Archive for the ‘short story’ Category

Dear Alice: Finished

Posted: March 2, 2014 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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It’s rare that I begin a short story and that I finish it within a day. It’s even rarer when I finish it a few hours after starting it. But that’s what happened tonight. And my God, was it amazing.

You remember in my last post I said I was trying to rewrite the science-fiction story I’d started on Sunday. Well, I’m still trying to figure out where it should go from here and how to make it exciting. So while I’m working on that little problem, I decided to devote my time to a different short story. What resulted was Dear Alice, a story of a woman in England who writes letters to her childhood friend (Alice, obviously) about how as children they were kidnapped by a farmer who used them as slave labor. It’s a very interesting story, and I rather liked how it turned out, especially the twists near the middle-end portion of it.

The whole story is about 3,600 words (give or take a few), and I somehow wrote it in only a couple of hours. That’s a personal record for short story writing. It also shows what happens when I really get into a story and I eschew most distractions that I can really amaze myself. I think I’ll send this to a friend or family member within the next couple of weeks to get some feedback on it. I seriously hope that they like it, and that they can offer some good suggestions on it.

In the meantime though, I’m going to head to bed and get some rest. Tomorrow may be Sunday, but that doesn’t mean I get to rest (being Jewish, Saturday is the day I rest, and sometimes not even then). I may even start another short story if I’m unable to figure out what to do with my short-story-in-progress by then. Wish me luck.

Goodnight, my Followers of Fear. Or good morning, depending on what time you’re reading this. I’m sure some people are a few time zones behind me, some are just having their morning coffee while they read this, and maybe one or two are insomniacs or staying up late. If I think about this more than I have, it’s going to get weird. Anyway, goodnight (because it is for me at this point).

Once Again, A Rewrite

Posted: February 27, 2014 in ideas, Living and Life, Progress Report, short story, Writing
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I started a short story this past Sunday, a science-fiction story with LGBT characters and themes about how complicated relationships can get. It had a great concept, and it was an exciting story. I’ve been looking forward to writing it ever since I had the idea for it, and I made sure it was on the list of short stories I was going to work on when I decided it was time to limit how many more I was going to write. And I was making great progress on it too. I mean really good progress. Except for Tuesday night (I was busy that night with other stuff) I was getting 500-1000 words written each night.

But as I got further in this evening, I realized that I was slowing down, that something wasn’t working. I realized that the way I was going I was going to hit a wall with this story, so I had to stop and figure out what exactly was bugging me about this story. And I realized: like Resurrection, the way this story was going it’d be better off as a novel or a novella.

Normally I’d be okay with that, but for many reasons I don’t want to convert this particular short story into a novel. Not only do I already have so many ideas for novels to write that I’m not sure I want to add this story to that list, but I feel that if I can find some way to keep the short story as a short story, it’ll be a thousand times better than any novel I could ever write based on it. It’s a very strong feeling, too. So I’m not going to turn this particular story into a novel.

Instead, I’ll go back to the beginning. Most likely I’ll end up rewriting this story, and instead of writing a whole bunch of expository lead-up to the main scene, I’ll write that main scene, which is what inspired and excited me about this story in the first place. I feel overall it’ll be a better story that way, one that a sci-fi magazine would be proud to host within its pages.

So tonight I’ll end my writing spree by saving the short story and taking a break to think about how I can improve it. I have some ideas now, but nothing I want to act on just yet. I just need a little time to let the ideas cook and see what works and what doesn’t work. After all, this is one amazing short story idea I have. And it deserves to be written in a way I can be proud of.

That’s all for now. I’m going to watch something I’ve taped, and see what my brain can come up with in the morning. You all have a lovely night, and a fantastic weekend, my Followers of Fear. And I hope wherever you are, you’re warmer than I am. It’s Arctic temps here in Ohio. Trust me, I’m looking forward to spring and summer a lot more than most. Good thing I’ve got my Snuggie to keep me warm.

Darkness at Noon: Finished

Posted: February 23, 2014 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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Great book if you’re interested in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

You know you’re a writer and a college student when you manage to find ways to make your writing count for a grade. And that was kind of the point of this latest short story, which I wrote for one of my classes. Called Darkness at Noon, it’s not a horror story despite the title. Instead, it’s more literary/historical fiction. Why the heck am I writing that sort of story? I’ll explain.

The class I wrote this story for is my Deaf Literature and Culture class. Our teacher gave us an assignment to bring in some artifact (a book, a painting, a TV show or movie), something that represented deaf culture and do a presentation on it. I chose to write a short story, partially because I didn’t want to repeat myself by bringing up the episode of House where he treats a deaf teenager (I’d used this for a previous assignment), but mostly because I seriously wanted to write a short story and get something from it, such as a good grade. After getting the okay from my teacher, I started on the short story immediately.

As with most writing, getting started and keeping it going can be difficult. The style of story was also difficult for me, as I prefer horror and with no serial killer, ghost, or even angry wild animal, it was sometimes slow going writing this one. However this evening, after getting home from watching a movie with some members of my study abroad group and taking a shower, I set down to finish the story. I’m happy to report that I finished it at 4,652 words, at about a quarter to two in the morning.

The story itself follows a young woman living in the Dust Bowl during the 1930s who is deaf. She’s unhappy with the direction her life has taken, and it takes a terrible dust storm to make her realize that things aren’t as bad as she thinks.

I got most of my research from what I’ve been learning in my Deaf Lit class, as well as from the book The Worst Hard Time by Tim Egan, which I finished last weekend for another class. Both helped me visualize not only the world my character lived in, but also taught me what might go through the mind of a young woman who has to live in a town where she’s the only one who can’t hear. I like to think my character has a lot of baggage to her. She feels alone and isolated because of her deafness, and has some understandable anger towards those who’ve looked down on her because of the fact that she’s deaf.

Anyway, I like how this story turned out for the most part. I think the ending will need a little tweaking to make for a smooth finish, but I feel confident that when I turn it in on March 21st, I’ll get a very good grade for it (and possibly a recommendation for some Deaf Lit magazines or somewhere else I could publish the story).

Well, that’s all for now. I’m probably going to go to bed soon, so I’d like to wish you all good night and hope you have pleasant dreams. See you tomorrow, my Followers of Fear.

The Last Eight Short Stories

Posted: February 11, 2014 in ideas, Living and Life, Novel, short story, Writing
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After finishing “A Haunted Man” two nights ago, I’ve decided that, although I’ve got so many short stories I’d like to work on, I need to narrow it down to a few choices so I can return to my WIP Laura Horn. Yeah, I know I can just get through all the short stories I want to get through before I get back to the WIP, but I don’t like to leave a novel unfinished like that, and I would prefer having several short stories unwritten than have a novel languishing unfinished on my flash drive.

Besides, as I recall most of the chapters of LH were pretty easy to get through, so I don’t see it taking too much time to finish up. Then during the summer after I get back from my study-abroad trip, I can spend the whole summer editing my other novels and working on short stories. Besides, I’ll most likely be working on a novel for my senior thesis in the fall, so it’ll work out in the end. At least, I think it will.

So I’ve narrowed the number of short stories I’m going to work on to about eight, and I’m going to try to get through as many of them as possible before mid-March, when I plan to start working on LH again. I picked the short stories based on a couple of factors, namely that I thought the ideas behind them were exciting, that I knew where I wanted to go with the story in terms of plot, and that I think they could be published in magazines, especially ones that pay for their published work (I know that sounds crazy, but it helps pay the rent, so I’m trying to get into more magazines that pay for their work). Oh, and one of the short stories will be submitted as a homework assignment to one of my classes, so I could get a very good grade on it.

So that’s my plan for the next four weeks or so. I hope to at least get two to five of these short stories written. Among the eighty-odd ideas for short stories I have written down, these are among some of the best, so I think I’ll enjoy writing them. When each of them is done, I’ll write a post and let people know how they’re doing.

I’m also going to try to come up with an idea for an article. A friend of mine runs a magazine, and I want to write an article for it. Just the question of the subject that’s getting to me. We’ll see what I can come up with.

Oh, and one last thing: I’m thinking of posting a few stories on WattPad all at once. Would you be interested in reading anything of mine if I published it on WattPad, even if it wasn’t strictly horror?

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to prepare myself mentally for writing later this evening. Wish me luck.

A Haunted Man: Finished

Posted: February 9, 2014 in ideas, Progress Report, short story, Writing
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I just finished a short story. This one, called “A Haunted Man”, is about a family that moves into a haunted house. Sound familiar? Well, I tried to put a twist on it by focusing on the father of the family, who’s one of those characters who thinks because he’s a man’s man that he knows it all and that the ghostly going-ons around the house are the result of his wife being a silly woman and his kids having overactive imaginations. Those characters appear in a lot of scary stories, and they always get themselves into trouble. Especially when they finally realize that there’s a ghost in the house and they try to handle it themselves because that’s what men do, instead of doing the smart thing and getting someone with experience with ghosts to come by and get rid of the ghosts.

I basically took that character, that I’m-a-man-who-does-what-men-do character and decided to make him the subject of a short story about a haunted house. It was a difficult story to write, though. I had to go back at one point and rewrite the whole story because the way I was writing it didn’t make sense to me (for more on that, read my post I Shouldn’t Use Present Tense). And even after I started the rewrite, it was difficult going. I think that means I’m going to have to do a lot of editing on this short story. Or that I should instead adapt it into a low-budget horror film because it would work very well in that format. Hmm…if I did that, I wonder how I would get it done? And who would help me?

Well, that’s beside the point for the moment. I’m glad to have gotten the short story done and I think I did an okay job portraying the main character as I wanted him to be portrayed. I’ll see what I can do with it and maybe decide from there if I should try to publish it, or maybe adapt it into a horror film or some other third option.

For now though, I’m going to start thinking about what’s next on my agenda. I told a friend I’d write an article for a magazine that he runs, so I’m going to get that done. After that I think I’ll write down which short stories I’m going to work on next. I want to work on so many more, but I really have to get back to my WIP Laura Horn, so I’m going to limit the number to somewhere around five or six short stories and cap it off there. Maybe when LH is done, I’ll write the rest of the short stories I wanted to get done. We’ll see.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to take a break and relax after an afternoon full of writing. See you in the morning, Followers of Fear.

The Quiet Game: Six Month Anniversary

Posted: January 29, 2014 in Living and Life, Review, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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tqg cover

I kind of let this pass by without really realizing it, but now that it’s on my mind, I’d like to commemorate that six months (and twelve days) ago my first book, The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones, was first released for paperback and e-reader.

Since that July day, a lot has happened, but especially with this book. A small collection of original short stories I’d written over Winter Break 2012 and Spring Semester 2013, the book has sold about a little over fifty copies (which for the first book of a self-published author is not that bad). It’s also received eight reviews from readers, which has brought the book’s average to a 4.4 out of 5 (which for the first book of a self-published author is pretty mind-blowing for me). Here are what some of the reviewers have been saying:

“5 wonderfully crafted tales! I purchased this as an eBook originally and put off reading it for quite a while, I really wish I hadn’t waited. Sometimes when one purchases a collection of short stories you expect some of them to be less entertaining or of lower quality than the others, but none of these disappoint. Well worth the money, especially considering after you read each story the author gives you creative insight into what inspired him to write each tale, which is really wonderful.”

Jeff D.

“I happened across The author Rami Unger about a year ago when he was researching the paranormal online.

He nailed the Dybbuk story. Write more… soon!”

Jason Haxton, author of The Dybbuk Box

“I liked that each story was unusual. I think that the book was appropriately named. I prefer chilled bones rather than scared out of my whits since I am a bit of a chicken”

Enji

I’d just like to say that it’s been wonderful hearing from people what they think of The Quiet Game and finding out that they enjoyed the book and want to read more. It’s the readers themselves that have made all of this possible for me, so I really owe everyone reading my work a great debt that can never be repaid. So thank you very much and I hope we’ll be able to have great times together in the future.

If you are interested in reading The Quiet Game, you can find it on Amazon and on Smashwords. The print version is available for a little over five dollars, while the e-book version is available for about a dollar-thirty. And if you do decide to read The Quiet Game, please let me know what you think of it. Good or bad, I’m always happy for reviews and feedback.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to have more good news at the one-year anniversary. And speaking of anniversaries, Saturday will make three months since Reborn City came out. I’ll have to do a post about that as well. Look forward to it!

I Shouldn’t Use Present Tense

Posted: January 26, 2014 in short story, Writing
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I started a short story the other night about a family that moves into a haunted house (yes, that’s been done before a hundred times, but I’m trying to do something new with it. Hopefully I’ll succeed). For some reason I started writing it in present tense, something I rarely ever do. Most stories, especially the ones I’ve read  and the ones I usually write, are in past tense. I think I was trying to make the story unique by writing it in present tense, or maybe it sounded good at first to write it in the present tense.

But as this short story’s been coming along, I’m finding it harder to continue going, and I think the tense of the story is a major contributor to that problem. The only story I’ve ever written that’s been in present tense and that I’ve barely had any trouble with is Addict, one of the short stories I included in The Quiet Game, but that was also in second-person, and that kind of made it easier to write. Heck, it was practically begging to be written in present tense as well in second person (“You walk out of the bathroom and you rejoin your buddy. He asks you a question and for a moment you’re not sure what he said”. See what I mean?). But this is third-person, and I think unless you’ve had a lot of training in writing in present tense or you prefer that tense, then it’s just not the sort of tense you write in.

Okay, the TARDIS doesn’t have much to do with tenses, but it does with past, present and future.

Well, I’ve certainly learned my lesson. I can’t write this story in present tense and I’m definitely not going to attempt to attempt future tense (never seen an entire story of any length written that way). So tomorrow (or the next day, depending on the amount of homework I have), I’m going to through the short story and switch it to past tense. Then I’ll go through it again, adding, editing, and deleting where I see appropriate. Luckily I’m only about seven pages into this short story, so I can probably get both tasks done fairly quickly.

For now though, I’m going to go to bed. I’ll let my mind swirl this short story in my head overnight and see if I can come up with any other ideas to improve this short story. I think it could be great, but since I’m trying to do something new with a familiar trope, I really have to work hard to make the story believable and enjoyable to the audience. Hopefully I can do that.

That’s all for now. I’ll post again when I’m done with the short story, or when I have something else to post about (whichever comes first). Goodnight, Followers of Fear.

Ohm: Finished

Posted: January 20, 2014 in ideas, Living and Life, Progress Report, short story, Writing
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In Judaism, that hand is called a Hamsa. It’s designed to keep the evil eye away. I have no idea what it’s doing on this poster though.

Last week or so I posted about an interesting discussion I had in my meditation class about hypnosis vs. meditation (see post here). At one point during that conversation, I said that although hypnosis could be abused, meditation could just as easily be abused by someone of unscrupulous character. I then gave an example to my group, which was immediately followed by this realization: “Hey, that could make a great short story.” I told that to my meditation group, which caused them to laugh while also looking at each other in fear. It was a “What have we done?” moment right there.

Well, I started the short story Saturday evening before SNL started, and I’ve worked on it every evening since. And this evening I finished it. Then I went back and added a few more details to earlier parts of the story in order to make it flow more smoothly. Then I clicked Save and decided to write this blog post.

As you can see from the title of this post, the short story is called “Ohm.” I wanted a title that would go very well with a story of someone using meditation for bad purposes, and I went with “Ohm”, because it was simple, the word itself was relevant to the story, and it gave people an immediate sense of what this story might be about. It’s on the short end of short stories, a little under 2100 words, and it’s more literary than horror, if you look at it closely. Still, I think it’s an interesting story, even if there are no demons or serial killers, and I even managed to use a new technique in order to tell it:

Last semester, I read a short story for my science-fiction literature class called “Gene hackers”. The story was about a man who was quite famous in the near-distant future for his role in the industry of genetic engineering and manipulation, and chronicled various events throughout his life in short little vignettes, starting from when he was young and all the way up until he was a very old man. I was really impressed by the style used to tell the story, and I wanted to try that for myself with “Ohm”. I think it turned out pretty well, personally.

I’m going to ask my meditation group if any of them want to read the rough draft. After they get back to me, I’m going to try to submit this story to a creative writing contest here on campus, see if I can impress any judges. Hopefully my meditation group and the people running the contest will like “Ohm”. At any rate, I think they might find it at least a bit interesting.

Well, that’s all for now, Followers of Fear. I’ve got classes tomorrow, so I’ll sign off and see you in the morning. Goodnight and pleasant nightmares. I’ll let you know if anything comes of “Ohm”.

Oh, and before I forget, I bought my plane tickets for my study abroad trip today. They cost me an arm and a leg, but it was well worth it. I’m so looking forward to this trip. It’s going to be so much fun!

Buried Alive: Published on WattPad

Posted: January 15, 2014 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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A while back I wrote a short story I titled Buried Alive, about a girl and her mother and younger sister who are buried in a coffin in the backyard by the girl’s abusive stepdad and what happens to them while inside the coffin. It was a very dark and surreal story and I enjoyed writing it.

Since I wanted to publish something original and previously unpublished on WattPad before I write an article on the website for Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors and leave the subject of the website alone for a while, I thought I’d give Buried Alive the publishing treatment. I even gave a creepy little cover when I published it. Look below.

Creepy, right?

Creepy, right?

If you’d be interested in reading Buried Alive, please follow the link. And if you like it, hate it, whatever, please let me know in a comment, either here on this blog or on WattPad. I’m always happy for freedback from the people who read my work. Even if they think something I wrote totally sucks and they never want to read anything by me ever again.

Oh, and some updates for everyone: besides that article I mentioned above, I also plan to write a short story, hopefully over this weekend, and I plan to submit it to a writing contest through Ohio State’s English Department. Hopefully it’ll get selected. Also, I’ve sent The Loneliest Roads for critiquing to a friend. Actually, I sent the original version and a second version with an alternate ending, but who’s keeping track? Anyway, my friend will hopefully tell me which version she prefers and give me some advice before I send it out to see if I can get it published. We’ll see what happens.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m off to get ready for bed. Goodnight, Followers of Fear. Pleasant nightmares!

My First Short Story of 2014

Posted: January 13, 2014 in ideas, Living and Life, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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A model of the limo I used in the story, except it had cow horns mounted on the front and flames painted on the side.

I just finished my first short story of the new year. And for plenty of reasons, it reminds me of a Stephen King story. I’m hoping that an editor will think the same thing if they read it.

The short story is called The Loneliest Roads and it’s about a hitchhiking young woman who gets picked up by a stretch limo (hence the photo). Once she gets inside, she finds herself in for a whole new world of terror. And it’s a different short story than anything I’ve ever written before. Firstly, it’s after I finished the first draft of Video Rage, which I’ve mentioned in previous posts as being a time where I really grew as a writer. I also utilized new techniques I picked up during the past semester. One was to try to ramp up the terror gradually rather than have my protagonist be immediately confronted with pure evil. I started by trying to make things seem only a little unreal at the beginning, and then making that feeling of unreality grow slightly as the story went on, until it was time to make the terror more than just subtle.

I also tried to delve into the psychological factor of my protagonist, whose name is Miracle Jones (yes, I seriously named my character Miracle Jones). I wanted to make her more than just a flat character, and I did that by delving into her past, focusing on her psychology. I thought the way I revealed her character was actually kind of creepy. Then again, I tend to think everything I write is creepy. Whether it is or not depends on your opinion.

Anyway, I’ve a pretty good idea of what I’m going to do with this short story. I’d like to get around to editing it in a few weeks or so, and maybe sending it off to a friend for a critique. I have a second ending for the story that takes a less positive turn than the one I wrote out tonight, so if I or my friend feels that the ending could be different, I’ll go with my second ending. And after all the editing has been done, I hope to submit The Loneliest Roads to a few magazines, see if any pick it up. I would be very happy if they did. And if they don’t…who knows? It could go into a future collection of short stories or on Wattpad, or both. Future’s open.

For now though, I think I’ll try to catch some sleep. Tomorrow if I can I’ll start on an article for Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, and after that I’ll start on another short story. It’s going to be very exciting this semester for me. Goodnight, Followers of Fear.

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