Posts Tagged ‘short story’

“The Street Urchin’s Gift” Is Getting Published!!!

Posted: August 27, 2012 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
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Okay, so I’m logging onto my computer with the aim of getting alittle homework done before lunch. But what do I find out? That a short story I wrote last year, “The Street Urchin’s Gift” is going to be published by The Writing Disorder next June, sometime around my birthday. Can I just say one thing? Awesome!

The Writing Disorder is an online magazine that caters to a wide variety of interests, including poetry, fiction, art and reviews, and does everything from literary to genre. I found them while looking for a magazine to send “The Street Urchin’s Gift”, and thought they’d make a great match, and I sent it in. It took a while for them to get back to me, but it was well worth it: today I got the email, and you cannot imagine how excited I am!

“The Street Urchin’s Gift” started out as a story I wanted to write for another magazine, one that dealt with Victorian and Edwardian England and liked scary stories. The story itself centers around making an impossible choice when neither one benefits you, and the moral problems of that. When I found out the magazine I had in mind went defunct, I decided that “The Street Urchin’s Gift” deserved another chance. Seeing that I decided right off the bat to go with the Writing Disorder, I’m very happy with the choice I made.

I would like to thank The Writing Disorder for accepting my submission and will try to send a little business your way. In fact, here’s a start: if any of you have a short story or poem that you’d like to see published, here’s the link to the website of The Writing Disorder. Hopefully it’ll be a match for your work.

http://thewritingdisorder.com/

Studying Succubi: A New Short Story

Posted: August 8, 2012 in ideas, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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I was reading a horror/romantic-comedy manga recently (yes, those combinations do happen in the world of Japanese comic books) and one of the characters, a succubus, had to face and accept a hard truth about her life, all the while preparing to fight a great evil (can’t a demon girl get a break?). The sub-story kind of touched me and I suddenly got the idea to write a story involving a succubus.

So for the whole day, I’ve kind of been doing research on succubi. I looked at the Wikipedia page, I read online testimony from people who said they’ve been visited by incubi and succubi, and I even watched a few videos on YouTube. Right now I’m watching a special on books that’d been excluded from the Christian bible because I heard part of the series focused on Lilith, who according to many traditions was the first succubus.

So far no plot has made its way into my twisted head, but if I don’t get one soon, I’ll come up with one based on whatever comes up from one of those random word generators. Hey, if it works for high school English teachers, why can’t I use it.

So if you have any info on succubi and other such spirits, feel free to let me know. Just don’t send me one if it’s a malevolent spirit! I’ve had too many experiences with bad spirits over the years, and I’m not looking for any more!

The Doll Story Is Done

Posted: August 7, 2012 in Progress Report, Writing
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Doll, clown, and evil all in one; can it get any creepier?

You heard it here folks, the first draft of my story of an evil doll is done. This was one of my more difficult stories to write, and I really struggled at certain points to keep putting down the words on the paper. However, last night I managed to finish it, and my sigh of relief and satisfaction was a loud one.

I’ll take another look at it in a couple of months; I know there’s a lot to improve upon, and I want to come at it anew when I do. Until then, I’ll see what sort of other stories I can come up and work on. I’m in one of those periods where I’m really productive with my short stories, so I plan to keep going for as long as possible.

Ripple Getting Published: Update

Posted: August 3, 2012 in Progress Report, short story
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Hey, how’s everybody doing? Remember I told you that a science-fiction story I wrote was getting published back in July, but the editor of the magazine wasn’t specific on when it would be published? Well, just got an email from the editor: he was waiting for a nice collection of short stories to come to him before he began the publishing process, but now that he’s reached his quota, my story Ripple should be hitting the net in November at some point.

Now, I know some of you are thinking, Isn’t that a little late in the year? Well if you ask me–and since you’re reading my blog, I’m assuming you already asked–if you ask me I’m just happy it’s getting published at all, so better late in the year than never. And until then, we know another short story I wrote, Aasif, is getting published next month, so that’s something to look forward to, right? Something to tide us over until we can read about aliens visiting Earth.

So until next time, have a great weekend, and try and stay cool!

Meditated Ideas and Dolls

Posted: July 31, 2012 in ideas, Living and Life, short story, Writing
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I’m taking a break from  Snake while I wait for an expert I’ve made an acquaintance with to get back to me on a couple of details. I’m also still searching for an agent for my other novel Reborn City, so I have a bit of time on my hands. So, what does a writer do when he has one novel he’s trying to find an agent for, he’s taking a break from the other novel, and a bit of free time on his hands that he wants to fill with some good writing?

Well in my case, I blog and work on short stories. The fact that you’re reading this is proof that I’m doing the former. As for the latter, there are a few projects I want to devote myself to in the next few days. One of those projects is a short story I wrote back in June. As I believe you should let a piece of fiction sit for a little while before editing it as a way to look at it with fresh eyes, I think it’s time to take a look and see what needs to be cut, changed and added in. You might remember this short story; it’s the one where I had trouble with this concept I wanted to work with but after meditating I had a few new ideas that made it easier to write the story with that concept. I’ll get to work on that after I finish this post.

The other project, I really have to thank my friend and fellow blogger Jason Alan, whose website you can check out here (http://jasonalanwriter.wordpress.com/). Anyway, a while back he posted a photo of a doll he found on the ground while roaming through France and it inspired me to write a story involving an evil/cursed doll. Now, I know what you’re thinking: there are so many knock-offs of Child’s Play out there, so can you really make an original story involving an evil doll?

I’m hoping; I added in a few things while coming up with the story that I think will make this story original enough that it won’t annoy or disappoint any readers of horror who are hard to please (speaking of which, am I the only guy who liked Dead Silence? It had the ghosts, the theme music, the living dolls…yet it got such bad reviews and I’m not sure why). I’ll probably get to work on this doll idea after the editing, and hopefully tonight.

Oh, and in case any of you want to know what this picture Jason took that’s so captivated my imagination is like but don’t want to go on his site (can’t understand why you wouldn’t), here’s the photo:

Creepy, huh? Are you surprised it’s stirring the warped imagination I have?

 

Have a nice day; I’m off to edit and write.

A Novel Idea Part 2

Posted: May 14, 2012 in Living and Life, Writing
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It’s unusual for me to publish two posts in a single day, so three might be a sign of the apocalypse, but I’m going to write this one anyway, so if you would kindly not hide in your basement for fear of meteors and aliens and earthquakes, I would be grateful.

If you remember a few months ago, I attended an event funded by the English Undergraduate Organization (EUGO) called “A Novel Idea”, which was for studnets who wanted to publish novels to sit down and hear from professors with publishing experience. The event was so successful that tonight they held a “Part 2”, which I was just at. We heard from a professor who worked on reference books for librarians trying to find the best of certain genres, and we discussed the pros and cons of self-publishing, the revolution of e-books (there’s a post two back that also covers this topic), and other topics. One of the things I learned was that with the emergence of e-books, publishers are now more willing to tlak to authors who aren’t represented by literary agents. Since I don’t have an agent (yet, anyway), that definitely got my interest, so maybe tonight I’ll see if there are any publishers that don’t mind a writer without an agent.

We also discussed the use of publishing short stories before publishing a novel (still relevant, especially with e-mags) and books that have defied the usual statisitcs associated with breaking away from the usual publishing process (50 Shades of Grey being the most talked about).

So, now that I’m back in the dorms, I’ll finish what homework I have, and then do a little work on getting Reborn City into book (or e-book) form. Wish me luck, and if you have any suggestions or helpful ideas, let me know.

New & Old Work: Getting It All Done

Posted: April 15, 2012 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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Well, this is my fiftieth post. A milestone by anyone’s considerations. And like all milestones, this is a time to look both back and forth. Which is what I’ve been doing lately:

These past two weeks or so, I took a look at some old short stories back in high school, one of which happened to be inspired by a very creepy dream I had. Neither one got accepted for publication, and after so long I could see some of the reasons why they were rejected. So in the meantime, I thought I’d edit them and maybe see if they were any better after a good editorial bath and polish. So far, I’m thinking they may be more appealing to publications, but I’ll have to wait and see if they actually get published, because I may just be taking too much pride in my own work. Anyway, fingers crossed.

Also, after I’ve finished editing these old stories and have found time in my busy collegiate schedule to sit down in front of the computer, I plan to pen (or type, actually) some new stories. One will be based on that Law & Order: SVU dream I had a week and  a half ago, though it’ll probably end up being more of a thriller story involving events after the key evidence has been collected than your typical police procedural (I’m not sure I could write that sort of story in under 20 pages anyway without making the story too complex or full of technical details).

The other story will be based on the concept of kotodama, which is a Japanese belief that words have power and can affect the lives of people around us. This belief is found in many other cultures besides Japan, and we can see throughout history and up to today how accurate a belief it is (I tend to think that what happened to Rush Limbaugh and Sandra Fluke after Limbaugh said some very nasty things about Fluke is an example of kotodama on a large scale). I will be blending this concept with a very dark event that happened in my life recently, though I haven’t figured out how this will blend yet or how it will end up coming out. But I’ll figure that out when I get to it.

Thanks for sticking with me up till the fiftieth post. I’m so glad that people are reading Rami Ungar The Writer and I hope to bring only good news to you in the future. (wouldn’t it be nice if kotodama could take effect with that last part, huh?)

Unlikely Advice (And Where I Got It From)

Posted: April 3, 2012 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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Okay, so I’m watching Once Upon A Time on Hulu yesterday and one of the characters, August, who’s a writer, says that whenever he has writer’s block, he goes back and looks at what he did so that he can find “a nugget of inspiration” he may have left behind. Yeah, it sounds kinda funny to hear, but that’s what he said.

Anyway, I’m writing this new short story, and boy do I have such a case of writer’s block. I just can’t figure out how to make the story flow. I have the idea, I just can’t make the words come out. So I thought, “Hey, why not? I have to find something to help me get this out.” So I’m reading what I’ve already written, and then I think to myself, “You know, I don’t really like how my narrator is telling the story.” So I go along and change the style of narration and pretty soon the words start to flow again! Before  I know it I’ve got three-and-a-half pages written and a few more on their way.

Has this happened to anyone else? Have you heard advice from some weird place and just found out that the advice is legitimate? Please tell me, so I’ll feel less embarassed.

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