The decision to add my middle initial to my name was one that I didn't come to easily. I honestly would rather be known as simply Christina Gaudet (pronounced Goody where I'm from) but a few years ago when I was fresh out of college and ready to take on the world as a graphic designer, I tried to grab the url christinagaudet.com and I realised something awful. There was another Christina Gaudet out there. How could this be? How dare she have my name! But alas, there she was. A singer. Go ahead. Google my name, you'll see what I mean.
As a writer, I always had the option of taking a pen name, but then I would never experience that warm fuzzy feeling of seeing my name on a book cover. For those of you who don't write, you'd be surprised to discover that the only thing that drives a writer is to see their name in print. It's not about the relentless need to tell their story, oh no, it's just about the name. So in order to differentiate myself, I chose to use my middle initial. Grace. It's a good name. Almost, graceful if you will. And yet, it always saddens me when my friends play the initial game to discover theirs spell out fun words like PAM or WMW or ABC. Alright, so these aren't exactly words, but you understand what I'm getting at. CGG feels a little like a mistake, as though I forgot that little middle thingy on the first letter (GGG) or accidentally typed in the G twice.
Then again, it would be pretty hard to forget my middle initial if you can remember the rest of my name. You probably wont spend too much time looking at the url saying "I know there's something that comes between Christina and Gaudet, if only I could remember what that letter was." And so Christina G Gaudet is what I'll go by while I delve into the self publishing world.
Follow me if you dare.