This is my first post for this blog. Full disclosure – Billie Bang is not my real name. I decided that, as someone who writes for both children and adults, I needed to partition my writing personas so as to not scare or offend anyone. I mean, I probably will anyway, but at least by developing a pen name I can say I tried.

How did I choose “Billie Bang?” Well I knew I wanted to use “Bang” in there somewhere because that’s my roller derby name. It’s short for “Bangarang,” the battle cry of the...