.
Specifically, I have an irritating condition known as “The Touch.”
“The Touch” makes computer life difficult for me. I don’t have to download anything on a laptop or desktop. I don’t have to dig into the settings of a computer. I don’t need to surf questionable sites.
I just need to touch a computer, and it will start acting up. Graphics cards mysteriously start malfunctioning. Memory starts to die. The GPU shits itself randomly for no reason except for “reasons.”
This has recently become a problem. Again. On the newer, different laptop. We are now working on a little mini-box that will have the software I need. Fortunately, I do not game, or do high end renderings, so I don’t need a ton of power.
I just need consistency, so I don’t lose my edits in the middle of chapter 7.
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