I'm back again at the start of 2013 with my What's Your Answer monthly post where you, the readers, get to chime in and answer questions I pose to you. Please use only one URL in your signature when answering in the comment section. First Question:  What name do you use as a writer - a pen name or actual name?  My Answer:  I use a pen name. Morgan Mandel is not my actual name, but I did register it as a Service Mark with the State of Illinois to make it legal. Second Question: How and w hy did you choose that name? My Answer:  There were several reasons why I chose a pen name, and Morgan Mandel in particular. First of all, my actual last name was more often than not misspelled by people who were not close family or friends. With that obstacle, I figured I had small chance of readers finding me if they tried to search for my actual name. I decided to pick an easy to spell, easy to understand name, which would also be easy to write when I did autog...

It's that time of month again for What's Your Answer . Today's questions are based on The Blood-Red Pencil's topic for October, which is Fear . It's easy to participate. I'll present three questions and my answers. You can answer one or more of them. One answer means you get more room to expand on your answer. For more than one, please limit your space for each. Only one website or blog link, please. My questions and answers are: Q: When you start a book, are you afraid your inspiration will vanish and you'll never make it to that last page? A:  Yes. I usually have an idea how a book will begin and how it will end, but I need to count on my imagination and perseverance to fill in the blanks. I've never written an entire book while in the flow, but wish I could. At times I have to force my mind to think plots through, and ask myself if what I've written makes sense. Q: After you've finished a manuscript and it's about to be relea...