4th of July, 2012

Posted: July 4, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
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I don’t know how my readers outside the United States feel, but within the USA, it’s a pretty big day. 4th of July, or Independence Day, the day we commemorate the great event of Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum taking the extraterrestrial equivalent of a Prius and using it to blow up an alien mothership.

No, but in all serious, this day is pretty important for Americans: it’s the day when our Founding Fathers got together and decided to start their own country since Britain was not giving them the rights they deserved as citizens. This was the first act of rebellion of its kind: an actual colony declaring independence, forming its own country, and defeating the homeland. It was bigger than the attempt in the 16th century by Puritans to turn Britain into a commonwealth (failed miserably by the way), and wouldn’t be matched until the French Revolution, which Romantic thinkers hailed as the beginning of an age of understanding and freedom (oh, how they must’ve felt when Napoleon became emperor; egg on their faces and all that).

I think the reason why the American Revolution went well after independence had been achieved was that while they did have excellent military victories, they also had an early version of our government in place, even during the war. Other revolutions, you see the armies and the leaders, but you don’t see any proto-government willing to take the reins after independence or liberation has been achieved. Maybe that’s why so may dictators come to power after revolutions in many countries.

And before I know it, this post just fell under the category of “Reflections”. Well, hope you have a nice 4th of July. Enjoy the fireworks and parades, don’t party too hard, and if you see an alien, let me know.

Why I Hate Deus Ex Machina

Posted: July 2, 2012 in Reflections, Writing
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In my last post, I mentioned that I’d lost power. So I was reading a book by flashlight, a book that I’d been looking forward to as it was the last volume in a really excellent sci-fi trilogy, and I was wondering how they were going to resolve the seemingly-unsolvable plot. What happens? No big battle; no jump into a black hole to stop the destruction of Earth; no combining of psychic powers in order to create a super-psychic power and save the world. Nope, just a deus ex machina, leaving me feeling a little cheated.

For those of you who don’t spend their time obsessing over terms like bildungsroman and deus ex machina, the deus ex machina is a plot device, usually a person or an object, that is inserted suddenly into a story in order to solve a seemingly-unsolvable plot. However, plenty of writers don’t like to use these plot devices, as they feel that they are not only cheating the readers out of a good resolution to the story, but also because the writers might feel they are cheating themselves.

You may be familiar with some famous deus ex machinas (I’m not sure if that’s actually the term’s plural form but whatever): the ending of Huck Finn is a well-known example. Lord of the Flies’ ending is also a deus ex machina, along with the ending for War of the Worlds. And I’m sure that if, given the time, I tried to look for more famous examples, I’d come up with a whole list of them.

Fortunately I don’t have the time. But if you want to put up your least favorite deus ex machina, and the emotional reaction you felt when you read/watched it, by all means tell me. I’d love to complain about it with you.

Snake: First Chapter Preview

Posted: July 2, 2012 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
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I and most of Central Ohio lost power Friday, so I haven’t had Internet all weekend. Plus when I tried to use a public computer, the Internet was soo slooow that before I knew it, I had to be at my next thing before I could finish reading posts or checking my dashboard. Well, I’m making up for that right now, and I’m doing it by first writing this post, which has a small excerpt from my new novel-in-progress Snake.

I managed to write this Saturday night, using what little power I had left on my laptop. As I wrote by candlelight and computer screen, feeling almost like a modern-day Edgar Allen Poe, I felt the words flowing through me, from my fingertips to the computer. It was exhilarating, and I managed to finish the chapter before I had to turn off my computer to conserve the battery.

I hope you like what you read. If I find any time or if I get my electricity back by this evening, I’ll do a little more work.

~~~

(Warning: The following preview features some very bad words, so if you have kids, I suggest you make sure they’re not around when you read this post.)

 

Paul felt a buzz in his pocket and looked down. Through the fabric in his pants Paul could see the light from his phone shining through. Paul reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and dove into a little alcove where he could take the call in peace. Without checking the number he pressed the talk button and brought the phone to his ear.

“Hello?” said Paul; on the other end all he could hear was a deep breathing. Paul raised his eyebrows suspiciously. “Who is this?” He checked the caller ID, and saw only UNKNOWN NUMBER.

Suddenly the person at the other end of the phone spoke. “Men in your line of business have no right to be in a church, Mr. Sanonia.”

Paul stared at the phone, surprised. Glancing quickly around the church, he saw only three people, and none of them were on their phones. How did this person know where he was and how did he get his number? He looked back at the phone and spoke into the mouthpiece. “Who the fuck is this?”

The man on the other end laughed, a deep, hearty laugh that for some reason chilled Paul’s skin. “When your cousin James Sanonia died, he was shot in the head.” said the man, his voice deep and affected with a heavy Russian accent. “Then several bones were broken all over his body. He was then taken from wherever he was killed and thrown in the Hudson. Dockworkers saw his body floating and pulled him up out of the water. By the time they got him though, there was nothing to identify your cousin’s murderer. Except for one interesting detail, that is.”

Paul froze, his heart beating loudly in his chest. Who was this guy? How did he know all that? “And what was that detail?” he asked through gritted teeth.

The man spoke, and Paul froze. “You killed my cousin.” he hissed angrily. “You killed Jamie.”

“Horrible thing, wasn’t it?” said the Russian man. “I couldn’t get what I wanted out of your cousin. But I’m sure you’ll be much more helpful.”

Paul was only half-listening; he was looking around the Church, trying to find someone—anyone!—on a phone. One of the other worshippers, a teenage girl with a skirt too short for the cold February weather, got out of a pew while texting. Besides her, no one else seemed to have a phone.

“Where the fuck are you, you crazy shit!” Paul whispered into the phone. “Come on out and face me like a man!”

“But there is no fun in that.” replied the Russian man. “Besides, you’re so much more amusing to watch.”

Paul stepped out of the alcove, looking around the church. “Watch?” he repeated.

“Oh, didn’t I mention it?” asked the Russian man. “I’m right in the church with you.”

The Health Care Act Upheld: Thank You SCOTUS!

Posted: June 28, 2012 in Politics and Leadership
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That’s right, thank you Supreme Court! I actually never had any doubt that you’d uphold Obamacare, but the fact that you did makes me so happy. It’s inconcievable that people can’t afford a basic right in this country such as healthcare, and it’s even more inconcievable that there are people out there who would have others think that allowing others to have this basic right is a bad thing. So today, I’m happy to say that the law is upheld, people can stay healthy, and progress in this nation is still possible.

How will Mitt Romney, Republicans, and conservatives react, I wonder? It’ll probably be apart of a Jon Stewart joke tonight, I bet.

The Snake Outline: First Draft Finished

Posted: June 28, 2012 in Progress Report, Writing
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Lately I’ve been churning out on average a post a day. This never happened when I first started my blog. My, how times have changed…

Okay, before I go off on a tangent about posting and blogging, I’m going to get into the reason for this post. As you all know (or if you’ve become a follower in the past couple of days, are just learning), I wrote a novel called Reborn City and I am currently marketing it to agents. Not wanting to let my novel-writing skills diminish in the meantime, but not quite wanting to start RC‘s sequel yet, I decided to work on an unrelated novel, and held a little poll for deciding which novel out of two choices I’d work on. Now that the poll is long over, I’d like to announce that the outline for the novel (called Snake, if you haven’t already guessed that from the title of the post), is finished.

Or at least, the first draft of the outline is. Yes there’s a first draft. And it’s longer than the outline for RC, I’ll tell ya. 112 chapters! That’s five less than what I predicted, but still truly a sign that I’m writing a thriller. Thankfully there’s a smaller circle of main characters in Snake than in RC, so I didn’t have to put too much effort into writing out the small bios for each major character.

I’ll probably due a final draft next week. After that I’ll start a timeline so I have all the dates for the events in Snake planned out (trust me, a timeline would’ve been helpful when I was writing RC). After that there will come a little research, and then finally the writing, during which I shall post small snippets of Snake here on Rami Ungar the Writer.

Hope to have something for you soon. Bye!

Spring Quarter Wrap-Up: It’s So Late I’m Apologizing For It In The Post’s Title

Posted: June 26, 2012 in Living and Life
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I doubt any of you were exactly waiting on bated breath for me to send out my end-of-quarter update post, and I know it’s been a little over two weeks since the quarter officially ended, but I’m sending this out anyway now that I’ve remembered it. And if any of you were waiting on bated breath, I’m very sorry, so please take a breath before you die from lack of oxygen!

Alright, so here at Ohio State, this was our last quarter before we officially switch over to semesters (which is both exciting and  scary, so you know I’m looking forward to it some). And what a quarter it was! It just seemed to fly by. Before I knew it, I had to pack up my stuff and get out of the dorms! I’m happy to say though, that I got a 3.24o GPA (not what I was expecting, but I’m still happy about it). I enjoyed every single one of my classes, especially my English class, where I discovered that I have a fondness for early English literature, particularly Paradise Lost by John Milton (I enjoyed it so much my mom got it for me for my birthday).

I also saw a few of my friends graduate. I’m a little sad, but I know we’ll have memories, and it’s not as if we’ll never see each other again. Not only that, but my sister is going to be a freshman in the fall! She’s going to be studying to psychology and criminology, with the hopes of becoming a criminal profiler for the BAU (so you know she’s going to like Snake, the novel I’m working on right now). We get along fine, but we’re living on opposite sides of campus, because when we get into an argument, there just isn’t enough nuclear bomb shelters to go around these days.

All for now, besides the fact that I’m working on campus, and living with my dad so I can commute to and from work. I’ll let you guys know about fall semester when it gets a little closer. Bye!

Names, Names, Names

Posted: June 25, 2012 in Reflections, Writing
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You ever come up with a character, give them a background, a personality, give them certain scenes where certain character traits that you just admire and adore in them really shine? And then you realize this character of yours shares the same first name as somebody you know? Becuase it’s happened to me twice that I can remember.

The first time was in my early years of high school, when the vampire craze was still in full swing (or was it just taking off?). Anyway, I was writing this great character, a vampire desperately trying to find a cure to become human again and kill the vampire who’d turned him, but I realized he shared the same first name as a friend and classmate of mine. When my friend found out, he kept saying whenever the subject was brought up that I’d named the character after him, and when he found out they both had brown hair (but different shades and styles), that conviction only got stronger. Well, I decided to hold off on the story until vampires were in an in-between-bursts-of-popularity period so I wouldn’t look like some hack trying to hitch a ride on a bandwagon, but for a while it was annoying.

The second time involves Snake, actually. I had this wonderful character in mind for the female lead. I’d already planned out her role and her character traits, and wanted to find a name that began with an A to match her (she just seemed like an “A” person to me). It must’ve been three weeks after I’d settled on a name that a girl in my dorm whom I’m friends with shares the same name. Luckily, she hasn’t found out yet, creating no misunderstandings, and I’m not sure if she has my blog’s address, but it’ll be interesting if she finds out and asks if I based the character on her. To which I’ll reply, “Are you eighteen and a redhead?”

Has this ever happened to any of you? Please let me know if it has.

Ripple: Getting Published!

Posted: June 24, 2012 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
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Oh my God! Big news, ladies and gentlemen! I don’t know how many of you remember, but a while back I wrote a short story involving alien visitors to Earth called “Ripple”. This evening I got on my computer and saw that the editor of Nth Degree, a science-fiction magazine, had emailed me. He wrote he was going to publish “Ripple” as a featured story in the magazine’s online edition and would be letting me know soon when the story would go up.

Well, as soon as I read that, I started dancing in my room! I put on disco music on my computer and started boogie-ing down! I’m so happy write now, it’s hard for me to stay calm. Thank you to Michael Pederson, editor of Nth Degree, for accepting “Ripple”. I cannot wait to see it online!

If you want to check out the website–maybe submit something to it–the link is down below. Oh my God, so excited right now. I still can’t stop dancing! I’ll give everyone a heads-up post when the short story comes out. Have an awesome day, just like I’m having!

http://nthzine.com/

The “Snake” Outline

Posted: June 22, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Okay, I’ve mentioned this before, but this summer I’m working on a new novel called “Snake”, and it’s about a serial killer. Right now, I’m working on the outline of the novel, becuase I prefer using an outline before starting a novel. I have to say, I’m not even done with the outline, but it’s already proven itself to be a learning experience:

For starters, while I’ve thought about Snake and what I wanted to do with him for a while, writing out the actual outline and planning out the rough draft of the plot has been kind of like going down a river: I’ve just gone where it’s taken me. Scenes I had half-planned in my head are becoming fully-formed, while other scenes are being created rifht at the moment I write them down and a few scenes are being dropped completely! It’s hard deciding what to put in, what to keep, and what to discard, but in the end I feel it’s making the story better.

Also, if you read thrillers you know that the chapters are often very short, which is because the authors want to keep the suspense up as much as they can. Learning how to do that myself has been very intersting, and I think I’m getting the hang of it. I mean, I’ve just finished Part III (these novels always come in parts) and the story is already 60+ chapters! That’s at least three times “Reborn City”! I wouldn’t be surprised if the final chapter count is in the hundreds! Oh, and did I mention that if this novel were a movie, the end of Part III would probably be about two-thirds of the way through the film?

I hope to have the outline done within the next week. By that time I’ll know what I want to do with my story and how I’ll go about doing it. So wish me luck! I’ll give you another update when I’m done with the outline.

Review: Prometheus

Posted: June 22, 2012 in Review
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The film poster for Prometheus. It’s huge in this post for a reason.

OH MY GOD! I FINALLY SAW IT! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Ok, spazz-out done. Let’s get down to it without giving away any plot points or whatever. Wow. What a movie. I was put into suspense, I got scared a few times, and I couldn’t stop putting my hands on my face at every scary or gruesome part. Yeah, I liked it. It was so much fun learning about the origins of the Xenomorphs and seeing their evolution from simple to close to what Sigourney Weaver fought in 1970. The characters have been criticized by other critics as being “too two dimensional” but I felt they were real enough, especially considering that it’s a slasher film with sci-fi bio-warfare as the killer. And I was left with more questions than when I came in, so I guess that means there’s going to be a sequel! In fact, I’ll be disappointed if there isn’t.

My one qualm is that the beginning might move a little too fast and be a little more confusing if you can’t adjust too quickly, but it becomes easy to follow after that.

I give this movie a 4.3 out of 5, for showing me the evolution of the Xenomorphs and for scaring the crap out of me at some points.

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