Farewell to Firewords… (Don’t worry the magazine is still there)

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.