Why “Adam” Instead of “A. Michael”?

A couple of people have asked me why Mariner’s Wake is written under Adam Marsh, while most of my writing up until now has been under the pen name of A. Michael Marsh.

There are a couple of reasons, the first of which is that when searching (as in using the Google machine) with “A. Michael” as a term, the results tend to omit the “A.” and just spit out a bunch of stuff related to the Michael Marshs of the world, of which there are many. As a small-time writer, it’s hard enough to get your work out there, I didn’t want this particular obstacle anymore.

Also, and this is probably the biggest motivator, I originally started writing under A. Michael for a bit of anonymity. I didn’t want my writing to somehow pop up and negatively affect my career. On the real, I write about weird stuff sometimes. In the grand scheme there is a lot of more “shocking” content out there, and I realize that, but it was a concern. I worked very hard to get the career I have and I didn’t want to jeopardize it.

However, as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that it’s not a big deal and it never was. If an employer did manage to find the books I wrote on my own time, I seriously doubt they’d have an issue with me writing speculative fiction. On the only occasion it ever came up, my manager thought it was really cool. If in the future someone did have an issue with my writing, they can get stuffed and I’ll find another job.

Yes, writing is not my full-time job. It doesn’t pay enough to live off of at this point. In general, writing fiction doesn’t pay well. For every success story like Stephen King there are literally thousands of mid-list authors struggling to pay their bills. It sucks, but unless something drastically changes with the publishing industry, it’s just how it is. But I digress.

With all this in mind, I chose to write Mariner’s under Adam Marsh, which is the name I answer to day-to-day. I don’t have any plans on renaming the website or anything like that. Just know that you may see stories from me under either of those names in the future.