short story | Rami Ungar The Writer

Posts Tagged ‘short story’

The Quiet Game: Five Days Till The Release!

Posted: July 12, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: entertainment, living and life, publishing, scary stuff, short story, The Quiet Game, writing

5 days to go.

At home, the cable, phone, and Internet is still out, no thanks to a storm on Wednesday that knocked all three out. I have a feeling that it’ll all be restored tomorrow during the Sabbath, when traditional jewish homes like my own don’t use cable, phones, or the Internet. Wouldn’t that be typical?

But enough about that. it’s five days till The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones is available, and I cannot wait! Already I’ve had several people come up to me or email me or message me or whatever saying they cannot wait to either download the book or get it in the mail. As for me, I’m just excited that my book is coming out, that people want to read it, and all this hard work I’ve been putting in since I was ten is paying off. In five days, I can consider myself a published writer with a book on the shelves.

Or on Amazon. It’s print-on-demand, so if a lot of people and a couple of libraries order copies, I guess I can call it print-on-demand then.

Assuming the Internet’s working tomorrow, I’ll write another post for the four-day mark. Until then, I’m counting down the hours!

The Quiet Game: Out In Six Days

Posted: July 11, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: entertainment, living and life, publishing, scary stuff, short story, social media, The Quiet Game, writing

Coming out in 6 days. Who’s pumped?

I had a special post prepared for yesterday, the one-week mark before The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones came out. But there was a huge thunderstorm and I lost my cable, Internet, and phone service, which made me unable to write and post the article. And it was going to be a good one too, with a short clip from the movie The Ring. You know, “seven days”? I did manage to get that clip on Twitter and Facebook though, so that’s something.

Anyway, there’s less than a week till The Quiet Game is available for download and/or purchase. The culmination of eight months of hard work and editing, it’ll be available as a print-paperback for $5.50 and as an e-book for $1.29. Five short stories, all pretty scary (or at the very least, pretty weird). I’m really looking forward to putting it out next week and I hope everybody enjoys reading it.

If you are interested in reading The Quiet Game and would like to know more, pleas visit the Short Story Collections page for a brief look at what is offered. I garauntee it’ll be worth the read. And if you would like to celebrate with me when The Quiet Game comes out, I’ll be throwing an online party on this blog the day The Quiet Game comes out. What will be there? Plenty: digital food and drinks, funny, groovy, and scary videos, and of course a link to the guest of honor: The Quiet Game‘s Amazon page.

Until then, look forward for more countdown posts and news from yours truly!

Individual Pages For My Books

Posted: July 7, 2013 in ideas, Living and Life, Writing
Tags: blogging, entertainment, ideas, living and life, novel, Reborn City, short story, Snake, The Quiet Game, writing

I was reading a post on Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors the other day and one of the authors, Ruth Nordin, suggested that if I were to have a page for my books, I should have individual pages for my books, or at least individual books for each series and each stand alone novel. I decided that was a good idea, so I went ahead and created three new pages, one for short story collections, one for the Reborn City series, and one for Snake.

I think this was a very good idea, and I’m glad I did it. The page for short story collections leaves me a chance to put in more entries if I ever put out another collection of short stories (and there’s always a possibility of that, believe me), and so does the page for Reborn City and its sequels. And as for the page for Snake, I only wrote a fuller description for the entry, but I think it’s more enticing than what I had before, distinguishes the Snake as a protagonist and lets people know what the conflict is without giving too much away. I rather like it.

If you want to read the pages, please scroll up and look at the entries next to Home and About Me. They should be there.

Buried Alive: Finished

Posted: July 4, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: entertainment, films, online magazine, publishing, scary stuff, short story, writing

This doesn’t happen in the short story, but it gets the idea across.

Today–and especially this evening–was like a writing whirlwind. I sat in front of my computer, at times struggling to finish this short story. But as I kept working and as the story got further along, I started writing faster and faster, not caring about word counts or anything around me. I had classical and opera music in my ears and I was putting words onto the page like there was no tomorrow. And about fifteen minutes ago, at around 11:35 PM, I stopped and looked at the manuscript I’d written.

I’d finished Buried Alive, a short story about a teenage girl who is buried alive in the backyard with her mother and sister by her abusive stepfather. I stood back and I felt a sense of satisfaction.

At 5,550 words, this is definitely one of the toughest short stories I’ve ever written. For one thing, it was in the first person, which is definitely not one of my best tenses to use (even writing in second person for Addict was easier). And it’s not easy to imagine oneself in a coffin, let alone in a coffin with two other people. People are good about not thinking about unpleasant things, even horror writers, so it was tough to get into the mind of a girl in that situation.

But eventually I managed to figure it out and I just started writing. And as the story went on and things got more desperate for the character, I made things creepier and stranger. I think I ventured into a sort of zombie fiction near the end, but I really don’t think you could call this a zombie story. It certainly got interesting, and I’m very proud of this story. I actually think it’s one of my best short stories, and I’m not going to let a high word count get in the way of me finding a home for it.

So tomorrow I’ll see if a certain friend of mine who has read plenty of my short stories wouldn’t mind taking a look at this one. I think he’ll like it, especially since I don’t really explain some of the weirder and scarier aspects of the story. But then again, one thing I learned from The Amityville Horror, you don’t always need to explain the source of the creepiness to make it super-creepy.

If this short story goes anywhere, I’ll let you guys know. Wish me luck.

The Quiet Game: 2 Weeks To Publication!!!

Posted: July 3, 2013 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: entertainment, publishing, scary stuff, short story, The Quiet Game, writing

Coming out in two weeks. Who’s excited?

As I prepare for a wonderful Independence Day tomorrow, I’m also preparing for something just as great in 14 days. The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones will be coming out in 2 weeks, and I am super-excited. Plenty of people have told me that they cannot wait to read it. You know what? I cannot wait for them to read it!

It’s been a crazy process since December 2012, when I started writing what would become the five short stories appearing in The Quiet Game. I’ve published a few short stories in some magazines and one on Amazon, I’ve learned to use Photoshop and CreateSpace, I’ve waited for copyrights to come through (sometimes very late), I’ve bugged people to get back to me on my short stories and tell me what I should change, I’ve created a book trailer and a Facebook page for the book, and now I’m counting down the days until The Quiet Game comes out.

So what do I hope will happen in two weeks? I hope that I’ll have some decent sales, a couple of good reviews and maybe one or two average or bad reviews to convince potential readers that those reviews weren’t just written by fans who want to make me happy. I hope that friends will come up to me and say, “Oh Rami I read your book” and then give me an honest response on what they thought, rather than saying “Oh I bought a copy, haven’t read it yet though” or “I’ve been meaning to get a copy but I’ve been busy/I forgot.” (I’ve gotten that response once or twice for past works).

But most of all, I’m hoping that people will read the book and tell me what they think. I think that’s every writer’s sincerest desire when their books are published.

Well, we’ll see in two weeks. Until then, I’m counting down the days and spreading the word.

A Conundrum With Resurrection

Posted: July 1, 2013 in short story, Writing
Tags: editing, entertainment, films, ideas, novel, scary stuff, short story, writing

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m not so sure.

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

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

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

The Benefits I’ve Gotten Through Blogging

Posted: July 1, 2013 in Living and Life
Tags: authors, blogging, celebrities, college life, entertainment, journalism, living and life, novel, publishing, Reborn City, short story, social media, The Quiet Game, writing

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

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

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

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

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

Have you downloaded a copy yet?

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

The Quiet Game: 3 Weeks To Publication

Posted: June 26, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: entertainment, publishing, scary stuff, short story, The Quiet Game, writing

More good news after the SCOTUS verdict! The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones, will be available to purchase in both print paperback and ebook format. I’m very excited about The Quiet Game getting published soon, as it’s been the culmination of nearly seven months’ worth of writing, designing, advertising, and just plain waiting for the copyright to come in.

For those of you unfamiliar with The Quiet Game, it’s a collection of short stories I’ve written that I’m putting out this July 17 for purchase. And some of these tales I’m going to be publishing are quite scary: in Addict, a man with sex addiction tries going cold turkey, only to be haunted by horrifying hallucinations; in I’m Going To Be The Next James Bond, several kids go into an abandoned hospital with a dark history, and find out the history is very much alive; an autistic child gets to experience true terror In The Lady Ogre’s Den; a senator finds that his ancestor’s sins are following him around in the form of a vengeful spirit in Samson Weiss’s Curse; and finally, there’s a game that’s more perilous and more deadly than any game ever played. The Quiet Game.

You can sign up for the Facebook page here, and join nearly 75 people to get instant news and updates, and you can check out the trailer below if you’re not sure whether or not you want to buy a copy. I hope you have a nice day and that the thought of my collection doesn’t scare you too badly.

Of course, if it does, I wouldn’t mind that. Mwha ha ha!

“The Street Urchin’s Gift”: Published!

Posted: June 24, 2013 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: entertainment, ideas, online magazine, publishing, short story, writing

It seems that my life just keeps getting better all the time, and God willing, it’ll stay that way. Today I logged into my email and saw that The Writing Disorder, an online magazine for fiction, poetry, and essays, among other things, had notified authors that their summer issue had been launched. Guess what? My short story is in the summer issue!

“The Street Urchin’s Gift” is a short story told from the point-of-view of a homeless boy named Fletch living in Victorian England. At the time I was writing the story, I was going for stories that involved hard choices, such as leave your family or survive a war (that was Ripple‘s theme, for the most part). Because at the time I was obsessed with this manga taking place in Victorian London, I set the story there and tried to think up a very difficult choice for my main character. And as the story shows, I think I did it well enough that the story got published.

I’d like to thank The Writing Disorder for publishing my short story and I wish them the best of luck. They were so kind to me and fun to work with and I’m considering sending another short story to them.

If you would like to check out their website, click here. For my short story, follow this link.

The Quiet Game: The New Cover

Posted: June 20, 2013 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: editing, entertainment, Ohio State University, publishing, short story, The Quiet Game, writing

Ladies and gentlemen, you remember the cover I created for the e-book version of The Quiet Game:

I was especially proud of this cover. I created it all by myself, using just a photo taken on a cold, snowy night, Photoshop, and the advice of experienced assistants at Ohio State’s Digital Union. So when I learned how to use CreateSpace, I wanted to bring The Quiet Game to print paperback. But at the same time, I didn’t want to give up that cool cover. It’s awesome!

So I found a cover that would allow me to keep my first cover. And here it is:

You like it? I wasn’t sure what color I was supposed to use for the back cover, but when I settled on Bright Orange, I saw a Halloween motif and went with it. I also put the words on the back in a black font, so that it’ll be easier to read.

And you know what this means, right? The Quiet Game will be available in both print and e-book version! And they’ll both be very affordable. So I hope you’re able to buy a copy when it comes out in…oh, how many days was it again?…27 days! Get excited people, because it’s coming out soon.

Rami Ungar The Writer

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