If you know me, personally, you’ll know me as Cindy, or maybe Cynthia.  So who’s Cidney?  Well, when I was little, I had a friend who couldn’t manage to pronounce my name correctly.  She called me Cidney all year, and I liked it.  I was only five, and it didn’t occur to me that I could require everyone to address me as Cidney, or I would have.

Tee hee!  Enter the need for an easily-googled pen name.  Go ahead and google Cynthia Swanson.  Or Cindy Swanson.  Or CJ Swanson.  Wow!  There’s a lot of me out there!  Who knew I also ran PepsiCo or made cool art?

Use your kindergarten nickname, said a tiny little voice inside.  Now, being a writer, I don’t run the other way when the voices start talking.  I listen.  I take notes.  I write tomes.  Or in this case, I decide to spend a few days or maybe months trying on the name “Cidney” once again, at least in my writerly endeavors.

(Good job, says the little voice.)