Quote - She is a writer and has an interest in writing for a specific audience.  She has a daughter and grandkids that she doesn't want to stumble onto this particualar genre of works.  YET- she wants to be aknowledged as the originator of the work.  See the dilemma?  Also we aren't sure if it would bring up copyright issues as well.

Boni, your partner shouldn't have any trouble using a pen-name for her work. She'll want to use her real name if she has a publisher so they know who to write the checks to, but the name doesn't have to go on the book. If it's self-published or published in any way where royalties aren't involved, just use the pen-name and don't worry about it. She can set up an e-mail account for the pen-name in advance, and then keep any correspondence for the works separate from whomever she wants to keep it separate from.

If she's worried about someone stealing the work or other infringement, she should register the copyright (not required, but registering is a good idea if she's worried about it). Some authors create a corporation (which isn't too difficult or expensive to do any more, especially an LLC or a PC) and copyright their works under the name of the corporation. That way, the real name doesn't appear anywhere on the work at all, but as an officer of the corporation it's still easy to establish her ownership of the work.

Quote - PS excuse the large bold font, I have a visual impairment and my windows magnifier doesn't follow the type in these boxes.

I don't have this trouble here at R'osity, but there is another forum where I can't see what I'm writing when I post a message. FWIW, what I usually do is quote the text I'm going to respond to (if any), copy and paste it into a text editor that I use which has a much friendler font, then I copy and paste the response back into their itty-bitty window. It's extra trouble, but it makes it more pleasant to participate.

On the other hand, if big and bold is your thing, then go for it. A little boldness can be a good thing, from time to time.