I have said before that I always thought I would be a writer (The Best Laid Plans…, What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?). I mean, I guess technically I am a writer since you’re reading this, but I thought I would write for a living and…well…get paid for it. I even came up with a pen name.

One of my friends in college used to call me “blonde chick.” Back then, my hair was more of a dirty blonde than the medium brown it is now. So I used an anagram of that to come up with a pen name. I can’t remember what it was. I just remember that we laughed about it because it sounded masculine and French. (Don’t ask. I have no idea. We were 19.) Why I thought I needed a pen name as a literal nobody, I also have no idea.

Many famous authors have adopted pen names for a variety of reasons. The first one I became aware of in the mid-’80s was Richard Bachman, an entire alter ego made up by Stephen King in part to avoid over-saturating the market with the Stephen King brand. (So he was writing too much? 🤨) I discovered it when I saw the cover for Thinner, which read “Stephen King writing as…” so then my teenage self had to figure out why. My teenage self also had to start reading Richard Bachman because…well…he was Stephen King after all.

But pen names go back much further. The Brontë sisters created masculine pen names because it was believed they wouldn’t be taken seriously as female authors. Nora Roberts publishes romances as herself but detective novels as J.D. Robb. Agatha Christie became Mary Westmacott when she wanted to write something more fun than crime novels. And Eric Arthur Blair wrote as George Orwell because he was afraid of failing. I guess if 1984 or Animal Farm had failed, no one would be the wiser.

Personally, I think a successful author writing under a pen name could sell even more books. Once I found out that Richard Bachman was Stephen King, I bought both. Although Bachman and King wrote the same genre. I hate to admit that I didn’t care for the last four books in King’s western-style The Dark Tower series. Perhaps he should have used a different name for that too. 😬

I finished a book recently about a woman who changes her name about as often as she moves, but her reasons are more questionable than this blonde chick’s. 😉 Enjoy!

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Book Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐½
4.5 Stars for The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark

320 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: June 21, 2022
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher’s Description

She’s back.

Meg Williams. Maggie Littleton. Melody Wilde. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She’s a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be. A college student. A life coach. A real estate agent. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she’s done, you’ve likely lost everything.

Kat Roberts has been waiting ten years for the woman who upended her life to return. And now that she has, Kat is determined to be the one to expose her. But as the two women grow closer, Kat’s long-held assumptions begin to crumble, leaving Kat to wonder who Meg’s true target is.

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Main Characters:

• Kat Roberts – reporter, used to work for the LA Times, now writes fluff pieces that don’t pay well, currently stalled on a novel about a female con artist based on Meg Williams, has waited 10 years to have a chance at exposing Meg
• Meg Williams – con artist, recently returned to Los Angeles after 10 years to get revenge on Ron Ashton for stealing their home from her mother, which was left to her by her parents
• Scott Griffin – fraud detective, Kat’s fiancé, they met when an online data breach compromised her bank account
• Cory Dempsey – Meg’s former high school teacher, has an “affection” for young girls, now the school principal and Meg’s first con
• Ron Ashton – developer, local politician, candidate for state senator, and Meg’s current target

     

Trigger warning: sexual assault, not in detail but definitely made clear

Talk about holding a grudge—and this book has two of them! Kat Roberts has been waiting ten years to expose Meg Williams for the con artist she is. Meg has been waiting even longer to ruin Ron Ashton’s reputation and life.

This story alternates between Kat’s and Meg’s perspectives in basically two time periods—the present day, which is 22 weeks before the Senate election, and ten years prior, when Meg pulled her first con and Kat was helping the lead reporter with the story. Ten years ago, Meg worked at the YMCA and lived in her car. Her goal was to go on enough dates to get several meals each week with leftovers. It was a way to survive. She didn’t set out to be a con.

One day as she was scrolling through her dating app, she discovered the profile for one of her high school teachers, Cory Dempsey, who was now the principal of the same school. It was then she realized this could be an opportunity because she knew he had an “affection” for young girls, particularly a girl who always defended Meg in high school, claiming “girl code.” Meg set up a no-show blind date so she could “accidently” meet Cory and bond over her own no-show blind date. When he didn’t recognize her, she realized that this was more than just an opportunity to blackmail him over his past.

Even though she knew that there would have to be a sexual element to their relationship, Meg decided that she could easily manipulate her way out of her car at least a few nights a week. Over the course of several months, she manipulated her way into a lot more, but when she discovered that Cory still had an affection for young girls, she decided that it was time for revenge. This was when she set out to be a con.

I don’t want to give anymore away because there was one part when I told my daughter, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I didn’t see that sooner!” And I was totally wrong. And I didn’t see the ending coming. I couldn’t decide at first whether I liked the ending or not, but I was definitely satisfied. But I can’t say anything more!

The only reason I dropped this half a star is because when it comes time for Meg to con Ron Ashton, we are supposed to believe that he didn’t recognize her. Granted, he lived with her and her mother probably 15 years before, but I find it hard to believe that you wouldn’t know someone you lived with and completely screwed over…or at least remember the name and make the connection. That was a pretty big leap.

This was my first Julie Clark book. It won’t be my last.

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