What's in a Name?

Strange happenings lately: my Twitter, Facebook, and here, for pity's sake -- my name is changing everywhere. In comments, at parties, I am becoming Daniel Dydek. What the heck is going on? Well, I have a confession to make: Daniel Donovich was *gasp* a pen name. Or perhaps more appropriately a pencil name that is being erased as we speak. I understand if there are lots of questions as to whitherto and whyfor. Consider this blog the Pen Name FAQ blog. Or you could just message me and ask me, because I'd be happy to talk to you.
Why did you have a pen name?
Honestly, I didn't like my last name very much. I understand that telemarketers should not be a barometer for successful last names, but I worried about readers remembering my name if I were to be published. "Yeah, there was this book by a guy...what the heck was his name? It had a 'y' in it..." So I wanted something a little more common, but not something found easily in Google searches.

A long time ago, I came up with the "Donovich" moniker. See, in Russian, the "-ovich" suffix means "son of" kind of like the English "Johnson" means "John's Son." I admit, I'm not Russian: but the name was easily familiar, and paid homage to my father, yet "Daniel Donovich" wouldn't yield any Google search results. So I ran with it, and was trying to build my platform on it.

Why are you changing your pen name?
That's a little bit longer of a story, and begins when I published my anthology, "If They Keep Silent" on Amazon Kindle under my own name.

Why did you publish an anthology under your real name?
This was more of a legal issue: I wasn't ready to file my pen name with the US government, and the stories in the anthology aren't directly related to the novel which I was writing as Daniel Donovich. The anthology was just something to do with a bunch of short stories I'd written over the past some-odd years as I searched for my voice, and some I had written for college classes. So at first I wanted to keep them separate; now I'm less worried, and actually want to join them.

Why aren't you worried, and why get rid of your pen name now?
Well, more recently I've been looking at doing more with Amazon Kindle. I've finished up my first novel and have some of it sent to an agent. I'm beginning to do some outlining for a second novel that I'm starting this fall; and I wanted to write a second anthology for Kindle as I cobble together some stories I'd planned for a course that never really materialized. But this new anthology would be short stories based in the world of my novels. There would be no marketing benefit to having one anthology under one name, and another under a second name; furthermore, I couldn't write stories from the same world under two names; and finally, I'd become less and less enamored with my pen name, and more comfortable with my real name.

So, what now?
Well, you can check out my current anthology, "If They Keep Silent" which is a collection of realistic and fantasy fiction; you can follow me on Twitter; you can come over and like my Facebook page; and you can continue to follow me here at Itinerant D. A lot of things are going on in my mind and on my computer, which I'll be sharing. Hope you enjoy it!

See you soon.