About Amanda Michelina

Well, I think of it primarily as a nom-de-plume. I found it useful as a composer to visualise music as if Amanda Michelina were writing it rather than myself. Helped me overcome my writer's block. - I think that was also true of my scripts. She's like the whole package of me, while Amanda Riddell is just my real self going about her day. I tend to think of composing as asserting ego or personality, and I'm very femme, so my pieces tend to sound exotic, and I reckon the nom-de-plume compliments that self-image better. It's a music/art thing; as a writer, I go by Amanda Riddell, although I thought about using Amanda Michelina for Shipwrecked on Islands! - I should have used it for the EP. That was me not thinking forward enough, but I wasn't really using the pseudonym much until 2022. I had the idea during 2019, but it took a while to build her. That's not my mindset atm, though; Lullaby is an Amanda Riddell piece, so that's the me for the recital.