Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Michael Peters.
Hi Paul Michael, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
“The Rhythm Is Going to Get You” (Owl Club Media Group) is a science fiction story about an intimate apocalypse. If you’re looking for explosions and fast zombies, I can recommend so many great books, TV shows, and movies — this isn’t that. This story is about Charlie, deaf since the age of nine and protected by his parents growing up, who leaves home after college for independence in a van he’s converted for van life. It’s a lonely place, this new world, but he meets a few good people and is pointed toward a paradise called Valhalla. After a perfect week, another van-lifer arrives, named Anna. Fast friends, the two go into town for a supply run, only to find the world has changed while they were isolated.
I started writing in high school. Later I moved to Chicago and studied at Second City Improv. They provided me with a process and framework for creativity that helped me improve my storytelling. My first book came out in 2012, and this is my 18th book. I write thrillers, suspense, and science fiction with a literary sense. It’s more about character and relationships, fewer explosions, although there have been a few, “The Rhythm Is Going to Get You” among them.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Every book has its challenges, starting with the blank page. What I hold true from my time in Chicago at Second City is a sense to fail quickly. Failing fast means you pick yourself up, recover, and get to the best idea quickly. It’s not a burden to fail if you learn from it. The faster you fail, the quicker you learn.
Authors are in a highly competitive space. Publishing companies, independent authors, and AI slop are all trying to get the attention of book buyers and readers. So it’s not easy. But it is interesting. It is challenging. And this is the fun part.
The idea for “The Rhythm Is Going to Get You” came after a conversation with my roommate at the time, who’d had three beers. He told me about his favorite sci-fi movie, Maximum Overdrive, by Stephen King. There were parts of the story that stood out to him, and he said the agent of chaos for a story like that should be a song, like “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. After three beers, the conversation sidetracked into the lyrics. Estefan and Enrique “Kiki” Garcia originally wrote the hook as “boogeyman,” but Estefan swapped it for “the rhythm” because she had a young child and didn’t want to sing about a boogeyman. The song is a horror story everyone dances to.
As an author, finding the antagonist in a song means you have to find a protagonist who is the opposite. In this case, Charlie, who is deaf. That conversation took place in 2011. It took me several years to figure out the approach to this story, which was another of those really fun and interesting challenges. In fact, the book is dedicated to him for that idea.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Categories of books have risen in importance since Amazon entered the book market more than a decade ago. Genre and subgenres are supposed to make it easier for readers to find what they want, like in the case of romantasy. Readers enjoy romance and fantasy, so let’s make a new genre.
When asked, I try to focus on good storytelling. I write thrillers, suspense, and science fiction from a literary perspective.
There were times when I wrote just thrillers and suspense. But too many times on a daily hike with a friend, I would say, “I bet you could hide a body there,” which freaks people out. And in the case of my book Combustible Punch, I lost sleep over a female serial killer stalking a high school shooting survivor years after the event as the center of the story. Science fiction has allowed me to have fun with space pirates and robots, mind shredders, and time dilation in the Clockwork Constellation trilogy, which is much more fun, and my dreams have improved.
An enjoyable story with memorable characters that readers love is my goal, and I hope that this is what sets apart my books. The Rhythm Is Going to Get You is where all of that comes together: a science fiction survival story about a man who spent his life on the outside, told with the same instinct for character that drives everything I write.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Write. Finish. Write again. It’s the only advice worth considering.
Often I hear people say, “I’d love to play piano one day.” “It would be great to learn to play guitar.” Or most often, “I’d love to write a book, and I have a great idea for it.”
Those are nice wishes.
They lack the action of sitting down, learning to play piano or guitar, and practicing to get better. Writing is the same. You need to do the work.
Pricing:
- ebooks are $4.99 and the book release is Sepetmber 15, 2026, https://storyoriginapp.com/universalbooklinks/5c7d7796-1123-11f1-8cd2-ff4ff4aef025
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.paulmichaelpeters.com/
- Other: https://storyoriginapp.com/universalbooklinks/5c7d7796-1123-11f1-8cd2-ff4ff4aef025
