publishing | Rami Ungar The Writer

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Rewrite, Rewrite, Rewrite

Posted: February 1, 2015 in Reflections, Writing
Tags: authors, college life, editing, entertainment, films, Harry Potter, horror, ideas, Laura Horn, literature, living and life, novel, Ohio State University, Outlast, progress report, publishing, reflections, Rose, scary stuff, short story, thesis, video games, writing

I’ve mentioned this a couple of times, but I’ve rewritten a number of stories, especially short stories, over the course of my writing career. It’s annoying to a certain degree, to have to start from scratch while writing the same story over and over again. It’s easier to just edit a single story, but when things need to be changed to such a degree that rewriting the story is either simpler or the same as editing the story.

I’ve rewritten What Happened Saturday Night more than once (especially the last third of it), still have to rewrite Evil Began in a Bar (as soon as I figure out how to go about it) and I’m in the process of doing a major revision of Miranda’s Tempest that was inspired by one of my History of Witchcraft classes. Plus I plan to rewrite Laura Horn as soon as I have a moment. And you remember when I had to writ a new outline of Rose because the story was getting way too crazy for my advisor Manny (finally asked if I could name him here on my blog) and he told me to rethink where it was going? That was basically an outline rewrite. And it was after I had to rewrite the first four chapters because they were too light and campy for a horror novel.

Oy vey! That’s a lot of rewrites!

Still, as much as I hate having to do it, I know that a rewrite is ultimately beneficial. It makes the story much, much better. The difference between the first draft of What Happened Saturday Night, “Frauwolf” and the second draft was immense. And the third and fourth drafts showed even greater improvement. The Murderer’s Legacy improved a great deal once it became Miranda’s Tempest, though it still had its flaws. And now I’m doing another version of Miranda’s Tempest, though I’ve renamed it Strong’s Trial due to the new content and theme. It resembles Harry Potter a bit, though I think it’ll end up much removed from that. The rewrites of Rose have vastly improved it and I’m sure when I get to rewriting Laura Horn it’ll be much, much better.

And a lot of great works have been rewritten before publication. The Book Thief was apparently written 200 times before being published, and that’s a famous work. And I hear every script that gets turned into a movie in Hollywood goes through several rewrites before finally going into production. So perhaps my constant rewriting of my stories might make for a famous story someday. We’ll see someday.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to spend some time relaxing this evening before going to bed. I’ve done a lot of (re)writing today, so I’m going to take a break and try to relax. I’m setting up an account on my roommate’s PS4 and I’m going to play my first survival-horror game, Outlast. I’ve heard good things about it. Should be very exciting (and if I don’t like it, I’ll rewrite it!). Wish me luck!

Interview with Rami Ungar

Posted: January 29, 2015 in Author Interciew, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: author interview, authors, blogging, editing, entertainment, horror, interview, living and life, publishing, reflections, scary stuff, short story, Strange Portals, writing

I’m happy to let everyone know that I’ve recently been interviewed by Tricia Drammeh of Authors to Watch about the short stories I published in the Strange Portals anthology last month and which she appears in as well. If you get the chance, please check out the interview. And while I’m talking about it, I’d like to thank Tricia for featuring me. It really means a lot to me and I hope I can return the favor sometime.

Rose: First Draft Finished!

Posted: January 27, 2015 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
Tags: college life, editing, entertainment, horror, ideas, living and life, music, novel, Ohio State University, progress report, publishing, Rose, scary stuff, thesis, writing

All done with the first draft.

Well tonight’s a great night for me! I’ve finished the first draft of Rose, the novel that has doubled as my thesis. I’ve already blasted “Voodoo Child” by Rogue Traders throughout the apartment, did my own choreographed dance to the song, and then had a drink with my roommate. And now I’m working on this blog post, feeling high as a kite about this achievement.

I was hoping to get this chapter started earlier today, but events didn’t allow for it. Still, I’m happy to get it done tonight, nearly six months after starting work on Rose. It’s great to know that it’s finished. Now all I’ve got to do some editing and I’ll be ready for thesis arguments in April.

The total amount of pages for Rose (8.5″ x 11″, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman) is 174 pages, an average of about 8.3 pages per chapter, and 50,994 words total, about 2428 words per chapter on average. That’s the length of a mid-sized novella according to the definitions I use. Not a full-length novel, but I’m good with this length. I had a feeling that it’d be around the size of a novella anyway.

Well, I’m going to go to sleep. This is a great night for me, but I’m dead tired and I need to sleep if I’m going to be able to spread the good news tomorrow. I think I’ll take a break in the next week or two from working on Rose before getting started on the second draft. Might edit a short story or two. God knows I’ve got a couple to edit still, and one for a contest soon. Plus some blog posts that I’ve been meaning to write. Boy, I’m going to be busy.

But for now, bed. Goodnight my Followers of Fear (or if you’re reading this in the morning, Good morning). Pleasant nightmares. And wish me luck with this project as it goes into its next phase. It’s going to be interesting where this ends up.

Also, scroll up. There’s a new page I’ve just set up, Stand Alones & Other Works. Rose is a stand alone novel, so it’ll need its own page. And I think Daisy and Strange Portals should be listed somewhere, so I’ll make sure they’re listed on that page. Please check it out if you get the chance. Especially if you have no idea what Rose is about and would like a basic summary to get an idea behind it (summary subject to change over time).

Once again, good night my Followers of Fear. And thanks for your support. I’m always glad you’re there to have my back. See you in the morning!

Miranda’s Tempest: Finished

Posted: January 5, 2015 in Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: college life, editing, English, entertainment, horror, ideas, living and life, novel, Ohio State University, progress report, publishing, Rose, scary stuff, short story, thesis, writing

Double, double. Toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble! Mwa ha ha ha!

I’ve just finished the second draft of The Murderer’s Legacy, which I’ve renamed Miranda’s Tempest (after trying Miranda’s Retribution and Miranda’s Reprisal). This is the same short story I had a breakthrough on Christmas after having a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to fix that one since I wrote the first version back in May. It took me a couple of days, but I got it done. This draft is about forty-eight hundred words long, it seems I can never get a short story done without it being over 4,500 words.

A lot has changed from the original draft and the second draft. The original was set in a magical version of Victorian England, was complicated and cumbersome, and my protagonist wasn’t enough of an asshole like I wanted to portray him. This version makes magic the result of one person, and my protagonist is a total asshole, like I wanted. Plus I got to add in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Can’t complain about that.

Like all my short stories, it could stand some editing. A lot of the story involves flashback and exposition, and I’m worried that might be less in the story’s favor than I think. We’ll see what I can do. I’m hoping that I can get a few people I know to take a look at it before I edit it, maybe get some feedback. There are a couple of fantasy magazines that I think could be interested in this one if I can polish it up a bit.

In the meantime, I have one more short story I’d like to get done before I get back to working on Rose. It’s called State Fair (might change it to The State Fair later on) and its about a ghost haunting a state fairground who becomes infatuated with a girl attending the fair one day. I’m hoping to submit it to an annual short story award they have at Ohio State every year. It’s the kind of thing they tend to like, so I’m hoping they’ll go for it. But first I have to get it finished. In fact, I’m going to start working on it now, and also through tomorrow if I can, I have the day off tomorrow so I shouldn’t have any problem working on it then.

Well, that’s all for now. Have a good night, my Followers of Fear. I certainly am.

2014: A Year in Review

Posted: January 1, 2015 in Living and Life, Reflections
Tags: 2014, 2015, blogging, college life, editing, entertainment, holidays, Laura Horn, living and life, New Year's Day, novel, Ohio State University, progress report, publishing, Reborn City, reflections, Rose, scary stuff, short story, Snake, thesis, Video Rage, writing

Another year has come and gone. And what a year it was! Personally a lot of amazing things happened to me: I got to go on the study abroad trip of my dreams (sadly one doesn’t exist to explore haunted locations) and make unforgettable memories with amazing friends while learning about WWII. I published my second novel Snake, which currently has an average of 4.2 out of 5 on Amazon. I started my last year of school, which I shall finish in four months and ten days from now. And so much more has happened, so much that I can’t mention them all here or you might get bored. I’m definitely not going to mention any of that stuff WordPress sends in an email about Sydney Opera Houses and whatever. It’s boring, and I usually save that stuff for the anniversary of my blog being created in August anyway.

What do I hope for 2015? Well, I’m hoping to get at least one book published at some point this year. No definite plans at the moment, but I’ll let you know if something does seem imminent. I’d like to finish up my thesis Rose and get some really good remarks and feedback on it (a lot of reports indicate that the former will definitely happen soon, while the latter depends on who reads Rose and what they think). I’d also like to finish editing Video Rage and get to work on improving Laura Horn, which might happen sometime after graduation. As I’ve got close to 400 short story ideas and only a few of them actually written, I’d like to get some more short stories written, maybe get back to work on another collection or publish those short stories in a magazine. And of course I’d like to grow my readership, get more people reading my blog and my books.

And of course I’d like to get a well-paying job by the time I graduate. That would be very nice.

Anyway, thank you to the many Followers of Fear who show up here to read my many posts and interact with me. You give me encouragement every day to keep pursuing my goals and to make my dreams come true. I hope we can have another fabulous year together, through graduation and beyond.

Also thanks to everyone who bought or downloaded a copy of one of my books during the holiday sale this year. I hope you enjoy what you bought and if you feel like it, please let me know what you think. Positive or negative, I love feedback, and I’d be happy to hear yours, even in a comment or a review.

Happy New Year, everyone.

What Happened Saturday Night: Fourth Draft Finished

Posted: December 31, 2014 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: college life, editing, entertainment, holidays, horror, ideas, LGBT characters, LGBT literature, literature, living and life, Ohio State University, progress report, publishing, Rose, scary stuff, short story, thesis, werewolf, writing

As I mentioned in my last post, I was taking a break from Rose to write, edit, and rewrite some short stories. I started by doing the fourth draft of What Happened Saturday Night, which has gone through quite a number of changes since its first draft. I have to say, this might be the best draft I’ve done so far. It took it a long time to get to where it is now, but I think my classmates would have enjoyed this draft much more than some of the other drafts I’ve turned in this semester. That’s the hope, at least.

In any case, I managed to keep this story about a young girl becoming a werewolf at the same time she discovers her sexuality on the two main characters and on their interpersonal struggles. I also got to explore the sensation of being a wild beast on the hunt, and I think I got the ending just right. I may do some more edits on it before I send it off to someone to critique or to a magazine (haven’t decided which I should do first yet), especially with a small part of the climax, but I’m hoping that this might be the last time I have to do serious editing to the story.

I hope to submit this one to an LGBT literature magazine, of which there are apparently many, and some of the ones I looked at seem to specialize in a wide range of genres and formats. Maybe an editor from one of them will take a look at What Happened Saturday Night and think it’s the perfect match for their magazine. We can only hope, right?

Well, I’m going to do some reading as research for the rewrite of The Murderer’s Legacy, which I’m thinking of renaming to fit with the new direction I want the story to go in. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, have a Happy New Year, my Followers of Fear and stay safe out there. Don’t party too hard. That’s my job!

Snake: Six Months Since Publication. Also, a Holiday Sale

Posted: December 10, 2014 in Living and Life, Novel, Review, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: Amazon, authors, big sale, college life, e-book, entertainment, holidays, horror, living and life, novel, progress report, publishing, Reborn City, review, sale, scary stuff, science fiction, short story, Smashwords, Snake, Strange Portals, The Quiet Game, thriller, writing

How far would you go for love and revenge?

Boy, do I have plenty of good news to share with everyone. Including the publication of two of my stories in Strange Portals, today is the six month anniversary of the publication of my second novel, Snake. Maybe because I’ve been so busy this past semester, but it feels like so much longer since that book came out.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Snake yet, it’s a thriller novel following a young man who dons a mask and becomes a dangerous serial killer in order to save the woman he loves. It’s gotten some very good reviews since it came out, and I’m quite proud of how it’s done. Here’s what some people have said since Snake has come out:

Rami Ungar makes a promise to (the reader) in all his writings: he WILL scare you, and if he does “his job is done.” Snake will scare you. I am a huge Stephen King fan, so this should give you some idea of my tolerance level for gore, death and mayhem – I was scared. Rami takes you into places you would never have believed possible, and manages to pull his hero (and eventually his heroine) out of them against all odds. If you like to be scared. If you LOVE to be scared. You should read this book.

Angela Misri, author of Jewel of the Thames

Quite gripping story. enjoyed a lot reading this.

Jyoti

Well, I took yet another vacation where I made my family “just wait until I finish this chapter.” This page-turning read was another great effort by Rami. He is not afraid to take risks in plot twists and turns, character development and he takes the reader on quite the journey in this book. So looking forward to his next creation!

Michele Kurland

And partly in honor of this milestone, but mostly because of the holiday season, all my books are on sale from today December 10th through December 31st. This includes e-books and paperbacks getting marked down. So if you haven’t read The Quiet Game, Reborn City, or Snake yet, this is the best time to do so. Especially if you want or need something new and different to read this month.

So anyway, I hope you decide to check out any of my books, as well as Strange Portals (which, by the way, is free to download). And if you like, or if you dislike, what you read, please let me know. Just leave me a comment or write a review. I would love to hear what you say.

Well, that’s all for now. Happy reading and happy holidays, my Followers of Fear. You are all, as far as I’m concerned, a gift to me.

Self-Pub Authors: Writing a Blurb for Your Book Cover

Posted: December 9, 2014 in Journalism, Writing
Tags: authors, blogging, editing, journalism, novel, publishing, self-pub authors, writing

It’s been a while, but I’ve written a new article for Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors. This one is called Writing a Blurb for Your Book Cover and has some wonderful tips for writing that little summary on the backs of books that you read before you decide whether or not you want to invest time and money in reading this book.

If you like the article, please let me know. And if you like what you read and want to read more, please check out the rest of the website. Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors is a website from indie authors, by indie authors, and for indie authors in order to help authors write, edit, market, and publish in an easy and affordable manner. You never know what bit of advice might help you publish that next big novel.

All for now. See you later, my Followers of Fear. I’ve got to get to class.

“Buried Alive” and “Travelers of the Loneliest Roads” Have Been Published In “Strange Portals” Anthology

Posted: December 7, 2014 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: Amazon, anthology, authors, blogging, e-book, editing, entertainment, fantasy, horror, Joleene Naylor, living and life, paranmormal, progress report, publishing, scary stuff, science fiction, short story, Smashwords, Strange Portals, writing

Some exciting news to share with you all. I’ve been holding off until I had some more details, but it’s out now and I’ve got to share it with you all.

Last month I received word from colleague and fellow author Joleene Naylor that she was putting together an anthology of horror/paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy short stories for a holiday season release and she was looking for submissions. Despite my crazy busy life I did some editing on two short stories of mine, “Buried Alive” and “Travelers of the Loneliest Roads”, and sent them in. I’m extremely pleased, grateful, and proud to say that they both got into the final anthology!

I’d like to thank Joleene for this awesome opportunity (you should seriously check out her blog, the link for which is above), and I’d encourage you to check out the anthology “Strange Portals”, which contains works from several different authors, including AK Stein, Adan Ramie, Roxanna Matthews, Jolene, myself, and many more. Right now the anthology is only available from Smashwords as an e-book (the link to download it is right here), but it’ll be available for Amazon soon (and I’ll be updating this post when it is, so keep an eye out for that update). Did I mention it’s free to download? Well, it’s free to download. So that’s even more incentive to check it out.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m really excited, as you can understand. I’m even listening to my go-to celebration song, “Voodoo Child” by Rogue Traders, playing now, that’s how excited I am. I’m taking the rest of the night off, my Followers of Fear. You have a good one, okay?

*Update: As of December 9th, the Amazon link was posted. It costs $0.99 because Amazon never does anything free, but what are you going to do? Anyway, the link is here if you want to check it out. I certainly will.

Updates on My Various Projects

Posted: November 23, 2014 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
Tags: blogging, college life, editing, entertainment, horror, ideas, Laura Horn, living and life, novel, Ohio State University, publishing, Reborn City, Rose, self-pub authors, thesis, Video Rage, writing

It’s been a while since I posted on my books that are in the process of getting written/edited/published/whatever, so I thought I’d write up a quick post to just let you all know about how those projects are going and when we can expect them to be in print. Spoiler: not any time soon.

Video Rage

The long-awaited sequel to Reborn City (especially by my sister and my stepmother). Last I was working on it, I’d made considerable progress on the book and had made it about halfway or so through the manuscript. Of course, senior year started, and I had to switch gears to work on Rose (more on that below). So I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get back to that, but it’ll probably be when I don’t have classes, a thesis, and a job search to deal with all at once. So hopefully at some point next year. Yes, I know, it’s sad and frustrating. But when you’re working with my busy schedule, what can you do?

Actually, there is plenty you can do: offer me a job that matches my qualifications if you got one. Either that, or come by and do my homework for me. I’ve got an 8-10 page Shakespeare paper due December 9th. Any volunteers? No? Good, that’s cheating and I could get expelled for that.

Laura Horn

I’ve been thinking a lot about this novel lately. For those of you who haven’t seen me post about it before (it’s been a while), Laura Horn is a thriller about a teenage sexual assault victim who comes across information that threatens the United States and finds herself the only one who can stop it. At the same time, she must confront her demons and the man who assaulted her. The thing is, after I finished the first draft, I realized that certain parts of the story required too much suspension of disbelief. There was so much going on, some of it involved a stretch of the imagination to actually imagine happening, and at times I felt like there were glaring errors in the plot that I was missing. And then I found some of them!

All in all, the whole thing is unwieldy. But, I love the characters, especially my protagonist. I love the journey she goes on, and how it makes her go from a scared little girl to…well, she’s stronger. In a better place. And I liked the idea of the story very much.

So I think when the opportunity presents itself, I may try rewriting the story (because apparently a second draft for me is rewriting the whole damn thing, at least lately anyway). I’ve already got an idea for a new storyline that makes a lot more sense, it’ll be a bit shorter than the original version, and I think I’ll still get the story I want without facing those problems of believable storytelling. I just need the time to write it (what else is new?). So don’t expect LH to come out any time soon. I know, I know. It looks like nothing will be coming out soon, and that’s a fair opinion. But you never know. Something may change.

Rose

Last I updated you guys on my novel-that-doubles-as-my-thesis, I had to rewrite the outline again because the direction would’ve made the whole story a little crazy. So I sent the new outline to my advisor, and I was supposed to meet with him Friday. Sadly, the meeting got cancelled, so I’ll be emailing him this coming week to see if he would just send me his thoughts in an email. It might make it a bit easier since carving out a time for three busy people to meet up for even half an hour or more and just talk. If I hear anything, you guys will be among the first to know.

Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors

Hope to get a new article out some time soon. That’s all I’m saying on this.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ve got a bit of editing to do tonight, so I’m going to get on that. Wish me luck, my Followers of Fear. These days, I need all the luck I can get my hands on.

Rami Ungar The Writer

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