Yeah, I am going to go closer to my real name. I'm not trying to hide like I did years ago as Marianne LaCroix at Ellora's Cave. I am writing mainstream romance these days. (Isn't "Romantica" now considered mainstream with the existance of the 'Shades of' putrid? (Sorry, but the books are not well written. I couldn't get a few pages in without closing it and never going back.) Anyway, the name. I like Myriam as soooo many people in my real life has spelled it that way on cards and such. So why not use it? I also like the change just to be slightly diffferent.
The new focus is contemporary romance. I had been working on historicals for years and I feel like my voice is stagnated. I needed a change, so I am working on a new romance. It will be set in a fictional country just in case some sort of natural or political mess makes a real country seem controversial. Kind of like how other writers use fictional countries for their royal romances.