Ouen Owen is the pen name of, well, if we told you, it wouldn’t be much of a pen name, now would it? Suffice it to say that this is not Ouen’s first novel, but Taking My Half out of the Middle is of an entirely different character from his previous work.
Why a pen name? Because Ouen does not want to be disowned (or “unfriended”) by people he cares about because of something one of his characters says. This need for anonymity when writing a book that even touches on politics is, itself, a sad reflection of our times.
Without giving too much away, we can tell you that Ouen likes road trips and ballroom dancing, and that he has a somewhat ambiguous relationship with dogs. He owns a van rather like Möbli, and used it to drive every mile of Jack’s journey in preparation for writing the book.
The name Ouen Owen was chosen for a reason, by the way. Fans of Agatha Christie may have fun puzzling it out.