Posts Tagged ‘publishing’

And I’m back to this again. But then again, consistency and visibility are the keys to marketing. I think.

So if you’re unaware, my novel Rose was published nearly a year ago, on June 21st, 2019. The story is a fantasy-horror novel that follows a young woman who wakes up in a greenhouse, only to turn into a plant creature. As those in her life react to the change, some of them are not who they seem to be, leading to a horrific fight for survival.

It’s weird, it’s scary, and it’s one-hundred percent me.

As I said, the one-year anniversary of Rose‘s publication is June 21st. As that’s a big milestone with any book, let alone with my first novel with a publisher, I’m doing something special to celebrate: a Q&A on YouTube, with the questions submitted by you readers! You can send up to two questions to my email address, ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com, with your name and where you’re from. And if you’re from the US or UK, you could be eligible for a download code for the Rose audio book!

Just get your questions in before June 17th, 2020 at 12:00 PM and your questions will be included in the Q&A.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I look forward to receiving your questions, especially since I’m still taking a break from writing after finishing The Pure World Comes, and could always use something else to capture my attention.

Also, if you’re interesting in reading Rose, I’ll include links down below. Or you can send me an email for a signed copy sent directly from me to you. And if you do read the book, leave me a review and let me know what you think. Positive or negative, I love getting feedback, and it helps me out as an author in the long run.

Until next time, stay safe, pleasant nightmares, and if you find a sword with a blade the color of the night sky, let me know. It’s probably cursed, and I could use a weapon like that.

Rose: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Audible

So with the completion of The Pure World Comes last night, that brings a total of three novels I have waiting in the wings. By “waiting in the wings,” of course, I mean three novels I need to edit, update and hopefully someday publish. And since some of you have been asking about those books, I thought I would take a moment to update you on each individual story, as well as tell anyone who’s unfamiliar with them what they’re about.

River of Wrath

 

River of Wrath, inspired partly by Dante’s Inferno, is about a small town in Mississippi which, one day in the early 1960’s, is visited by one of the circles of Hell. I recently got back all the beta reader copies, so I can finally begin doing some editing on this story. And given that the plot of this story deals with a lot of issues that are as current now as they were in the 1960’s (you can guess which ones), it might be a good idea to get to work on that one sooner rather than later.

In fact, I was hoping to get started on River this summer. Most likely August, if things work out for me. Seeing as I finished this one in 2018 and it’s now 2020, and the problems of racism only seem to have gotten worse since then, I think it’s about damn time.

 

 

Toyland

I don’t know what it is about Toyland, but for some reason, several of my Followers of Fear are champing at the bit for this story. My National Novel Writing Month project which I began in November 2019 and ended in late February, Toyland is a Gothic horror/dark fantasy novel centered on a boarding school in southern Ohio and a ghost there obsessed with a children’s book affecting the students. Yeah, that’s the plot. It’s bonkers, but did you expect anything else from me?

As for when editing will commence on this one, it will hopefully happen very soon. But as for publishing, that might take a while. I need some things on my end to happen before I can think of shopping this book to publishers (or consider self-publishing it. That’s a possibility as well). What those things are, I can’t say at the moment, but I deem them necessary to happen before Toyland can be released. As events unfold, I hope to have more updates on this subject. For now though, just know I’m working on paving the way for Toyland‘s publication as best I can right now.

 

The Pure World Comes

I know I finished it last night and you have probably read the elevator pitch already, but I’ll restate it anyway. TPWC takes place in 1894 and follows a maid who goes to work for a mad scientist. As I said last night, I have sent this novel off already to someone for feedback. With any luck, I’ll get some pointers on how to improve this story in the second draft and where to send it.

Speaking of which, I do hope to find a publisher for this one, but I can see it being rather successful if I self-publish it. In fact, I had an idea for that: many novels written in Victorian England were released chapter by chapter in a serial format, usually in a magazine or newspaper. Charles Dickens did this to great effect, using reader feedback after each chapter to improve the story by upgrading or downgrading certain characters and following plot lines readers found interesting. In other words, he gave the fans fanservice, and it worked for him. Anyway, after all the chapters had been released, only then would they be collected in a traditional book format.

I doubt I’ll do the whole give-in-to-fanservice thing Dickens did, but I could see myself releasing each chapter one at a time, perhaps as an ebook exclusive, before releasing the full book as both paperback and ebook. What do you think? Would that be a fun way to read a book, as well as a great callback to the publishing methods of yesteryear? Let me know.

 

Anyway, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m off to relax and regain my creative energies, but I’m sure you’ll hear from me by the end of the week. Until next time, pleasant nightmares!

Well, I didn’t think I could do it. But I did. At almost exactly 10:45 PM on May 31st, 2020, I finished the latest novel from my twisted imagination, The Pure World Comes.

If you aren’t aware, The Pure World Comes is a story I started writing back in April. It’s a culmination of all my love of and research into the Victorian era. The story takes place in 1894 and follows a maid who goes to work at the estate of a mad scientist. It’s part historical fiction, part Gothic horror, and part gaslamp fantasy (a subgenre I need to write an article about one of these days), with some slight elements of science fiction. All in one crazy story.

And with this story, I’ve actually broken a few personal records. First off, with Toyland back in March, this makes two novels finished in a single year. That has never happened before. Not to mention I wrote this novel in less than two months, another record. And today, I finished the novel by somehow getting forty-five hundred or so words down in one day. Yeah, forty-five hundred words. And none of these records I expected to beat until I beat them.

Am I bragging? Sorry about that. I just thought I’d mention them.

Anyway, onto the page and word counts. In terms of Microsoft Word pages, 8.5 inches by 11, with double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, the novel is 214 pages. And, in terms of words, the novel is 59,333 words. Yeah, I know I used to say novels are sixty-thousand words or higher, but it’s recently come to my attention that most publishers and contests put the cutoff from novella to novel at around forty thousand words. Therefore, I’m caving into peer pressure just this once and will designate this a novel.

So, what’s next? Well, normally I would celebrate the completion of a novel with a huge party. Mead, pizza, heavy sugars, a movie or several episodes of TV. But it’s late, and tomorrow I have a busy morning, so I’ll delay the partying till tomorrow. After that, I might take some time to recharge creatively before I attempt so much as another short story.

In the meantime, I’ve already sent the first draft of The Pure World Comes to someone who has agreed to take a look at the first draft and give me feedback. With any luck, they’ll give me some advice which will allow me to eventually get this story published.

So glad to finally finish this story, a distillation of my love of Victorian England.

I sense there are great things on the horizon.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Remember, there’s still plenty of time to send in a question for my YouTube Q&A for the first publishing anniversary of my novel Rose. Just email a question with your name and where you’re from to ramiungar@ramiungarhtewriter.com by June 17th at noon, and your question will show up in the video. And if you’re from the US or UK, you may win a download code for the audio book for Rose.

And of course, if you want to read Rose but don’t want to go through Amazon or Audible, I’m selling signed copies directly to readers. Send an email to me, and we’ll discuss the details.

Until next time, my Followers of Fear, stay safe and have some pleasant nightmares.

Yes, I’m doing this annoying thing again. That thing where I remind you that something is coming up in the next couple of weeks or days in the hopes you get excited. Most likely, you’re actually annoyed by this, but then again, you signed up for this blog, didn’t you?

Anyway, as you all know by now, the one year publishing anniversary of Rose is in less than a month, and I’ll be doing a Q&A on YouTube. And guess who gets to contribute the questions? You! That’s right, you! Send in up to two questions in an email to ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com with your name and where you’re from, and your quesiton might just show up in the Q&A. And if you submit and are from the United States or United Kingdom, you may be eligible for a download code for the Rose audio book!

So get those questions in before noon June 17th, 2020. The video will premiere the morning of June 21st, 2020. I look forward to receiving your questions.

And don’t forget, I’m still selling signed copies of Rose directly to you readers. If you’re interested, send an email to the same address above and we can discuss what is needed. Or you can get a copy through the links below. Please do check it out. Rose is a fantasy-horror novel about a young woman turning into a plant creature (and that’s just the start of her problems!). In the year or so since it’s come out, I’ve gotten some really positive feedback on the story, and I’m hoping year number two will produce great results as well. So if you do decide to read Rose, I hope you enjoy it and let me know one way or another what you think.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m sure we’ll be talking again soon, but until next time, pleasant nightmares!

Rose: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Audible

My, how time flies. In about a month, we’ll be celebrating the one-year anniversary of the publication of Rose, my first novel with a publisher. And since it’s a rather special milestone, I’m doing something special to mark the occasion. More on that below.

But first, if you’re unfamiliar (in which case you’re probably new to this blog, so hello! Welcome to Rami Ungar the Writer), Rose is a fantasy-horror novel published on June 21st, 2019 by Castrum Press. The novel follows Rose Taggert, a young woman who wakes up in a greenhouse with no memory of how she got there or why, let alone the last two years. However, her problems only compound from there, as her body undergoes a terrifying transformation, turning her into a plant/human hybrid. While those in her life react to the change, she finds out that some of them aren’t all they seem to be, leading to a desperate fight for survival.

And in the year since this novel came out, it’s gotten some wonderful feedback and a couple of devoted fans, which has really made my day. And since the one-year anniversary of its publication is coming up, I thought I would do something special to mark the occasion. What will it be? Why, it’ll be a special Q&A on YouTube! If you have any questions about Rose, about writing, about my plans for the future, you can send them to me and I’ll answer them on YouTube.

Here’s what you gotta do. Just send an email to ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com with the subject Rose Question and the following information:

  • Name
  • Where you’re from
  • Your question

Seems simple enough, right? And if you get your question in before June 17th, 2020 at 12:00 PM, it may end up being answered in the video (as you can probably guess, I may reject questions if I feel they are inappropriate for one reason or another). I look forward to reading your questions.

And if you’re interested, I‘m still taking orders for signed copies of Rose. Send an email to ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com to place an order. Of course, you can still get a copy from Amazon in paperback and ebook, and from Audible in audio book form. Links will be listed below.

I look forward to getting all your questions, my Followers of Fear. Until next time, pleasant nightmares!

Rose: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Audible

Hi everyone. I know it’s been a while since I last posted something (eight days, actually), but I didn’t have anything lately I felt passionate posting about. Until now, that is. You see, just a little while ago, the Ohio chapter of the Horror Writers Association finished a chapter meeting. Not only that, but it was our first Zoom meeting, and we had a pretty decent turnout. We’d been discussing doing things virtually for a while now, but COVID-19 really pushed us to do things online.

And that probably had a big part in our discussion during the meeting. We got onto talking about how COVID-19 has been affecting the writing industry, from the stories we tell to the events we go to. And it has been changing. Or at the very least, it’s in a state of flux.

If you’re part of the writing community as well, you know how it is. A lot of events had to be canceled because of the virus. StokerCon, the biggest horror convention in the world, was canceled, as was ParaPsyCon in Mansfield, OH, which I was supposed to attend. More than a few authors I’ve spoken to have said that their summer travel plans have been canceled and they’ll be spending more time at home than expected. And there’s a good chance my summer plans will be canceled by the end of next month, if not sooner.

Some events have moved online. A writer friend of mine told us during the meeting that he was supposed to give a talk in London around April, but it was moved online. According to him, it had probably more attendees than if he’d been there in person. And there are more events moving online. Hell, some people prefer it that way. Sure, you miss the personal touch that comes from doing cons and panels and readings face-to-face, and maybe lose a little business. But it can be easier on our schedules and wallets and, at least these days, health.

Perhaps some of our events will move online permanently.

Then there are the stories we write. A lot of discussion has gone on about how coronavirus is affecting what we weave together with words. Many of you already know that I’ve written a story, What Errour Awoke, which includes the virus for most of the story as part of the setting. And since then, I’ve had a few more ideas that take place during this current crisis, after this crisis, or uses imagery from the crisis to enhance the terror.

This virus is changing so much of our industry.

For others though, this pandemic has put a crimp in their writing plans. More than a few people have said their planned pandemic or zombie stories have been put on hold or readjusted due to COVID-19. One of my fellow writers mentioned how her students turned in a story about zombies created from the COVID-19 vaccine, and how she told said student that it wouldn’t be published (sounds too much like I Am Legend, for one thing). Others have mentioned how a lot of their stories have become period pieces, because they’ve had to move their stories to pre-COVID days. Or how they don’t think they can use COVID-19 in their work right now because they’re going through the pandemic right now, and don’t have the right mindset right now for those sort of stories.

I mentioned how I expected a lot of people to write Gothic stories about evil homes, inspired by being cooped up in their homes and the stress caused by that. Others mentioned how themes of isolation, fear of touch, of each other, might show up more in our fiction.

And this is likely only a few changes that will occur in the industry. Probably, we will see more changes to stories, publishing, marketing and event planning. What they will be, I can’t say for certain. I can only guess. But I think, at some point, we can expect plenty of writing about them.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ll hopefully have a new post out very soon. Remember, you can still get a signed copy of Rose from yours truly. Send me an email for details. And until next time, stay safe and pleasant nightmares!

Happy Monday, everyone! How are you? Did you have a good weekend? I did…until Sunday evening, when an incident occurred in the vicinity of my apartment complex that required the police to be called. Yeah, that happened. Don’t worry, I’m fine, as is everyone who was involved, as far as I know. I won’t go into details, just saying that stuff happened and while I didn’t have a front-row seat, I heard quite a bit of it.

Which led to me staying up later than I meant to, getting a headache that lasted all night and through most of the morning, and feeling so off when I got up that I nearly called in sick to work. Yeah, I was not a happy lord of evil and master of nightmares.

Thankfully, the events outside gave me some wicked inspiration for a short story. And feeling that inspiration take hold, after work was done and after dinner was consumed, I sat down to write the story. And I finished it all, as the title suggested, in one sitting. I can only think of one other time that’s happened, it’s that rare. And a good thing too, because writing all that in one go is exhausting. All you other writers know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, details about the story. The House That Comes and Goes is about a white colonial house that suddenly appears in a vacant lot one night, and a nurse who goes to investigate after someone she knows go into the house and doesn’t emerge. How is it related to events in my neighborhood? Well, the opening loosely reflects what happened in my neighborhood. I won’t say much else lest I give away spoilers, but I have to say, this story was great revenge against the people who kept me awake and made me feel sick.

Now, what’s going to happen with this story? Well, it’s very short for one of my stories, 3,353 words, so I think I could find it a good home much more easily than some of my other stories.* First, however, I’m going to see if I can’t get it looked at and get some feedback so I can edit and improve it. I’ve already reached out to a couple of interested people, so now it’s just a matter of waiting for a response.

In the meantime, tomorrow I’ll return to my Victorian England story (which is coming along very well, by the way). At the rate I’m going, I think I’ll be finished around mid-May, which works great for me. After all, my goal is still to finish ten short(er) stories between March and December this year, and I’m well on-track for that.

In the meantime though, there’s a nice, warm bed calling my name. Goodnight, my Followers of Fear. Stay safe, be healthy, and pleasant nightmares to you all!

*Yeah, that’s a lot for one day. I’m not sure how I did that in one sitting, either. But on the bright side, at least I didn’t write something a whole lot longer in one sitting. Can you imagine what I’d be like after writing a story like that?

Hey everyone! So, a lot of my fellow writers, especially within the horror writing community, have been posting videos of themselves reading all or parts of stories they’ve written. This is actually something I wanted to do for a long time, so seeing my colleagues doing it gave me the push I needed to finally go ahead and do it. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to make a special announcement (more on that below).

Specifically, I read from “Car Chasers,” the short story that was published in the anthology The Binge-Watching Cure II back in December. It doesn’t have an audio version, and I wouldn’t want to try with Rose on a YouTube video when the audio book’s narrator, Sara Parlier, did such a great job, so this was the perfect choice.

However, this video almost didn’t make it to the Internet. Yeah, YouTube has this stupid policy where it won’t let you upload videos longer than fifteen minutes unless you go through this whole rigmarole with them. And they didn’t tell me this until I already spent nearly three hours uploading the video. So I had to go through that process, then wait another three hours to upload and release a video. Thanks, YouTube! Ruined my evening plans! I thought you were trying to be more creator-friendly! Hmph!

Anyway, here’s the video. Please give it a watch, and stick around till the end for a special announcement.

Well, what did you think? Hope my reading voice didn’t cause your ears to bleed.

Also, if you didn’t stick around to the end, here’s the announcement: you can get a signed copy of my novel Rose from me! All you have to do is send an email to ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com to get the full details.

Of course, you can still get Rose from Amazon and Audible, as well as any bookstores that happen to have copies in stock (there are a few), but this would be a bit more special. And you’d get a physical copy without forcing an Amazon employee to run around the fulfillment center while Amazon ignores social distancing rules.*

And if you haven’t already, please consider getting a copy of The Binge-Watching Cure II from Claren Books. You’d be supporting a great company and encouraging them to print more anthologies. And this book has a lot of great authors in it: Nick Younker, Amanda Crum, Bill Adler, Armand Rosamalia, and many more. And every story is chilling in each its own way. I’ll include links for that down below as well.

And remember, if you buy a copy of either and read it, please leave a review so that I and the other authors know what you thought of our stories. Thanks!

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Until next time, happy reading, stay safe, be healthy, and pleasant nightmares!

Rose: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Audible

The Binge-Watching Cure II: Paperback, Kindle

*Hey, I make money through them, but that doesn’t mean the company is above criticism.

This story is set in the Cthulhu Mythos (and may or may not involve the big tentacled guy. I aim to keep you guessing).

Well, this has been a productive day. Today I finished a new story!

“What Errour Awoke” is a story set in the Cthulhu Mythos.* The story follows Taylor Molton-Reed, a graduate student at my alma mater, Ohio State. One day, while teaching a class on the famous British poem The Faerie Queene, the description of one of the monsters in the poem awakens repressed memories in one of his students of a certain Great Old One (I’ll let you guess which one until you actually read the story). The student later relates to Taylor what he remembered, beginning a chain of events involving this particular eldritch monster and its plans for the people of this world.

This story was actually inspired by my own studies in college. I read the Faerie Queene‘s first book in one of my British literature courses, and remembered one of the monsters in it quite particularly. Years later, after I’d gotten deep into Lovecraft’s canon and became familiar with many of the entities in the story, I found myself thinking back on that monster and thinking to myself, “Hey, wait a minute! That sounds a lot like such-and-such entity!” Thus the idea for this story was birthed.

I had a lot of fun writing this story. For one thing, it’s set right in the Cthulhu Mythos, and there’s a certain thrill for me when it comes to writing stories set in that world (possibly because I’m an entity right out of that world?). For another, the majority of it takes place during our current pandemic. so it was cathartic to write about. I’ve compared the coronavirus to a Lovecraftian entity in the past, so writing about it in a Cthulhu Mythos story felt especially apropos. And finally, I had a lot of fun applying something other than the writing courses from my English major to a story, and modeling certain parts of the story after the first book of Faerie Queene.

In fact, I liked this story so much, I decided to put this into that collection of short stories I’ve been working on and switch out one of the weaker stories in it. That’s how much I loved it, and how confident I am readers will enjoy it.

Now, for the stats on the story. “What Errour Awoke” totaled out to 63 pages and 17,880 words, the last 13 pages and 3,880 words written over the course of this afternoon and evening (yeah, I went on one hell of a writing binge). This puts it at a novelette, so I’m two for two on getting at least one short(er) story done per month for the rest of 2020. Hopefully I can keep that up with the next story, which I’ll likely finish in May.

Speaking of which, what’s next? Well, I’ll be reaching out to some writers I know who may be able to give me some valuable feedback on how to edit “What Errour Awoke.” And while they’re doing that, I’ll be starting work on the last story for that collection, a novelette or novella set in my beloved Victorian England. Believe me, it’s going to be a strange one. A wonderfully strange one.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. There’s a late Shabbat dinner and an Avengers movie calling my name. Until next time, Shabbat Shalom, stay safe, be healthy, and pleasant nightmares.

*Which means, if my parents ever read this story, they’re not going to get any of the references and think I made up more than I did for this story.

Those of you who don’t follow me on my other social media platforms may not know this, but at least once a week, usually Saturday, I post links to my novel Rose. The hope is, with enough regular mentions, people will notice the book and be tempted to read the book. If they see it often, it will worm under their skin and the possibility of entertainment they’re missing out on will nag at them. Perhaps they’ll even check it out just to see if they really are missing out.

It’s a simple strategy, but it does work. Not to the point where I’m getting dozens of new readers or reviews every week, but it does get results. For example, just this past week or so, Rose received two new ratings on Goodreads. And not too long ago, Rose received a bunch of new ratings on Amazon Canada and Amazon UK. And I think these consistent ads may have played a role in all of these new ratings.

And as I write this, I wonder if these new ratings are just a fraction of the new people reading Rose. They just haven’t let me know what they think as of yet.

This is why I keep posting about Rose. I want people to find the book. Someone like Stephen King may only need to post a couple of times about their upcoming book, and they’ll have thousands of pre-orders within hours. Less well-known but very established horror authors will post regular ads just to remind people that their book is coming out or that it’s already out or that it’s been out for a while. My philosophy is that I have to do ten times the work in order to get half of what I want. What I want is to have as many people as possible read my stories. So obviously, I’ll do what I can to get people to notice Rose.

I just can’t post everyday, because it would cost way too much money or because people would get sick of seeing Rose mentioned on my timeline. Or both.

In any case, I have a feeling that all my efforts are going to pay off even more than usual. Because COVID-19 has a lot of people isolating in their homes, they’re looking for new sources of entertainment, including books. Perhaps they’ll see Rose mentioned somewhere and think, “Hmm, that might pass the time for me. I’ll give it a read.”

Not the ideal way for someone to notice my work, but there you go.

And no matter the situation, I’ll keep writing and posting about my stories, with the hope that more people will notice and maybe want to read it. With any luck, they’ll find their new favorite horror story, and I’ll have another reader interested in my next book or publication, whenever that comes out.

And if this post has got you at all interested in Rose, I’ll post the links below. Yeah, of course I would insert an ad into this post, what did you expect? Anyway, if you’re not familiar, Rose is the story of a young woman who wakes up with no memories of the past two years. Pretty quickly, her body undergoes a startling transformation, becoming a human/plant hybrid. As those around her react to her transformation, she soon realizes they’re not all they seem, leading to a desperate fight for survival.

It’s some dark, creepy shit and you can check it out by clicking on the links below. And if you do end up reading Rose, let me know what you think. Positive or negative, I love feedback from readers, and they help me out in the long run.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. If, like me, you’re celebrating Passover, then Happy Passover (and next year in person). If you’re celebrating Easter this weekend, Happy Easter. And no matter what you believe or don’t believe, stay safe, be healthy, and pleasant nightmares to you all.

Rose: Available from the links below.

Rose: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Audible