This morning I saw an email from an old writing friend waiting for me in my inbox. It was from Jan Christensen. Who I also know as Ant Jan. (It goes back to when we were both more active on the Short Mystery Fiction Yahoo!Group.)

Anyway, in addition to dishing a little bit about writing, she was also dropping me a line to let me know she had finally launched her blog, Your Space and Time. (Which, I went to check out and was instantly impressed by. Lots of good stuff there. I highly recommend it.)

It was as I was replying back to Ant Jan that I started thinking about my many pen names.

See, she knows me as “Courts.” I started using Courts Mroch as a writing moniker back in 1999 when I first started writing mystery shorts. But I’d had the name before that.

I’d gotten it when I played on the women’s club lacrosse team at the University of Arizona. I’d forgotten about it, though, until several years later when I took a job at the law firm Snell & Wilmer.

My attorney was also a UofA grad, as well as an alum Lax Cat himself. He couldn’t believe I’d played goalie, so I brought him in the proof: a pic of me with my team. Our coach had given us all nicknames and had printed them on our copies. He saw the “Courts” and said, “What a perfect name for someone working in the legal field. And if you ever do write those mysteries, that’d be a catchy pen name.”

So, a few years later when I did start writing, I remembered that and now many who first met me back when I was starting out know me as Courts.

While I never did get my mystery career in gear (or at least not yet; I guess there’s always still hope), I’ve since acquired a couple other pen names.

• C. Le Mroch – I use this one for my horror stories. I’ve had a couple stories published under it. I’m hoping to truly finish Shadyside, my first horror novel, this year and take a stab at getting that published.
• Mackenzie Pryor – This is my romance nom de plume. I haven’t actually completed any of the romances I’ve started, but I have some so far underway it’s a crime they’re not done yet. All it will take is a good couple weeks being disciplined about writing every day, but do you think I do it? Of course not. Because I know that’s all it will take and think, “Oh, I can easily get to that.”
• Courts Mroch – I already covered it, but I do have 3 ideas for mystery series. I never thought I’d be a mystery series kind of writer. I sure didn’t start off thinking along those lines. (I started off more suspense and usually seem to gravitate that way.) However, as I’ve gotten older the ideas for series have come so…one day I hope to actually pursue them!