Archive for the ‘Scary Stuff’ Category

The Quiet Game: Two Weeks Since Publication

Posted: July 31, 2013 in Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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tqg cover

It’s been officially two weeks since The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones became available on Amazon and Smashwords. In that amount of time, I’ve received a lot of encouragement and praise from friends and family. In fact, the number of copies sold has risen to nineteen paperbacks and eight e-books. I haven’t received any reviews yet, but I’m sure as more people read the book and get through it, they’ll write a review.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention it, but I’ve signed my first autographs! They belonged to my parents and my dentist, but I’ve signed some copies of the book. It was an exhilarating feeling, and it made me happy to leave personal messages to the people who bought my book. After all, even though they were family and friends, it’s still amazing that I’m published now, and I wanted to share the joy with the people who are helping to make this into a success, whatever that is in the difficult world of self-publishing.

If you haven’t checked out The Quiet Game yet, then you can read a description of it on the Short Story Collections page, complete with links where you can get a copy (should you so desire to buy one). I promise you, it’s a chill of a good time.

Review: The Conjuring

Posted: July 24, 2013 in Review, Scary Stuff
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You will be afraid.

When I went to see this movie, the woman behind the counter at the concession stand told me it was really good. When I came out of the theater, she was still there. She asked me what I thought. I replied by doing a comically frightened pose and saying, “EEEEK!”

The Conjuring is definitely a thrill-fest. It tells two stories at once: one is the Perron family, who have just moved into a house with a very hostile spirit living in it (some days you wish you could sue your realtor for that). The other story follows real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in this adaptation, who are trying to continue ghost-hunting and solving the supernatural in New England while also acknowledging that their work is dangerous and could kill them (or their  marriage).

The movie’s director, James Wan, said he wanted to get away from Saw with this film, and I’d say he did a very good job. With just a minimum of blood, guts, and gore and more of an emphasis on the strange and the unknown and the just plain creepy, we are given a terror show of scariness, with plenty of jumps and freaky things that will have you hugging the arms of your seat. At one point I jumped back in my seat and said quite loudly “Oh my God!” That’s how good it is.

You also see a very accurate portrayal of how ghost-hunting is done, though usually an exorcism is not in the mix. And the build-up of suspense is done masterfully. Plus you’ll never want to play any sort of game related to Blind Man’s Bluff or Marco Polo or hide-n-seek after this film. And with some really awesome special effects, you’ll think to yourself, “This movie can’t get any better. It’s already scary good!”

For the whole movie, I give The Conjuring a 4.5 out of 5. Bring your friends, because you’ll need someone’s hand to hold by the end of the show.

Also, they say this movie is based on a true story, but I have a feeling they fudged some things in order to make the story fit a movie. Still pretty darn good.

The Quiet Game: My First Review

Posted: July 18, 2013 in Living and Life, Review, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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tqg-cover[1]

Between finishing the last post and getting out of the shower, I realized that there wasn’t enough time to watch a movie before bed (another time, perhaps). Which is why I decided to write this post, featuring my first review of The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. (If you’re interested in reading but don’t have the link, click here). It comes from one of my beta readers, and it was posted on her Facebook status. And by the way, this happens to be my mother.

Yes, I know your family is supposed to love everything you write, even if you have your character choking a baby (please don’t ever write anything as sick as that). But my mom’s a little different. For starters, my mother was the one who got me into Anne Rice and Stephen King. Yes, she did. Originally a fan of the two authors, she’s the one who lent me Interview with the Vampire and told me to read Stephen King when I’d read several Anne Rice books. She’s also lent me other books and turned me onto other writers like Dean Koontz and Dan Brown. She also introduced me to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files, shows which had a profound influence on me and my writing.

So even though she’s family and even though my mother doesn’t get the same sort of thrills I do from horror movies (I feel delightfully terrified while she’s just terrified), she’s definitely helped in molding me into the writer I am. Which was why I was very delighted when I called her and she told me she was about one short story into the book. And later when I logged onto Facebook, I was greeted with my first review. What did Rabbi Wendy Warren Ungar have to say? Why this:

“Reading Rami’s new book of short stories that was just published, (shameless promotion here), and I’ve discovered that my son is yet another author I can’t read at night!”

If you haven’t noticed, the subtitle on this blog is “Scared yet? My job here is done.” Well folks, my job here is done. Because I’ve always dreamed of giving someone a fright with my writing, and hearing that my mother can’t read my work at night gives me a small sense of accomplishment. I like knowing that I can deliver the goods when I say my stories are scary, and I like knowing I’m getting the sort of reactions I’d hoped for.

So Mom, thanks for reviewing and shamelessly promoting and all that. It means a lot to me and I hope to make even better stories as time goes on.

I also hope to post more reviews for The Quiet Game as they come. I know some friends have said they’ll write a review when they’re done, so I’m sure those reviews will show up in the next couple of weeks. Until then I hope you enjoy reading The Quiet Game as much as I enjoyed writing it, putting it together, and sending it out to you.

Good night everybody!

I’ve Been Using Drones Recently

Posted: July 18, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Yes, you read that title right. I’ve been using drones recently. I started using them sometime this past weekend, and I’ve been using them almost every night since. Mostly I fly them around certain sections of the state of Colorado, usually near Interstate 70. I’ve fired a few missile and several bullets. The drones were fun to pilot, but they had a bad habit of getting destroyed, and it’s not really my fault. Still, I might get blamed for it, so I won’t be piloting drones for a while.

This is actually the model of drone–or a variation of it–that I used.

Now you are probably wondering variations of “What the f**k is he talking about?” and “How the hell did he get his hands on drones?” Well the answer is simple: I wrote them into the second chapter of Video Rage as part of a fun little battle sequence. I thought it’d be interesting to use drones in this chapter, especially since drones are still relatively new to us now and many people, myself included, are at the very least a little wary of drones and their use by the military, if not downright scared of them. It ended up working out very well, because the drones showed how powerless my protagonists can be even with their powers, and how hard they have to work to stay alive.

Got you, didn’t I?

The drones also allowed me to do something I planned for this novel: cause friction. Something happens to one of the characters during the drone attack, and it causes some tension in the tight-knit group of people who star in this novel of mine. Later on there will be more tension between the Hydras, and we’ll see what happens when that tension hits a boiling point. Believe me, things will get ugly as a result.

I’ll be using drones again later in VR. The drones in Chapter 2 are very similar to drones used today by the US military, but in later chapters I plan on using new drones that the military probably hasn’t dreamt of yet (or if they have, my friend Matthew Williams will know of them). It’ll be interesting to see how the use of drones will work out, both for the story and for the characters.

At the very least, it’ll make for some interesting reading.

Now I’m going to take a break, shower, and then sit down for a movie. Tomorrow I’ll try to start the next chapter of Laura Horn. Things will heat up over in that storyline as well.

 

Slender Man And Why I Like Him

Posted: July 17, 2013 in ideas, Reflections, Scary Stuff
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See what I see? It’s what the Slender Man is supposed to look like.

Lately I’ve been fascinated with the Slender Man. Okay, not so much lately. More like for a long while now. It’s only been recently that I’ve been doubly psyched with the Slender Man, enough to write a post about him anyway. I blame that on the fact that I saw a really awesome and totally freaky indie movie on Slender Man, proving that indie films can actually be terrifying.

Of course, those of you who are not horror aficionados are probably asking yourself, “What the heck is this guy talking about?” Well if you haven’t gone to Wikipedia yet, allow me to explain. Slender Man is an example of modern-day folklore. To be more specific, it started out as an Internet meme. A guy created some photos on his computer that showed a tall man in a suit with long limbs and no features on his face standing really creepily in the background. The photos came along with excerpts from what was supposed to be longer stories of people who have had experiences with the Slender Man. More people created photos showing the Slender Man, and that led to fanfic-like stories on the Internet, artwork, cosplay, and eventually a video game called Slender. The game was a hit, which led to more Slender Man-based work, including a YouTube series or two and some indie movies, one of which I saw this evening on my computer, and more on their way.

Check out this totally awesome trailer for an upcoming adaptation called Entity:


I’m a little dubious on whether or not including a possible government connection is a good idea, but I’m psyched to see this movie when it comes out.

What I really like about this particular Internet meme is not just its popularity, but how powerful it’s become, to the point that it’s become public consciousness like Bloody Mary or the man with the hook who escaped from the mental facility. Heck, some people are even starting to believe that the Slender Man is real, or at least a very old urban legend. That and the consistency of the tales qualify the Slender Man as folklore (though technically any story out there and often religious objects can qualify as folklore). And the tales are pretty consistent throughout: the Slender Man is some sort of spirit or demon that hides in the woods and spirits away people, usually children, and then kills them or devours them or their souls. Sometimes he or his victims leave notes around warning of him.. And occasionally he’ll manifest with multiple tentacle-like arms on his back. Cuh-reepy!

Of course the best part is that the mythos leaves so much to be filled in, and since it started as an Internet meme, Slender Man is in the public domain.  Which means anyone can make their own version of the Slender Man story and add, subtract, or spin it any way they want. Of course they have to keep certain aspects so as not to upset the fanbase, but it’s still so awesome. I even have an idea for a novel that’ll utilize Slender Man, or a version of him.

And like I was saying, the Slender Man is an example of a really viral meme and its impact on the global age. Something as small as a couple of doctored photos can multiply and become part of the public consciousness, the subject of games, online TV series, and even movies. Imagine what others could create doing the same process, with the same idea of a supernatural being utilized. Perhaps a ghostly lover found at lakes. Or maybe something involving will-o-the-wisps. Or perhaps a photo showing Elvis in modern-day New York eating a hot dog!

Okay, that last one is a bit of a stretch, but you get the idea, right? It’s the creepy version of Gangnam Style, and there’s potential for much more to materialize. And I can’t wait to see what the people of the world will create.

Do you have a take on Slender Man and/or viral memes from the Internet?

The Quiet Game: Five Days Till The Release!

Posted: July 12, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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5 days to go.

5 days to go.

At home, the cable, phone, and Internet is still out, no thanks to a storm on Wednesday that knocked all three out. I have a feeling that it’ll all be restored tomorrow during the Sabbath, when traditional jewish homes like my own don’t use cable, phones, or the Internet. Wouldn’t that be typical?

But enough about that. it’s five days till The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones is available, and I cannot wait! Already I’ve had several people come up to me or  email me or message me or whatever saying they cannot wait to either download the book or get it in the mail. As for me, I’m just excited that my book is coming out, that people want to read it, and all this hard work I’ve been putting in since I was ten is paying off. In five days, I can consider myself a published writer with a book on the shelves.

Or on Amazon. It’s print-on-demand, so if a lot of people and a couple of libraries order copies, I guess I can call it print-on-demand then.

Assuming the Internet’s working tomorrow, I’ll write another post for the four-day mark. Until then, I’m counting down the hours!

The Quiet Game: Out In Six Days

Posted: July 11, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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Coming out in 6 days. Who's pumped?

Coming out in 6 days. Who’s pumped?

I had a special post prepared for yesterday, the one-week mark before The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones came out. But there was a huge thunderstorm and I lost my cable, Internet, and phone service, which made me unable to write and post the article. And it was going to be a good one too, with a short clip from the movie The Ring. You know, “seven days”? I did manage to get that clip on Twitter and Facebook though, so that’s something.

Anyway, there’s less than a week till The Quiet Game is available for download and/or purchase. The culmination of eight months of hard work and editing, it’ll be available as a print-paperback for $5.50 and as an e-book for $1.29. Five short stories, all pretty scary (or at the very least, pretty weird). I’m really looking forward to putting it out next week and I hope everybody enjoys reading it.

If you are interested in reading The Quiet Game and would like to know more, pleas visit the Short Story Collections page for a brief look at what is offered. I garauntee it’ll be worth the read. And if you would like to celebrate with me when The Quiet Game comes out, I’ll be throwing an online party on this blog the day The Quiet Game comes out. What will be there? Plenty: digital food and drinks, funny, groovy, and scary videos, and of course a link to the guest of honor: The Quiet Game‘s Amazon page.

Until then, look forward for more countdown posts and news from yours truly!

Why Gore Is Ruining The Horror Movie Industry

Posted: July 9, 2013 in Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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I’m never sure how popular these posts analyzing the horror industry (books or movies) are. But I am a horror writer, so I’m going to take a moment out of your day to let you know that gore is ruining the horror movies we’re seeing these days, and I hope you don’t roll your eyes and say this guy is either loony or one of those angry, self-righteous preachers who feels he knows everything and anyone who disagrees is an idiot who can’t grasp genius.

I’m more the former than the latter, which is very much like Sheldon Cooper.

Horror movies have one aim: to scare people. And they’ve done that in several ways. Usually it involved a monster or a ghost. Rarely did it involve excess amounts of blood, organs and severed limbs that were separated from the bodies in all manner of freaky ways (never had a problem with pushing the boundaries of sexuality, though). The movies that did employ those three I just listed were usually slasher films, and those were very difficult to pull successfully off to begin with. And when they did succeed, it usually led to many low-budget sequels.

But in 2004 a little movie known as Saw came out. And while its sequels could definitely be called slashers, the original was much more than that, a horror, a mystery, and a thriller all wrapped up into one neat little horror film. And if you haven’t seen the film, believe me, it was gory for its time. Bloody bodies and stumps and God knows what else. And it was a box office smash, breaking all sorts of records and winning all sorts of rewards. And so were its sequels, which always raked in several times their very low budgets. And ever since, more horror films have been utilizing gore in order to scare people silly.

Just one problem: gore is a turn-off. Studies show that people are disgusted by bloody scenes, such as car crash scenes or scenes from massacres. So why would you make it the main feature of your horror flick, if it just turns people off? I’m not sure. I really don’t understand the logic of Hollywood executives and filmmakers, except that it involves a modicum of profit-seeking. But I’ve seen too many movies that have used too much gore, Evil Dead being the most obvious example in my mind. And they’ve done badly when they could’ve been better.

Luckily for Hollywood, there are ways to still use gore without being excessive. Ever watch the movie Carrie? For those of you who haven’t seen the movie or read the book (and if you haven’t I feel so sorry for you), a telekinetic girl gets pranked at prom and gets covered in blood. There’s the gore. Now imagine that girl causing havoc with her powers, all while covered in blood and still wearing her burgundy dress. That’s scary, right? But not because of the gore. No. It’s the girl with the telekinetic powers going on a rampage! But the blood all over her does add to the terror.

Adds to the terror. Adds.

And it’s the same with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Say what you want about that movie, but with the hotel’s twisting and turning layout, chairs disappearing between shots, and the changing of carpet patterns within seconds serves to create a sense of unreality, a sense that you can’t grasp the situation, and that’s pretty damn scary in itself. The bloody elevator and the man with the split head just adds to it all.

So if you’re going to use gore, use it as a spice to your true object of terror, a frosting on the cake, an accentuation (I’m running out of adjectives, but you get the point, right?). Using gore to add to the terror is okay, but as a main thrill it just doesn’t work as often as it should.

Of course, I’d prefer that gore not used at all. Take a look at movies such as Paranormal Activity, the original Amityville Horror, or The Haunting in Connecticut, which use no gore at all, but rely on surprise, build-up of suspense, and a spooky sense of things-not-as-they-seem. Add in some special effects, and it’s scary as hell. Little gore, and it’s barely noticeable when you see all the other stuff that’s going on.

And they are the scariest movies I’ve ever seen. Freaks me out! And that’s not easy.

So Hollywood, if you’re reading this, please don’t think I’m trying to tell you how to do your jobs. But I do think that a smaller emphasis on the gore and more use of actual creepy angles, a sense of unreality, and just being scary would do some amazing things for your movies. After all, the upcoming movie The Conjuring looks like it doesn’t use any gore at all, and it’s already expected to do really well, if the reviews and the trailers are anything to go by.

Just a suggestion.

Buried Alive: Finished

Posted: July 4, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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This doesn’t happen in the short story, but it gets the idea across.

Today–and especially this evening–was like a writing whirlwind. I sat in front of my computer, at times struggling to finish this short story. But as I kept working and as the story got further along, I started writing faster and faster, not caring about word counts or anything around me. I had classical and opera music in my ears and I was putting words onto the page like there was no tomorrow. And about fifteen minutes ago, at around 11:35 PM, I stopped and looked at the manuscript I’d written.

I’d finished Buried Alive, a short story about a teenage girl who is buried alive in the backyard with her mother and sister by her abusive stepfather. I stood back and I felt a sense of satisfaction.

At 5,550 words, this is definitely one of the toughest short stories I’ve ever written. For one thing, it was in the first person, which is definitely not one of my best tenses to use (even writing in second person for Addict was easier). And it’s not easy to imagine oneself in a coffin, let alone in a coffin with two other people. People are good about not thinking about unpleasant things, even horror writers, so it was tough to get into the mind of a girl in that situation.

But eventually I managed to figure it out and I just started writing. And as the story went on and things got more desperate for the character, I made things creepier and stranger. I think I ventured into a sort of zombie fiction near the end, but I really don’t think you could call this a zombie story. It certainly got interesting, and I’m very proud of this story. I actually think it’s one of my best short stories, and I’m not going to let a high word count get in the way of me finding a home for it.

So tomorrow I’ll see if a certain friend of mine who has read plenty of my short stories wouldn’t mind taking a look at this one. I think he’ll like it, especially since I don’t really explain some of the weirder and scarier aspects of the story. But then again, one thing I learned from The Amityville Horror, you don’t always need to explain the source of the creepiness to make it super-creepy.

If this short story goes anywhere, I’ll let you guys know. Wish me luck.

Review: World War Z (film)

Posted: June 29, 2013 in Review, Scary Stuff
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Some of you may remember my review of the novel a while back (if you haven’t read it, click here), which got a very favorable review for being a history of the political, military, economic, social, educational, religious, ethical, and moral ramifications of a zombie war as told through a series of vignettes from witnesses of the war (try saying that three time fast).

After reading the book, set ten years after the end of the war, my whole family–or just me and my mother, plus my sister who hasn’t read the book–wondered how the movie would differ from the book. Obviously there would be a lot of differences, seeing as the movie shows the zombie war as it begins. When we got to the theatre yesterday, had our coupon denied, sat through a hundred corporate ads, had the projector break down, and finally started the movie, we hoped that even with so many liberties, the movie would be good.

We weren’t disappointed. Although plenty of liberties were taken and plenty of stuff was left out–the zombies were fast-moving rather than slow shufflers, there was no mention of the new religious empire of Russia or the South Africa plan, changes in what happens to North Korea, and a huge difference in what happens to Israel–the movie was a decent zombie thriller. Brad Pitt was awesome as Gerry Lane, a retired UN worker who’s called back into service when the plague breaks out. He is surrounded by a great cast and zombies who are so lifelike–or maybe un-lifelike is better–that whether they are CGI or actors in make-up, they look so real.

The movie zigzags around the world, from Philedelphia to the Atlantic Ocean to Korea to Israel (whoop-whoop!) to Wales and finally to Nova Scotia, but there are plenty of thrills and tense situations in-between that have you on the edge of your seat. And finally there’s the scene in the vault in Wales, where the final twist in the movie is revealed. At the end, you’ll be enjoying yourself despite all the liberties taken.

My family and I left the theater discussing the movie and its many differences from the book, but how we enjoyed it all the same. I’m going to give the film a 4.4 out of 5, for being the first decent zombie film I’ve seen in a while.

Oh, and apparently Paramount is moving ahead with plans for a sequel, despite the fact that the original was plagued with numerous problems and production costs skyrocketed. Not surprising, considering horror has had a history of doing sequels long after the sequels should stop, and this was well before the sequel mania we are in began. I’m not sure if I’ll see the sequel, but considering that it took six years for the movie to actually make it to the screen, I tink enough time will pass for me to actually enjoy the sequel.

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