My Favorite Fantasy Stories

Posted: October 8, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections, Review, Scary Stuff
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Anyone else wondering if Mickey Mouse is hiding behind a corner?

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of of books based on Celtic and Arthurian mythology. Knights, faeries, dragons, magic and wizards. I’ve been on a bit of a fantasy binge. So I’d thought I’d devote a post to some of my favorites…not including Harry Potter. Or Tolkein. Or Lewis. Or Game of Thrones. Why none of those, you may ask? Mostly because everybody’s read them and I don’t want to just tell people what everyone know. That, and I’ve only read two of the four mentioned.

So here’s my fantasy favorites, all for your enjoyment:

THE AGE OF MISRULE by Mark Chadbourn

Honestly one of the most interesting fantasy stories I’ve ever read, weaving together both Arthurian and Celtic myths with New Age philosophy and beliefs. In modern-day Britain, strange things start happening. Dragon in the sky…electricity failing mysteriously…technology going haywire…stepping out at night becoming an extreme sport. What’s happening is the ancient gods, demons, and magical creatures of days past are returning to our world, and the only thing standing in the way of humanity being bulldozed by this change is the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, five ordinary humans who’ve been gifted with the Pendragon Spirit, a power given to them by Existence itself to help humanity weather the coming change. Together the Brothers and Sisters must learn to work together and help humanity adapt, especially when the demonic Fomorii are working to bring their master Balor back to life and wage war on the god-like Tuatha Da Danaan.

I really enjoyed this trilogy, not only because it’s unique and Mark Chadbourn knows how to write a compelling plot and characters, but because even though the world is full of supernatural dangers, I’d want to live there. Heck, I’d want ot be a Brother of Dragons, helping to bring the change to humanity. After all, it’s a simpler life, one where if you’re not working on the land, you’re learning to be in harmony with nature and the spirits around you. And you get to learn magic, which is pretty cool.

 

 

 

 

EARL AND THE FAIRY by Mizue Tani

A series of light novels, the story follows a woman named Lydia Carlton, who is one of the last few fairy doctors around (fairy doctors being people who mediate between humans and fairies). Unfortunately for her, humans in 19th century are not too predisposed to seeing or believing in fairies, so Lydia’s kind of an odd duck to other people. That is, until she meets Edgar Ashenbert, a cunning, manipulative, and mysterious nobleman who enlists Lydia’s help in reclaiming his heritage, which includes a sword that belonged to the Blue Knight Earl, a warrior who had holdings in the realm of the fairies and Edgar’s ancestor. Torn between falling in love with Edgar and hating him for using her in his schemes, Lydia becomes embroiled with supernatural events that seem to gravitate around her and Edgar, sometimes endangering both their lives.

The series is quite popular in Japan, with 29 volumes out already, and a manga and anime series based on the books out as well. Unfortunately, only the manga is available in the US, and only the first 3 volumes as of last month. Still, it is worth a read, especially if you’re looking to get into manga and need an opinion on a good one.

 

 

 

MERLIN

A TV miniseries starring Sam Neill and Miranda Richardson, Merlin chronicles the life of Merlin in his battle against the supernatural Queen Mab. The story starts several years before King Arthur, beginning with Merlin’s birth, his magic training, his animosity with Mab, the rise and fall of Arthur and Camelot, and the final defeat of Mab and the death of magic. I saw this when I was younger, and I always thought it was an amazing story, though now that I think about it I’m not sure how pissing off Merlin and doing everything you can to hurt him is supposed to save your kingdom…oh wait, now I see what Mordred’s purpose was! I really need to rewatch that series now.

The special effects aren’t Avatar or Inception-grade, but the story is compelling and even if the effects aren’t top-notch, they do look believable for their day. Sam Neill is great as a pensive, all-knowing Merlin with anger issues, while Miranda Richardson is the ultimate femme fatale, a hoarse-voiced queen of magic with spells galore and a thousand and one tricks up her sleeve. You’ll love it if you watch it.

 

 

FAIRY CUBE by Kaori Yuki

Kaori Yuki has a reputation for powerful stories with Gothic and supernatural elements. Here she upholds her reputation with Fairy Cube, a story about a boy named Ian who sees spirits and fairies and is haunted by a spirit named Tokage. When Ian is killed by his father in a drunken rage, Tokage possesses Ian’s body and starts romancing Ian’s childhood friend Rin. Determined to get his body back, Ian teams up with a fiery fairy named Ainsel and a mysterious shopkeeper named Kaito in order to get his body back and save his friend. At the same time, Ian starts to become aware of a company called Gotoh that has ties to the spirit world and has sinister plans for the human world (I always knew corporations were up to no good).

Exciting and with Kaori Yuki’s awesome art and storytelling, Fairy Cube is an exciting read for all those interested in dark fantasy in general. I certainly enjoyed it.

 

That’s all I have right now. If I think of any other stories I’d want to put up here, I’ll let you know. If you have any suggestions, if you’ve read any of these works and want to give your review of them, or if you think I’m crazy because I haven’t read Tolkein or Game of Thrones, let me know.

Publishable Shorts vs. Learning Shorts

Posted: October 8, 2012 in Reflections, Uncategorized, Writing
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Last night I was thinking of some of the short stories I’ve written over the years that I never got around to giving a second edit. I wondered why I’d never gotten to editing them. And then it hit me: those stories, good or bad, were meant to be teaching stories. To be more exact, they were stories that were meant to teach me something new about writing. I was writing these short stories as learning experiences and hadn’t realized it up until this point, but now that I do, it makes sense why I wrote them in the first place.

I remember this one story I wrote late in my senior year of high school, that was meant to be like a probing psychological examination of two men traveling through space. Of course I failed miserably, but I learned a couple of things writing it, including that you need a lot more than two dudes talking about their feelings in a space ship to make a good story. Back in late winter-early spring, I wrote a short story about a guy who found a letter and then started eating fiction books (not sure if that one can’t be published, but it’s still very weird). I think that one was a lesson on magical realism and showing versus telling and how to draw out a story.

And remember the succubus and doll stories from this summer? Yeah, those were on why you shouldn’t go overboard on the plots of stories and forget the character development, because let’s face it, those stories were so focused on the plot the stories worked against themselves.

So now what am I going to do when it comes to writing short stories? Well, I think I won’t expect every story I write has to be published. Instead, I’ll see where a story can take me and if it can be published, that’s great. I’ll also try new methods of coming up with short stories, some of which I picked up from other people who’ve used these methods to come up with short stories. I’ll let you know if they come of anything, but before I do any of that, I need to finish editing Reborn City.

Until next time (which might be sooner than we both think).

QR Codes: How Can It Affect Your Business?

Posted: October 7, 2012 in Living and Life
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Just warning you now, if you scan this, it’ll send you to the Wikipedia homepage.

 

As you all know, I’ve decided to go into self-publishing. And one of the hard facts of self-publishing is, you have to do most–if not all–of your own advertising. So I’ve been thinking a lot about how best to go about advertising Reborn City once it comes out, putting ideas on my checklist for the self-publishing process under “Advertising.” One idea for getting the word out was to put an ad in Entertainment Weekly or People Magazine, because they have ads for that sort of stuff in the back of the magazine, among the reviews for the latest movies, TV shows, music, and books.

I was reading my Entertainment Weekly yesterday when I saw one of those ads, and near the bottom of the ad, there was a large QR Code box that had a caption underneath: “Scan to read an excerpt.” My first thought was, I should do that. My second thought was, Wait, I don’t even know what these things are called! What should I do? Luckily I was able to find out they’re called QR codes (I usually just call them the scan-crossword-puzzle-with-a-smarphone-thing, and only in my head), but they got me thinking.

First off, how does one go about getting a QR code? Is there a company that specializes in making them? Or can you just go to a government agency and obtain one through them? Or how about just asking your programming-savvy next door neighbor to design one for you?

Secondly, how many people actually scan those things, and how often do they scan them? My phone isn’t a smartphone, so I don’t do any scanning. I also have no idea on the statistics, but I have to assume that at least a good amount of people will scan a QR Code with their phone if they see one on an advertisement that catches their eye. But even if they scan a code, will they end up buying the product? How many do?

I’ve aready done a little research on this, but I haven’t found much to answer my questions. So I’d like to ask you, fellow bloggers and faithful readers. Do you scan QR codes? Do you actually use them if you self-publish? How often do you scan QR Codes, and when you do scan them, how often do you end up buying the advertised products? Let me know, please.

Review: Daniel Craig on Saturday Night Live

Posted: October 7, 2012 in Review
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Well, here it is, folks. My final review of an episode of SNL for a while. And I’m sorry I’m getting it out later than I usually do, but them’s the breaks.

Alright, starting with Mr. Craig himself. As the current James Bond and a professional at killing people on screen while making women real and fictional swoon, we’ve been expecting a lot from this episode, and from Mr. Craig, who has not really done comedy up till this point. Sad to say, I was a little disappointed. I mean, he was great in the opening monologue…until they did that “In Memoriam” thing. And then it was just full of disappointments to me. Craig seems very expressionless, and although his New Jersey accent is convincing, he just doesn’t deliver the lines with the zing you expect from hosts on SNL. In fact, the cast members seem to overshadow him. Overshadow 007! Speaking of which, I was hoping he would do a whole skit on Bond, but all we got was a joke ad, with Craig in it only a quarter of the time. What’s up with that?

The rest of the cast was phenomenal as usual. Jay Pharaoh did a good impression of Obama that was both funny and painful to watch for me. Aidy Bryant finally had more than a single line in an episode, and was hilarious as a crazy woman, so I hope I get to see her full range in later episodes. It was cool to see Chris Parnell come back as Lehrer during the cold open, and Bobby Moynihan is great as a kitten-obsessed dude that, while we sympathize with him, we also want to punch him. Oh, and Fred Armisen, I don’t know how you feel about getting in drag, but you always kill me when you are!

The skits themselves were so-so. The psychic woman skit was a laugh, with everyone tearing up. I enjoyed Weekend Update especially, with Kate McKinnon as a weird Italian artist, and–oh, Big Bird was there! How did they get him on the show? I don’t know how, but kudos to the producers for that! And he was funny as welll as appropriate, which with Big Bird I guess is required.

No comments on the musical guest Muse, since I’m more of a pop/rap/screaming metal kind of guy, but they did alright I guess. And was that Michelle Obama in the cold open, or was that footage from a debate? Someone tell me.

Overall, I give it a 3,8 out of 5. Look forward to my next reviews, when I go to see movies like Taken 2, Alex Cross, and Skyfall, where Daniel Craig shines in the mode he’s best at: serious.

Ohio State’s Homecoming Weekend 2012

Posted: October 6, 2012 in Living and Life, Uncategorized
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It’s Homecoming! O-H!

Last night started OSU’s homecoming weekend, which is always a blast on our campus. There’s a huge parade that goes right by my dorm, and I had one of the best spots along the parade route. Why was it one of the best spots? Simple; not only did I see our university’s president, Dr. E. Gordon Gee, up close when he passed by in a shiny red Corvette, I got to shake his hand when I called out to him and he noticed me! Me! Out of all the cheering people, he noticed me and shook my hand! I did wash my hand later, but I was pretty reluctant.

This was my second time meeting and getting to talk with President Gee, the first time happening last year when he visited my dorm during an event (photo to the right). And speaking of events at my dorm, the Illibuck trophy, a turtle-shaped trophy that is brought out during Ohio State-Illinois games and is held by whoever won the previous year’s game (pictured below), made a guest appearance at my dorm during an event involving quesadillas and a Mario Kart tournament.

The Illibuck trophy may not seem like much to those who aren’t crazy fans of Ohio State, but to major fans who know what it is, it’s a big deal.

I got to take a photo with the Illibuck, and let me tell you, it’s pretty cool. That’s a piece of Ohio State football memorabilia and it’s right in my hands. I really enjoyed seeing it and holding it in my hands (once again, see below).

Me with the Illibuck, with the past 5 OSU-Illinois games and the scores on it’s back. Don’t I look happy?

Right now I’m watching the homecoming game, after which I’ll tune in to Saturday Night Live. During commercial breaks I’ll work on the final edits of Reborn City. In the meantime, before I do any more work on RC, I’d like to congratulate my relatives in Michigan on their football team getting a victory over a Purdue. Although I like Purdue slightly better than I like Michigan, I admit your victory was pretty impressive, with a difference of 27 points.

All for now. Bye.

The Snake Outline Reborn

Posted: October 4, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Creepy, right? It looks like it might come off the drawing.

Did anyone else see the joke in that title? Anyone? Bueller?

Alright, you guys are more concerned about what this latest post is about. I’ll tell you: I finished redoing the outline of Snake, with new scenes and even a few new characters. I may have increased the parts of the story to eight (including the prologue and epilogue), but the chapter count is down to a little over a hundred, and let me tell you, I like this new version!

For one thing, everything’s much more exciting now. For one thing, the climax of the story is much more exciting, bringing the Snake, his allies, the mafia family the Snake is hunting, and the police and FBI together in one big fight! And at the end, the Snake confronts the boss of the mafia family he’s been up against this whole time! It’s like The Dark Knight meets the end of Daredevil in some respects, at least in my opinion, but I still think it’ll be exciting to read and visualize in your head.

I also did some work on the characters, their actions and their motivations, and believe me, it was worth it. In the first outline, some of the things the characters did might’ve made you go, “huh? What the heck just happened? Why’d they do that? I wouldn’t do that if I were in that situation.” So I tried to make things more believable. I realize that I need to place less emphasis on plot and more on what drives the characters, so I’l have to work on that from now on.

So now that the new outline is done, what next? Well as much as it pains me, I will be taking a break from writing Snake to finally get to work on publishing Reborn City. It’s something I’m looking forward to, and when you guys read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Just be patient on the sequel, because I’ll have to finish Snake first and I don’t like doing two projects at once that way.

All for now, stick around for updates on both Snake, Reborn City, and anything else I feel like posting about (including a review of Daniel Craig on SNL, which will probably be my last SNL review for a little while). Post on you later!

The Inspiring Blog Award

Posted: October 3, 2012 in Living and Life
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You know, I never put much stock into blog awards, but a really good friend of mine on the blogosphere nominated me for an award, so I’ll do the same shtick and nominate a few others. But before I do, did someone else nominate me for an award a while back? I remember being nominated, but I didn’t do anything about it. Oh well, I’ll have to check it out later.

Anyway, I have to write 7 things most people don’t know about me before I nominate anyone, kind of the rules of the award. Okay, here I go:

1. I’ve used firearms before. Although I’m very much into sensible gun control, I’ve used both military grade rifles and simple handguns before. The first one was while in Israel, when I took part in a 4 1/2 day training simulation in the Israeli army, which culminated in us going to a firing range to shoot some weapons into targets (best part of the whole experience, I tell you!). The second time was at OSU’s pistol club, where for $10 you could purchase about fifty rounds and shoot holes into little paper targets. It was exciting and I enjoyed it, but I was very afraid of what my dad would say, even though I did it mostly for researching what using a gun was actually like. I didn’t tell him for nearly a year!

2. I once made some friends think our hotel room was haunted. One time I was rooming with some friends at a hotel, and I was the only one in our room one evening. I also had the only key to the room and I was about to take a shower, so I decided to leave the door open a crack for them. Just as I’m about to get into the bathroom, I hear my friends outside say, “Why’s our door open?” Me being me, an evil idea popped into my head and I hid behind the door, slowly opened it, and then slammed it shut.  My friends ran screaming, “Ghost!” This still ranks among my top 5 pranks I’ve successfully pulled.

3. I got a special mention at my graduation. My graduation had less than 20 people. That meant that not only did everyone give a speech that afternoon, we also had our own little blurbs that we wrote ourselves in the graduation playbill/pamphlet thing. On mine, two of the things I wrote were, “Known to always have a comment” and “In his past life was either Ludwig van Beethoven or some powerful demonic entity (probably the latter).”

I can’t remember the name of our guest speaker, but she was a state representative and she came up after all our speeches were done. She starts talking, saying that she’ll only be a few minutes. Then she turns around to face us graduates on the stage and says, “And Rami, no comments!” After the laughs die down, I say, “They always ruin my fun.”

Later she mentioned the diversity of the class, saying, “We have a hockey player, the reincarnation of Ludwig van Beethoven…” It was another highlight to an already awesome day.

4. I’ve worn nail polish before. And every time, it’s been freaking hilarious! For the record though, I’ve only done it twice.

5. I do a great Michael Jackson impersonation. Ah, I miss that man; he went before his time, like too many stars these days. Anyway, I can moon-walk, dance, sing, and talk just like the King of Pop himself. I even went as MJ for Purim, which is the Jewish version of Halloween. I was so convincing I won my high school’s costume competition.

6. I’m distantly related to Natalie Portman. But only through marriage, by which I mean my dad’s wife’s distant cousins are the ones who are actually related to her. But it’s still a relation, right?

7. My sweet tooth is my weakness. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to stop myself from eating sweets! It’s a big problem, and I work hard so I don’t gain weight from all the sugary stuff. It’s easier in the winter though, because I’m not consuming so much ice cream and I’m working out more. I wonder why that is?

Alright, time for the nominees. If you wish to check out their blogs, it’s at the end of their nomination. Each nominee is a writer in their own right who has inspired me to some degree or another and whom I’ve had long conversations with before via comments. Congratulations:

Jason Alan: A poet and writer living in France, Jason always has some poetry or a funny little short short to share. An outspoken critic of those who use religion as an excuse for bigotry and ignorance, and a whistleblower on those who use their money and status to manipulate the people, Jason always has something to say to those who feel like commenting on his blog, be it to tell him how great he is or to tell him that he’s going to hell for being an atheist/socialist/whatever-ist. http://jasonalanwriter.wordpress.com/

Pat Bertram: A novelist from out West, Pat has years of experience in writing and in life, and she always has thoughts to share on either. She’s been Freshly Pressed three times, and she is a woman to be admired. Pat, thanks for all our conversations. I hope we have more in the blog posts to come. http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/

Cristian Mihai: A novelist from Romania, Cristian is an inspiration to me. He’s self-published several times before, and has written several books already. He is always willing to share his thoughts on writing, and to give you tips if you should so need them. Good luck to you in the future Cristian. http://cristianmihai.net/

All for now. Congratulations to the nominees, and I hope we can blog together for several years to come.

Snake: Onto The Outline Edits

Posted: October 2, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I love this image, it is so unique and reminds me of an Algerian love knot.

Well as you know, I’ve been wanting to do some change-ups to my serial killer novel Snake, including changing a big part of the outline. So I went over what I’d already written, edited the heck out of the chapters to make them a better read, and just now I finished chapter 34, which is the last chapter of Part II of the novel. I did plenty of cutting, taking out an entire chunk of the opening of the novel (among other things), adding some important details and bits of action that I forgot to add to certain scenes, and even changing one of the characters and his motivations in order to make more sense not only to the reader, but to myself as well.

The strange thing though, is that while I took out a lot of unecessary stuff so that some chapters got much shorter in terms of pages and word counts, others got much longer. Remember how in one post I listed all the pages and words from the Prologue all the way to the end of Part II as 138 pages and 25,346 words? After the edits, it came out to 148 pages and 37,082 words. Talk about an increase, right?

So while I’ve done that, I still have some more to do. I’m going to edit the outline to make the story more exciting, and then I’m going to get to work getting my other novel, Reborn City, out to the public in a timely manner. So you know with all this, a job, and college, I’m a very busy boy. But hey, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Look out for my next post on Snake, I’ll be giving a few clues as to what’s changed with the story and then I’ll get to work on Reborn City. Later.

The Biggest News I’ve Ever Written About On This Blog

Posted: September 30, 2012 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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The Jewish New Year recently came to pass. And with new years in any culture, we wish to make changes for the coming year so that hopefully, this year will be a good one. Well, I’ve decided to make a change.

As you well know, I’ve been trying the traditional publishing route for some time now (write and publish a bunch of short stories; write a novel; get an agent who can refer you to the best publishers; company publishes your novel). This process has been the norm for several years, but it does have its flaws: for instance, the big publishing companies are ruled by the need to make money, so they only publish work that they feel could be profitable, which can lead to numerous rejections for authors whose work doesn’t meet one criteria or another. Not only that, but the companies themselves have a lot of control over the author’s work, having the author edit it fifty different ways so that it can be more commercial or more profitable or whatever. All so that the author can reach the highest number of people possible.

But, self-publishing is on the rise, and people who have been reading Rami Ungar the Writer for some time are probably aware that I’ve been toying with the idea of self-publishing. Self-publishing allows an author to have more control over his or her work, recieve more profits from sales, and not be obligated by big corporate contracts. The pitfalls include that most self-publishers don’t make a lot of money off of self-publishing, and when they do it’s usually because a traditional publisher has made some sort of deal for their novel (this is what happened with Fifty Shades of Grey). Self-published authors also have to do most of their own advertising, and with the power of the Internet, anyone can upload anything, even if the work looks like a kindergartener wrote it.

But still, self-publishing is becoming more and more popular with every single day among writers, and now it’s got a new adherent. That’s right: I, Rami Ungar, have decided to self-publish, and since one of my classes has given me more confidence with computers, I’ll be doing it without the help of a service, instead compiling the whole thing myself and putting out my work as e-books (at least until I have the money and knowledge to do my own paperback).

My first self-published work will be my science fiction novel Reborn City, which I hope to have out next year at some point. I plan to take one more look at it for editing purposes, have someone else look at it afterwards (probably someone really into science fiction) and then, based on that person’s suggestions, edit again. After that I’ll set up my own independent press, one that’ll be dedicated to horror, thriller, science fiction, and fantasy, and which will allow me to have the most control over my work. It’ll be like how Akon has his own label, Kon Live and Konvict Muzik, but uses big labels like Universal to distribute his work (in my case, the Universal will be Amazon and B&N and Smashwords and such). I won’t say what I’ll name my press, but I do have a name for it, which I’ll reveal to you after I get the necessary legal paperwork out of the way to set it up. That, and a website and possibly a Facebook profile (yes, I’m considering using Facebook to get my work out there, please don’t make a big deal out of it).

I will then get a cover made for Reborn City, format the whole darn thing for an e-book, get RC copyrighted (and ISBN-ed; I’m not sure if one of those are necessary exactly but it’d be good to check), and on a release date that I will choose once I’ve formatted RC into an e-book, I will let the whole world read my work for a mere $2.99 per download.

I hope all of you will show me your support in this endeavor, and possibly consider reading RC when it comes out and letting your friends know about it. If you have any tips on how to do all this, please let me know, as your feedback is always helpful to me.

I’ll let you know when my new press is up-and-running, and when Reborn City will be released. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re as excited as I am!

Why I Write Horror: My Childhood Trauma

Posted: September 27, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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A kid surrounded by strange monsters; I wonder what he’s going to do when he grows up? Probably write fantasy.

I think most horror writers, mystery writers, or thriller writers have something in their childhood that send them into the worlds of darkness and fear. Something in our young lives causes us to gravitate towards murder and psychopaths and demons and very graphic sex scenes (yes, I said that). Some of us have more trouble than others remembering and figuring out what childhood traumas we have, if any.

For a while, I thought I didn’t have a childhood trauma, that I just naturally liked murder and monsters. Of course, that says some scary stuff about yours truly, so what do I do? I try to rack my memory for something in my childhood that might’ve made me like hell and high water.

This evening, it finally came to me. Toledo Ohio, my old hometown, where I lived until I was nine, but when it happened I couldn’t have been more than seven, most likely five or six. My parents were both rabbis at the same synagogue, so I had free range pretty much  over the whole building. And behind the bimah, which is the raised area in the back of the sanctuary in a synagogue, was a small little passageway that opened up on either side of the bimah. The passageway led to where the boiler/furnace/whatever were hidden, and I thought I’d go exploring.

I went into the sanctuary, where two men on the synagogue staff were collecting prayer books from the seats. I didn’t really notice them–they were staff, I was a privileged rabbi’s kid, you get the idea–but they noticed me. And they decided to play a prank on me.

I walked into the passage, and I heard the humming of machines keeping the synagogue at the right chapter. I stand there listening for a second when the two staff members show up on either side of me, with freaky smiles on their faces. The taller (and I think older) says to me, “You hear that sound?” Me, being a little kid and freaked as hell by their smiles, nod in the affirmative. The other one says to me, “That’s the sound of death.” After he says that, the sound of the machines humming seem to change and to become the sounds of buzzsaws cutting things in two, at least to my little ears.

So what did I do? I ran! I ran past the shorter one, out the passageway, and did not stop till I was halfway between the sanctuary and my dad’s office, which to a six-year-old is quite the distance. I didn’t tell my parents. I bottled it up and got on with the day.

A few weeks later, I went into the sanctuary again, this time when those two staff members weren’t around. But it didn’t occur to me that they might not be in that part of the synagogue today or even in the building; to me they were in the passageway, waiting to kill me. Or at least, I thought they might be. I wanted to go in there, to show I wasn’t going to die and that I wasn’t scared.

I went in. Nobody else was there. I left, alive and healthy and full of hyperactive pep. I’d conquered my fear, proven that I was stronger than my fears. Later I forgot the incident, but I remembered I’d conquered my fear, that I’d been stronger than it, that I had ruled over it.

From that time onwards, I slowly but surely became entranced with the macabre and freaky, the stuff that fills nightmares, even when I felt scared by it too. Why? Because I felt that even if something scared me, I could control that scary thing, just like I had conquered and controlled my fears in the passageway. I started really getting into writing, and then after a while, I started really getting into writing scary stories, as well as reading them. Recently I’ve had some luck with publishing them.

And tonight I remembered what scared me back then. I called my dad to see if he remembered the staff members in question. He said that judging by their descriptions, they were most likely two men by the names of Bill and George, though he finds it hard to believe they’d pull on a prank like that on a kid, let alone the rabbi’s son. That, and he likes to joke I was dropped on my head as a child, and that’s why I’m so strange.

So now I remember my traumatic episode that propelled me towards controlling the things that scare others. It’s all because of two men with really sick senses of humor. But I’m not resentful; in fact, I’d like to thank Misters Bill and George, wherever you are today. Did you know that I’d become a writer of scary stories? Probably not, but I hope you eel sorry for what you did. If you don’t, it’s going to be really hard for you to accept that you’ve been outed on the Internet (my little revenge).

Well, now that that’s out of the way, I’ve got classes tomorrow, so it’s time for bed. Good night, and if I can’t write a post tomorrow, have a nice weekend.

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