Michael Omer's Blog

This month I’ve rebranded my covers. Here’s the thing. I love my old covers. You should love my old covers as well. You should have posters of them in your bedroom. You can check them out in my previous posts, they’re fantastic. I’ve had at least 3 different reviewers gush about them, and several people who told me they bought the books because of them.

They also kinda confused my target audience.

They don’t really merge well with the rest of the YA thriller covers out there, which meant that a potential reader who loves YA thrillers would very probably skip them, thinking they weren’t for him. I had several readers tell me that they finally read the book despite the covers. I asked around. It turned out that a lot of my target audience didn’t really connect with my old covers.

I’m an author, but I’m also a businessman (of sorts). It was time to listen to my client base.

Happily, I also love my new covers. They were created by the talented mind behind Dark Moon Graphics, who also did the cover for “The Buzzing.”

Here they are. They are wonderful. You should have posters of them in your bedroom.

Some fun stuff is about to take place next week, starting this weekend. Let’s talk about it, shall we?

First of all, there’s a weekend sci-fi and fantasy promotion going on, and all the books participating are sold for 99c. Moth to a Flame is there, so if you don’t have a copy yet, this is a good time to nab it. Also check out Fire Mages by Pauline M. Ross, Twice Born by Marina Finlayson, the Vanguard complete first season by Percival Constantine, and many more amazing books. It’s really a great opportunity to stock up, so hop over to http://pattyjansen.com/promo/99c-books/ and check it out!

And on Sunday, the 20th, “The Buzzing”, a Narrowdale Novella is released. I wanted to write about someone else in Narrowdale, so I chose my favorite character to focus on. That would be Roxanne, by the way. You might remember her as the girl who constantly criticizes Amy about the way she dresses. Also, it wouldn’t be a Narrowdale book without Edgar showing up, and some other familiar characters pop in to say hi. All in all it’s a short intense read. People who already read it had some choice things to say. For example “Jesus Michael!”, is one of my favorites.

The Buzzing’s cover was made by http://darkmoongraphics.com/, and I love it. Here it is:

And the description:

Roxanne was expecting a standard babysitting gig, no matter what crazy homeless Edgar tried to tell her. But this is Narrowdale, and nothing’s ever quite normal. When two of the kids she is looking after disappear, things quickly spiral out of control.

Now Roxanne’s crawling around in old maintenance tunnels, catching glimpses of creepy happenings in the building’s many apartments. In one of them lives a man with a dark, terrible secret, and Roxanne’s path is on a collision course with his.

And all around the man, there is a strange sound of buzzing…

Moth to a flame was released last week, to the sound of trumpets which is only in my head. A few days after the release this happened:

Which is fantastic, heart warming and awesome.

Additionally, just before its release, Sleepless was on a blog tour (which means that a lot of blogs reviewed it in a few days). The reviews were overwhelming and tear inducing (good tears! great tears!) Some choice quotes:

“If I could convince all authors of thrillers to write their books like this, life would take a turn for the better.” – C. J. Anaya, Author of the healer series

“Great read! It is pure genius! Scary and funny at the same time. Possible? Yes!” – Daniela Ark

“I just want to scream the word AWESOME! As you can see I really, really enjoyed this YA super creepy writing. The author Michael Omer make no mistake about it definitely will have the YA readers going for this one. Omer delivers with his down to earth writing. The main character is just down right believable and the reader gets the thrill of the lifetime via her point of view. Omer has the qualities of a young Stephen King with the adding of the bit of paranormal too. You just have to get a copy of this one and sit back and read. You will stay glued to the screen or page and forget about that bag of popcorn you were making in the microwave!” – Ogitchida Kwe’s Book Blog

“Guys. I found a new favorite that I need to add to my collection of paranormal/thriller/scary/looking over my shoulder books. It’s probably been a good hour to hour and a half since I have finished the book, and I am still looking over my shoulder and jumping at the littlest sounds. You know how freaked out I am? I went outside to get the mail, and my neighbor was out and she was all like “hey Meredith! Isn’t it a gorgeous day?” and I literally squealed (Yeah, no I won’t deny it), grabbed the mail, and ran back inside. ” – A Book Lover’s Corner

“The tone of Sleepless falls somewhere between Welcome to Nightvale and Higurashi When They Cry…” – Arkham Reviews (And seriously now, why didn’t anyone tell me about “Welcome to Nightvale” before? *Thumps angrily on your table*)

There are several other amazing reviews which I proudly showed to my wife, like a child showing a drawing of a blue cow to his parents (“Look at what I made!”) But this is becoming embarrassingly self loving, so if you want the full list of reviews (And since you’re probably not my Mom, you won’t) – it’s here

So it’s an exciting month for me, all in all. This is all breathtakingly amazing

This weekend I got an e-mail from my friend, Shahar Kober, regarding the cover of Moth to a Flame. It went something like this: “I began working on something, and I was just about to add the town, when suddenly I thought it’s cool as it is. What do you think?”

My reply: “Yes… and yes and yes and yes!!!

So here is the cover:

I spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at it.

Moth to a Flame is being copyedited right now by someone who knows her punctuation. It will be ready for publishing by the end of June, and will probably be published in the first week of July.

Which is a month and a half away.

*Panic and excitement sets in*

Aaah, Spring. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, the hay fever never ending sneezefest is happening, what more could a guy ask for?

A nose removal surgery, that’s what.

So between sneezing and more sneezing, I’ve joined a huge spring giveaway. You can win one of three paperback copies of Sleepless, or one of ten e-books, if you sign up! There it is, see? That’s him over there:

And there are mounds of additional books in the same giveaway. If you like books, you should definitely check it out at: http://www.sarahdaltonbooks.com/#!ya-spring-fling/ciql

If you don’t like books, what the hell are you doing here?

*Releases the hounds, and the killer sharks*

Bar hopping is so 2014. Blog hopping – that’s what the cool kids are doing these days. Or so I keep telling myself. I can’t go bar hopping, My youngest son turns into a ferocious screaming monster if he wakes up and finds us gone (This was actually tested last week. My Mom who babysat him still sounds irritated when I talk to her). What were we talking about? Blog hopping. Specifically, we are on a blog tour where each writer gets to write what he’s working on. Then we have a few drinks together, and I get you a taxi on your way to the next blog.

So pour yourself a tequila, and lets start.

The blog which was before me on this crazy blog train is Cady Vance‘s blog, an awesome writer whose publishing rate puts me to shame. She recently published the paranormal urban fantasy novel Bone Dry and the vigilante thriller The Madmen’s City, which I once saw her describe as “What if Batman had a daughter?”

Already done with your tequila? I haven’t even started talking about my book yet. Here’s another one.

So, let’s talk about what I’m working on. I’m working on the second book in the Narrowdale series, which is called “Moth to a Flame”. For those who haven’t read the first part, Sleepless, the basic premise is this: Narrowdale is a boring suburban town in which nothing ever happens. Or so it seems to fourteen year old Amy Parker when she moves there. However, she quickly discovers that under the facade of the most dull town on earth lies a place with dark secrets and strange phenomenons. Think Twin Peaks. Think Eerie Indiana.

Moth to a Flame finds Amy slowly adjusting to her new life in Narrowdale. The nightmares that have been plaguing her when she first moved had stopped, and her life seems almost normal. But things quickly go awry when she finds out about a woman who died in suspicious circumstances not far from her home. Unable to stay away, Amy starts delving deeper into the mystery of the woman’s death only to find…

Oh my, look what happened. You fell off your chair. Well, the fifth tequila was a bit too much, don’t you think?

Fine, I’ll move on to the opening of my first three chapters:

Chapter 1

Is there anything more important than freedom? The human race has always strived for freedom. Freedom from oppression, freedom from ignorance, freedom from persecution. How we long to soar on the wings of freedom. Specifically, how I would currently long to soar on the wings of freedom out of this lesson, about the four freedoms in Rooservelt’s state of the union speech in 1941.

It’s quite impressive, how dull freedom can become in the hands of a boring teacher.

“Can anyone name the four freedoms in Rooservelt’s speech? Anyone? Anyone? Freedom one: Speech and expression…”

I’m sure that back in 1941, president Rooservelt’s speech was all the rage. People probably talked about nothing else. They were like ‘Hey Sam, have you heard the state of the union speech?’ and Sam would reply ‘Have I? Why, I’ve listened to it three times today. It’s my favorite state of the union speech. I have a poster of it in my room!’. But I’m not sure I can relate to it the way they did. Definitely not when the content of the speech is being dismantled by Mrs. Fletcher, the current US history teacher.

“Freedom four: freedom from fear…”

I’m pretty sure that once you assign numbers to freedoms, they lose their meaning. I sigh and glance at Coral. She is sitting alert, drinking in each and every word that leaves Mrs. Fletcher’s mouth. How can someone concentrate so hard at anything? Perhaps she’s sleeping with her eyes open? Or dead? I poke Coral with my finger. She slowly turns her head and looks at me. Her eyes are full of uncomprehending irritation. Who are you and why are you bothering me, her stare seems to ask me. She turns back to the teacher. Perhaps this is not Coral. Perhaps it’s just her body, her brain snatched by aliens. Only in Narrowdale do aliens uh… snatch brains of students in social studies…?

I guess not.

Okay, Amy, stop mucking about. This lesson is important. I open my notebook, leave a few empty lines to fill in the missing details and begin summarizing Mrs. Fletcher’s wise words.

When the president says beware the eagle of America he lists his dreams with world stage

I stare at the sentence I just wrote. I might have missed a few words there. I definitely spaced out for a moment, and she probably said something important that I didn’t write down. Either that, or president Rooservelt was a pretty strange guy. I sigh and put my pen down. I can’t really listen in class. That’s something that other people do. I’m more of a “not listening in class” kind of girl.

Chapter 2

School day finally ends. I feel like I should get an award for surviving it. Me and Coral leave together. Dozens of students fill the corridor, trying desperately to escape this prison of knowledge. But tomorrow we will all be back.

As we get closer to the school bus, I stop.

“I think I’ll walk home today.” I say.

“What?” Coral looks at me in surprise “Why?”

“Well…” Why Amy? Seriously, think of a reasonable answer “Fresh… air?”

“Suit yourself,” she shrugs “I’m going on the bus.”

“Okay.”

“It’ll give me more time to study for the test.”

“The test that’s a week from now?” I ask, a bit snidely.

“It’s a very impo….”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” I interrupt her.

“Anyway, I don’t have so much time on the weekend,” she says “So I should really cram as much studying time as I can before that.”

“What? Why? What’s happening this weekend?”

“I don’t know,” she smiles “Maybe it’s my friend’s birthday, and we’re going out?”

“Right! It’s my birthday!” I say, cheering up. “For some reason I thought it was next Friday. Yay!”

Chapter 3

I finally get home, take the key from my bag and open the door. Ever since Mom started working in Narrowdale’s library, the house is empty when I get back from school. I drop the school bag in the middle of the living room and march to the refrigerator. There’s a note in Mom’s handwriting tacked to it. I scan it quickly.

‘Hey Sweetie. There’s Broccoli and Lasagna in plastic containers in the fridge. Don’t heat them in the microwave, it isn’t healthy, put them in a plate. And please eat at least a bit of the wholesome food I made before you start consuming the usual trash. If I find your school bag on the living room’s floor when I get back, I will burn it, and dance happily around the fire. Love, Mom.’

I open the fridge, move the plastic containers aside and locate some chocolate pudding. I open it happily and lick the lid. It is a scientific fact that the pudding on the lid is somehow much tastier than the pudding in the cup. Then I take my phone out of my pocket and dial Coral.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Coral, how’re things?”

“Fine.” She does not sound fine. She sounds on the verge of hysteria.

“Coral, you won’t believe what happened today.”

“I already know what happened. You walked home instead of going on the school bus, because you’re weird. I really don’t believe it, yet somehow it’s true.”

“That’s right. And I saw three police cars around a house in Lake Street.”

“Listen, I’m in the middle of studying…”

“I met Peter, and he told me the lady that lived there is dead!”

How exciting! If you’re desperate to read more, sign up to my newsletter to receive an e-mail once it is published. And if you haven’t bought Sleepless yet, well… go ahead!

You look a bit weird. Are you sure you’re up for this? Yeah? Next blog? Awesome! So off you go to Tammi Labrecque’s blog, author of the romantic comedy For Better, For Worse, the fantasy novella Birthright, and the short story SongHealer which you can pick up for free in her site!

Moth image taken from: Wildlife in a Dorset garden

So, lately I have been playing a game called Sunless Sea. Just to make sure there aren’t any fans out there pulling their hair out – I’m working diligently on the sequel to Sleepless… But when I put the little ones to sleep in the evening my brain melts into porridge (When ice melts, you get water. When brain melts, you get porridge. Ask any scientist), and I find it almost impossible to write. So I play for half an hour.

I am not a game reviewer, and I will not give it a score. I will tell you that it’s good, and I’ll tell you about some of my experiences, but first, a couple of interesting side stories:

1. I know failbetter (the company who made this game), from their first game, Echo Bazaar. It’s a jolly good game, which I recommend to all… up to a certain point. That certain point is that it slowly becomes expensive. I stopped playing when I realized there was no ceiling to how much I’ll be paying this game. There even no subscription fee. There’s just… pay money to buy content, and I didn’t want to do that any more. Besides that it is one of the best games ever made in my opinion. Again, not a game reviewer.

2. When I created Misfortune (my own web game), I took a lot of inspiration from Echo Bazaar. Misfortune was released about a year after Echo Bazaar, and while failbetter flourished, Loadingames (which was my tiny three men company) tanked. I had a lot of time to reflect on the reasons one succeeded and one failed, and for a moment I did not feel bitter about it, though I was definitely jealous as hell.

3. When I released Misfortune, I asked Emily Short to review my game. Emily Short is, among other things, one of the writers of Sunless Sea. She said quiet charmingly that when she reviews a game, she reviews it honestly. I, completely assured that my game was the best thing to ever show up in the world wide web, told her I would expect nothing else. She then proceeded to decimate it. I uh… did feel bitter for a moment or two there, but I got over it. In fact, I read her blog occasionally, and love her writing. She also did a lovely job in Sunless Sea.

So… Sunless Sea. In a nutshell, a game where you play the captain of a small boat in an underground steampunk world. It is a game made for people who want to read and like interactive stories, which is pretty much the same as saying it’s a game for Michael Omer.

Things happen in this game. Things described in beautiful prose. A cannibalistic cult ate one of my crew mates… they may or may not have done it with my permission. I had a son born. In fact, once when I was a female captain, I gave birth to a son. I helped talking rats fight talking… pigs, I guess, to maintain their control over their island. I tried to smuggle some lost souls, got caught by the customs officer who confiscated the souls, then got into trouble with the provider of said souls… I nearly didn’t bounce back from that one, except that my cook jumped ship in a prison island, and they paid me for his debt. My soldier captain died, replaced by his correspondent, a poet, who’s ship was sunk by a huge crab. She in turn was replaced by a rival, a poet as well. I keep imagining them having some sort of epic poetry rap battle… (goes off to search for an epic rap battle of poets. Finds none, returns disappointed).

So, there’s a story there, and though a lot of it is pre-written there’s an insane amount of choice. It’s fun, thrilling and addictive.

Go play it.

Trailer here:

Two exciting things are happening this week (Pertaining to me. I’m sure there are other exciting things that are happening as well):

1. Goodreads Giveaway – I’m giving away a paperback copy of my book in Goodreads. You can check it out at: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/123869-sleepless. Check it out. Seriously. I’m not at all repeatedly refreshing the Goodreads tab in my explorer to check out how many people requested the book. It may or may not be 128 people right now.

It is. It’s 128 people.

2. Starting working on the second phase of the sequel to Sleepless tomorrow – Like a Moth to the Flame.

A small clarification about that – the first draft of the sequel is already written, but I need to create a brand new second draft for… reasons. I hope to be finished with it by the end of April, so that It can be published by June. This gives me 3 months – 13 weeks. The book is about 60,000 words so I need to write 5,000 words every week. That’s notching up my word-rate, but that’s fine since the first draft is ready.

Other interesting stuff, do you ask? My baby son can roll on his stomach, my daughter dressed me this morning, and my eldest son just turned seven.

Next time don’t ask.

Oh Yeah. I’m the proud owner of a book in Amazon. For all you strange people who have never published a book before, I really recommend the experience. I’ve done it four times already, and it never gets old.

There’s a certain “I can conquer the world” feeling when placing a book on Amazon. After all, there is no specific reason why it won’t sell Millions of copies, right? There are probably at least a million people who’ve heard about Amazon by now. If you know someone who hasn’t heard about Amazon, tell him about it. It’s a really neat little business, and they could really use our help.

Ha ha, I’m kidding. It’s not that little.

Anyway, you can get my book now, so do it now if you haven’t already, I’m waiting. Enjoy!

Wow! Would you look at this fancy site! Why, I could take my kids to play in it, it’s so fancy and nice.

I have been struggling today to make it so fancy. I’ve been down in the terrible pits of despair and angst, like every time I do “web stuff”. You’d think, seeing as I made a web RPG game, and since I am a veteran programmer I could do this with my eyes closed, right?

Yeah, it’s kind of embarrassing. I’m not good with all this “internet thing” the kids play with these days. But I’m not afraid of a challenge (absolutely terrified) I am up for the task (wet my pants three times today), and it’s done!

Michael, some of you may ask, what the hell is going on? Where’s that book you promised? Why are you messing with your website template instead of publishing your book? Is there a book? Or are you just messing with us?

There’s a book. It’s on my Kindle, and my wife’s Kindle, and we’re both proof-reading it.

Also, Amy, the protagonist, has a blog, and there are links to the blog within the book! But apparently when someone looks at the blog with an iPhone or iPad, it looks as if a beast from the depth of hell rose and said “Lo and behold mankind, I shall create a blog”.

So that has to be fixed.

But tomorrow! or maybe the day after. Or worse case scenario next week.

We’re getting there, I swear.