Posts Tagged ‘novel’

An Idea From A Dream

Posted: July 6, 2013 in ideas, Living and Life, Novel, Writing
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It’s just amazing what you can find on Google, isn’t it?

Last night I went to bed sometime between half-past eleven and midnight, had some trouble falling asleep, had a nightmare or two, needed a drink of water, finally got to sleep, and then I had the wackiest dream. When I woke up, it was past ten and I was late for synagogue. But it was okay. You know why? That dream I had, the wacky one? It ended up being the basis for an awesome novel idea that I refined throughout the day.

The dream involved me and a bunch of wizards in a cabin. I was a young apprentice, and my own master was telling me to get a certain spell book for a spell that would recreate the ten plagues. In the dream, certain phrases kept going through my mind–Divinity of Israel, Vashta Nerada, etc–and in that weird dreamy way they were all connected and relevant and made sense.

When I woke up, I thought it was a weird dream to have and it was going to make me late for synagogue, but I later held onto the details of the dream and figured they were a gift from The Big Guy Upstairs, a little something to metaphorically chew on for the Sabbath. And I did manage to get to the synagogue for the second half of the Torah service. Heck, I managed to catch a few ideas for the novel from the rabbi’s sermon. If that’s not God doing me another favor, I have no idea what is!

And this is my 500th post. What an interesting thing to write about for it. Gotta give the Big Guy His props when they’re due.

Now I’m going to try and finish a book I started yesterday before I go to bed. Tomorrow I’m going to be doing so much writing I won’t know what to do with myself. Wish me luck!

Review: Dan Brown’s Inferno

Posted: July 4, 2013 in Review
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It’s good, but it’s not great. How sad.

Dante’s Inferno has always intrigued me on some level. It’s a very imaginative work, and one could make a case that the many layers of Hell portrayed in The Divine Comedy could be used for today’s society. That’s part of the reason why I was so excited to learn that Dan Brown had released a new Robert Langdon book based around Inferno, the first book of The Divine Comedy. The other reason was that I had loved Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, and The Lost Symbol had cheered up a really uneasy sick day. I wanted to see what Robert Langdon was up to this time around!

Unfortunately, this volume makes it seem that Dan Brown is trying to hard to make a good story for Langdon to run around and save the world in. In what feels like a horrible and barely-believable cliché, Langdon wakes up in Florence, Italy with amnesia and can’t remember what happened to him. Almost immediately he’s into all sorts of trouble as he learns he’s been wrapped up in a confrontation between the World Health Organization and a shadowy operation meant to protect the interests of a dead geneticist who’s concocted something very terrible for the world and is paying for his plan to be carried out from beyond the grave.

At certain points throughout the novel, there are revelations and twists that are meant to be like what happened with the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 but instead leave you thinking it out for five minutes trying to understand what happened before going back through the nearly five-hundred page book and concluding that Brown didn’t even give any hints of these twists where most authors would have done so. And finally when you get to the conclusion things seem to be wrapped up a little too neatly with another twist that makes you say, “That’s nice, but it’s almost too nice. I could almost be okay with it.”

When you’re almost okay with a villainous geneticist’s plot, you know there’s a problem.

On the bright side, the first half of the novel has all the usual thrills of a Robert Langdon novel, and you do feel like you’re learning about a variety of subjects while you’re reading. There are plenty of exotic locales described in breathtaking detail that you wish you could go to yourself to see, and the character of Sienna Brooks as Langdon’s female companion this novel seems like a real person for most of the book, a poor girl trying to deal with her own genius and the pitfalls that have occurred because of it.

(Whatever happens to the women Langdon sees in the novels? We never find out what happened to the yoga instructor/physicist, though there’s hints of an untimely death or a break-up, we’re never sure of what happens to the descendant of Jesus who started to like Langdon, and the Masonic Grandmaster’s sister wasn’t even romantic, so I’m assuming there’s no break-up?)

All in all, I’m giving Dan Brown’s Inferno a 3.4 out of 5. Hopefully he can do better with the next book should there be (and judging by how popular the Robert Langdon books are, I think there will be a sequel. Whether or not there should be one and whether or not it’s any good).

A Conundrum With Resurrection

Posted: July 1, 2013 in short story, Writing
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No, this post is not about me wondering if there’s going to be an end of the world and I’m going to be raised from the dead. I’ve thought enough about it already and concluded that until the Messiah comes, it’s just not worth thinking about.

Yesterday I got an email from a friend of mine who was looking at a short story of mine. The story, titled “Resurrection”, is about a man who is brought back to life from the dead through a cryogenic process, and something of supernatural origin messes it up. It’s nearly five-thousand words, which makes it a very long short story, or a very long short story in the eyes of most magazines. I was hoping I’d get some good feedback from my friend, which I did, but I did not expect this to appear in the response:

“It is very good. Actually, it could be expanded into either a novella, a full blown book or even a screenplay.”

That was the first time I ever used the center-alignment option on this blog. I don’t know why I’ve never done that before.

But that’s beside the point. What my friend said got me thinking, and since then I haven’t been able to stop thinking! I mean, I could see this story being expanded in some form or another, though I don’t think a novella or a full-blown novel is in the works right now, with all that’s going on. A screenplay might work, and heck, other horror writers have written screenplays before, Stephen King being chief among them.

Of course, there’s a couple of problems: I don’t know anything about writing screenplays! And to top that off, I’m still a relatively unknown writer with some short story publishing to my name, a collection coming out in sixteen days, and a novel in November. The way Hollywood is right now, what are the chances my screenplay will make it to the lunch table, let alone to the big screen? And considering how much Hollywood hacks slash, rewrite, and ultimately murder screenplays, would I really want them to do that to my own work?

I’m not so sure.

So for now I’m going to put “Resurrection” on a shelf until I know what to do with it. I may edit it and try to publish it in a magazine. Or maybe I’ll expand it into a different format of creative literature. Or maybe I’ll even turn it into a screenplay. Or maybe I’ll save it for another collection of short stories. Who knows?

Until then, I think I’ll wait and see. Time usually tells, and I’m sure time will tell me the right answer, once I’m ready for it.

Still, I wouldn’t mind your thoughts and opinions on the subject, if you’re willing to give them to me.

The Benefits I’ve Gotten Through Blogging

Posted: July 1, 2013 in Living and Life
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I’ve been blogging here on WordPress for nearly two years (the second anniversary of Rami Ungar the Writer is actually a month and a day away, believe it or not). A lot has happened in that time. I started college, a job, and a new life. I began the publishing process for Reborn City, wrote The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones, which will be coming out in 16 days, I published several short stories and one or two articles, became a writer for Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, met my roommate for the apartment I’m getting in August, read all the Hannibal Lecter books, got into The Daily Show, and a few other things.

And witness to most of this is my blog. I’ve been able to record my musings, review movies, TV shows, and books, update people on my writing, and add links to the places my short stories are published. I’ve made some great friends through the blogosphere, a couple of whom have helped me with my writing my being kind enough to offer feedback on my work (by the way, both of those friends are Canadian, so I’ll give them a shout-out by wishing them a happy Canada Day!). I’ve met people who have offered me wonderful advice, given me their own thoughts, and even sometimes argued with me on this or that topic. I even had nearly two-thousand Anne Rice fans reading my review of The Wolf Gift, and I’m happy to say the majority of them reacted positively to it.

You know, my life has been enriched a lot by blogging. Sure at times I was lucky just to get a single person to read the posts I was writing. But these days I’m proud to say I have a little bit of a following going on, and I’m glad that you all keep reading my posts. Sure I lose a few followers every now and then, but most of them keep coming back (God only knows why) and it touches me deeply that you want to read what I’m writing. Thank you so much.

new TCG cover

I’m about to start on a new but related adventure: publishing and selling copies of a published collection of short stories. I have trepidation, excitement, doubts, and confidence all going through my system. But whatever happens, I have a feeling that my blog, and the people who read it, are going to be behind it every step of the way.

Oh, and speaking of publishing, remember Daisy, the short story I published on Amazon and Smashwords, not only as a promotion for The Quiet Game but also to see if anyone would read it? Well, it looks like 150 people have downloaded and read it, and I even got one review that gave it an “average” grade. Have no idea if that’s an indication of how The Quiet Game will do (I’m personally hoping it’ll do much better), but it’s still got me excited. Perhaps in the future I’ll have 150 downloads on the first day!

Have you downloaded a copy yet?

Have you downloaded a copy yet?

Off to go jog now. Once again, thanks for reading my work. I really appreciate it.

Snake: The Final Draft

Posted: June 30, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Now that’s a scary image.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but for some reason it keeps slipping my mind. Might as well write it now while I wait for the Doctor Who episode I’m watching to load.

Well, it’s finally happening. Snake is getting its final draft before I get ready to format it, create a cover, and send it off for a copyright. And helping me with all this is Angela Misri, who goes by the screen name Karmic Angel and writes the blog a Portia Adams adventure (and I so wish she would publish her casebooks, independently or otherwise. They sound really good!). Anyway, Angela’s been looking at Snake and giving me her thoughts. I’m telling you, she’s very good. She’s pointed out several inconsistencies and problems I hadn’t even noticed.

Well, that’s why I like beta readers. They see the stuff I don’t. And Angela’s doing a great job. She’s currently got chapters 9-12, and at the rate she’s going, she’s going to have the whole book done by September, December at the latest.

Angela, thanks for helping so much. You’ll definitely get your own special mention in the Acknowledgments section of Snake, the one I have yet to write but will once the novel is finished.

And speaking of which, I know what the basis for the cover of Snake will be. I plan to use Lilith, a painting by John Collier. It features a humongous snake, and it has parallels to themes within the novel. Of course, I’ll have to use a type of cover available through CreateSpace that covers certain things. After all, I don’t want people looking at this book the wrong way.

I’ll have more as time progresses. Hope you’re as excited as I am, and thanks again, Angela.

My Third Self-Pub Authors Article

Posted: June 30, 2013 in Journalism, Living and Life, Writing
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I managed to abbreviate that even more, somehow.

In this latest article on Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, I write about what goes into making a successful sequel to your novel. Yes, I know I’ve been one to moan and complain about how there are too many sequels and remakes and reboots out there. And more than once, I’ve bitched spectacularly about how there aren’t enough good sequels out there (or is that horror films? Maybe it’s a bit of both). But I’m about to start writing Video Rage, the sequel to Reborn City, and I thought that I should make a list of what I think makes a good sequel.

If you are interested in reading the article, click here. There may be tips and examples here that you may find helpful in your own writing, particularly I you’re about to start on a sequel of your own and you’re nervous that the sequel won’t be as good as the original. And even if you’re not writing a sequel, you should check out the blog anyway. There are plenty of helpful articles here that can give you insight if you are self-publishing author, both for beginners and for longtime veterans.

I’ve certainly benefited from this blog, and in more ways than one.

My Exceptions To The “Friends In Books” Rule

Posted: June 29, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
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A while back I wrote a post about how I why I tell friends and family that characters with similar names aren’t based on them (if you wish to read said post, click here). The basic idea was that I don’t put people I know into my books for a variety of reasons and I always let them know that the character isn’t based on them if I know anyone with a similar name.

Well, there are a few exceptions to that rule of not basing characters on people I know. But I’ve only done it twice and only for special reasons. Like, It was for charity. Before I started writing Reborn City, there was a charity drive at my high school. my school was a private school and wasn’t exactly rolling in money, so the yearbook club literally had to pull every cent they could find to afford to print copies of the yearbook and give them free of charge to students. One of the ways they gathered funds was an auction, and I auctioned off a role in RC, starting at $5.

Yeah, that low. Well, I was still dreaming and writing then. I hadn’t published a single short story, let alone shown that I was going anywhere with the writing I was doing. But that didn’t matter for some of the people in my high school, because a bidding war began between two friends of mine, one a junior at the time, the other a freshman. The freshman won with $12 (yes, that low) and true to my word, I included my friend in RC when I wrote the outline and later the story as the main antagonist’s assistant.

I actually enjoyed writing that character, and instead of killing him off, left open the possibility of his return in VR and Book 3. When I told him over Facebook that the book he was in was coming out in November and he got excited, I couldn’t help but think, Not a bad investment you made, my friend.

The other time I included someone in one of my books actually happened rather recently, and it was To prove a point. I was talking with my sister Adi, a mutual friend of ours I’ll call J, and that friend’s younger sister A. Adi and J wanted me to include them in Laura Horn, despite the fact that I normally didn’t do that sort of thing. Even better, they were both demanding main character status. And J’s younger sister was just standing there quietly, not demanding anything of me, just rolling her eyes in amusement. So I went and said, “A, you’re getting a role in Laura Horn.”

Adi and J were like, “Are you kidding me?” I just laughed and laughed, and for added measure, said A was going to be a mean girl with a different last name. A, being A, didn’t care one way or another, but I proved my point: Don’t ask to be in my books, because there’s no guarantee you’ll get a good role or any role for that matter. I’m not sure J and Adi got the message though, because they were asking for roles again this evening. Well, J was asking for a role.

If I ever do another auction, maybe then I’ll give J a chance. But until then, I’m not letting anyone bully me into giving them a role. After all, what would be the point? And what do I owe them that they should badger me constantly? And if I included them, wouldn’t that mean I had to include everybody who wanted a role?

Only a few exception, EVER. And that’s the way I’m going to keep it.

Do you ever include friends or family in your books? If so, who and why?

Review: World War Z (film)

Posted: June 29, 2013 in Review, Scary Stuff
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Some of you may remember my review of the novel a while back (if you haven’t read it, click here), which got a very favorable review for being a history of the political, military, economic, social, educational, religious, ethical, and moral ramifications of a zombie war as told through a series of vignettes from witnesses of the war (try saying that three time fast).

After reading the book, set ten years after the end of the war, my whole family–or just me and my mother, plus my sister who hasn’t read the book–wondered how the movie would differ from the book. Obviously there would be a lot of differences, seeing as the movie shows the zombie war as it begins. When we got to the theatre yesterday, had our coupon denied, sat through a hundred corporate ads, had the projector break down, and finally started the movie, we hoped that even with so many liberties, the movie would be good.

We weren’t disappointed. Although plenty of liberties were taken and plenty of stuff was left out–the zombies were fast-moving rather than slow shufflers, there was no mention of the new religious empire of Russia or the South Africa plan, changes in what happens to North Korea, and a huge difference in what happens to Israel–the movie was a decent zombie thriller. Brad Pitt was awesome as Gerry Lane, a retired UN worker who’s called back into service when the plague breaks out. He is surrounded by a great cast and zombies who are so lifelike–or maybe un-lifelike is better–that whether they are CGI or actors in make-up, they look so real.

The movie zigzags around the world, from Philedelphia to the Atlantic Ocean to Korea to Israel (whoop-whoop!) to Wales and finally to Nova Scotia, but there are plenty of thrills and tense situations in-between that have you on the edge of your seat. And finally there’s the scene in the vault in Wales, where the final twist in the movie is revealed. At the end, you’ll be enjoying yourself despite all the liberties taken.

My family and I left the theater discussing the movie and its many differences from the book, but how we enjoyed it all the same. I’m going to give the film a 4.4 out of 5, for being the first decent zombie film I’ve seen in a while.

Oh, and apparently Paramount is moving ahead with plans for a sequel, despite the fact that the original was plagued with numerous problems and production costs skyrocketed. Not surprising, considering horror has had a history of doing sequels long after the sequels should stop, and this was well before the sequel mania we are in began. I’m not sure if I’ll see the sequel, but considering that it took six years for the movie to actually make it to the screen, I tink enough time will pass for me to actually enjoy the sequel.

Laura Horn: The Outline Is Done!

Posted: June 28, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Dye this angel’s hair brown and she could be Laura.

Oh, I’ve had a good day. I got up on time for once this week, I had a good breakfast, went for a jog, started on the new Dan Brown novel, had lunch with my stepmother, and…oh yeah. I FINISHED THE OUTLINE FOR LAURA HORN! Twelve pages, eight-and-a-half of them devoted to the plot, the other three-and-a-half devoted to character summaries. And you know what? I LOVE IT!!!

To tell you the truth, I think it’s kind of ballsy to write this sort of novel. Not only is this novel’s heroine a victim of sexual assault, but it’s plot revolves around a…well, a plot. Against the President of the United States. And I have said victim trying to save the nation while the people behind said-plot are after her. And through all this she confronts her past and takes the first steps to moving on. I also make references to the NSA scandal and PRISM. Plus I write my first actual rape scene (not looking forward to that).

All that, and there’s an interracial cast of characters that would make the KKK run out of the movie version screaming like a bunch of banshees (makes sense given their wardrobes) and enough characters that slightly resemble actual political figures that if I ever get any devoted fans (perhaps I already have them but I just don’t know it? Like my grandmother?), they’re going to be wondering which characters are based on which politicians.

For the record, no one’s directly based on anyone. The President character is not a Hispanic version of Barack Obama, he is not based on Marco Rubio, and I didn’t even hear of the senator with the same last name as my guy until this evening, when I watched The Colbert Report! But yes, this is going to be a ballsy novel to write. I’ll have to do some more research as I write it, and it’ll be difficult to write at times.

But like I said, I love this novel. It’s going to be 67 chapters long (I guessed 61-67 chapters, so I’m glad I was right), and I love the twists and events that happen. At some point I stopped writing and was like, My God. I feel like I’m writing a James Bond movie with a teenage girl as Bond. That’s a huge stretch, but it’s what I felt like at that moment. There are plenty of crazy things that happen in the story, including a chase across the Georgetown University campus, a gunfight in the Blair House, and a trip down the shaft of an elevator, just to name a few.

To quote somebody from my generation, it’ll get cray-cray. But still, I love it, I’m looking forward to writing it, and the fact that it’s 30 chapters longer than Video Rage means I’ll finish Video Rage long before I finish Laura Horn. I’m either very good at guessing how long my books or going to be, or I’m a psychic. God, I hope it’s the latter.

Good night everybody.

Laura Horn: Up To Chapter 40

Posted: June 25, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I’ve been working on the Laura Horn outline for the past couple days, going on the Internet when I need information I don’t necessarily have (research is ongoing and done as needed). So far, I’ve written up to Chapter 40 of the outline. And let me tell you, it’s shaping up very well. A really great political thriller with spy themes. And Laura Horn herself? She’s getting the help she needs, slowly but surely.

It’s been a tough process just writing the outline. The many different things I have to research, plus planning out each scene to be the best as possible. Plus all the distractions that go on in my life, it’s been hard to write the outline.  But the fact that I’ve gotten this far, and that I’m probably going to get much farther by the time the day is done, is spurring me on. I might be finished by Thursday, Saturday at the latest.

I’m not sure how many chapters Laura Horn will end up being (more than Video Rage, anyway). I’m pretty sure that it won’t be Snake-length (100 chapters) but it’ll be a good length novel. And the way I’m feeling this story shape up, it’s going to be one hell of a story. One I can be definitely proud of.

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