I spent two years as an elementary school teacher assistant after graduating from university. That's not where the pen name came from, but I do like to establish credentials. And I need 140 characters to complete the post.

I worked for a newspaper after I grew tired of teaching little children the intricacies of running and jumping. The company had a naming convention for employees - the first six letters of your last name and the first letter of your first name.

• Schule (missing one letter);
• G (missing three letters informally and six letters formally, with a repeating r in there);

It's been a handy and easily remembered sobriquet since then and may pop up on the internet in certain places. I respond to "you", "hey" and Greg.

Such a boring story, but that is what a lack of imagination will do for you.

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Pen names are interestingly unusual things. Around Protagonize, and other writing sites like it, folks often opt to use a pen name as opposed to their real name. And, like most other pen names, there's usually a story behind it. I know of a few of those stories, but I figured that: 1) they're much too good to not be told, 2) other people are surely curious about them as well, and 3) it'd be nice to have a bunch of those stories in one spot. So... whether its an origin story, an explanation of its significance, or others' reactions to it, tell us about your pen name!

updated Apr 18 '09 by g2LaPianistaIrlandesa