As a child....

I think we all did crazy things as children. I recall a time when I would come home from playing with frogs or worms or other crazy things I'd found. Needless to say, I was more chaotic than my older brother, who only ever played street hockey.

One of the things I had decided as a kid was that I hated my name. I felt there was no plainer name out in the world than "Katie." My real name was Kathryn, but that wasn't good enough for me either. I made up many names in my childhood, Emily, Ryn, Crystal. But of course, I kept coming back to that darn 'Katie' again.

I think a lot of authors still have that mentality of not liking their names. I know many kids who would change their names every other day. But as an adult, (though sometimes I question that I really am one) I've come to really question why authors would use a pen name.

As someone who's dreamt of being a published author since I was little, I always wanted my name on the front of the book, staring at everyone as they passed by in the bookstore. I always wanted people who'd I haven't seen in a long while to pick up my book and recognize my name. I wanted to be out there. (Except for a brief period when I considered the penname of Crystal Lighte. That was far before Crystal Light was around, however.)

Luckily, there are some things that don't change from when you're a kid. My love of writing never faded, and the fact that I wanted to be a published author didn't change, despite what name I wanted to be on the cover.

Peace,

-Katie