Stoking the imagination

As I near completion of my first novel, I am searching for the topic for my next one. For the next one, I have decided, is going to take every ounce of my effort to craft the fine literary novel.  The book that Joseph Conrad or Hemingway would have written.  I want it to be short, poignant and beautifully written. But what should I write about?

Nom de plume -- why a pseudonym?

Many famous authors throughout history have written under pseudonyms that became vastly more well-known than the authors’ real names — Konrad Jozef Korzeniowski wrote under the pen name Joseph Conrad, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote as Lewis Carroll, Eric Arthur Blair wrote as George Orwell, Alisa Zinov’yevan Rosenbaum wrote as Ayn Rand, and Samuel Clemens took the name of Mark Twain. They all had their reasons for choosing a different name.