Happy 4th -- also a literary anniversary

Today is the 150th anniversary of a sunny afternoon boating trip during when Charles Dodgson told a story to family friend Alice Liddell about a little girl who jumped down a rabbit hole. Dodgson, of course, being Lewis Carroll. Currently reading Carmella Ciuraru's fantastic book Nom de Plume, all about the pseudonyms of now-dead authors and why they chose to hide their identities -- a bit different than now, when it's usually a matter of author branding. Loving the chapter on Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Strangers on a Train). Had the chance to see Ciuraru reading in Iowa City at the famed Prairie Lights bookstore in June while I was there for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. She added a fun element by asking us to come up with our own pseudonyms (the best: "Alfred Lord Newman"). Mine also was selected as a favorite ("Sage Watson." I thought it sounded like a writer of westerns; Ciuraru thought it was a good name for a mystery writer. Perhaps western mysteries??) I won a notebook.