Radow College Student Author Prepares to Release Second Book of Dark Fantasy Trilogy
KENNESAW, Ga. | Mar 4, 2026
Sara Omer鈥檚 writing career has come a long way from jotting down what she describes as 鈥渢hinly-veiled Lion King fan fiction鈥� with her friends on the bus in elementary school.
Omer, who previously earned her bachelor鈥檚 degree in English at 网红头条 and now a graduate student and teaching assistant in the Master of Arts in Professional Writing Program, is the author of The Chaos Constellation series. It鈥檚 a dark fantasy trilogy that combines her love of research with cosmic horror, worldbuilding, and a princess knight who rides a Pegasus. The second book will be released this summer.
But it almost didn鈥檛 happen. Omer said that although she loved to write, she initially had concerns that writing was not a viable career path. Instead, she chose to become an editor after graduating from Radow College.
鈥淎t some point, when I was not super excited about my technical editing job, my dad was like, 鈥榶ou should just write a novel,鈥� which is... very out of character for him,鈥� Omer said. I was like, 鈥榶ou know what? You鈥檙e right.鈥欌��
The foundation for her series was built five years before she started writing 鈥淭he Gryphon King.鈥� Omer found historical inspiration for her books during a trip to Istanbul to visit family. The Topkapi Palace, the old Constantinople Walls, and the hammams in Bursa made her realize that she wanted to write a story inspired by the Ottoman Empire.
鈥淚 started researching and learning a bit more about... Turkic nomadic people, which would have been my family in the far, far past,鈥� Omer said. 鈥淜ind of piecing together little bits of stories that I heard from my dad and my grandfather.鈥�
More of the pieces clicked into place through her involvement with the . She began working as a writing tutor during her sophomore year, which ultimately connected her with a newly formed writing group that offered a space for feedback and brainstorming. Omer said the group 鈥渒ind of fizzled out鈥� after its members graduated.
It would change her life when it rekindled at the height of 2020.
"I felt like I had to write a book, and so I wrote a different version of [The Gryphon King],鈥� Omer said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 feel confident with the draft that I had. I didn鈥檛 even make my group鈥檚 feedback. It was great feedback. I was just like, 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to do this,鈥� and so I just threw it aside... then they kind of asked about it, and I was like, okay, I should actually take their advice and look at their feedback and then also entirely rewrite it.鈥�
She combined her family stories, writing group鈥檚 feedback, and extensive historical research to build her Southwest-Asian inspired fantasy world. Her book includes elements based on Animism and Tengrism; ancient beliefs that Omer describes as 鈥渢he idea of鈥� everything having [a] soul or spirits and the idea of the sky being a particular godlike entity,鈥� respectively. Omer was also inspired by the goddesses Inanna and Ereshkigal of Mesopotamian mythology. Omer's series infuses those elements with a sense of cosmic horror to distance them from actual religious practices that exist in the area today.
鈥淚t was fun to kind of create a world that was drawing from histories that aren鈥檛 as represented,鈥� Omer said. 鈥淭here have been readers who are Turkic with different, you know, cultural origins... that have been really excited about the story and... have enjoyed it,鈥� she continued.
Radow College and her family were there every step of the way. Omer said Andrew Plattner, Ph.D., taught her how to write a query letter for the first time. She credits Jeffrey Greene, MFA, with strengthening her worldbuilding abilities through his class on the subject. Her brother offered feedback on the war strategy and horror elements throughout the series, and Omer said her mother鈥檚 willingness to proofread the text before sending it to a literary agent means she has 鈥渞ead it probably almost as many times as I have.鈥�
She鈥檚 paying that support forward. Omer helps others develop their own creative worlds through teaching English classes at KSU and holding at local libraries. She advises other writers to keep trying, remember that they can impact change, and that their voice is worth sharing.
The first book in Omer鈥檚 trilogy, 鈥�,鈥� is available now. The second installment, 鈥�,鈥� is expected to be published in July 2026.
Story and Photos by Noelle Lashley
