I'm Writing Under A New Name

Pseudonyms, An Adventure

Camerados!

Well, I’ve gone and done it: I’m finally building a whole new author brand from scratch. Deciding to write under a new name for my fantasy novels (YA and adult) wasn’t the hard part—having to reconcile myself with returning to social media (Instagram) and doing marketing again was.

I got off Instagram years ago because, as a writing coach, meditation teacher, and soon-to-be clinical social worker, I didn’t want to be sending my writers to a place that would invite comparison and FOMO and brain rot. I think the inner critic lives on Instagram.

And yet, as a reader, I find myself always checking out author profiles and enjoying getting a sense of who they are, their aesthetic, their vibe. I look forward to seeing favorite writers give peeks into their process. And I’m a sucker for gorgeous tarot cards and moody photographs. So, clearly, I don’t hate the place.

Whether or not social media affects book sales for the average writer is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of our era, and yet my agent recently had an editor turn down my newest book by Rilla Breene (Curse Keeper - eek! Can’t wait to tell you all about it) because Rilla didn’t have an online presence. Well, that got my tush in gear. I mean, I knew I’d have to build something, but was hoping to have the guarantee of a sale before I went to the effort….le sigh.

Before I dig into all things about Rilla Breene, this decision, and the nitty-gritty of writing under a pseudonym, I have a favor:

It would mean ever so much to me if you could follow Rilla Breene on Instagram and on her Substack, Word Witch of the North (which I think many of you will love, and will be a witchy companion to this Substack).

I need to show prospective editors that I can build a readership community - or, rather, that Rilla can build it and you can help me so much by doing these two follows on Insta and Substack:

Merci beaucoup!

I wanted to do this debrief here for all of you because I know many of you are writers considering using a pseudonym or are students of mine who I’ve taught how to build a brand. Or maybe you’re a reader and just really curious about this process. I’ll still be writing under Heather Demetrios, but I’m excited to open up this new space for myself where I can just be all in with the things that give me so much joy and pleasure, without the pressure of having to use my platform to speak on Important Matters of the Day. We all need a place to look at cats and share our favorite teas, amiright?

Okay, so here we go:

The Name

Rilla might be familiar to you if you’re an Anne of Green Gables fan - she’s Anne’s daughter (“yeth” is my favorite moment in the book). I’ve always loved this name and it felt like the right fit for books I’m writing that are my escape hatch when the world out here gets too tough. That’s what the Anne books were for me growing up, and they continue to be today (Highly recommend going to Prince Edward Island if you love L.M. Montgomery).

Breene is my Welsh great-grandmother’s last name. I’m not one of those people who can just make up a name - it really has to mean something to me for me to believe it’s, well, me. An extension of me. I adore the story of how my great-grandmother, Theresa Breene, and my great-grandfather, Michael Demetrios met. It goes like this:

He was a Greek merchant marine during WWI and the Germans torpedoed his ship in the English Channel. He was rescued by the Brits and sent to a hospital where Me-Maw was his nurse! YES!!! It’s true!!! And we wonder how I came to write love stories.

The Website

When I was teaching my grad students in the SNHU MFA program all about author branding, they faced similar challenges: how to build a brand when you don’t have a book out yet? I don’t have Heather Demetrios anywhere on the website - I want Rilla to fly solo, at least for now.

I started with a website and my logo. I’ll be honest - I made the website in six hours because that’s how long I’ve been in the trenches. Squarespace, baby. If you can master Squarespace and Canva as an author, you’ll be okay. The logo I made on Canva. I grabbed my domain name while I was at it.

So, green is my color and it also happens to play a prominent part in my first Rilla Breene book, Curse Keeper, which is on submission, hopefully taking New York City by storm as speak. I wanted to weave green in all throughout wherever Rilla is online.

The site reflects the dark island vibe of Brink City, but it also works for my WIP, an adult fantasy called Witches of the Saltless Sea that takes place on Minnesota’s North Shore.

I followed the threads that connect both books and the ones I’m writing in my head - magic, raging bodies of water, powerful women, romance, familiars, found family, underground gathering places - and built the brand from there.

Here’s my little bio:

Rilla Breene is a Northern word witch obsessed with underground cabarets, naughty sailors, and raging bodies of water. After living abroad and all over the US, she’s hunkering down in Saint Paul, Minnesota and takes every chance she can to visit the Saltless Sea. Her two familiars, Circe and Luna, allow Rilla and her husband to reside with them in a building built in 1904 that was once the home of the widows of Summit Avenue…

What’s important here is that…this is all true! I’m amplifying these aspects of my self that are Rilla. There is a lot of joy here. I get to revel in my non-social work self. My non-coach self. My non-helper self.

I was surprised at how much building this brand became an act of self-care.

I shouldn’t have been surprised, because I’m always telling my students how this kind of work helps us get clarity on who we are as writers and what we want to put out into the world…and who we want to put it out into the world for.

World Building

Above, a little peek at the Curse Keeper Pinterest.

Many of you know I often suggest creating Pinterest boards when you’re working in fiction, especially fantasy. This was SO helpful for me with my Dark Caravan fantasy books.

Because Curse Keeper isn’t out yet, this is a way I can bring its world to life for my readers. It’s Book One of a duology, but it could actually be a much larger series, as I’ve created a whole world amidst the archepelago that Brink City is in. There will be an excerpt soon, when a sale is announced.

Having the Pinterest and a Spotify playlist help people catch the vibe.

Gathering Support

It’s no secret it’s getting harder and harder to gain the attention of editors, even when you’re an award-winning author. Every writer I know has been struggling to find their footing in post-pandemic publishing.

One of the big shifts is that you have to have a lot in place in order for publishers to glance your way. Agents are much more editorial, and a lot of marketing is left up to the author. Since Rilla is, in effect, a debut author, I can’t rely on my blurb from Sarah J. Maas, my “best of’s,” my PEN award…Rilla didn’t get any of that. So, I reached out to close writer friends who have been on the Brink City journey with me from almost the word “go.”

Below is the first blurb that came through, which is helpful for editors to see - it shows them I know how to get industry support and that respected writers are willing to have their name associated with Rilla and her work:

Seriously, Camille - thank you!

Notice how I have the green and an art decco aesthetic to match the Brink world…

Word Witch of the North

Lutsen, MN, this past November

So, this is where it all really came together for me, brand-wise. Many of you know, I have a deep, fervent love for Grand Marais, on Minnesota’s North Shore. It’s my favorite place on Earth. I always feel my Celtic roots there, as the saltless sea (one name for Lake Superior) reminds me so much of the wild North Atlantic of my Irish, Scottish, and Welsh heritage. It also calls to the tiny part of me that is Finnish, and the North Woods recall the Taiga and my slavic heritage. But it’s in America! And four hours from my house!

My WIP is set there and I try to get up North every chance I get. One thing I’ve really embraced here in Minnesota is the hygge (“cozy”) culture of the Scandinavians that settled here. It’s perfect for my hermity, writer self.

This is how I settled on “Word Witch of the North” as my alter ego for Rilla Breene. The Substack will come out on the new and full moons and be chock full of all sorts of yummy northern witchy missives from L’Etoile du Nord (Minnesota is “The Star of the North”). From making my own candles to stave off seasonal depression, to tarot spreads and the gospel of soup, this space is a refuge from the world around us.

Where the Lotus & Pen / Heather Demetrios is focused on being a clinical social worker fro writers, Rilla Breene is a place to escape, to just get cozy and curl up in imaginary worlds and create them and burrow under the covers. It’s a place where it’s okay for me and you to do that. I’ve never fully let myself do that in this space because I’m trying to do right by the miracle and support the mental health of creatives. Rilla is my escape pod, and she can be yours, too.

Instagram

I know I made a big stink about getting off Insta, and I still am for Heather Demetrios. But Rilla likes to be on there and post pictures of her cats and Northern delights and photos of books she loves (a recent fave was The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna, which was the fantasy bear hug I needed).

Notice how I’m taking care to weave in my themes - coziness, green, the North, the Saltless Sea, witchiness, 1930s….

Yeah, but, how’s my mental health adding this on?

Okay, fair question. I’ll be honest that my bandwidth was the reason I didn’t build the brand before we went on sub. But when it became clear I had to, then I decided that I wanted to be sure to do it in a way that was going to be fun and fulfilling for me.

I fell into my overwork trap on the website, I’ll be honest. But, I noticed it. I felt the revving in my mind, the inability to get away from the computer, the go-g-go intensity of it, connecting dots faster and faster. It also helps when your husband is like, hmmm….this is familiar.

So it’s going to be a process of being mindful and seeing this as an opportunity as a do-over so I don’t fall into the same unhealthy hustle habits I had when I was an actual debut author.

Plus, I have these two jokers to keep me honest and taking naps on the regular:

Looking forward to sharing the journey with you all, as always!