The New Carrie Trailer

Posted: April 7, 2013 in Scary Stuff
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I’ve been wanting to post about this since Thursday, but like I said in my last post…I’ve been busy.

Now, some people think that this’ll just be a remake with nothing new to add to the story of Carrie White. I’d like to disagree (though I do acknowledge their point). I think the trailer offers plenty of room to say otherwise. We can see Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie disagreeing with her mother, something that Carrie doesn’t usually do without her psychic powers. Not to mention that Carrie might use her powers to…have a little fun. I mean, look at her smile when she manipulates the flag! That’s a girl who knows she going to go a little bad and have a wild time with her powers.

Plus Carrie’s mother does some head-banging  early in the commercial, an indication that we may see just how crazy she is. And the special effects…should…be…AWESOME! I mean, look at the trailer. This is more than just lifting stuff, this is causing the whole house to go crazy with your power.

Don’t believe me? Watch the trailer, you’ll see. I cannot wait till October.

It’s Lonely Sometimes When You’re Into Horror

Posted: April 7, 2013 in Reflections, Scary Stuff
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I’ve been so busy lately, that the ideas for blog posts have been piling up. I wanted to write two or three yesterday, but Shabbat came in before I could, and I had to put any post-writing plans on hold. Now that Shabbat is over and I’ve done some homework and I’ve watched last night’s episode of Grimm, so I’m good to start writing a few posts. And to start with, I’d like to bring up a topic that’s been on my mind for the past couple of days:

I’m one of the few horror fans I know. In fact, I only know one other fan of scary movies on campus, but his schedule is so different from mine that we can’t always just sit down and talk to each other about horror movies and the qualities of originals versus remakes…or in fact, talk about anything. In fact, I only found out about his love for horror films tonight! How whack is that?!

Thing is, I feel a little lonely sometimes. I can’t help but feel a little down when I see people debating the Game of Thrones‘ books versus the TV show or see Trekkies go crazy over the new movie coming out. But are there a ton of people going crazy over Stephen King adaptations coming out soon? Um…me and quite possibly my mother, I know that much. Anyone getting nuts for the third season of AHS, American Horror Story: Coven? Me and…the sister who lives on the other end of campus and whom I only see on vacations or at family or holiday events. You see how sad this is?

The thing is, I want to have conversations that are like comic book fans debating how to beat the Hulk if you don’t have superpowers or debates about whether Kirk or Picard is the better captain, only in more of the vein of horror. But there’s not a lot of people who are into that sort of stuff, at least not on my blog. The posts I do write that are devoted to horror subjects don’t always get a lot of reads or likes and rarely any comments, so I don’t always write them. And it…it makes me wish more fans of horror were on my blog.

I’m not complaining or anything about the conversations  I’ve had up to this point or the friends I’ve made not being fans of scary stuff. But I do wish that I could find some more people interested in the horror scene, who go crazy for the same things I’m into or at least show some enthusiasm for those things.

Well, it’s the Internet age. I may just not be looking hard enough. Does anyone know any Facebook groups? I’m on that now, so I better get to work searching. And I’d like to say, if you ever want to discuss horror subjects, I’m always game. I love to talk about horror. So much that I scare normal people.

Okay, I’m going to stop ranting now. I just want to say, I’m going to start writing more horror posts from now on. I’m sorry if that scares you. But I must say, I want to talk about horror more often, so that’s what I’m going to do. Hope you’re okay with that. Maybe I’ll meet a few people who go crazy for ghosts and slashers like I do.

One can only hope.

Review: Hannibal Pilot Episode

Posted: April 4, 2013 in Review, Scary Stuff
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I’ve got a thing for serial killers–the fictional kind, not the ones that actually kill people. And with The Following, Bates Motel, and the second season of AHS, you’d think I’d be pretty satisfied right now. But no, I’m more excited for Hannibal, the prequel TV series to the first Hannibal Lecter novel, Red Dragon (with all the prequel TV series based on famous fictional killers these days, I’m hoping someone will do a prequel to Nightmare on Elm Street, but I digress). In fact, I’ve been geeking out about this show since I heard it was being made. And tonight, I made some popcorn, sat down in front of the TV, rocking back and forth like a hyperactive kid who had too much ice cream.

I walked away very intrigued, similar to the feeling I get when I’m working with an interesting story and an interesting main character. Here’s why:

First off, there’s Will Graham, the profiler who tackled Lecter before Clarice Starling was even out of high school, and there’s Hannibal the Cannibal himself. Hugh Dancy plays Graham, the third actor to play the character. This incarnation though is different: whereas other versions have only hinted at how troubled they are by their gifts to find and figure out serial killers, Dancy’s Graham is almost reminiscent of Sheldon Cooper, brilliant, but with annoying quirks that help him keep strangers away but force him to struggle to keep the people he likes close to him. As he himself states early in the pilot episode, “I’m more Asperger’s and autism than narcissistic and psychopathic.” Instead of being a physics genius in love with himself, Graham is gifted and cursed with the ability to emphasize with any person, even killers, and the degree to which he does that scares him.

Contrast that with Dr. Lecter, played this time by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. This incarnation of the man-eating doctor shows him as a stoic, detached gentlemen, soft-spoken and not one bit creepy…unless we see him cooking or eating. We already know that he’s a cannibal and active at it too, as opposed to the other characters of the show, who believe he’s just a brilliant psychiatrist, and Mikkelsen does a damn good job of making us almost believe that. In fact, I think it’s going to be a long wait before we see any definitive proof that the doctor is the killer, and while we wait, we’ll be preoccupied with Graham and Lecter’s relationship. You see despite a rocky start, both men are connecting to each other on some level…and that’s where this show’s emotional conflict will come from.

There’s no music in this show except during very drama-filled moments, giving the show a very life-like quality. The special effects mostly come from Graham seeing what he thinks as he reconstructs crime scenes and solves puzzles in his head, mostly in the form of a neon-green light rewinding the crime scene to its pre-crime state, and dreams he has that reveal the killer’s thinking to him. And there’s an air to the show that mystifies me, an air created by the show’s creators. It’s saying, “We’re not trying to entertain you…we’re trying to tell you a story that’s never been told before.” Which is the truth, and it all in turn intrigues me.

I’m giving this episode a 4.6 out of 5. Let’s hope they can keep this going, keep me intrigued, and maybe we’ll see not only the stunning but inevitable conclusion to this first season, but we’ll see the appearance of another famous killer as well…

Being Loud Does Not Give You The Right To Be Rude

Posted: April 3, 2013 in Reflections, Social Activism
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As you all know, I’m a huge fan of Anne Rice, so when I got my Facebook back in December, I immediately subscribed to her page. As I quickly learned, Ms. Rice likes to use her page to talk about issues important to her, especially LGBT and women’s rights. Earlier this week though, something happened on the page that caused quite the cyber-ruckus: Ms. Rice posted about how female genital mutilation–sometimes euphemistically called “circumcision for girls”–is still practiced openly in many nations and secretly in some such as the US and Great Britain. The reason behind this practice, which causes women to have very painful sexual intercourse and in some cases can cause medical complications and infections? Not consecrating them to any sort of higher being or health reasons like male circumcision, but in order to ensure chastity and virginity. In other words, the sexist belief that women have uncontrollable sexual urges and unless men do something about it, they will have sex left, right, and center.

You wouldn’t believe the meshuggas that happened on her FB page.

When Ms. Rice posts about an issue on her Facebook, she usually does it to bring attention to the issue and cause discussion, hopefully to enact positive change. The unexpected effect though, was that several people on the page began railing against male circumcision and making it impossible to have any rational discussion unless all visitors to the page include male circumcision to their disgust to female circumcision. Some of these people went a step further, insulting anyone who tried to stick to the topic at hand or tried to defend male circumcision for religious and/or health reasons. My own parents, rabbis with many years of experience, were insulted and called nasty words after I tried to defend my religious beliefs against them.

The next day Ms. Rice said that the issue should’ve stuck to female genital mutilation, that she had no idea how the topic got so out of hand, and that those who had been especially insulting would be banned from her page forevermore (apparently she has the power to do that). Many of us, including myself, gave the woman a huge “THANK YOU!” and then started a rational discussion on female genital mutilation.

Now, this was an isolated incident, but it got me thinking on past incidents where people were loud and then incredibly rude. Foremost in my mind was when President Obama came to campus in October, and pro-life advocates showed up to protest with signs that were clearly Photoshopped. Whenever those there for the event tried to be reasonable with them, they jsut seemed to get louder, interrupting every sentence, and getting up in their faces.

And there are other incidents in mind, ones I’ve attended and others I’m happy to have been far away from. There are people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian debate who will say the worst things about whatever side isn’t their own. Gun advocates will often scream at the government trying to take away their Second Amendment rights. And just so I don’t sound like the liberal I probably am and turn off more conservative readers, there are advocates of environmentalism who are so aggressive with their beliefs that it can get out of hand and they will scare people with it. All of these things have a common thread: loud people being incredibly uncaring and callous in their treatment of those who don’t think like them.

Unfortunately, these sort of debates can bring out the worst in people. It’s not pretty, but it’s the truth.

Now, I don’t see anything wrong with being passionate in your beliefs. There’s nothing wrong with that. However I draw the line when those who are loud start to swear and call people who believe differently than them horrible names and blame them for the ills of society. That’s not the way to get people on your side, especially if people who are undecided one way or another on an issue. In fact, if I had to summarize what’s the way to get people on your side of the debate, it’s not to be virulent, angry and inflammatory. No, it’s to be calm, respectful, and only armed with facts. I believe that’s the way famous saints and leaders have won the masses to them and made great impressions on history.

And the people who are loud, rude and imflammatory…well, I hesistate to say anything about them, lest I get called nasty names by these exact same people for the examples I might bring up of people who were like them. But you see the effect these sort of people have on others. They thrive on anger and use fear as their weapon, hoping that fear will make those opposed to them at least quiet down for fear of their wrath (we sometimes see this with lobbyists and Congress, unfortunately).

The lesson here is not to let your anger get the best of you, but let it drive you to enact better change, no matter what your beliefs on any issue may be. That’s the only way to make change, and to try doing the opposite will only cause you and your cause problems that may not be overcome. And no cause wants that, right?

The Importance of Build-Up And Mystery

Posted: April 3, 2013 in Reflections, Scary Stuff
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What is in that fog? Something wicked this way comes.

I’ve often used this blog to rail against horror movies where filmmakers have spent a ton of money on CGI and making a top-notch movie, and yet the most exciting aspect of the movie is the trailer. I’ve even done lists of what you should and shouldn’t do when making a horror movie (for that post, please refer here: https://ramiungarthewriter.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/what-not-to-do-when-making-a-horror-movie/). Now I think I’ve identified two more factors in horror films that could separate a good scare from a boring waste of $6.50. Those factors are build-up and mystery.

For the first one, I’d like to call attention to the beter films in the Friday the 13th franchise versus the remake, the latter of hich I never get tired of ripping for how really bad it was. In the better films, the filmmakers had a way with building suspense that terrified audiences and made them want more at the same time. The best way to illustrate this technique, if you ask me (and I’m assuming you are, you’re reading this blog post after all), is through stream-of-consciousness from the POV of a moviegoer:

“Oh, she’s going out to that shed. Will Jason kill her there? She’s in and the light’s on. She bends over–I can’t see what’s behind her! Oh, Jason’s not there. Good. Oh, she’s bending over again! I can’t see behind her! Oh, Jason’s not there. Oh, how many lightbulbs does she need? Oh, Jason’s still not there. Okay, she’s heading back to the house. Will Jason get her now? Opening the door…OMG! What was that? Oh, it was just the cat. God, I feel as silly as the actress in that close-up–OMG there’s a machete poking out her front! She’s being lifted up! Yikes it’s Jason! AAAH!”

Somedays his writers do great with him. Other days…you know. All depends on how the suspense is added to the story.

You see there? Through visual dynamics and waiting until the least expected moment, they get the tension really high, make us think that we’ve seen everything to get scared of, and then WHAM! They scare us when we least expect it. In the better Friday the 13th films, this technique would scare the bejeezus out of people, and made the films famous and box-office smashes. Now contrast this with the reaction of me when I watched the remake:

“Okay, the naked chick with the bump on the head is hidden under the dock on the bad side of the lake. Jason’s probably seen her. She’s so dead. He’s on the dock. She’s looking up like he might get her. He steps away from her. Machete through the roof of her head! We see her bare breasts. She’s dead and in the water. Wow, so scary. NOT!”

No surprises in that film. We knew when a character was going to die, and there was no build-up of suspense to make us terrified. There was a reason that fans and critics hated that film. The only reason it did well was because people went hoping that the reviews were just by people who were overly critical and hard to please.

This is why it’s important to get a feel for building suspense like in the better of the Friday the 13th films. it makes the movies that much better, and if you’re really good at it you can keep it going throughout an entire film and even afterwards without letting the suspense and terror abate. And if you do become good at it, you can hopefully become someone in the horror movie industry.

Another aspect of making horor movies that can make a horror movie great is mystery. To illustrate that, I’d like to use The Amityville Horror and its remake (I love showing how bad remakes can be. Maybe people will learn something from it). In the original Amityville Horror, we never get a sense of what exactly is haunting the house. We see flies and hear masculine voices shouting “GET OUT” at priests. Things move on their own, and anyone of a religious nature gets horribly sick near the house. We know the little girl is playing with an imaginary friend named Jodie, who somehow locks the babysitter in a closet (that’s scary as it is), and there’s a room painted red under the basement stairs that causes the very-spiritual family friend to go into hysterics and scream “It’s the gateway to hell!” Later, the male lead sees a pig with glowing eyes in the window, which we assume tells him to kill his family, and later the same guy falls through the stairs into the hidden room and falls through the floor of that into a pit of blood.

Beware this room: its darkness is only rivaled by so little we know about it.

But do we really understand what’s haunting the house? NO! We know that the murder of the preivious residents of the house were killed by their crazy son, but we’re not sure if they’re causing the haunting or if they’re just one small piece of the puzzle. We also hear something of a satanic preacher living on that land many years ago, but it’s not assumed that he’s behind it in any way. At the end of the movie, we’re left thinking: “Oh mygod, I’m so scared! What was with that house? What was in it? And where did all that blood come from? And the pig in the window…what the f*** was with the pig in the window!” You see how awesome the amount of mystery in that movie makes it?

Contrast that with the remake, which is utilizing the whole mythology from all the films based on The Amityville Horror. Right away, we’re made very aware of what’s causing everything. Messages through TV, little ghost girls that manifest themselves in front of everyone and are held by mysterious arms against the ceiling. Messages in blood on the mirror…need I go on? There’s no mystery, except for a supposed-to-be startling revelation about the satanic preacher. At the end, we understand too well what’s causing the haunting, and we’re left very not scared. The mystery of the first film made it awesome, while the lack of mystery stripped the second film of any scariness.

At least that’s what’s happening with this film.

Is that all that is needed to make a scary film? Heck no! A lot goes into scaring anyone with anything, be it a story, a movie, or even a silly prank for Halloween or April Fool’s Day (I speak from personal experience on all but one of these). But these two factors–a build-up of suspense and an air of ever-present mystery–can create a terrifying experience that leaves those doing the experiencing chilled for the rest of the night. So keep these factors in mind when creating your own story (and it doesn’t necessarily need to be a scary story). You might end up creating a wonderful work of art that’ll be remade in thirty years by a high-powered team of filmmakers and debated about by fans in chat rooms for years to come.

What Is Luck To The Writer?

Posted: April 2, 2013 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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Two posts I read recently got me thinking about something that many people talk about or wish they had: luck. Some people say there is no luck or if there is you make your own. Some say luck is something where a strange series of random events play out in your favor. And others say there’s a strange system or algorithm to luck that sometimes you can tap into, especially when you have a rabbit’s foot or some talisman like that. But how does luck work in the writing business, especially in these turbulent times when the author has to do so much themselves just to get their work into the hands readers, even the interested ones?

Well, that depends on who you ask: my friend and fellow author Pat Bertram (you might remember her as the person who did that wonderful interview a while back) mused in her article on the nature of luck and quoted a professor who believed that luck was the result of a consistently positive outlook on life (for the article look here: http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/can-you-change-your-luck/). And today, I read another author by the name of Richard Levesque, who concluded that no matter how much work you do on your own to advertise your book, luck still plays a big part in your success (for his post read here: http://richardlevesqueauthor.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/how-much-does-random-chance-account-for-a-writers-success/).

What’s my take? Well…it’s a little bit of both, with some of my own spiritual beliefs mixed in. First, I think having a positive outlook helps everyone on the road of life. You can be in a wrestling match and feel discouraged that the guy you’re facing is bigger and weights much more than you and let him beat you…or you can let yourself stay positive, notice that his weight is great but his stance is sloppy, and tackle him that way. You’l think “Lucky I noticed that”, but truth is, you were able to do that because you didn’t let yourself admit defeat and kept fighting, not just physically but mentally and psychologically, which allowed you to see that winning move.

At the same time, sometimes luck comes in random coincidences and events. Some of you remember nearly a year ago that I wrote a review for Anne Rice’s The Wolf Gift, then I sent her a letter telling her I enjoyed the book and including a link to the review, should she ever get bored. Well, either Ms. Rice reads a lot of her mail and all reviews she can find or she was bored, because the next Friday she linked my review to her Facebook page, causing my stats to explode. Never expected that to happen, and to think that Ms. Rice read my letter, let alone my review, still amazes me.

Still, I think that those random events and coincidences might be sometimes manipulated by The Big Guy Upstairs. Why do so many people thank God after they’ve won or achieved something so important in their lives? Maybe becuase on some level they realize that a certain Some Being helped them achieve that goal. At least, that’s what it seems to me, and it’s the reason why I thank Him for so many good things that happen in my life.

However luck works, it’s undeniable that it does act in a writer’s life. JK Rowling was lucky that her books were such successes, and Psy was lucky that his video, out of so many, became such a viral hit. In essence, luck is something that gives artists of all types boosts so that they become great. I don’t know if this great luck will ever come to me, but that doesn’t stop me from hoping that it will. But until that luck comes to me, I’ll keep fighting and working so that my success can come that much more easily.

A Summary of My Twisted Imagination

Posted: March 31, 2013 in ideas, Reflections, Writing
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This morning I woke up with a memory and an idea: I remembered one time I let a friend of mine, whom I knew would not steal any of my ideas, look at the list of ideas for novels and other assorted creative endeavors. This was midway through high school and I’d probably just started the first draft of Reborn City. He sent it back to me with one note: Interesting.  A lot of ideas using magic here.

That was several years ago, like I said, and that Ideas List couldn’t have had more than 15 ideas on it at the time. Now it’s at 51 ideas and counting, and I thought I’d take inventory again. I went over the ideas, and I found some interesting numbers here. I share them with you now because they give insight into not only the sort of stories I like to write and create, but also gives an idea of who I am, and what my imagination gives birth to.

I’ll list these ideas, occasionally giving some information on why I gave these stats, and then I’ll tell you what I think of all these sorts of story ideas. You’re welcome to draw your own conclusions as well and tell me what you think. Also, please excuse the randomness of some of these stats. I listed them as they came to me. Also be aware that several of these ideas cross over with each other in terms of elements, such as serial killers crossing over with demons, science gone wrong featuring monsters, and so on and so forth.

Number of stories dealing with the supernatural: 29
–Number with ghosts: 6
–Number with monsters/demons: 26
–Number with magic: 24
–Number featuring God(s): 9

Trust me, plenty of stories featuring this sort of creepy stuff.

Number of science fiction stories: 9
–Number with science gone wrong as the main theme/driving force: 7

Number of crime/thriller stories: 17

Number featuring human antagonists: 33
–Number featuring serial killers/rapists/etc.: 25

Number of stories with strong female protagonists: 25

Number of ideas that aren’t for novels: 13
–Number of films: 3
–Number of TV shows: 2
–Number of comic books/mangas: 7
–Number of video games: 1

Number of ideas that are suitable for younger audiences: 1

As I said, I’d provide a little feedback on some of the numbers listed above. The first I’d like to draw your attention to is that most of my science-fiction ideas feature science gone wrong. Why? Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that I sometimes wonder that our society, which is getting more technologically dependent with every passing day is going to find itself in a lot of trouble because of how much we rely on our technology. Although none of these stories feature Terminator-like elements, where the tech actually rises up to get us, I do think the stories do illustrate just how dangerous technology can be if we let it be the center of our existences, and shows just how paranoid I am about that happening. It may also explain why I always wait to try out new technology and social media until everybody else is using it. Makes it safer, I guess, at least in my strange mind.

Also, why did I emphasize stories with strong female protagonists? Because even in the year 2013, there are many novels/TV shows/movies/whatever where the female characters just fill a postition, often times to draw in male readers. And there are plenty of times when the female characters could be replaced by male characters and there wouldn’t be much change to the overall story. Imagine for one second that Hermione Granger from Harry Potter was a boy. How much would it change? The Ron/Hermione subplot would be taken out, but beyond that, there’d still be a smarty-pants character helping Harry figure out important stuff that’ll save his life later. Perhaps the readership, particularly the female readership, would be less, but it might still be a popular story.

Imagine how different this story would be if Katniss were a normal girl or if she were even a bad-ass boy? Not too fun to think about, is it?

So I write a lot of stories where female protagonists are like Katniss Everdeen: they’re indispensable to the plot. Change their gender or make them more meek or in a more traditional role, and you have by far a much less interesting story. Katniss is so popular not because she has two dreamy guys after her affections, but because she’s a kick-ass female with sharp-shooting skills and the determination to fight against a very corrupt system. All without showing off her boobs and butt as well. She’s something female readers want to be, and something male readers can fall for because of how different she is. So many of my female characters become like that, indispensable and not allowed to change or they would change the story for the worse.

By the way, I think that part of me that likes those characters might be due to my childhood, where I had a lot of women and girls around me all the time and where I had a lot of strong female role models in my life, including but not limited to my mother. In addition, a lot of the shows I watched when I was younger involved strong female main characters, most notably Sailor Moon (not afraid to put that out there, by the way). It’s no wonder i have so many strong female characters.

And finally, there’s the fact that one of my ideas is suitable for children. Unusual for a horror writer, right? But I recently discovered some of the old cartoons I used to watch when I was younger, and one of them I relly enjoyed watching again. I hope someday to reboot that as a movie, if I should ever have the money, power and influence to be able to do that. So I list it there, with the hope that I can someday be able to create a fun little movie reboot with jokes for both kids and adults and a plot that’ll draw in any viewer.

I sometimes think my subconscious looks a little something like this. Eerie to behold, right?

So what does all this say about me? Well, without the actual list it’s difficult to pull up any sort of psychological profile about me. But I think it does give you an idea of what sort of stories I’ll put out in the future, and what you can expect from some of them. So either you are either very psyched to read my work or you’ll never pick up a Rami Ungar book as long as you live. Either way, it gives you some idea of who I am and what I like to write. And I think that’s what I want people to get from this post.

Got any questions? Feel free to ask, and I’ll make up an answer as best I can.

I’m In A Bit Of A Slump

Posted: March 31, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, short story, Writing
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You’d think I’d do something a bit more festive for my 400th post. But no, all I got is some bad news.

Truth is folks, I’m in a little bit of a slump. I have two short stories that are not coming along like I want them to, and I feel absolutely no desire to work on either of them while I’m drained. Every time I sit myself down in front of a computer with the intention of writing, I find myself instead watching crime shows online or reading or playing Angry Birds on Facebook. Not only that, but I’ve been neglecting one short story I’ve been meaning to send to some magazine or another, but when you’re a full-time student with homework and a part-time job, you sometimes don’t feel like doing the research.

What I’d rather be doing is working on novels. I’d rather write or edit them or even research them. But the only novel I’m going to write anytime soon is Reborn City’s sequel, which I won’t start on until I’ve put out RC on the Internet, and my beta reader for RC is only halfway through the novel at this point. And although I have plans for a sequel to Snake, I want to wait a little while before I even think of starting the sequel to that, and besides, my beta reader for Snake’s been busy herself, so she hasn’t had a chance to start on it yet.

So what do I do in the meantime? Work on short stories, but those are harder for me than novels. Novels I can stretch out, go deep into the character’s history and identities and personalities, do all sorts of interesting twists and turns and create a whole mythology for. Short stories are compact, usually less than 10,000 words, and we writers have to fit a whole story into that amount of space. You can see where a guy like me, who grew up on a steady diet of novels, usually novels that were part of series, might encounter problems. The joke is that the short story is the novel’s neglected younger sibling, but really, it’s the sibling that requires more skill to handle.

So I’m in a slump. I have no idea what to do at the moment, with no novels t0 write, only the occasional chapter to edit, and two short stories whom I can’t seem to fully finish. Even when I come up with new ideas for novels, which I do a lot, I can’t work on them anytime soon, so that’s not helpful.

Any suggestions would be most welcome. They could be anything from tricks or strategies to help me finish the short stories to suggestions of something else I could try doing while I wait for inspiration and chapters to edit and whatnot.

And if you feel the same as me or have felt the same as me, please let me know. It’d make me feel better.

Fiction Becoming More Horrifying? I’m Not So Sure

Posted: March 25, 2013 in Reflections, Scary Stuff
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A friend of mine sent me a link on Facebook. The link led me to an article about a study that suggested in a one-sentence introduction and three slightly-longer but very neat paragraphs that fiction books are becoming scarier. What did the study base this assessment on? The leaders of the study perused a Google book database for words relating to six human emotions: anger, disgust, fear, joy and sadness. One of the interesting things they found in the data set they got was that words relating to fear seemed to be on the rise, while disgust fell sharply and the other four emotions leveled off.

The obvious conclusion, according to these researchers, is that fiction is becoming much more horrifying.

I disagree. Here’s why:

First off, that Google database only represents 4% of books published between 1900 and 2000, and that’s not including self-published books or books published as serials in magazines. If you’re only including 4% of any population, even a collection of books, it’s not very representative of it. Second, the study was based on words signifying emotions. Just because a type of emotion shows up in a story more and more often doesn’t mean you can classify it as horror or romance or whatever. Perhaps the story in question might be a novel about a guy with agoraphobia who feels all sorts of fear when it comes to leaving his apartment. That’s more literary than horror, mind you.

And third, my own personal experience tells me that horror is not necessarily on the rise. Even today, there are many publishing houses, agencies, and magazines that refuse to deal in horror, even when they deal in science fiction or fantasy, horror’s friendlier and kinder genre sisters. Those that do deal in horror, particularly magazines, are either exclusively into horror, or they only deal with a certain type of horror, one that either crosses over into sci-fi or fantasy or, while still scary, is tame enough that readers won’t be turned off by reading it. If horror’s on the rise, there should be a response in the publishing industry towards it, but I’m still waiting to see this response.

And yes, there’s been a rise in TV shows catering to horror fans, so one in literature may seem only logical. Not so much: contrary to the opinion of some, I don’t believe that a love of horror stories just arose out of the television-watching audience. Those horror fans were always there, they just had to content themselves with books or movies (bad or good, you take what you can get with these films), simply because horror wasn’t really available on TV. Ryan Falchuk, creator of American Horror Story, said he was taking a monumental risk, bigger than what he’d been taking with Glee, by trying to put a horror show on TV, even if it was on a cable channel like FX. Luckily the investment paid off, but there was always the chance things could’ve gone sideways, and that chance might’ve put off some producers. The creation of shows like The Following or Bates Motel are mostly trying to capitalize on the success of AHS, and other shows with supernatural/horror themes that came before AHS–Vampire Diaries, True Blood, or Teen Wolf–may have horror elements, but they have plenty of measures of comedy and romance and drama to keep more mainstream viewers interested in the show, just like with Buffy and Angel of ages past.

So while a rise in words evoking the emotion fear might mean a rise in scary literature, I’m more suspicious based on all the evidence I’ve listed above. If there happens to be a rise in horror though, and I’m just not seeing it, then splendid! I hope people buy my books when they come out.

Oh, and before I include a link to the article about the study below, I’d like to mention one line of the article that really annoyed me. The author of the article said that terrifying people is easy. Ex-squeeze me? Terrifying people is damn hard! Look at all the movies out there that rely on jumps and nudity to thrill and terrify audiences, and see how they fail miserably. It’s dificult to really scare people, and there’s an art to it that even I haven’t fully mastered. Keep that in mind the next time you find yourself watching or reading a very chilling tale and you think about they make these sorts of stories so terrifying.

Anyway, here’s the link to the article. Enjoy:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/03/22/study_finds_more_fear_words_in_books_now_than_ever_before.html

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop–Part 2

Posted: March 24, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
Tags: , , , ,
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I did a TNBTBH back in February (and yes, that is an abbreviation) for The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones after being nominated by fellow blogger and author Lorna Douvaena. On Friday, my friend and fellow author Matt Williams did his own TNBTBH on his Whiskey Delta trilogy (check out the exact post here: http://storiesbywilliams.com/2013/03/23/next-big-thing-blog-hop/). As usual with these posts, he nominated several others to do this, including me. So I’m doing a Part 2 to my own TNBTBH…without Jason Voorhees behind me (anyone get the reference? If not, you need to watch the first two Friday the 13th films).

And what work am I doing this time? Reborn City, of course! Matt and I both seem to have a fondness for it.

What is the working title of your book?

Reborn City, which is the name of the city in the first book and the name of the trilogy of the whole. I wanted to do a different name for the trilogy, but guess what? Trilogies named after the first book series are on the rise. Might as well get on the bandwagon.

Where did the idea come from for your book?

I was walking home one day from the library back in high school and was listening to rap music on my Walkman (yes, I had a Walkman in those days). At that time I’d just seen and become enthralled with the movie Freedom Writers, which was filled street gangs. A stray thought went through my head that I should write a story about a street gang, and it took hold. At that moment an explosion went through my head and I went to the nearest Dairy Queen to eat ice cream and figure out how I should go about writing a gangster story. All the elements of the story–the science fiction element, the themes of racism and Islamophobia, the street gang leaders with their special powers–came later on. As they say, the rest is history.

What genre does your book fall under?

Science fiction. ‘Nuff said.

Which actors would you pick to play your characters in a movie?

If I had a choice…I’m not sure. I’ve such a firm idea of what my characters look like in my head, I’m not sure any current actors could play the characters. We might need to look for some newcomers.

Of course, I wouldn’t mind if Samuel L. Jackson played my main villain Jason Price. He’s the perfect actor for the role, and I actually based the character on some of Jackson’s best performances.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

“Street gangs in a post-apocalyptic future”. That’s what I tell people when they ask, anyway.

Is your book self-published, published by an independent press, or represented by an agency?

It’s going to be self-published. However, if a major publishing house wanted to give me a deal…well, let’s talke and see if it comes to anything.

How long did it take you to write your first draft?

About two years. I was in high school when I wrote it, so I had to take a lot of breaks for school, homework, my after-school job, the Sabbath, and just to find time to relax. I hope for the sequel I can keep it within six months, since I’ll hopefully have a lot more time on my hands.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I hate comparing one work to another, but I think that perhaps Hunger Games might be a good comparison. The government’s evil, and the fate of many rides on a bunch of disillusioned teenagers with a penchant for getting into deadly fights.. If that doesn’t sound like Hunger Games, I need to reread the books.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I think the thought that like Freedom Writers, both the book and the movie, inspired many teenagers to apply themselves through writing and words rather than fighting and guns. I thought if RC could help people, why not write it? That’s kept me going through the years, especially when I realized the book might also help combat Islamophobia.

What else about your book might pique readers’ interests?

I think that it’s a unique tale, involves street gangs in a post-apolyptic landscape, and that most of the characters have very real problems that resembles problems in today’s world might draw them in. But then again, read the book when it comes out and tell me what you think. You might like it.

That’s my TNBTBH. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you read this blog post today and you’re working on something, you’re nominated for a TNBTBH. Congratulations. Let me know when you’ve written your post!

Good night, everybody.

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