Rami Ungar The Writer

Update: The Street Urchin’s Gift

Posted: January 17, 2012 in short story

Well, I’ve been working on it for several weeks, but it looks like I’ve finally completed the final draft of The Street Urchin’s Gift, a short story that takes place in Victorian England and revolves around a young boy and the mysterious box he recieves. This story took a lot of research to do and I struggled over whether to have an ambiguous ending or to have a very dark, fleshed-out ending. In the end, on the counseling of a friend, I went with the fleshed-out ending. Now all I have to do is find a publication who’ll want to publish it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Oh, and the weather around campus has been crazy. Snow, rain, sun, heat, cold, it doesn’t stay consistent. It’s like God wants to annoy us all for the heck of it.

Actually, that’s probably the case.

Winter Quarter 2012

Posted: January 12, 2012 in Living and Life, short story

Well, I’m working hard. That’s pretty much it. I’m taking four classes and they’re not exactly the picture of easiness, especially my Linguistics course (that last one counts as my math requirement, believe it or not!). I’m also working two days out of the week, and also trying to have a life (which for me basically involves conversations with friends, reading a multitude of books, and watching different shows on TV. I don’t do the drinking-partying scene, though I’m sure I’d be popular there).

I’m also still working on that short story from last quarter/year. I’m still trying to work on whether to have an ambiguous or flesh out a real creepy one. If I do the former, then the story will be more literary than horror but will have plenty of choices of places to be published. If I do the latter, then I’ll have to make a rather violent ending and try and find a horror magazine that would go for this sort of story. Thankfully I’m working with a friend who’s been giving me excellent feedback. Perhaps I’ll be able to get this thing published with his help.

I’ll keep you posted on how this quarter and my writing goes. Wish me luck!

It’s 2012! Happy New Year!

Posted: January 1, 2012 in Living and Life

Well, 2011 has come and gone. In my humble opinion, it’s been a pretty good year. Our economy has even improved a little. And now it’s 2012, I’d like to share my new year’s resolutions: one is to improve my writing and strive to get more short stories and possibly even a novel published. My second resolution is to make more friends and just to control my sometimes wild behavior.

Also, I’d like to say one thing: I don’t believe the world will end in 2012. Not by earthquake, fire, water, natural, supernatural, angelic, demonic, bacterial, viral, vampiric, or zombified means. However, God forbid that the world ends, I’m guessing by zombies, my sister Maya’s bad gas (LOL), or the wrong candidate getting the presidency. I’m not saying who on that last one, because I have no idea what my readers’ political leanings are. However, if you want to post who you think is the wrong candidate in a comment, I’d love to see what you say.

Happy New Year, and have a nice day.

Northeastern University

Posted: December 16, 2011 in Living and Life

My sister (not the one having the bat mitzvah this weekend) has just recieved her first college acceptance! What’s more, it’s her dream school, and it looks like they’ve given her a merit scholarship to boot! Pretty amazing right there.

Now she’s in a daze, looking at the website, finding out the university has given her an email address already, seeing all that is possible. She reminds me of me when I was just getting accepted to colleges and everything was a strange and wild process full of wonder. I feel so proud of her! Congratulations, Adi, and I know wherever you end up going (though for your sake, I hope it’s Northeastern), you’ll do amazing.

I Had It All Along?

Posted: December 15, 2011 in ideas

Okay, remember how I wrote a couple of posts back that I was researching a new short story, but I had to do some research on it? And then I further elaborated that the research was really obscure? So obscure, that I had to email people in England about it? Well, funny story about that:

Last night I was in the basement at my dad’s place, doing the laundry and thinking about the research and how it seemed almost impossible that I’d be able to find what I was looking for, it was so obscure! And then I had a thought: a while back I bought the entire first season of an anime taking place in Victorian England. The box set came with a small little booklet that contained all sorts of information about Victorian England to further elaborate the story in the anime. My story takes place in Victorian England, so perhaps the booklet contains the information I’m looking for?

Yes, it did! Turns out I had the info I needed under my nose the whole time, and there it was! Talk about embarassing! This happen to any of you? Let me know!

This Coming Weekend (Dec. 16-18)

Posted: December 15, 2011 in Living and Life

Well, life’s been good. I finished my first term at school (with a 3.76 GPA), I’m employed and able to make a little money, and the holidays are coming! Yay Hannukah! (What? Is there something wrong with yelling out the holiday you celebrate? Christians do it all the time)

Now, as for the true reason behind this post: I’ve got a huge weekend starting tomorrow. First, and taking up most of the weekend, is my younger sister’s bat mitzvah (coming-of-age ceremony in Judaism celebrated in the teen years, for all of you who don’t know a lot about Judaism). It’s a big thing and I’m even reading Torah in honor of it. After the Sabbath we’ll have a big party (it’s pretty much standard in America these days to hire a DJ and have a party after a bar/bat mitzvah), during which I’ll dance as I usually dance, which will lead my sisters (yes, that’s right, sisters) to beg me to stop, which I won’t do.

After the bat mitzvah, my dad’s family will be having an early Hannukah party, during which we’ll exchange gifts and I’ll get razzed because of the school I go to (most of my dad’s family went to U of M, darn Michigan fans!). After the party is over, I’ll be heading to campus to stay overnight. Why you ask? I’ll tell you: Tran-Siberian Orchestra! The bus route to the concert runs right through campus, so I’ll stay overnight after the concert. I’m looking forward to the concert, it’s supposed to have a killer laser-light show!

What happens after that, I don’t know. I may go to the gym, or I’ll go see Sherlock Holmes, or both! All I know is, I’ve got a busy weekend up ahead and I’m looking so forward to it! Shabbat Shalom and good luck, Maya! I know you’ll do amazing on Shabbas!

Ridiculous Charges

Posted: December 7, 2011 in Reflections

Like many of you, I’m worried about America’s school system. But what’s got me writing this post? I mean, there’s a whole list of problems that are associated with our illustrious public school system. I’ll tell you: in two days, I’ve read two news stories where kids were given sexual harassment charges. Kids were given sexual harrasment charges! Haven’t heard of this? Allow me to make you wonder:

1. In Michigan, a kid was telling a friend during lunch that he thought a teacher was “cute”. That’s all he said, he thought she was a cute teacher. A subsitute teacher overheard the conversation–a substitue teacher–and went to the principal. Now the kid’s on a two day suspension. I don’t think he’ll get a criminal record, but still…a little overboard, don’t you think?

2. In Boston, a kid was being choked by a bully on the back of a bus. The bully was trying to get the kid’s gloves, and would do anything to get them apparently. The kid couldn’t breathe, and kicked the bully in the groin in self-defense. Apparently at the kid’s school though, that doesn’t count as self-defense, but a form of inappropriate touching. Now he and his brother are afraid to go back to school after his suspension is served. Is there something wrong with this picture?

Look, I understand we want to create environments where people feel safe from harassment of this sort. But this is ridiculous! At those kids’ ages, I didn’t have any concept of what sexuality was! I’m not sure what these kids’ schools are doing, but if I were a parent at one of these schools, I’d call the principal and ask what the heck is going on. I mean, really?!

I hope this stuff gets into the Weekend Update jokes on SNL. The principal(s) is going to hang his/her head in shame if it does!

End of the Fall 2011 Quarter

Posted: December 7, 2011 in ideas, Living and Life

This is the first of two posts I’ll post this evening. If you’re looking for the second one, then it’s probably above this one, so just scroll up.

So today I finished my last exam, which is something most of my fellow collegiates can say (“You’re already finished? Lucky!”). I feel that for my first exam week, I did very well. I’m very confident that I will get good grades on my exams and hopefully a high GPA. The day after tomorrow I’m heading to my dad’s place for vacation (it’s easier to commute to and from work from my dad’s place). I’m practicing for my sister’s bat mitzvah, and I’m going to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert as well (that’s something I’m really looking forward to!).

Finally, I’m working on a new shorty story idea: although Ripple was rejected, the editor thought that one of the best parts of the story was that the story involved a really difficult choice. That got me thinking, and I realized that a lot of really good stories out there involve choices, really tough choices. So I’m running with that idea and doing some pretty obscure research (and I mean obscure. Like so obscure that I have to look for a specialist in England if I have any hope of looking for the info I need). Wish me luck, and happy winter vacation!

Ripple: Rejected

Posted: November 30, 2011 in Living and Life, short story

Well, I hate to say it, but Ripple got rejected. However, they did give me some feedback that cheered me up a bit. First, the editor of the Grove, the magazine I submitted Ripple to, said it was amazing that I had written such a story when I basically taught myself how to write fiction (while my high school was a good one, it specialized more in essay-writing for college instead of fiction-writing, but with this economy and job market can you blame them?). The editor and his staff also agreed that the second draft was much better than the first draft, so that’s something positive. In the end, it all boiled down to the fact that they had a lot of submissions, a lot more than usual apparently, and some of the work was a bit better than mine (and probably came from upperclassmen). Well, hopefully the next short story I write, whenever the inspiration strikes me, will be good enough to publish somewhere. Wish me luck.

PS The quarter is almost over on campus, and I am so glad! Honestly, I loved my classes and I had a ton of fun, but I just want to relax before winter quarter starts and I start a whole new round of classes and a whole new crazy schedule. Just gotta get past exams, and how hard can they be?

You know what, don’t answer that last question. Just leave posts encouraging me to do well in school and in my writing.

Update: Ripple

Posted: November 20, 2011 in Progress Report, short story

A few posts back I said that I was working on a sci-fi story called Ripple, and that I was sending it to one of the local literary magazines on campus. Well, I met with the prose editor of said magazine, and he offered me some suggestions about ways the story could be improved (this magazine is unique because it takes the time to meet with its contributors and give suggestions for improvements).

Needless to say, they had a lot of suggestions on how to better the story, and I’m pretty sure I used all of them. When I was done, the second draft of Ripple looked a heck of a lot different than the first, but I think that’s a good thing. I’ll find out soon enough whether or not they liked the second draft enough to put it in the magazine. If yes, then I’ll party. If not, then no hard feelings; I’ll just try again till I get published.

Oh, and a happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Enjoy the turkey while we remember that the Native Americans were kind enough to give us their corn and we repaid them by sending them to the worst pieces of real estate we could find! Don’t deny it, we did do that and they won’t ever let us forget it.