Quite alot, as it happens. Couples know this after spending many evenings discussing appropriate names for boys or girls over a drink or two, and maybe a pregnancy bump.
Writers know it too, particularly those who anguish over Angus or Albert knowing that the names they've given characters just don't cut it.
We choose our names because they speak to us, and of us, and that includes our pen names.
I have two pen names - the name I live by when I'm published, and the name I live by when I'm offering advice or blogging.
This latter one - Ninjauthor - was chosen because, well, I guess I like ninjas. Or rather I like what they represent as writers - we're creatives who hide in plain sight. We're the ones at the bustop, at the desk in the office, drinking and laughing at BBQs or attending parent-teacher evenings. You don't know we're amongst you, and you won't know we write at all, or are even published unless we feel the need to announce it.
For many readers, we don't have a face. It's our words and actions that you see, blurring past you as shadows before we sink another idea into your head (for the better, I hope).
But that's fine. We're not here to be famous or glamorous. We're here to offer you words.
It's up to you if you wanna read those words, even when they come from a ninja...
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