What’s in a name?

I really thought I had told this story before, but it doesn’t show up anywhere. Leave it to me to write it and then forget to post it!

Recently, I made the decision to use my real name, Kelly, rather than the pen name I created when I started this crazy writing life.

Allow me a minute to give the reason I chose the pen name. My grandmother was a talented lady. She painted, she sang, she wrote songs and poems. But, she lived under a different set of circumstances than most of us women enjoy today. Married at 17,  she and my grandpa managed their early years through the depression and world war II and then set up home life where my grandpa was a logger. Traveling from logging camp to logging camp with little ones, didn’t offer much opportunity to pursue her dreams. I’m not even sure she’d say they were dreams at that point; just things she enjoyed doing. As life went on, her talents increased but there wasn’t a way to showcase them.

Every card I ever received for my birthday or Christmas, Easter, you name it, had a new poem in it written just for me, for that occasion. The songs she wrote fill a binder. She also taught me to knit and crochet and I’m sure my affinity for all things paint and craft comes from her.

So when I decided to dive into a writing career I wanted to bring her along with me. In some small way share this life with her, now that she’s gone. To that end, I added her name to mine and rearranged them so that her beautiful first name stood out.

However, that leads to the reason why I’m going to change things up. When I had this sentimental idea, I only thought of having our names together on a book cover. Which turned out wonderful in my opinion. But, I’m not Naomi so using that name as mine became more awkward than I realized it would. It didn’t make me feel like the wrong person, it was just odd to sign someone else’s name, or answer emails that way. When I needed to wear a name tag at an event, it finally hit me that maybe I wasn’t as comfortable as I should be. I’m still keeping her with me, but now I won’t have to hesitate when I sign something or forget to answer when someone calls out to me.

Business-wise, it took a little work to switch things around, but for the most part, it was a seamless transition (might be a little while before it’s all transferred over). It will take a little longer to have the cover re-done and for the banners and such to change, but now I feel lighter, more me.