Posts Tagged ‘progress report’

Ah, the weekend! It’s finally here. Or it will be, once work’s over for the day. But first thing’s first, you know how I start my Friday mornings! It’s #FirstLineFriday! And guess what else? I’ve been hearing about other bloggers who are getting into this as well. Very excited and happy to hear that the trend I’m trying to start is trending, at least a little bit.

Okay, so here are the rules. On Fridays you write a blog post titled #FirstLineFriday, and then you post the rules (which I’m doing), followed by the first or first two sentences of a potential story, a story-in-progress, or a completed/published work. Then you ask your readers for input, and that’s #FirstLineFriday.

Today’s entry is from a short story I’m working on now. I don’t always have time to work on it, what with my busy life, but when I do, I find the story just flowing out of me and onto the page like a river. I even read a bit from this story to my boss when she asked to hear some of my fiction, and she really enjoyed it, so I guess it must be very good despite still being a first draft. Anyway, enjoy:

Molly ran, heart pounding as she heard the sounds of her pursuers’ boots getting closer and closer behind her.

Thoughts? Critiques? Grammatical or spelling errors? Let me know in the comments below.

That’s all for now. My Internet access may become limited soon due to reasons beyond my control, so I apologize for that and promise I’ll be looking for ways to get online as much as possible, so be patient with me.

Also, this weekend starts Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Around this time of year, it’s traditional to ask for forgiveness for past wrongs and forgive in turn, so if I’ve done anything to you in the past year, I ask for your forgiveness. And if by chance you’ve done something to me, I forgive you with all my heart.

Have a great weekend, my Followers of Fear, and a sweet New Year!

I’ve entered my last month of this internship. It’s been a crazy time here in Germany, working with the US Army Civilian Corps in the Equal Employment Opportunity Office. And it’s been fun, and a learning experience too. Sure, it wasn’t always easy, and there were times that really tested me. But overall it’s been a very good experience for me, and I’m glad I got to go and do all I’ve been doing.

And if I got the chance, I would love to stay here in Germany.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the States. That’s where I grew up, it’s where my family is, it’s where you can get most YouTube videos without having to worry about American copyright issues (that’s an annoyance I’m learning to live with here in Wiesbaden). But I’ve gotten used to living in Germany. Sure, my grasp of the language is still pretty bad, and you would not believe how expensive just simply living here can be sometimes, and there are a couple of other things that sometimes get on my nerves (you would be surprised how much bakeries tolerate bees crawling over their wares), but overall, I like living here. The people here are very nice, a lot of them speak English and are willing to give you help if you need it. The places I’ve been to are very scenic and calming, and I even feel safe walking home in the dead of night from the train station after a long day traveling to another town or to a rock concert (imagine trying to feel that way in America, where paranoia is pretty big).

Not to mention I really like living and working on the base. It’s a nice place to work, with plenty of different people to meet and interact with. You’re always learning or discovering something new there. And the folks you work with are super-nice! I’m not kidding. One time I was waiting at the bus stop for the four o’clock shuttle bus to the commissary, do some grocery shopping, and then get on the bus home at 5:30. However that week the number of buses going my way had to be reduced due to some of the drivers getting sick, so I thought I had to wait for the five o’clock bus home, which also happened to be the last bus home, which meant no grocery shopping. However, some new soldiers on the base, whom I had never met before, offered me a ride in their car and dropped me off right by the commissary. I was able to get my grocery shopping done and catch the last bus home because of those folks. And like I said, I’d never met these people before, but I knew I could trust them once they offered me a ride. I think it’s because we’re all connected in a common mission of America’s defense, and that makes us willing to trust each other and help each other out when we can, when in other environments people would be…a little less trusting and helpful, I guess. But that sort of environment really makes you want to stay in a place like this, and I would love for that to happen.

Of course, I’ve said before that I don’t think it’s likely that i’ll be able to stay in Germany longer than the three months I was given for my internship. I’ve already bought my plane ticket home. I’ll be leaving October 3rd and arriving back in Ohio the same day (almost like time travel). I didn’t want to buy the plane ticket (mainly because flying anywhere is super expensive), but I have no choice.

Still, there’s hope. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been applying to a variety of different jobs so that I won’t become some freeloader in my dad’s guest room after I get back. As of Friday, the number of applications I’ve sent out are 75, with more likely to be filled out in the coming weeks, and quite a few of those jobs are placed in Germany and other parts of Europe. Who knows? If I keep applying and I keep trying, some of those jobs are going to want to interview me as a candidate, and maybe one or two will want to hire me. It may not happen till after I get back to Ohio, but it could still happen.

So I’ll keep applying, I’ll keep hoping, and above all, keep enjoying what Germany has to offer while I’m here. Who knows? I may get my wish and end up staying just a bit longer than I planned.

I wonder if they’ll let me stay in this apartment if I do get to stay. Boy, would that be nice!

I’ve just finished a new story, “Stuck in the Horror House” (not to be confused with a previous short story of mine, “Hunt in the Slaughterhouse”). I’ve been working on this story for weeks, and at one point I had to go back and start rewriting it because I was dissatisfied with the way the story was progressing. But now I’m glad that the first draft is finished. And it’s a long first draft too, 12,607 words, making it a novelette. Boy, when I have a story to tell I just don’t care about word count these days, do I?

“Stuck in the Horror House” is a story inspired by an episode of Ghost Adventures. In one episode, the GA Crew investigates a factory that has been converted into a haunted attraction, and one of the hauntings there was purported to be an actual demon, summoned by an actor there dressing up as Satan and reading verses out of an actual Satanic Bible and attacking said actor whenever he had the chance. That story stuck around with me, and so I ended up adapting it into a story. In this case though, I made the story about a bunch of teenagers who sneak into a haunted attraction during the off-season and one of them does a summoning ritual on a lark, which leads to all sorts of trouble. The protagonist of the story is telling his story to a psychiatrist, leading to questions about whether or not he’s imagined everything or if there’s truly a demon afoot.

Now, as far as first drafts go…I’ve had better ones. Even in the writing I could see places where this story can be improved in future drafts. But, like Ernest Hemingway said, most first drafts are shit. A lot of writing is revision, and that’s when the story really starts to shine and entrance. The first draft is laying down the bare bones so that they can form something extraordinary later on.

In the meantime though, I’m excited for where this story could go in future drafts. I definitely feel like with subsequent drafts it could make for a very terrifying story. Maybe it’ll even go into Teenage Wasteland, seeing as most of the main characters are 18 or 19 years old. We’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, I’m taking a break to watch a scary movie I recently found online. I might even write a review of it later. I also would like to write a blog post or two for my other blog, From the Voice of Common Sense, and I think I’ll take the time to write an article for Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors before starting another story and then working on editing Laura Horn.

Yeah, I’m busy. And that’s not even including work or searching for whatever comes after my internship is over. And the way I work, I doubt I’ll ever slow down. Until next time, my Followers of Fear. Have a great rest of your weekend!

Andy Weir. E.L. James. Christopher Paolini. What do these three names have in common? If you guessed successful novelists, you’re close. They’re all successful novelists who were originally self-published, their stories caught on, and they eventually began to catch on and one day they woke up with millions of people reading their books, movies in the works and great things in their future.

I’m not sure I’m going to get the millions of people and the movies in my lifetime, but just hearing the success stories of these authors gives me plenty of reason to hope that this could happen to me some day. Self-published writers are having success stories everyday. I even heard of a teen in England whose fanfiction about her and a bad boy version of one of the members of One Direction became a smash hit and got a publishing deal (yeah, I didn’t know that sort of thing was possible either until I heard of it). It’s quite incredible how people can become successes over time in a field that used to be despised by establishment writers.

How do these writers get their successes anyway? Well, it’s different for each one. Andy Weir published through his blog, and it attracted a bunch of readers who wanted to read The Martian in Kindle form. E.L. James published her Fifty Shades trilogy as an e-book and used the emerging field of e-readers as well as word of mouth among erotica fans to gain a following. Christopher Paolini toured around the United States, visiting schools and libraries and dressing up like a man from the Middle Ages to get books into the hands of kids and teens, until the son of author Carl Hiassen found Eragon, loved it, and brought it to his dad’s publisher’s attention. And, if that story about the 1D fanfiction is true, then I think she posted it on WattPad, which is kind of like the YouTube of writers (and which, along with Goodreads, I need to use more often).

One thing that these all have in common, the authors made it easy for interested readers to get their hands on their work. And their work was really good (though from what I hear Fifty Shades is very poorly written), which made people want to read more and keep coming back for more. Thus it sometimes snowballs until…success, I guess.

Now does this happen for all authors? Obviously not, or we’d all be reading books by people whose works may be anything from really good to just plain dreadful. But it could happen to any author who puts in the right amount of dedication to their writing and marketing and who has a little bit of luck on their side.

God knows I’m working hard on all of those when I’m not working or looking for jobs. I’ve had sales that have been very successful and gotten my books into the hands and Kindles of plenty of new readers. And I’m working on an audio book of Reborn City, which is probably my most popular novel right now, so that could open up a whole new field for me: those who like a good story on long car trips or while jogging. And I’ve got a story or two I think would do great as serials published on WattPad and on Kindle, though I’m not sure when I’ll get around to writing them.

And of course, I tell people. I let them know about the books I’ve got out and if they’re interested I give them my cards so that they know where to find them (I’ve already gotten two or three people at work to promise me they’ll get copies of at least one of my books as soon as possible). And I’m always looking for new ways to get readers interested, and usually they work.

So maybe someday I can be, if not the next Stephen King, then maybe the next Christopher Paolini or Andy Weir. Selling enough books to write full time, expanding my media so that more people are exposed to me and maybe find a new favorite author. Anything’s possible. I just got to keep writing, keep working hard, and above all never lose hope.

I’ve often compared being an author to being the God of a fictional realm. And to some degree that is true, but it doesn’t mean we’re almighty. Often times the story you start writing won’t turn out to be that story. It’ll change or need to be changed. The personalities of the characters will act and react in ways that you didn’t think they would, or you find yourself not liking where the story goes. No matter what you do, this story isn’t going to go the way you imagined. And when that happens, you need to rethink the story a bit.

It’s kind of like one of those dance routines on a dance show (I used to watch So You Think You Can Dance). Often with those dance routines, they’re trying to tell a story. In this metaphor, you and your story are working together, using words and images as dance moves to entrance the reader and get them to watch the whole routine, aka read the whole story. But of course no routine starts out perfect and along the way there needs to be changes. And sometimes those changes need to be rather dramatic if the entire routine is going to work. Maybe its a few moves that need to be changed, other times the costumes need to be changed, and every now and then the song needs to be changed as well. Otherwise this story just won’t work.

Now some of you may be thinking, “He’s treating the story like a living person.” Well, why not? If the Bible is the living Word of God, and if the Constitution is a living document, why can’t a story being written in a notebook (paper or digital kind) be alive either? Many authors know what I’m talking about, they feel that the story is a being working with them as it gets laid down on paper, that it is having as much say as what’s put down and what’s not. Rather than resist it and insist that the story obey its Creator, it’s better oftentimes to just listen to the story and see what it says.

I had this situation occur to me on the short story I’m working on now. I finished the outline thinking it was going to turn out great. Unfortunately after ten-thousand words I started to realize that this story was not what I wanted. I mean on the outline the story was still good, but while writing it out I just couldn’t get into it. At the same time, I could hear the story in my mind, speaking to me. It said I shouldn’t give up on it (like I would do that, this is a good story in concept) but that I should explore a new angle for it.

So I took a break. I thought about it. And I found a new angle to tell the story with. I wrote out an outline today and got a couple pages in without any trouble. It’s a good start, though how well that goes for the rest of the story depends on a number of things. Like how I feel about the story. And how the story feels about the direction we’re going in.

Writing a story, like making a movie or performing a play or producing an album, is a collaboration, and all involved need to be in sync in order to make the story truly work. Sometimes that means acknowledging that, maybe even if only subconsciously in your mind, your story is alive and you need to work with it, not just on it. The results that occur when you do are truly spectacular.

Do you ever feel like your collaborating with another person when you’re working on a story?

What’s that like for you?

Oh, and an update on the audio book of Reborn City: I have posted it on ACX, the company I wrote an article about last year. I’ve also contacted a few narrators I’ve found on the site who I think may be able to give that right touch of magic for RC. Hopefully at least one will respond within the next few days, and then we can get to work on producing some audio book magic. Exciting right?

Of course if you want to get some RC action now, you can check out its page here and then find links to where it’s available. Enjoy!

Well my Followers of Fear, I have to get up extra early if I’m going to get to Munich on time tomorrow, so I have to make this super quick. I just want to let everyone know some very big things they can look forward to in the coming months. So if you’re wearing hats, hold onto them. Or don’t, but be aware that a wind might blow them away while you’re not holding onto them.

Reborn City will become an audio book

Yeah, it’s happening. After a lot of deliberation, asking a ton of people (including all of you a couple of posts ago), and listening to Battle Royale on my phone at work (my favorite novel these days, read my review here), I’ve decided to produce an audio book of Reborn City, which is probably my most popular work among my current published books. In truth, I’ve wanted to do an audio book for a while, but I think now is the best time to start working on one. And with ACX being such a great company to do it with, I think I can trust them to help me make this a reality.

Now of course this’ll take some time to do, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up that this’ll be out by the holidays. I may not even start work on it till I get back to the States. But it will happen eventually, and if the audio book is successful, I will produce Snake and The Quiet Game as audio books as well, as well as any future novel or short story collection.

So get ready for some awesome sci-fi gangster action during long car rides, because this is going to happen.

I’m putting together a new short story collection

This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while and it did seem for some time that I was going to put out one known as The Dead and the Dying (which still might happen someday, who knows?). But now I’ve actively begun to put together a new collection of short stories and novelettes I’m calling Teenage Wasteland. And you don’t need to be a detective to guess what the theme of this collection is: teens in horror stories!

Even if you’re only just mildly acquainted with horror,you’re probably aware that horror stories often feature teenagers as protagonists (or as easy victims). And I have a lot of stories, both published or otherwise, that have teenagers in them. I think a collection featuring teenagers in horror situations would be very interesting and fun to assemble, so I’m going to work hard to make that happen. Already I have four stories, and I hope to get between eight and thirteen stories in this collection, each featuring protagonists between the ages of twelve and nineteen. And as this collection is assembled, I’ll post updates on my progress, so keep an eye out for Teenage Wasteland, coming soon!

And yes, it’s like the song. I’ve always been rather partial to that song. But as long as I don’t put “by The Who” or quote lyrics in any of the stories, I can’t get in trouble, right? Right?!

 

Well, that’s all for now. I’ve had a pretty good week, which was needed after the disaster that was last week. I even made a new friend today (Oh good for you! You made a friend! thinks everyone as they unintentionally do an impression of my mother). And tomorrow I’m heading to Munich, so I’ve got to head to bed so I can be ready for that. With that, good night and pleasant nightmares, my Followers of Fear. See you on Sunday, when I tell you all about my time in one of Germany’s most famous cities.

Happy Birthday to the blog,
Happy Birthday to the blog.
Happy Birthday Rami Ungar the Writer
Happy Birthday to the blog.

Well, it’s a big day for me and for this blog, folks. Four years ago, at a library in Columbus, Ohio, 18 year old me logged onto WordPress for the first time and wrote a very bare blog post explaining who I was and why I was starting a blog (while also making a distinction between myself and the Rami Ungar in Israel who apparently is some big shipping magnate). I had absolutely no idea what I was doing at the time, because I’d thought blogging would be easy and that I didn’t need to watch the tutorials. I also thought that I’d have five hundred loyal and excited followers by the first anniversary and that they would be hanging on my every word.

Boy, did reality hit fast. I did learn eventually about blogging, and that doing it well is an ongoing process. I also did not get that many followers in that first year. Maybe 60. And I didn’t get that many views in the first year, either. Or for part of the second year. But I kept at it, kept blogging. People somehow found their way here and decided, for whatever reason, to subscribe and like and occasionally comment. And here we are four years later, with me in Germany, and you guys coming from the United States, Canada, England, Austria, and so many other places. It’s just humbling, so thank you all for being here.

You know, when I started this blog, I did it for a simple, slightly selfish reason: I wanted a ready readership for when I published my stories. Yeah, that’s it. I’ve known since I was a kid I wanted to be an author and to have people reading my books, so I wanted to make sure that when it happened I had a lot of people who would be willing to read my books when they came out or buy a copy of a magazine when I got something published there.

Well, like every journey, I’ve found something much different. I mean, some of you do read my books and short stories when they are published, and I’m sincerely grateful for that, really. But I’ve found much more. I’ve found wonderful friends, some of whom have helped me in so many ways in making sure that my stories are as good as they should be. Without blogging, I would never have discovered Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, which has been a great boost for my career and for my following. I started a new blog, From the Voice of Common Sense, which has been pretty fun to write and has had some interesting results.

And I’m sure more great things are to come. I’m hoping that this next year I’ll reach a thousand followers, and I’m pretty sure before that happens I’ll reach twenty-five hundred comments.  Depending on how many people read my posts, I could get somewhere between thirty-five and forty-thousand views, and at some point I’ll get five-thousand likes.

More importantly, I’ll probably make some more great friends, and maybe meet some of them offline (it could happen). I might publish a book or two, and I’ll certainly get a few short stories out, starting with “Tigress Lizzy” in the anthology coming out this October. And as for life…I don’t know. I’m hoping I find permanent employment after this internship with the US Army Civilian Corps is over. If that doesn’t happen, I have other options that I’m seriously considering. We’ll see what happens.

Thanks for celebrating with me, everyone. It means a lot to me.

Thanks for celebrating with me, everyone. It means a lot to me.

In the meantime, thanks for sticking with me through these four years, everyone. I hope we have a wonderful and somewhat scary time in the next year, as I work hard on becoming a successful horror novelist who might someday be able to take up writing full-time (I can dream).

You know, when I get to the fifth anniversary, I’m going to have to do something special. An autographed book giveaway? A big sale? Maybe name a character after someone I know? We’ll have to see.

That’s all for now. You have a wonderful rest of your day, my Followers of Fear. I know I will.

Well, latest estimates suggest that I’ll be getting Wi-Fi at my apartment back up tomorrow or Thursday, which caused me to turn into an angry gorilla and go on a rampage in downtown Wiesbaden last night (please send all complaints and bills to Donald Trump’s Campaign Headquarters). So I’m writing this on a Word document so that I can copy and paste it onto a blog post during my lunch break, when I’m allowed on blogging websites. At the moment, it’s the best I can do.

Now what did I come here to write about? Oh yes, the wonderful news for all you fans of Reborn City. Last night I completed the second draft of Video Rage, RC’s sequel, thanks to a lack of Wi-Fi and plenty of time on my hands yesterday evening (remind me to write about the benefits and problems of not having Wi-Fi after I get it back). For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the RC series, Reborn City is about street gangs in a dystopian future, told mostly from the point-of-view of Zahara Bakur, a Muslim teenager who is forced to join one of the gangs when her parents are murdered. It’s probably my most popular work, and I hope people enjoy VR as much as they liked RC.

All told, VR is a bit shorter than RC (but then again, RC had several chapters devoted to flashbacks, so that might explain a few things). The second draft is about 297 pages (8.5” x 11”, double spaced, twelve-point Times New Roman), two pages shorter than the first draft, and 82,441 words (about fifteen-hundred shorter than the first draft). I think this might be shorter than the first Harry Potter book, but I wouldn’t vouch for it. I can say for sure though that it reads better than the first draft, and that it sets up for the third and final book very well.

Now what’ll happen now that the second draft is finished? Well, I have a friend who is looking at the manuscript (he looked at RC prior to its publication) and once I get some feedback from him, I’ll do some more editing. After that, depending on how I feel, I could do a fourth draft, or I could get ready for some publication (I can hear most of my family, especially my sister, already shouting that it should go straight to publication). We’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, there’s a short story I have to rewrite, another one I want to write a first draft of, and maybe I’ll do a third short story because I am finally getting good at writing these things. After that, I have to rewrite my thriller Laura Horn, and after that I have to do a third draft of Rose, and I’m also planning a trip to Munich for either this or next weekend, and also…you know, I think it’s safe just to say I’m going to be very busy on a bunch of other projects but as committed as ever to writing and publishing quality stories while at the same time exploring as much of Germany as possible while I’m here (speaking of which, if you have any suggestions for places to visit in Munich, particularly scenic or historic locations, please let me know).

All for now. I’ve still got a long and busy day ahead of me, so I’m going to get right on it. I’ll write again when I have the chance. Let’s hope the Wi-Fi returns at home sooner than later, right?

Bis spatter, mein Anhanger der Angst! (Translation: See you later, my Followers of Fear!)

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?

I don’t have a lot of time because it’s late for me and I have an early morning tomorrow, but I just finished a short story I’ve been working on since before I left the states. Cult of the Raven God, coming just within the lengths of a short story at 9,908 words, is about a girl whose family is attacked by a sacrificial cult while on vacation and how she learns that the cult members are more than just a bunch of crazy murderers. It’s pretty creepy and dark stuff.

I have to say, I really enjoyed working on this one. It’s a more recent idea for a story, and I’ve noticed that the stories I’ve come up with lately…I’m not sure how to explain it. Maybe I feel like the ideas I’ve been having lately, particularly in terms of short stories, are more likely to make for successful stories once they’re written. I especially think this one has the chance for that. It’s length aside, it’s got atmosphere, a freaky main villain and creepy secondary villains, and I manage to keep the action going throughout. Not bad for a first draft.

Of course, it is a first draft, so it’ll have to be worked on before I do anything about it. I’ll let it lie for a while, and then in a couple months I’ll give it some edits. After that, I may try getting it published in a magazine, or if that doesn’t work out, I may put it in a short story collection. We’ll see what the future holds.

Well, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear (whom I’m so glad are not a sacrificial cult). Tomorrow I’m heading back to work on Video Rage, so let’s hope I get through the next two thirds of that pretty quickly. In the meantime, I’m wishing you all wonderful nightmares. Guten nacht!