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| This would be perfect if it was "Sunny" instead. |
Back in October of 2012, I decided to go on an adventure. I didn't know where it would lead me and I basically conveyed this in a
post in October of 2013 when I had my
blogoversary. The adventure was this blog of course, but before I started it, I had one major question to decide: would I be anonymous or use my real name?
Some bloggers would think that's even silly to consider. "My real name, of course! Why wouldn't I?" Well,
my sister started blogging before me and when I started blogging, she was anonymous. She went by a pseudonym that was obviously not her real name while I decided to go by Sunny. My sister Shae and I thought it up because it went with the Blue Sky Bookshelf theme and my icon was a bright, yellow giraffe. But also, it was actually
very close to my real name. The last name Duvall was just off the top of my head though so don't even try to question that.
I had mixed emotions of being anonymous, but after a while, I realized that I wanted to use my real name. After Shae stopped using her Shelver pseudonym, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I would too because
I wanted to be the one to control it.
I have may have control issues, but that's neither here nor there. Some people in the blogosphere know my real name (hey,
ARCycling!) and some people in real life know I blog with a pseudonym so it's not a total secret. What really made me decide to do this post though, basically removing
any sort of barrier, was that I'm hoping 2014 will be a year of blogging opportunities. More publisher contacts, more author events, meeting
way more bloggers, possibly going to BEA...all of those are goals that I want to achieve and would be much easier if I just rid myself of a pseudonym. How confusing to know someone by one name and then meet them in person and probably have to explain that they can call you by your real name, am I right?
So is this the time to blare puny trumpets and throw annoying confetti?
Hello, my name is...
Summer Elise McDaniel
Hey, I didn't just give you a first name, but the whole sh-bang. Like I said, it's not a big change though. I will be changing my Twitter name, not handle, so this was a warning to not wonder who the strange person on your Twitter feed is. You might have already even seen it on Twitter or other social media sites. The next question is whether not I do away with the giraffe icon and use my own picture. Thoughts?
Now, this doesn't mean you can't call me Sunny. I know from personal experience that after calling someone something for so long, it's hard to reverse that (just ask my brother Sam who went to Sammy or my friend Gabby who went to Gabrielle...and those name changes were even more related). I thought about using S as a middle-ground, but apparently, Shae already laid claim. But you can choose a plethora of nicknames (which does include S, I just won't use that as a signature). You can call me Sunny, Summer, S, E, Elise, SEM...anything, really. The "nickname" Summer Dummer or McDonald is not acceptable though. Bad memories there, folks.
There you have it. Finally, I can go, "Hey, that's MY NAME!" when I see Summer being used in a synopsis and make corny jokes on Twitter about people being obsessed with me when summertime rolls around.
How do you feel about pseudonyms? Should I change my icon from the giraffe to me? If we haven't met yet, introduce yourself in the comments!
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| Hello, my name is Summer and I 'm not used to straight hair so yeahhh. |
