Sorry to keep you guys waiting. Um...guys? Where are you? Oh, there you are. I was afraid I kept you waiting too long and you all left. That wasn't my intention, but revisions try to rule my life.
As I promised in my last post, I'm here to reveal my name! I can't believe how nervous I feel right now. Like, butterflies and everything. Well, here it is:
Raisa Lukowskaia
Kidding. Totally kidding. I'm not Russian. My real name is pretty anticlimactic. In fact, there are only two letters that make it different from my nickname. It's Reina Laaman.
Because no one can pronounce my last name or my first name correctly, I thought I should at least have ONE readable name. That way people can at least say, "You know that book about helicopters piloted by kamikaze frogs? Yeah, it's by that Rain person." And they don't have to try to sound out a name no one else has.
But then one day I received a lovely rejection letter from an agent. It started out like this: "Dear Mr. Laaman..." I began to realize that this issue went beyond pronunciation problems. My gender was at stake. I don't think of myself as a very feminine person, but I am still a female. I would appreciate if people got at least that much right.
Despite the long list of maladroit pronunciations Reina has received, I love the ethnicity and the story behind my name. It doesn't seem that hard, but people really don't know what to do with the 'ei.' Would you know how to pronounce it, if my nickname didn't give you a clue?
And seriously, 'fess up. How many of you thought for a second that my name is Raisa Lukowskaia?
