Archive for the ‘Living and Life’ Category

Plenty of Good News To Share

Posted: June 6, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Writing
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

Yes, I have some good news for you, and I cannot wait to share it with you. So I shall not mince words and just tell it to you, in order from smaller pieces of news to bigger pieces of news. Here we go:

1. I finally bought a Kindle. Yes, I finally bought one. It took a lot of saving of Amazon gift cards, taking part in those websites where you fill out surveys for prizes, and more than a little resisting the urge to buy mangas I can’t get at my local library or through interlibrary loan services. But yes, I finally bought one, and it should be arriving sometime next week. I’m very excited, not only that I’ll have my own Kindle, but I can download the books of friends and fellow authors I’ve met while blogging and on Facebook. Heck, I can even download and read my own fiction on my Kindle.

And speaking of which…

2. Daisy has been downloaded 130 times. Yes, the short story I published as a promotional piece for The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones has been downloaded that many times. I’m very grateful to all those who are downloading and I hope that if you decide to do a review on Amazon or Smashwords or B&N or wherever, that you let me know so I can feature it here on Rami Ungar the Writer. And if you haven’t read Daisy yet, please do. Unless you’re easily scared to the point that you soil yourself when you get scared, in which case I don’t recommend reading.

And last, but certainly not least…

3. I’ve accepted a new opportunity. Some of you may remember I wrote an article for the blog Self Published Authors Helping Other Self-Published Authors. Well, one of the blog’s writers, Ruth Ann Nordin, emailed me and said she really enjoyed my article and asked if I would like to be a regular contributor to the blog. I had maybe a moment’s hesitation before I emailed an emphatic “YES!” As of today I am now a contributor and will have a profile page and whatnot soon. I already have a few ideas for what I’d like to write, including interviews with other self-published authors and some more articles with tips for writers on how to do this or that for their stories. I’m really excited and I would like to thank Ruth Nordin for thinking so highly of my article and  for giving me this chance. I won’t let you down.

That’s all for now. If I have any more good news, I’ll be sure to share it with you. Wish me luck in the future.

Getting Reacquainted with the King

Posted: June 2, 2013 in Living and Life
Tags: , ,
6

I recently ran out of things to read. I had free time, so I took the bus down to the library and went on a search for books I wanted to read. Unfortunately, there were no copies of the books immediately on list, so I decided to pick up some good old Stephen King.

I first discovered the current King of Horror when I was 12 or 13 when I read It and I found myself hooked. For the next couple of years, I read a huge amount of King’s work. Unfortunately, around age 16 or 17 I started to grow tired of the King, and I stopped reading him. As sad as it is to admit, I got sick of Stephen King, and rarely picked him up unless to read one of his new books (Duma Key or Under the Dome) or read an old favorite (The Stand or It). But this trip to the library was the perfect opportunity to get friendly with His Scary Highness again.

So I picked up Carrie (read once before and needed to read again before the remake comes out in October), Misery (seen the movie, never read the book) and Cujo (never read, have to since they’re talking about remaking the movie), plus two other authors I’d heard or read good things about and I started to read. As I read Carrie, I felt all the old love come back. By the time I’d finished, I was back on loving Stephen King.

I’m looking forward to meeting this dog.

I’m now in the middle of Misery, and although I’m not that easily scared, it’s proving a good read. I also can’t wait to read Cujo, but I think afterwards I’ll take a break from the King. After all, I don’t want to get sick of him again! That would be horrible.

Have you ever gotten sick of a certain author and then rediscovered your love of them? Which author?

“Revenge For A Succubus’s Beloved”: Published

Posted: May 27, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Man, it’s just good news after good news after good news lately! I heard about this online magazine called Horror Zone on Facebook recently and I checked out their website. They seemed like a good place to submit my work, so I sent them “Revenge For A Succubus’s Beloved”, the succubus story I wrote last summer and then rewrote during the fall. I’ve been struggling to find a publication that would take this short story, but these guys did! They even gave it a little “Revenge” logo thing near the beginning. I don’t watch the show, but you have to love what they did there.

If you want to read the short story, you can click here and you’ll be redirected to the site. Once again, thanks to Horror Zone for publishing my short story, and I hope to do business with you again in the future. In fact, I already have a short story in mind. For now though, I think I’d like to go for a jog, get some exercise in.

Hope you’re having as awesome a day as I am!

250 Followers!!!

Posted: May 25, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report
Tags: , , ,
4

I’ve officially passed another blogging milestone on the road to becoming an author, and that is passing the 250 followers marker (in this case though I have 251, so it’s coming a bit late but better late than never, right?). I’m very happy and would like to thank everyone who’s been supporting me and following me up till now.

For most of the first year I was writing this blog, I didn’t have a lot of followers and considered it a good day when I had one view. Yes, I was that desperate at one point when it came to this blog. A few times I thought of giving up the blog because not a lot of people were reading it and authors hate it when their work isn’t read. But, whether through sheer perseverance, stubbornness, or a little bit faith, I continued writing, reading other blogs, and enjoying the simple art of writing to people across the Internet and the world. All that paid off, as this post attests.

Once again, I’d like to thank everyone for continuing to support me on the road to becoming a novelist and that you continue to support me as I await the copyright for The Quiet Game and for the final draft of Reborn City to be finished. Thanks, and I’ll write more later.

The Rabid Fans

Posted: May 12, 2013 in Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
Tags: , , , , , , ,
2

At the end of the 2012 presidential election, riots broke out at a Mississippi university where racial slurs were shouted by the mob, and over the ensuing months the White House was inundated with petitions asking for individual states to secede from the Union. All these and a few other interesting little acts of rebellion and political anger were the result of President Barack Obama nabbing a second term and, in the eyes of these people, sitting comfortably in a position to create a dictatorship.

I thought these people were being overdramatic and possibly a little unpatriotic. I mean, why not wait till the next election, like the Democrats were forced to do from 2000 to 2008? Why threaten leaving the Union? And until this past weekend, I thought nothing could match this overreaction.

I was wrong.

Author Charlaine Harris is receiving hate mail and death threats for wanting to end her vampire series and to end it a certain way. Seriously?

This past weekend, I read several articles, online and off, about how Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse books, was receiving negative reviews, angry letters, and even a few death threats. Why, you ask? Because a small but extremely passionate legion of her fans are upset that the latest book, Dead Ever After, also happens to be the last Sookie Stackhouse book. Some were angry that Ms. Harris was ending the series. A few were threatening to do horrible things to themselves or to Ms. Harris if the ending doesn’t put their favorite couples together (and when a leaked copy of the novel appeared in Germany, some fans did what they threatened).

This isn’t the first time an author has received this sort of treatment from fans. Stephanie Meyer received some very angry letters when she said she didn’t want to write any more vampire stories, and even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got his share of haters attacking him when he threw Sherlock Holmes over a cliff, seemingly killing him. For the latter, this led to Holmes’s resurrection, which can show how powerful fans can be, and in the age of the Internet, a few people can create a tidal wave of faceless anger and indignation.

But can I remind everyone of something? THESE ARE FICTIONAL STORIES! There’s no actual Sookie Stackhouse or Bella Swann, Sherlock Holmes doesn’t actually mysteries in London, there are no vampires or Hogwarts, Klingons are the creation of talented make-up artists working with patient actors in seats, and the fact that adults get so worked up by a show about talking animated ponies seems a little creepy! None of it is real, but the fact that so many people treat these things like life or death just seems to disturb me.

The new target: celebrities and artists. It’s ridiculous.

So why do people go all Annie Wilkes when their favorite author decides to do something that a few fans disagree with? Or to go a little broader, why do some fans threaten to boycott or do horrible things to a celebrity when that celebrity does one little thing that doesn’t fit with the image these fans create of certain idols? And yes, fans create the images of their idols, because it is only in their minds that Tom Cruise is truly a dashing, charismatic, very eccentric man, or that the super model is the cool, serious seductress of your dreams. Magazines and TV and movies may help perpetuate these images, but the fans are the ones who create these images in the first place.

But to return to my original point, I don’t know why certain fans act so crazy when an idol does something that doesn’t fit their image, be it a pure actress that cannot be anything other than the sweet girl from the country, or the author that wants to end a book series after so many years, or the bad-boy musician who keeps his marriage and family secret because “that does not fit his image”. I always look at what these people do as gifts: they give us a wonderful story or a performance or a song and we appreciate it because of all the work that went into creating such a beautiful present.

“Mr. Spock, please set fanatics to minimal. Their interference could jeopardize the smooth running of our operations and the lives of many civilians.”

Even more so, plenty of artists treat their work like their babies, children they create and give birth to inside themselves. What happens when someone else tells them how they should raise their own children, what those children should learn and who they should love? It’s a little freaky, to say the least.

But it seems that some fans don’t see things the same way. They love their idols while the idols do what the fans want, but as soon as the idol does the opposite, the fans become hostile, believing they are owed something. The truth is, the rabid fans are the ones who owe something to the artist, and that’s an apology. You don’t own the work, you didn’t create it, and you sure as heck can’t tell the creators of such work what they should do with it. And if you are willing to go to such lengths such as try to ruin an artist’s career like hurting yourself or go on a hate campaign, then I seriously worry about your mental state.

So people, the next time you want to do horrible things to an artist for doing something not remotely criminal but you still find yourself feeling really upset about it, take a step back and ask: Is this really worth going to war over?

I highly doubt it.

Family And Ideas

Posted: May 11, 2013 in ideas, Living and Life, Writing
Tags: , , , ,
8

The second post I wish to finish tonight (assuming SNL doesn’t distract me too much) was inspired by both my dad and my friend and author Pat Bertram (you can read her blog here). I was talking to my father earlier this evening and we had an interesting conversation. He walked into the living room while I was sprawled out on the couch reading a graphic novel and told me he still had his mother’s phone number, the number belonging to my Savta, may her memory be blessed, in his phone even though she died several years ago.

(Savta, for those of you who don’t know, is Hebrew for “grandmother”, and is what I called my paternal grandmother from the time I was young.)

At first I thought he was going to ask me for advice about whether or not to erase the number. But then he asked me what would happen if he called that number…and Savta actually picked up the phone.

I grasped the idea pretty quickly that my father, ever supportive of my dream to become a horror writer, was trying to give me an idea for a short story. I also figured out pretty quickly that my dad had given me an excellent idea for a short story…but Stephen King had already done a similar idea. Well, when I told my dad that, he looked a little disappointed, to the point of crestfallen. I wasn’t sure if he was sad that King had gotten there first or that I had rejected his idea for a short story. Whatever the case though, I tried to let him know I wasn’t rejecting his idea or that it was useless. On the contrary, even if I couldn’t write a story based entirely off of that idea, it was likely to appear in a short story or a novel of mine someday. The idea of the dead picking up the phone would probably swim around in my subconscious for a while before finding itself in a story I could actually use. In fact as I was talking about it, I realized there was a story that the dead calling would work perfectly in and told him so.

Of course, being me I told him in a way like this: “Oh, that could go in that story…yeah, definitely there…uh-huh…definitely could work there.” That and the hand motions I used probably confused my dad and made him want to move the conversation in another direction. But even if I can’t use his idea for a short story, it’ll still probably appear somewhere else, and that would mean my dad contributed something to my creative process.

My friend Pat Bertram recently did a post where she remarked how some writers will give up time with their families to devote to their writing, and how she advised doing the exact opposite of that. Speaking from personal experience, Pat said that she found every moment she spent with her late husband important and stimulating and a boost to her writing (and I am so sorry if I am misquoting you in any way, shape, or form Pat).

It’s moments like the one illustrated above that makes me agree with Pat. Family and friends, whether or not they drive you up the wall, are important and you should spend as much time as you can with them. Because when you make it as a writer, you want these people to be behind you and support you. And in cases like this, they really give you some awesome ideas to incorporate into your work.

Many Ideas On My Mind

Posted: May 11, 2013 in ideas, Living and Life, Writing
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

This is the first of two posts I plan to write this evening. This one was inspired by my younger sister, who asked me how many stories I’d thought about in my head yesterday as I was helping prepare dinner. Now I’ve mentioned my Ideas list on this blog before, a document on my flash drive that contains a little over fifty different ideas for novels, movies, TV shows, mangas, and even a video game. I keep this list because my memory is amazing on some things but remarkably poor on others (but doesn’t everyone have that problem?). However at various times throughout each day I’m thinking about one or more of these stories and trying to work out various plot points and scenes, even if I won’t write these stories for a long while.

I answered my sister truthfully, “About three or four.” One of them was my science fiction novel Reborn City, which is in its final draft and less than ten chapters away from completion (thank you, Matthew Williams, for your diligence on this project). The other, my thriller Snake, is in the middle of its third draft, and when I had the chance yesterday, I was able to edit a few more chapters. The other two was a possible novel about an assassin with multiple personalities, and a story influenced partially by Sleeping Beauty (by the way, I call stories I write based off of fairy tales and other well-known stories, of which I have many ideas for, “Fractured Fairy Tales Untold”. Catchy title. A prize goes to the first person who gets where I got the title for this category from).

Anyway, my sister’s latest dream of what she’ll do when she’s an adult is to write, though I think she’s more into fantasy and I’m not sure how deep her devotion is or if this is just one of those passing fancies all kids seem to go through, even during the teen years. She claims she has twenty ideas going through her head each day, which I take to be exaggeration and possibly the hubris all starting writers have when they find they can string a few sentences together to make the bare bones of a story. But the conversation got me thinking, and I’ve been wanting to write this post since then, because there are a lot of writers out there who have a ton of ideas running through their heads and I think it’s a good topic to explore.

Every writer wants to be known for something they’ve written. Some have just the one work and want that to be well known, while others want to be prolific and have lots of famous stories. I think the former dream of just publishing their manuscript, while the latter dream of being the next Stephen King or Ernest Hemingway or Ezra Pound. I also believe the latter tend to have many different ideas brewing at any one time in their head. After all, if they want to be known for a large body of work, they have to have a lot of it in their heads already, right? These authors are always working on something, and they often spend great amounts of time just working on a story, whether by writing or by daydreaming. Not to mention, they also have new ideas coming into their heads, so when they do get a new idea they may spend hours, days, weeks, months, or sometimes years plotting and planning before they start to write it.

Of course, with so much in their head, it’s doubtful they’ll run out of ideas at any point. Or more precisely, it’s in doubt that they’ll finish even a tenth of all the work they’d like to do. I personally view this to my advantage, as it means that I’ll have multiple objects every time I start a new project. Should I start the next volume of a series? Should I work on a new series? How about a stand-alone? Which one? A Fractured Fairy Tale Untold? A psychological thriller? Something with the potential of a sequel should it do well? A science fiction novel with thought-provoking social themes? The options are endless!

Other writers may not have the same view of having many ideas as I do. They may think its better just to focus on the one idea, or perhaps they try to write as much as possible so they can get as much out as they can while they’re still breathing. Or, if your name is James Patterson and you have tons of money on hand, you hire co-writers to work with you so you can get out nine books a year (yes, I’m still a little sore over this, though I thought Alex Cross, Run was one of the better books in the series lately). It’s different for every author.

But like I said, I like having multiple ideas to focus on at any one time. It gives me something to do, and I think as time goes on, like wine, these stories get better with age. And even if I don’t write everything on that Ideas list, even if every manga isn’t serialized, every movie made or every TV show has a pilot filmed, I can still say that I gave it my all while I was writing and that’s enough for me.

Do you have multiple ideas in your noggin? What’s your view on having all these ideas?

The Usefulness of Literary Analysis

Posted: May 9, 2013 in Living and Life, Reflections
Tags: , , , , ,
0

I recently read a blog post (you can read it here) where the author commented on the attitudes some people have toward different academic studies. According to the author, fields of study like physics, mathematics, and biology–fields collectively known as “hard sciences” and based on reasoning and mathematical proofs–as more important and more factually true than the study of literature, which is seen as “soft” and therefore variable, indefinite, and downright false.

Now I admit that those who study literature (and those who create it) aren’t solving the mysteries of the universe, curing cancer, or creating alternative forms of energy. And I admit that you can look at a novel, poem, play or short story and draw many different meanings from the author’s comparison of blue curtains to the blue sky. And yes, fiction is, by definition, outright falsehoods. There’s no Hogwarts, the zombies aren’t coming for us, and in all likelihood Dante never visited all three realms of the afterlife.

But I don’t think that the English major is inferior to physics or chemistry or engineering. Far from it. I believe the English major fulfills a different role than the hard sciences. Fields like elementary neuroscience and evolutionary biology and botany seek to understand the physical world around us. Literature and English majors, on the other hand, seek to understand the human condition, to understand our collective soul. We’re focusing on a whole other dimension of existence, multi-layered and able to bring understanding and meaning to the lives of others. We make metaphor of life, turn it into art, show our darkest fears and our deepest desires in the struggles of characters brought to life through letters and words.

Isn’t that worthwhile in itself? To make people understand through a story not only themselves but the world around them? To feel empathy for a character, joy when they triumph and sadness when they struggle, because that character reminds a reader of themselves or what they want to be? I think it is, especially since reading and writing bring so much fulfillment to me and to the people I know who feel the same way I do.

Besides, the hard sciences may be solving mysteries and doing important work, but there is something that they lack, and that is the ability to identify with and inspire the masses. The theory of relativity will never be able to define an age like The Great Gatsby did, and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle will never have the same effect on our youth like Harry Potter did.

Sure, you can argue that the space race defined the sixties and seventies and that the Internet and technology defines us now. But let me remind you that those age-defining technologies were first dreamed about in a literature course or on a writer’s desk while his pen rolled across a page. From cell phones to space ships to the Roomba, all were first talked about and made awesome and terrible by some writer somewhere (especially if that writer’s name is Isaac Asimov).

And yet even today’s technology is influencing literature. Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress was as much inspired by the Internet as the blog and the webisode were. Several science fiction writers are now writing works on how social media and hacking are becoming a total part of our society and reflecting on that. And I wouldn’t do some of my best writing without technology.

So these fields aren’t competing with each other for superiority or totally exclusive. On the contrary, they merely handle different fields of our existence and feed each other occasionally. It’s like the relationship between bees and flowers: the bees get their food from the flowers and spread the pollen around so that the flowers can create new seeds. In this sense, they are helping each other grow.

So deride my English major anytime. I may not be solving some mysterious aspect about black holes or quarks, but I might just give you an idea someday on how to solve that mystery. And you may never be able to write your own homage to Edgar Allen Poe, but your work on cancer research or molecular genetics may give me or a friend some new idea for a future bestseller. It could happen.

What’s your take on this subject?

Some Thoughts On Children Lost and Children Harmed

Posted: May 8, 2013 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership, Reflections, Social Activism
Tags: , , ,
0

This week alone, several stories have surfaced in the news of American children being killed by guns in their homes. Two children, shot accidentally by their siblings. One child was killed by his uncle’s handgun hidden in a backpack. Another was shot in the crib while their 14-year-old brother was using his .22 rifle, which was given to him as a birthday gift.

The two cases listed above didn’t end in saved children. Instead, the children died en route to the hospital. The parents and siblings of these dead children, the rest of their families, the communities, and everyone who hears of these cases can only wonder, “Why?”

There are a million reasons why: negligence, misfires, simple intentions to see a gun, the belief that guns actually don’t kill, the crazy belief that giving a gun to a teenager is a good idea. However, debating the reasons why these tragedies happened won’t do any good. These children are wounded or dead, and it happened by weapons kept in the home.

Now I won’t try to argue the Second Amendment or the dangers of automatic rifles and machine guns this time. I believe that if it’s for legitimate reasons, people should have access to firearms like handguns or hunting rifles. However, when children are involved it’s a whole other issue. Children have a habit of getting into places they shouldn’t, and they think things that are dangerous are fun or sometimes cute. And even if a child seems mature, no child should be given something that’s main function is killing, be it animals or people.

The worst part of this is that these tragedies could’ve been totally preventable. The parents and adults could’ve locked up their guns better, or at least made attempts to lock them up. They could’ve waited until their kids were teenagers to teach them to use guns, and then only when they were 18 would they have been allowed their own guns. Or better yet, they could’ve never have bought the guns in the first place! After all, there’s a significantly higher chance that if you bring a gun into your home, it’ll do more damage to your family than any would-be intruder.

So the NRA may be having a party in Houston and saying that guns are here to stay, that taking away guns will lead to a dictatorship, and that the only thing protecting our children are guns. But they can’t shut out the facts, no matter how many senators they buy off. Guns are dangerous tools, and until we have some common-sense legislation, all this violence and death will only stay the same, or possibly get worse.

Spring Semester 2013 Wrap-Up Report

Posted: May 3, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
4

It’s been a while since I’ve had anything to really write about, but I have something now. While I moved out of the dorms on Tuesday afternoon, I did not recieve my final grades till just now, so I’m writing this post now which some of you may have been eagerly anticipating. Others of you may also care less, but I hope you read this post anyway.

So anyway, a whole semester went by a little too fast if you ask me, but I did very well. I got a 3.3 GPA, an improvement by 0.1 from last semester. I didn’t get all the As I wanted, but I’ll work for that this coming semester. I did very well in Creative Writing with an A and American Literature with an A-. I also met some really awesome professors and learned a whole bunch.

I also worked hard on finishing up The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones and I’m now waiting for the copyright. Also, thanks to my friend Matthew Williams, Reborn City is close to having its final draft finished, and Snake is getting its 3rd draft. I’m a busy guy, but with all this effort I’m putting in, I should have RC out by the holidays and Snake by summer 2014 (hopefully).

In the meantime, I’m going to be working in the financial aid office at Ohio State like I did last summer, and I’ll be writing when I have the chance. Plus I’ll probably be seeing plenty of movies and reading a lot of books, so expect reviews. And let’s not forget I’ll hopefully be getting a Kindle, so if you want me to read your books, better start bribing me now.

So here’s to the start of summer. Let’s hope it all goes well.

Older Entries
Newer Entries