How I Chose My Pen Name

A lot of people have asked me how I decided on my pen name. I went through many, many possibilities in the search for the just the right name.

Over 20 years agao, when I started writing what turned out to be Mended Hearts, I thought I would use the pen name "Anne Martin" which is my middle name and my mother's last name.

I told that to my then 12-year old who said it sounded too basic (lol) so I started looking for something more interesting.

I knew I wanted something Italian sounding this time, and went through lots of iterations, but everything I came up with seemed to have multiple people on social media with that name and I definitely didn't want that.

Finally, the idea of using Angelina came to me. That was my grandmother's middle name (the grandmother whose first name I share). I thought about using her maiden name "Oppedisano" but it seemed too long, so that's when it hit me to shorten it to "Disano".

Besides toying with whether to use Angie or Angelina, that was it. I love how I honor my grandmother, who I miss so much since she passed four years ago. She would have loved to see this book published.

So this one's for you Nunny! Love and miss you.