09/21/2026
Giles Blunt, crime writer extraordinaire ( he gave us the detective series Cardinal, now a fabulous television series.) When he brought out his fascinating literary novel, Into that Fire, a few years ago, he used the pseudonym M.E. Cates. The main character Imogen is a thoughtful woman psychiatrist in the early days of the discipline, a trailblazer who sounded so authentic that I thought the author must be a woman. I had many thoughtful email exchanges with M.E. Cates, about what I thought was her story, and then discovered Cates was a pseudonym for Giles who has advice for writers considering writing under an assumed name. Don’t do it unless you start out using it, he says with a wince. Now that authors do most of their own publicity, an author with a pseudonym can’t appear on radio, television or literary festivals. The result? No attention for your book. That’s why he’s reclaiming the novel under his own name and wants to know if you’ll give it a second chance. Karen Connelly Silken Laumann Colleen Sullivan Rosemary Sullivan Author Katherine Ashenburg CALF Writers' Trust of Canada Giles Blunt
