It’s been one week since my sophomore novel (I believe that’s the technical term, anyway), Snake, has been released. I’ve heard from people who have gotten their copies already or are planning on getting their copies as soon as possible. It’s very exciting to find out all these people want to read Snake, and I’m hoping that as time goes on, more people will want to read about the young man who, in order to save the love of his life, becomes a serial killer and starts hunting down the very people who hold his lover hostage.
If you wish to check out Snake, it’s available on Amazon. The print paperback’s price has gone down a bit, so it’s a bit more affordable right now should you want to read it. And of course, the e-book is available to read as well, and the price will remain at $0.99 until next week, so now’s a good time to download it if you wish.
And if you do decide to read Snake, please let me know what you think of it once you do. I love feedback, whether it’s positive or negative, so please don’t hesitate to tell me your honest opinion of the book.
All for now. Ill have plenty to write on later, so I’ll try to do that later today. If you would like to find out more about Snake, you can click here or watch the book trailer below. Have a good one, my Followers of Fear.
With the Columbus Pride Festival coming up this weekend, LGBT people from around the country (including George Takei as Grand Marshal for events this year) will be descending upon Columbus for a huge parade and festival to celebrate their sexual orientations, fight discrimination and injustice, and to push for same-sex marriage in Ohio, which is on the ballot this year. It’s sure to be a great time for many.
For some though, the Pride Festival will not be so welcome, and while Columbus may be one of the Midwest’s LGBT hotspots, there is the very real chance that protesters will show up and decry what they see as perversion, sin a horrible lifestyle, or some sort of disease/genetic defect/psychological disorder. Usually I ignore these sorts of people, but I figured that since I’ll most likely be attending the Pride Festival this year (my first), I thought it would be interesting to do a post on these protestors, most of whom have a Biblical basis for why they’re opposed to homosexuality, and show how the Bible could actually endorse homosexuality rather than outright ban it.
Before I do though, I wanted to post this video I found, which I think is very eye-opening, and gives some very good points on the Bible and homosexuality:
Interesting, isn’t it? And that thing about Sodom and Gomorrah mirrors pretty closely what I learned growing up about why those cities were destroyed. In fact, I remember a pretty graphic tale about how two girls met at a well, one realized the other’s family was very poor and gave her some flour for her family. When the town elders heard about it, they basically took the first girl and stoned her in public (I’m not sure what happened to the second girl, but she probably came away from that emotionally scarred and still hungry, if not dead). And if you want to know more about that book they talked about in the video, here’s a TIME magazine article on it.
I would like to add some points on to these, based on my own upbringing, experience, and understanding of the Old Testament (I’m not very familiar with the New Testament of course, being Jewish). First, that famous verse in Leviticus that anti-gay pastors love to quote, “Thou shall not sleep with a man as thou sleeps with a woman”. First off, what can women do? Second, this sounds like a prohibition against homosexuality, but it could have other meanings.
Of course, there’s the anatomical one: men can’t sleep with other men like they can with women, because men don’t have vaginas. But I’m pretty sure that argument, although obvious, won’t sway many people, so here’s two more that might. Firstly, there’s the patriarchal argument: women in the days when the Bible was written were expected to attend to their husband’s sexual needs, and most likely that meant they had no say in it unless they were impure and couldn’t have sex anyway. In an age where men were expected to be dominant in all matters, especially in the home, forcing one man to attend to another man’s sexual needs at the latter’s beck and call would be considered the ultimate emasculation, so therefore sex between men was forbidden.
The other reason (and the one I feel makes the most sense), is based on pagan idol worship. Many Near East and Mediterranean societies practiced homosexuality, not as a distinct orientation, but as an activity. The Greeks were famous for having relationships between other males before marriage, and there were other societies at the time that had cultures that permitted men to have relationships with each other before or after marriage. Some of these relationships were especially prevalent in military circles to increase unit cohesion, and a few were ritualized in the form of idol worship. God would have seen this latter act, worship of idols through sexual intercourse, as detestable, so He created a form of worship and sacrifice that did not involve sex, and forbade a form of sex that does not lead to procreation, as well as because it was used in idol worship.
There’s a pretty big difference between this and emasculation or idol worship, wouldn’t you say?
Since today there is no idol worship through sex (as far as I know), it would be permissible for same-sex relations to occur. Besides, these interpretations deal with a form of emasculation or idol worship. They do not apply to men, women, or other gender-types who are in loving, committed relationships like we see today.
There are other factors to consider here as well. For example, there is the belief that marriage should be as it is in the Bible. If that’s the case though, why do we outlaw polygamy and women can choose who they marry? Not to mention the definition of marriage and marriage roles have changed throughout the years, so it’s no surprise that it’s being changed in our day and age and “pro-marriage” activists shouldn’t be alarmed. And even if not always legally accepted or endorsed by religious establishments, same-sex relationships have been taking place for many, many years. There have been relationships between high-ranking clergymen and other men since the early days of the Church, but it was tolerated because of fear of worse sins, ones that at the time that were considered venereal.
Even during waves of religious upheaval, reformation, or resurgence, same-sex relationships flourished: Queen Elizabeth may have been a lesbian, and several members of her court were gay and able to get away with it due to their status. King James–of the Bible translation–actually had several relationships with men as well as women. And recently there was an article from The Boston Globe about two women who lived together and were treated as married…in 1807! So even if it’s not exactly legal, same-sex marriage is not exactly as new as cell phones.
This post is getting very long, so I’m going to continue this discussion in another one. I hope some of you who read this post found it informative and may have given you some food for thought. I don’t think it’ll sway anyone who’ll protest at Pride this weekend, but it may sway some people who are undecided on the issue. Or that it may prove helpful for those who want to try to reconcile homosexuality with religion.
Oh, and before you wonder what sort of religious authority I am, I can only say that I’m the son of two Conservative rabbis, I went to a Jewish day school from Grades 4-12, I’ve gone to synagogue for most of my life, and I still learn and keep in touch with my religion. So I may not be a rabbi or pastor, but I’ve done as much studying as some, and more than some others. I guess I can speak with some authority on these matters. What do you say?
*I will be screening the comments for offensive, inappropriate, or just plain rude comments. Be warned.*
Last night, my roommate and I went out on a pub crawl, trying various bars in the campus and Short North area. At some point we were joined by a friend of mine and his friend from Israel. It was a fun time and I enjoyed it very much, especially in the gay bars (for those of you who haven’t known me for that long, I came out in bisexual back in March of this year). I made some great memories with people I care about, I learned where you can get some interesting mixes and cocktails, and I even met one of Columbus’s drag icons (yes, we have drag icons. Not surprising, considering that Columbus is one of the LGBT capitals of the Midwest. Yes, Columbus is one of them).
However, there was one aspect of last night that I did not enjoy: around the time I was done at the Union bar (great fun, by the way), I started to feel very strange. I’d had a few drinks, and I guess I’d had more than I’ve previously had (even at that Jewish wedding not too long ago, if you can believe that), because I was feeling much more inebriated than I’d ever felt before. And despite how happy I was, I was kind of scared. I felt like the connections between the rational part of my brain and my body were being disconnected, because I had less control over my body. I also noticed that a few connections were being loosened between my rationality and whatever part of my brain makes decisions, because I was acting a little wilder than usual.
Luckily I didn’t do anything I’d end up regretting later on (so calm down, Ima and Abba). I do that often enough while sober. But at some point, I said to my friends that I’d had enough and that I wasn’t going to drink anymore. I got encouraged to have a few more drinks, but I held my ground and stopped drinking. Even at the next bar we visited, a famous dance club across from the Ohio Union, all I had was water (I was thirsty anyway, so it was good of me to get hydrated). And some of my friends thought I should’ve continued testing my limits or that I was trying to put a stop on my own 21st Birthday Pub Crawl, but I thought–or as much as I could think, anyway–and I still do think I made the right decision. I like being in a good mood, and last night I was in a very good mood, partly because of the alcohol I was drinking.
But I don’t like the feeling of my body and mind being so out of control. It’s a scary feeling, like watching yourself through your own eyes and not having any input over what’s happening. And it’s not something I’m willing to repeat any time soon. So for the time being I’m going to stay away from drinking (along with sweets and a few other things that aren’t necessarily good for me), even though my fridge is stocked with some really good drinks at the moment. I have a feeling that after last night, and with Columbus Pride Weekend and a wedding coming up soon, I would be better off holding off until the next weekend. And even then, I’ll probably drink sparingly.
Perhaps another time I’ll test my limits with alcohol. For now though, I think it’s best I stay at the limits I tested last night. Because not only do I not want to make a mistake that will haunt me while trying to have a good time, but I just don’t want to feel that out of control again. In fact, I don’t know why anyone would.
That’s all for now. I’m going to get some work done, and then do some reading before meeting my dad, my grandfather, and my sisters for a Father’s Day dinner. Happy Father’s Day, my Followers of Fear.
My friend and fellow author Pat Bertram just released this interview on Snake and what went into the writing of it. It’s a really great post, and I enjoyed reading it. And you should also check out Pat’s blogs as well. She’s an amazing author and woman, and you can learn a lot from reading her posts.
“Snake” is about a young man (and I mean young) whose girlfriend is kidnapped over the phone. Later events cause him to have a break with his sanity and he becomes a serial killer, determined to hunt down every member of the mafia family that has his girlfriend. It’s a very dark thriller, and it’s very unusual to have the serial killer as a protagonist. I’m hoping that will allow people to enjoy the story more, though. Fingers crossed, at any rate.
What inspired you to write this particular story?
I guess maybe it was the movie “Taken”. Yeah, there are plenty of similarities, but it’s definitely it’s own story. That’s actually what I wanted: I wanted to create a much darker story than “Taken” portrayed, though that was pretty dark in itself. I like to think I’ve succeeded in that respect. We’ll see what…
Three articles within a week. I’m impressed with myself. And this one marks my 20th post for Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, which apparently is quite the milestone, seeing as WordPress gave me a congratulatory notification this morning.
Anyway, today’s article is How To Write An Epilogue, a follow-up to yesterday’s post about writing prologues. I figured that since I’d already written one on prologues, I might as well do one on epilogues, which require different tools from writing prologues in order to write them effectively. So far it’s gotten a pretty good reception, which I’m happy about. I hope plenty of people find it useful.
And if you’ve liked my previous posts on Self-Pub Authors, you should seriously consider checking out the other articles on the site. It’s a wonderful website, filled with helpful articles by other independent writers for independent writers on learning to write, edit, publish, and market independently without spending a ton of cash. I’ve certainly found it very helpful, and that’s why I write for them.
Now that this article is out, I’ll take a short break from article writing and focus on my other work. I want to conduct a few author interviews and then get back to work on finishing Laura Horn and promoting Snake. My life never seems to get easier, though I kind of like it that way. I wonder what life will be like for me when I’m no longer in school and I (hopefully) have a full-time job?
All for now. I’ll write again later if I can, my Followers of Fear.
Yes, I wrote another article for Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors. This one is How To Write A Prologue, which I found a little bit challenging to write. I’ve written prologues before, but I really struggled with what made a good prologue, and had to really examine all the ones I’ve read and all the ones I’ve written over the years to write a helpful argument.
Interesting enough, I originally didn’t intend to write this article. But while in France (in Paris, if I remember correctly), the site got a comment asking if we had any articles on writing prologues. We didn’t, and I was sad to report that. So this article was kind of to rectify that lack of prologue-related article. I hope that the reader who posted it is able to read the article and find some helpful advice in it.
And speaking of helpful advice, make sure to check out the rest of Self-Pub Authors. It’s written by independent authors for independent authors, and offers a variety of helpful articles on making writing, editing, publishing, and marketing independently easy and cost-effective. You never know what helpful articles you’ll find while reading this website.
All for now. I’ve got some other work to do, so I’m going to get on that. Have a good weekend and have a safe Friday the 13th (because it’s also a full moon. That can only mean trouble!).
I’m back on Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, and it’s good to be back. My latest article is Showing vs. Telling, which covers one of the most difficult aspects of learning to be a writer. Often we are told by our English teachers when learning creative writing to “show, don’t tell”, but rarely are we actually shown how to distinguish between the two. The purpose of this article is to do just that.
So if you have a moment, please go check out the article. And if you have a few more minutes, please check out the rest of the website. Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors is one of the most helpful sites for independent authors, written by independent authors to help others write, edit, publish, and market their books for little-to-no cost. Take it from me, you never know what helpful article you’ll come across.
All for now. I’ve got a bit of work today to get done, so I’m going to get on it as soon as possible. Wish me luck, my Followers of Fear, and have a great day.
Hello my Followers of Fear. Well, it looks like Amazon has finally figured itself out, because both the e-book and paperback versions of Snake are now visible and available from its Amazon page. This is good, because Amazon has been known to have kinks in the webpages of its self-published authors during the first few days of a new book’s shelf-life. Why that is, no one is sure. It’s just one of those things you deal with when you are a self-published author.
Anyway, I’m excited and glad to say that both versions are now available and you can go online and order them now if you wish by following this link. The paperback version is about thirteen dollars, which is a little more than I’d like to charge for the book, but Amazon has more say on the prices than I do. Once again, that’s something you deal with when you’re a self-published author.
The good news is, the e-book version is much more affordable. In fact, from June 10th (yesterday) to June 24th, the e-book will only cost $0.99 to download. Afterwards, from June 25th to July 7th, the e-book will be $1.99. And from July 8th onwards, the e-book will cost $2.99 until the next sale. So if you’d like to get Snake‘s e-book, now is the time to go and download it.
Also, this is the last week to get Reborn City‘s e-book for $1.99. On the 15th the price will return to $2.99 until the next time I do a sale (probably in November), so now’s the best time to get RC on sale. Hope you decide to check both books out. You can check out RC by going here.
That’s all for now. I’ll write again when I have something to write about. Until then, have a great day, my Followers of Fear.
Not sure how, but it looks like I have another piece of good advice to tell everyone about. Laura Horn, the WIP I’ve been working on on-and-off since last summer, has reached another milestone, with Part III: The Ringleader, done and out of the way. This part of the novel was actually rather interesting to write: not only did the three main characters find themselves isolated from just about everyone they know and care about, but I had to cut out two chapters I found extraneous and unnecessary, and I merged two more into one, reducing the chapter count by about three. Just goes to show that a lot can change between the original outline and the actual writing of the novel.
With the completion of Part III, I also move pretty quickly to the climax of the story. At the moment, I only have about twenty-five chapters left, and most of them will probably be less than ten pages left. Good for me, because I’m aiming to get the first draft of this novel done before I go back to classes in August. With the rate I’ve been going these past couple of days, as long as I’m able to not get distracted and find time to write, I might jut get there some time between the end of the month and mid-July.
Before I start Part IV though, I’d like to be able to take on some quick projects: I’d like to write a few articles for Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, as well as write some poems and some flash fiction pieces. Once I get those out of the way, I plan to finish off LH as quickly as possible and move onto the next project, which will probably be editing Video Rage and working on some short stories.
First, I’d like to update the page and word counts of LH (for those who weren’t around for the last update on those counts several months ago, I do this every time I make it to a milestone in writing my novels. Not sure why I broadcast it on my blog, it’s just something I like to do). Remember, by pages I mean 8″ x 11.5″ pages. The total for the Prologue was about 10 pages, and 2,190 words. Part I was 43 pages and 12,019 words. Part II was 107 pages and 29,634 words. And Part III came out to be 57 pages and 15,637 words. That brings LH‘s total to 217 pages and 59,480 words. Since most authors use word counts to gauge the length of their books, this makes LH just under novel length, by about 520 words. I’m looking forward to seeing where it gets with Part IV!
For now though, I’m going to head to bed. It’s been a crazy birthday, I’ve got a busy day tomorrow, and I’d like to be well-rested when I go about my day tomorrow. Especially with the articles and with work. Good night, Followers of Fear.
I don’t know what I should be happier about: today’s my 21st birthday, it’s exactly two years from the day I began work on Snake, and it’s also the day that Snake has become available for the public. I think two of those are cause for public concern!
Anyway, I’d like to focus on the latter, if possible. I’m very excited to announce that Snake is now published and available in paperback and e-book. It should be, anyway: it always takes Amazon a while to get e-books on the same webpages as the paperback versions. So if you go onto Amazon and you don’t see the version you’d like immediately, please come back later and hopefully it’ll be there. (I’ll write another post when all the kinks are sorted through).
It’s still pretty amazing to me that two years of work is finally available to the public. I just hope the public wants to read it and enjoys it now that it’s out! And if you do decide to buy a copy of Snake, please let me know what you think once you’ve read it. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Did something strike you as totally weird or that made it hard for you to enjoy the book? Did you get turned off by the painting of a naked woman on the cover (if you did, then that might be judging a book by its cover)? Let me know. I love feedback, whether positive or negative (except when it comes from trolls).
Anyway, if you’d like to check Snake out, you can go to Amazon to get a copy. I hope you like it and thanks for checking it out. And if you’d like to know a bit more about Snake before checking it out, you can click here.
That’s all for now. I’ve got some work to do, so I’m going to get on that. Have a great day, my Followers of Fear.
What is your book about? 
Rami Ungar The Writer 