Archive for the ‘Novel’ Category

The Video Rage Blog Book Tour!

Posted: May 1, 2016 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Well, it’s May 1st, which means we’re one month away from the release of Video Rage, the sequel to the enormously popular Reborn City! With that in mind, I wanted to do something I’ve never done with a book or on this blog before: a blog book tour!

Now if you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a blog book tour, it’s like an actual book tour, but instead of visiting bookstores I’ll be visiting blogs, doing interviews, or guest blog posts, or giving bloggers a chance to read either RC or VR and give reviews.

With that in mind, I wanted to ask if any of you, my Followers of Fear, wanted to help me out with this. I’m already eyeing a number of websites that do interviews and book promos and whatnot, but I was wondering if any of you would like to pitch in. I’m trying to get as many people in reading both RC and VR as possible, so the more the merrier (as long as it’s not too many. Otherwise I might rip my hair out).

So if you’re interested, please leave a comment below. I’ll be making up a schedule soon, so get excited! I know I certainly am already.

#FirstLineFriday

Posted: April 15, 2016 in Novel, Writing
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It’s Friday again, so you know what that means. It’s #FirstLineFriday!

Now, if you’re new here and don’t know what I’m talking about at all, let me break it down for you. On Fridays, you:

  1. Create a post on your blog titled “#FirstLineFriday”, hashtag and all.
  2. Explain the rules like I’m doing now.
  3. Post the first one or two lines of a potential story, a story in progress, or a completed or published work.
  4. Ask your readers for feedback and then encourage them to do #FirstLineFriday, tagging them if necessary.

This week, you can probably guess what lines I’m posting. That’s right, the first two lines from Video Rage, my new novel, coming out this June 1st. Enjoy:

The sunbaked concrete and metal in the hundred-plus degree heat, the many cars and trucks reflected light off their chrome bodies like blinding beasts zooming down the highway. As truckers listened to country and rock music and children played video games on the backs of their parents’ car seats, some occasionally looked out to see a marvel of the modern world on the road.

Thoughts? Errors? Does this get you excited in any way for the new book? Let’s discuss in the comments below.

And while you’re at it, why not try #FirstLineFriday yourself? It’s a lot of fun, and it’s great practice for openings in stories.

That’s all for now. I’ve got a big weekend ahead of me, so I’m going to get right into it. If anything happens in the meantime, I’ll let you know. Have a good one, my Followers of Fear!

And make sure to check out Reborn City, available on Amazon, Createspace, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords, and soon on iBooks and Kobo, before Video Rage comes out. Trust me, you don’t want to miss the new book when it comes out, so why not check out the one that came before?

Video Rage: Cover Art and Release Date

Posted: April 12, 2016 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I’ve been dying to make this announcement since last week. Well, better now than never. As many of you know, I’ve been working on getting out Video Rage, the sequel to my science fiction novel Reborn City, out some time this year. I recently finished the final draft, and at last update I said a friend of mine was working on the cover art for VR. Well, today I finally got the art that will be gracing the cover of VR. Even better, I now have a release date!

Yes indeed, very exciting. Now before you scroll down and check out the amazing cover art, let me tell you about how it was created. My friend Joleene Naylor (check out her blog here) does covers on occasion, and when she does she does amazing work. After carefully describing what I wanted for the cover, she did a couple of drafts and sent me the mock-ups, adjusting with my feedback. When she gave me the final draft, it was like it was something right out of my imagination. I was so amazed with Joleene’s work, which was compiled using the works of artjazz, welcomia, Maltaguy1, kirstypargeter, and Joleene herself.

Pretty sure I’m legally or at least ethically obligated to list all that.

So without further ado, here is the cover art of Video Rage!

VIDEO RAGE - HIGH RES

Pretty cool, huh? And if you look closely at the image, you might see a familiar American monument. Yeah, that’s what you think it is. And something’s happening to it. What? I will say that it involves events that occur near the climax of the novel. Want to know what exact events? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

And speaking of which, I promised a release date for Video Rage, didn’t I? Well, there’s good news on that front. I’ll be releasing VR on June 1st. Yes, in one month and nineteen days, Video Rage will be available from as many platforms as possible, paperback and e-book. I’m sending the manuscript off to the US Copyright office tonight for the extra added protection. Then I’ll finish up getting all my other books onto other platforms, and then I think I’ll do a great big blog tour. I’ve never done one, so it should be interesting. I hope it’ll get people interested in reading Reborn City and Video Rage.

Reborn City, the book prior to Video Rage. Available now.

Speaking of which, if you’re interested in reading Reborn City before Video Rage comes out, I’ve lowered the price on the e-books. The paperback costs the same as ever, can’t change that much, but it’s now available on Barnes & Noble as well as Amazon, Nook, and Smashwords. And I plan to add it to iBooks and Kobo as soon as possible, so if you use those platforms I should have some updates on that soon.

That’s all for now. I’m going to get to work on making sure the book is ready for June 1st. If there are any updates, I’ll make sure you all know it. Get excited, my Followers of Fear. I know I am.

My Books Are Now Available on Nook

Posted: April 10, 2016 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, short story, Writing
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As many of you know, up till now my books were only available from Amazon and Smashwords. I didn’t do other platforms for a number of reasons. One was that Amazon and Smashwords are two major retailers (though the majority of my sales come from the former), so I thought that they were all that I needed. Heck, I even thought that I could be successful using those platforms.

Mostly though, I’m just lazy. I didn’t want to go through the extra trouble of uploading books onto so many platforms. Yeah, I admit it. But recently I realized that if I really want to get as many books out to as many people as possible, I really should diversify the platforms my books are on. For all I know, there could be a lot of people who want to read my books but can’t because they are not on their preferred shopping site or e-book platform. That is something, as an author, I can no longer allow. Not if I’m serious about being an author.

So, before Video Rage comes out (more on that in a future post), I’m making sure my books are available on as many different platforms as possible. Starting with Nook, Barnes & Noble’s answer to the Kindle and one of the most popular brands of e-reader. And as of today, The Quiet Game, Reborn City, and Snake are available to readers through Nook.

And if you’re unfamiliar with my books, here are some short summaries and the links:

The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones

tqg cover

In his publishing debut, Rami Ungar brings us five terrifying stories of darkness in magic. You can experience the strange visions of a man battling sex addiction in “Addict”. Or feel the wrath of an enraged dybbuk in “Samson Weiss’s Curse”. Face your fears in Gene Adkin’s Murder House in “I’m Going To Be The Next James Bond” and then journey with a young autistic “In The Lady Ogre’s Den”. But most of all, prepare to play the most insidious game of all: The Quiet Game.

Now Available on Amazon, Createspace, Barnes & Noble, Nook, and Smashwords

Reborn City

Zahara Bakur is a Muslim teenager recently moved into the gambling town of Reborn City. After her parents are killed by gang violence, Zahara is forced to join the Hydras, an interracial gang whose leaders have supernatural abilities. As the violence in Reborn City escalates and Zahara becomes closer to the Hydras, including the quiet but stern Rip, she finds herself drawn into a dark conspiracy involving the origins of the leaders and the shadowy corporation that rules over Reborn City.

Available on Amazon, Createspace, Nook, and Smashwords

Snake

Cover of Snake by Rami Ungar

How far will you go for love and revenge? When a young man’s girlfriend is kidnapped by the powerful Camerlengo Family, he becomes the Snake, a serial killer who takes his methods from the worst of the Russian mafia. Tracking down members of the Camerlengo Family one by one for clues, the Snake will go to any lengths to see the love of his life again…even if it means becoming a worse monster than any of the monsters he is hunting.

Available from Amazon, Createspace, Nook, and Smashwords

My next mission–besides getting VR ready for publication some time in the next couple of months–is to get Reborn City and Snake available in print through Barnes & Noble (The Quiet Game is already available on that platform, a story for another time). After that, I’ll work on getting all three onto iBooks and then on Kobo. After that…well, if there are any other platforms I should know about, I hope you will remind me.

That’s all for now. I’ve got a meditation class to prepare for, so I’ve got to go. I hope you all have a great day, and I hope that the new platforms help you enjoy a new story that maybe you’ve been looking forward to for quite some time. Until next time, my Followers of Fear. Happy reading.

Review: “No Matter How Improbable” by Angela Misri

Posted: April 2, 2016 in Novel, Review, Writing
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"No Matter How Improbable" by Angela Misri

“No Matter How Improbable” by Angela Misri

I’m of the opinion that the third book in a series can be really hard to pull off, especially when the first two books were just that awesome. I’m glad to say that while the third book in the Portia Adams Adventure series by friend and fellow writer Angela Misri is a bit darker than the previous two books, it’s still a great read and I enjoyed reading it from start to finish.

So if you’re unfamiliar with the book series, it follows Portia Constance Adams, a young woman who finds out she’s the granddaughter of John Watson (as in Holmes and Watson), and moves into 221B Baker Street and begins solving mysteries in 1930s London. The third book starts with Portia now known to the great wide world as the new consulting detective at 221B, and, in addition to a bit of annoying notoriety, she’s dealing with some rather upsetting aspects of being human. Namely, you sometimes argue with, and sometimes you even lose some friends.

These themes of struggle with your friends and loss are present throughout the book, and they can be either a plus or a minus, depending on the reader. In my case, I think I’ll go with a plus. Seeing Portia’s struggles with her friends, which often are somehow wrapped up with the cases she’s taking on, makes for great character development, and makes you want to read more to see how she resolves these problems. You also feel a lot of what Portia’s feeling as you read on, which shows how good Angela is at making you feel what the character feels.

I also found the cases in the story very compelling. Again, I struggled trying to figure out who the culprit or culprits were in each case, and each time I was pleasantly surprised (I’m better at figuring out culprits on crime shows than I am in the books, it seems). My favorite was the mystery “Principessa”, which follows the actual Princess Francesca Maria of the Italian royal family. It was pretty cool, seeing an actual figure from history in a historical mystery novel.

If there were things I thought could’ve been improved upon, I did think that the final casebook was a little crowded. So much was going on in that book–a strange death, a couple of odd men following a friend of Portia’s, and a suspicious psychologist–that it’s hard to keep track of what is part of which case when. That, and in the beginning of the last chapter, there’s a scene where Portia shows some really deep emotion, but it’s only glanced over. I really would’ve enjoyed seeing more attention paid to that scene, as I think it would’ve been a very memorable scene if that had been the case.

Other than that, I really enjoyed No Matter How Improbable. It was a great read, and I really can’t wait for the fourth book. On a scale of 1 to 5, I’m giving it a 4.3 out of 5. Definitely check it out (and the first two books, too) if you have the chance.

Video Rage: Begin the Final Draft!

Posted: March 31, 2016 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I came home from the grocery story just a little while ago, and logged into my email after I put the groceries away. I was surprised and pleased to see an email from my fabulous editor, Britney Thompson Mills, with her marks and remarks on the third draft of Video Rage. You know what that means! One more draft and we begin the publication process!

Now if you don’t know what Video Rage is, it’s the sequel to my first novel, Reborn City.  And if you don’t know what Reborn City is, it’s the story of street gangs in a dystopian city-state in Earth’s near future, and a conspiracy involving the leaders of a rising gang known as the Hydras and the leaders of the city. The novel features themes of Islamaphobia, racism, drug addiction, gang violence, and overcoming other people’s expectations. It’s also a bit more realistic than other dystopian stories, with problems that mirror problems of today’s world, and a society that you can actually imagine forming.

Reborn City, my very first published novel.

Reborn City, my very first published novel.

The sequel to Reborn City, Video Rage, follows the Hydras soon after the end of the first novel, as they face the same problems made that much worse, and deal with new threats that are intent on taking their lives. I’ve been working on VR since my third year of college, and I’m glad to see that we’re finally just one step away from publication. So I’ll take a break from working on Rose–I’ve only gotten a tiny bit of that edited, anyway, so no big deal–and get through VR as fast as my little fingers can type.

In fact, I think I’ll start tonight! Look forward to seeing a post with a release date some time in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, why not check out Reborn City? A lot of people have told me that they really enjoyed reading the book, and that they cannot wait to read VR. So if you think it sounds interesting and want to check the novel out, you can find copies in paperback and e-book from Amazon, Createspace, and Smashwords. And whatever your thoughts, please let me know what you think. Review, comment, I love some good feedback, and I would love to hear yours.

And if you’re an author looking for someone to edit your book, why not check out Britney’s website? She’s got great skills and she’ll give your book the touch-up it needs. I speak from personal experience, and I highly recommend her.

That’s all for now. See you in a few hours, when it’s Friday (you know what that means). I’m off to edit!

#FirstLineFriday

Posted: March 25, 2016 in ideas, Novel, Writing
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It’s Friday again, so you know what that means. It’s #FirstLineFriday!

Now if you’re unfamiliar with what #FirstLineFriday is, here are the rules. On Fridays, you:

  1. Create a post on your blog entitled #FirstLineFriday, hashtag and all.
  2. Explain the rules like I’m doing now.
  3. Post the first one or two lines of a potential story, a story-in-progress, or a completed or published story.
  4. Ask your readers for feedback and encourage them to try #FirstLineFriday as well (tagging them if necessary).

This week’s entry comes from a story I’ve had sitting in the back of my head for a while. Without going into details, it involves issues of faith and belief, as well as devotion and power. It’ll be a very dark and probably bleak book when it’s finally written. Anyway, enjoy:

I remember the day I lost faith almost as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. Probably a good thing too, because my lack of faith is what allowed me to survive.

Thoughts? Errors? Let’s discuss.

And while we’re here, I think I’ll tag someone again. This week I’m tagging…Angela Misri of A Portia Adams Adventure! Angela, in honor of your new book, No Matter How Improbable, being released, I hereby tag you for #FirstLineFriday. Hope you enjoy doing it almost as much as I do every week. Or as much as I’m enjoying the new book. I’m about nine or ten chapters in at the time I’m writing this, and I have to say, I find it very intriguing. Especially including real historical figures in the story. That’s a pretty cool touch.

That’s all for now. If there’s anything else to post about this weekend, you’ll hear about it. In the meantime, have a good day and I’ll see you all later. Have a good one, my Followers of Fear!

Prepping to Work on “Rose” Again

Posted: March 21, 2016 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
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So I finished that outline for that new novel I plan to write for NaNoWriMo later this year. First draft of the outline, anyway. I probably will revisit it again before November, make some more tweaks and possibly add a scene or two. It’s a ghost story, and since ghost stories tend to involve the protagonist or protagonists being affected on a very personal level by the spirits involved, often by exacerbating personal problems as well as actually haunting the people involved (ghosts and ghost stories are very intimate that way, I’ve noticed), I’ll want to make sure that that’s done right in this story before I write it.

Now that that’s taken care of, I’m finally getting around to working on Rose, the novel I wrote as a thesis for my senior year of college. If you’re unfamiliar with that novel, it’s about a woman with amnesia who finds herself trapped in the home of a man who says he’s her boyfriend, her body going through astounding changes which this man says was to save her life. I started writing it in September 2014, went back a couple weeks later to rework the entire story because the direction I was going in at first just wasn’t right for the story I wanted to tell, and finished the first draft in January 2015. Not too long afterwards I did a second draft that I finished around April, and I haven’t touched it since.

So yeah, it’s been nearly a year since I worked on that novel. But between working and living in Germany, writing some original short stories and editing Video Rage twice and giving Laura Horn a much-needed second draft, can you blame me?

Okay, I might have also been a bit hesitant to approach Rose again. During my thesis defense at the end of my senior year, my advisor told me that if I were to get Rose up to the level worthy of getting it published, I would have to do quite a lot of work on it. And not just grammar and spelling, though that was mostly okay. I had to work in new scenes, space out some others, rework a couple of characters, and change a bunch of stuff in the beginning of the book. Add to that the normal work of editing, and I’ve got one hell of a third draft ahead of me. It’s a bit intimidating, almost like starting a new novel and facing a blank page asking for sixty-thousand plus words.

Yeah, the horror writer’s scared of his own creation. Make fun of him and the irony. Go ahead, get it out of your system.

But you know what? I think I’m up for the task. I took Laura Horn, which I was sure would need an entire rewrite, and the worst that it came to was a few tossed chapters and one major plot point subtly changed to better reflect actual circumstances. If I can tackle that (and LH was a much longer book, by the way), I think I can tackle Rose.

And not only that, but with this being the third draft, I think once this is one I can send it to n editor for a final look-over before I get ready to publish the book. So if we’re lucky, I could have Rose ready for publication by the end of the year. Wouldn’t that be great?

So I’m going to get two articles out of the way, and then I’m going to get straight onto Rose (unless I get the notes back on VR, in which case editing that takes precedence). Wish me luck, my Followers of Fear. I’m going to be very busy these next couple of months (though that is kind of my life in general).

Review: “Within These Walls” by Ania Ahlborn

Posted: March 7, 2016 in Novel, Review, Scary Stuff
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“Within These Walls” by Ania Ahlborn

I’m honestly surprised I haven’t heard of Ania Ahlborn before. I got a recommendation from Audible a couple of months ago to try one of her books, and I ended up getting the paperback version after I finished A Storm of Swords. I’m glad I did, because Within These Walls is one of the scariest books I’ve ever read, on par with the likes of Stephen King.

Within These Walls follows Lucas Graham, a true-crime writer whose career has reached its peak and has since spiraled down into the dust. He gets a letter in the mail from Jeffrey Halcomb, an incarcerated cult leader whose followers killed themselves back in the 1980’s, offering to give Graham his previously-unheard story if Graham promises to live in the house that Halcomb’s followers killed themselves in. With his marriage on the rocks and no other options, Graham and his teenage daughter pack up and head out to the house in Washington, where they find that Halcomb’s promises to his followers of eternal life might be more than just talk.

It’s going to be hard to summarize all that I loved about this book, but I will try. First, it’s hard to put down. The story twists and turns, making you guess where Ahlborn is taking her book every moment. I also liked how she could capture the voices of each of her different POV characters. Lucas comes across as both desperate and obsessed, consumed by the promise of Halcomb’s story and what it could do for his life. Flashbacks told through the eyes of Audra Snow, one of Halcomb’s followrs, really break your heart as you see her fall under Halcomb’s spell. But best of all are the chapters told through the eyes of Jeanie, Graham’s teenage daughter. Teenage logic and thought processes are contradictory, ruled by emotional swings, and not always bound by the rules of the real world, and Ahlborn captures that so well with Jeanie. It actually taught me a couple of things about writing for that age group, something I’ll hopefully keep with me in future stories.

But really, the best part is the scares. Every scare is perfectly done, like something out of a horror movie. In fact, this would be a great movie. Why isn’t this a movie yet? From the initial move-in to the house, to the powerful, climactic end, every spooky scare will chill you and make you worry for the characters and for your sleep. It’s just wonderful.

The one problem I had was that I would’ve liked Graham to maybe investigate some of the house’s history as well as Jeffrey Halcomb and his followers. There’s documents in between a few chapters that go over the house’s history, among other things, but I think it would’ve been interesting if Graham had read some of those and had been affected by them. But it’s a small point, so whatever. I still enjoyed the book.

All in all, Within These Walls a 4.8 out of 5. It’s scary, it’s exciting right till the end, and I will definitely be checking out Ahlborn’s work in the future. If you like a good horror novel, this might be the one for you.

Oh by the way, after I finished this book, I watched a movie over dinner called The Veil about a cult with strange, supernatural happenings, which I only found out after I started watching it. And both the book and the movie were probably inspired by Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre, which I read up on this afternoon after I heard the new Outlast horror game was inspired by the happenings at Jonestown. That’s like four Jonestown-related things in one day. I seriously hope that’s a coincidence and not God giving me a sign for what I should do with the rest of my life.

#FirstLineFriday

Posted: March 4, 2016 in ideas, Novel, Writing
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It’s Friday again, so you know what that means. It’s #FirstLineFriday!

If you’re new here and don’t know what #FirstLineFriday is, let me start by telling you that it’s a fun weekly ritual to take up (and it’s a lot less costly than animal or human sacrifice. Also requires less clean up). So here’s how it works. On Fridays, you:

  1. Create a blog post with the title #FirstLineFriday, hashtag and all.
  2. Explain the rules like I’m doing.
  3. Post the first one or two lines of a potential work, work-in-progress, or completed or published story.
  4. Finally, ask your readers for feedback and encourage them to try it on their own blogs.

This week’s entry comes from an idea I had a few weeks back for a novel that might be classified as science-horror. I’m not sure, it’s got some elements that could be classified as horror, but at the same time part of the conflict of the story involves a science-fiction plot device, so it kind of straddles the two. I’m not making any sense, am I? Well, whatever. Here are the lines that would start this story. Enjoy:

Catherine had been working at the Warner-Marigold Motel for three years, and she was on track for a promotion in the next year or so. Of course, that might only be because she was the only one on the cleaning staff who was willing to clean Room A16, known among the staff as the Suicide Room.

Thoughts? Errors? Let me know in the comments below.

And while you’re at it, why not do #FirstLineFriday on your blog? It’s great fun, and for writers it’s not only good practice, but it’s a great way to test different openings for various stories. I’ve certainly enjoyed doing it, and I started doing this on my blog nearly a year ago.

That’s all for now. If I have somethig to blog about, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I’ll see you guys around. Have a great weekend, my Followers of Fear. I know I will.

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