I have a tricky surname.
A rare one, but it freaks people out when they need to pronounce it, or, God forbid, spell it.
So I am looking for a pen name.
It’s difficult. Really difficult. So I thought I’ll blog about it. 
(Hey, it’s Saturday afternoon and I’m bored!)
My first name is Silke (that’s Silk-eh, not Silky, but I don’t really mind being called Silky. If you spell me as Silka I’m going to throw bricks at you. K? I’m not a damned chocolate bar! (Milka)) and I don’t want religious overtones (no Angelo / St.Anything / SanWhatever / Demonico or anything of that nature.)
I don’t want initials. (If I do that, then I can just drop my first name altogether)
No surnames starting with S. (I do not want to end up with the monogram SS.)
I thought about a middle name, but do not want a middle initial.
It should flow naturally.
It shouldn’t feel contrived, but shouldn’t be too common either. (Thank you, but I don’t want to be Silke Jones.)
It should have rhythm.
I want it to be easily spellable.
I want it to be easily pronounced.
Yeah, I know. Picky, picky.
So far I keep looking at Silke DiMarco, Silke DiMatteo, Silke DiSabatino… things like that. (Yeah, I like the way the Di adds to the ryhthm and flow of the name.)
It’s driving me nuts!
Any suggestions will be most welcome!