“Is that a lot?” she asked.
“Uh…yeah.”
I was really becoming a master of the English understatement.
Go me!
“Okay, see, I want to publish under a pen name,” she declared.
This came as a surprise.
“You don’t want to put your name on your books?”
“I don’t want to put the Talyn name on the books.”
Another surprise.
“But why?” I asked.
“A lot of reasons,” she answered, starting to walk again, so I did too. “One, I don’t want to do book tours. I don’t want to do signings. I want to stay anonymous. I know you all talk about it, really excited about that possibility for me. And I know that sounds ungracious. But, if people, uh…like my work, and there are a lot of them. I might get…”—she wagged her head side to side—“you know.”
I did know.
Uncomfortable in a crowd and being the center of attention.
“A lot of artists, heck, a lot of people are introverts,” I said. “But you don’t have to agree to do signings. And just so you know, your publisher probably won’t pay for a book tour unless the books become huge successes. So you might not even have to worry about it.”
Though, her books would be successes, leading to publishers pressing her to do tours.
She could still say no.
“You’re right, but the name Talyn will be on the books.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “And you’re not proud to do that?”
“I would be. Definitely. However, people will know it was me.”
“Yes,” I repeated.
“And attention will come to me, and maybe our family.”
Ah.
The Talyn Privacy Thing.
I didn’t remind her I was marrying her brother, and I put my name on my books.
That said, post-unofficial/official engagement, Battle and I had the discussion, and so I could honor Mom and Dad, we agreed, even though I was oh-so going to take the name Talyn when we married, I’d continue to write under Vivienne Dupree.
“I was thinking, if you’re okay with it, my pen name could be Harmony Charles,” she said.
I stopped dead again as emotion clogged my throat.
Therefore, it was croaky when I pushed out, “Oh, Prue.”
“I know they were both happy with other people in the end, but it’s still so sad. I want them to be together somehow.”
I agreed.
