Archive for the ‘Novel’ Category

Snake

How far would you go for love and revenge?

It’s only three days away from the release of Snake, the thriller that I started nearly two years ago. I’m really excited for the release of this book, which has been quite an exciting story for me to write as well as a ton of fun to edit and prepare for publication. I’m so glad that I can finally share it with the whole wide world now that the release date is only a couple of days away.

In the meantime, I would like to announce a special contest for Snake: from now until 5 PM on Monday, June 9th, readers of this post will have the chance to win a free, autographed copy of Snake, which I will send to them from anywhere in the world. You enter by leaving this information in the comments below:

  1. Your name
  2. City, state/province, and country (only do the latter if you live outside the United States)
  3. Your favorite scary movie or book or what really scares you.
  4. Answer this question: “How far would you go for love and/or revenge?”*

Anyone 15 or older may enter the contest, as long as they are not related to me the author, did not have a hand in helping to make this novel possible, or you are not one of the people to whom this book is dedicated (sorry folks, but I don’t want to be accused of favoritism. Besides, do you really want me to call you up, make you think you’re the winner, and then tell you you’re not just to mess with you? I didn’t think so). The winner will be chosen by me personally from all the entries. And if nobody enters…well, I won’t think about it.

Anyway, I hope you decide to enter. The contest winner will be announced on June 9th, before Snake comes out, so start preparing your answers now. And if you would like more details about Snake, you can click here or watch the video trailer below. And may the best person win. Good luck, my Followers of Fear.

*I decided to do “and/or” instead of just “and” like in the novel’s tagline. Let’s face it, not everyone will go to the extreme lengths that the Snake went to. Anyway, you can enter an answer for love, for revenge, or for both, whichever you feel comfortable with. Just remember to make sure it’s an impressive answer if you want that free book.

Snake

How far will you go for love and revenge?

I never get tired of playing this video. Guess how long there’s left till Snake hits the digital bookstores?

Thank you, creepy little girl on the other end of the line. Yes, Snake will be out in seven days, exactly two years from when I began work on the novel. It also happens to be about twenty-two years from when I was born, meaning that every book sold is a birthday present.

For those who are unfamiliar with the book, Snake is a thriller novel about a young man who, in order to save his girlfriend from a powerful mafia family, becomes a serial killer called the Snake and starts hunting down members of the family in order to find her. But in the process of saving his girlfriend from the monsters holding her captive, will the Snake become a monster himself?

I’ve really been looking forward to putting Snake out, and I hope you’ll be as excited as I am come June 10th. Snake will be available in both paperback and e-book, and will be available first from Amazon before becoming available on Smashwords later on. I don’t have the price for the paperback yet (Amazon determines that, not I), but the e-book will definitely be on sale for the first couple of weeks, so it’ll be a good time to download it right after it comes out.

And guess what else? One lucky reader will be able to get a free paperback copy of Snake signed by me and sent to wherever they live in the world. The details for said contest will be made available about three days before Snake is released.

If you’d like to read more about Snake, you can check out the character interviews I released last month, or read the page for the book. Also, make sure to check out the video for the book trailer, which I’ve posted below.


That’s all for now, Followers of Fear. Expect another reminder at the three day mark (I’d do one at the five-day mark, but I don’t want to annoy my readers. That’s too much work. It’s hard enough annoying my family). Have a lovely day, everyone.

Snake

Guten morgen, meine Anhanger der Angst!

I think I said “Good morning, my Followers of Fear” in German. I was teaching myself German, but the craziness of the semester kind of ended my lessons abruptly. Anyway, these past two weeks I’ve been doing character interviews for my upcoming novel Snake, out June 10th. The first interview was with the two investigators leading the hunt for the Snake. The second interview was with the Snake’s girlfriend, Allison Langland. And today, we have the Snake himself! How exciting! Let’s hop right into it, ja?

Notes and Stats:
Sex: male
Age: 18
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Birthday: January 2
Eye color: blue
Hair color: Dark brown
Religion: If he had to describe his religious beliefs, they’d probably align with Deism.
Affiliation: None
Special Powers/Abilities: Physical strength, a very high IQ, knowledge of various ways to kill people as well as deep forensic knowledge, adept at languages and chemistry, experience with training guard dogs and with reading body language.
Notes from the Author: The Snake hasn’t changed much from my original conception of the character as a serial killer whom people might root for. At the same time, I had to really work hard to make him a believable character, because I had to make it believable that he was normal until the events of the novel turned him into a serial killer. I like to think that in the end it worked out very well, though.
Oh, and another interesting thing about the Snake: I never reveal his name in the novel. Not once. I know what it is, but I find all sorts of ways so that I can avoid using it. I did that because I wanted to show that any one of us could be like the Snake: one day an average person, the next day transforming into a killer through circumstance and necessity. It is a scary concept when you think about it, because you realize that it is possible that could happen to just about anyone. Including you.

RU: Hello, Snake.

Snake: Hello.

RU: Wow, you didn’t ask me who I was or how the heck you ended up in Berlin. That’s a first.

Snake: I have an idea.

RU: …Okay. So Snake, how goes the search for Allison Langland?

Snake: I always knew that I loved Allison. I only realized how much my love for her went when I heard her kidnapped over the phone.

RU: Wait, you were on the phone with her when she was kidnapped?

Snake: In that moment, I realized how much she meant to me, how much she lit up my life and filled me with such joy. And I felt such a loss at the thought that something might happen to her. Like a great deep hole had opened up in me where she belonged. And every second that I’m not with her, that I don’t know if she’s okay or if something horrible is happening to her…it’s agonizing.

RU: I can’t imagine. You didn’t become a killer just then, right?

Snake: No, that happened later. After I witnessed something horrible.

RU: Well, don’t reveal it here. There are some people I’d rather not hear that particular story just yet.

Snake: I think you just partially confirmed my theory about who you are.

RU: Well, I hope you turn out to be mistaken. Anyway, where are you now in your search for Allison?

Snake: I can’t really be sure how many people I’ll have to go through before I find her. I’m now hunting a man named Veretti. He actually saw Allison, if my last victim is to be trusted. If he yields valuable information, then I’ll be one step closer in my search for her. That’s all I care about, really. Finding Allison. And I won’t let anyone get in my way.

RU: Well, I’ll let you get back to it. Good luck.

Remember, Snake comes out June 10, and will be available in paperback and e-book. And if you’d like to find out more about Snake before that date, you can read the other interviews or you can check out the Snake page here. And if you’d like something to tide you over until the book actually comes out, Reborn City’s e-book is still available for $0.99 on Amazon and Smashwords. Better download it before June 1st, or the price will go up a dollar.

That’s all for now. I’ve got a trip to a museum in a few hours. Auf weiderschein, as they say here. I hope I can write again before I come back!

Snake

Bonjour from Bayeux. I’m in France right now, and if you’ve been keeping up with that blog on OSU’s website I posted about a while back, you know how I’m doing. But enough about France. Last week we met the two investigators who are hunting for the Snake. If you’ve read the blurb for Snake (and if you haven’t, click here now), you know the Snake’s trying to save the woman he loves. It’s a messed-up way to save the woman he loves, but it’s why he’s doing it. And today I whisked her out of the book for you to meet. So let’s get this interview underway!

Notes and Stats
Sex: female
Age: 17
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Birthday: March 29
Eye color: Blue
Hair color: Red
Religion: she doesn’t really subscribe to any religion. To her, if there’s a god, then it’s beyond her understanding, so why bother thinking about it?
Affiliation: None
Special Powers/Abilities: None
Notes from the Author: The idea for the story of Snake started with a serial killer who people would root for, so I needed a good reason for the Snake to kill. That’s where Allison came in: she was meant to be the reason. With her kidnapping, the Snake realizes that his love for her is deeper than he imagined, and that facilitates his transformation into a killer. However, I didn’t want her to be one of those crybaby girls who always scream and cling to the nearest guy the moment trouble hits. So I made sure her personality had a certain fire to it. Even when she’s in the throes of terror and trauma, that fire shines through, and that’s the reason I love her, as well as why she’s able to grow in this novel.

RU: First off Allison, welcome to France.

Allison: Who the heck are you? And how the heck did I end up in France?

RU: They always ask me that when I bring them for interviews. Allison, tell me about what’s happened to you recently, starting with the night you were kidnapped.

Allison: I was accompanying my dad to some social. He’s a doctor for the rich, so he gets invited to some really big parties. When he doesn’t have a date, I usually end up going with him. That’s what happened that night. I decided to get away from the party for a little bit, but on the way back from the bathroom, I overheard something. The party was at this hotel and I passed this conference room, and…

RU: Take your time. What happened next?

Allison: I heard a friend of my dad’s, a Christopher Camerlengo, talking about something. He’s the head of his own mafia family, though he wouldn’t tell you about it unless he wanted to knock your teeth in. Anyway, it sounded like they wanted to kill somebody. I recorded it on my phone, but they saw me outside the door. I got out of the hotel and tried to get away, but they found me and grabbed me. They tried to get my phone too, but it fell into a drain.

RU: What happened afterwards?

Allison: I was kept at a warehouse for a while, but then they moved me to this…phone sex service they own. They said they’re going to let me live if I behave myself and don’t rock the boat. I don’t know how long they plan to keep me here though. I’m kind of scared…and disgusted. I mean, I’m operating the phones all day and through most of the night. You would not believe what these people who call in make me pretend to do.

RU: I think I’ll use my imagination on that one.

Allison: Well, I’ve got a plan. Someone called in today, a policeman. I think he could help me get out of here.

RU: Oh. Well, good luck.

That’s all for now. Join me again in seven days when I’m in Berlin and I speak to the Snake himself! It’ll either be the best interview I’ve ever had with one of my characters…or we won’t see any sequels on account of my being dead.

And remember, Snake drops on June 10th. It’ll be available in e-book and in paperback from Amazon and then later on will be uploaded onto Smashwords, and I’ll be counting down the days till it comes out. In the meantime, Reborn City is still on sale, so check it out on Amazon and Smashwords while the sale is still going on.

Until then, au revoir!

One month away.

One month away.

I may be in Europe right now, but that doesn’t mean I’m not taking a break! My novel Snake is coming out in a month, and I thought I’d sit down with Blake Harnist and Angela Murtz, two characters who are on the investigative team that is searching for the protagonist, to get their thoughts on the case.

Notes and Stats
Sex: Angela Murtz is female, while Blake Harnist is male.
Age: Murtz is 33, while Harnist is 29
Race/Ethnicity: Murtz is African-American, while Blake is Caucasian.
Birthday: Murtz is October 12 and Harnist is March 17
Eye color: Both are brown eyed.
Hair color: Murtz has dark-brown hair, Harnist is blonde.
Religion: Murtz is Baptist, while Harnist is Methodist.
Affiliation: Murtz is an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while Harnist is a detective with the New York Police Department.
Special Powers/Abilities: Both are trained law enforcement officials with several years of experience. In addition, Murtz is a criminal profiler who has profiled numerous dangerous criminals, her latest being the New York Mafia Killer.
Notes from the Author: When I decided that I would have the viewpoint of the investigators hunting for the protagonist, I also decided that I’d like a Mulder/Scully pairing for my investigative team. So that led to the creation of Murtz and Harnist. They’re both two very different characters, but they make a good pair and work well together. Of the two though, Murtz is probably the one I placed more emphasis on because she profiles the Snake and is one of the first to really figure out who he is, though I did try to give them both equal time on the page.

RU: Hello! Welcome to London, Agent Murtz and Detective Harnist.

Harnist: London?
Murtz: How the hell we end up here?

RU: So you guys are currently looking for the New York Mafia Killer. His body count’s up to…what now?

Harnist: Three. Thomas Luiso was just found dead in his mistress’s home.

RU: What can you tell us about the killer?

Murtz: At this time we believe he may be former Russian military with ties to the Russian mob. He’s probably spent a number of years in or around New York, and he’s probably employed as a cab driver.

RU: If he has ties to the Russian mob, why is he going after members of the Camerlengo family?

Harnist: The Camerlengo family is probably the most powerful family in New York. He may be trying to destabilize the organization by killing certain members off. If he continues to do so, the organization might crumble from internal problems or from other organizations trying to muscle in on Camerlengo territory.

RU: And what if I told you I know who the killer is?

Murtz: You what?
Harnist: Who is it?

RU: I’m not saying. That’s all for now, folks. Join me in about a week when I’ll be in France and when I interview Allison Langland, who has a very important connect to the Snake.

And in the meantime, if you would like to learn more about Snake, you can click here to read an excerpt or see the book trailer. And remember, Snake drops June 10 on Amazon, and available for e-book and paperback. Get excited for it, because I already am.

And a reminder, Reborn City is still on sale throughout the month on Amazon and Smashwords. Get it now, because it’s the best time to do it.

Until next time. Cheerio!

Some of you may recall a while back that I wanted to get to a certain stopping point in my work-in-progress Laura Horn before I went off on my study abroad trip. And last night, after a lot of work, some hilarious SNL skits, and just the craziness that is my life, I got to that point. Chapter Thirty-Five, the perfect stopping point at this point, has been reached. And it was over twenty-five hundred words, so when I was finished, I was frankly relieved.

Also, I would’ve written about this last night, but by that time I was thinking about going to bed. Which I did.

At this point, if I manage to get any more chapters written, it’ll be a miracle, as well as icing on the cake. The likelihood of that though is pretty slim at this point, because obviously I have a study abroad trip to prepare for. But if I do, then lucky me. I still have thirty chapters left to write. Anything that makes that remaining material a bit easier to handle is A-OK in my book.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ve got to get ready for my meditation class, so I’ll be signing off. I’ll write some more if I actually get my final grades back this afternoon (God-willing).

And to all my fellow Star Wars fans, May the 4th be with you on this most auspicious of days. Or as Chewbacca would say, “Graaaaaaaaaargh!”

Reborn City

It’s been exactly six months since Reborn City was released. I can’t believe how long it’s been since RC first came out. I’ve sold some copies, gotten five reviews, and I managed to get to the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Not bad for a first book.

For those of you who don’t know much about RC, the novel is the first in a trilogy. It tells the story of Zahara Bakur, a Muslim teenager living in a world that has emerged from the ashes of a third world war. The society she lives in is made up mostly of small nations and independent city-states, some of which are plagued with Islamaphobia due to the role certain terrorist groups played in the war. This includes Reborn City, where Zahara lives, and this hatred gets her parents killed. Soon afterwards, she is forced to join an interracial street gang, the Hydras, in order to repay one of the leaders, Rip, for saving her life. However things get worse after that: the leaders in the Hydras all have very strange powers, and there is a rumor it’s connected to the corporation that rules over Reborn City, the Parthenon Company. The decisions she and her new friends make will impact not only her life, but the lives of so many others.

And apparently people have enjoyed reading it. Check out some of these reviews:

This is not a genre I typically delve into, but I took this book on vacation and couldn’t put it down. The plot had me turning pages at quite the clip. The characters were unique and interesting and the imagery had me creating my own visual of what Rami’s interpretation of the future looked like. For first time novelist, Rami Ungar, this was an outstanding showing of talent and commitment to his passion of writing. Looking forward to seeing what he comes up with next!

Michele Kurland

Gangland violence, superhero-like enhancements, a futuristic setting, and social commentary that stems from a semi-post-apocalyptic theme. And then there’s a story where people come together as a family to deal with mutual loss and tragedy. What’s not to like?

Matthew Williams, author of Whiskey Delta and Papa Zulu

As a reader who does not read books in this genre, I must admit that I could not put down the book. I attribute this to the talent of the author. I am looking forward to reading the next books published by Ungar. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy action with features of supernatural powers and sci-fi.

Enji

And for the six-month anniversary, I’ve done some really awesome things. For one thing, I’ve uploaded a second edition, free of any editing or technical problems with the book (I hope). Secondly, I’ve put RC‘s ebook on sale. From today, May 1st, to May 31st, RC’s ebook will be available for $0.99. That’s two dollars lower than usual. Afterwards from June 1st to June 14th, RC will be available for $1.99.  So right now is the best time to get the e-book and see for yourself whether or not you like Zahara and the Hydras.

I wish I could say that the print paperback is also on sale. Regrettably though, Amazon controls that, not me. But you can still get the physical book for $8.80, which is a very good price for a book.

So if you decide to check out Reborn City, you can find it on Amazon and on Smashwords. If you’d like to read a bit of it before you do, you can read some of it by checking out this excerpt. And if you do decide to read RC, please let me know what you think. Write a review or leave a comment. Positive or negative, I really don’t care. I just want your feedback.

That’s all for now. I hope you all enjoy reading RC and I hope to do some editing on the sequel, Video Rage, this summer when I get back from Europe. Have a wonderful day, my Followers of Fear!

I can’t believe how soon it will be before I’m flying overseas to study WWII. But everywhere around me, I find the things that remind me how little time is left before I go. The constant email reminders, the calls between my medical insurance company to make sure that I have all my medication before I go, the planned shopping trip with my dad to get me some last minute clothes, the research into plugs so I know if I have to stop by RadioShack for adapters. Any day now I’m going to wake up, get dressed, and then head off to the airport.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m going on a study abroad trip to England, France, and Germany to study WWII, particularly the European theater. There’s about fourteen students, including me, and two teachers accompanying us overseas. Everyone on the trip has been studying together since the beginning of the semester, so we’ve all gotten to know each other as well. I’m so looking forward to this trip. We’ll be seeing Churchill’s bunker, the place where Turing cracked Germany’s codes, Omaha Beach and the Pegasus Bridge, the Paris Shoah Museum and the place where the Versailles treaty was signed, Wannsee and Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and so many other places. In addition, there are many places I and my classmates want to visit while we’re abroad. There’s been talk of seeing an actual Shakespeare at the Globe (we’re thinking of seeing Titus Andronicus; I wonder if my classmates realize that’s one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest and most violent plays?), and we’re in Paris I plan on going down into the catacombs (God help anyone who gets in my way). Oh, and there’s apparently an actual British police box somewhere in London. I’m so visiting that with my sonic screwdriver.

The TARDIS! Allons-y!

Sadly though, I won’t be doing a lot of blogging or blog-reading while I’m gone. I plan mostly to disconnect from the Internet while I’m abroad, so I can get as much of Europe as I can while I’m there. I’ll also be writing a lot less than I normally would (that’ll be agony in itself, but I’ll survive). However, the university is requiring us to keep blogs while we’re abroad, so I’m posting the link for mine here. And if for some reason there’s a problem with the link, my blog address for when I’m abroad is u [dot] osu [dot] edu [slash] ungar [dot] 19. So if you want to know what I’m up to while I’m abroad, just go to that site and you can read all about it.

So wish me luck while I’m abroad. I promise to come back with plenty of stories and a couple of blog posts about my time there (and whether or not I met any ghosts in the catacombs or if I managed to successfully prank anyone on my trip). And trust me, there will be plenty of photos. I even have plans to make a video slideshow of my trip once I get back. It’ll have the most amazing music too.

Oh, one more thing: I’d just like to remind everyone from May 1st-31st, Reborn City‘s e-book will be on sale for 99 cents. You read that right, 99 cents. So if you’re interested in reading the book and you have an e-reader, now would be a good time to get a copy. Once June 1st comes around, the price will go up to $1.99, and on June 14th the price will go back to the normal $2.99. So check it out while it’s on sale! And if you like or hate RC, please write me a review. I love feedback, whether it be positive or negative.

That’s all for now. I’ve got some work to do, so I’ll do some more blogging later. Have a good day, my Followers of Fear.

You may be familiar with my WIP Laura Horn, which I started last year and which I’ve had a heck of a time just trying to get halfway through. Between school, work, and other projects, it’s been a struggle to work on this novel, which is sad because I think it has a lot of potential. If I can only get through the first draft, I’d be able to test that theory about its potential!

But as I’ve spoken about before here, my study abroad trip will be in a little over a week (my, how time flies!), and I’ll be taking a break from blogging, writing, and most computer-related activities to go explore England, France, and Germany. This includes working on Laura Horn. Most likely I’ll kill some time in the airport on it while waiting for my flight to Heathrow, but after that it won’t be till late May that I’ll be able to work on it.

The good news is that since I took my finals, submitted my final papers, and now only have the distractions of work, trip preparation, and whatever’s on TV/in theaters/on my bookshelf to keep me from writing, I’ve been able to make a lot of progress on Laura Horn. In the past couple of days, I finished one chapter that I’d started on about two weeks ago and wrote about three more chapters. This has me elated, and I’m planning on getting more done before I go off on my trip. I hope to at least get three more done before I leave, because I’ll be a little over halfway through the novel then and when you know you’re well beyond the halfway point, the process of writing a novel becomes a bit easier and you find yourself being less intimidated by the amount of writing you have to do.

In any case, I plan on making some wonderful progress with this novel, and hopefully when I get back from Europe, I’ll be able to finish it by midway through July at the very latest. If I can do that, then I will probably feel less regret that I took so many breaks with writing the novel and look forward more to the editing and publishing process. That’s the hope, in any case.

In the meantime, I’m going to head to bed with the hopes that, after having watched a couple of scary movies these past couple of days and with the possibility of watching one more tomorrow (Oculus, to be exact), my twisted imagination cam come up with something really fun and creepy to write. In fact, I’ve been playing with this idea in my head for a story. I know how it’d start, but I can’t seem to figure out how to get the story to go beyond the first scene. Here’s hoping I can come up with something in my sleep!

And with that, I wish you a good night, my Followers of Fear. Pleasant nightmares, one and all!

I was very excited to read Angela’s first book (you should read my interview with her back in late March) and I’m sorry it took me so long to get through it. Now that I have, I have to say I had a lot of fun reading the first book of the Portia Adams adventures.

Jewel of the Thames is three stories (or “casebooks”) in one book, each detailing a different case young Portia Adams, a young woman with an inquisitive eye and a thirst for knowledge who moves to London from Toronto upon inheriting a very notorious property from some very distinguished ancestors. When she gets to London with her guardian Irene Jones and moves into 221B Baker Street (yes, you read that address right), she soon finds herself getting into some very interesting mysteries, each one more thrilling than the last, and all will have you scratching your head till the last page. Of course, the most interesting mystery will turn out to be Portia’s ancestry, and its resolution at the end of the book will leave you stunned. Or at least it did me, and I had an inkling on how the story would end.

I only had a few critiques on the story. One is that a couple of moments in the story, Angela uses more telling than she does showing. That’s not a huge problem, but I thought a little more showing would make the scenes a bit more real to me. Also, I would’ve liked to see more delving into the lives and personalities of the other characters, even those that only showed up for one or two pages. Portia’s the most developed of all the characters, and I’d like to know more about Constable Brian Dawes, or about Sergeant Michaels and Mr. Archer, or even that snooty girl from Portia’s class at Somerville (I’d love to see her mentioned in a sequel! Imagine if they became friends).

All in all, JotT is a wonderful book for mystery readers looking for an exciting new read and especially for fans of Sherlock Holmes stories, earning a 4.5 out of 5 from yours truly. I can’t wait to read the sequel.