Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.

Thomas Edison

A pen-name, nom de plume, or literary double is a made up name used by authors who want to conceal their identity. Though I‘m very proud of my birth name, I prefer to use the pen-name ‘Eiravel’ — which is derived from my real name — when it comes to my online writing activities and digipreneur endeavours. I simply want the business side of my life to remain completely detached from that of my private life, because I need to step into another state of mind when I’m writing, or even when I need to put on my marketing cap.

Sky, ciel, nebo, firmamento, céo — these are some of the names for sky in different languages, yet, no matter what name we give to the celestial vault, it never changes form, place, and functions, it remains the same since ages.

A word and its significance, a name and the significance behind it, only one name to rule my other names and surnames — Eiravel, a game of names, a new ordering of the alphabets of my real name, a new word formation, the alter-name that resonates with my all, the name that my self was able to consciously choose.

And so as to settle this issue once and for all, if ever I become a successful independent author, I decided that I will apply for a change of name, so that Eiravel can be forever part of my identity — for by integrating it to my soul, I’ll finally be complete, I’ll finally be.

Then I wonder what it really means in the domain of what’s ethereal. Is it even ethereal, an alien thing, a star shining from a distant galaxy? Is my mind being used to channel the memories of a cosmic entity named Eiravel? Yes, I do like to think so, for the games that I play when I write, or when I use my imagination take me to higher spheres, and make me plunge in deep oceans. And the way that I disconnect with reality so as to open myself to the creative frequency really gives me access to a cosmic literary double, my personal muse, whose name is Eiravel.

Also, I have always been a fan of usernames, and this since my teenage years, well, since chatrooms on mobile was a thing… I’m smiling right now because I have used a lot, like, a lot of usernames😜. From names of my favourite superstars, to that of characters I adore, and to names that I would have liked to be named after, I had the chance to be everything and anyone that I wanted to incarnate through usernames. So, it was a normal thing for me to write and publish under a pen-name.

I don’t think that a pen-name is synonymous to anonymous, because there is a real person behind Eiravel, a person with whom anyone can communicate with, and my writing voice is that of my own, and not of someone else, or even something else. It’s me, with a pen-name or not, it’s the real me, either I think it’s stellar or earthly.

I like to compare my literary double and my private life to that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — in private everything goes on normally, for the rigid state of physical life imposes on me its heavy weight, and my corporeal needs to remain bound and connected to that whole so as to function properly; but when I’m writing a poem or fiction, I want to be able to completely free myself from all constraints and fear so as to be able to let all of the imprisoned butterflies in me fly away.

That’s my only escape, the mental escape, thus the need for an alter name and life. As a grown up individual who can consciously chose, I do think that I made the right choice, for my decision fits perfectly my lifestyle and natural state of mind.

To mystify my alter ego so that I might become everything that I can be, there, in an alternate reality, helps me to enter into a thrilled state of mind that makes me want to write. That is my modus operandi, how I function normally with one foot in reality and another one in my imaginative world. That’s how I deal with things from within.

And then perhaps I suffer from a slight, tiny-itsy-bitsy bit of paranoia😅. When I hear about everything they do with pictures and real names online, I cringe, and my paranoia peak.

I am not at all tech savvy, and it’s only in recent years that Mauritius, as a developing country, started to embrace technology, thus, have to say that we’re still a little bit vulnerable, and most of us still a little bit computer illiterate, and till now I still don’t know if ever what I’m doing is really legit, or if this all a lie… I don’t know, I really don’t; and because I do lots of researches online about pseudoscience and aliens, and that I am always trying to get the necessary inspiration without a mask or VPN, I fear that I am very vulnerable, for they have all of the necessary tools and malevolence and evilness within to sabotage and destroy a life, as we often hear on the news.

Thus, I am not ready to share selfies of me and of my family on social-media platforms; and I am not ready to openly expose my real name online, at least not until most humans have acquired the necessary maturity, awareness, and openness of mind.

That’s all for me folks… and what do you think about using a pen-name, or even about those like me that use a nom de plume?