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Jay S. Bell

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.jaysbell.com

Genre

Thriller

Member Since

March 2025

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JAY S. BELL wears the secret identity of a Typical Boring Suburban Man by day, then transforms to a keyboard punching wordsmith by night. Born and raised in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas against a Forrest Gump backdrop of the Vietnam War, the moon landings, Watergate, hippies, and the JFK assassination. Bell describes himself as an abysmal student who abhorred reading until his father, in desperation, turned to the classics—Conan the Barbarian.

“I tore through pulp fiction with an addiction bordering on insanity. Mickey Spillane, Louis L’Amour, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs…the list is exhaustive,” says Bell. “I would walk a mile, uphill through the Texas heat, to the library and bookstore in downtown Garland, and carry back, uphill JAY S. BELL wears the secret identity of a Typical Boring Suburban Man by day, then transforms to a keyboard punching wordsmith by night. Born and raised in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas against a Forrest Gump backdrop of the Vietnam War, the moon landings, Watergate, hippies, and the JFK assassination. Bell describes himself as an abysmal student who abhorred reading until his father, in desperation, turned to the classics—Conan the Barbarian.

“I tore through pulp fiction with an addiction bordering on insanity. Mickey Spillane, Louis L’Amour, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs…the list is exhaustive,” says Bell. “I would walk a mile, uphill through the Texas heat, to the library and bookstore in downtown Garland, and carry back, uphill through the Texas heat, a stack of books from my armpit to my fingertips.”

To say that fiction became a central focus in Bell’s life would be an understatement, though his taste ran hard toward creators like John D. MacDonald, Robert Heinlein, and Donald Hamilton, opting for Have Spacesuit, Will Travel over “The Classics” which left him bored to tears during his formative years.

Fast forward to an early career in retail loss prevention, marriage, and firstborn son, Bell wrote his first, as he describes “horrible, no good, very bad” novel with his infant son sitting on his lap. He bravely showed it to a few folks, which encouraged him to stick to his day job. Which was fine by him because kid #2 came along and food needed to be put on the table.
Twenty years passed. The kids grew up. Career changes happened. Bell moved from crime fighting to sales. Somewhere in there, his urge to write returned. In 2011, he got serious about it, joining writer groups and receiving feedback via online forums. “I wrote and wrote and wrote. And I loved it.”
WELCOME TO COTTONMOUTH was born out of Bell’s search for an ensemble of flawed and quirky characters who could team up, Mission Impossible-style, to defeat enemies, foreign and domestic and anywhere in between. He definitely did not want another James Bond, Jack Reacher, the Gray Man, or the archetype of the action hero as a leading man. Further, he wanted a strong female lead who comes with baggage and needs a redemption arc of her own. COTTONMOUTH gives him a great way to tell many stories, breathe life into a variety of characters, and explore many different plotlines.

Bell currently resides less than thirty miles from where he was born. He is a cancer survivor who worked his way up through two long and fulfilling careers, raised two kids to adulthood, has owned and been owned by many cats, and has been married to his lovely wife for over thirty years. “I’ll keep writing until saner people take my keyboard away and wheel me out to sit on the porch…where I will have a book cracked open on my lap.”
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Combine Editions
Jay S. Bell’s books

Average rating: 4.32 · 2,704 ratings · 374 reviews · 22 distinct works • Similar authors

	Yeager's Law (Abel Yeager, #1) by Scott Bell (Goodreads Author), Jay S. Bell (Goodreads Author) 4.34 avg rating — 1,070 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	April's Fool (Sam Cable #1) by Scott Bell (Goodreads Author), Jay S. Bell (Goodreads Author) 4.37 avg rating — 335 ratings — published 2016 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Yeager's Mission (Abel Yeager Thrillers #2) by Scott Bell (Goodreads Author), Jay S. Bell (Goodreads Author) 4.46 avg rating — 269 ratings — published 2016 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Welcome to Cottonmouth by Jay S. Bell (Goodreads Author), Scott Bell (Goodreads Author) 3.97 avg rating — 302 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Yeager's Getaway (Abel Yeager #3) by Scott Bell (Goodreads Author), Jay S. Bell (Goodreads Author) 4.36 avg rating — 188 ratings — published 2018 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	May Day (Sam Cable #2) by Scott Bell (Goodreads Author), Jay S. Bell (Goodreads Author) 4.50 avg rating — 158 ratings — published 2019 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	June Bug (Sam Cable #3) by Scott Bell (Goodreads Author), Jay S. Bell (Goodreads Author) 4.70 avg rating — 98 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Working Stiffs by Scott Bell (Goodreads Author), Jay S. Bell (Goodreads Author) 4.02 avg rating — 86 ratings — published 2018 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pest Cemetery by Scott Bell (Goodreads Author), Jay S. Bell (Goodreads Author) 4.13 avg rating — 63 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Welcome to Cottonmouth: Library Edition 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars