Michael Okon is an award-winning and best-selling author of multiple genres, including paranormal, thriller, horror, action/adventure, and self-help. He graduated from Long Island University with a degree in English and then later received his MBA in business and finance. Coming from a family of writers, he has storytelling in his DNA. Michael has been writing from as far back as he can remember, his inspiration being his love for films and their impact on his life. From the time he saw The Goonies, he was hooked on the idea of entertaining people through unforgettable characters.
Michael is a lifelong movie buff, a music playlist aficionado, and a sucker for self-help books. He lives on the North Shore of Long Island with his wife and children.
Website & Social Media:
Website ➜ www.michaelokon.com
Twitter ➜ https://www.x.com/IAmMichaelOkon
Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/IAmMichaelOkon
The Inspiration Behind Dragged Down Deep
By Michael Dow
All my stories come from two places.
I have been making music playlists for about 30 years. It started with making cassette tapes. The I got a CD burner (I’m dating myself here). Then I found Napster and downloaded all my songs there (sorry
Metallica). At one point, I got a Zune, and was able to have all my playlists on one device. Finally, came the iPod, which migrated into having an iPhone for the past 15 years. Music has been my fuel. Every song I’ve ever listened to has been on a playlist I created. While listening to the music, I would always conjure up movie scenes in my head. Adventure scenes, scary scenes, ghosts in graveyards, people falling off tops of buildings, theme park rides, etc…My brain is always working, and music is my inspiration.
When I started writing screenplays in college, I would go back into my playlists and listen to all of them. I needed a scene of a guy falling off a building, there was a song for that. I needed someone kiss a ghost, there was a song for that. The scenes came really naturally to write because I had them all mapped out in my head for decades.
After the screenplay was completed, I would then have a roadmap for a novel with all the pages in the world to flesh out the characters.
As music on my playlists was an inspiration for my screenplays, watching movies has always been an inspiration for my novels. I had a map for the novel, but as I watched the films I was able to visualize the scenes with more color and depth. Seeing the visuals of a movie allowed me to focus on the small things as I write my novels. How the creature feels, looks, etc…A screenplay is quick lines with short and snappy lines. A novel allows me to dive deeper into the sandbox of storytelling.
Dragged Down Deep is available at Amazon.
