Talk:Dawn Cook

Merge of Dawn Cook and Kim Harrison

• support merge but I feel it should be Dawn Cook into Kim Harrison based on the following:

• On http://www.dawncook.com she writes "I don't keep this site up much since there are no new books coming out, but if you have questions or want to chat, you can find me over at my busier site, www.kimharrison.net."
• At http://www.kimharrison.net/Links.htm "Dawn Cook Yep, that's me as well. I have two High Fantasy series published under this name."
• On http://www.kimharrison.net/guestlog.htm a guestbook signer asks "16 Jun 2009 - Hey Kim I just finished all of the Dawn Cook books and I gotta say I loved the Princess books! The characters really caught me and I loved the idea behind the players and the game!! I hope someday you go back to that series because it feels like there is so much more to be said there. Thanks again for a wonderful read,Gwen."
  
  KH replies "6/17/09 -- Hi, Gwen. (grin) You just totally made my day! Thanks! I'm so glad you took a chance, and delighted that you enjoyed them. Maybe someday I'll go back. It was one of my favorite worlds to work in, and you're right in that there was more to be said. --Kim"
• on http://www.kimharrison.net/guestlog.htm a guestbook signer asks "15 Jun 2009 - Heya it's me again. There are just so many questions going on in my head... will DC publish more books? Why is her site not as big as yours? Does she also do signings? Why didn't she publish the Hollows? How did you invent KH? Sorry for the many questions, i'm just so confused right now... my favourite author doesnt really exist? Hey, you have to swallow that! So I just ordered Die Erste Wahrheit (Truth 1) and i'll tell you then if I like DC ;) amy
  
  KH replies "6/16/09 -- Hi, Amy. I don't think there will be any Dawn Cook books for a long, long time. I'm really busy right now, but maybe someday.  ;-) OMGosh, you think Kim Harrison doesn't exist? I'm here. And I'm real. You don't lose your identity because you're being called something different. I changed my name when I got married. I took a new one when I became a mother. (My favorite is Mom.) Names don't mean that much to me, but for some, they do, so I understand. --Kim"

The implication is that she's done with her Dawn Cook life and that she plans on continuing to write as Kim Harrison.

My sources are the DC web site and KH blog (guestbook) posts meaning they are not top-notch WP:RS & WP:V though WP:SELFPUB applies. One concern is apparently the KH guestbook does not have an archive meaning the data I used is likely not verifiable in a few weeks though the one comment I used from www.dawncook.com is likely to be available for a longer period of time. --Marc Kupper|talk 16:40, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

• comment: In my prior search one of the pages on www.kimharrison.net was a 404 (missing). I just took a look at the Google cache version of that page which eventually lead to this excerpt of a Dawn Cook / Kim Harrison interview which is available in full in the print issue of Locus, May 2009. In the excerpt she's coy about if she's really Kim Harrison or Dawn Cook but at least admits they are the same person. However, this page (scroll down to Kim Harrison Does Not Exist!) includes a quote from the full interview that are not available in the publicly available excerpt where she apparently says Dawn Cook is the real name. With that, I'm less certain about which way the merge should go. --Marc Kupper|talk 17:42, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi Marc, I am a member of the Yahoo group that "Kim" owned and was an active participant in until shortly after the Locus article appeared. I'm about 99.9% sure that Dawn Cook is her real name. Kim Harrison is a persona she created for multiple reasons - privacy of her then young children, and marketing reasons both included. I'd like to get my hands on the Locus article. LadyofShalott 19:32, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Grumble - I live near a public library but they ran out of money and stopped their Locus subscription at the end of 2008. A back issue is $10 (including shipping) but I'm not that curious about the Kim Harrison interview. --Marc Kupper|talk 00:48, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Rethinking possible merger direction

I still think these articles should be merged, but wonder now if maybe the resultant article should be at Kim Harrison because it is the name under which she is almost certainly better known. LadyofShalott 17:36, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

I agree on the merge. I don't think the direction matters in this case but Dawn Cook into Kim Harrison looks far easier in terms of editing work. --Marc Kupper|talk 07:06, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

A merge makes sense. The person's real name makes the most sense to me, but I'm okay with going either way. Maybe if they're better known by the nom de plume that should be used? One of the experts will have to weigh in on what standard practice is. ChildofMidnight (talk) 20:52, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Actually I would merge to Kim Harrison since that article is longer and has a more expansive history, and then move it to Dawn Cook, the author's real name. :) But merging it there and leaving it there is okay too if that's allowed with nom de plumes.ChildofMidnight (talk) 20:55, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Merged

 Done I have merged the article into Kim Harrison. If someone wants to do a history merge, that could be a good thing. LadyofShalott 17:16, 11 December 2009 (UTC)