Crystal Green | My Multiple Personalities

January 16, 2013

There are some mornings I wake up and I have no idea who I am.

Doesn't that sound like the premise for a thriller or a sci-fi movie? Well, it's actually the story of my professional life, and it's not necessarily a confusing or terrible thing. I use more than one pen name, and to tell you the truth, I love having multiple identities.  :-)

I suppose I'm comfortable with this because, in regular life, I'm an eclectic reader. I also love all kinds of music, food, entertainment, you name it. So it follows that this would branch out into my writing. One side of me is a sucker for a good rom-com, another loves being frightened by horror stories, and yet another is a fantasy geek.

Allow me to introduce myselves then....

Identity number one: Crystal Green (author of romance, mostly for Harlequin Special Edition and Blaze)

Crystal's first book was published by Special Edition way back at the turn of the century. That's over 13 years ago now!  One of her first books took place in a small, fictional Kentucky town called Kane's Crossing and, from there, she was asked to write Montana Mavericks books, Fortunes of Texas stories, and many more cowboys, millionaires, and heartfelt yarns with happy endings...just like the book that's about to hit shelves in late January (plug, plug!). THE COWBOY'S PREGNANT BRIDE closes out a miniseries that takes place in the make-believe town of St. Valentine, Texas, where the men are rugged and the town holds a big mystery that's going to be solved in this finale!

Not long after Crystal's first publication, she became addicted to Blazes, and that's when she wrote her first one (PLAYMATES). She's only able to write about one of these per year, but 2013 will hold two of these books for her—a "duet" of connected novels. Currently, the work-in-progress title of the miniseries is "Naughty Bridesmaids," so you can expect a lot of wicked, hot trouble to come.

Crystal was also lucky enough to write two books for the dearly departed Bombshell action-adventure line before it closed down, and this was when she got the itch to write vampires...

Identity number two: Chris Marie Green (author of urban fantasy for Penguin Ace)

Under this name, Chris wrote a six book/three novella/one short story urban fantasy series called Vampire Babylon. At this time, she has extended the series by writing self-published novellas for anthologies that also include Nancy Holder and Linda Thomas-Sundstrom.

Identity number three: Christine Cody (author of dark fantasy for Penguin Ace)

And here is yet another ID! Christine wanted to write something even darker than Vampire Babylon in a post-apocalyptic supernatural Western world, and the result was Bloodlands.

So why all these names? In a word marketing. Each name carries with it a different expectation, whether it's a sweet and happy ending, a bloodier-than-usual story, or post-apocalyptic nightmares. Truthfully, the hardest part of maintaining all the identities is promoting each of them separately, although I hope for as much crossover as possible. Also, sometimes publishers feel that, when an author writes a lot of books, each one might not get the attention it deserves....

But you'd be surprised at how many authors have more than one pen name. Jayne Ann Krentz. Dean Koontz (quite a few!). J.R. Ward. Even Nora Roberts.

Who are some of your favorite multi-name authors? Which of their books do you like the best?

Crystal Green is a RITA nominated romantic fiction author with a personality crisis...or not.  When she's not knee-deep in creating fantasy worlds, she spends her time devouring all the pop culture available to her and avoiding international incidents while traveling.

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Comments

15 comments posted.

Re: Crystal Green | My Multiple Personalities

Iain Banks, Scottish fiction writer, writes SF as Iain M Banks which means we all know who he is and have no trouble keeping the genres apart. I went off him for a while but I'm told his latest SF is very good again.
Robin Hobb is Megan Lindholm. As Robin she's written the Liveship / Rain Wild dragon series and other fantasies. As Megan she's written prehistoric fiction and modern fiction shorts.
(Clare O'Beara 6:35am January 16, 2013)

Nora Roberts/JD Robb. Love the In Death series.
(Donna Antonio 7:34am January 16, 2013)

Hi, Clare and Donna! I haven't checked out Iain's work, but I
love JD Robb. I'm reading HOLIDAY IN DEATH right now, as a
matter of fact. :)
(Christine Cody 10:50am January 16, 2013)

Stephen King & Richard Bachman! :)

The Longest Walk is still one of my all-time favorites...

Great post Chris!!!
(Lisa Kessler 2:09pm January 16, 2013)

Jayne Ann Krentz her archane books, Jenna Peterson/Jess
Michaels, Gayle Callen/Julia Latham
(Alisha Woods 4:29pm January 16, 2013)

Nora Roberts/JD Robb
(Kathy Sullivan 6:38pm January 16, 2013)

Lisa! That's right! And thanks. :)

Thanks, Alisha and Kathy. Have a good one!
(Christine Cody 10:27pm January 16, 2013)

Sabrina Jefferies/Deborah Martin/Deborah Nicholas
Victoria Holt/Phillipa Carr/Jean Plaidy
(Carla Carlson 11:23am January 17, 2013)

Carla, I've got some Jean Plaidy books in my TBR pile. Cool!
(Christine Cody 11:26am January 17, 2013)

Hello Chris, Christine, Green, Cody... LOL. As long as you keep the same picture, we'll know ya. HA. And we love the books. Great post.
(Linda Thomas-Sundstrom 12:10pm January 17, 2013)

Sandra Brown/Laura Jordon/Erin St. Claire/Rachel Ryan and Dean Koontz (has 9) David Axton/Leonard Chris/Brian Coffey/Deanna Dwyer/K.R. Dwyer/Leigh Nichols/Arthur North/Richard Page/Owen West (whew!) Wonder if he's done yet adding to his multiple pen names (which many readers probably don't realize are all written by him)! This is an interesting blog and I enjoyed reading all the others! At least yours all sound more similar to keep us familiar with who they're actually written by!
(Linda Luinstra 6:18pm January 17, 2013)

In answer to the second part of your question...which of their books do you like best, I would have to say, Rainwater by Sandra Brown and A Whole New Light.
(Linda Luinstra 6:30pm January 17, 2013)

Linda T-S, thank you! LOL--thank goodness for a picture. :)

Linda L., what a list! Thank you so much. And I haven't read a
Sandra Brown in a while. This makes me want to pick her up
again!
(Christine Cody 9:12pm January 17, 2013)

wow there are a million I could list so I will keep it short : Heather Graham , Steven king , Nora Roberts . I have a lot of favorites but not sure if they go buy multiple names or not :( But of the list that I know goes by other names I would have to say I have loved every book of Heather Grahams ! I highly recommend her
(Danielle McDonald 12:29pm January 21, 2013)

Hi Chris,
I enjoyed your blog! You piqued my interest with Christine Cody's Badlands. Will you add the historical version of you? A steampunk maybe? Another author I like is Maura Seager. She has 8 pseudonyms, but her "Josie Litton" Viking series nabbed me. What can I say? I love men of another era.

I'm rooting for Chris Green historical romance!!
(Gina Conkle 12:59pm January 23, 2013)

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