We were lucky to catch up with Nomar Slevik recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nomar, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

Innovative may be a bit of a reach here, but the biggest change I made was finally understanding that there are no specific paths to follow.

I’m an author, and when starting out, I thought I had to do things a certain way. Certain methodologies had to be followed, not necessarily for success, but to be recognized by my peers… to be accepted by certain groups…. to be simply considered a writer.

None of it is true. There are no rules. You can follow your own path. You can literally do whatever you want. Once I realized that… my output exploded. I was happier and found more success.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Nomar Slevik and I am a writer of high strangeness.

A UFO encounter at four or five years old was the catalyst for my fascination with the paranormal.

It was the winter of 1982 or ’83 and I had woke in the middle of the night from a loud bang.

My eyes darted around for an explanation, when I began to hear light taps at my window.

It was rain.

Then I saw the sky light up. It was then I realized a storm was raging and that the loud noise must have been thunder.

I sat up to watch, and after a moment, I saw a disturbing lightning bolt, but it didn’t flash and fade away. It stayed, stuck in the sky like some sort of ethereal dart. I’m not sure what happened next other than falling asleep.

It was still there the next morning and I got my father so he could see it. By the time we got back to the window, it was gone. I tried explaining the storm and the lightning bolt, but he told me it hadn’t even rained the night before.

Being five years old, the next shiny thing caught my attention and I forgot about it.

A couple of weeks later, I was woken in the middle of the night again. This time, by my father. He brought me downstairs and I could see my mother dressing my sister up in her winter coat and hat. She did the same to me and then my dad scooped me up and walked outside.

It was so cold, I buried my head into his chest. He kept telling me, “You gotta look up, buddy. You gotta look up.”

I finally did and saw beautifully colored ribbons of light flowing across the sky.

It was the northern lights.

I think those two incidents happening so close together at such a young age created a core memory for me. It instilled in me that strange things happen in the sky and I should pay attention. And I have ever since.

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. Poems, songs, short horror stories but when I was a pre-teen, I started collecting paranormal stories.

I would go around, asking friends and family if they had ever seen a ghost or a UFO. I then thought back to that lightning bolt and wondered if it was the first UFO I had ever seen. Perhaps my young mind had no other way of perceiving it other than a strange looking weather phenomenon.

After that realization, I wrote the whole story down, as I’ve shared with you here. And that was the first time I ever documented a paranormal story.

When others shared their stories with me, I began to write those down, too. I also collected newspaper clippings and summerized those. After years of collecting and documenting, I had amassed a number of encounters.

I knew for a long time that I wanted to do something with all of that data, and once I hit my early twenties, I began organizing the stories into a haphazard manuscript.

Fast forward a few years, and I finally finished the manuscript and began sending it out to publishing houses.

For the next couple of years I got rejection after rejection. I started thinking it would never happen, so I began researching how I could release a book on my own. That’s where I found Create Space, a precursor to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing.

I uploaded my manuscript, ordered a proof copy and anxiously awaited for it to arrive.

Weeks later, to my utter shock and surprise, I received an email from a publisher, and they were interested in my book!

When I got home that same day, the proof had arrived. It was wild. In one hand, I held the tangible accomplishment of all my hard work, and the email I had been waiting years for in the other.

I didn’t know what to do. I talked it over with friends and family and eventually decided that I wanted the “traditional publishing” experience before taking on anything by myself.

And I don’t regret it for a second. There were draft meetings, back and forth emails about changes to be made, publicists, galleys, cover art discussions, on and on. I learned a lot. But this is where a lot of those “paths” and “rules” came into play. I thought that this was how a book got published, and that was that.

Then book came out and I was like… well, now what?

So I started researching and writing my next book. I followed the paths, utilized a lot of the knowledge gained from my first book. But the process wasn’t any easier, it actually might have been harder, and I wasn’t sure why.

Then my publisher passed on my second book.

I was back to square one.

Four years later, another publishing house picked up my manuscript. We had even more meetings, more back and forths, editing, changes, cover art, title suggestions. And again, I learned a ton. But also… more paths and more rules ingrained.

Then came my third book.

While they were interested, I wasn’t. I had the manuscript exactly where I wanted. Editing is fine, but the voice, the sentiment, the stories, even the title, I was unwilling to budge.

So I passed. I walked away. It wasn’t easy but I knew that I had to.

I then picked up the self publishing research from all those years ago.

I found that I could hire an editor, and keep all the rights to my works. I could title it whatever I wanted and share all the encounters that I saw fit. I could create the cover, or hire out and get exactly what I wanted.

And I did just that.

I wrote another book the next year. And another the following, and on and on. Nine books later (along with some albums and documentaries mixed in between) and I’m showing no signs of slowing down.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

This is a really trying process for me.

Over the years I have realized the potential of crowdfunding. I used to pay out of pocket to have my books manufactured, but it was always so tough to come up with all that capital.

I now use crowdfunding as my pre-order process and have been able to successfully fund my first edition round of printing.

It may seem obvious to a lot of folks, but I wasn’t sure it would work for writing. Turns out it does (with varying success).

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

For me… it’s libraries and other authors.

Locally, we’re in a small community and a lot of us know each other, regardless of genre. And this is a strength.

You can gain contacts, share spaces for events, get your books in front of more readers than your own echo chamber, and much more.

I’m terribly introverted, but I have been able to get into spaces I wouldn’t have otherwise, either because of my genre, or just being too nervous to approach it on my own.

It’s helped me to be more brave and take chances I never would have before.

TL;DR – get local and get involved with others who do what you do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://slevikstore.company.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nomarslevik/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1F71Rj19zg/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@slevikstories?si=AS0LPfWvlKAf6ZOx
• Other: https://allmylinks.com/slevik

  https://bsky.app/profile/slevik.bsky.social