WHAT'S WITH ALL THE DOPEY PEN NAMES?

'Call me Jay Morris, dammit!'

I don't get this and think it’s just plain gimmicky.

Persnickety tough guy scribe Richard Price doesn't have a title yet for his next work -- but he does have a name for the author. And it ain't Richard Price.

The "Clockers," "Lush Life" and "Freedomland" writer will publish his next book under the pseudonym "Jay Morris" for a planned series of detective thrillers set in New York City.

Publisher Henry Holt and Company announced last week that the first edition is scheduled to hit shelves next fall.

Everyone knows that pseudonyms are a publishing tradition -- whether its Nora Roberts penning tales as J.D. Robb, Stephen King as Richard Bachman or Ruth Rendell at times calling herself Barbara Vine.

But I ask why? If everyone knows that Price is writing as Morris then why just publish a novel that way? I find it foolish.

Did Hemingway write under a pen name? Kerouac? Did Orwell? Author Price sounded off in a statement: "This, God save me, should be fun." Fun but dopey...

My fellow scribes, tell me why it's not gimmicky...