A Slice of Orange

Building a name in publishing is tricky under any circumstances.

Changing your name after you’re published is just crazy.

So of course, I changed my name.

When I began my career with the Samantha Shaw Series, there was talk about Apodaca being too difficult to pronounce. I said, “Uh, hello, Evanovich?”

Okay, I didn’t say it, but I thought it! As it turned out, my publisher grew comfortable with the name and we went forward.

Several years later, my agent began submitting a paranormal proposal I wrote that was bought by Random House/Ballantine.

Insert HUGE excitement here. It would take six blogs to tell you how surprised I was, how scared, how sure I was that they’d realize their mistake. All the usual insecure crap. But enough of that!

Everything was going along swimmingly until I got a call from my agent, “We have a problem.”

No one wants to hear that from their agent! I sincerely thought my editor hated the completed book. I saw a blue vest at Wal Mart in my future. Then my agent said, “The sales people can’t pronounce your name.”

Holy Cow—way to scare me to death!

Long story short, Jennifer Lyon was born. Now we had to introduce her around and we had to do it fast. One thing I have learned over the years is that the promotion that works best is the promotion we enjoy.

So even though my Wing Slayer Hunter series is dark and sexy, I decided to go with a light and fun plan to promote Jen Lyon. First I set out to differentiate the two names:

Apodaca writes mysteries and romance. She is the boring serious one. She never gets into trouble.

But she has an alter ego: Jen Lyon, who insists of writing paranormal. Lyon is a lush who thinks she’s a witch, and if there’s no trouble around, she goes out, finds it and drags it home. She does the things Apodaca would never dare do.

Then I created a blog-site for Lyon where I gave her this whole personality. She loves witches and appletinis and men. This has turned into an ongoing joke on the blog. People who visit the blog bring cyber-appletinis. Sometimes they conspire to steal things (and by things, I mean the hunky men I’ve posted on the blog in a category called Wing Slayer Worthy) and they give Jen Lyon appletinis so she won’t notice their theft.

It’s taken on a life of its own. It’s hilarious and fun.

Will it sell books? I have no idea. All I know is that we’ve released the Lyon and I don’t know if we’ll ever cage her again!

BLOOD MAGIC is officially released tomorrow!

Jennifer Lyon always wanted to be a witch. When her witch-powers didn’t materialize, she turned to creating magic in her books. BLOOD MAGIC is the first book in an enchanting, passionate and supernatural series. Visit Jennifer Lyon at www.jenniferlyon.com