Why Cookie?

So apparently, I have a spy name.

Who knew?

One of my students asked me the other night about my book. (Of course, this made me smile because I don’t get a lot of people asking about my writing. Yay!) She said a friend told her that I was going to publish and that my “spy name” was Cookie O’Gorman.

And I thought: Why don’t we call them spy names? I’d much rather have a spy name than a pen name. It would up my cool factor, and it’s definitely not as stuffy as saying “nom de plume.” After we cleared up the whole spy vs. pen name issue, it led to the next question.

Why didn’t I just use my real name?

The short answer is I thought a pen name would be easier for people to spell and therefore easier to search.

I know, I know. Like a whole bunch of people are going to be searching for my little book and pen name? Yeah, right. But a girl can dream, and for those five people who do search, I wanted them to be able to find my site.  That’s why I decided to go with a name that was still me, just more searchable.

“Cookie” is the name my Aunt Pat gave me. I love that name, and it represents who I am just as much as my birth name. “O’Gorman” is our family name, back from when my great grandfather immigrated to the United States, and they made him drop the “O” because it was too Irish. I’m fond of the Irish, so the “O” made a comeback :).

I went through a lot of names, but this one seemed like the best fit.  So, my YA books will be published under the name “Cookie O’Gorman.”  Thank you, mom, Colleen, Melanie and Jamie, for helping me make the decision.

It’s a pretty sweet spy name if I do say so myself.

Happy reading,

Cookie O’Gorman