I was involved with Firewords Quarterly for seven issues. I’ve seen it grow from a university student project into a visually arresting literary behemoth.
 
There’s no other magazine out there that blends visuals, and prose fiction / poetry quite the way Firewords does. The artwork in the magazine is married to the published work in such a way that they become hard to separate. If you’re a reader, or a writer, I highly recommend it.
 
But, as the title of this post suggests, my time on Firewords has come to an end. Truth be told I left several months ago.
 
Why?
 
I guess the answer is simple: I’m not a publisher, I’m a writer.
 
Firewords went from strength to strength and it continues to do so. The submissions rose with every issue, and it took time to read and consider all the submissions passed my way. That was time that I wasn’t spending working on my own projects.
 
In those pre-Issue 1 days I was a wannabe writer. I’d never been published anywhere. I’d had one acceptance but the piece in question never made it to publication. I eagerly accepted the offer of working on Firewords as I thought it would help me become a better writer. It did. Reviewing submissions, and commenting on the weaknesses and strengths of other hard-working writers, helped me to see the flaws and weaknesses in my own work.
 
My time at Firewords proved to be an education. I’ve had multiple short stories published. I’ve seen my work published in award winning, and award nominated, magazines and some very kind publishers have even paid me for my efforts.
 
I reached the stage where I wanted to broaden my output. I’m still writing short stories as I love the medium, but several months ago I started writing my first novel. I’m about 20K words in so far and I’m having to learn quite a lot along the way.
 
Earlier this year I did an introductory course in digital filmmaking. That allowed me to direct, write, and edit my first short film. I’d like to make a host of other short films too.
 
I’ve also been hard at work in planning for an anthology of my collected short stories.
 
So, in terms of projects I’ve got to finish the anthology of my collected short stories, I’ve got a novel to finish, and numerous short films to make. I’d also like to start blogging regularly again, something I’ve been very poor at over the last couple of years.
 
Trying to juggle so much work, and hold down a day job, left me with little, to no time, so I had to depart the Firewords family.
 
Thank you Firewords – Dan & Jen Burgess – for everything you’ve done for me. Working on seven issues of Firewords is an experience I’ll never forget and it’s something I’ve been proud to be a part of. It's a chapter of my writing life that has closed as other avenues have opened.

I’ll still be there as an avid reader. Damn, I’ve just realised, I’m going to have to pay to read it now! Haha - At least it will be money well spent.
 
Everyone take care,
 
Mike.

​Many writers use pen names. I’ve never written anything under my real name. But why do writers feel the need to use an alternative guise?
 
Speaking for myself the main reason was confidence. A writer bares their soul when they put pen to paper. It doesn’t matter what the subject matter is, what the genre is, or what the setting is, the moment a writer puts pen to paper it’s personal. I went into this writing lark expecting a sea of rejection slips. I didn’t want that level of rejection under my real name.
 
Writing under a pen name allowed me to hide, but it also gave me a freedom to express myself in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to under my real name. Back in those early days only two people knew that I wrote. It’s ironic these days that I barely bat an eyelid at a rejection, and I don’t care who knows that I write. Again, ironically, it’s the continued practice of writing that’s given me confidence and belief.
 
The second reason for using a pen name was practicality, or maybe I mean marketability. Most people struggle to pronounce my real surname. If by some miracle of good fortune I happened to get a book deal it would hardly help my sales if people were wandering into bookshops asking for the latest book by Mike (insert long pause) er, I think it’s…. You get the point. Even in the work place I’ve always been referred to as Mike K.
 
Let’s look at some professional writers. Shaun Hutson has worked under seven different pen names to date. Dean Koontz has used various pen names. Stephen King had fun with Richard Bachman. Agatha Christie was also Mary Westmacott.
 
All the writers above used multiple pen names for reasons of identity. Agatha Christie used Mary Westmacott to separate out her historical romances from her crime fiction. Shaun Hutson’s seven pen names are utilised across seven different genres.
 
Identity is important.
 
If I want to read a Horror story I’ll look for the latest Stephen King, or a James Herbert, or a Clive Barker. If I want to read a Historical novel I’ll look for Bernard Cornwell, or George MacDonald Fraser. Those writers have a very clear identity in terms of their output.
 
I’ll say it again… Identity is important. The last thing a writer wants to do is to confuse their reader.
 
My pen name that has served me so well for so long is now causing me a problem of identity. Who exactly is M. J. Wolfson? What does he write? Take a look at my genre output:
 
Drama
Black Comedy
Comedy
Horror
Post Apocalypse Sci-fi
Social Commentary
Speculative
Experimental Stream of Consciousness
 
Can you see the dilemma? I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to utilise more pen names. I know I need to be careful. I’m not sure I’d want to go down the Shaun Hutson route.
 
The majority of my work will remain under the brand of M. J. Wolfson, but I’ve already written two stories as Jane Hunter. Both stories – The Things We Can’t Foresee and Beautiful – have been published. I’ve already developed a persona and style of writing for Jane which is different to Mr. Wolfson’s.
 
One of my other stories The Proposal – accepted for publication but never actually published – is another work that is very different from anything else I’ve written as M. J. Wolfson or Jane Hunter. As a result I’ve always struggled to know what to do with it after the initial acceptance failed to result in a publication. Lately I’ve considered using a different pen name and all of a sudden I’ve become enthused about the story again.
 
I accept that multiple pen names aren’t necessarily the answer for everyone. Dennis Wheatley, although lesser known these days, was a popular writer in his heyday being second only to Agatha Christie in terms of sales.
 
Dennis wrote black magic horrors, historical thrillers, murder mysteries, and non-fiction books, and he did it all under the name of Dennis Wheatley.
 
It’s like everything else in the creative world of the writer… You have to identify the approach that works best for you and embrace it!
 
I hope this has been useful and / or interesting.
 
Take care,
 
Mike

Two of my flash fiction pieces have been published recently. Shush was published by Theme of Absence and The Man on the Train was published by The Starving Artist.
 
Theme of Absence is a market I’ve been tracking for a while. I first submitted a story to them about 12 months ago which was rejected, but the rejection was encouraging.
 
They publish speculative fiction, and do author interviews too. You can read my interview here. You can read Shush here.
 
The quality of fiction on Theme of Absence is pretty good. I’d recommend checking them out from both a reader & writers perspective.
 
The Starving Artist published The Man on the Train, and I’m glad I’ve finally managed to get this one published. The Man on the Train was originally written in answer to a challenge given to me by another writer. I’ve had nothing but positive comments about it, but it has collected a few rejection slips. The rejections have always stated, “We liked it but it’s not a good fit for our mag.”

The Man on the Train is a good example of why you shouldn't give up on a piece just because it has collected a couple of rejections. Isaac Asimov said:

"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist." 
 
I stumbled across The Starving Artist a few weeks back. I wasn’t sure if it would be a good fit for them or not as they’re a very new market concentrating on Flash fiction & poetry. 
 
They're not genre specific it’s more about good quality writing. Please check them out and see what you think.You can read The Man on the Train here.
 
Both markets can be found in the Selected Markets page of this site. Theme of Absence has been listed there for some time.
 
Take care,
 
Mike

Well, a quarter of 2016 has flown by already. If anybody knows where the time goes, and has any ideas on how we can all slow it down, please let me know.
 
2016 has been pretty good to me so far. I’ve had two acceptances and both works should be published over the next few months. I still get a buzz when I see my work in physical print, or E-print.
 
Acceptances can be scary though. When a story gets rejected a handful of people will have read your submission. When you get an acceptance your work is scheduled to be exposed to the entire readership of the publication that said, YES! It’s a sobering thought and it’s exactly why you shouldn’t submit a story until you’re 200% happy with it. As a writer you should take pride in your work, and you should strive to deliver your very best for your audience.
 
I’ve worked on six issues of Firewords Quarterly and it still surprises me that we get submissions with really basic errors: Missing full stops, spelling mistakes etc.
 
Spelling mistakes is probably my pet hate. Pretty much every word processing package out there will highlight spelling mistakes. Ms Word underlines the offending articles with a big red squiggly line. There’s no excuse for an author not to make those corrections. It’s lazy writing.
 
The perfect submission probably doesn’t exist, and I’m not asking for it. I’m pretty sure that some of my own submissions are guilty of having a misplaced or missing comma. But is there any excuse for really basic errors?
 
Anyway I’m going off topic. The words have been flowing lately. Although, not exactly as planned. Quite a few times I’ve sat down to write Project A, or B, and nothings really happened. Then the muse will give me a painful elbow to the ribs, and I’m writing something completely new, completely unplanned. Two stories have come to fruition thanks to the muse: Shush and A Brief History of Doozer’s Cyclic Theory of Re-Invention. Both were seat of the pants creative outpourings and I had no idea where they were going.
 
I’ve also been busy with re-writes and submissions.
 
The Ending has been re-titled as Beautiful. The prose has been cut and submitted to Anti-Heroin Chic under a different pen name.
 
Dancers was tweaked following some useful feedback from my buddy Dan Burgess. I’ve entered it into the annual FictionDesk, Ghost Story, competition. I hope it does well. Any writer likes their work but sometimes a writer can’t help having favourites, and Dancers is one of mine. The standard at FictionDesk is high though, so it’s going to be up against some strong competition. Fingers crossed.
 
The Man On The Train has been sent to The Starving Artist. I’m pretty confident that I can place this one somewhere. Feedback has been universally good. It’s just finding the right market.
 
Wiped Clean has been re-titled The Remote Control Love Affair. I’m re-writing this one at the moment. This is an accepted work, but one that was never published. These things do happen.
 
I’ve added the new stories to the My Stories section of the blog. Rather embarrassingly I also noticed that two of my stories weren’t listed. So The Man On The Train, and A Quiet Retirement have now been added to my canon of work.
 
Take care.
 
Mike

Shush was a small flash fiction story that wrote itself. I'm not sure the word 'Story' actually applies either. It's more of a mood piece. A piece of writing to reflect on. I wasn't sure what I felt about it on completion. That's very unusual for me. My gut instinct is pretty good in determining the quality of a piece of finished work. So I sent it to a writer friend of mine along with another piece of flash fiction that had already been accepted for publication*.

​His response was interesting because he preferred Shush. He pointed out several elements and explained why he liked it so much. I was pleased that he liked it and surprised. Armed with positive feedback I sent the story off to Theme of Absence.

Theme of Absence publish speculative fiction. I've sent them work before and had it rejected, but they were encouraging and at the time requested to see more of my work. At the time I didn't have anything that fitted with their submission guidelines, but Shush seemed to be a good fit. Thankfully, they liked it too and it's due to be published early April. I'll post again nearer the time. Shush will be available to read for free.

* That other story I referenced... I've been playing around with pen names lately and it's an acceptance that I've had under another pen name. There's no reference to the story anywhere else on this website. I'll do a post on pen names sometime during April.

Hi - I recently did an online interview with Dan Burgess the editor at Firewords Quarterly. So if you'd like a little bit of insight into the world of indie publishing then please do click on the following link to see what I had to say for myself.

Here it is: http://blog.firewords.co.uk/post/132922099388/meet-the-team-mike-wolfson-assistant-editor

All the best,

​Mike