Bill Spence as author Jessica Blair
Author Jessica Blair has written 22 romance novels since 1993, with the latest, Silence of the Snow, due out this week. Before romance success, this novelist penned 36 westerns. But all is not what it seems. This week it was announced that Jessica Blair is actually a 89 year old grandfather, Bill Spence. Upon hearing that the publishers wanted his books to carry the name of a woman he said, “You do not say no to publishers. I was just very glad I had found someone who wanted to print my books, and it didn’t bother me at all that I’d been given a female name.” He went on to say, “I just love doing it. If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t do it!”
Either way, publishing that many novels is a great accomplishment for this former war hero. Way to go Jessibill.
Wow – How cool!
I laughed out loud when I first read about it.
Quick internet search of other authors who used pen names: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll, Jozef Korzeniowski wrote under the pen name Joseph Conrad, Eric Arthur Blair wrote under the pen name George Orwell, Alisa Zinov’yevan Rosenbaum wrote under the pen name Ayn Rand, and Samuel Clemens wrote under the name Mark Twain.
Amazing. The things one learns from reading blogs!
Interesting bit of information.