Posts Tagged ‘Reborn City’

Flawed Protagonists Are Some of the Best

Posted: August 28, 2013 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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Today we had a rather interesting discussion in my Science Fiction and Fantasy class (for those of you new to the blog, yes there’s such a thing. Apparently Ohio State’s English Department has been studying the foundations of nerd culture since 2007. And possibly there’s a grad student in the Sociology Department who’s studying the actual people of nerd culture, but that’s an investigation for another time). Anyway, we were talking about the differences between heroes in science fiction stories from pre-WWII and the stories written after WWII.

In the pre-WWII stories, the heroes were always larger than life, able to overcome evil and fight off any villain with ease. In a sense, they were Supermen without superpowers, and they still won every battle, got the girl, saved the world, and were home in time for tea. Some great examples were John Carter of Mars from the Barsoom novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Freder from the movie Metropolis.

But then you have World War II. There you see death camps, POW marches, bombings, jungle warfare, beaches that run red with blood, mortars and claymores and bullets, racism and nationalism, beheadings, and several other bits of Hell made incarnate. Those who came back from the war were given a darker outlook on the world, and those whose talents were more geared to the written word and who in turn enjoyed a little space travel incorporated that new world view into their work. The best examples I can give you of the sort of hero that became popular after WWII are Barton from the short story The Cold Equations and Han Solo from Star Wars. They are not Supermen. They are simply men. They have problems, conflicts, flaws. Barton is haunted by what his job requires him to do when he finds a stowaway on his ship. Solo is looking out for himself and his ship and nobody else, though the Expanded Universe of Star Wars says that he’s like that because his lover died leaving him cynical and jaded. And then he met Jabba the Hutt.

The point is people liked these characters. A lot. They’ve been around since then in some way or another. Look around at science fiction and fantasy stories today. Harry Potter admits he’d be lost without his friends, and as Hermione is fond of pointing out, he’s useless with girls. Katniss Everdeen is troubled by her feelings for both Peeta and Gale and her memories of the Hunger Games, and is only in the situations she’s in so that she can protect her sister and stay alive, in that order…though she does love a little revenge every now and then. Max de Costa from Elysium is trying to be a better man, but with his life on the line he becomes the definition of a survivalist, willing to do anything to live. And Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer has a host of issues that inhibit her life, especially in season six of the series. Jeez, that season was psychologically dark!

And it’s not just science fiction. Other genres of speculative fiction have these sorts of character. My own fiction has these sort of flawed characters:

Zahara Bakur (Reborn City): low self-esteem and a sometimes overwhelming timidity and fear of violence.

Rip (Reborn City): recovering drug addict with image issues.

Snake (Snake): highly disturbed serial killer due to abusive childhood.

Laura Horn (Laura Horn): pathological shyness, social anxiety and general anxiety due to sexual assault.

Why are these characters so popular when they are so far from perfect? I think it has something to do with the fact that’s what they are: imperfect, They care deeply and try hard, but occasionally they fail and they fall and the consequences are terrible. To the readers, that makes them real. We don’t want to read about infallible heroes, because we know all too well that they don’t exist. We want heroes who are a little more like us. They depend on people, they hurt, they need a good smack occasionally to see that what they’re doing is hurting both themselves and their loved ones. We’ve all been in positions like that to some degree in our lives. And that makes these characters relatable to us, and our problems, even if they don’t involve magic or spaceships or fighting in an arena with other young kids.

Not only that, but these protagonists tend to grow in the story. They tend to become better than what they were before. And I don’t mean better warriors or fighters or healers or wizards or whatnot. I mean better people. They learn what’s really important in life, or how to express their love for others, or they come back as true leaders who put the lives and interests of those who depend on them first. In other words, the sort of people we want to be.

I personally prefer using these characters with their flaws and warts and troubles. I used to be more into characters that were impervious, Granted, I was a kid at the time, and all my favorite TV, movie, and book heroes seemed impervious to me. But I’m older now, smarter, wiser, and a bit more aware that the world doesn’t usually produce such heroes. So I like to use the heroes with problems, with something that’s keeping them back. Along with the conflict of the story, it gives me something to grapple with and for the characters to grapple with as they fight onwards. After all, a story is not just getting from Point A to Point B, it’s also about letting the characters grow and become better people.

“I’m not even perfect, and I’m bloody brilliant in all my forms.”

Now are these sorts of characters here to stay? I’m tempted to say yes, at least for the meantime. If you look at the latest movies, TV shows, novels, and comic books, the main characters all have problems of some sort that makes life difficult for them. Watching them grow, take on these problems, and overcome them is part of the appeal of the story. And I certainly plan to use these flawed characters in the future, as do other writers I know. So yes, it’s quite possible these flawed protagonists will be staying for quite a while.

How do you feel about flawed characters? And are there any that you particularly like above all others?

Weekly Exercise #1 (8/22/13)

Posted: August 22, 2013 in ideas, Living and Life, Scary Stuff, Weekly Exercises, Writing
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Spooooky!!!

Last night I had an idea during my evening meditation for something I could do to help improve my writing. I would’ve done it earlier in the day, but I’ve been busy since today was the second day of classes. But now I have some time since I finished my homework and I thought I’d share my idea and its fruits before I start cooking dinner.

My idea was to write a short little piece of writing–maybe 1-3 paragraphs–whose sole purpose was to tell a scary story in as few words as possible. Basically, it’s an exercise in scaring people in as few words as possible. BOO!

Why am I doing this? Several reasons: one is that if I can write these vignettes and see how people react, I can get a better grasp on how to polish up my craft in terms of writing and scaring. The second reason is that any one of these little vignettes could lead to a full-length story, should I find them helpful enough in the story writing, if I particularly enjoyed the story depicted within, and if reader response is positive enough. And finally, it’s also a marketing ploy. Yes, a shameful marketing ploy. I’m hoping that if people react positively to these exercises, I can get them interested in my longer works, like The Quiet Game or Reborn City (out November 1st).

I hope to get these out once a week, giving me time to come up with new ones and so that people don’t get sick of them. I also plan to list all the Weekly Exercises on its own separate page, with every exercise listed with the most recent first. I hope at least I’ll benefit from these exercises, and so will my readers in the long run.

So without further ado, here’s Weekly Exercise #1:

She was awoken by the baby screaming and immediately closed her eyes, hoping it would quiet on its own. When it didn’t, she threw the covers off and got her robe on. Was there a night that it would just leave her be? She’d never wanted this stupid thing that couldn’t take care of itself, and it was reminding her of that every night with its ceaseless screaming. Well no more. Either it shut up tonight or she would shut it up for it!

She reached the baby’s room, her fingers clenching and unclenching, ready to strangle it or snap its neck for some decent sleep. But then she saw the baby floating in the air, fast asleep. And then she realized that the screaming she’d heard wasn’t coming from the baby’s room anymore. It was coming from behind her.

The Catalyst: An Essential Element For Fiction

Posted: August 19, 2013 in Reflections, Writing
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Catalyst: like a line of dominoes.

According to Wiktionary.org, a catalyst is, when used in literature, “an inciting incident which that sets the successive conflict into motion.” In other words, fiction, which is reliant on a conflict of some sort for the story to occur, cannot exist without the catalyst that starts it all.

I’ve been thinking about the catalyst for a while now, and I’ve come to believe that the catalyst is actually a pretty interesting and underappreciated element in fiction writing. Imagine what would happen if Katniss Everdeen had never volunteered to take her sister’s place in the 74th Annual Hunger Games and instead of Peeta, Gale had gone to the Capitol? There would be no story. Katniss would somehow go on with her life after a period of depression, and maybe even still get together with Peeta at some point, but would anyone really want to read that? That single catalyst, Katniss volunteering to save her sister and Peeta being selected to go with her to the Capitol, is what makes the story interesting, that draws us in and makes us want to see how events unfold.

And the catalyst for a story can take many forms. It’s usually the first thing you learn in writing any story. In a romance story, it’s usually boy and girl meet for the first time. In a mystery, it’s the occurence of a crime that needs to be solved. In stories like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or The Hobbit, where a journey is prevalent in the story, it’s that inciting incident that causes the need to go on a journey that gets things going. In a zombie novel, the catalyst is (obviously) the appearance of zombies.

You look at any story, you’ll identify a catalyst. Heck, my own stories all rely on the catalyst. In my WIP Laura Horn, the catalyst is the titular character recieving a particular item that causes her to be the target of a government conspiracy. In Snake, the loss of something important to the main character is what causes him to beocme the Snake. And in Reborn City, events that happen to the founders of the Hydras about a year and a half before the story even starts serve as the catalyst.

And speaking of RC‘s catalyst occuring a year and a half before the story starts, you can find plenty of stories where the catalyst to the story occurs a long time before the story starts. For example, for years Harry Potter fans couldn’t identify why Voldemort wanted to kill Harry, thus causing the whole story that would be Harry’s life, but after Book Five, they realized the catalyst for all of Harry’s life was Professor Trelawney’s prophecy being leaked to Voldemort, thus setting his sights on killing Harry.

“Freud was half-right: the causes of all problems are mothers and prophecies.”

Of course if you want to get technical with it, the story began in 1925 when Voldemort’s mother used love potion on Tom Riddle Sr, leading to their elopement, Voldemort’s conception, and his birth. But I digress. The point is, a story can rely on events that occurred years, decades, or in some cases centuries before the start of the actual story to act as the catalyst (I’m thinking of The Lord of the Rings trilogy when I say centuries, by the way). It’s actually a little mind-boggling, if you think about it.

So what more can be said about literary catalysts? Probably a lot more than I could probably come up with, especailly in a blog post. But to finish this post, I’d like to say that without the catalyst, the fictional stories we love so much, despise so much, debate so much, examine so much, and write fanfics to so much, just wouldn’t exist, and I think our world would be a lot less interesting to be in.

Fall Semester 2013: What’s Going On Leading Up To It

Posted: August 18, 2013 in Living and Life, Poetry, Writing
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It’s happened folks, I finally did a post about my school life that doesn’t have a sports metaphor or analogy to it.

In four days, I will start my third year at the lovely Ohio State University. Yes, my Michigan relatives, I said “lovely”, and don’t use the fact that we’re without a president to troll. Our football team will still kick your butts come Thanksgiving weekend, so go watch Downton Abbey and be glad the people on that show never get hit by giant football players wearing scarlet and grey!

So now that I’ve sent some wolverines running with their tails between their legs, let me tell you what I’m looking forward to this semester: first, I’m taking five classes this semester, though it feels like six since one is split up into a lab and a lecture. That class happens to be Introduction to Biology, which I’m predicting will be my most challenging class this semester. However I’m determined to get all A’s this semester, something that I’ve been trying to do ever since I got here. On the off-chance that doesn’t happen, I’m making sure to come away from this class with at least a B.

Another class I’m taking is an online Introduction to Sociology class. It looks like it’ll be a challenge as well, but if it’s anything like my Anthropology and Psychology classes of past terms, I’ll most likely get anywhere between a B- and an A, which is what I plan to work towards. I’m also taking an English class required by the English department called Writing For English Majors. You think with a title like that the class would be self-explanatory, but it’s not. Trust me, I’ve read the description and it probably won’t make sense till I read the syllabus. How typical is that?

And there are two classes that I’m really psyched up for this semester: a class called Science Fiction and Fantasy that’s a literature course, and Holocaust as History. The first one is as its title suggests, a class that examines themes in sci-fi and fantasy fiction and applies it to what we read and our world. There are some very interesting books in this class, and we’ll also be watching 2001: A Space Odyssey for class. Looks like I’ll be able to pull out my HAL 9000 impression for this class. And it’s also a chance to possibly advertise Reborn City.

The other class is also pretty obvious from its title. The Holocaust is the focus of my History major, so I’m looking forward to the subject matter. We’ll be reading, among other books, both volumes of the comic book Maus, which if you haven’t read I seriously suggest you do. I’m hoping to learn a lot about the Holocaust from this class, more than I already know, though I don’t think you can read or learn anything about the Holocaust without learning something new.  I can’t wait for it!

Some other things are coming up that I’m looking forward to: my roommate Morgan and I moved into our new apartment a couple days ago, so it’s going to be an adjustment for the both of us, paying rent and bills, cooking and cleaning, getting along with another person in the same living space (though we seem to get along pretty well already). Plus we’re the resident managers of our building, so there are responsibilities for that. Hopefully we can hack it!

Also there are the usual things with classes, getting homework done and doing all my requirements for my classes and whatnot. Plus I have work three days a week, so I want to get a lot done with that and keep my paycheck, maybe earn a little extra with a few extra shifts. And I want to finish Video Rage and Laura Horn, get RC out and finish the final edits on Snake.

And there’s some new stuff this semester: in September I’ll be applying for a trip abroad to see some of the most important sites of World War II Europe, and trying to get as many scholarships for said trip as possible. And I want to be a bit more sociable this semester, instead of spending every evening in front of the TV. Meet new people, make friends, and maybe go out on a date or two. Who knows? I just want to see what happens.

But of course, the ultimate goal is to get good grades. And I will work hard for that, believe me.

Finally, I would like to leave you with a little poem in honor of Morgan and I moving into our new apartment. It’s called “Night-Night Flat” and if you can’t guess what it’s based on, then you’ve been missing out, my friend.

Nighty-Night Flat:

In the land of the Bucks,
There is a two-bedroom flat.
It’s apart of a building
Which may have bats.

In the flat there’s a novelist and an engineer
The novelist writes scary stuff,
But his roommate has nothing to fear.

There’s a Doctor in the fridge,
He doesn’t travel through time or space,
His last name is Pepper,
And he has an excellent taste.

There’s a very creepy ghost over there,
Who we hope will be good to his hosts.
You see, it’s not the renters,
But the ghost who should beware.

On the TV there are four funny nerds.
The tallest one is very absurd.
And in a large rectangular box,
Is a vacuum cleaner that totally rocks.

There are several characters running out of the novelist’s imagination,
They somehow become physical and fill the room with their talk and animation.
And in the engineer’s room is a bunch of books,
Each with a very special opening paragraph for a catchy hook.

Nighty night flat.
Nighty night bats.
Nighty night building.
Nighty night other flats.

Nighty night novelist.
Nighty night engineer.
Nighty night to all their friends and peers.

Nighty night Dr. Pepper,
With your wonderful taste.
Nighty night ghost, who won’t disturb his hosts.
He just learned that the novelist’s parents are rabbis,
And quite possibly also exorcists.

“Oh, so you’re the one who stole my boxers! You’re going to get it when I sick the cheerleading team on you!”

Nighty night nerds on the TV,
We’re not really sure what the really odd one’s girlfriend sees.
Nighty night vacuum that totally rocks.
You are powerful in the way that you suck.

Nighty night characters from the novelist’s imagination.
Nighty night engineer’s books, which are good enough to cause sleep deprivation.

Nighty night Buckeyes everywhere.
And nighty night Brutus Buckeye’s underwear.
Yes, I said that, and I went there.

The Quiet Game: One Month Later

Posted: August 17, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Review, short story, Writing
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tqg cover

It has exactly been one month since The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones came out. Yes, one month. Feels like a lot longer, but it’s only a month. A pretty crazy month too. I moved into my new apartment with my roommate Morgan, I worked most days, I saw some old friends and met some new ones, and in four days the fall semester starts (more on that later).

I’ve sold 25 print paperback copies and ten or eleven digital copies so far (there’s a guy I met who said he’s going to be downloading the book tonight. Depending on how long it takes for KDP to register a download, I may not find out till tomorrow). Also, I’ve gotten another review on Amazon, this one from Jason Haxton, owner of a box that is said to be possessed by a dybbuk, a demon from Jewish folklore. You may also know him as the author of the book The Dybbuk Box, a book detailing his experiences with the box, and the movie The Possession, which is based on Haxton’s book.

Here’s what he had to say on the book, which he gave 5 stars. The title of the review is Nailed It:

I happened across The author Rami Unger about a year ago when he was researching the paranormal online.
He nailed the Dybbuk story. Write more… soon! Jason Haxton Author of “The Dibbuk Box:.

Pretty awesome, huh? And coming from an author of a really excellent book and someone who’s experienced the supernatural before, I take it as a compliment. Plus his review has brought The Quiet Game‘s rating to a 4.5 average. I cannot complain. Oh and Jason, I have a book coming out in November. If you want me to let you know about that one too, I will.

If you’re interested in reading The Quiet Game, check it out on Amazon or Smashwords. And however you feel about the book, please write a review if you have the time. I always appreciate feedback, whether it be positive or negative feedback that I’m hearing.

Hope things are going well with you tonight. I’ve got another blog post and some writing to do before I go to bed tonight. Wish me luck.

An Interview With Some Friends–Part 2

Posted: August 11, 2013 in Journalism, Living and Life, Writing
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Earlier today I posted the first half of an interview made by some friends of mine, Rui Li and Josh Mangel. Now I’d like to post the second part, which was recorded and then transcribed on July 1st, before The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones came out.

Before you read it, I’d like to point out that part of the ending of the interview is a little hard to read. That’s because there was some problems with the audio that recorded the interview, and what was said was therefore unintelligible. What is here is my friend Josh’s attempt to get down exactly what was said. So please pardon that, and just enjoy what you read, should you find yourself reading the entire interview.

Once again, thanks to Josh and Rui. I really appreciate you two taking the time to come over to my place and interview me about my writing. It means a lot that you show an interest in it.

~~~

Rami Ungar, a young up-and-coming horror author, has been writing stories since he was the tender age of six. He has one book already published, The Quiet Game: Five Tales That Chill Your Bones, and another coming out in November, Reborn City, a science fiction novel. He also writes for two blogs, one that showcases his personal work, and one that offers advice to self-publishing authors. Rami is sharp as a knife, talented, and certainly has the uncompromising attitude needed for a writer.

We covered several topics with Rami, and he provided us with a wealth of information on writing and the publishing process. The first part of this interview focuses on Rami’s personal story and his influences and experiences, and the second half covers publishing and some of Rami’s other secrets.

Take us through the publishing process. How does that work? I don’t know very much about publishing, and it seems like kind of a crazy process.

Would you like to hear it for a novel or a short story or an article, what?

All (laughing). Sorry.

We could be here for a while.

I think it’s interesting, for people who are reading an interview, because not a lot of people know how that happens.

Well, for a novel… publishing novels has changed over the past couple of years. How much do you know about indie publishing?

Nothing.

Well, it used to be that you wrote a novel, and you had to get an agent, and that agent had to find you a publisher. That publisher had to publish your novel for you, and the marketing department had to do some work in order to make sure that people actually knew about your novel, and bought it. Having a publisher depended on how well your novel did, so if your novel didn’t do well, your publisher could drop you. With indie publishing, authors are able to create novels on their computer, design a cover, and distribute and market themselves. Basically, they’re doing all the work, and they’re making most of the profits. Amazon has really helped with this. Amazon offers the chance for authors to get out there and actually write themselves, publish themselves, and distribute themselves. I’m using Amazon myself in order to distribute my own work, so it’s actually been very helpful. The publishing industry is reacting to that. The Big Six, as they call the big six publishing companies, which includes groups like Penguin, or Doubleday, Random House; they’re reacting to this in ways they never expecting to, because they never saw this coming, and so they have to react. They’re letting fewer books in now, they’re publishing less, because they’re driven by profit, the books they believe will make money. Authors who have really good novels, but publishing houses aren’t accepting them, they’re like, forget the publishing house, I’m going to self-publish. They’re kind of facilitating their own deaths.

So, it’s very similar to the music industry in a lot of ways.

Yeah, the artists are taking control.

What do you think about – I don’t want to admit piracy, but if you go on the Internet, you can read dozens of interesting things just by clicking the button for free. What incentive is there for audiences to read something being published, something that costs money?

Well, the thing is, piracy is taking published works and distributing them illegally, so I’d like to think that the whole legal thing is keeping people from reading pirated work. A lot of authors choose to get copyrights, which is something that I recommend. You pay a small fee to get a copyright for your work, and the legal protection is very good. I’ve copyrighted my work, and so far it’s served me well; people can’t use any of my work without getting in trouble.

Who taught you these things? How did you learn the publishing process?

It’s all out there on the Internet, there are blogs devoted to teaching people how to publish on their own; in fact, I write for a blog.

What’s the blog called?

Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors. It’s me and four other writers helping other writers writing articles that are meant to help other authors publish on their own. I’ve only been working for them for the past couple of weeks. I don’t get paid for this, but I love doing it. I write articles for them as they come to me, and I publish them and hopefully they help people to write better.

Have you ever had anyone who read an article write you back and say that the information that you shared helped?

Well, the thing is with a blog that people are free to comment, and they do, so I’ve gotten a lot of feedback on my work, most of it, thank God, has been very positive. For novels, though, I often do what’s called a beta reader, and that is, I’ll ask someone, usually a friend who’s also a writer, or maybe just a very avid reader, to take a look at the novel, or sometimes a short story, and to give me feedback. I often get very helpful feedback that tells me what I should change, what I should rewrite, what I should keep…

When you do the blog and the website stuff, sometimes there are very hurtful comments. Have you ever been hurt by an online comment?

I once wrote an article on people that had been very rude to an author because she was against female genital mutilation, sometimes called female circumcision. They didn’t want her to be against this unless she was also against male circumcision. I wrote an article about that, and some people found the article, and they kept trying to convince me that male circumcision and female circumcision were just products of the devil. I just said, that’s not my belief, one may have health benefits, the other is actually very sexist in nature and serves no purpose other than to subjugate women and cause them harm.

How and when did you have the idea to publish a book, to write a book? Did you get the idea yourself or did your parents or family suggest it to you?

Well, I’ve always wanted to be a published novelist, but the whole idea of self-publishing came to me over time. At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go this route, but I thought maybe I should… after hearing from people who had had positive experiences with self-publishing, I said, “Heck! Let’s do it!”

The Quiet Game is coming out in seventeen days. I’ve got another novel, my science fiction novel, Reborn City, is coming out in November. Pretty soon I’ll be able to start the process to self-publish my serial killer novel, Snake.

When you self-publish something, do you print copies yourself?

Amazon has a service called Print-On-Demand, which means that someone will order a book, and Amazon will print the order then and there and the send it to them. A little bit of the money from the sale goes to actually printing a copy of the book. With e-books, it’s even easier, because it’s just like replicating a file.

I know that a lot of this is probably already on the blog that you wrote about helping authors self-publish, but do you think that there is a future out there for a lot of the young authors? If you were giving specific advice to young authors about the very best things they could do, the best way to become an author…

Well, to become an author takes a lot of dedication: a lot of reading, a lot of writing, and a lot of passion. I would mostly say that if you want to become an author, you have to read a lot. You have to read many books from many different people. You have to write a lot, and try to learn as much as you can about writing as possible. Most importantly, you can’t lose your nerve; you have to keep going, because you’re basically typing four-letter words forty thousand times. There’s forty thousand words in your average novel, usually a lot more.

What have you done to market yourself? Do you talk to people even though you don’t want to, just to let them know what you’ve done so that others will share your story?

Marketing myself is actually not as difficult as it sounds. Sure, talking to people and telling them about my novels is part of it, but there are many other ways to market yourself; for one thing, I use Twitter a lot to get people interested in my work. These past couple of days, I’ve been using Facebook and Twitter to count down the number of days until The Quiet Game comes out. I also write a blog, a personal blog about my writing that has close to three hundred people following it and hopefully some of them will read my book. As I said, I also write for another blog that helps self-publish authors, so maybe some people will get interested through that.

Since you believe in God, do you carry around a personal item that can protect you from other things, like an amulet?

I do wear a necklace, my necklace is a mezuzah – that’s an object in Judaism that’s put on doorposts – it’s supposed to be like a protective amulet of sorts. I usually wear that all the time, and I feel it will protect me when I wear it. I’m very happy I have it. It was a bar mitzvah gift. I also have a ring with some words on the Talmud on it.

What does it say?

“He who saves a life, it is as if he saves the world entire.” Considering that I kill off a lot of the characters in my books, I have not been doing very well with that commandment (laughing)!

Have you ever wrote anything that opposes Judaism and been criticized by your father?

My dad has wanted me to write stuff based upon my own life or based upon Judaism, but things that go against Judaism in general, I’m not sure that I’ve ever written anything exactly like that that. I have written scenes full of murder, blood, and gore; I have written from the perspectives of Christians, Muslims, others. I also did write a sex scene once! It was between two people that weren’t married to each other, and Judaism does encourage people to wait until they’re married.

Would you say there are other things like Judaism that have influenced you that don’t necessarily relate to horror stories?

Things that have influenced me?

Some people would say, “I read R.L. Stine all the time when I was a kid, so I just loved R.L. Stine.” But have there been things that influenced you to write horror that have nothing to do with horror?

I do read a lot of Japanese comics as well, and those range so much in genre from comedy, to romance, to action – I’ve been able to derive ideas from those. There are stories that take place in other universes or the past, stories that involve magic, and stories that give me a glimpse as to how certain people view romance.

Is there anything else – maybe a park you like and its scenery, or a building, and you imagine the building…

I also use meditation. That’s helped me think more clearly when I write, so that’s helped.

Do you always meditate before you write?

I meditate twice a day, every day. I feel more creative and focused, when I meditate, so try and do it right before I start writing.

What I wanted to know was if there are some writers who have similar problems with writing: they don’t have a regular schedule, they sometimes sleep at night, sometimes during the day, and they don’t want to exercise because they want to just keep writing.

I’m sure there are people like that but I don’t know any personally. Most writers are on a pretty consistent schedule.

Do you have a pretty consistent schedule?

Yeah, I’d be worried if I didn’t have a pretty consistent schedule. It might point to a health problem, it might point to an unhealthy lifestyle, or it might point to something entirely different, I’m not sure. It depends on the circumstance.

How were you educated about writing before college?

I just wrote! I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. I did it for the love of writing.

I meant to ask you that before, actually. Was there someone in particular who taught you about writing?

No, the school I went to didn’t have a lot of writing classes. In fact, we only had one writing workshop in fifth grade, and afterwards everything was meant to prepare you for writing essays in college. I didn’t really have any training in fiction, not until college. But getting this far without that training; people tell me that’s something else. I’ve got to say I got where I am with the support of my friends and my family.

Do you believe you have a talent for writing?

I believe that I’ve developed a talent for writing.

Do you have any events coming up, or readings?

Readings, no. I am trying to develop a stand-up comedy act (laughing). So if it’s any good, we’ll have to see. The Quiet Game is coming out on July 17th. It will be available from Amazon and other retailers in paperback and e-book format. The price is yet to be set; I should set it soon. Reborn City, my science fiction novel, will be available November 1st, so I’m going to be doing a lot work to get ready for that, including creating a Facebook page.

Do you have a favorite writer?

Oh my God, that’s a tough question. I really like Stephen King and Anne Rice.

I know a lot of famous people, before they become famous, they really admire another famous person and sometimes they imitate them until they realize that they need to find their true personality. Did you do that?

Yeah, there were times were I sounded a lot like a hybrid of Stephen King and Anne Rice. But over time, that’s really changed, so that I sound less like them and more like me. By sounding like me, I’ve been published a few times: short stories in magazines. I like my style as it is now; I hope to improve it over time. Like I said, my writing’s improved, and I like writing like I write. My style. Rami Ungar style.

I read some of your stories; I liked them.

Thank you.

I read one about the succubus and Hunter.

Oh yeah, that one.

I liked that one.

You would (laughing).

What do you mean by that (feigns insult)?

Well, you did mention the succubus, and those are…

What are those?

They’re demonesses that have sex with you while you sleep.

Oh, I didn’t know that.

Can you repeat that?

Demonesses that have sex with you while you sleep.

Can you say that again (laughing)?

Now you’re being sarcastic!

How can that be?

Well, they’re not real.

Oh, it’s not a real thing.

Well, it might be real, it might not be. You never know… He’s actually not human, he’s actually a space alien.

(unintelligible muttering)

Actually he’s a space alien. I’m pretty sure I saw her walking around with two antennae.

Oh, is that how you say it? I thought it was antenna.

Antennae. (pause) Well, thanks for coming over.

Thank you very much.

Thanks.

 

An Interview With Some Friends–Part 1

Posted: August 11, 2013 in Journalism, Living and Life, Writing
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About a month back, I had an interview with some friends, Josh Mangel and Rui Li, who were interviewing various people for a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with a class they were both taking. The interview is in two parts, mostly because all together it’s about 14 pages worth of interview. And here’s the interview’s first half, which was recorded at my house one lovely Wednesday afternoon with some soda and snacks in my living room.

Thanks to Josh Mangel and Rui Li for interviewing me and sending me the transcripts. I appreciate all you’ve done for me and I hope this project of yours was a success.

For all readers, please be aware that the interview was recorded July 1st, meaning that it was about 17 days before The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones came out. Just something to keep in mind. Also, the bold parts are questions from Josh and Rui, while the regular script is my responses. Just for clarification’s sake.

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Rami Ungar, a young up-and-coming horror author, has been writing stories since he was the tender age of six. He has one book already published, The Quiet Game: Five Tales That Chill Your Bones, and another coming out in November, Reborn City, a science fiction novel. He also writes for two blogs, one that showcases his personal work, and one that offers advice to self-publishing authors. Rami is sharp as a knife, talented, and certainly has the uncompromising attitude needed for a writer.

We covered several topics with Rami, and he provided us with a wealth of information on writing and the publishing process. The first part of this interview focuses on Rami’s personal story and his influences and experiences, and the second half covers publishing and some of Rami’s other secrets.

How did you get started writing?

I think it was Harry Potter. I read it when I was five or something and just got hooked on it. I wanted to write like that. I wanted to write about magic, and mystery, and I’ve been writing ever since. Though, when I got into horror I got into a different area.

What attracted you to writing horror?

Well, you know, there’s a funny story about that. I’ve always enjoyed scaring people – I’ve always enjoyed sneaking up behind them and going “Boo!” Sneaking up behind people isn’t always acceptable, so I guess writing scary stuff is a better alternative. And I like doing it – I really enjoy it.

Did you decide to write out of a motivation to become famous?

I think that influences me a little bit. I think that influences every writer who’s ever gone through publication – to be the famous guy whose books are in all the bookstores, who’s recognizable anywhere on a busy street. But it’s really a lot less about that and a lot more about writing what I love and sharing it with the world. I’ve got a collection of short stories coming out in about seventeen days and I’m just looking forward to sharing these stories that I’ve written with the world. So if I can make a little money off it that would be nice.

What’s your collection of short stories going to be called? Can you take us through them?

The Quiet Game: Five Tales That Chill Your Bones. It’s five separate stories that I wrote mostly over winter break. One was written over the beginning of spring semester. One, The Quiet Game, the titular short story, is about an all-girls school in the middle of nowhere that wakes up one morning cut off from the rest of the world. Everyone’s deaf, and they can’t hear a word. They soon find out that there’s something strange going on at the school, something very sinister.

Another short story is called Addict, and it’s about a man with sex addiction who’s trying to go cold turkey. He has some really freaky hallucinations when he attempts it. Another short story is called I’m Going To Be The Next James Bond, but it doesn’t have a lot to do with James Bond. It’s about a bunch of kids who go into a hospital, an abandoned hospital, in order to prove they’re brave and the freaky stuff that happens there.

There’s another short story that I’m really proud of called In The Lady Ogre’s Den. It follows a child with autism who’s in the hospital and the crazy stuff that happens there. Really terrible stuff happens to him there. The last short story is called Samson Wise’s Curse, and it involves a dybbuk – that a spirit from Jewish mythology, it’s kind of like a possessing ghost.

Is there something about being scared that attracts you personally? Do you enjoy being frightened?

Well, yes actually. Some people enjoy having a drink every now and then, some people enjoy skydiving – me, I enjoy being scared through a story. That gives me something like a natural high, and I really enjoy that. I went to see World War Z last weekend with my mom and my sister. There are some really scary parts and I was enjoying myself every minute. I had to have my hand cover my mouth, cause I was freaked out – like, what’s gonna happen? I was really enjoying myself.

What would you say is the best zombie movie?

You know, I don’t actually watch a lot of zombie movies or read a lot of zombie novels…

Best horror movie, in general…

Oh, that’s a tough one.

Best five. Or three, or…

The original Amityville Horror is definitely an awesome movie, because you really don’t understand what’s causing the haunting, or why it’s happening – a lot of the stuff that’s happening is very mysterious, and that just serves to make it scarier. At one point during the movie, the male lead, he sees a giant pig with glowing eyes looking out of a window, and just sends a silent message to him, and we don’t know what that message is or why that pig is there. It’s just really scary.

Also, there are movies like Halloween or Friday The 13th or Nightmare On Elm Street. They’re much bloodier than a lot of other horror films but they really scare people, and if you see the original films, they’re very good. They’re really well thought out.

Do you think that all of your stories need magic in some form?

Not necessarily. I’ve written a novel about a serial killer in New York City, and there’s no magic at all. It’s basically humans against humans.

Do you think that in some ways that’s the scariest thing?

For me, the darkness that humanity is capable of, the evil, that is fascinating. I mean, I don’t like it at all when it’s really happening. I don’t really like it when there’s an actual killer on the loose, or someone’s actually planning murder. But, within a literary context, it’s fascinating to think about what cause someone to want to become a killer – what causes someone to want to do something so heinous, so atrocious.

Overall, what are you scared of the most in the world?

Overall – that’s really tough. I’ve got to say I’m not too fond of wasps, or bees, or large spiders. I can deal with a small spider, once I get used to the fact that there’s one right over my shoulder and I’m like – uggh! But large spiders like tarantulas just freak me out.

I think that all of those things that you are scared of are just because they can cause you to die. Would you say that death scares a lot of people?

I think that death is a huge factor in what people are afraid of. It harkens back to our survival instincts, to look for ways to live, and fear developed from that. But, there are a lot of things that can’t hurt us but scare people to death. That makes it much more interesting – something that can’t hurt you, like the sound of thunder. That can scare people to death. The fact that that happens, that people are afraid of thunder, or people are afraid of water, even just a small kiddie pool – that fascinates me to some degree.

Talking about death, do you think that you would be more afraid of your own death or the death of family members?

Definitely more of my family members. I’m not afraid of death, per se – I’m not willing to meet it anytime soon! But I’m very spiritual, I do believe in life after death, so I’m not afraid of dying. Though, like I said, I’m not willing to meet it anytime soon. I’d be much more concerned about the death of a family member.

So have you thought about how most others are afraid of the death of their family members, so when you write, you write about causing the death of their family members instead of them? I think that now most scary stories just cause the death of the people that’s reading the book.

Yeah, or it’s already realized, like in I Am Legend or something.

That’s a really complicated question, cause when I write, I’m not necessarily thinking that I’m going to write it this way so that people are more afraid or their family members’ deaths or their own deaths. I’m writing in the way that I feel will cause the most terror. For my serial killer novel, which is called Snake, there’s a scene – I’m not gonna get into too much detail, but there’s a scene where one of the characters, one of the killer’s victims, is horribly wounded, and that terrified me a little when I read it. When I read what I had written I was actually kind of afraid. So, I’m aiming to cause the most fear, I’m not aiming to cause any particular kind of fear. But I’m aiming to cause fear in itself.

Do you ever sit around, and just think of normal everyday household objects or actions that could cause fear if changed to be just the right way? Like a picture like that, if it broke and you slipped on a puddle of water, and you landed in the broken glass, that would be horrifying.

Yeah, but I don’t usually think like that; I think that that’s more random chance, and random chance isn’t usually terrifying. People aren’t usually afraid of random chance. They’re more afraid of what may be lurking around the corner of their eye, or what they feel could actually harm them or has intent to harm them.

Based upon the description of your short stories, it seems like you have a lot of topics related to kids. So you write a lot about kids and children – could that be because you have a personal story from when you were little?

Actually, yes. Though I don’t always write because of that. Children are much more easily scared than adults are. They’re afraid of things that don’t exist or aren’t tangible: the dark, the bogeyman, and the monster in my closet. Kids are much more easy to scare, much more easy to influence. That’s why they make great protagonists in scary stories.

Do you think that people are more scared of the tangible things or the intangible things and why?

I have a theory that as we grow up we actually just change our fears to be more rational. The monster under my bed, the thing living in my closet…

It’s the IRS now (laughing).

…the IRS, terrorists, an overprotective government. We change our fears to suit what we believe is rational or irrational.

So your target audience is children?

My target audience is not children because some of these novels are definitely not for children. In fact, I would argue that none of them are for children. They’re for young adults and full adults (laughing). People who have a sense of maturity and are attracted to scary stuff but aren’t so easily influenced by that and it warps them. Say, I would never give one of my books to a ten-year old and say “go read” because I know it’s gonna freak them out if they read it.

Could you share your personal experience from when you were little that served as the origin for your love of scary stories?

Every horror writer seems to have one of those stories. Stephen King, actually – he’s considered one of the greatest horror writers in our time and he saw a friend of his hit by a train, supposedly, and that caused him to get into horror. Me, my story’s a lot less bloody. You see, when I was young, couldn’t have been more than six, these two – I was at the synagogue one Saturday afternoon, cause, I’m Jewish, and I go to synagogue a lot – and I was wandering around. These two staff members, these two people who were hired by the synagogue to work there on Saturday mornings – like take books that were left in the aisles. This was before I moved to Columbus. These two staff members, they decided to play a prank on me. So, one of them snuck ahead of me without me noticing and the other one was behind me – there was a hallway where you could do that – and this was near the furnace room, or the boiler room, or whatever you call that. There was a humming noise going through the walls, and they just gave me this weird smile, a smile I would not see until I saw Heath Ledger as the Joker (laughing). It was that freaky. And they say to me,  “You hear that sound?” And I, being no more than six, and scared, just nod my head, because I’m freaked out, and they’re like “It’s the sound of de-eath! Death is coming for you!” (laughing) That humming became the sound of buzz saws in my ears – it sounded like buzz saws or chainsaws coming from the other room – and I just ran! I ran and I ran and I didn’t stop running until I was halfway between one end of the synagogue and the other half, and that’s a big distance for a six-year old.

A few weeks later, I went to that exact same spot, just to show that I wasn’t going to die. I went through, I survived, and I guess subconsciously I reacted by learning to love horror, learning to love scaring people, and learning to love to be scared.

How do you think your background, particularly your Jewish heritage, has influenced writing horror?

Well, that’s a really good question. A lot of my stories have to do with the supernatural, and I would argue that despite Judaism and Christianity not really believing in anything like ghosts, they’re very magical religions – I mean, the splitting of the Red Sea, or the ten plagues – that is one of the best horror stories out there. The ten plagues…

What about the sacrifice of Isaac (as a horror story)?

That would make a great thriller, if I didn’t already know the ending. I would argue that religions are very magical, because they’re filled with stories of people doing amazing things. Occasionally, spirituality does appear in my stories. I’ve also written a sci-fi novel, and the main character is a very religious Muslim. Like I said, I’ve written a short story including a demon of Jewish origin, a dybbuk, so that would also count a s being influenced by my Judaism.

So, just now, you also said your short story involves an all-girls school and a sexually abusive man. Does all the sex and girls have some origin in your real life? Like, you like a girl and…

The one, Addict, which is about a man with sex addiction, that’s actually based on the experiences of a friend of mine. He has suffered from sex addiction for a number of years. He knows about this short story, he’s ok with it, but he’s suffered from it for a number of years, so that could be an influence. As for the all-girls school story, that’s just from… I just thought it was an interesting concept. I mean, from what I understand, private schools, especially ones where you live on campus, can be very closed; people can be a very small community. If you cut that off from the world, and you introduce some very unsettling circumstances, strange things can happen, things that wouldn’t happen in a normal society. It’s very similar to what Stephen King did with Under The Dome, only I did it very differently.

Do you think that in some cases horror is not universal? Like, if you put it in a certain place… someone in New York doesn’t have the same experience as someone in the Midwest, they don’t have the same fears.

Well, that’s something that’s the job of the author to get the point across to the reader no matter who they are. So I’m not so much worried about a man in New York understanding the reasoning of a man in the Midwest, it’s more can anyone understand this (laughing). If people are understanding what I’m writing, if they’re able to identify, to empathize with the character then I’m doing my job.

So, you are writing for other people to read. If no one read what you write, would you still write?

Probably. I’ve got so many stories in my head that I need to get them out on paper, just so that they can get out of my head and somewhere else. But I think that with the publishing industry as it is today, a single person at home has the ability to create a novel all by themselves and distribute it to the entire world. There’s always a chance that there will be someone who’s going to read your work, you just have to make sure that people know that you’ve written something and that it is available somewhere.

Have you ever felt so sucked into your stories that you forgot your own life and the real world?

I’ve sometimes got very into my story and spent hours just writing. I’ve never exactly just sat down and read my own work for hours on end. I do get very much into my stories. I’ll usually go around planning them for several days before I write them, and when I do, it usually just flows out. I can get very taken with other ideas as well.

Have you taken character ideas from people you know and directly incorporated them into stories?

You mean, put a friend in a novel? I’ve done that before, but only for certain reasons, because there are a lot of problems with actually putting people you know in a story. They may get a huge head (laughing) if they find out there’s a character based on them in a story, or they may object to how that character is treated. They’ll say, “I don’t think my character should do this or that” or “Why is my character a ginger?” or “Why is my character killed off? I want him to live! Why isn’t he the main character?” Oy yoi yoi! (laughing) But there are circumstances in which I will put someone I know into a story as a character. For example, one time at my high school they were doing an auction to raise money for the yearbook, and I auctioned off a role in my sci-fi novel. It didn’t sell for a lot, but a friend of mine did buy that spot, and I wrote them in, and I actually really did end up liking that character, so they may appear in the sequel. I actually ended up making him the villain’s assistant.

How many stories have you written altogether?

Oh my god, I don’t even want to put a number on that. I’ve been writing since I was five (laughing) and there are stories that have been lost and never found again, and there are stories that haven’t been published, there are stories that are published, there are stories that are in the midst of getting to be published.

Video Rage: One-Sixth Of The Way In

Posted: July 30, 2013 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I was hampered by a little writer’s block today, but after a pasta dinner, a nice walk and a shower, I was able to get a lot of writing in. And I’m happy to say, I got through Chapter Six of Video Rage, the sequel to Reborn City. Like I’ve stated previously, Video Rage takes place about two or so weeks after RC ends and a lot has changed for the characters. People are pushed in ways they’ve never been pushed before, secrets are revealed, and the whole world is after them now. It’s a pretty crazy trip, but it’s fun writing.

Writing these first six chapters has been a lot of work. I had to re-immerse myself into the world of Reborn City, and since the plot of this novel takes place outside of Reborn City, I had to invent a lot of new aspects in terms of that universe’s society and culture. It was a little difficult at first, especially writing a good hook for the opening, along with showing what the Hydras have been up to and how they’ve changed since RC closed, but now it feels almost natural to go back into that world. Kind of like jumping down the rabbit hole, I guess.

I also had to split up Chapter Four into two parts while I was writing it. I realized that as a chapter it would be packing too much in, so I had to split it into two separate chapters. In terms of character development and storyline, I feel it was the right thing to do. I still have 31 more chapters to write instead of 30 like the original outline intended, but it’ll be 31 better chapters thanks to the split, if you ask me.

Tomorrow I hope to start Chapter Seven, if I can get through Chapter Six of Laura Horn quickly. Working on two novels at once has its drawbacks, but I’m getting a lot of work done, and I’m having fun with it. If I can, I’d like to make a habit of working on two novels at once from now on, if I can. Of course, when senior year comes around and I have a thesis to write, I may have to focus on just one novel! Good thing that’s a year away, right?

I hope to have more good news tomorrow. In the meantime, good night and have a lovely sleep.

Characters Taking Over The Story

Posted: July 22, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
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I belong to a group of suspense and thriller writers on Facebook, and occasionally the subject has come up in discussion on characters taking over the plot of the story and acting in defiance to the author’s expectations for the story. Until recently, I had no idea what that meant, though I may or may not have said that I did. With my stories, especially my novels, I wrote an outline, then I wrote the story. The characters mostly followed the outline, and any changes, such as certain areas of the climax of Reborn City, I felt were my own creative decision.

It wasn’t until this morning, waiting for the bus to work, standing in the pouring rain, that I had a little epiphany of the subject. I remembered when I first started writing the outline for Reborn City, back in high school when publishing a book was still just a very far-away dream. Originally I’d planned for bad-boy Rip to be the star of the show, and Zahara Bakur to be the deuterogamist (secondary protagonist for those of you who don’t know that term). But as I started outlining the novel, I saw that Zahara was taking up more of my attention and more of the story than Rip was. Consequently as time went by, Zahara went from deuterogamist to co-protagonist, and by the end of the outline, she’d gone to leading lady, with Rip being the deuterogamist.

Reborn City

And you know what? I thought the novel benefited from that. Sure, the Hydra leaders have a plethora of problems, and having Zahara around doesn’t exactly make them easier. But I think they benefit in some ways from Zahara, and she’s the one who goes through the biggest transformation of all. Heck, I’m only two chapters into the second book of the series (three if I can stay on track for tonight), and I’ve already noticed that she has a confidence that wasn’t present in the first book.

Sure enough, my characters are having more of a say in how the story turns out than I am. If anything, Zahara’s dictating her story to me, rather than I’m coming up with it. It’s a weird feeling, but it’s also kind of fun and exciting, and I get to experience my characters’ growths, decisions, and tribulations with them. And isn’t following a character through all that just the reason we pick up books in the first place and read them?

I’m looking forward to see what happens from here on out. I’m also hoping to see if I’ll write any more stories where the characters do more of the dictating than I do. If I do, it’ll probably be sometime soon, especially since I’m working on two novels at once!

I’ve Been Using Drones Recently

Posted: July 18, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Yes, you read that title right. I’ve been using drones recently. I started using them sometime this past weekend, and I’ve been using them almost every night since. Mostly I fly them around certain sections of the state of Colorado, usually near Interstate 70. I’ve fired a few missile and several bullets. The drones were fun to pilot, but they had a bad habit of getting destroyed, and it’s not really my fault. Still, I might get blamed for it, so I won’t be piloting drones for a while.

This is actually the model of drone–or a variation of it–that I used.

Now you are probably wondering variations of “What the f**k is he talking about?” and “How the hell did he get his hands on drones?” Well the answer is simple: I wrote them into the second chapter of Video Rage as part of a fun little battle sequence. I thought it’d be interesting to use drones in this chapter, especially since drones are still relatively new to us now and many people, myself included, are at the very least a little wary of drones and their use by the military, if not downright scared of them. It ended up working out very well, because the drones showed how powerless my protagonists can be even with their powers, and how hard they have to work to stay alive.

Got you, didn’t I?

The drones also allowed me to do something I planned for this novel: cause friction. Something happens to one of the characters during the drone attack, and it causes some tension in the tight-knit group of people who star in this novel of mine. Later on there will be more tension between the Hydras, and we’ll see what happens when that tension hits a boiling point. Believe me, things will get ugly as a result.

I’ll be using drones again later in VR. The drones in Chapter 2 are very similar to drones used today by the US military, but in later chapters I plan on using new drones that the military probably hasn’t dreamt of yet (or if they have, my friend Matthew Williams will know of them). It’ll be interesting to see how the use of drones will work out, both for the story and for the characters.

At the very least, it’ll make for some interesting reading.

Now I’m going to take a break, shower, and then sit down for a movie. Tomorrow I’ll try to start the next chapter of Laura Horn. Things will heat up over in that storyline as well.

 

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