Rami Ungar The Writer

No, it’s not getting published. If it were, I would have announced that in the title of this post. But I am going to give you all updates on how that effort is coming along.

So, for those of you who don’t know, The Shape of Evil is a novel I wrote about a 3D printer from Hell. Think “Word Processor of the Gods” crossed with Gothic by Phillip Fracassi, but with lots of LGBT and disabled representation. I wrote it in 2024, and then prepared it for pitching at StokerCon last year. I even had sensitivty readers take a look at the second draft, just to make sure my portrayal of my protagonist, a non-binary trans individual, wasn’t offensive.

Since I pitched it to publishers and agent last year, I’ve continued trying to find the novel a home. And I’ve had a few rejections, which I expected. I wasn’t even too bummed about them. No, seriously, I wasn’t. They felt less like dead ends, and more like stops on the road for finding a home for this novel. And I still have prospects I’m looking into or waiting to hear back from, so I’m not feeling any despair right now. If I’m being honest, all I feel is anticipation. Like something is coming down the road, and it’s what I’ve been waiting for since that pitch session last year.

And in the meantime, I’ve kept busy. Not only have I worked on some new stories, but I’ve even done two new drafts of The Shape of Evil. And guess what? On the second draft, I had a revelation: this was a YA novel I was working on. Yeah, you would think I would notice, with teen protagonists, only one really bloody scene, and a few other factors. But you know what they say: artists and authors are often their own worst judges. And given that it took me two years to realize this, I prove that maxim to be true.

So, I went back to the beginning of the draft, and started editing with the goal of editing a YA novel instead of an adult novel. I even switched the book from third person point of view to first person point of view, because that’s a staple of the genre. (Also, with my protagonist Astrid Marsh being non-binary and using they/them pronouns, it cut down on the number of “theys” and “thems” in the manuscript. Much less confusing for readers.) And as of last night, the new draft is finished. Hopefully this is the one that catches an agent or publisher’s eye and makes them want to publish it.

For now, though, I plan on not doing anything with the new draft until after StokerCon. Gotta make time to relax and have fun, after all.

Also, I have other stories I plan to work on. There’s a science fiction story I have been excited to work on since I had the idea back in late March. And after that, I will finally get back to working on my mummy novel Crawler. And this time, I hope to finish it!

But in the meantime, I’m going to celebrate the end of the new draft with a quiet movie night and a bottle of wine. Gotta celebrate the wins, right? And finishing a fifth draft where I rewrote the novel to first person POV and made sure it fit the YA genre is definitely a win.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ll try to be in touch again as soon as possible, StokerCon and other things going on permitting. But until then, good night and pleasant nightmares, everybody!