Should Authors Have a Persona?

In last Monday’s post I mentioned the creation of the steampunk subgenre, largely credited to William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s The Difference Engine.

It’s a subgenre that loans itself to cosplay and the creation of personas, one of the most well-known being author Gail Carriger’s public image associated with tea, vintage clothes, and etiquette, consistent with her Parasol Protectorate series. In short, Gail—like her books