I’m Twice a Guest + 23andMe + Fiona Ingram/Arabella Sheraton on Aliases

Happy ongoing Persian New Year Norooz! The non-religious holiday kicks off several days of vacation from work, my writing included (click here for info on my novels-to-be-published). Similar to Easter, decorations reflect well-being and renewal. A traditional “haft seen” includes at least seven items whose Farsi name begins with an ‘s’. Here’s ours…

On that happy note, this week two fellow bloggers featured me at their sites!

Thank you, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, an artist/poet/blogger who guested here just last week, for interviewing me for one of the sites you edits, LatinosUSA!… 

Conversing with da-Al

And thank you, Pam Lazos, who guested here before! She’s an environmental lawyer, freelance editor, ghostwriter , and runs a thoughtful and beautiful blog called Green Life Blue Water!…

World Water Day 2025

Also, thank you Thomas Wikman, who guested here before too! Since I know many people (including me) who signed onto 23andMe’s DNA testing, I found his recent info and advice about their bankruptcy so helpful that I asked if he’d be okay with my reblogging it here…

Implications of the 23AndMe Bankruptcy

Now for this week’s guest blog post. Thank you, author/editor/teacher Fiona Ingram, aka Arabella Sheraton! Born and raised in South Africa, she currently resides in Cyprus. Click this for her site, which includes info on her books and links to her blog. Click this for Arabella’s (and her books) own site. Here she shares what her experience has been like to write in two different genres with an alter ego…

To Pen Name or Not: One Author, Two Hats by Fiona Ingram, aka Arabella Sheraton

So why a pen name? And how does it affect the writer? Why not, I say? Famous pen names have existed throughout history and in modern times include Stephen King’s Richard Bachman, JK Rowling’s Robert Galbraith, Nora Roberts’s JD Robb and, looking back a bit, let’s not forget Samuel Langhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain. For some it is to maintain anonymity, others to try out a different genre completely and see if people respond to it without being affected by their existing fame, others to write controversial opinions, and some just for the fun of it. For me, it was for the fun of it.

I became a children’s author quite by accident, even though I was working as an editor in the magazine publishing industry in South Africa. I went to Egypt at the behest of my (now late) mother, who insisted on Egypt, and we took along my two young nephews, then aged 10 and 12. What a trip; we had such an adventure that I was inspired to write a short story for my nephews upon our return. The short story became a wonderful adventure tale (The Secret of the Sacred Scarab) which became a book series (The Chronicles of the Stone) and suddenly I was Fiona Ingram, a multi award-winning children’s author.

Arabella Sheraton, my Regency romance alter ego, had a different beginning. My mother complained that ‘Big Name Publisher’s’ Regency romances were all sounding the same and why didn’t I write her one. Having cut my teeth on my mother’s collection of Georgette Heyer Regency novels, plus being a big Austen fan, I rose to the challenge. I came up with the pen name Arabella Sheraton to keep my children’s author and my romance author personas separate. Arabella is the title of one of my favourite Heyer novels, plus it just sounds so Regency-ish. Then I read about a beautiful hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, called The Arabella Sheraton, and that was the perfect Regency name. Arabella’s profile picture is a portrait my gifted grandmother painted of a dear friend of hers.

It has been quite a refreshing experience being two people. When I am tired of being me, I slip into Regency mode, and I write as Arabella. Arabella has seven authentic Regency novels, one relationship self-help book, and has just launched a time travel/murder mystery Regency romance, To Murder a Marquis. Arabella has her own Twitter and Facebook accounts, website, and Wattpad profile. In fact, I am so busy doing all Arabella’s marketing that I don’t have much time for my own stuff. I even do talks on her behalf about being a romance writer. Astonishingly, I have ended up being rather like Lemony Snicket’s publicist, Dan Handler (who is actually Lemony). When offered the choice of talking about my own books at author/editor events or Arabella’s, the organizers usually choose to hear about Arabella and her opinions. She is very popular.

Writing children’s adventures and historical romances demands the same amount of time, energy, dedication, commitment to manuscript perfection, and research. Although I can recite loads of Regency facts, I still do research, depending on the plot. As a children’s adventure author, my young heroes go to different countries and experience different cultures and locations, so even more research is involved. Using a pen name, one can write in several genres, and this does bring in an extra income stream. Why not try it?

Have you ever used an alias?