Thursday, December 04, 2003
Addendum: Allow me a small gripe. Someday, when I'm as rich and famous as Baby Jesus, maybe publishers, editors, reviewers, etc. will see fit to grant me the "R." that rests at the center of my name, twixt "Caitlin" and "Kiernan." It isn't an arbitrary "R." It stands for something. Actually, it stands for two somethings. When I was deciding, more than a decade ago, exactly what form of my name I would write under, I put a great deal of thought into this. "Caitlin Kiernan" has a nice flow, it scans, but it comes off ever so much more sturdy with the "R." And yet, more times than I can count, people who I know know better, insist upon omitting the "R." from reviews, dustjackets, what have you. It's not as if I've ever turned in a ms. whose byline read simply "by Caitlin Kiernan." Why am I grousing about this now? I just got a peek at the cover for Verte Brume, for which I wrote "Peau Verte," over at the Medium Rare Books site. It a very nice cover, but there's my name, sans "R." What gives? Poppy gets her Z., and she's never even been exactly sure what it stands for?
You don't see people writing J. Tolkien, or Scott Fitzgerald, or Frank Baum? Those guys get their proper initials. I've won three International Horror Guild awards and on each one I was denied an "R." Barnes and Noble did a little better when they gave me the Maiden Voyage Award: they granted me my "R." and spelled Kiernan "Kiernen."
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