Rami Ungar The Writer

Moving Back Into the Dorms

Posted: August 17, 2012 in Living and Life
Tags: college life

Ohio State University, my school and in my opinion one of the most awesome schools out there (though my relatives in Michigan will disagree).

Well, I moved back into the dorms today, as can be evidenced by the title. Can I just say I love being back? I have the same room as I did last year (signed up for that option), and since I have no roommates (it’s a single), I have a bedroom and bathroom all to myself! What’s more, I have an excellent view of campus, and heat I can control. Does it get any better than that?

I moved in a couple days early because my parents couldn’t swing moving me in with everybody else, which in retrospect seems like a good thing; I’m avoiding the rush and crazy traffic that always accompanies Ohio State on our famous move-in day. So I think I’ll enjoy myself this weekend and have some down time before school starts up on Wednesday. I may even hang out with a few friends if we can find the time, though with the whole switch-from-quarters-to-semesters on top of moving in and whatnot, it might be difficult.

Oh, and what classes am I taking, you ask? I’m taking a fiction-writing course (hopefully from this will come some great new short stories, and a few tricks for writing said stories), a documentary class (looks like I’ll finally learn how to make a movie on my computer), a history class (required for all History majors like myself), and a philosophy class that somehow fulfills a stats requirement (I’m not really sure how that works, but I’m not complaining!). I hope to get all A’s this year, so wish me luck, okay?

Got to go, have a great weekend!

Snake Ch. 21

Posted: August 16, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
Tags: novel, scary stuff, Snake, writing

Oroboros, or the snake that eats its own tail, a symbol for immortality. Has no bearing on this story, but it’s still darn cool. And look, it spins!

You know how you’re not supposed to hitchhike or pick up hitchhikers because you might encounter a crazy person or a dangerous runaway convict doing so? You also know how in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre they had a scene that illustrated very well why you shouldn’t pick up hitchhikers or hitchhike yourself?

I like to comapre this chapter to everything in the previous paragraph, except instead of hitchhikers it’s pulling over to help a motorist in distress. Roman Veretti, the latest member of the Camerlengo Mafia group to become the object of the Snake’s desire to kill, is on the road when he sees a guy on the side of the road. What happens next may make you consider never helping a motorist ever again (and if you knew what happened to the guy, you wouldn’t want to help any motorist even if it was your twin brother!).

Oh, I’m also considering adding a few scenes where the Camerlengo family has to deal with the instability caused by the Snake’s murders: other families are taking territory and killing members of the Camerlengos. But I guess that’s the fallout when a serial killer shows just how easily a formerly-invincible family becomes not-so-invincible. The only problem though is placement: where best do these chapters go if I add them? Probably after Roman Veretti meets his fate; that’s when the Snake shows just how hard he is to stop.

Well, I’ve rambled on long enough. Here’s Chapter 21 as promised; enjoy and please do not hesitate to tell me what you think.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roman Veretti was whistling as he turned off the main road and onto the scenic route to Connecticut. The sun was shining, the view was beautiful, the minivan was warm and toasty, the XM radio was playing some of Roman’s favorite jazz and big band songs, “A Gal in Kalamazoo” and “What a Wonderful World”, among others, and there were no other cars on this secret route Roman loved so much.

Best of all, taking the scenic route meant another hour until Roman got to Connecticut, a place Roman wouldn’t have even considered visiting if his wife hadn’t insisted they go and visit her parents that weekend. It wasn’t as if they were bad people—Roman thought that Lizzy’s father was a hilarious storyteller and philosopher—but the house smelled heavily of cleaning products, and Lizzy’s mother always found some way or another to suggest that Roman was a poor choice of husband for her daughter and that Lizzy could do better without actually coming out and saying it. In truth, Roman preferred making sure the prostitutes under his watch made enough money for him rather than spending an entire weekend smelling dish soap and hearing criticisms about his paycheck.

Just wait till I get off pimp duty and get into a real position in the family. Roman thought, drumming his fingers along the steering wheel as he listened to the music. Mr. Camerlengo’s getting to be real fond of me, and I’m sure that once this whole serial killer thing blows over, I’ll be able to get a job with money enough to shut up that old bat.

Up ahead on the road Roman noticed a car pulled over, its hood up and the lights blinking. The driver was waving his arms in the air, trying to signal Roman as he approached. For a moment Roman considered driving on, but the possibility a few more minutes away from Lizzy’s mother excited him enough that he turned on his turn signal and pulled over to the side of the road next to the car. The driver of the car ran up to Roman as Roman turned off the engine and stepped out of the minivan.

“You saved me!” said the driver, a young man who looked unremarkable save for a pair of brilliant blue eyes. “I can’t tell what’s up with my car and my cell has no signal. Do you think you can help me?”

“Let me see the car.” said Roman. “My dad was a mechanic, so I used to help him out all the time.”

“Well, isn’t that a stroke of luck!” said the driver. “She’s right over there. I figured that son of a bitch was conning me when he sold me this piece of crap.”

“We’ll see about that.” said Roman, sidling on over to the open hood. Peeking in, he examined the engine. To Roman’s confusion, the engine looked brand-new, and nothing he could see indicated any maintenance issues or repair needs.

“I don’t see any problems with the engine.” said Roman, ducking his head out from under the hood. “What’d you say was wrong with it—?”

WHAM!

There was a bright flash of light and Roman felt a sharp pain in the side of his head. He staggered, his hand pressed to his temple, before he staggered and fell over. The last thing he saw was the driver putting on a strange-looking mask before Roman closed his eyes and the world fell away.

Snake Ch. 20

Posted: August 15, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
Tags: editing, novel, Snake, writing

Well, I finished chapter twenty of Snake, and let me tell you, it was different writing this chapter than previous chapters. For one thing, I had started writing the chapter with a scene of Angela Murtz, my forensic psychologist/federal investigator (you might remember her from a previous post in which she was included in an exerpt) interviews the mistress of the latest victim, Thomas Luiso.

I had this whole interview set up, created how Murtz gained the woman’s trust, and even had an emotional revelation that Mr. Luiso wasn’t all his mistress thought he was. But as I was writing that, I thought to myself, Hey wait a minute, what exactly does this add to the story? I can some up all this information that’s needed in a few words, and can have another character fill Murtz in. So I went back and deleted the whole interview and instead skipped ahead to where Murtz goes upstairs with her partner, Blake Harnist, to check out Luiso’s body. If you ask me, I made the right decision; the chapter looks better without the interview with Murtz and Luiso’s mistress.

I also realized that in the chapters featuring Murtz and Harnist, four in total, three have been from Murtz’s POV, while only 1 has been from Harnist’s POV. I think I’ll change that for the next chapter featuring the duo and have the reader see things from Harnist’s POV. It only seems fair, since the characters are partners and work together to stop the Snake.

Now, I wasn’t able to do a Lucky 7 meme, because page 77 of the story only has 5 lines on it. However, I’m pretty sure the next chapter, which has the Snake himself in it, doesn’t reveal too much about the character, so I’ll include as much of that as I can. Hope you like that.

See you next post.

On With The Snake

Posted: August 14, 2012 in Scary Stuff, Writing
Tags: scary stuff, Snake, writing

Well, I’ve finally heard back from the forensic psychologist who’s been helping me with the profile for the Snake. You know what that means? It means I can continue on with writing Snake, and maybe even finish the darn thing by the end of the year!

Snake is a fun story to write, and the Snake himself is a piece of work, a really fun character to work with. Mentally diseased he is, but he certainly can win sympathy from an audience once they know what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. I’m not saying what he’s doing is good, though. Far from it, actually. Vigilante justice is a horrible kind of justice, but since this is fiction right and wrong can be blurred somewhat and even switched around for the enjoyment of the reader, so who cares?

Anyway, I’m pretty sure this upcoming chapter will have the seventy-seventh Microsoft Word page of Snake, meaning I can do a Lucky 7 excerpt. If so, I hope you enjoy reading it and maybe get a little chill. As my new tagline only makes it so clear, it’s my job to scare you.

Succubi, Blog Header, and Likes

Posted: August 13, 2012 in Writing
Tags: writing

Now that’s a title I never thought I’d write in my lifetime. But there it is.

Anyway, I finished my succubus short story, Dodi Li, and as I believe I said in a previous post, the title is Hebrew for “My beloved”, which is important in this story, though I won’t say why. I didn’t focus so much on the inner conflict as the outer conflict after all, but I think the story is actually stronger for it. Anyway, hopefully I’ll be able to find a home for it after I edit the story, whenever that is.

Also, I changed the tag line of my blog and actually put spaces between the words of the blog title, something I’ve been meaning to do ever since I realized that my title was all one word and my tagline was rather bland. I changed the tagline from “Just another WordPress.com site” to “Scared yet? My job here is done.” In my family, we often say “my job here is done” when we scare or gross each other out (which happens more than you think). I thought it’d be good to incorporate that into the tagline, and it was a better choice than anything else I had in my head. Hope you like it.

Oh, and I found out today I have over 200 likes. Thanks to all those who read my blog over the months and pressed the like button; I couldn’t do it without you. All for now, I’ve got some relaxing to do now that I’ve finished writing nine pages of words about a succubus named Umuruk.

A Plot Formed: Moving Forward On That Succubus Story

Posted: August 12, 2012 in ideas, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: scary stuff, writing

Alright, remember on Thursday or Friday last week I said I was working on a story involving a succubus, I got about two pages in, and I had trouble figuring out where the story should go next? Well, I figured it out, thanks to an hour-long session of meditation and thought-clearing. I now know how best to go from here on out, so after I finish this blog post and take care of a few more things, I’ll get to work on the short story.

That reminds me, do any of you readers have any rituals or tricks you use when you’re stuck on a story and can’t figure out what exactly to do? Let me know; I’d love to hear them.

Self-Publishing In My Life…Again!

Posted: August 10, 2012 in Reflections
Tags: Reborn City, writing

Last night, Jon Stewart invited an author onto his show who had originally self-published her memoir on growing up a religious Mormon before it was picked up by a major publishing compnay and became a best-seller. This morning, I read a post from a fellow blogger who not only self-published, but for this post had interviewed another self-published author who is doing quite well with her writing. And earlier this week, while waiting for the doctor to show up at my appointment, I talked to the nurse about self-publishing and how it’s changing the writing industry in so many ways.

And of course, at some point in the past two weeks, I saw an ad for that self-publishing miracle, Fifty Shades of Grey.

My point is, self-publishing is more relevant today than ever, and the only reason I’m touching upon this subject again, when I wrote a post about it a few months ago, is because it keeps popping up in my life and invading my thoughts. More and more I think about publishing my novel through a self-publishing service, when a few years ago I would’ve seen it as a vanity press and a scam and turned my nose up at it! A few years ago only a few authors did self-publishing, while today many do and get famous from it (E.L. James and Christopher Paolini are great examples). And with the blogosphere full of writers, it’s all too easy about how novels are getting published through this method and how happy the authors are about it.

If you’re a self-published author, tell me! What’s your take on it? What have your experriences been? Because I seriously want Reborn City to become a novel and I’m seriously considering taking a look at Lulu or Createspace to do it!

Conflicts Within and Without

Posted: August 10, 2012 in Scary Stuff, Writing
Tags: scary stuff, writing

Last night, after a ton of research and a basic idea of how I wanted to begin the story, I began writing the short story involving a succubus. I decided to call it Dodi Li, which means “My Beloved” in Hebrew and tell the story from the perspective of the succubus herself, who I’ve named Umuruk (sounds like a Biblical name, but remember that Japanese comic book I mentioned with the succubus character that started this whole thing? It’s her name backwards).

I managed to get two pages in, but then I realized something: there was a problem with the conflicts of the story. And I intentionally say “conflicts” instead of “conflict”, because I plan to have Umuruk deal with two conflicts instead of just one, an inner conflict and an outer conflict. The inner conflict is Umuruk struggling with herself; she wants to do something, but is conflicted it morally and spiritually. It’s the old “I want to take such-and-such action, but if I do, how will that effect me and my beliefs, or the beliefs of those close to me” problem, and I plan on giving Umuruk a hard time with it.

The outer conflict however, was the one with the problem; I had planned on the outer conflict being human in origin, but now I realize there are several different ways I could take this story. I could have Umuruk struggle with another spirit, with a human foe, with her duties as a succubus. It could go any number of ways and I’m still not sure which one would work best for the sort of story I have in mind. So now I have to focus on that and see which one would make the best story in my opinion.

You ever have problems such as this? If so, let me know.

You Mean We Could Have Stopped This?!

Posted: August 9, 2012 in Politics and Leadership
Tags: government, politics and leadership, proper decisions

You know, this is the third post in the past month where I’ve had to say something to the government due to a horrific, gun-related tragedy. But are you surprised? I read an article today about how an analyst for Homeland Security wrote a report two years ago that said that domestic, non-Islamic terrorist elements were a real threat. However, the report was lambasted by conservatives, particularly Newt Gingrich, who said that the only real threat to national security, existential or otherwise, was Islamic in origin. Afterwards, DHS reduced the number of analysts tracking non-Islamic terrorist elements in the country to one, and made it clear not to pay too much attention to these non-threat threats.

Okay, first off, I don’t think you can be a Muslim, let alone Islamic, if you’re a terrorist. It just goes against Allah’s teachings, and I’ve studied enough of Islam to know that. Not only that, but did you see what happened in Wisconsin? Guys like Page, the neo-Nazi who killed several people at the Sikh temple, would’ve been watched carefully by Homeland Security if it weren’t for the fact that Homeland Security was told to focus only on Muslims who had radical leanings, Page might’ve been caught and stopped before this tragedy occurred.

Daryl Johnson, the man who originally wrote the report detailing these non-Islamic threats, says he wasn’t surprised that this attack happened, though he certainly is saddened by it. He even mentioned that if DHS had a unit to tracking these sort of people, Page might have been apprehended and no lives would have been lost.

Personally, I am very upset. Those in charge of the Department of Homeland Security showed discrimination in saying that only Muslim-Americans could be considered threats, and that everyone else could not possibly commit terrorism. Also, this man Page had a history of violence and arson, yet he still managed to get a gun somehow, and it would not surprise me if he got it legally. We have got to stop politicizing the gun control/right to bear arms debate and put in some stricter laws that prevent criminals and those with suspected criminal ties and tendencies to getting to guns, particularly guns you’d expect the military to have.

Congress, I’m calling you out now. You better do something about this now, or things are only going to get worse!

If you wish to read the article I was reading, please click on the link below:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/07/right-wing-terrorism-sikh-attack_n_1752726.html

Studying Succubi: A New Short Story

Posted: August 8, 2012 in ideas, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: scary stuff, short story, writing

I was reading a horror/romantic-comedy manga recently (yes, those combinations do happen in the world of Japanese comic books) and one of the characters, a succubus, had to face and accept a hard truth about her life, all the while preparing to fight a great evil (can’t a demon girl get a break?). The sub-story kind of touched me and I suddenly got the idea to write a story involving a succubus.

So for the whole day, I’ve kind of been doing research on succubi. I looked at the Wikipedia page, I read online testimony from people who said they’ve been visited by incubi and succubi, and I even watched a few videos on YouTube. Right now I’m watching a special on books that’d been excluded from the Christian bible because I heard part of the series focused on Lilith, who according to many traditions was the first succubus.

So far no plot has made its way into my twisted head, but if I don’t get one soon, I’ll come up with one based on whatever comes up from one of those random word generators. Hey, if it works for high school English teachers, why can’t I use it.

So if you have any info on succubi and other such spirits, feel free to let me know. Just don’t send me one if it’s a malevolent spirit! I’ve had too many experiences with bad spirits over the years, and I’m not looking for any more!