Ask Stella – Mike H.

Dear Stella, Are you writing your mysteries and thrillers under a pen name? If so, why, and how did you choose it? – Mike H.

Hi Mike –

Your first two questions are easy to answer. Yes, Stella Barcelona is a pen name. I use a pen name to separate my work as a lawyer and my work as a fiction writer. Your third question, how I chose my pen name, is a little more difficult. When people ask about how I chose my pen name, I’ve tended to give glib answers, like ‘I like the way it sounds’ or ‘the Stella name is associated with New Orleans, due to A Streetcar Named Desire’  or ‘the Stella part is related to my dogs.’  These answers are all partly true. You get the whole truth!

What’s In A Name?

I didn’t need a pen name until the first of my mysteries and thrillers novels, Deceived, was published. Selecting a name was torture. I decided to use my last name, which is Barcelona, but I couldn’t decide what first name went with it. One evening as my husband, Bob, and I were playing the tiring game of pick-a-pen-name, one of my papillons jumped onto my lap. Her name is Stella.

Bob said, “Stella goes well with Barcelona.”

I said, “Yesssssss!”

After thinking about it, I also said, “But can I use her name?”

Bob answered, “I don’t think she’ll mind. I’ll try not confuse the two of you.”

Aside from liking the way it sounds with Barcelona, the name “Stella” is perfect because it relates directly to my earlier pets. We like the names of our dogs to pay homage to New Orleans, a city Bob adopted and where I’ve lived all my life. In that tradition, we named our first dog, a beautiful, flashy boxer, Blaze Starr. We called her Blaze for short. After several years, Blaze had a little boxer sister. In keeping with the Blaze Starr tradition, we named the new pup Starr. The brindle boxer (left) is Blaze; the fawn one (right) is Starr:

Blaze lived to be a great age for a boxer – almost thirteen years old. She was a wonderful girl, with such spirit we even named our boat Blaze. There’s a little more to the story about why we didn’t name the boat “Blaze Starr,” but I won’t digress. (If you’re a Louisiana history buff, you might be able to guess). To make Starr feel a little better, we named our dinghy after her.

After Blaze died, our first papillon came into our life. We named the new pup Stella. Because “stella” is Latin for “star,” for us, naming the new puppy “Stella” carried on the Blaze Starr legacy. We also liked that “Stella” is a New Orleans-sounding name, thanks to Tennessee Williams.

The name “Stella” and its link to “Blaze Starr,” became even more important when Starr lived a short life – only seven years. She died six months after Blaze. Starr’s seven years with us were long enough for me to be so in love with her that my heart shattered when she died. Even today, years later, it is hard for me to talk about Starr.

Which gets me back to your question about my pen name. For me, the root of my pen name is my beautiful Starr, whose life was far too short. By linking me to Starr, the name “Stella” reminds me to try to treasure every fleeting moment. I’ve reflected a bit more on this theme in Musings …On Dog Years and the Writing Life.

Because the name “Stella” is so special to me, it is the perfect pen name for my mysteries and thrillers.

When I sign my name in one of my novels, I try to remember to pause, with gratitude for the moment, for the reader who will read my novel, and for the miracle that is modern day story telling. To mark that moment of reflection, I place a little star with my signature, at the top of the “S.”

Thanks for the question!

p.s. – If you’re still reading about my mysteries and thrillers pen name thought process. . . you must be a dog lover as well. If you’d like, comment below. Tell me about the meaning behind the names of your special pets, or just say hi. I hang out here a bit and love to hear from readers. One last photo of Starr, Stella, and me: