Not long ago one of the writers email loops I belong to had a discussion on pseudonyms. I prepared to chime in and say anyone can find you if they really want to, when I received proof of that statement. A letter addressed to B. A. Binns arrived in my home mailbox.
The reason that bothered me was because I use a P. O. Box for all my correspondence related to my writing, including anything and everything under that BABinns name. I pay extra for domain name privacy, even though the domain is registered to that PO Box. Not because I wanted secrecy, or so I told myself, but because I wanted organization. BABinns has her own email and her own address – and no phone number.
A few weeks before I received this letter I gave a talk about writing to my local library. The library advertised their guest as B. A. Binns with the title Local Author. Inside the envelop I found a letter saying, \”Sorry I couldn\’t attend your talk…\” It went on to request that B. A. provide feedback to a story they had written.
And so it began. I didn\’t know what to do. Should I ignore them? Write back and say no such person at this address? Or run for the hills?