Posts Tagged ‘milestone’

1,000 Followers!!! Thank You So Much!!!

Posted: May 28, 2018 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Reflections, Writing
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I was really eager to publish this earlier, but I felt like the #Cockygate issue deserved more attention, so I wrote about that first. That being said, I’m so happy to announce that I’ve finally reached a thousand followers on my blog!

And, oh my God! I have no idea where to begin talking about this. I mean, I’ve been writing this blog for nearly seven years, through school and job-searching and travels and working and ups and downs and so much more. And yesterday, during the tail end of a family thing, I just got a notification. Someone had decided to be my one-thousandth follower, even if they didn’t know it. The feeling of surprise was enough that I didn’t know how to respond (especially considering my family and I were trying to get somewhere while in the midst of a huge crowd). I’m still not sure how to respond.

Well, I guess the best way to respond would be to do the polite thing and say, thank you. Thank you to every one of you who has followed me for these nearly seven years. A big reason why I’ve been able to make it this far, in blogging and writing in general, is because I’ve had the support of so many people, especially the many people who’ve followed my blog over the years and have become this group I love to call the Followers of Fear. You’ve been there for me, encouraged me when I needed it, discussed with me issues ranging from the mechanics of writing to the simple day-to-day life to questions of right and wrong, and so much more. Some of you have even become good friends to me, and a few of you I’ve even had the pleasure of meeting offline. One of my earliest followers/friends even introduced me to my publisher, which I’m so incredibly grateful. And some of you even read my books when they’re published, which means a great deal to me. Hopefully you’ll want to read Rose as well when that comes out.

So thank you to all of you who’ve subscribed to my blog over the years. It means the world to me. And an especially big thank you to Bette A. Stevens, Maine Author, who was the thousandth follower to subscribe. Thank you so much for signing on, Ms. Stevens. I checked out your blog just now, and it is very colorful and lovely. I hope you and everyone else reading my blog enjoy my posts for ages to come.

I wish I had something else for you guys. I don’t really have a contest or anything like that prepared. I’m planning on doing one for Rose when that comes out, but nothing for this particular event. However, I’d instead like to hear from you. There are a thousand from you now, and I only regularly interact with a small fraction of you. So tell me, whether you’re a frequent commenter or just someone who hasn’t had much to say, who are you? How are you? What do you blog about? What do you like about my blog? What’s exciting going on in your life? Please tell me, I’m very curious to know.

Well, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Thanks again for following me, and I hope I continue to give you quality reading material for ages to come. Until next time, pleasant nightmares.

50,000 Views!!! Plus, An Email Address and An Upcoming Newsletter!!!

Posted: January 9, 2017 in Living and Life, Writing
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Well, here’s something I didn’t think I’d get to until it became apparent in the past couple of months that it was going to happen. Rami Ungar the Writer has reached the 50,000 views milestone! After five months, four months, and seven days, we’ve reached 50K! Followers of Fear, find a partner and do the dance of joy!

I’ve always wanted to do that.

I say this every time I reach a milestone, but I’m incredibly grateful that you guys continue to come back every time I publish a post. For the first two years or so of this blog, there were times where I wouldn’t get views on my blog for several days, and then get a bump of maybe one or two, and then that would be it for a while. Likes and comments were even rarer, and followers came in at a trickle. It made me wonder if I wasting time with a blog, trying to build an audience that way.

But somehow, I persevered. And you guys kept appearing, and a good chunk of you kept coming back. Slowly, views and likes and comments started increasing. There were even times when I’d get spikes into the hundreds or even the thousands! And then the followers started to rise, and I started calling you my Followers of Fear, and none of you seemed to care one way or another on that one, so I kept going with it. And then a couple of months ago I got to the five-thousand likes milestone, and I was like, “Holy crap, I might get another one soon!” And now it’s come to pass.

Thank you, Followers of Fear. I really appreciate the continued patronage and support. I hope you continue to support me for the next fifty-thousand years (hopefully it won’t take another five years to get there) as I work on becoming a great horror novelist.

And on that subject, there are a couple more announcements I’d like to make while I still have your attention.

Firstly, look at your search bar. You’ve probably noticed, but this site is no longer ramiungarthewriter.wordpress.com, but just ramiungarthewriter.com. Yep, I updated my blog into a full website. Why did I do this? Well, beyond the fact that web address is a bit of mouthful and shortening it makes it a bit less of a mouthful, I’m trying a bunch of new strategies and tactics to increase readership both on my blog and with my books. One of those tactics is to upgrade to a full website, which gives me a couple of distinct benefits. One is now I have an official author email address. That’s right, you can now email me! With a lot of successful authors, I’ve noticed that they have more than a few ways to be interactive with their fanbases, so now I have one more.

So if you want to email me about my books, or a blog post or something, you can write me at ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com. I don’t know how often I’ll check my mailbox or how quickly I’ll get back to you, but it’s something I’m devoting effort too.

On a related note, I’m also setting up an email newsletter. This, I hope, is where people who are interested will hear first about publications and contests and other things related to my writing career. I have a feeling that people are getting tired of seeing the latest short story being finished or the latest novel review, so I think I’ll put out something separate that focuses on that, and put stuff on the blog related to the intricacies of writing and of horror, as well as the occasional post about my life or my thoughts on certain subjects.

This is all part of my New Year’s Resolution, which is to be better at getting people interested in my stories and in my writing in general. Will it succeed? No idea, but at least I’m sticking with my New Year’s Resolution and keeping things simple by going for an achievable goal with achievable steps. And I’m open to other tactics that could help me accomplish this. Heck, I may even try Goodreads again, if I can get a better handle on how to work that site.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ve kind of rambled a bit in this post, but at least I’ve gotten a chance to talk about the good news and show some of the progress I’ve made since New Year’s. Until next time!

5,000 Likes!!! A Very Big Milestone!

Posted: October 10, 2016 in Living and Life
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Likes is a sign of approval. They say, “Something about your post resonated with me. I’m letting you know that.” They’re not as engaging as a comment, which leads to conversations, or as gratifying as a subscription, which shows that someone liked what you posted enough to want to come back for more, but they’re nice to have.

And as of this morning, I’ve reached a very big milestone with the number of likes. Yes, that’s right, I’ve gotten to five-thousand likes!

Wow, you people are enthusiastic. I like it.

I’m very happy that I was able to make it to this milestone. I’ve mentioned it before, but when I first started out blogging, I didn’t get a lot of views, let alone likes, comments, or subscriptions. It was disheartening, logging in day after day, and seeing maybe a view or two every seven or eight days. At times like that, I thought about giving up blogging.

Call it stubbornness or ambition or just plain narcissism (I think all authors wanting to share their works with people have a bit of that in them), but I kept at it. And somehow, you all came. You liked, commented, subscribed. Heck, sometimes you even reblog. And a few of you even bought my books when I put them out.

And now this. After over five years of blogging, I’ve gotten five-thousand likes. Thank you. Thanks to everyone who’s liked the words I put out there in cyberspace, and thanks especially to nalindesignprofile, Victo Dolore, acidburnshorrorshow, and Joleene Naylor for giving me the final four likes necessary to get this far. I couldn’t have done it without you guys.

Well, that’s ll for now, folks. I’ve got a busy day ahead of me, as well as a busy rest of October. If there’s anything to post about, I’ll make sure to do so. Until then, have a great day, my Followers of Fear!

Twenty-Five Hundred Comments!!!

Posted: September 9, 2015 in Living and Life, Writing
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I’m pleased to announce that as of this morning I’ve passed another blogging milestone. I now have twenty-five hundred-plus comments on my blog. Thank you to Joleene Naylor whose comments on some of my most recent posts helped me get to this point this morning (check out her blog here by the way, because it is awesome).

I say this every time I reach a milestone, but I remember for the first year or so of this blog, I rarely got any views, maybe one or two every other day, if I was lucky. A comment was even rarer. At times I was tempted to shut down my blog. I had gotten into blogging to build an audience for my books, and yet I was finding it difficult to get anyone to read my work when it was free. What was the point?

But as time went on, I got better at blogging, I blogged more often, and more people started finding me.The number of people reading my posts grew, as well as the number of people subscribing, liking, and of course commenting on my blog. Do I have a ravenous fan base who is begging for my next book every second of the day? No, but I’m happy for the audience that I have and I think I’m getting there anyway.

Anyway, I’d like to thank everyone who has been helping me and supporting me this whole time. It means a lot to me and I can’t show my gratitude enough for how much you’ve helped me along these past four years. I hope that you continue to support me in the future as I work hard to become a great and terrifying (and possibly full-time) novelist.

Cheers!

#FirstLineFriday (Plus My 1000th Post!)

Posted: July 24, 2015 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Writing
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It’s Friday again! You know what that means! It’s #FirstLineFriday!

It also happens to be my 1000th blog post. Yes, you read that right. This is my one-thousandth blog post. Nearly four years after I started blogging, I’ve reached this momentous milestone. And I couldn’t have done it without all of you. In the early days, when I only got one or two views every couple of days, I thought a lot about giving up. But you guys kept coming. From the far reaches of the globe and the farther reaches of the Internet, you came, read, liked, commented, and even followed. So thanks everyone. Without your help, I would not be here today.

And now, it’s #FirstLineFriday, so let’s dive right into it. Here’s what you do: on Friday you post the first or first two lines of a potential work, a work-in-progress, or a published story. This week’s entry comes from a novel involving ghosts I might work on after I get through Video Rage, Laura Horn and Rose (yeah, I’m planning that far ahead, apparently). I’ve had an idea for what the opening lines would be for awhile now, so here’s a good way to test them out and see how people react to them. Enjoy:

I awoke, feeling very uneasy, though why I couldn’t say. Sitting up, I scanned my bedroom, sure I’d heard somebody scream just a moment before.

Thoughts? Errors? Critiques? Let me know.

Well, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. This weekend I’m spending time at home just relaxing (especially since Sunday is Tisha B’Av, a big holiday with a fast in the Jewish calendar. Don’t want to do anything crazy, do we?), maybe planning a trip to Munich, maybe cleaning and doing laundry and editing Video Rage. If I have something to post about, I’ll let you guys know.

Ein schonen tag, mein Anhanger der Angst! Let’s stick together for another thousand posts, shall we?

Twenty-Five Thousand Views!!!!

Posted: August 29, 2014 in Living and Life
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I am pleased to announce that at some point last night, Rami Ungar the Writer passed the 25K view milestone, something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. At the time I am writing this, I actually now have 25,013 views. And I have only one thing to say to you:

These days, this is my default let’s-party-because-we-have-something-to-celebrate song. You like?

Anyway, back on subject. I’ve brought it up numerous times when I make it to important milestones, but I remember during the first year or two of blogging (which were also my first year or two as a student at Ohio State), it was rare for me to get views. One or two views a day was the most I could expect, and it was kind of disheartening to see so few people reading my blog. At times I even thought about quitting. But I kept at it, buoyed by the occasional follower or comment, and by the many articles I wanted to write or had inspiration to write. And people kept coming for some reason.

And now, I have reached a huge milestone in my blogging, with at least eight views a day helping to propel me to twenty-five thousand views. And I’ve got to thank everyone who’s visited, subscribed, liked, and commented on my blog for it. Thank you so much for your support and love. It means a lot to me and keeps me working hard so that someday I can be a really successful novelist.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll hopefully post something else before the end of the day. How can I not? Not only do I have a ton of stuff I want to write, but I have another milestone coming up. Yes, I have another one on the horizon, believe it or not. If I get it within the next couple of days, I’l post about it. Until then, thanks for all your support, and I hope I can continue to count on your support for a very long time. Have a great weekend, my Followers of Fear.

New & Old Work: Getting It All Done

Posted: April 15, 2012 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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Well, this is my fiftieth post. A milestone by anyone’s considerations. And like all milestones, this is a time to look both back and forth. Which is what I’ve been doing lately:

These past two weeks or so, I took a look at some old short stories back in high school, one of which happened to be inspired by a very creepy dream I had. Neither one got accepted for publication, and after so long I could see some of the reasons why they were rejected. So in the meantime, I thought I’d edit them and maybe see if they were any better after a good editorial bath and polish. So far, I’m thinking they may be more appealing to publications, but I’ll have to wait and see if they actually get published, because I may just be taking too much pride in my own work. Anyway, fingers crossed.

Also, after I’ve finished editing these old stories and have found time in my busy collegiate schedule to sit down in front of the computer, I plan to pen (or type, actually) some new stories. One will be based on that Law & Order: SVU dream I had a week and  a half ago, though it’ll probably end up being more of a thriller story involving events after the key evidence has been collected than your typical police procedural (I’m not sure I could write that sort of story in under 20 pages anyway without making the story too complex or full of technical details).

The other story will be based on the concept of kotodama, which is a Japanese belief that words have power and can affect the lives of people around us. This belief is found in many other cultures besides Japan, and we can see throughout history and up to today how accurate a belief it is (I tend to think that what happened to Rush Limbaugh and Sandra Fluke after Limbaugh said some very nasty things about Fluke is an example of kotodama on a large scale). I will be blending this concept with a very dark event that happened in my life recently, though I haven’t figured out how this will blend yet or how it will end up coming out. But I’ll figure that out when I get to it.

Thanks for sticking with me up till the fiftieth post. I’m so glad that people are reading Rami Ungar The Writer and I hope to bring only good news to you in the future. (wouldn’t it be nice if kotodama could take effect with that last part, huh?)