Mononymity

I need to address the Loxodon in the room. My use of a mononym is not an attempt to establish a personal brand like Prince, Beyoncé, or Bono. My introverted and anxious wiring would never allow that. I've adopted my full first name to achieve a wafer-thin veneer of anonymity while maintaining a connection to my real identity.

Why the anonymity concern?

I work for an institution with an aggressive social media policy. Despite partitioning my professional and personal lives like Mark Scout and governing my writing by over-active conscience, my story content may fall short of the Vanilla Humanity required by said policy.

Why not use a pen name?

I genuinely wish I could. I've tried. Twice. I spun up social accounts, bought domain names, and created web stuff based on pseudonym-identities — only to burn it all down due to my own hangups on the approach. Even though it's a legitimate strategy, it feels disingenuous, icky, and weird.

Using Japheth, while carrying inherent risk of diva misperception, keeps everything authentically anchored to me.