A Fragment of Life

There Is A Problem For The Writer Who Decides To Write His Or Her Autobiography; And It Is One That I Have Had To Make A Decision About. I Know Who I Am When I Am Being Myself In My Day To Day Existence; I Know Who I Am When I Am Writing And Publishing My Work. But Who Am I When The Two Collide? In Fact Whose Name Will Appear On The Cover? Finally I Decided That I Must Emerge From My Concealing Curtainmy Pen-Nameand Face The Fact That Barbara Yates Rothwell Could Not Have Written This Fragment Without Hebe Morgan. So I Am Happy To Combine My Two Lives For Once And Let The Reader In On The Secret. I Have Been Hebe For 85 Years; And I Have Been Barbara For About 50 Of Those Years. The Two Of Us Get On Quite Well: Hebe Makes The Beds And The Coffee While Barbara Gets To The Computer. Hebe Was Married For 59 Years To Dr Derek Moore Morgan And Looked After The Family; Barbara Meanwhile Managed To Establish Her Writing Career. Looking Back I Think Both Of Me Were Quite Successful At What We Took On! You May Wonder What The Point Is In Having A Pen-Name. People Have Often Asked Me This And Some Have Thought It Was Not Sensible To Try To Make A Name For Oneself As A Writer By Using Another Name. The Reasons Will Be As Many As The People Who Choose To Do This. In My Case I Found It Released Me From Thinking Too Conventionally. As We Now Say It Permitted Me To Think Outside The Square. Being A Wife And Mother Is Wonderful But It Can Tend To Make One Think Along Very Straight Lines. A Fiction Writer Needs To Be Able Think Freely To Analyse Characters To Imagine Lives That Perhaps Have Nothing To Do With The Authors Daily Existence. I Found It Very Helpful. However You Think Of Me Whichever Hat I Wear For You I Hope You Will Enjoy Journeying With Me For A Little While As I Explore My Own Fragment Of Life.