Margaret McNamara: Hi, my name is Margaret McNamara. That's the name that I use when I write books. It's kind of a nickname; it's my writing nickname, because my real name, the name that everyone else calls me when I'm not writing books is Brenda Bowen. Now, why did I choose Margaret McNamara instead of Brenda Bowen? Well, Margaret McNamara is the name of my mother's mother, so my grandmother, and she grew up in Ireland. And whenever we asked her to spell her name, she would spell it out for us. And if you look at how it's spelled, I'll spell it the way my grandmother spelled it. She spelled it like this, M-C-N-A-M-A-R-A. Now, what does that mean, M-C-N-A-M-A-R-A? What she was saying was, M-C-N-A-M-A-R-A. That always stuck in my mind as a child, and so I chose to honor my grandmother by using her name for my books.