Author
Mike Wolff joins Inklings Press for a chat about his work –
dabbling in fantasy, science fiction, horror and a true appreciation
of metal.
Hi
Mike, good to chat with you. We first caught up with you over Twitter
– so to start with, perhaps it's best to ask you to tell readers
briefly what they can expect from your writing.
First off, thanks for inviting me to talk on your Q&A.
What can people expect from my writing? Good question. I usually
say I take my writing seriously, but I’m not serious about what I
write. I like to weave a bit of humor (mostly dark and twisted) into
my stories. Basically I like to have fun and use a lot of puns; the
worse the pun, the better. I also like to emphasize that I try to
write for a teenage audience. I’m not trying to change the world
with my stories, only entertain you a bit.
Reading
your stories and your website, it seems you have a great deal of fun
with your writing. It seems to be very much something you enjoy, is
that right or do you have those moments of raging at a blank page
wondering where the words have gone, too?
I’d be lying if I said I never ‘raged’ at a blank
page, but yes, I write to have fun. When I get to that raging point,
I just stop writing. It’s not my full-time job, nor my part-time
job, so I can stop if I need to. I first started writing about 12
years ago during my lunch hour to kill the boredom, and I haven’t
looked back sense. I write what I like and hope others find it fun
and interesting.
You
recently ran a free promotion for your books on Amazon – as did we
with our Tales From The Tavern anthology - how did that go? We found
ourselves doing a whole lot more promotion for the free offer than we
shyly tend to do when we're asking for money! What would you say
you've learned from doing it or that others could learn from?
The answer to this is a bit complex, but I’ll give it
a go. This was not the first ‘free’ promotion I’ve done since
I started self-publishing my books. Over the past 2-3 years I’ve
probably given away 200-300 copies of my work, about 60-ish during
this round of promotions. I have done it to hopefully garner more
reviews, but that has not panned out too well. To date, I have only
a small handful of reviews for each of my books; so it didn’t lived
up to my expectations. And for some reason, I also promote more when
it’s free than any other time. What I’d say to anyone that is
going to try the free route, would be; do it, limit the time on the
offer and keep expectations low. Maybe not the best advice, but it’s
what I’ve got. The size and involvement of your social network has
a lot to do with your success.
OK,
you have two minutes in an elevator to press one of your books into
someone's hands and explain to them why they would be interested in
it... go!
This is the hardest question you can ask. Ugh!
Do you think the idea of Bigfoot being real is cool?
How about all the other myths and urban legends? You know that would
be cool, right? Well what if it all was real? My books Guiding
Council of Myths and Urban Legends and the sequel Seeking Control of
the Myths that Never Should Have Been talks about that very topic. I
know, you’re not a believer by the look on your face, but
seriously…think back to a simpler time when you were a kid and
everything was possible. Well these books fit the bill. Oh, and did
I mention they are laced with dark humor and some enormously bad
puns? You know you want to read something like that, right?
That's sneakily two books but we'll let you off! Reading
through your Twisted Tales, you seem very drawn to horror, with a
chaser of dry humor – is that where you feel most at home or does
that just most suit that collection?
I think that when I write short stories, they tend
towards horror. My full-length stories tend towards fantasy. So I’d
have to say horror is more suited for that collection and my second
volume of short stories…Twisted Tales Volume 2.
Stories
such as The Caretaker and Phosphenes in your Twisted Tales collection
very much have a feel of the world of Stephen King or James Herbert,
though with the latter story perhaps confronting issues such as
religion and faith more head-on than those kinds of writers. Who
would you say are your biggest influences?
The biggest influence on what I write is probably not an
author, but the music I listen to and my personal beliefs. Some may
say it’s a contradiction, but I am a full-fledged Metal head and a
Christian. So I listen to some seriously dark music, but have a very
strong faith. Yeah, it’s messed up, but that’s me. I like the
darker things, but see the need for compassion in the world, so that
ends up in a lot of my stories. I’ve had my other stories compared
to Aesop’s Fables as well as traditional fairytales…yeah, shocked
the heck out of me, and by more than one person too! So maybe I was
influenced by stories I heard when I was a kid??? I don’t know,
I’m grasping here.
What
are you working on at present and what do you hope to publish next?
I just finished releasing my second collection of short
stories: Twisted Tales – Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Short
Stories Volume 2. It’s got a terribly ugly cover and some twisted
stories inside. I’m also working on a full-length fantasy novel
currently titled The Brotherhood of the Locust: Rise to Power. I’m
only about 15k words into that one, but I like what I have so far.
It started out as a weird dream and I’ve went with it. Most of the
stories I write start that way. I hope to have that out by Fall
2016. I’ve been really busy at work, so I haven’t been able to
write on my lunch hour much lately.
What
do you find to be the hardest part of the process as an author –
and by that, we mean the whole business from putting pen to paper to
trying to convince people to buy your books?
Promotion. Hands down, this is the hardest part of
being an author. I keep my books cheap to hopefully draw in new
readers and I promote as much as I think safe without being too
annoying, but it never seems to be enough. Writing is easy…yes, it
is. If you’ve never tried, you should. Everyone has a story to
tell. And once you get a single book self-published, that process is
easy too. I can’t say how difficult it is for traditional
publishing, as I’ve never tried it.
And
what would you say has been the most helpful piece of advice you've
received with regard to your writing and publishing?
Just keep writing. Write for yourself first. That is
what I do, and that is what I preach. If you go into writing to make
millions, then you may be disappointed. Sure, it happens, but the
odds are against it. But, if you write to make yourself happy, you
may just succeed. And surprisingly, you may just find a few
like-minded people that enjoy what you write, which is truly a great
reward for your efforts.
As
well as your love of metal, your blog shares your love of
woodworking. This tells us two things. 1) We should be polite to
someone who knows how to use power tools. 2) There's always more to
the authors we read than their writing. Tell us something that your
readers might not know about you and that might be unexpected.
I run. I run a lot; as in 400-600 miles a year (if I’m
healthy). I love obstacle runs; the muddier the better. I’ve been
married for 21+ years, which I consider a great accomplishment
nowadays. And I’m an avid Detroit Lions fan; we’re a rare breed,
but rabid. With that, you may know too much about me. Now where did
I put my reciprocal saw…
OK,
traditionally our final question is a two-part question. The first
question is what are you reading at the moment, and the second is
what is the book you've most enjoyed reading this year... as we're
only a few days into this year, let's make that over the past year.
Seriously folks, this is not planned, but I’m
currently reading Tales From the Tavern and enjoying it a lot. As
for a particular book from last year, I’d have to take liberties
and say an entire series. The Book of Lost Doors series by
independent author Misha Burnett is amazing. He released the fourth
and final book of the series, Gingerbread Wolves in 2015, which
prompted me to read the whole series and I loved it.
Ha! Well, flattery will get you everywhere! Glad you're enjoying Tavern! Not encountered Misha Burnett's work before so that's a new name to go seek out. Many
thanks, Mike, good to talk to you.
Thanks again for talking with me. If anyone wants to
see what I’m doing, they can track me down via the following links:
https://twitter.com/metallicwolff
Are you an author interested in featuring in a Q&A with Inklings Press? Drop a comment below or tweet us @InklingsPress.
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