college life | Rami Ungar The Writer

Posts Tagged ‘college life’

Old Sid: The Critique

Posted: February 27, 2013 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: college life, editing, Ohio State University, short story, writing

This evening, my creative writing class critiqued the second short story I submitted tot he class, “Old Sid”, about the subject of a fictional urban legend on Ohio State’s campus (by this, I mean I made up the urban legend). I was praised a lot on how my narrators gathered their testimony, and on how I captured the many apsects of the legend.

However, there were some thoughts on how the story could be improved. The most dramatic but necessary change was something I hadn’t even thought about: making the legend real. You see, every story with a Boo Radley has the Boo Radley character begin a legend and then become human at the end. I never did that for Old Sid, but I see that I can do that in the second draft and have a ton of fun with it while I’m at it.

I’ll also flesh out the narrators of the story and give them a little background as well, and then I’ll see if I can get the story off a tangent it goes on midway through the story. It’ll be awesome! I just have to finish “Fugue” first; I’m so close to finishing that short story, I can taste it on my tongue, and I’m not delaying that when I’m dealing with two really awesome short stories.

Wish me luck. I’ve got a first draft to finish tonight.

“The Quiet Game”: Last Night’s Reading

Posted: February 23, 2013 in Living and Life, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: college life, entertainment, Ohio State University, scary stuff, short story, The Quiet Game, writing

Well, I did the reading last night, and I’m very happy with the results. Not a lot of people showed up–about ten at most–but they seemed to like it, and several friends of mine and some lookey-loos who just lived in the building showed up, which made me happy.

I started the show with a friend on the building’s activity board playing some creepy mood music from a Marilyn Manson album before stopping the song. Then I came out from behind the audience wearing make-up to make me look like Heath Ledger’s Joker and laughing like a madman. It freaked several people out, which was the reaction I was going for (I don’t have a photo of it right now, but I’ll be sure to post a photo of it later on The Quiet Game‘s Facebook page, the address of which is below). I proceeded to read from small sections from all but one of the short stories (you might remember that one of them is about a recovering sex addict, so I couldn’t read from that), and some people were a little creeped out by what I read to them.

Afterwards I thanked everyone who helped put the show together, and I thanked everyone who came for attending and sticking around, before telling everyone where they could find out more about The Quiet Game. It was nice, and I really enjoyed myself. It’s part of the song-and-dance that writers, especially self-publishing writers, have to do in order to make their work heard and bought and read and possibly reviewed on Amazon. So hopefully they’ll buy a copy after the book comes out, maybe tell their friends about it. That’s what I hope, anyway.

So for all those who managed to come, thanks for showing. It really meant a lot to me, and I hope that at future readings, you can show up and maybe not be too freaked out by anything that might be on my face besides my glasses.

Good night everybody.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/TheQuietGameFiveTalesToChillYourBones

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Posted: February 21, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: blogging, college life, editing, entertainment, ideas, publishing, scary stuff, short story, The Quiet Game, writing

I was tagged by Lorna Dounaeva (http://lornadounaeva.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/the-next-big-thing-blog-hop/) for this post, which is similar to the award memes that make the rounds of the Internet. The Next Big Thing Blog Hop is a chance for us to talk about our works-in-progress, or WIP, and we have to follow certain steps to fulfill it. First, I have to tag the person who tagged me (thanks, Lorna!). Then I have to introduce and explain The Next Big Thing Blog Hop to those reading the post (check!). Then I have to answer ten questions about my WIP, and include pictures if possible. After the questions are done, I must tag five other writers with WIPs, and then let them know through emails or comments.

I’ll get to that, but first the questions, which will be focusing on The Quiet Game:

1. What is the title of the book you are working on? The title is The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book? I think it started when I realized that editing my sci-fi novel RC was taking longer than I thought and that I’d probably finish my thriller novel Snake around the beginning of winter break. I’d played with the idea of working on a collection of short stories after Snake was done, but by the time winter break arrived, I thought it’d be a good thing to do, especially with my plans to self-publish. So as soon as I’d finished Snake, I got to work on it.

3. What genre does your book fall under? Horror, definitely horror. To be more specific, four of the short stories feature supernatural horror, while the fifth features psychological horror.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Well, it’s a collection of short stories, so that’d be five movies if I were extremely lucky. The only actor I can think of though, would be Taissa Farmiga from American Horror Story, who would play Traci from the titular short story, The Quiet Game. Although she doesn’t look very much like my conception of the character, she’d definitely define and bring the role to life, and that’s what I’m looking for.

Taissa Farmiga, everybody.

5. What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book? Be prepared to enter the darkest corners of your mind in…The Quiet Game.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I’m doing the self-publishing thing. It’s the way of the future, and I’ve tried the traditional route to publishing novels and collections. Although it’s still prestigious,the traditional route is still very difficult to do and from the way some of the bigger companies in New York have been merging and acting, they know it won’t last forever. Besides, I want to get my work to my readers sooner rather than later.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manusript? Probably a month or so, though one of the short stories did need to be rewritten at some point, so that’s another couple of days there. Each story took different lengths of time to work on, so it was an uneven work schedule. Still, it was very much worth it.

8. What other books would you compare this story to in your genre? I don’t know; it’s so hard to compare one collection of short stories to another. In fact, I’d say it’s almost impossible, though my Mom did compare one of my short stories to Stephen King’s It, which I thought was a huge compliment.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book? I got inspiration from anywhere. The Quiet Game came from a comment-conversation on a friend’s blog; Addict came from the experiences of a friend of mine. If I tried to go back and figure out the origin of each story, I’d have interesting stories to tell right there!

10. What else about yoru book might pique reader’s interest? I think that it’s by a new author and that each story is different, scary, and unique might draw some in. That’s the hope, anyway.

And now, onto the tagged people:

1. Matt Williams (http://storiesbywilliams.com/)

2. Angela (http://aportiaadamsadventure.wordpress.com/?ref=spelling)

3. Cristian Mihai (http://cristianmihai.net/)

4. Pat Bertram (http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/)

5. Jason Alan (http://jasonalanwriter.wordpress.com/)

Congratulations to the tagged winners, and I can’t wait to read what you’re in the process of creating.

“The Quiet Game”: A Reading

Posted: February 20, 2013 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
Tags: college life, entertainment, holidays, Ohio State University, short story, The Quiet Game, writing

Ah, so many announcements about The Quiet Game, and so few hours in the day! If you haven’t heard already, I created a cover for my upcoming collection of short stories, The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones, earlier today and posted it all over the blogosphere, Facebook, and my Twitter account.

Now I have a second announcement: this Friday at my dorm, Jones Tower, there will be a huge Purim celebration. Yes Purim, the Jewish holiday that celebrates our deliverance from the hands of the Babylonian Prime Minister’s plot to murder every single Jew. During the celebration, there will be Hamentaschen, the traditional treat eaten during Purim, masks you can make (it’s basically our Halloween, if you didn’t know), and I’ll be doing a reading from some of my short stories at some point during the festivities. It’s going to be great; I plan on doing a whole lot to make sure it’s so spooky, they may not want to have me read again–

On second thought, maybe I should tone it down a bit.

I’ll try and make a video of the reading and post it on YouTube. Keep your eyes peeled for it.

And if you happen to be in Columbus on Friday night and have nothing to do at 10 PM, please show up. I’d appreciate the support.

Unless of course you’re crazy or want to kill me, in which case I’d like to warn you there are members of the audience who will be attending and who are a part of martial arts societies and groups on campus, and they won’t hesitate to hurt you.

Have a good night, everybody.

“The Quiet Game”: The Cover

Posted: February 20, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: college life, entertainment, Ohio State University, publishing, scary stuff, short story, The Quiet Game, writing

I took some time out of my day today to create the cover for my upcoming collection of short stories, The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. I used a photo I’d taken over the weekend and used PhotoShop to add the title and the writing in the sky that’s in the titular short story. The result is what you see below:

The photo is of Orton Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus, with a snowy night background. With the lettering in the back, I feel it makes for a very scary cover that gives me the effect I’m looking for.

The best part though, is that I did it all by myself, with only a little bit of help from the people who run the computer lab at the Science and Engineering Lab at school, and I did it in barely half an hour, if even that much! I feel so proud of myself for being able to use a program that before I had so much trouble using. Now I can add this to the Facebook page and put it on the “Books by Rami Ungar” page to show the world.

Thanks for supporting me so far. I hope to have the book out by mid-April, when the semester ends. I hope you’re looking forward to reading it, almost as much as I am looking forward to publishing it.

Spring Semester 2013 Half-Time Report

Posted: February 19, 2013 in Living and Life
Tags: college life, Ohio State University

It’s just about halfway through Week 7 of the first ever spring semester at Ohio State University. How am I doing? Very well. I’m busy, but I’ve got a constant sense of optimisim that’s keeping me going, and this morning I woke up feeling well-rested! As you probably know, college students usually cut sleep out of their lives until they feel they absolutely need it, so I thought it was something else when I woke up this morning and didn’t feel like I needed another hour to be at my best.

As for grades, I’m doing well, though I’m going to study harder for the next two exams in Psychology and History. Speaking of which, I’ve recieved grades from a couple of classes. On my American Literature midterm, I recieved an A, only a few points short of a full one-hundred. On my Abnormal Psychology test, I recieved an 84%, which I hope to improve with the next midterm (a week from Friday, if I remember correctly). In World War II history, I recieved a ninety on the map quiz and an 84 on the midterm. For my creative writing class, I haven’t recieved anything but other’s short stories and feedback, but judging on the atmosphere of the class, it’s not hard to imagine I’m doing well. Especially with the teacher bringing in a different wind-up toy every class to use as some sort of metaphor for writing.

Speaking of creative writing, I’m turning in “Old Sid” tomorrow for my creative writing class. They’ll take a week to look over it and critique it, and then they’ll turn it in on Wednesday with their thoughts. I hope they like it and have some good suggrestions for it; I’d like to send it to a local literary magazine if possible.

As for social life, I hang out with my friends and go to OSU Hillel once a week for Sabbath services and kosher meat. I don’t have much time for clubs or organizations, but I make do when I can, like Buckeyethon a few weeks ago. I also work part-time, and I’m trying to do as much as I can as tax season is upon us, which means busy season is right around the corner.

But I’m also trying to do a reading of some of my work at my dorm. In fact, I was emailing with the guy who’s the head of my dorm’s activity board, and he wanted to read some of my work. I hope he doesn’t get nightmares from it! In any case, if I can do a reading, I hope to film it and I hope to put it on YouTube. You’d be able to see just how creepy I can be!

Wish me luck with everything. I hope to have a cover for The Quiet Game out later in the next week or two, so keep your eyes posted for it (there’s a pun in that sentence, by the way. Did you notice?). I even took an evening photo for it. It’s going to be awesome!

“Three Life-Saving Phone Calls” Finished

Posted: February 12, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: college life, editing, Ohio State University, short story, writing

While watching the State of the Union address (love you, Mr. President!), I worked on my latest short story, “Three Life-Saving Phone Calls”, a short story about a teenager trying to commit an elaborate suicide. The idea for the story came to me in one of my creative writing classes (apparently lots of people get great ideas for stories while around my teacher, or so I hear), and it was based on a really dark period of my life, when I actually did want to commit suicide when I thought that nobody loved me and I was all alone.

The story’s a little longer than five-thousand words, but I plan to see if I can slim it down a little during the editing stage. I also want to see if I can get this short story to win OSU’s English Department’s creative writing award for short stories. I won’t get that big a prize–only $250–but it’d be something to put on my resume and it’d be a prestigious award to have. Since the due date for submissions is in 10 days though, I need to edit quickly…after I edit my second short story for class.

Let’s hope I can handle it all and do well!

I’ll let you know how well things go. Wish me luck and hope for the best, okay? Thanks!

I’m Writing What I Know For Once

Posted: February 11, 2013 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
Tags: college life, editing, entertainment, Ohio State University, short story, writing

Last semester, I wrote how I continue to write about subjects I have no personal experience with, despite my creative writing class’s textbook’s insistence that I do so. It wasn’t that I thought anything from my own life wasn’t good enough for writing about, it’s just that I was more interested in writing about a demon causing a human to become a cannibal or a war between humans and werewolves than I was writing about my anxiety before a test or my sometimes stormy relationships with my sisters. When people like my dad would tell me to at least give it a shot, I would usually reply, “That’s too scary for literature.”

But lately–and I blame the workshops I’ve been taking for this–my writing has taken a more personal tone. Over break, I wrote “Enigma” (later renamed to “In The Lady Ogre’s Den”), which has an autistic child as the main character. I’ve worked with kids with autism before, and I’m even on the spectrum, though I’m very high-functioning. Later I wrote “Old Sid” for class (I’ll be turning that one in a week from Wednesday) and that story takes place on the Ohio State campus, where’ I’ve either been working, learning, or both for the past two years. And recently I’ve been working on a short story called “Three Life Saving Phone Calls”, which is based on some dark experiences in my life that for a time made me very depressed and even contemplated suicide. Sure, I’ve changed so much around that it’s now only very loosely based on my life, but if someone were to look closely, and if that someone knew a lot about me, they could see through the fictional veneer and spot what I’ve taken from my own life and put into the story.

Why the change? Like I said before, I think it might have something to do with the workshops I’ve been taking. The emphasis on literary fiction as opposed to genre fiction requires me to be more personal than I have been, and a lot of what those workshops have been teaching me I’ve assimilated into my writing. I guess finding ways to make my own life and experiences interesting is part of what I’ve taken away from these classes. I’m not exactly sure if it’s the best thing for my writing–after all, I’m still devoted to genre fiction, and I prefer to use imagination rather than confront an actual serial killer–but while I’m stuck with this new appreciation for things in my life and using them in my writing, I might as well take advantage of it to the fullest.

And besides, who knows? “Three Life Saving Phone Calls” seems to be just literary enough that I could submit it to a major literary journal, one that pays its contributors. That’s the hope, at least.

What about you? Do you use your own life in your writing, or is your work so strange that your life couldn’t find a place in your work?

Checking Into Copyright Law

Posted: February 6, 2013 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
Tags: college life, Ohio State University, publishing, short story, The Quiet Game, writing

Okay, so today I stopped by the school library to see about copyright laws (if you’re going to self-publish something, might as well be protected by law from people using your work illegally and without permission). According to the woman whom I talked to, it’s actually much easier than I thought to copyright your literary work. A little costlier than I thought, but only by twenty dollars. Compared to tuition money, it’s not too bad. And hey, if this is a success, it’ll be worth the investment.

By the way, I’ve been thinking of releasing a short story not in the collection as a little promotion for The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. What do you guys think? Would you buy one of my short stories if it was priced at ninety-nine cents? Oh, and if you’re uncertain, I’m choosing between a kidnapping thriller and a scary story involving neo-Nazis. What say you?

Rami Ungar The Writer

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