Here's to anonymity

I am the anonymous writer.

Blair Richmond is my pen name, or alias. It is my ticket to freedom. And, true, I shouldn't care what people think, but I do. I can't help it. And, under the veil of Blair Richmond, I don't worry about my neighbor secretly judging me because of what I wrote about the cute but slightly creepy town of Lithia.

I just write.

I realize I can't exactly go on a book tour or do a radio interview, and this may get in the way of the book's success.

But I think the tradeoffs are worth it.

And it was nice to see in this article that I'm far from alone in the pen name department.

Here are some other pen names you may recognize (and their real names):

• Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
• George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)
• Pablo Neruda (Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto)
• Lewis Caroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
• George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin)

Maybe someday I'll come clean. But given such good company, why the rush?