The life of a college student can be really crazy sometimes. Some days I just want to sit down and write, to finish the next chapter in one of my works-in-progress, or maybe a blog post or an article, or a short story. But first I have classes to take care of, and the homework that comes with them can’t be put off until the last second, and I work ten hours a week, and I have to cook my dinner and do my laundry, and I like to watch TV and read a book in the evenings, and I finally managed to find time to get a haircut today, which took some time from homework, but I got that done–where the heck is this train of thought going?!
Suffice to say, I’ve been crazy busy lately. And what’s the worse is that I just want to sti down and write. I’ve been hammering away at my computer on a chapter of Video Rage for about three days now, and I’m not halfway from finishing it. And I just WANT TO FINISH IT! And after that, I want to do another chapter of Laura Horn, followed by Video Rage or a Weekly Exercise, I don’t know. It depends on the day.
But you know, I got my priorities, and until those are out of the way, becoming the next HP Lovecraft will have to wait. The good news is I’m used to working on stories while being swamped with work, so I should still be on the usual production schedule (the first draft of a novel being done in six months to a year). So for now, I’ll keep working as hard as I can, when I can, where I can, and hopefully I’ll be able to get everything I want to get out as soon as I can.
At least in theory. I can’t get copyrights right now, thanks to the federal government shutting down here in the United States (thank you Congress! You’d all fail kindergarten if you had to go back there for a day!). And you know me, I like being insured in case of plagiarism or theft.
Well, I’m off to make a simple dinner and settle down for a nice, relaxing evening of writing and watching The Big Bang Theory and Scandal. Hopefully I’ll get this chapter of Video Rage done too!
Last night I announced that Reborn City, my first published novel and the first novel in the Reborn City series, would be coming out on November 1st. I also said that I would be doing a lot of advertising to get people’s excitement for this book up. Among the advertising, I’m doing interviews with some of the characters from Reborn City, just so you can get to know them before you meet them in the actual book.
So without further ado, I would like to introduce you to Zahara Bakur!
Notes and Stats:
Sex: Female Age: 15 Race/Ethnicity: Arab Birthday: August 31 Eye color: Brown Hair color: Bleached blond (originally brown) Religion: Sunni Muslim Affiliation: West Reborn Hydras Special Powers/Abilities: None Notes from the Author: When I first created Zahara, she wasn’t the main character and she had a different personality. However as I planned out the story, picking and choosing elements and the events that would happen, she ended up morphing into this powerful character that took center-stage in the story. She’s definitely the protagonist now, and I can’t wait to see how people react to her.
RU: Zahara, welcome. It’s a pleasure to meet you.
ZB: Um, where am I?
RU: That’s not important. Zahara, you’ve been a member of the Hydras, the only interracial gang in West Reborn City, for some time now. How long exactly have you been with them?
ZB: Two weeks.
RU: And how do you like being a gangster?
ZB: Truthfully? I don’t really like it. It’s a pretty dangerous lifestyle and I’m not…very violent.
RU: But if you’re not violent, why are you in a gang? For protection? I know some people join gangs for the protection of a group.
ZB: That’s part of it, I guess. But the big reason is that I owe Rip a debt. Rip’s like one of the big leaders in the Hydras, and he saved my life, so I owe him big-time. And to pay back that debt, I have to be a a gangster and hope that someday I do something as big as saving his life or something.
RU: Jeez, that sounds rough. What does your faith tell you about this?
ZB: My faith? I don’t know. I’m a Muslim, so people think I’m supposed to be dangerous and evil, but I’m not. I just want a quiet life and to follow my faith as best as I can. I’m about as non-violent as you can get.
RU: You say that people think you’re dangerous and evil? Is that a reaction you’ve gotten from other Hydras?
ZB: Oh no! Not at all! Well…a couple of Hydras. But most people are really nice and are cool with me. There’s Bono, he’s in Rip’s Head–that’s like a gang chapter for the Hydras–anyway, he’s in Rip’s Head with me and he’s really cool. And there’s Ilse, she’s in charge of 2-Head, and she’s like a big sister and really nice. And I have friends in other Heads, like Toshi and Tina, who are really funny and nice.
RU: What about Rip?
ZB: Er, Rip? Yeah, we’re friends, I guess. We’re friendly at the very least, which is very different from what we were like when we first met. I hated him then because he said something really mean. But we’ve gotten to know each other better, and I like him more than I did then.
RU: What’s Rip like?
ZB: Kind of quiet. He doesn’t really talk that much. I think he’s just one of those silent but strong types you see in all the teen novels these days.
RU: So if you end up paying your debt to Rip, what will you do?
ZB: Oh, that’s an easy question. I’d like to go back to New York, where I lived before I moved to Reborn City. I mean, I like some of the Hydras, but I really don’t care for the gangster life and all the other gangs are convinced I’m dangerous, so I’d like to be somewhere familiar where I’m a bit safer.
RU: And will you stay in touch with your friends in the Hydras?
ZB: I guess so. I mean, some of them are really cool. And I don’t think some of the them, particularly the leaders, will ever get caught or thrown in jail, so it should be easy to communicate with them when I want to.
RU: Do you think the leaders won’t get caught because of their almost-supernatural powers and abilities?
ZB: How’d you know about that? Nobody outside of West Reborn even believes that’s possible!
RU: That’s a secret. Well thanks for coming Zahara! Head back to the Hydras, I bet they’re starting to miss you. And if you want to know more about Zahara and the Hydras, the book will be available November 1st in paperback and e-book format. In the meantime, check out my next interview when I interview silent-but-strong Rip. Coming soon.
Today is October 1st, 2013. The countdown for Reborn City‘s release begins. On November 1st, war will break out, a great conspiracy will be unraveled, and I might stop writing this like it’s the script for a Hunger Games trailer or something!
But truth be told folks, I’m really excited. It’s been nearly four years since I first sat down and started writing Reborn City, and now it’s finally hitting the market. And I don’t care that the government here in the United States has shut down, impacting my chances of getting my copyright notification by that time. It’s still coming out, and it’s going to be awesome!
For those of you who haven’t seen the Reborn City series page yet, here is the summary of the book, which is the first in a trilogy:
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.
Sounds cool, right? Right? Anyone? Bueller?
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to publishing this. Only one other person has read it in full, and tat’s my friend and fellow author Matthew Williams, who enjoyed the book very much when I asked him to take a look. Coming from a full-fledged science fiction novelist, that’s mighty high praise.
I’m going to be doing all sorts of advertising promo posts during the coming month. I’m even going to be doing interviews with the characters. Yes, you read that right. I’m going to be doing interviews with the actual characters of Reborn City. They’re going to appear in my messy bedroom, and we’re going to have a nice chat and talk before I send them back to the year 2056. It’ll be cool.
In the meantime, please check out the Reborn City book trailer video below. I hope you get as excited as I am just from watching it.
Oh, and before I forget, I’m working on RC‘s sequel Video Rage even as we speak. It’s coming along great. I’m somewhere around halfway done with the first draft. Once it’s done, it may take a year or two to actually publish, but I hope to get it done soon, so people who like the first book won’t have to wait long. Wish me luck!
It’s time once again for my Weekly Exercises. These flash fiction pieces are part chance to practice my craft, part sounding board so that readers can tell me what they think of my work, and part shameless ploy to get you interested in my published fiction. Remember, the Weekly Exercises rely on reader feedback, so whether you like or hate what’s below, please let me know. I always enjoy opinions…provided that nobody’s using swear words or calling me an idiot or something.
If you wish to read this and other Weekly Exercises, they are all listed on the Weekly Exercise page above. Enjoy.
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Mark had thought that “Cousin Nemo” was Jenny’s cousin who had come to stay, and that she’d forgotten to tell him. Mark could kind of understand her forgetting to tell him that her cousin was coming to stay with them while he conducted business in town. She’d also forgotten to tell him that she liked getting some on the side when she was supposed to be at a business meeting. With all that and trying to keep things as normal as possible for the kids while each considered therapy or even divorce, forgetting that Cousin Nemo was coming to stay was understandable.
But then after two weeks, he’d gotten irritated with Cousin Nemo, who seemed to never be doing anything business-like. Instead he just hung out with the kids. He helped them with their homework. He took them to the park, to the zoo and the movies and bowling and roller-skating. He read them stories and tucked them into bed while Mark and Jenny were arguing with each other or making calls that had to do with anything but the state of their marriage. In short, Cousin Nemo was doing everything a parent was supposed to do besides feed and clothe them but he and Jenny had no time to do.
So he’d asked her this afternoon how long her cousin planned on staying with them. And Jenny had replied “I thought he was your cousin.” His insides had turned cold then. He’d called the police, he’d driven home, he’d nearly hit his wife’s car pulling into the driveway. They ran into the house, but the house was empty. No Cousin Nemo. No kids. Not even the dog. Just a note that said “Goodbye” on it.
Mark and Jenny didn’t do anything for a moment. Then they broke down crying. They cried for their marriage, for their kids, for their own stupidity, and they cried for themselves. Especially for themselves.
Well I got my homework for today done, so I decided to work on a chapter of Video Rage. It was actually a chapter I started on Wednesday, but I’ve been so crazy busy lately I’ve barely been able to spend any time working on it. I finally finished it this evening while eating dinner and watching the Ohio State-Wisconsin game, showing that on occasion I can multitask (though I wouldn’t do it while in the car).
The thing is, this chapter that I just finished is a very important chapter in the book. At the end of Reborn City, I revealed something about a certain character that left a big mystery for the next book (I’m not going to say what that mystery was or what happened at the end of the book, but trust me when I say, it is big!). Here in this particular chapter I reveal the answer to this mystery, and it killed me that it took so long to write it! I mean, I really wanted to get this big-mystery-reveal down on paper! And the fact that it took nearly four days makes me want to freak out like Eminem in a feud with another rapper!
On the bright side, I did get the chapter written. It’s about 9 8.5″ x 11″ pages, and a little under twenty-four hundred words. And I think I did very well resolving the mystery. And with the completion of this chapter, number fifteen to be exact, I have about twenty-two left to write. At the current rate I’m writing, I might finish VR at some point between late December and mid-January.
Now I’m going to take a little break from writing and maybe take up Chapter Fifteen of Laura Horn later in the evening. I’m getting close to writing a very important chapter of that novel as well, though I’m a few chapters away from doing so. I hope I get to it soon, it’s going to be worthy of a blog post when it gets written.
Today I was walking back from running an errand. The streets were packed with people here to see the game between Ohio State and Wisconsin and drink and have a good time. There were people selling food and T-shirts and Buckeye gear all over the place. I barely noticed any of it. My mind was turning over other things: money and school, my two biggest worries in life these days.
I’m not going to unload my problems on this blog, at least not this post. That’s not what this post is about. But I will say that even with a job and some side gigs and the little money I get from writing, life’s still expensive. Tuition, rent, and groceries is what I pay for the most. And I wonder, as plenty of other people around the world and from all walks of life wonder, how I’m going to write it all.
And as I’m turning all this in my head, walking to the ATM to make a deposit and then head home, an idea for a short story pops into my mind. It’s more magical realism than horror, but I think to myself, this sounds like a crazy good idea for a short story. I can base it around my own life, giving it an authentic touch. And I get to include some monsters in this story too! Imagine how much fun it’ll be to write that sort of story! A bit therapeutic too, that’s always good for the mind, body and soul.
Now I’m at home, writing up this post before I start on a paper for my English class. I have to say, writing about this had made me happier, even as it had occurred to me that it make my family worry about me because I’m blogging about money woes while talking about an idea for a short story involving my money woes. But like I said, I feel better writing about this, and if it guilt trips someone into buying my work, all the better.
I probably shouldn’t have written that last sentence. Oh well.
Now I’m wondering, does anyone else write about their problems? Do they use fiction of any sort to release and share their problems? I’m pretty sure there are plenty of literary authors who do just that, but I don’t usually read literary fiction. I bet there are plenty of other writers who include their problems in their genre work,, but none come to mind at the moment. But I think that stories like those are probably some of the best. It’s someone sharing their life, having a conversation with themselves and with others through a fiction story. It feels real, even if there are vampires or knights in shining armor or other weird things in their stories. And those sort of stories are the ones where people can really identify with the authors and the characters, because they’re thinking to themselves, I’ve been in that situation before, and it sucks.
Well, I’ve got the idea stored away now, so when I’m done with Video Rage and Laura Horn I’ll be able to remember it. I’ve got a little over thirty different ideas for short stories written down right now, so I’ll definitely have plenty of stuff to write about when I finish my two current works-in-progress. I could even write another, longer collection of short stories if I wanted to.
Hmm…another collection of short stories. Not a bad idea.
Until then though, I’ve got a paper to work on. Wish me luck! I’m aiming to get an A on this paper. I’ll settle for a B if I have to, but an A’s the goal at the moment.
Do you ever incorporate your life’s problems into your fiction? How do you do it? And what has been the result of that?
In a recent interview for his new book Joyland, Stephen King mentioned that one way he starts a story is that he starts with an image. In the case of Joyland, the image was of a boy on a beach with the sun setting. It took a couple of years apparently, but that image expanded to include a theme park and that’s how His Scary Highness came up with what would become a summer bestseller.
These past 24 hours I had a similar experience that allowed me to come up with an idea for a story. It started last night as I was going to bed. I was hypnotizing myself to sleep (yes, I know how to do that) and one of the commands I gave myself to help facilitate sleep was to let random images form in my head, “as if from a dream”. And among the images that formed was one that just struck me in a deep, deep way, like a line from a book that seems to resonate with you on so many levels, that for reasons you can’t understand, you find that becoming your favorite line in the whole story.
I wish I had an illustration or something to show you what I saw in my head. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to draw an illustration, let alone draw one and scan it into my computer, so I’ll try to describe it for you as best as I can: a girl, in her mid-to-late teens, with shoulder-length blonde hair and a black crown on her head with two twisting spires poking up to the sky. She wore a glittering black dress, like Glinda the Good Witch gone Goth. She stood on a glowing white staircase made of glass, and stars were shining aroundher. Her smile was warm and confident, and her eyes were alive with happiness.
Amazing what sort of things you can get from dreams. Am I right?
Well, you know me. If I can get an idea for a story, I will. So I quickly added to those hypnosis instructions, “If you see something you think you can use for a story someday, you will remember it in the morning.” When I woke up the next morning, I didn’t remember the image at first, but I did remember as the day went on. And as I had a rather unusual day (don’t ask, you don’t want to know), I had plenty of opportunities to develop a story from this image.
I thought that the image would work best at the end of the story, I had to figure out how to get this story from the beginning to the end. For that matter, I needed a beginning! Not too hard, I have a way with coming up with sh*t situations to put characters in at the start of their stories. I thought of a way for this girl in the black dress to start out, even gave her a name that I thought suited her. Then I worked on a catalyst…how about she meets a guy? No, it’s been done. Attacked by a monster? No, I’ve used that for stories before. Let’s go back to meetings. What meeting haven’t I used yet? Oh, that one will work (I can’t say what because that would give away just too much).
So what next? We’ve got a set-up. What happens after that fateful meeting? Something happens, something scary. Should I use an original mythology of my own making or taken from someone else’s mythology? Let’s go with the latter. Greco-Roman? Jewish? Celtic? Egyptian? Japanese? Native American? Okay, why not a combination? Mix and match…now we’re cooking.
In the end I manage to come up with a pretty nice story that uses some interesting monsters from mythology, come up with some interesting ideas for characters, conflicts, and even a monster or two (or three). And I wish I could go into details here, but that would give away too much. You wouldn’t want to read the book when I actually write it.
Did I actually do something he couldn’t? Probably not. But it’s nice to think so.
But isn’t it amazing? One image, and I have a wonderful idea for a story. I wasn’t sure exactly if you could come up with a story like King said he did, but I ended up doing the exact same thing…while saving a lot of time. I mean, King took years to come up with Joyland! I’m glad I saved the time on coming up with the story. And I hope someday I can do it again.
In the meantime, I’ve got a chapter of Laura Horn to start. I seem to have all the time in the world to come up with ideas, but none of the time to actually turn them into full-length novels. I should use the time when I get it.
Has this ever happened to you? How did it work out?
It’s time again for my Weekly Exercises. These flash fiction pieces are part opportunity to practice my craft, part sounding board to hear from readers what they think works and doesn’t work, and part shameless plug to get people interested in my published work. Remember, the Weekly Exercises rely on reader feedback, so whatever your thoughts, please let me know. I like feedback, positive or negative.
This week’s exercise is brought to you by Water. “Water: You need it, so why not take a dip?” It’s also brought to you by Fear. “Fear: the makers of ‘What was that?'”
Enjoy.
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She’d been kidnapped on the way home from her last class. He’d taken her to his home, tied her up, done things to her. He said there’d been news reports about a missing co-ed from the local college, a pretty redhead whom nobody could think of why someone would want to hurt her. He’d laughed all the while he was hurting her.
Now he’d tied her up, put a gag in her mouth, and thrown her into the pit behind his house, naked as the day she was born. He said he was done and had had his fun. She screamed up to him through the gag, begging for mercy. He said he’d installed a drain in the pit that could only be opened from above. Then he closed it and snaked a hose in.
Cold water fell from above. She cried, begging for her life. She’d do anything for him. But all he did was laugh and watch and film it with his camera, like he’d filmed everything else he’d done to her. The water was up to her ankles. She tried to break her bonds, but they were too strong. The water was up to her waist now. There wasn’t room to move, and she couldn’t swim. Up to her neck now, very little moonlight left. She cried a tear, but it was lost in all the water.
Adam & Eve: the original sex story that’s been denounced as evil and immoral.
I’m actually kind of sick while I’m writing this post, so if it’s not up to my usual quality, I apologize. Also, if you want to make me matzo ball soup or something, please make sure it’s prepared in a manner that is acceptable under the laws of kashrut. For an easy guide to cooking kashrut, please contact your local rabbi or read a guidebook to Jewish cooking.
Okay, enough rambling that unfortunately we cannot blame my current condition on. I don’t know if anyone’s noticed this, but the horror genre–whether it be books, movies, comic books, or TV shows on FX–has a lot of sex. It’s one of the draws of the genre, and it’s also one of the things horror authors are criticized for the most (besides the whole–you know–the fact that we write about scary, bloody things that often kill/maim/cover us in blood). Sometimes it seems that there’s more sex in a horror movie than there is horror.
The question is, why? Why is there so much sex in horror stories?
Well, I’m not exactly sure. Besides demons that use sex as a weapon in ancient legends and folklore, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of material on this subject before the 19th century. I do know that works by early horror writers like Edgar Allen Poe and Mary Shelley, who wrote around the same time, didn’t have a lot of sex in their work, and any that did was only subtly hinted at (for example, “The Fall of the House of Usher” hinted at an incestuous relationship between Usher and his sister, but never exactly came out and said it). However things started to change around the turn of the century. Dracula contained several themes about Victorian sexual mores, and theater productions of horror stories often used sex to draw crowds in. I’m not as familiar with the works of HP Lovecraft as I should be, but I bet there might be some naughtiness hinted at in those stories.
(And if I am wrong, I apologize and ask that you please notify me immediately of the fact)
“Bleh! I am so chaste! Bleh!”
Early horror films like the original Phantom of the Opera film with Lon Chaney, Nosferatu, the Universal horror films and some others skirted around sex (mostly because Hollywood had much more stringent censorship back then), but it was still present in books and comics of the time, which led to comic books being censored as well. However with the fifties and sixties came the sexual revolution, and mores surrounding sexuality loosened. This started being reflected in horror, with Stephen King in the seventies debuting with Carrie and Salem’s Lot, which had plenty of sex and sexual themes in them. Slasher films made use of sex as well, showing sex alongside blood and gore well into the late eighties and nineties. Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted in the late nineties, during which the connection between sex and horror was often explored and commented upon within the show and by its viewers.
Fast forward a little bit, and you have the Scream movies, which poked fun at the supposed “rules of horror movies” (see video below), the Friday the 13th remake which had so much sex, it kind of lost the point of the film till near the end (but still couldn’t salvage the story), and American Horror Story, which actually manages to use sex in an artful way without taking away from the terror of the show.
(If anyone feels my history lesson in horror and sex is lacking something, once again I apologize.)
But like I said, all this sex in the horror genre has its consequences. Some will say that horror is using sex to draw in its audiences, like when you have a pretty girl being tortured while in her underwear (I think that’s a new way of looking at torture porn). Others say that horror authors are making a morality statement when they say “sin” like sex, drugs or booze causes you to die horribly, and the sweet virgin is the only one who survives (albeit with severe trauma). Plenty of critics believe that all the sex, along with the gore and killing, are warping the minds of children and teenagers (I don’t believe that for one minute). And feminists criticize horror authors for objectifiying and sometimes demonizing women and their sexuality in their work.
For that last one, I have to admit, we’ve been guilty of that a few times. So has certain evangelists and nutcases and whatnot, but yeah, horror authors have done this a few times. The video below provides some examples on this.
But this still doesn’t explain how sex has gotten to be such a part of the genre of horror. Maybe it serves as a relief for audiences. After seeing something so scary, a little sex can actually serve to relax people. In some funeral parlors, they’ll actually have lewd statues or paintings in order to make the grieving feel a little better (not kidding). At the same time, sex could act as a way to ramp people up, show them a little nudity, and then when they’re excited, scare them silly with some blood and death.
Personally, I’m of the opinion that if there’s more sex in a horror movie than there is horror, it’s probably because the filmmakers realized they have a pretty weak story to begin with, and need something to draw the audiences in with. I don’t know if anyone else shares that opinion, but I definitely believe it. And it certainly would explain a lot.
And occasionally, sex serves as part of the plot, like how in AHS: Asylum Kit and Grace having sex is used to further certain elements of the story. So occasionally sex can be used in a good way in the horror genre, instead of just making us worry that the people behind the story you’re watching or reading about just needed something after a very bad dry spell.
Here’s another question to ask yourself: Is my story more likely to get this rating than an R or PG-13 rating if I use sex?
I’m still not sure why sex is so intrinsically a part of the horror genre. However, because it is, I think it should be used more wisely. If you write horror stories, unless you’re trying to use sex as part of your story in a tasteful way or as a tool to further character development, then you should probably leave the sex out. Ask yourself this: what does this story gain from me using sex in it?
If you can’t think of a valid reason, then don’t put the sex in. (You can also ask this question for gore, and I highly recommend that you do).
Well, I’ve got some news. You know how I created a page for The Quiet Game a while back? Well, I decided that since I’ve got Reborn City coming out in November and Snake coming out sometime next year and whatnot, it didn’t make sense for me to have pages for all of my books. It’s just too much work for a college student who already has a pretty big workload, and I can’t afford an assistant (plus I don’t really need one). So I decided to condense everything into a single page: Rami Ungar the Writer.
Yes, just like this blog. Makes sense, right? I plan to post links to my blog there, as well as some updates and other things happening in my life that I can’t put into a blog post for a variety of reasons. And I’m hoping to get plenty of people interested in my new page, talking not just things in my life or my writing, but also thinks happening in the media and in the world, links to the works and blogs of friends, and…well, the possibilities are endless.
If you’d like to subscribe to my Facebook page, you can follow this link here. Also, I still have a Twitter account, so you can click on this link here and check that out if you wish. You don’t have to, but I’d really appreciate it if you did. I’ll also be setting up the links on the About Me page, so they’ll be there if anyone wants to check them out after reading future posts.
All for now. I’m going to try to get some work on Video Rage done. Maybe even get half a chapter written! Let’s see how I do.
Rami Ungar The Writer 