Please Welcome Mystery Author Tace Baker

by Tace Baker

We are delighted to welcome novelist Tace Baker as our guest.

Tace's debut novel is Speaking of Murder (Barking Rain Press, September 2012 trade paperback and ebook formats), a copy of which you can enter to win; details below.

Today Tace tells us about pen names, a topic with which she is familiar as "Tace Baker" is a pen name used by Edith Maxwell.

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Last spring I was presented with a really great problem to have. I needed to create a pen name, a pseudonym. My brand-new contract with Kensington Publishing for my "Local Foods Mysteries" stipulated that I couldn't publish a different mystery under my real name (or any name resembling it) during the term of the contract. I agreed to the clause even though Speaking of Murder was being considered by Barking Rain Press who, in fact, accepted it for publication. So I had to come up with another name for myself.

Photo provided courtesy of
Tace Baker (Edith Maxwell)

My father, Allan B. Maxwell, Jr. was a big writer but not a published one. He nevertheless had a pen name he was fond of using: R. J. Nalla. Clever. Pronounceable, spellable, and with logic behind it. Allan Jr. spelled backwards. Somehow I don't think Htide LLewxam is going to really catch on with readers. I wish he were still with us so I could ask for his ideas.

So I went looking for guidelines on creating a pseudonym. One essay on the topic made a lot of sense to me. Besides a name that is pronounced and spelled unambiguously, it should also have the following characteristics:

• Be short — you hope you are going to have to sign it dozen of times in a row.
• Be toward the front of the alphabet, so it's shelved at eye level in a bookstore or library. Of course, with ebooks this loses all relevance.
• Have the URL/domain name available.
• Have few or no existing hits in an Internet or Facebook search.
• Be available as a Twitter handle.
• Be a name you aren't going to mind responding to.
• Sound like the gender in whose voice you wrote the book.
• Preferably have a two-syllable first name and a one-syllable surname.

That's a lot! I was also hoping to work in some kind of family name. Lots of people already call me Max, but I think that a male-leaning name doesn't fit with the voice of my book. Maxie seems perky but perhaps too cute. While the book is a traditional mystery, it isn't a cozy. I'm not really interested in using initials instead of a first name, either. Family names like Skinner and Rogers weren't appealing, and Ruth, a first name I love, was too common.

So, since the protagonist in Speaking of Murder is a Quaker, I went looking for archaic Quaker names and came up with Tace. I liked it. And you can bet it has an available URL and Twitter handle! I chose Baker nearly randomly. I later found out that Tace Soule was the first Quaker printer in London in the late 1600s/early 1700s. How cool is that?

What about you? Have you created a pseudonym? Is it working for you? As a reader, how have you felt when you discovered an author you like was operating under a hidden identity? What kinds of names attract you or turn you off?

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Edith Maxwell is the author of Speaking of Murder featuring Quaker linguistics professor Lauren Rousseau. Edith holds a Ph.D. in linguistics and is a member of Amesbury Monthly Meeting of Friends. The book was first runner up in the Linda Howard Award for Excellence contest

Edith also writes the "Local Foods Mysteries". A Tine To Live, A Tine To Die introduces organic farmer Cam Flaherty and a colorful Locavore Club (Kensington Publishing, June, 2013).

A mother and technical writer, Edith is a fourth-generation Californian but lives north of Boston in an antique house with her beau and three cats.

You can learn more about Edith on her website, EdithMaxwell.com or on Facebook and Twitter. Tace Baker has her own website — TaceBaker.com — in addition to Facebook and Twitter sites.

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Speaking of Murder
Tace Baker
Publisher: Barking Rain Press

The murder of a talented student at a small New England college thrusts linguistics professor Lauren Rousseau into the search for the killer. Lauren is a determined Quaker with an ear for accents. Her investigation exposes small town intrigues, academic blackmail and a clandestine drug cartel that now has its sights set on her.

Convinced that the key to the crime lies hidden in her dead student's thesis, Lauren races to solve the mystery while an escalating trail of misfortune circles ever closer. Her department chair behaves suspiciously. A century-old local boat shop is torched. Lauren's best friend goes missing — and the unsettled relationship with her long-time lover threatens to implode just when she needs him the most.

          

For a chance to win a copy of Speaking of Murder, courtesy of the author, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Tace Baker: Speaking of Murder" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code — 2749 — for a chance to win! (One entry per person. US residents only. Contest ends November 21st, 2012.)