Thank you for inviting me to blog today. Let me introduce myself, I’m Sylvie Fox. Yep, that’s my pen name and I’m sticking with it.
Why do you use a pen name?
I came up with various pen names long before I ever wrote a book. I started reading romance novels about the time some publishers required pen names. I used to study the cover art and the author’s name. Then I’d look at the copyright page and try to imagine why they came up with such a name.
I spell out my real last name about nine thousand times a day on the telephone. I decided to give my readers a break, and spare them that agony. Every time my husband walks by my office, he laughs and tells me it’s not too late to change my name.
My thirteen-year-old pen name was Taylor Donovan. I loved that name. To this day, I still keep it in my back pocket, just in case. Sylvie Fox is actually just a play on my middle name and my husband’s last name. We came up with it on a train ride from Shaker Square to downtown Cleveland. And no, when we thought of it, I still hadn’t written a book.
Married or Single?
I’m married. Last year, dear husband and I celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary.
If I didn’t live in Los Angeles, where would I live?
When I was sixteen, my family took a three week road trip down the California coast. It was my first trip to the west coast and I was hooked. I promised my teenage self if I ever got the opportunity, I’d live in California. I got here eleven years ago and I’m not leaving. If I had to move within the US, I’d live in my hometown – New York City. Outside the US, I’d live in our family’s apartment in Budapest, Hungary.
Why do you write romance novels?
I write romance, because I love romance. My senior thesis in college was on romance (that took a lot of convincing). I want to give readers that very satisfying feeling I get following the hero and heroine to their happily ever after. My first romance novel was the Taming of Tamsin. I found it on my grandmother’s shelf when I was about nine or ten, and I never stopped reading them.
What else do you write?
I also write women’s fiction. I love to throw an unsuspecting heroine into an awful situation and see what she does with it.
The best part about my writing life is:
The best part about writing is doing it in my pajamas.
The worst part about my writing life is:
Realizing that it’s two o’clock in the afternoon and I haven’t gotten out of my pajamas.
Sylvie Fox is the author of romance and women’s fiction.