Pseudonym Me!

Do you have a pen name? Nom de plume? Pseudonym? In fact, do you need one?



I've never considering changing my name because I wanted to take full credit for my writing, and I've always wondered why some people do change there names--actors, singers, writers, authors, just people in general.



Okay, well I'm not sure why other people may change their name, probably because it just doesn't suit them--or they're in love with another name. So this might be a little bit the same with artists; singers, authors etc. and I've been wondering whether or not I need a pen name, and although I love my name, I've just been thinking, what if I was change it.



I read an article, a few months ago now and it was about an author who wrote erotica under a pen name and she also taught at a high school, but when the parents of her students found out about her other name and published books, she was marred a disgrace--I'm not sure what happened to her, but she is still writing, and in the article, she said she wouldn't give up that. Of course I see how a pseudonym was relevant here.



And here are some of the other reasons people may change their names:



Their last name is unpronounceable, this is very common with recording artists (so I've found).
because they are named after someone who is already famous, I know this is what Katy Perry did, formally Katy "Kate" Hudson--so you can see the confusion here.
There name is common i.e. John Smith, and an exotic sounding name might stick better--and separate you from everyone else in Google search ;)
because they've already published in a genre under one name.


Now that last point is where I am. I'm currently only working on several YA fantasy novels, and each of them will be under my name, 'Joseph Eastwood' but I also want to write a gory horror and a gay romance novel, and hey, I might even give erotica a go, I sure know I have the mind for it--but I can't stick them with my name as well, right.



I don't want to change my name at all--my full name is Joseph Thomas James Eastwood, and I'd like to work with that, maybe move things around, take things out, shorten the names etc. and I was thinking for horrors, I could be J. T. James or something and for romance I could be Thomas Jay.



What do you think? And do you have a pseudonym? I'd love to hear how you came to it.



-Joseph