Originally, I planned to publish "The Auction" under my real name, but then the character Angelica started speaking in my head, and she has a foul mouth. There is nothing my mother hates more than the "F" word. If she knew I used curse words in a book, it would crush her. And if one of her friends read the book and mentioned the swear words to her, well, that would be my mom's version of public humiliation.

I typically write in a vastly different genre. Readers of my other books would be shocked by The Auction. Even my son, after reading the original first fifty pages said, "Mom, if I didn't see you sitting at your computer typing this, I would never have believed you wrote it." 

Finally, we live in a world of "woke," and this book will offend some people in my (live not virtual) social network. I don't want to be shunned by my community over a book. It's better if they have no idea I've ventured into an edgier genre.

So, Elci North is a figure of my imagination. In addition to being much taller than me, Elci is a risk-taker, and I am not.