Insecure Writer's Support Group: Pen Names Queston

It's already March! That means it's already time for yet another installment of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! You can visit the site and join us at the previous link. Also be sure to visit Alex J. Cavanaugh, our founder, and our co-hosts to show them some love!

The question for this month is: Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

I can't think of any off the bat, so I don't think I have. But, as I said, I'm working on a contemporary romance, so that will most likely be where one will pop up.

In other news, I want to see what others think: I've had this corny idea in my head for a while to change my pen name depending on the genre I'm writing. This would mainly be for if I'm still self-publishing, I think, and I don't even plan to branch out of speculative fiction too often. But I am working on a contemporary romance. Would fantasy readers get confused if I kept my pen name but the book is a romance? I would like to be easy to find across the board, but I kind of want my name to reflect the genre as well. Maybe I'm thinking too much into it, though. What do you all think?

Tuesday Tales: Ghuli is Getting A Name Change

Good morning!

This isn't really a Tuesday Tales, more like a brainstorm session that I've already gone through. BUT it's something for Tuesday, and it's about my characters, so it almost fits into the category.

For as long as I've written Fractured Princess, my main character has been named Ghulien, Ghuli for short. Now, in my head, it's pronounced JOO-lee. Over the years, however, I've had people read it as GOO-lee. It never occurred to me that in the English language, gh is--as far as I know--always pronounced as a hard g. Somehow, I thought the h would make it soft. But not only is that not how h's work haha; in the Crystalline language, h's aren't silent.

Also, I believe Ghuli was just a name I grabbed out of thin air when I needed one and don't really have much of an attachment to the name besides it's what I've been calling her for 13 years (yeesh, 13 years).

So, I've spent a couple of days thinking of names that 1) follow the rules of the Crystalline language, 2) sound good, and 3) that could be transferred into a nickname. One thing I never thought of is that Ghuli is passing for a Human, and also, her parents had close ties to their Human scholars, so they might give their daughter a nickname that sounded a little Human without anyone questioning it. Also, I still wanted to keep the j sound, so that played a big role.

Therefore, come December (so I can get back full swing into NaNoWriMo) my MC's new name will be:

*drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrum rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroll*

*cymbal*

Jonnie
(Not sure what it's short for yet.)

What do you think? I've always loved the name Jonnie for a girl, and I've only used it for a fan fiction back when I was in college, so it's a great way to reuse it.

I'd go back to all of my old posts and change the name, but that would be so tedious. Maybe I'll put a disclaimer. That'll suffice.