Archive for the ‘Living and Life’ Category

Edits and Construction

Posted: October 17, 2012 in ideas, Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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Well yestereday I edited two short stories. One was Doll’s Game, the short story I’m writing for class, though I might decide to edit it again if I can get this idea I got today for the story to work somehow. I also edited Hunt in the Slaughterhouse, a short story I wrote back in April based on a dream I had. I’ve been trying to get around to editing it for a while, but I’ve had some trouble doing that. But yesterday I had the chance and I have to say, it loooks much better. I’ll have to figure out whether or not I want to send it to a magazine right now or if I want to wait and show it to someone else beforehand.

I also had an idea for Dodi Li, the succubus story I wrote over the summer. Although the plot for that story was really bad and I ended up deciding this story was best left as a learning experience, I decided to rewrite it after my teacher in my creative writing class gave me an idea. You see, she had been discussing the story we were critiquing today, and how the author was able to make it difficult to tell what was reality and what was delusion in his story. Listening to that, I just had a burst of inspiration for Dodi Li, which I plan to get to work on as soon as possible. Got to say, those workshop critiques can do wonders for you.

On, and before I forget, remember how I rewrote the outline for my serial killer novel Snake and that I mentioned I’d set a scene in a construction site? Well today I finally reached the man who could help me get onto the site. We’re going to try and find a time that works for both of us so that I can tour a site and ask some questions. This is a big oppurtunity for me because I want my readers not to have to suspend their disbelief too much and what’s better than actual experience?

Well, hope to have more good news for you later. In the meantime, I’ve editing to do.

The President Reassured Me Tonight

Posted: October 16, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership, Social Activism
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Thanks President Obama. You did a lot to set me at ease tonight.

This evening, the local Obama for America office and my campus group Buckeyes for Obama hosted an event at the local movie theater next to campus. You can guess the event: the second Presidential debate, hosted  by Hofstra University in New York (aka the school named after a spell from Harry Potter) and done town hall style, where undecided voters get to ask the questions to the candidates.

Well of course I’d gone. I support the President, I hadn’t seen any of the debates yet, and I wanted to see at least part of one. And around 10:15p, I decided I’d heard enough and I should head home. As I was leaving, the moderator called up a woman named Nina Gonzales to ask her question, and I stopped to listen.

The question was on gun control, particularly on military-grade firearms and assault rifles.

And like that, I had to listen.

Now as many of you know, during the summer there were a lot of incidents of gun violence where innocent people lost lives, particularly in Aurora, Colorado and in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Now at the time of the former, both President Obama and Governor Romney said they were going to follow previous gun control policies and stay along those lines.

It certainly helps.

Meaning they weren’t going to do a thing. And of course I was upset by this statement, having written several posts in the wake of those shootings asking for stricter gun control on assault rifles and laws against selling to those with criminal histories and/or serious mental health issues from the federal government.

But tonight, President Obama reassured me. He said he was going to push for stricter laws on assault rifles and try to keep guns out of the hands who shouldn’t. He would also take steps to help cut down on the other factors that create gun violence, including improving education so people don’t resort to crime and making health care more affordable so that people with mental health disorders can afford their medication.

Now I’m not going to go into what Governor Romney said, mainly because he contradicted himself and because he said something I found absolutely ridiculous (*cough cough” “marriage” *cough cough*). But I am going to tell you that that gun control question was the one question I’d been hoping to hear tonight, and I did get to hear it. And it made me so happy to hear the candidate I’m supporting give the answer I’d been hoping to hear.

Good luck to you, Mr. President. Good luck to you.

300 Comments!!!

Posted: October 15, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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Well, it’s a week of milestones. Five-thousand views, and now 300 comments, thanks to my friend Matt Williams of the awesome blog, http://storiesbywilliams.com/. Maybe I’ll get 100 followers on Thursday. Are there twelve people who like horror, thriller, following aspiring writers in college and don’t mind the occasional post on how much I support the Democrats and how I am confused by Republicans and the things they say and do?

You know, when I first started this blog, I found it inconcievable, when I was barely getting five views a week, that I could get a single comment more than once a month. Now, I’ve got 100 more comments after posting about getting 200 less than a month-and-a-half ago. This is just so incredible, I’m geeking out a little while I write this.

Thanks for all the reading and all the commenting, folks. It means a lot and it means you’re sticking with me through all my trials and tribulations. Hope to hear good news soon. Maybe I’ll finish editing Reborn City and hand it off for some edits from a third party this week. Wouldn’t that be awesome!

Talk to you later.

An Awesome Book: A Self-Publishing Story

Posted: October 14, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
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I saw an ad for Google Chrome today that I wanted to share with you. Normally I wouldn’t waste your time with a Google Chrome ad, especially since Internet Explorer is more my type. But this one has to do with a self-publishing success story:

In the video, Clayton Dallas wrote a children’s book for his son that encouraged him to dream big. Mr. Dallas wanted to publish his book, but publishers turned him down. He decided to do self-publishing, and over time, his book, titled An Awesome Book, caught on. Before he knew it, Mr. Dallas was touring the country and abroad, reading his book about how any child can change the future if they put their minds to it.

Well, that’s pretty interesting. Not only am I self-publishing Reborn City, but one of the overarching themes of RC and its two sequels is that one can better their lives and change the world if they work hard and they put their minds to it and never give up. I like that idea, and I think it’s one that not enough people believe in these days, and many people put down all too willingly, which may be why it can be difficult sometimes to get people to vote in elections (a possibility).

So Mr. Dallas, I wish you luck with your book. I hope it inspires a whole new generation of young people. As for myself, I’ll work to get my book out too, and maybe somebody will be inspired enough to try and make a change after reading RC and its sequels (fingers crossed).  I also hope that if publishing companies haven’t taken your book seriously yet, then after the Google Chrome commercial they are! Otherwise, they are just dense.

Talk to you guys later. I’ve got some homework to do and then I’m going to see Taken 2, which I’ll review afterwards. Spoiler alert: Someone gets taken and Liam Neeson has to go save them. But we already knew that, didn’t we?

5000 Views! A Big Milestone

Posted: October 13, 2012 in Living and Life
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You like me, you really like me!

Yes, I’ve finally gotten past 5000 views on Rami Ungar the Writer. It’s been a year, 2 months, a week, and two days since I started this blog. There were times when no one visited my blog at all, and I worried I wasted my time writing it. Thanks to everyone who’s stuck with me or logged on or even just strayed here accidentally looking for a picture of a creepy doll or information on whether Alex Cross’s partner John Sampson would be in the new movie (he’s not). It means a lot, and I hope you stick with me while I work to publish my novel Reborn City and work to become a professional novelist.

To all, thank you.

Fall Semester 2012: Half-Time Report

Posted: October 12, 2012 in Living and Life
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You know, I just love calling these little posts about how my semester is going “half-time reports.” Must be my love of Ohio State football.

Now, onto how I’m doing. Like I’ve said in previous posts, I’m taking a creative writing class, and we’re all currently in the middle of critiquing everybody’s stories (mine’s being turned in early November). I’m enjoying that and doing well grade-wise, though last night I read one of my classmates’ stories and thought it was horrible, though don’t tell any of my classmates I said that. I’m also taking a documentary course, which I’m also doing well in, and which I have to thank for empowering me to self-publish my novel Reborn City without having to rely on a service. After all, I’ve learned to use GarageBand and iMovie. Who says I can’t learn to format my novel as an e-book?

I’m also taking a history course, and got one assignment and my midterm back yesterday. The assignment, which was for us to watch a documentary and then evaluate the historical sources used in the documentary, didn’t have a specific letter grade on it, but judging by the feedback my teacher gave me, I got at least a B+, probably and A- for going over the sources and seeing how biased against Leopold II of Belgium they were. My midterm was even better, with 92% correct answers. In addition, even the answers that were wrong got partial credit, so I’m happy about that.

I’m also taking a philosophy course on statistics, which fulflills a GEC requirement. I didn’t do so well on the initial quizzes, but I’ve been studying hard and meeting with my teacher outside of class to discuss problems I’ve been having with the coursework, and as a result my grades have gone up a lot. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep this up and get even better grades on the quiz a week from now.

Other than that, not much else to report: I watch Buckeye games every Saturday with a few good friends (we’re 6-0 right now, and I’m hoping we beat Indiana this week, if we can keep our defense strong and our offense stronger), I edit Reborn City, and I store up a few ideas for short stories that I’ll do once I have the time to do them.

Wish me luck with the rest of the semester. We only have 8 weeks to go, and that’s not including the two weeks devoted to finals (somehow I only have one final to do, and it’s on the last day of exams, in philosophy. How the heck does that even happen in your first semester?). Hoping to get all A’s this semester, keep our fingers crossed.

Oh, and before I forget, have a great weekend. Go Bucks!

Critiquing In My Creative Writing Class

Posted: October 10, 2012 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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“God, I love what you’ve written. I do have some thoughts though…first off, can we maybe have less commandments? Twenty-seven’s a little much to remember and recite!”

For the first half of my creative writing class this semester, we’ve been going over some of the fundamentals of writing fiction, including plot, dialogue, and characters, among other things. We’ve also been told to each write a shorty story between 8 and 20 pages, or 2,000 and 5,000 words, and while I certainly had trouble writing my story, mostly because it’s literary, I’ve been enjoying reading and critiquing the stories of my classmates.

We’ve actually only read 4 stories so far, but they’ve all been interesting in their own way. There was a story about the rivalry between two princes, a vignette about a day in the life of a soldier, a crime story, and even one involving a virtual reality game. And later today we’re recieving a new story, so I’m wondering what that’s going to be about.

After we read the story, we have to type up a critique in the form of a letter and hand it in to both our teacher and the writer of the story in question. We also give our impressions orally to the writer during class, allowing them to absorb some more feedback before they start editing their story. Although I like getting critiqued myself (because I want to know what problems my stories have and what I can do to fix them), it’s another story entirely to critique someone else’s work (pun intended). I like the feeling of helping someone improve a story they wrote, especially if the story is good. And it’s different from when I look over my own work, because I’m not looking at my classmates’ work with a biased eye.

I’ll be turning in my own story for critiquing in early November, a few days before my science-fiction short story “Ripple” is set to hit the web. Between now and then, I’ll go over my story and do a few edits before I turn it in, because I like to give my short stories an edit or two before I turn them in for critiquing by anyone. But for now, I’ll just sit back, get my homework done, and critique other people’s work.

What about you? Have you ever been critiqued or critiqued someone else’s work? How does it feel when you do?

President Obama At Ohio State

Posted: October 9, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership
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Isn’t that the most winning smile? Too bad I didn’t take it with my own camera.

Unfortunately, I have no photos. Well, I do, but they were taken from a great distance with a camera that’s better suited for close-range shots. So all I have are some grainy images that are a little shaky. So, instead of showing you those, I decided to go with a stock photo from Google Images (above).

Okay, so President Obama’s speech at OSU. I’m assuming you wanted to know the details, since you’re reading this post. Well, I got into line around 1, which extended around Thompson Library, across the street to Lazenby Hall, around the corner from that, and heading back to whatever’s beyond that. I entered line around the driveway for delivery trucks into Lazenby. There I saw a few friends whom I allowed to cut in line, and the usual pro-life protesters who always look like they just got back from a hunting party or tailgating. Around 2 the line started moving, and I bought a decorative press pass from a vendor.

When we got to the Oval, where the speech would take place, we were halfway between Orton Hall, where Obama would be speaking, and University Hall, which was where everybody was entering and getting their bags checked. In short, I was in the middle of the crowd, which is why I got bad photos. In addition, everybody kept moving around, so at times I was getting squished by people saying “Excuse me” and shoving me and everyone else around them. Plus the weather decided to be like early September, so I’m a little sunburned.

But besides that, everything was great. First Mayor Michael Coleman of Columbus came on and gave a little warm-up speech. Then we had the Pledge of Alliegance and the National Anthem. Some students, including one I knew from volunteering, made some speeches on how Obama’s policies were helping them get the education they needed. Senators John Glenn and Sherrod Brown also made speeches, which I thought were very good, though I thought Senator Brown said something that might come back to haunt him later: “If you’re here at this rally, it shows you are more knowledgeable about politics than your friends or family.” That’s paraphrased for brevity’s sake, but you can see why some might have a problem with that statement.

And then will.i.am, one of the Black Eyed Peas. showed up and started DJ-ing for the whole crowd, using his songs and others. It was an awesome time, awesome enough that we forgave him for DJ-ing from a small blue tent where no one from the audience could see him. After that, President Obama came out!

He stood up there, told us how important Ohio was, and how because of the auto bailout, 1 in 8 Ohio jobs were now automotive-related jobs. He also spoke about other policies of his that had benefited the American people, backed up his sayings with statistics, used examples from people he’d met on the campaign trail, and compared his plan for the future with Mitt Romney’s plan. He also brought up Big Bird, which got plenty of laughs from the audience (I swear, Governor Romney is never going to live that down).

All in all, it was a pretty good day. I may have stood for several hours, which brought up back pain, but I feel inspired and I’m so glad I voted about a week before the rally. And I bet a lot of other people felt inspired too, because after the rally there were buses that could take you to vote early, which many people got on (of course, they may have gotten on just because will.i.am was supposed to be DJ-ing there too, but I’m an optimist).

So that’s my day. And if you’re American and registered to vote, I urge you to do so, no matter who you’re supporting this election (though you know who I hope will win the election). Your vote counts, despite what you may think about voting in masses, and when you make your voice heard, you get the right to complain whenever something happens in Washington you don’t like.

Happy 30 days or so till Election Day, everybody.

President Obama’s Coming to OSU

Posted: October 9, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership
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Did you know the name Barack means “lightning” in Hebrew? So that means the President is “Lightning Obama”. Why do people say his name would be “Baruch” if he were Jewish?

Yes, President Barack Obama is coming to OSU today. This will be his third time visiting Ohio State in the past couple of months, so I’m super-excited that he’s coming this time. Why, you ask? Because this time I’ll actually going to be able to see and hear him speak! The first time I was working, so no way I could go; the second time I didn’t even know he was on campus, which I blame on lack of advertising; but the third time, it’s less than a month from election day and will.i.am’s supposed to open the darn thing, and no one’s sure if he’s giving a speech or a free concert. You bet I found out about it and that I got a ticket!

I don’t know what my readers’ political beliefs are or if you guys even like Obama, but I’ll tell everyone about it after the rally. They’re allowing cameras, so you bet I’ll be taking photos up the wazoo!

Hope to have good news later. Talk to you soon.

My Favorite Fantasy Stories

Posted: October 8, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections, Review, Scary Stuff
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Anyone else wondering if Mickey Mouse is hiding behind a corner?

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of of books based on Celtic and Arthurian mythology. Knights, faeries, dragons, magic and wizards. I’ve been on a bit of a fantasy binge. So I’d thought I’d devote a post to some of my favorites…not including Harry Potter. Or Tolkein. Or Lewis. Or Game of Thrones. Why none of those, you may ask? Mostly because everybody’s read them and I don’t want to just tell people what everyone know. That, and I’ve only read two of the four mentioned.

So here’s my fantasy favorites, all for your enjoyment:

THE AGE OF MISRULE by Mark Chadbourn

Honestly one of the most interesting fantasy stories I’ve ever read, weaving together both Arthurian and Celtic myths with New Age philosophy and beliefs. In modern-day Britain, strange things start happening. Dragon in the sky…electricity failing mysteriously…technology going haywire…stepping out at night becoming an extreme sport. What’s happening is the ancient gods, demons, and magical creatures of days past are returning to our world, and the only thing standing in the way of humanity being bulldozed by this change is the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, five ordinary humans who’ve been gifted with the Pendragon Spirit, a power given to them by Existence itself to help humanity weather the coming change. Together the Brothers and Sisters must learn to work together and help humanity adapt, especially when the demonic Fomorii are working to bring their master Balor back to life and wage war on the god-like Tuatha Da Danaan.

I really enjoyed this trilogy, not only because it’s unique and Mark Chadbourn knows how to write a compelling plot and characters, but because even though the world is full of supernatural dangers, I’d want to live there. Heck, I’d want ot be a Brother of Dragons, helping to bring the change to humanity. After all, it’s a simpler life, one where if you’re not working on the land, you’re learning to be in harmony with nature and the spirits around you. And you get to learn magic, which is pretty cool.

 

 

 

 

EARL AND THE FAIRY by Mizue Tani

A series of light novels, the story follows a woman named Lydia Carlton, who is one of the last few fairy doctors around (fairy doctors being people who mediate between humans and fairies). Unfortunately for her, humans in 19th century are not too predisposed to seeing or believing in fairies, so Lydia’s kind of an odd duck to other people. That is, until she meets Edgar Ashenbert, a cunning, manipulative, and mysterious nobleman who enlists Lydia’s help in reclaiming his heritage, which includes a sword that belonged to the Blue Knight Earl, a warrior who had holdings in the realm of the fairies and Edgar’s ancestor. Torn between falling in love with Edgar and hating him for using her in his schemes, Lydia becomes embroiled with supernatural events that seem to gravitate around her and Edgar, sometimes endangering both their lives.

The series is quite popular in Japan, with 29 volumes out already, and a manga and anime series based on the books out as well. Unfortunately, only the manga is available in the US, and only the first 3 volumes as of last month. Still, it is worth a read, especially if you’re looking to get into manga and need an opinion on a good one.

 

 

 

MERLIN

A TV miniseries starring Sam Neill and Miranda Richardson, Merlin chronicles the life of Merlin in his battle against the supernatural Queen Mab. The story starts several years before King Arthur, beginning with Merlin’s birth, his magic training, his animosity with Mab, the rise and fall of Arthur and Camelot, and the final defeat of Mab and the death of magic. I saw this when I was younger, and I always thought it was an amazing story, though now that I think about it I’m not sure how pissing off Merlin and doing everything you can to hurt him is supposed to save your kingdom…oh wait, now I see what Mordred’s purpose was! I really need to rewatch that series now.

The special effects aren’t Avatar or Inception-grade, but the story is compelling and even if the effects aren’t top-notch, they do look believable for their day. Sam Neill is great as a pensive, all-knowing Merlin with anger issues, while Miranda Richardson is the ultimate femme fatale, a hoarse-voiced queen of magic with spells galore and a thousand and one tricks up her sleeve. You’ll love it if you watch it.

 

 

FAIRY CUBE by Kaori Yuki

Kaori Yuki has a reputation for powerful stories with Gothic and supernatural elements. Here she upholds her reputation with Fairy Cube, a story about a boy named Ian who sees spirits and fairies and is haunted by a spirit named Tokage. When Ian is killed by his father in a drunken rage, Tokage possesses Ian’s body and starts romancing Ian’s childhood friend Rin. Determined to get his body back, Ian teams up with a fiery fairy named Ainsel and a mysterious shopkeeper named Kaito in order to get his body back and save his friend. At the same time, Ian starts to become aware of a company called Gotoh that has ties to the spirit world and has sinister plans for the human world (I always knew corporations were up to no good).

Exciting and with Kaori Yuki’s awesome art and storytelling, Fairy Cube is an exciting read for all those interested in dark fantasy in general. I certainly enjoyed it.

 

That’s all I have right now. If I think of any other stories I’d want to put up here, I’ll let you know. If you have any suggestions, if you’ve read any of these works and want to give your review of them, or if you think I’m crazy because I haven’t read Tolkein or Game of Thrones, let me know.

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