Who's Who? My little confusion

I've been a little confused.

How common a name is Armintrout?

doesn't seem like it's that common, right?

I kept seeing these posts about this new series - the Lux series, and thinking they were by Jennifer Armintrout, of American Vampire fame - until I read some author bio about how the author lives in West Virginia.  

Huh?  (I thought)

I could have sworn that she lives in Michigan.

Apparently there are TWO Jennifers with very similar last names.

Jennifer Armintrout;

and then there is Jennifer L Armentrout who also writes under the name J. Lynn.

Confused?  I am/was.  It's not helped by the fact that they BOTH write adult AND YA novels.

My question - How can there be two last names that not only are so quirky sounding, but so very similar; and how can they ALSO have the very same first name?  Talk about coincidence - this is a hell of a coincidence.  I almost thought they might be the same person, using pen names, but they live in different states,which is what first clued me in to the fact that these were in fact not the same person. 

Jennifer Armintrout, also known as Abigail Barnette - is the Jennifer that I first read, the one I thought both Jennifers were - writes the Blood Ties series (I've read the first of the series - The Turning - and wouldn't mind reading the second), and also a young adult series (Lightworld/Darkworld novels) including the Queene of Light; she writes a blog titled Sweaters for Days.  She is delightfully outspoken. 

(god, I sounded old right there)

Her twitter account is @JArmintrout;

her fun little blurb includes descriptions of herself such as...

'hobbit'

'devourer of heads',

'part-time lady'

'servant of Morgoth'

and includes the info that she DOES NOT have a brain tumor (caps are from me)

I don't do twitter, so I don't usually pay attention to twitter info - but I do like her self-descriptions.  How can you not?

love humor like this.

The other Jennifer is Jennifer L. Armentrout, she also writes as J.Lynn, who lives in West Virginia and writes YA novels - The Lux series, including Obsidian. Her J. Lynn pen name writes adult novels.  Jennifer L. Armentrout writes a blog and has a twitter account which, of course, sounds very similar to the above Jennifer, @JLArmentrout.

                 

Cool thing - the Lux series is about ALIENS, i.e., SciFi - so that actually is enough to make me want to read it, even though it's YA. I've mentioned before, that I rarely read YA, unless it's by an author that I've already read and loved (i.e. Lilith Saintcrow writing as Lili St. Crow) or by an author that I've already grown to like and respect (i.e. J.A. Campbell).  But once in a while...a YA novel rears it's little YA head and catches my interest.  After all, sometimes it just feels a little off to be reading YA with all the little YA issues, the super young characters, and the emotional YA angst that can rear their little YA emo heads.  I know that sounded a little negative, but I didn't mean it too.  It's just a bit of a stretch at times, to read about very young people when you are rounding the corner into older age, dealing with hot flashes, changing body, joints that MAKE NOISE when you move, etc.  ;)  But when I read fiction by Lili St. Crow or J.A. Campbell, the characters go a bit beyond the usual or perceived young brain emo/issues/thoughts/problems.

I took a quick read of Obsidian and judging by some of the pages I was able to read, this one is going to be interesting - hello, ALIENS = SciFi + enemies from yet other planets = great reading fun!  

Geez - no wonder I was confused!

All this time - ever since the first Lux novel came out, I really thought they were from the same lady!  I've heard of authors with the same name as others before, of course there is going to be some with the same name - but two names with just one letter different, in addition to the very same first name?  

After reading a sample of two of the Lux series, I'll probably end up getting a hold of a copy of them.  Though in high school, the characters don't sound like fluffy high school characters, but like older teens going through some major issues - life and death issues (alien invasion, hunting, enemies....) - enough to keep me interested.

And while researching the difference between these two writers, I also was able to read a sample of Jennifer Armintrout's recent American Vampire novel - sounds similar to Rachel Caine's Morganville setting - a town where no one leaves, but it's a bit difference.   I put it on my wish list at Amazon (which I forget to update regularly, haha)

I think this is enough rambling for now - laters, y'all