Hello, my lovelies!
In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve changed the name of my Facebook page to Gina Fiametta. Which is because…drumroll, please…
I’ve FINALLY settled on a pen name! Yes, folks, you’re looking at the page of Gina Fiametta, Author Extraordinaire. (Well, something like that.)
In case anyone is wondering why I changed my name, I’d like to take you quickly through my reasoning, as well as why I chose my new last name.
From the beginning, I’ve known I didn’t want to go by my real last name. I’ve got my father’s last name and may one day take my husband’s last name, but I wanted my author name to be entirely my own, famous and unchanging.
Of course, such permanence also meant I stewed and fretted over what my last name should be. I didn’t want to be stuck with something that sounded sophomoric, commonplace, or simply ill-fitting for the rest of my writing career. If all goes well, I will see it on book jackets, hear it said in interviews, and know it’s how my readers refer to me wherever they are in the world.
I had first chosen Rey because it started with the same letter as my real last name and it was fairly ordinary. Plus, I’ve always loved that Gina means “queen,” and Rey, Spanish for “king,” would go well with it.
But before long, it felt too modest. I’d been scared I would choose something silly and self-important, so I low-balled and I came to regret it. So, terrified of making the same mistake again, I searched name books, census data, cemeteries, and fantasy name generators for months (MONTHS!) before I finally found and decided on Fiametta.
As my family will tell you, I made this way harder than it had to be. In fact, I owe ever making my decision to my sister and brother-in-law giving me an ultimatum: choose a last name by the end of two weeks, or be stuck with a silly nickname. Said sixteen-letter nickname made me laugh till tears ran down my cheeks, and I agreed that if I didn’t resolve on something within two weeks, I would deserve to be called nothing else.
Fortunately, as you can see, I found my name at last. I’d come to like the letter F and wanted something rhythmic that rang well with Gina. (I’ve always loved my first name too well to ever part with it.) I’d also done several informal journaling exercises to try and figure out the core of what I want to be known as, and I kept circling back to fire. Fiametta means “little fire.”
Therefore, my full author name means “queenly little fire.” I like to shuffle it into “fiery little queen”! Either way, I think it suits me to a T.
