Rami Ungar The Writer

NaNoWriMo Day 4: Progressing on the Snake

Posted: November 4, 2012 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
Tags: college life, editing, novel, Snake, writing

Yes, it’s a gruesome image, but it works so well with what’s happening right now in the story.

I just finished a chapter on Snake, so I thought I’d discuss some of what’s going on in the world of Snake and in my life. First, I’d like to discuss how I’m doing so far in my first NaNoWriMo. So fat, about as well as I could hope. With classes, homework, and the need to relax and sleep (and not always at the same time), I’ve gotten about 4 chapters done, or one a day. Of course, these chapters are all less than six pages, so it’s not something to go wild about. However, I did add a chapter to Part I of the story, and I’ve gotten the first three chapters of Part III finished.

Actually, make that two chapters. I usually look over a chapter again after I finish it, and so far I haven’t looked over Chapter 38 yet. But I don’t think I’ll be changing that much; it’s pretty good as I wrote it.

So, I probably won’t finish Snake by November 30. I probably won’t write 50,000 words either. But hey, I’m getting a lot done, and I’ve gotten to a very important part in the story, one where the Snake’s brutal attacks on the mafia family he’s been stalking is starting to have its consequences.

And none of these consequences necessarily affect the Snake.

So I’ll let you know if I happen to finish Part III earlier than expected. In the meantime, I hope you all are having a good time with NaNoWriMo, and good luck to each and every one of you.

Submitting “Doll’s Game”

Posted: November 2, 2012 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
Tags: college life, editing, Ohio State University, short story, writing

Today I had to turn into my class the short story I wrote, “Doll’s Game”, and can I just say it’s the worst piece of fiction I’ve written since I entered college? I’m not kidding, it’s just baaaad. I even made a point of telling my classmates that. Why do I think it’s bad? Because it’s literary, which I’m terrible at. I seriously prefer a scary story with demons or serial killers, but I can’t submit that sort of story in this class. Otherwise I’d turn in my succubus story for consideration.

But hey, who knows? I may think it’s a horrible story, but my classmates may disagree with me. They may actually like it, and give me helpful suggestions that will improve the story enough that I might want to submit it somewhere for publication. Who knows?

Well, in a week we’ll know what I should do with it, and whether or not I can make a diamond out of a lump of coal. I’ll let you know then.

And speaking of short stories, I’ve got one coming out Monday. Look out for it, it’s a science fiction story called Ripple. I’m looking forward to it.

“The Rape Thing”? Are You High?!

Posted: November 2, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership, Reflections
Tags: college life, government, Ohio State University, politics and leadership, proper decisions

I decide to see what’s new in the world before I go to bed and what am I greeted with? Another politician has said something about abortion that’s not only ignorant, but sounds like he’s trivializing the victim’s needs. John Koster, a GOP candidate for the Washington State House of Representatives, said that he only supports abortion when a woman’s life is in danger, and then said “Incest is so rare…but the whole rape thing?…how does putting more violence on a woman’s body and taking an innocent life make it all better?”

What is he smoking?

And his spokespeople may be saying that this guy takes rape seriously, but calling rape a “thing”? That’s not taking it seriously. And violence on a woman’s body? How would you know? Did you ask women if they think abortion is violent? Or did you never consider that maybe carrying the product of a rape to term is a form of violence in itself, it’s so traumatizing to women?

Honestly, I’m getting really tired of male politicians saying these things about women’s bodies and rape and abortion. “Legitimate rape”; “God intended it”; “the rape thing”. When are these men going to realize that saying this sort of stuff is asking for trouble? Really, learn your lessons already.

This brings up another topic I’d like to mention: colleges and rape. I’ve also recently read some articles about how colleges try to cover up rapes and blame the victims…told from the perspectives of the victims themselves. In every case, victims were told by the college administrators and people who worked for them things that confused me.

For example, one doctor asked why a victim didn’t report her rape for months. Apparently to the doctor it didn’t seem logical. Hello? Since when does anyone do anything that makes sense when they’ve just been traumatized and put into deep shock? And asking why a girl is saying she was raped when before the incident she liked the guy and wanted to sleep with him? Well, let’s see…um…he was charming at the coffee shop, but when I told him I wasn’t comfortable doing that after the third date and he just pressed on…are you kidding me?!

I love higher education. I wish everyone had a shot at it. But it’s also, unfortunately, big business. And no business wants the nickname “Rape University”. Now, some colleges do rape prevention, treatment and prosecution better than others. I couldn’t find any statistics for OSU, but I’ve seen posters in several buildings and my dorm about what constitutes healthy relationships and what doesn’t. I’ve also seen classes hosted inside dorms instructing girls on how to prevent being attacked and how to defend one’s self when being attacked. And the Wexner Medical Center has a Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Unit, so that’s definitely a good sign. And I don’t know how often the disciplinary board takes on sexual misconduct cases, but our student code of conduct defines sexual misconduct as tightly as most police officers do. Got to give them credit for that.

Some colleges however, don’t excell in this capacity. On the contrary, they’ll do anything to make their problems go away, even if it means making the victims suffer. Amherst College is a pretty bad offender. There’s even an article about it, which links to another girl’s experience prior to the article (http://acvoice.com/2012/10/23/surviving-at-amherst-college/). I must say, it’s disheartening to see schools put their reputations before their students. If they’d just prosecute these cases for what they are–rape, and not by any other name–then there reputations wouldn’t suffer, they’d grow with the knowledge that the school does not tolerate rape or any other form of sexual assault or misconduct.

So to the politicians and schools, do us all a favor. Stop belittling what women go through. Help them get the services and closure they need. Get educated on the facts. Don’t try to make the problem go away or insist it’s not as big as people think. And certainly don’t say women should live with what happened to them because of a fetus that’s nervous system is underdeveloped is in their uterus or that because of alcohol or they came forward after a certain amount of time they can’t be helped.

Rape is rape. It’s that simple. Preventing it and bringing justice for the victims should not be.

A Snake Conundrum

Posted: November 1, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
Tags: novel, Snake, writing

Oh, I hope this Snake unties itself like my problem did.

This evening I was working on Snake, and I had my titular character pull out his phone and check his location using his phone’s GPS. As I was typing that out, I stopped and thought to myself, Wait a minute. Something doesn’t sit right here. And then two things hit me:

1. I don’t have a smartphone that can connect to the internet or has apps. I don’t even text on my phone. How do phones and internet connections work exactly?

2. The Snake uses a burner phone so he can’t be traced if he makes phone calls. Can burner phones ever be smartphones?

Well, the first question could be answered with a simple Google search, but I heard voices out in the hallway and I thought I’d ask my neighbors if they could make it easy for me to understand. Thankfully they did, explaining to me in full detail and in terms I understood how a phone connects to the Internet and how it isn’t dependent on wireless access, only on bars and how much allotted data space you have, so a GPS app would work in the situation I have planned.

Now that answered my first question. When I voiced the second question, my neighbor said that you can jack an iPhone and reconfigure it to become a burner. Tempting, but I don’t think the Snake would waste his time like that.

So I did some digging on Google. Apparently there’s an app for iPhones and Androids that allows you to temporarily turn your phone into a burner phone, which is handy if you’re a telemarketer or you want to pull a phone prank. The brilliant part is that if you’re suspected of something but you don’t have a burner phone, the police can only connect you to the crime if you have this app and you’ve used it around the time of the crime (DISCLAIMER: I’m not encouraging anyone commit a crime from reading this. If you get the idea from me, I’m not liable, it’s all on your head for breaking the law and potentially ruining the lives of who knows how many people).

So that little conundrum is fixed. Back to the writing. I want to see if I can get the full 50K words novelists try to write during NaNoWriMo. So far I have a little over a thousand. 40k more to go!

It’s NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth!!!

Posted: November 1, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
Tags: college life, editing, holidays, novel, Reborn City, scary stuff, short story, Snake, writing

And yet for some reason, it’s celebrated in other countries too. Shouldn’t it be INternational NOvel WRIting MOnth (InNoWriMo)? On second thought, maybe not. That abbreviation sounds worse than NaNoWriMo, actually.

Right, onto the reason we’re reading this post. It’s National Novel Writing Month, when writers buckle down and really put their hearts into their novels. Some decide that this is the time to start what they hope will be the Next Great (insert country here) Novel. Others try to write a novel in only 30 days, doing all the research, writing, and editing in that amount of time. And some, like me, will put their all into their works in progress and edit their on-the-way-to-being-published projects…after they’ve done all their homework.

As you can already tell from this post, I’m already in the novel-writing mode. I had fun in a haunted house last night during Halloween (one of my favorite times of the year), so I’m ready to write scary stuff. I’ve also got a short story coming out on Monday, so that’s sure to be a boost. Yes, there’s a short story of mine coming out on Monday. It’s called Ripple, it’s a science-fiction story about a war with aliens, and I hope you read it and give me some feedback.

I’ll be primarily focusing on my serial killer thriller Snake, trying to write as many chapters as possible (and possibly adding one, if I think it’s appropriate). I’ll also work on my science-fiction novel Reborn City when my friend who’s helping me edit the story gets back to me with chapters (thank you Matt! You’ll show up in the Acknowledgements section in the book when it comes out). I don’t think I’ll owrk on any short stories–except the ones for class and the ones I finished prior to November. Basically, I’ll be doing a lot of work…when I’m not at work or doing school work.

So wish me luck. To all other writers taking part in NaNoWriMo, good luck on your various creative works. Let’s get writing.

Posted: October 31, 2012 in Uncategorized

Except for the size of my body and the length of my hair, my superhero alter-ego is what I see in my mind. Pretty awesome. Thanks Matt, and I can’t wait to start rooting out evil. Revengers, unite!

Stories by Williams

Happy Halloween everybody! In honor of this momentous occasion, I have decided to release the starting lineup of the Revengers! And here they are, a new superhero team to save the day, and with none of that sissy Avenger stuff neither! No, these are the Revengers! A dark justice league for the new era, taking on the scum and villainy of the world, and doing it Revenger-style!

Atrum Auditor:
Alter ego: Kevin Roussy, beer advocate
Appearance: Black slacks, black button down long sleeve shirt, combat boots, utility belt.
Abilities: Telepathy, Teleportation, Precognition
Backstory: Atrum Auditor was the product of a corporate warlord’s mistress and genetic manipulation. He was raised in secret to be a master at corporate espionage, but defied his father to go rogue and began using his powers for justice instead of peersonal gain. Now, he seeks the world secrets, releasing government and trade information to the…

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Happy Halloween 2012

Posted: October 31, 2012 in Living and Life, Scary Stuff
Tags: college life, entertainment, holidays, scary stuff

And what a Halloween it is! Already I am having so much fun! This morning I woke up cackling like a madman! And later tonight–if I can finish my homework on time–I’ll head over to a haunted house not too far from campus and see if I can get scared. Which actually isn’t that easy as I’m the type of person who kind of guesses what’s around the corner at haunted houses and is usually right.

Then again, the last haunted house I went to–on Monday at the Ohio Union–was pretty good, and it even scared me a couple of times, thanks to some misdirection and strobe lights, so maybe the haunted house I’m going to this evening will be able to replicate that fear.

I’m not the only one excited for Halloween though; for the past couple of weeks, my dorm lobby has been a Samhain sight for sore eyes, as you can see from the photo below:

And this one too:

Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Now what am I going as for Halloween. Well, since I don’t exactly have the time or money to purchase a new costume, here’s what I’m going as:

Yep, Jason again. But next year I’ll be going as the Joker, hopefully, so I look forward to making that costume. In the meantime, I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween, don’t eat too much candy, and if you hear any reports about a demonic army appearing in Ohio, that’s probably my doing. Mwha ha ha ha!

Oh, before I forget, here’s some fun videos to help you get into the Halloween spirit. The first is of Marilyn Manson singing the theme song to the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, with the images from the actual movie too. It’s a really awesome cover, and I think you’ll like it as well.

The second is created by Buffy and Avengers filmmaker extraordinaire, Joss Whedon, where he endorses Mitt Romney for President. Why you ask? Because apparently Mitt Romney will put this country on track for a zombie apocalypse. Pretty sweet, so enjoy.

A New STAR WARS Film?!

Posted: October 30, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
Tags: entertainment, films

Yes, you’re reading that title right, and the science-fiction fan in you better be freaking out as much as I am! Apparently LucasFilms was bought by the Walt Disney Corporation this past month, and now Disney’s authorizing a new trilogy, with the first film supposed to be out by 2015! No details yet as to what the film will be about or whether we’ll see old or new characters, and if we’re seeing old characters who will play them (I swear, if Luke Skywalker and Han Solo are brought back and they are played by teen heartthrobs just to draw in a new crowd, there will be an uproar).

“Luke, *breath* they’re making more films.”
“NOOOOO! Wait, is that a bad thing?”
“I have no idea.”

Still, this is huge! I wondered what would happen if you tried to remake the films, but to make an entirely new trilogy? Good God. Let’s hope that the new owners of the franchise can live up to the expectations and produce a quality film, and not a repeat of The Phantom Menace!

Well, George Lucas is supposed to be a creative consultant, so we should be okay.

Or maybe not.

Review: Alex Cross (film)

Posted: October 29, 2012 in Review
Tags: entertainment, films, review

AFTER KISS THE GIRLS, EVERYBODY FORGOT HOW TO MAKE A GOOD ALEX CROSS FILM!
That’s my opinion, anyway. I watched the film, and it was not the movie I’d been looking forward to seeing. Let me start with the liberties taken with the movie:

First, there were some liberties I could deal with: the kids being preteens when their mother is shot instead of being babies like in the book; a plot not based on anything James Patterson wrote; and even that James Sullivan aka the Butcher aka Picasso, was so changed from the book to the movie he was an entirely different character. However, there were others I couldn’t: like first, the location of the movie is Detroit instead of Washington DC. No offense to Detroit, but part of the fun of the books is that when the plot takes place in DC, you’ve got politicians, government agencies, and so much sleaze you need a raincoat on a sunny day just to avoid it all. There’s not enough of that in Detroit. Second, Alex Cross’s partner is not the humongous, African-American, tough-but-sweet John “Two-John” Sampson but by a fast-talking white guy named Tommy Kane. Seriously, what’s wrong with two black cops working together, huh? It just seems wrong not to feature Alex’s partner-of-choice from the books. And finally, what’s with Alex going rogue cop? He doesn’t do that in the books until Kill Alex Cross, and only in the hopes of saving the President’s kids! I was seriously upset by how the filmmakers made the noble Dragonslayer of the books into an easily-corruptible man for a movie!

However, there were some good points, I do admit. For instance, Tyler Perry is not what I imagined Alex Cross to be (I see Alex more like Denzel Washington in my head, with a less prominent forehead), but he does a good job playing the character. Just needs a better screenwriter. And Cicely Tyson, while not looking like my conception of Nana Mama, does a very good impression of her, being strict but sweet. And Matthew Fox as Picasso, now that was a piece of work. Very nice psychopath, I’m impressed.

All told, I give this film a 2.8 out of 5. Let’s hope that when the sequel they’re making, Double Cross, comes out, they do a better job. After all, Double Cross is a great book, but there are so many ways the filmmakers could mess it up in the making it, especially with all the liberties they’ll have to take with it!

And speaking of sequels, the new Alex Cross book, Merry Christmas Alex Cross, is due out next month. I’m looking forward to it, though I hope it’s not a disappointment like this movie, or like the new book’s predecessor, Kill Alex Cross; now that was a disappointment!