A little bit about me.
My name is Mike Schuhler and I am a fiction writer. You can say that most of my work dwells in the dark realms of the horror genre.
Before the writing began…
I wasn’t always a writer (professionally at least). The majority of my adult life had been spent serving in the U.S Marine Corps and retiring after 20 years of service. I have always enjoyed reading and writing, however, my first sale of a short story came in 2021. “Waiting Out the Storm” was bought by Scare Street and published in Volume 13 of their Night Terrors anthology series. Shortly after, I retired from the military and embarked on my new life.
Since then, I have experimented with different career paths, including working in academia. I accepted a position at a university in southwest Florida and it didn’t take long before arriving at the conclusion that this was not the place for me.
That was my first time realizing that I was different than the people I worked with and I felt a great sense of alienation. Leaving that environment was the best decision I could make for my sanity. I took a job that fit well with my military background and I enjoyed almost every minute of it: Head of Security for a nice little bar in downtown Fort Myers, Florida. I had finally found my place and it was awesome. I worked with some other veterans my age and I still look back on this as a high point in my post-military life.
Then came Hurricane Ian. The bar was nearly destroyed by the storm and had to be rebuilt. This unfolded a chain of events that would take me back to Michigan, accepting a position at a bar in Detroit. It was different here. I job hopped from one bar to the other, some of them as a General Manager. By 2024, I had officially reached burnout and left the industry.
I decided that I would give myself some time to focus on my writing as I had wanted to do for many years. And that is where we are now. So, thank you for meeting me here and I hope that you decide to join me here.
The Dark Jester
I have always been a bit of an entrepreneur. Mixed with the passion of reading & writing, The Dark Jester was founded as my platform for publishing. Through this platform, I am able to publish my own work on my own terms. You can check it out here:
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