By-by-by, by-by!

When I work on my various projects, I've noticed I use a few different names. Perhaps you've noticed, too.

I was thinking about it, and for those wondering, here's the deal:

My journalistic byline is just my first and last name. I use that for all nonfiction/journalism pieces, including my freelance work.

But my freelance work often has nicknames, because most of it is Web-based, either for HorrorTalk (where I'm "The Hitman") or Raiderfans.net (where I'm "Ace," like here, short for "AceRimRat"), and those sites both sort of started out as forums with anonymous pseudonyms.

In fact, I still use my Hitman nickname on HorrorTalk without my name, but that's going to change with my next review, because everyone else is switching, or so it seems.

And then, for "Dead Hunt," I used my full name for the credits, first-middle-last. Why, I was asked?

Well, to differentiate my fiction-type work from my journalism-type work, really.

(The joke: The two Asian guys involved both use their full names, and not a one of them is an Asian name... Six names, nothing Asian whatsoever.)

But I digress. Point is, I like the idea of sort of separating the two.

The reason I bring it up - well, the reason I bring it up is because it was sort of on my mind, and the reason it's sort of on my mind is I'm working on a pair of other projects, and I was thinking about what to put on them.

One is a short fiction piece I'm submitting to a magazine. That was easy - full name, since it's my fiction work.

The other is a longer, freelance nonfiction project I'm discussing with a company. (No details to go into yet, it's still just a discussion.) I found myself wondering if I should use my journalistic byline or my non-journalistic byline. On one hand, it's a nonfiction piece, that leans me toward my journalism byline. But it's completely unlike anything I've done before, more or less - it's not a newspaper thing, or a magzine thing, or a Web journalism thing. And that leans me toward my more, um, "exotic" byline (if that's the right word).

Funny thing is, I don't use my middle name for anything. I use my middle initial on things like checks and credit cards, but I hardly ever use my middle name. I don't even much like it, though it's not that bad, and I do enjoy being named for my great-grandfather(s).

At least I have one, though. Neither of my parents does, which is probably why they gave me one.