As soon as you make your foray into the world of publishing or any other media outlet, you soon realize that your name is your product identity. Outside those that know them, nobody thinks of Stephen King as just Steve, or mentions “Liz” when talking about the Queen of England. Unfortunately, my birth name James Bell is as common as can be. Any town I’ve lived in, even in Germany, has included another James Bell. Since there is already an author with near enough the same name, James Scott Bell, I decided to go by what most people call me. I soon realized that I had competition of another sort when it came to being Jay Bell.

Baseball player Jay Bell is retired, so I figured his trademark had expired. If not, I’m sure people will have no trouble telling us apart. I’ve always sucked at sports. As I kid, I cried every time I went up to bat. The few times someone was crazy enough to toss a ball my way, it always ended up hitting me in the head. Even today I fail at Wii Baseball. There couldn’t be anyone less athletic in the world than me, so it’s a bit ironic that the company I keep on the Jay Bell boat is that of an athlete. If only we had more in common. The only connection Jay Bell and I have, is that he once played for the Royals. I suppose if I were forced at gun point to name my favorite team, the Kansas City Royals would be it, since I grew up around there.

The only problem with sharing this name, is that baseball statistics sites tend to drown out my blog in the search results. I’m not sure what I could do about that. Maybe the other Jay Bell could do me a favor and change his name, now that he’s retired. Jim is nice. Or how about a decorative symbol, like Prince once used?

I had the chance to avoid all of this. I thought about giving myself the pen name of James Donner many moons ago. It sounds cooler, and makes a better name brand, but I wanted to stick with Bell to make my dad proud. I still hope to, so there’s no turning back now. Maybe Jay Bell and I can set up some sort of timeshare on the name. Dibs on the weekends!