Posts Tagged ‘birthday’

Building Excitement

Posted: May 24, 2025 in Living and Life, Reflections
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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Lately, my life has been nothing but growing excitement. Well, that’s not entirely true: there’s a bunch of other stuff. But work has been getting better lately after several months of insanity, and I’ve been balancing my life very well, which has allowed me to notice the excitement more clearly than if life was too busy and I was super exhausted.

And it’s not surprising that life feels like it’s nothing but excitement. For one thing, StokerCon is fast approaching, and there’s plenty I’m looking forward to with that. For one thing, as you know, I’ll be pitching The Shape of Evil to agents and editors there, and I’ve done the majority of my prep in that respect (a friend of mine who will also be pitching, and we’ll be practicing our pitches together as we get closer). Not only that, but I’m involved with a couple of panels, which I wasn’t the last time I went.

One is a virtual panel, “Understanding Historical Horror,” which I was the moderator of. I say “was,” because we filmed the panel ahead of time. As I suggested the panel (I blame “Sinners” inspiring me), I was asked to moderate and film it. And it went well! We had some great panelists–Philip Fracassi, John Langan, Alma Katsu, and John Kachuba–and we had an enjoyable hour and a half of filming and talking about historical horror: what it was, how to go about writing it, and the ethics of writing it. It will premiere during StokerCon, and will be accessible for those attending virtually.

The second one is “Authentic Representation in Horror,” which will focus on including marginalized communities in the horror community and in horror stories. As you probably know, that’s a subject near and dear to my heart, so I’m eager to talk about it with some like-minded writers in front of an audience. We’ve already spent some time emailing each other, suggesting topics for discussion and what we need as individuals to be more comfortable. That panel will also be livestreamed, so we’ll hopefully get a lot of people tuning in online as well as attending in person.

(And hopefully the anti-woke police won’t show up and cause a problem, lol.)

Add in getting to see so many friends, and it’s no wonder I’m excited for StokerCon!

Pretty much how I feel these days.

But StokerCon aside, there are other reasons I’m excited. For example, Symphony for Walpurgis is doing well. It’s only been out a little over three weeks since my latest collection released, but it’s been selling well and a lot of people have been telling me they’ve been enjoying it or expressing interest in getting copies of their own. One person in the horror community I really admire actually reached out to me yesterday to ask if she could have a review copy, which made my day! I’ll be seeing her at StokerCon, so I’ll give her a copy then.

And then there’s so much more! For one thing, we’re in the middle of Memorial Day weekend, and I’m already enjoying all the things I’m planning on doing this weekend, including getting some much needed sleep and doing a lot of projects I’ve put off till now. In fact, I’ve already made some progress with those projects, and I’ll tell you more about them when the time is right.

My Tarot cards say that for June, all troubles will pass, and lots of good things will happen in time. I can’t wait to see if that comes true!

And my birthday is coming up, which is another reason to get excited. I’m already arranging to get a nice massage on the day of, eat ice cream, and hang out with friends (not necessarily in that order and definitely not at the same time). It’ll be a nice celebration of my life and my inevitable inching towards death before heading off to a certain convention I’ve mentioned a hundred times already.

And a hundred other things are happening or will happen that just get me excited and full of zest for life and so glad I’m at this point in my life. Hell, even my Tarot cards seem to have caught something, because lately the majority of my readings have been super-positive! And if there’s something more to the cards than just pure randomness, then that’s significant!

And I’m looking forward to seeing how all these things play out. Whether it’s StokerCon and what I plan to do there, or the Doctor Who season finale, or even just trying out a new recipe this weekend. It’s nice to not only have so much to look forward to, but also to experience it when it arrives.

Makes me wonder what else I’ll get excited about as the stuff I mentioned above happens. I guess we, and especially I, will find out soon enough!

30 Doesn’t Change Much

Posted: June 6, 2024 in Living and Life, Reflections
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This post is aimed at the people about to enter or have just recently entered their 30s. That being said, I hope everyone will read it if they so desire.

Back in January 2023, I wrote a blog post about how I was turning 30 soon and how I was kind of freaking out about it (you can read that post here). I reread it recently, and I can tell that I was worried about the end of my 20s and that possibly meaning a big change for me and who I was as a person.

I’ll be turning 31 soon, meaning I’ve been in my thirties for about a year now. And I can safely say at this point that turning 30 doesn’t change much.

Okay, maybe it does change much in some aspects. Healthwise, I have to be more careful because as you get older, staying healthy becomes more work. It’s especially difficult for me, as I’m not an exercise fan and I love my junk food, though I do manage stay somewhat stable on the health front somehow.

But other than the health thing (and let’s face it, that actually starts around 27 or 28, not 30), nothing much has changed. I still enjoy watching anime and YouTube videos every opportunity I get. I still make dumb jokes ninety percent of the time, I’m still indulging in my hobbies, such as winemaking and going to movies or the theater. I still get a kick out of being overdramatic or scaring people (intentionally or otherwise). I still like to sleep in and have a drink or two on the weekends.

And I’m still chasing my dream of becoming a fulltime writer. Hell, four months after turning thirty, I published my fifth book (Hannah and Other Stories, if you want to read it, BTW).

Honestly, I think a lot of it is perspective. If you feel that turning 30 is a big change or that you have to make some big changes because you’re turning 30, you will. However, if you want to go about your business as you have, you will. I certainly have, and any changes in the past year might actually be because of other factors, such as work, or the economy, or progress on the writing front, or a hundred other things.

And if you want to make some changes in your life, then don’t do it because you feel forced to due to a milestone birthday. Do it because you want it. Run that marathon. Take that class. Take up that hobby. Learn that skill. See if you can purchase that house with only so much in savings (believe me, it worked out for me when I was 28/29, though honestly that was before the prices got really insane).

Turning 30 certainly didn’t stop me from purchasing a pair of swords, something I’ve wanted for years.

And above all, pursue that dream. It’s never too late for that. Hell, there’s a great anime about that airing right now (though on the surface, it’s about a guy who wants to stop giant monsters from destroying Japan). And there’s me and my fellow writers. I’m nearly 31 and still pursuing that dream. In some ways, I feel pretty damn close. And I know other writers who are older than me, or started writing in their 30s, 40s, and beyond, and have found great success in doing so.

Yeah, reaching your thirties is kind of scary. It used to mean being a lot older and being a lot further along in life (house, spouse, kids, job, etc.), after all. But it could also mean big things on the horizon. It could mean you have experience and you’re going to make fewer mistakes when you set out on a new journey. In the end, you decide what it’s going to be. Not society or some nebulous idea of adulthood. You do.

And I think that’s pretty damn awesome.

You know, my Followers of Fear, 30 was a roller coaster. On the one hand, it was my toughest year at the office for a number of reasons, and I dealt with a lot of things I rather would have gone without. On the other hand, I did some amazing things I’ll treasure forever, including but not limited to my first StokerCon (and I’m already signed up to go to next year’s!). And you know what? The same can be said about any age, if you think about it. It’s always a roller coaster.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Don’t bother getting me any birthday gifts (unless you want to check out and then review my books, in which case that would be a great gift). I’m off to rest. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

Thoughts on Turning 30 Later This Year

Posted: January 9, 2023 in Living and Life, Reflections
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Holy crap, sweet Moses, and am I too young for a midlife crisis?

Okay, maybe that’s a little overdramatic. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that I’ll be turning thirty this summer. And I’m feeling a bit…uneasy about it? Maybe some disbelief?

I mean, I always knew this time would come. And, at times during this pandemic, I felt like I was already in my thirties. I mean, I work a full-time job that pays a decent salary and benefits. I pay a lot of bills. And as of last year, I’m paying a mortgage on my own home. But you know, it always felt far away and nebulous, like the death of the sun or the Andromeda galaxy. And since passing the six-months-away mark, it’s been more concrete. Less nebulous. And I’m a little freaked out by it.

It’s so weird. When you’re young, you look forward to birthdays. It’s not just a day when everyone showers you with attention and presents and you hopefully do fun things with your friends and family. It’s also a day when you get more freedoms and responsibilities, as well as fresh new opportunities. What excitement awaits now that I’m8 or 9 or 10? 13 or 14 or 15? Now that I’m old enough to get a license, or see an R-rated movie on my own, or I’m a legal adult? What about when I’m old enough to buy alcohol?

But then the milestone birthdays kind of end, and you have to deal with being an adult. At 25, which some define as the end of youth, something shifts and you start to slowly feel less like the kid or the teen or young/new adult you used to be, and more like the grownup your parents are. Birthdays come, and they can still be fun, but the feeling of accomplishment and new opportunity isn’t as strong as it used to be, if it’s still there.

And now, approaching thirty, what’s going to happen to me? I’ve always thought of myself as having a strong, youthful side that helps fuel my imagination and my zest for life. All this helps make me the author and human (or creature pretending to be human) that I am. Will that suddenly change when I turn thirty? Will something shift and I’ll suddenly lose that little spark inside myself that I feel is a big part of me? And how will that affect everything else? My writing, my hobbies, my goals, my enjoyment of life?

Yeah, I know. This is probably just some unfounded anxiety giving me unnecessary fears. People change over time, it’s true, but not that dramatically. Still, I know change will be inevitable. My health is definitely going to be harder to maintain once I get to that point, and I bet there will be pressure from various sides to be more responsible or practical with my life. Like, “Why isn’t he doing more at work and climbing the corporate ladder?” Or “Why is he collecting dolls or making wine or writing stories when he’s an adult with a mortgage?”

Or maybe nothing will change. Maybe it’ll just be another day and I’ll still be the wacky, goofy, scary dude people have come to know and love. And honestly, I’m hoping that’s the case. I don’t want to feel like my life is over or all the fun times are behind me once I turn thirty.

Whatever happens, I hope I can make my birthday extra awesome this year.

You know, I never understood people who would claim their birthday was just another day. Yeah, at a certain point you don’t really feel the transition of age, but why not celebrate? Why, except for vanity’s sake, would you want to avoid your birthday? But maybe there’s something in calling it another day. Because that way, nothing earth-shattering or life-changing will happen just because you made another rotation around the sun.

Well, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time to figure things out between now and the big 3-0. Plenty of time to get used to it and face any changes that may or may not come my way. And if I’m going to turn thirty, I’m sure as hell going to do my best to celebrate the transition. I’m talking multiple parties, some wilder than the others, lots of fun with friends and family, and maybe some splurging on myself.

After all, it’s not every day you turn thirty, is it? And if I’m going to jump over that threshold, for better or for worse, I might as well do it with a bang.

Just two more things before I sign off, my Followers of Fear. First off, thank you to everyone who participated in the recent New Year’s Sale I held on most of my books. It really made for a great start to the year to see so many people purchasing copies of my books. Hopefully it’s the start of a very successful year for me . Anyway, happy reading to you all, and I hope you let me know what you think of the books when you read them. After all, reviews not only help me, but they help your fellow readers.

Second, update on The Great Editing: last night, I finished editing “Fuseli’s Horses,” one of the stories in my upcoming collection Hannah and Other Stories. This means there are three more stories in the collection to edit, and at least five more overall that I’ll be doing a new draft on. I’m looking forward to tackling the next couple of stories and seeing them improve. Hopefully after this latest round of editing, they’ll be ready for publication, or at least that much closer to being ready.

Anyway, that all for now. I’ve got guests coming over to try homemade plum wine soon (hopefully I can get their reactions on camera). Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

The Nicer Side of YouTube

Posted: June 11, 2015 in Living and Life, Reflections
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Yesterday was my birthday, as you probably already knew. Lot of good things happened, but there’s one thing I’d like to focus on in this post. I’m on YouTube a lot (some argue it’s typical of my generation, and to some extent I agree), and yesterday Doctor Who’s official channel uploaded a short video featuring Sarah Dollard, who’s writing an episode for the upcoming season (you can watch the video here). Me being me, I comment on the video that someday I’d like to write for Doctor Who despite being an American. And that opened the commenter floodgates.

Now, YouTube has acquired a reputation where commenters can be the nastiest people around. I’ve seen this side of YouTube before. I once was called gay for commenting on a video of an old anime’s theme song that I used to love watching that show (wrong asshole, I’m bisexual. There’s a difference), one troll told me all the stuff in a video series I was watching was staged despite proof that it all actually happened (he was easy to fend off though once it was pointed out that he had only his belief to back him up), and infamously one guy joked I’d been raped by meditation music when I commented on how a meditation video really relaxed me (you can read my post condemning that joke here). With these sort of experiences, you learn to be a little guarded in what you comment. You filter yourself so that people don’t gang up on you, strangers using their anonymity to just be awful to you or take your words out of context or a hundred other nasty things.

Which is why yesterday’s experience was so heartening and uplifting. Throughout the day, I had people replying to my comment, telling me that I had to just be a very good writer and get on the DW team’s radar in order to work for them, that nationality had nothing to do with it (later I found out that Sarah Dollard is Australian, so there’s the proof right there). I replied that I was a writer, that I had a few books out and that they were on sale in honor of my birthday (and that sale’s still going on through Sunday, by the way. You should seriously check out my work on Amazon and Smashwords for marked down or even free books).

And that’s when it starts getting really awesome. People are wishing me a happy birthday, they’re wanting to know what sort of books I write, one guy even asks for the titles of my books so they can purchase them himself! All told, there were twenty-something replies to my original comment, some of them by me but others by the complete and total strangers I’d learn to be wary of over the years.

You know, the way YouTube is, they’re not very good at policing their comments sections for abuse. Believe me, Google’s tried, but the systems they use often miss the really nasty stuff and sometimes persecute commenters for relatively harmless stuff. Some content creators on YouTube even moderate each and every comment or don’t allow comments whatsoever on their channels because of these problems. And for those viewers like myself, we have to learn to cope with this, either by not commenting in fear of the replies we’ll get or just to learn to grow a thicker skin and develop tools to deal with it ourselves.

So I comment, but I sometimes wonder if on YouTube there’s only so much civility, that comments are on a spectrum from respectful and somewhat nice to just downright awful. Yesterday surprised me and made me very happy. Within those twenty-something replies was a level of kindness and support and love that I didn’t know I could experience outside of Facebook or blogging. I got to learn that people online, especially on YouTube, can still be decent human beings even with the protection of anonymity around them, so easy to abuse sometimes.

And perhaps maybe my faith in humanity was bolstered a little.

So from now when I’m on YouTube, listening to music videos or watching funny content or whatever, I might not be so jaded. I’ll remember this little birthday surprise and I’ll know that not everyone on YouTube has the potential to be a jerk. Some have the potential to be really, really awesome people (and not just because they’re probably Whovians, though that can sometimes play a factor). And I wish the best for the people who were so kind to me yesterday, because what they did was just so overwhelmingly positive and unexpected that it deserves special mention in a time when so many people are using the Internet for awful reasons.

Bravo folks. Bravo. And thanks. You made my birthday that much more special, and I appreciate the encouragement. Here’s hoping I’m writing with the BBC someday!

The Big Birthday Sale!

Posted: June 10, 2015 in Living and Life, Novel, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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22 years ago, a powerful being of a higher plane burst forth out of its hellish home with the purpose of spreading terror and chaos to the world. It found a human host and came forth from her, bringing insanity wherever it went and making things interesting at parties. This being, known by a thousand names in just as many worlds and cultures, became known in this one as Rami Ungar the Writer.

At least, that’s how I like to tell the story of my birth. It’s better than the one my mother tells, anyway.

But back on point. Today’s my 22nd birthday, and I’m celebrating it by giving a gift to you, my Followers of Fear. From today, June 10th, to Sunday June 14th, all my published works–The Quiet Game, Reborn City, and Snake–will be available at marked down prices or–in the case of the e-book versions–free of charge! And you’ll be able to get them all from Amazon or Smashwords (reminder that Smashwords only does e-books).

All my books, on sale through Sunday

All my books, on sale through Sunday

In case you’re not really familiar with my works, I’ve included descriptions of each book along with the links below. I hope you like what you read and decide to check out one of my books for your reading pleasure. And if you do decide to get one or more of my published works, I hope once you read them you’ll be kind enough to let me know what you think, either in a review or just a comment on a blog post. Positive or negative, I love feedback. It helps me improve the stories I write so that more people get entertaining and thrilling books.

Well, that’s all for now everyone. I’m off to do some writing and try out a new hobby and if I get a chance later today I’ll write another post. Until then, have fun at the sale, my Followers of Fear! And happy reading!

The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones
Are you ready to face your own inner demons? Or perhaps you are ready to face the dybbuk’s wrath. Maybe you’ll even jump into the lady ogre’s den. And if you’re brave enough, you may end up in the deadliest game of all, a game where if you die, no one will hear you scream. In his debut published work, Rami Ungar takes you through five terrifying tales of darkness, suspense and fear. Get ready to play The Quiet Game.
Amazon link
Smashwords link

Reborn City
When Zahara Bakur moves to the gambling town of Reborn City, she finds her life flipped upside down when her parents are killed in a hate crime and she is forced to join the interracial street gang the Hydras. From the start this gang is different. Its leaders, including the silent and stern Rip, all have powers that defy imagination. And as Zahara becomes closer to the leaders, she becomes aware of a shadowy government organization that has a sinister interest in the Hydras. It will take all that Zahara has to make sure she and her new friends make it out alive of Reborn City, and the choice she makes will affect not only her, but maybe the world itself.
Amazon link
Smashwords link

Snake
How far would you go for love and revenge? When a young man loses the love of his life and afterwards witnesses a horrific murder, he descends into insanity and decides to hunt down the men who took his lover away from him. Styling himself as the Snake, he goes after New York’s most powerful mafia family, and he won’t stop till he finds his love and makes the monsters who took her pay. Even if that means becoming a monster worse than the ones he is hunting.
Amazon link
Smashwords link