Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

“The Quiet Game”: Last Night’s Reading

Posted: February 23, 2013 in Living and Life, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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Well, I did the reading last night, and I’m very happy with the results. Not a lot of people showed up–about ten at most–but they seemed to like it, and several friends of mine and some lookey-loos who just lived in the building showed up, which made me happy.

I started the show with a friend on the building’s activity board playing some creepy mood music from a Marilyn Manson album before stopping the song. Then I came out from behind the audience wearing make-up to make me look like Heath Ledger’s Joker and laughing like a madman. It freaked several people out, which was the reaction I was going for (I don’t have a photo of it right now, but I’ll be sure to post a photo of it later on The Quiet Game‘s Facebook page, the address of which is below). I proceeded to read from small sections from all but one of the short stories (you might remember that one of them is about a recovering sex addict, so I couldn’t read from that), and some people were a little creeped out by what I read to them.

Afterwards I thanked everyone who helped put the show together, and I thanked everyone who came for attending and sticking around, before telling everyone where they could find out more about The Quiet Game. It was nice, and I really enjoyed myself. It’s part of the song-and-dance that writers, especially self-publishing writers, have to do in order to make their work heard and bought and read and possibly reviewed on Amazon. So hopefully they’ll buy a copy after the book comes out, maybe tell their friends about it. That’s what I hope, anyway.

So for all those who managed to come, thanks for showing. It really meant a lot to me, and I hope that at future readings, you can show up and maybe not be too freaked out by anything that might be on my face besides my glasses.

Good night everybody.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/TheQuietGameFiveTalesToChillYourBones

A Stubborn Short Story

Posted: February 21, 2013 in short story, Writing
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We’ve all heard of authors who’ve written stories over a period of years, famous works the authors have written over periods of years, taking long breaks that have lasted decades. Benjamin Franklin did it with his memoir; Mark Twain did it with Huckleberry Finn; and I have a friend, a published thriller writer who’s been working on something for several years, but has written it on and off, when the inspiration strikes her.

I’ve heard of all this, but only for novels and memoirs. Never for short stories!

And yet this is what’s happening with my demonic-possession-gone-wrong story; I started it today, got a few pages in, and then I couldn’t do a thing with it. What gives? I have no idea, but I just can’t work anymore on this story. And I have no idea if it’s me losing interest in the story or the story not wanting to form at this very moment under these current conditions or some combination of the two.

And yes, I realize I’m making the story itself seem like a living, breathing being with will and defiance to my own will, but that’s what it feels like.

Suffice to say, I’ll take a break from this short story, though hopefully not for years. Maybe I’ll come back to it in a few days or weeks, and work on it bit by bit. If I can, I’ll make it into one of the best short stories I’ve ever written.

In the meantime, I have plenty of other stuff to work on. In fact, there’s a story about a dissociative fugue I can start on possibly tomorrow, if I can get my homework done before the Sabbath. Wish me luck.

Oh, and by the way, has this ever happened to you, with any sort of creative work?

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Posted: February 21, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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I was tagged by Lorna Dounaeva (http://lornadounaeva.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/the-next-big-thing-blog-hop/) for this post, which is similar to the award memes that make the rounds of the Internet. The Next Big Thing Blog Hop is a chance for us to talk about our works-in-progress, or WIP, and we have to follow certain steps to fulfill it. First, I have to tag the person who tagged me (thanks, Lorna!). Then I have to introduce and explain The Next Big Thing Blog Hop to those reading the post (check!). Then I have to answer ten questions about my WIP, and include pictures if possible. After the questions are done, I must tag five other writers with WIPs, and then let them know through emails or comments.

I’ll get to that, but first the questions, which will be focusing on The Quiet Game:

1. What is the title of the book you are working on? The title is The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones.

TQG cover

2. Where did the idea come from for the book? I think it started when I realized that editing my sci-fi novel RC was taking longer than I thought and that I’d probably finish my thriller novel Snake around the beginning of winter break. I’d played with the idea of working on a collection of short stories after Snake was done, but by the time winter break arrived, I thought it’d be a good thing to do, especially with my plans to self-publish. So as soon as I’d finished Snake, I got to work on it.

3. What genre does your book fall under? Horror, definitely horror. To be more specific, four of the short stories feature supernatural horror, while the fifth features psychological horror.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Well, it’s a collection of short stories, so that’d be five movies if I were extremely lucky. The only actor I can think of though, would be Taissa Farmiga from American Horror Story, who would play Traci from the titular short story, The Quiet Game. Although she doesn’t look very much like my conception of the character, she’d definitely define and bring the role to life, and that’s what I’m looking for.

Taissa Farmiga, everybody.

5. What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book? Be prepared to enter the darkest corners of your mind in…The Quiet Game.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I’m doing the self-publishing thing. It’s the way of the future, and I’ve tried the traditional route to publishing novels and collections. Although it’s still prestigious,the traditional route is still very difficult to do and from the way some of the bigger companies in New York have been merging and acting, they know it won’t last forever. Besides, I want to get my work to my readers sooner rather than later.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manusript? Probably a month or so, though one of the short stories did need to be rewritten at some point, so that’s another couple of days there. Each story took different lengths of time to work on, so it was an uneven work schedule. Still, it was very much worth it.

8. What other books would you compare this story to in your genre? I don’t know; it’s so hard to compare one collection of short stories to another. In fact, I’d say it’s almost impossible, though my Mom did compare one of my short stories to Stephen King’s It, which I thought was a huge compliment.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book? I got inspiration from anywhere. The Quiet Game came from a comment-conversation on a friend’s blog; Addict came from the experiences of a friend of mine. If I tried to go back and figure out the origin of each story, I’d have interesting stories to tell right there!

10. What else about yoru book might pique reader’s interest? I think that it’s by a new author and that each story is different, scary, and unique might draw some in. That’s the hope, anyway.

And now, onto the tagged people:

1. Matt Williams (http://storiesbywilliams.com/)

2. Angela (http://aportiaadamsadventure.wordpress.com/?ref=spelling)

3. Cristian Mihai (http://cristianmihai.net/)

4. Pat Bertram (http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/)

5. Jason Alan (http://jasonalanwriter.wordpress.com/)

Congratulations to the tagged winners, and I can’t wait to read what you’re in the process of creating.

“The Quiet Game”: A Reading

Posted: February 20, 2013 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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TQG cover

Ah, so many announcements about The Quiet Game, and so few hours in the day! If you haven’t heard already, I created a cover for my upcoming collection of short stories, The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones, earlier today and posted it all over the blogosphere, Facebook, and my Twitter account.

Now I have a second announcement: this Friday at my dorm, Jones Tower, there will be a huge Purim celebration. Yes Purim, the Jewish holiday that celebrates our deliverance from the hands of the Babylonian Prime Minister’s plot to murder every single Jew. During the celebration, there will be Hamentaschen, the traditional treat eaten during Purim, masks you can make (it’s basically our Halloween, if you didn’t know), and I’ll be doing a reading from some of my short stories at some point during the festivities. It’s going to be great; I plan on doing a whole lot to make sure it’s so spooky, they may not want to have me read again–

On second thought, maybe I should tone it down a bit.

I’ll try and make a video of the reading and post it on YouTube. Keep your eyes peeled for it.

And if you happen to be in Columbus on Friday night and have nothing to do at 10 PM, please show up. I’d appreciate the support.

Unless of course you’re crazy or want to kill me, in which case I’d like to warn you there are members of the audience who will be attending and who are a part of martial arts societies and groups on campus, and they won’t hesitate to hurt you.

Have a good night, everybody.

More New Ideas That I Can’t Wait To Work On

Posted: February 20, 2013 in ideas, short story, Writing
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As if creating the cover for The Quiet Game wasn’t good enough for me, I have new ideas for short stories that I plan to get on as soon as possible! The first short story is one I’ve been meaning to do a rewrite for a while, the one involving a demonic possession that went wrong…for the demon, that is. I’ve been ruminating over how best to rewrite and improve it for a while now, but now I’m ready to work on it. I just need the free time to do it! But if I can’t get my homework done and I don’t have anything else to do, I will get it done.

The second short story is one I just had the idea for today during my Abnormal Psychology class, involving a character who wakes up from a dissociative fugue. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, a dissociative fugue is when, for reasons still not entirely understood, a person forgets their personal identity and past and adopts an entirely new identity with its own past and habits. It’s a very strange disorder, which can last anywhere from a couple of hours to several months, and usually involves the person stricken with the fugue disappearing or fleeing to a new location, possibly because of the fugue-identity’s whims or beliefs or memories (once again, not much is known about fugues).

When someone awakens from a fugue, they tend to be very confused and usually lose all memories of their fugue identity or what happened while they were in their fugue state. And since fugues are unpredictable and people don’t realize until after the state that they were in a fugue state, there’s not a lot of literature on them except for case studies written after the fugue. Sometimes the memories from these states can be recovered with therapy, but it’s rare and there’s no consistent or approved treatment for dealing with fugues.

Plus the fact that you can’t predict a fugue makes it hard to get a test subject. If anything, people who have had fugues usually have had childhood traumas or head injuries, but only a small percent of people with head injuries or traumas actually have fugues.

I’m sorry for rambling on, but do you see the set-up for a great short story here? Because I do! And I can’t wait to write it.

First I have to rewrite the possession short story. Wish me luck!

“The Quiet Game”: The Cover

Posted: February 20, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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I took some time out of my day today to create the cover for my upcoming collection of short stories, The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. I used a photo I’d taken over the weekend and used PhotoShop to add the title and the writing in the sky that’s in the titular short story. The result is what you see below:

TQG cover

The photo is of Orton Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus, with a snowy night background. With the lettering in the back, I feel it makes for a very scary cover that gives me the effect I’m looking for.

The best part though, is that I did it all by myself, with only a little bit of help from the people who run the computer lab at the Science and Engineering Lab at school, and I did it in barely half an hour, if even that much! I feel so proud of myself for being able to use a program that before I had so much trouble using. Now I can add this to the Facebook page and put it on the “Books by Rami Ungar” page to show the world.

Thanks for supporting me so far. I hope to have the book out by mid-April, when the semester ends. I hope you’re looking forward to reading it, almost as much as I am looking forward to publishing it.

Snake: Adding in the Russian

Posted: February 16, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything about my serial killer novel Snake, but I’m happy to announce I finally got around to doing something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now: add in the Russian.

For those of you who weren’t around during the six months from June-December 2012, Snake follows the Snake, a serial killer that goes after members of a Mafia family for reasons mentioned only in the novel (and not on this blog; that’d give away the whole darn plot). The Snake also speaks Russian, a language I have no heads or tails for, comrades. So I asked a friend of mine I know through OSU’s organization for Jewish students, OSU Hillel, to help me because he’s a native Russian speaker.

Yesterday, my friend sent me some translations and transliterations of the English phrases I sent him, showing me what the phrases I’d written in English looked like in Russian with English characters. I inserted them into the story, and now I don’t have to do anything till I actually start the second draft of Snake next month. I’ll probably add some more Russian in then, but until then, I don’t think I’ll bother my friend.

In hte meantime, I have to go out for a few minutes and take a photo that I’ll use and modify to create the cover for my upcoming collection of short stories, The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. Sure it’s cold and it’s late, but this photo needs to be taken at night, I only just got done with everything else, and I have an hour until SNL, so I’m good. Time to take some photos.

Do svidanya until I write next. Have a good night.

Setting Is Character Too

Posted: February 13, 2013 in Reflections, Writing
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I’ve been watching the first season of American Horror Story on my computer lately, half because I’ve heard so much about it and I’m intrigued, but also because I figure that it’s about time I watch some successful TV horror that I’m missing out on. Watching it, I realize something important: the house, which is the main setting of the show, is a character in itself. The setting is its own character.

I’m only three episodes in, but I’m learning that hthe house has so many layers and so much depth. In every episode we see some new aspect of it, some new piece of its history. We learn that t has its quirks, its needs and wants, and its effects on those who encounter it. And I think ultimately, it is the antagonist of the story rather than the home of the antagonist. The house has some designs for the family living there, and while I’m not sure what those designs are, I’m sure they’re sinister in nature.

(And if I’m right, don’t tell me; I want to be surprised).

This puts me in mind of other stories where buildings and settings that have been characters as well. Obviously, there’s The Shining by Stephen King: the Overlook Hotel was definitely sentient and not just inhabited by spirits. It lived, and it allowed souls to become twisted and live within it. Also, there’s the house in When A Stranger Calls, because it figures into the plot just as much as the two characters. We see the house, so airy and space-filled, and yet we feel trapped within it, wondering what was behind every corner. When we reach the climax of the story, we fear not only the killer, but we fear the house and what is hiding in its darkest corners.

This makes me wonder how I may apply this to my work. I know there’s a few stories where I could make the setting a character,, even though I have yet to write any of those stories. But how to make those settings come to life, to be characters? I don’t know. At least not yet. I hope to find out though, and perhaps I will, especially if I keep watching AHS. If I can…then it’ll just be conquering another skill I’ll need on the road to be an author.

It’s like Hotel California, but worse.

Do you ever use setting as a character? How do you do it?

Enigma: Retitled & Almost Ready

Posted: February 13, 2013 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
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I got feedback for one of my short stories, “Enigma”, the one about the autistic boy. My bera-reader, a woman who’s worked with people with disabilities for years, told me she really enjoyed the story, especially since certain parts scared her and she couldn’t figure out what would happen next or whether the wolf spirit in the story was a hallucination or an actual spirit. I don’t give any hints on that subject, though I usually tend towards supernatural.

My beta-reader also didn’t care for the name change I gave “Engima”, but I feel that the new title works more for the rewrite I gave this story. That being said, the new title is “In The Lady Ogre’s Den”, based on something the main character notices while in the hospital. I think the title’s a good one, and I hope to keep it.

I’ll probably edit this story one more time, but after that I’ll move it to the folder on my flash drive where I keep the finished short stories for The Quiet Game. I’m very excited; after this story, I’ll have only two more stories to hear back from beta-readers about, and then I’ll be ready to put The Quiet Game out. Let’s hope I hear back soon.

Oh, as for that promotional short story I mentioned the other day, I still have to find time to send it to the Copyright Office, but I will as soon as I’m done with my homework. Just bear with me, okay? I’ll have it out soon.

“Three Life-Saving Phone Calls” Finished

Posted: February 12, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, short story, Writing
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While watching the State of the Union address (love you, Mr. President!), I worked on my latest short story, “Three Life-Saving Phone Calls”, a short story about a teenager trying to commit an elaborate suicide. The idea for the story came to me in one of my creative writing classes (apparently lots of people get great ideas for stories while around my teacher, or so I hear), and it was based on a really dark period of my life, when I actually did want to commit suicide when I thought that nobody loved me and I was all alone.

The story’s a little longer than five-thousand words, but I plan to see if I can slim it down a little during the editing stage. I also want to see if I can get this short story to win OSU’s English Department’s creative writing award for short stories. I won’t get that big a prize–only $250–but it’d be something to put on my resume and it’d be a prestigious award to have. Since the due date for submissions is in 10 days though, I need to edit quickly…after I edit my second short story for class.

Let’s hope I can handle it all and do well!

I’ll let you know how well things go. Wish me luck and hope for the best, okay? Thanks!

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