Friends, we’re back with another episode of Help From My Friends Friday! I’m especially pleased to promote Alicia Beckman’s suspense debut because this brilliant author kept me company on my road trip last week via Audible. Thanks to Bitterroot Lake, I traveled to Montana and enjoyed every minute. Please welcome Author Leslie Budewitz writing as Alicia Beckman. ~ Donnell
by Leslie Budewitz, a.k.a Alicia Beckman
Author Leslie Budewitz aka Alicia Beckman
My name is best described as “distinctive.” My first name isn’t uncommon, of course, though when I was a child, it was still in transition from male to female. When my great-grandfather, holding me with my full head of dark curls in my frilly pink dress, heard my name and said “I thought you said it was a girl!,” my mother started adding my middle name and didn’t stop until I was a teenager. (Forgive the man; he was past 90 and had more than sixty great-grandchildren.) And my last name was ripe for playground teasing. My father had three brothers and they all said it differently. (I say BUD-uh-wits, but I won’t correct you if you say BOOD-uh-wits.)
So after getting established in mystery world with ten cozies, a nonfiction reference book, short stories, awards, and prominent positions in Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, why on earth would I want to change my name for my next book?
Easy. My publisher asked me. My other mysteries, which I continue to write,
are all culinary cozies—when I called them “light-hearted,” a reader corrected me and said “warm-hearted.” They have some substance—my Spice Shop mysteries are urban cozies and include a social justice angle, and Library Journal called the latest “darker than many cozies.” They are full of places you want to visit, people you want to meet, and food you want to eat. My Food Lovers’ Village mysteries wisecrack about names—there’s Jay Walker and the Easter twins, Polly and Bunny—and they all wrap up with a recipe section.
My new book, Bitterroot Lake (Crooked Lane Books, April 13), written as Alicia Beckman, is my suspense debut and first stand-alone. The tone is different, as even a quick glance at the covers establishes. Gone the Golden Age touches like the Cast of Characters and chapter-opening epigraphs; gone the name jokes; gone, even, the amateur sleuth making a second career of catching killers who threaten her family, friends, neighbors and customers.
Now, it’s not like I’ve gone from being Jessica Fletcher to Hannibal Lecter. (Although you could say he included a recipe, couldn’t you?) But the first paragraph of the cover copy tells you this book trades in different traditions.
“When four women separated by tragedy reunite at a lakeside Montana lodge, murder forces them to confront everything they thought they knew about the terrifying accident that tore them apart, in Agatha Award-winning author Alicia Beckman’s suspense debut.”
Clearly, the reader will expect Mary Higgins Clark, not Laura Childs. And one thing we never want to do is confuse the reader.
Other reasons for a pen name include sales distance—that is, wanting to distance an author from a poor sales record that might lead booksellers to cut their orders; a dramatic change in genre, such as from sweet romance to erotica, or from middle-grade fiction to hard-boiled crime fiction; sharing a name with a well-known author—say you’re the other Stephen King, or you’re King’s son and want to make it on your own; or privacy.
If you’re a writer thinking about a pen name, consider a few things. Many authors use their own initials, but I knew I’d be so focused on visiting with the reader that I’d automatically sign “Leslie Budewitz,” even if the cover said Lisa or Lauren. But I wanted to stay near myself on the bookshelves, especially since my real name is close to the front of the alphabet, always a plus.
Make sure you can get the domain name—a friend didn’t check and had to tack “Author” after her name. That’s okay, but not ideal.
And the biggie: do you keep it secret, and if not, how do you tell your current readers? Secrecy, of course, is dictated by your purpose in using a pen name, though you should consult with your publisher. Mine agreed from the start that my identity could be an open secret—we included my real name in my author bio. Alicia has a website and email address, but both link to Leslie’s. And the two women share a Facebook Author page.
I knew I’d made the right choice when a book blogger who’d reviewed at least two of my cozies, knew me from the Sisters in Crime Guppies chapter, and had met me in person thought she ought to know who Alicia Beckman was—Bitterroot Lake is dedicated to a mutual friend who died last fall. She never tumbled. Not until she got to the bio at the end of the e-galley did she know. She was totally surprised, and I was thrilled.
Best part? Everyone can pronounce it, and even my my great-grandfather would approve. Because one of his favorite granddaughters was my mother, Alice, and his name was Joe Beckman.
Thanks, Donnell, for inviting me to the blog and asking me to dish about the new me.
About the Author: Leslie Budewitz blends her passion for food, great mysteries, and the Northwest in two cozy mystery series, the Spice Shop mysteries set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village mysteries, set in NW Montana. She’ll make her suspense debut with BITTERROOT LAKE, written as Alicia Beckman, in April 2021. A three-time Agatha-Award winner (2011, Best Nonfiction; 2013, Best First Novel; 2018, Best Short Story), she is a current board member of Mystery Writers of America and a past president of Sisters in Crime. She lives in NW Montana.
Find her online at www.LeslieBudewitz.com and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LeslieBudewitzAuthor
About the Book: When four women separated by tragedy reunite at a lakeside Montana lodge, murder forces them to confront everything they thought they knew about the terrifying accident that tore them apart, in Agatha Award-winning author Alicia Beckman’s suspense debut.
More about Bitterroot Lake (April 13, 2021, Crooked Lane Books), including an excerpt and buy links, here: https://www.lesliebudewitz.com/bitterroot-lake/
Leslie, I so enjoyed Bitterroot Lake and your reasons for differentiating between genres makes perfect sense. I also appreciate being able to pronounce the name. My name pronounced Dawn–nell… is often all over the map. Thanks for being my guest today!
Congratulations on the new book. The cover is distinctly different. And I really like how you pulled together your new name. My last name is Bat-man. For real. Sometimes, I hear Bateman-nonono. Or Batmun. No to that too. Hugs, vb
Thanks so much for inviting me to the blog, Dawn-nell! My husband, Don, loves joking with Dawn at the pizza place — “hi, Dawn, it’s Don” — even though of course, the pronunciation is a little bit different.
Thanks, Vicki! Having only met you on line, I too would have said Bat-mun, because that’s usually how a final -man is said, as in BEK-mun, and because I am a child of the 60s and would have assumed Bat-man was wrong! So now I know!
Such helpful words, Leslie, Donnell! Restless in the traces of my real name, Carole T. Beers, and writing ””New West Mysteries with Heart,” I recently broke out to inspirational, and YA/MG short fantasy novels I also have a romantic thriller underway, and horror stories in progress. Wanting to distance myself from my known brand, I thought of gracing the new pieces with the pen name, Stella King. Still “soft,” but nicely jaggedy? Thoughts?
I like that a lot, Carole. Leslie? What do you think?
Carole, I like Stella King a lot. Think about which genres you want to use it for — it might backfire in horror, if readers think you’re trying to take advantage of the similarity to Stephen King. And you might not want to use the same name for inspirational novels and horror. Also check the availability of the domain and decide if you’re okay losing the alphabetical advantage of B, although obviously that has worked fine for King and many others. Good luck!