New Spanish Edition of Duckworth!
23 Jun 2020 Leave a Comment
in Books, Duckworth, Writing Tags: Atticus el Chico Dificil, Children's Literature, Dark Humor, Duckworth, Duckworth the Difficult Child, Editorial Impedimenta, Funny Picture Books, Julia Sarda, kidlit blog, Picture Book, Spanish, Spanish Literature
A Madrid-based publisher, Editorial Impedimenta, has released the Spanish edition of my recent 
picture book—Duckworth, the Difficult Child—illustrated by the illustrious Júlia Sardà of Barcelona. It arrives with a new title—Atticus, el Chico Difícil—but remains the darkly humorous story of a resourceful boy coping with neglectful parents who fail to listen or respond to his needs. I’m honored to be published by Editorial Impedimenta, an independent publisher that aspires to promote “modern classics.”
Duckworth Has Arrived!
18 Jun 2019 Leave a Comment
in Books, Duckworth, General, Writing Tags: book bloggers, Book Launch, Children's Literature, Duckworth, Duckworth the Difficult Child, Funny Picture Books, kidlit blog, Picture Book
At long last, my new picture book—Duckworth, the Difficult Child—hits the shelves today. With spectacular illustrations created by Júlia Sardà, I think both kids and parents will love this story.
Special thanks to Emma Ledbetter, my extraordinary editor, and to Stephanie Fretwell-Hill, my excellent agent. I’d also like to thank Harold Underdown and Karl Monger, who were invaluable as early editors of the manuscript.
From the Booklist review:
“What first appears to be a Goreyesque cautionary tale for troublesome children comically turns the tables to target inept parents instead. … Sardà plays up the story’s situational humor in her detailed, vintage-toned watercolors, ensuring that kids get the joke that the parents are the difficult ones, not Duckworth. A lightly macabre, utterly amusing read.” i
INCOGNOLIO Wins 2nd Prize in SPR Book Awards 2017
29 Mar 2018 Leave a Comment
in Books, Incognolio, Writing Tags: Book Award, INCOGNOLIO, Mystery, Novel, Psychological Thriller, Self-Publishing Review
My psychological thriller, INCOGNOLIO, was just awarded Second Prize in the SPR Book Awards 2017, sponsored by Self-Publishing Review. Among other benefits, Second Prize includes a virtual book tour, ten+ Amazon reviews, and an author interview shared with nearly a quarter million readers. Pretty cool!
Incognolio Has Launched!
15 Aug 2017 Leave a Comment
in Books, Incognolio, Writing Tags: Book Launch, Janx Press, Michael Sussman, Mystery, Novel, Psychological Thriller
I’m beyond thrilled to announce that my novel, Incognolio, has launched and is now available as a paperback and eBook. For four years I poured my heart, soul, wit, and considerable bile into this book and I can assure you that it is unlike any novel you’ve ever read. For the launch, the eBook is priced at 99 cents and is free to those enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.
So far, Incognolio has received exclusively 5-star reviews at Amazon & Goodreads! I’m also giving away five copies of the paperback in a Goodreads giveaway running through August 18th.
I call Incognolio a psychological thriller. But it’s also a comic novel with elements of mystery, fantasy, and science fiction. Most importantly, it’s a real page-turner! And as Professor Solomon Von Pizzle of the Ludicrous Review observed: “Incognolio exudes so much pathos, it’s pathological!”
Special thanks to Karl Monger, Rebecca Faith, and Sione Aeschliman for their invaluable assistance in editing my manuscript and bringing the story to fruition. Sione understood the novel way better than I did myself—having written most of it in something of a trance—and enabled me to do a final rewrite and to, at long last, craft a satisfying ending.
I also want to thank my son Ollie who served as my creative consultant, contributing some inspired ideas, rejecting my duds, and helping me to generate a long list of unusual character names, including: Yiddle, Mr. & Mrs. Yankerhausen, Floreska, Greazly, J.R. Cosmipolitano, Quodon, and the inimitable Dr. Schmendrick.
INCOGNOLIO Pre-Orders Go Live!
05 Aug 2017 Leave a Comment
in Books, Incognolio, Writing Tags: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Release, Book Review, Discount book, eBook, Experimental Novel, INCOGNOLIO, Janx Press, Kobo, Michael Sussman, Mystery, Novel, Per-Order, Psychological Thriller
Incognolio will be released by Janx Press as a paperback and eBook on August 9th. You can pre-order the eBook now for a special price of 99 cents at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Google Play.
Here is an excellent 5-star review from Readers’ Favorite:
Entering the pages of Michael Sussman’s inexplicable – category-wise – brilliantly-executed experimental novel, Incognolio is less like walking through a dream than it is like mentally traversing the ingenious daydreaming path of a highly imaginative, psychologically aware writer who is creating an inner epic from the images produced by streams of self-conscious meditation. Yes, it is that immediate. The book itself is crazy; crazy cool. Need an example? ‘“Because I possess the Faloosh,” she replies, employing what is in all likelihood another of my made-up words. “It enables me to intuit the entire backstory of any novel in which I appear as a character.”’ Any attempt to describe the plot line of this book would be arbitrary at best. Still, it is a miracle of inspired effort that Sussman creates such a marvelous coherency to his story – as fractured, unstable, and tenuous as it is. And there is humor. Lots of funny stuff delivered with the offhand manner of a master comic’s best throw-away lines.
Incognolio is intelligent and wry, and securely at home in the surreal insecurity of the self-reflective mind. Dreams do not make good books. Insanity, however, does. Especially the insanity of a writer like Michael Sussman, who seemingly retains a most convivial relationship with the madness of the normal mind. Because that is what Mr. Sussman makes the reader feel: that all those sudden reality shifts, those changes of incidental characters, those displacements of locale and occupation – all are nothing more than the powerful experiences of one who pays attention to this little thing called life. But it is the author’s genuine creative skills that make his through-the-looking-glass words so entangled and enticing, and makes of his wonderful experiment such a grand success.
—Joel R. Dennstedt, Readers’ Favorite
Launching 30-Day Kindle Scout Campaign!
31 Mar 2017 Leave a Comment
in Books, Incognolio, Uncategorized, Writing Tags: Amazon, Contest, Free Book, INCOGNOLIO, Kindle Scout, Novel, Publishing Contract
Unravel the mystery of Incognolio or go mad!
My novel, INCOGNOLIO, was accepted for the Kindle Scout contest and I’m launching a 30-day campaign as of today. Kindle Scout is reader-powered publishing for new, never-before-published books.
Here’s how it works:
Readers browse book campaigns by authors and nominate books that they would like to see published by Kindle Press. Amazon takes note of which books readers want and awards contracts accordingly.
What I need from you:
Join Kindle Scout through your Amazon account and nominate INCOGNOLIO. It will take just a couple of minutes!
What I will get:
A boost toward winning a publishing contract and Amazon promotion!
What you will get:
You will receive a free copy of any book that you nominate that receives a contract, including mine if I’m successful. You can also read the first several chapters of my novel right now!
Here’s my blurb:
Adrift in the dreamlike narrative of his own novel, Muldoon traverses identities, planes of reality, and the dark recesses of his psyche in an effort to grasp the enigmatic Incognolio. Is he writing a story in which his stillborn twin sister has come to life, or is he the one who died at birth and it’s his sister who’s writing the novel? Guided only by the whims and dictates of his subconscious mind, Muldoon must finally face his demons and write his way to freedom or succumb to madness.
Cover Reveal for INCOGNOLIO
29 Mar 2017 Leave a Comment
in Books, Incognolio, Writing Tags: 99Designs, Book Cover, Cover Reveal, Graphic Design, INCOGNOLIO, Kindle Scout, Menchu, Novel
I could not be more pleased with this newly minted cover for my novel, INCOGNOLO. It was created by Menchu, a fabulous graphic designer from Venezuela. She was the winning finalist of a book cover contest I ran last week at 99Designs, and she captured the air of mystery and intrigue that I was looking for. The novel has just been accepted by Kindle Scout for inclusion in their reader-powered contest to win a publishing contract. The launch date for my campaign is March 31st, the day after tomorrow!
Atheneum to Publish My New Picture Book: Duckworth, the Difficult Child
28 Feb 2017 2 Comments
in Books, General, Uncategorized, Writing Tags: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Book Deal, Children's Literature, Duckworth, Edward Gorey, Emma Ledbetter, Florence Heide Parry, Funny Picture Books, Harold Underdown, Julia Sarda, Karl Monger, Michael Sussman, Otto Grows Down, Picture Book, Scott Magoon, Stephanie Fretwell-Hill, the Difficult Child, The Shrinking of Treehorn, The Treehorn Trilogy
I haven’t posted for quite some time, as I’ve been hard at work on a novel. But I’m back with three exciting announcements:
- I am now represented by Stephanie Fretwell-Hill of Red Fox Literary.
- Stephanie has sold my new picture book manuscript—Duckworth, The Difficult Child—to Emma Ledbetter, Editor at Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
- The book will be illustrated by Júlia Sardà , a fabulous illustrator based in Barcelona.
La Gran Cadena by Júlia Sardà
The story, my homage to Florence Parry Heide’s The Shrinking of Treehorn, is about a boy with misguided parents who remain untroubled when he gets eaten by a snake.
This is my first picture book to be published since my debut—Otto Grows Down—was released by Sterling with illustrations by Scott Magoon.
Special thanks to Harold Underdown and Karl Monger—as well as Emma Ledbetter at Atheneum—for their expertise in editing the manuscript.
Visionary Fiction Challenges Our Species to Evolve
31 Aug 2012 2 Comments
in Books, Writing Tags: climate change, Crashing Eden, human evolution, population explosion, science fiction, Visionary Fiction
(The original post of this article can be found at: VisionaryFictionAlliance.wordpress.com)
Human nature is not fixed. It has evolved over the course of millennia and is capable of further change. Is it overly grandiose to suggest that visionary fiction could help play a role in such a transformation?
Most likely, but I shall nevertheless make the case.
Visionary fiction overlaps with several better established genres, such as science fiction, fantasy, speculative, and inspirational fiction. What’s unique about visionary fiction is its focus on the expansion and evolution of the human mind, imagining new frontiers for the human spirit.
What’s the importance of visionary fiction in today’s world?
There is no denying that we live in an era of unprecedented change and extraordinary uncertainty about the future. It’s the Age of Crises. Population explosion, pollution, natural disasters, climate change, economic recession, scarcity of resources, terrorism, and ethnic wars all threaten to disrupt or end civilization as we know it.
Perhaps science and technology can help solve some of these dilemmas. But even the most astonishing technological breakthroughs will not save us if they are not accompanied by a transformation in how we think, act, and relate to each other.
Just as science fiction has furnished the inspiration for many technological advances, it’s conceivable that visionary fiction could help provide the inspiration for a new awakening of the human spirit.
For it is now evident that it’s the shortsighted, self-centered, greedy, and xenophobic aspects of human nature that have created our predicament. Only by evolving into a wiser, more generous, compassionate, and cooperative species can we hope to survive.
My novel, Crashing Eden, envisions a world in which humans are transformed by regaining the capacity to hear the primordial vibration of the universe, reestablishing Edenic consciousness. This may be pure fantasy, but unless we can manage to overcome our differences and think on a planetary scale, our future may well be bleak.
My Son; My Muse
14 May 2012 4 Comments
in Personal Reflection, Writing Tags: At-home-dad, Author's son, Crashing Eden, Inspiration, Muse, Otto Grows Down, Solstice Publishing
As a baby, my son was high maintenance. I stayed home with Ollie for the first couple of years and he always demanded my full attention.
At the time of his birth, I was preparing to record a CD of my own piano compositions. Ollie, however, had other plans for me. My job was to entertain him, and he made it clear that this did not include playing piano. The only time available to practice was during his naps, but I didn’t want to wake him.
So I canceled the hours I’d booked at the recording studio and shifted from playing music to writing fiction. Since it was a quiet activity, I could write during my son’s naps and in the evenings after he went to bed.
I wrote a comic mystery novel, titled Soup to Nuts, which I never managed to publish. But my writing continued to improve.
By the time Ollie was five, I’d read him hundreds of picture books. I didn’t care for most of them, and decided I could do better. So I began writing for children, and in 2009 my debut picture book—Otto Grows Down—was published by Sterling.
As Ollie aged, I started writing for older kids. He had an incredible imagination and became something of a 
writing partner. He supplied me with ideas and gave me invaluable feedback on my stories. He was even a good editor.
When Ollie was eleven, I began working on a young adult novel. Being precocious, he was already reading some YA novels himself. Ollie helped me construct the plot, develop characters, and refine the manuscript. The result, Crashing Eden, has been released by Solstice Publishing. I dedicated the book to Ollie. In truth, his name should accompany mine on the cover.
Recent Comments