Posts Tagged ‘writing’

Kid you not, July was a tough month. Yes, there were plenty of acceptances and publications that happened, but there was also a lot of shit that hit the fan in my personal life. I’m really hoping August is a much better month for me. Luckily, there’s something already improving the state of things: an article I wrote was published!

You may remember back in May that I announced I had a couple of acceptances, including an article in the Fall 2021 issue of House of Stitched magazine. Well, I’m pleased to announce that the House of Stitched magazine Fall 2021 issue is now available, and it contains, among many great stories from a variety of talented horror authors, my article “The Horror of the Broken Child.”

What is “the broken child,” you may be wondering? Well, I would tell you, but I would rather you read it in the magazine. I will tell you that it is a character trope I’ve noticed quite a bit in horror stories but nobody is talking about. So, I decided to talk about it in the form of an essay. And House of Stitched magazine liked it enough to publish it. I’m very hopeful that the article will be well-received and maybe spark some further conversation and debate on the trope I’ve identified.

Hell, I’m even hoping some people disagree with my assessment. I think more scholarship on horror writing is a good thing, and if people disagree with me and want to write about it, then good. As long as it brings more understanding about the horror genre and leads to new stories and ideas, all the better.

Just be nice if you disagree with me or you disagree with those who disagree with me. There’s no reason to get nasty over certain things, is there?

Anyway, I hope you’ll check out House of Stitched magazine. Besides my article, there are short stories and articles from numerous other authors, including Brian Keene and Maxwell Ian Gold, the latter of whom is a friend of mine and quite the talent. Not only that, but supporting the magazine will allow for more issues to be made in the future, which will allow more writers to publish their work in the magazine. I can’t think of a better reason to buy a copy, can you?

The purchase link is below. I hope you enjoy reading the magazine and that you find my article illuminating. Thanks again to Lisa and the team at Stitched Smile Publications for publishing my article. Now, if you need me, I’ll be spreading the word over social media and then taking care of various other things in my life. Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares!

Also, “next time” will be tomorrow morning. Something big is coming, and if you’ve been paying attention, you likely know what it is. Looking forward to seeing you there!

House of Stitched magazine: Blurb.com , Amazon

As you’ve probably heard by now, my novelette “Blood and Paper Skin” was accepted by The Dark Sire, a local Ohio horror publication, for serialization over three issues. And, as of today, The Dark Sire, Issue 8 is available for purchase!

For those of you who don’t know, “Blood and Paper Skin” is about a bunch of young adults who go out to buy some drugs, only to be kidnapped and thrown into a prison-like room. There, they meet their captor, who goes by Old Man, and has brought them to this place for a sinister purpose.

I’m so excited for you all to read it, and I hope you enjoy reading it over the next several months. Part 2 will be serialized in late October, I believe. Right in time for Halloween! I’ll let you know for certain when it’s available.

And please make sure to leave your thoughts once you’ve read the issue. The Dark Sire is a great magazine of horror and psychological fiction that tries to support its authors as much as possible. With that in mind, the support from readers is quite important. I hope you’ll support them and even subscribe to the magazine, so it can continue to publish and give voice to a new generations of authors.

Though honestly, that cover should give you all the reason to read it and provide feedback. I mean look at that cover! Look at it!

Also, make sure to check out the other recent publication I’m in, the undersea horror Into the Deep. It has my novelette “Cressida” in it, as well as a number of great stories from a variety of authors. Actually, it’s been high in Amazon’s rankings since release, and just got its first review the other day (thank you, Priscilla Bettis, my loyal Follower of Fear). The paperback is now available, so make sure to order a copy if you wanted one.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ll be up early on Saturday for a special release event for Issue 8 from The Dark Sire themselves. Until next time, pleasant nightmares!

The Dark Sire, Issue 8: Print

Into the Deep: Ebook, Paperback

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’ve been shopping around a collection of original short stories and not been having much success. After the last rejection, I decided that I might as well take another look and do another round of editing, in case that had anything to do with it. There are nine stories in the collection, and I thought I’d give at least four or five a good run through. Now though, I’m planning on giving all but two (those that have been edited to death already) another pass.

I didn’t think what I would find would be so bad. Most of these stories were written in the past five or six years, so they should be fine. Right? Right?!

*Sigh*

I looked at the first story. I was horrified that it wasn’t as I remembered it. There were several mistakes that I needed to fix. Not just grammar/spelling/punctuation. but just plot issues that I should’ve fixed or excised in earlier drafts. And if the other stories are like this, I’m not surprised I kept getting rejected!

Well, can’t change the past. I’m taking another look at these stories now, that’s what’s important. I’m already over halfway through the first story, and it’s shown remarkable improvement. If I see similar improvement in the other stories, then…well, I can’t really say what’ll happen then, let alone if the collection will be published.

I even asked my Tarot cards if the collection would find a publisher after all the edits. When I pulled the future card, I got The Moon, which represents uncertainty. Which says it all, really. The writing and publishing game is full of uncertainty. You never know if you’ll find a home for your story when you send it out. Let alone collections!

Still, we play the game, because we love what we do. And I’ll continue working on these stories in the hope that I can improve them enough that someone will want to publish them in a collection.

Or, if things are going well for me, I have the cash to spend, and I think they’re edited enough, I could self-publish. It’d be quite a bit of work all on my own, for certain, but it would likely be worth it. I hope.

Anyway, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m going to try to finish up one story tonight, then perform a surgery on a ghost, then start editing the next story. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!


One more reminder: in honor of my ten-year blogging anniversary on Monday, I’m having an Ask Me Anything, or AMA, to celebrate. All readers are encouraged to participate, and one lucky person will receive a prize! Just send an email to ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com before tomorrow night, July 28th, 2021 at 11:59 PM EST. I look forward to reading your questions!

And no, I won’t be sending the winner a dragon bat. Not even a baby one. I’m sorry, but the adults are ferocious, the babies need too much care to be separated from their parent, and the laws regarding transporting them are too much a pain in the ass to deal with. Sorry, but thems the breaks.

Last night, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a while and record myself reading aloud from one of my stories. Why? Because I have two stories coming out one after the other, so I thought it would be a good way to drum up interest in them. However, because longer (and effect-laden) videos take longer to upload to YouTube, this is the first chance I’ve had to post about it.

So, without further ado, here’s me reading from “Cressida,” which is in Into the Deep, and “Blood and Paper Skin,” which will be The Dark Sire starting with Issue 8 on July 31st.

How about that, huh? I still can’t figure out how to have multiple texts throughout the video, but I managed to add music and other effects throughout. Did what showed up at the end surprise anyone?

And if you weren’t able to watch the full video, here’s a quick rundown of all the pieces of news I mentioned after the reading from “Blood and Paper Skin:”

  • Into the Deep is available now for download. Last I checked, the ebook is still the only version available. If the paperback version isn’t available by Tuesday, I’ll email the publisher and see what’s up. In the meantime, you can check out the ebook of Into the Deep now with this link. If you decide to read it, please let the publisher and me know what you thought (especially of my story “Cressida”).
  • “Blood and Paper Skin” will be released in The Dark Sire, Issues 8-10. I’m very excited about this. The first issue, Issue 8, will be released on Saturday, July 31st. I really hope you’ll check out the magazine when the story comes out and will let people know what you think. I’ll post a link when the time comes.
  • As previously stated, an essay I wrote will be in House of Stitched Magazine next month. This is an essay on a trope I’ve noticed in horror, the broken child, and I’m very excited for the issue to feature my essay. Especially considering the great authors whose stories are in the issue as well. I’ll be sure to post a link when the time comes, so keep an eyes out!
  • My short story “The Divorce from God” will be in The Jewish Book of Horror this holiday season. I’m very excited to be contributing to Jewish literature this way! And obviously, I hope you’ll pick the book up once it’s available later this year. After all, Jewish-influenced horror is pretty rare. Especially when so many writers have been influenced by Christianity, let alone horror writers. I’d love to see what you think.
  • The Pure World Comes is getting published!!! I know you’re very much aware of this, but it bears repeating. My novel The Pure World Comes will be released through the Readict novel app hopefully in the near future. I don’t have an exact date, but I’ve been communicating with Readict’s staff this whole week, so we’re chugging along. Hopefully things continue to go well and I can update you in the near future.
  • I’ll be at Bibliophile Books in Dover, OH, on July 31st for an author event! Turns out, the editor of The Dark Sire is from Ohio, as are several of the authors in Issue 8. And in order to draw up some more interest, they’re hosting an author event at the bookstore. Authors who can make it will read short excerpts from their work, answer questions, and sign copies of Issue 8, as well as their own books. I’m looking forward to heading out there and maybe meeting some new readers. Not to mention meeting some of my fellow writers! Be there from 11 AM – 1 PM if you can!
  • I’m still going to Indie Author Book Expo Aurora this September. Remember, this will be held in Aurora, Illinois on September 11 at the Prisco Community Center from 10 AM – 3 PM. There will be all sorts of awesome authors to check out, as well as great books. I hope you’ll be able to come if you can. You can find out more here.

In addition, I inserted another reminder that I’ll be celebrating my ten-year blogging anniversary next month and will be hosting an Ask Me Anything, or AMA, in honor of the occasion. If you would like to participate, you can submit questions to my email address, ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com, until 11:59 PM on July 28th. One lucky participant will even win a prize! I look forward to reading and answering your questions.

Anyway, that’s the content of the video. I hope you enjoyed it if you watched it, and I hope the updates were helpful.

I’ll be back later tonight with a review, so I hope you check that out when it’s released. Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares!

This has been a very busy, crazy day. But so far, it’s been worth it. And this is one of the reasons why!

So, if you didn’t hear, my story “Cressida,” which follows a man who finds out his uncle is keeping a mermaid in his basement, was accepted for publication. It was to appear in the anthology “Into the Deep” from Jazz House Publishing, which is to release on July 20th. And unless you’re a time traveler and stuck in another period of time/space, today’s July 20th! Which mean “Into the Deep” is out!

First off, can we just admire that artwork? I mean, wow! That is so terrifying, that for a horror fan it’s kind of sexy. Kudos to the cover artist!

Second, this looks to be a great collection. There are ten other short stories and novelettes in the anthology, all of them focused on the ocean and the deep blue sea. One is an aquatic retelling of the ballet Giselle (being such a fan of ballet, I’m looking forward to reading it). Another involves a heist in the Marianas Trench. And there are more that I have yet to discover! I’m so excited to get my copy!

Speaking of which, if you want to read “Into the Deep,” I’m including the link below at the end of the post. At the time I’m writing this, only the ebook version is available. The paperback will be available later today, so keep checking back for that (I’ll post an update when that’s available as well). Please give it a read if you’re at all interested.

And if you do, please let us know what you think. Not just for my sake, but for the sake of all the authors and the publishing company. A lot of work by many different individuals went into this anthology, so letting them know what you think not only brings a boost to their moods, but let’s other readers know if they should check out the anthology.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy “Into the Deep,” and that you like “Cressida” when you read the story. I’m especially proud of that story and think it’s some of my best work. I hope you agree.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ll be back soon with more news and reviews and whatnot (whether you like it or not). Until next time, pleasant nightmares and ph’nglui mglw’nafh R’lyeh Cthulhu wgah’nagl fhtagn.

Into the Deep: Ebook


Just a reminder: there’s only eight days left to submit questions for the Ask Me Anything, or AMA, to celebrate my ten-year blogging anniversary. One lucky participant will receive a prize, so be sure to send your question to ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com by 11:59 PM on July 28th. I look forward to reading your questions.

Visual image for Blood and Paper Skin.

Well, isn’t this the most exciting and post-filled weekend ever! I think this is my fifth post since Friday!

So, as you can see, I’ve gotten another story acceptance, and I am over the moon about it! In fact, I went outside, jumped straight into the sky, and appeared to my neighbors to jump over the moon. Some are now sure I’m evil and are preparing to move out of the complex.

The story in question is my novelette “Blood and Paper Skin,” and it’s going to be published over three issues in the magazine The Dark Sire (you can check out their website here). The story follows a bunch of young twenty-somethings who go out to buy drugs, only for some of them to end up in a prison-like room. They soon find out they’re being held there by a middle-aged man, and he has a sinister but mysterious purpose for them being there.

I’m telling you, I’m very happy that this story has found a home. As it’s close to fifteen thousand words, I was really worried “Blood and Paper Skin” would have trouble finding a home. Who would have thought, after a lot of editing, it would get accepted by the first place I sent it! And because it’s a novelette, the story will be divided into three issues–Issues, 8, 9 and 10.

You know, that’s really old school. Plenty of famous short stories and novels were published in multiple issues as both a way to save room in the magazine and to keep suspense going. Examples include most of the works by Charles Dickens; Herbert West: Reanimator and The Lurking Fear by HP Lovecraft; and Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Even Stephen King had a story, Dolan’s Cadillac, published this way (though that was published through his newsletter, so some might say that isn’t the same).

Anyway, the first installment of “Blood and Paper Skin” will be published in Issue 8 of The Dark Sire, which should release at the end of the month. If that changes, or the timeline is split into thousands of branches creating a multiverse, I’ll let you know. I hope you’ll give the story a read, and I hope you’ll support The Dark Sire as well. They’re a small, independent horror magazine influenced by the darker works of writers like Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, JRR Tolkien, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. They’re still pretty new, but they love what they do and are committed to publishing qualities stories, art, poetry and screenplays.

And they gave Rose one hell of a nice review. Just saying.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Tomorrow I have work, so I’m going to do some reading before bed and then hit the hay. Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night, pleasant nightmares, and RELEASE THE DRAGON BATS…AGAIN!!!


I can’t say it enough: Followers of Fear, you have just over nine days to submit a question for my ten-year blogging anniversary Ask Me Anything, or AMA. One lucky participant will win a prize, so send your question to ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com by 11:59 PM, July 28th, 2021. I look forward to reading your questions and writing up answers. See you again soon!

The common noctule bat was a big visual inspiration for the dragon bats in the story.

So, a while back, I started mentioning dragon bats on this blog and my other social media. Nothing serious, just casual mentions of releasing dragon bats when something good happens. But it apparently was more than that, because the nasty beasties stirred the imagination of friend, colleague and Follower of Fear Iseult Murphy (check out her blog here), who ended up creating fan art of the dragon bats (click here to see that art).

And for those wondering what a dragon bat is, it’s exactly as the name implies: a bat big enough to earn the descriptor “dragon.” They’re also carnivorous, aggressive, and their bite is either venomous or has lots of dangeorus pathogens in the saliva, we’re not sure. They’re like Komodo dragons, in that way.

Anyway, Iseult’s fan art inspired me in turn and I decided to create a story featuring the dragon bats. It took a bit of brainstorming, but I was eventually able to come up with a story with the nasty beasts. And this past week or two, I wrote the story, finishing it up this morning at around 4 AM.

Yeah. It’s been a while since I was up that late finishing a story. I think the last time was finishing up my novel River of Wrath around Halloween 2018.

Back to the story. The story, which I ended up naming “Disillusionment and Trauma Sometimes Go Hand in Hand” (I couldn’t think of something short and snappy, so I took a page from Stephen King and gave the story a long, ridiculous title), follows a girl who becomes an unwilling participant in a plot to get revenge for the death of her best friend. A plot that, you guessed it, involves dragon bats.

And whoo-boy, did this story end up being a crazy one! Not only is it a decent-sized novelette at 12,645 words, but it’s also got a lot going on in it. Blood, murder, revenge, a bit of torture, some creature feature and the occult. All in all, though, I think it’s a good story. Hopefully Iseult and any other beta readers I ask agree and I can find a home for it.

So, what’s next? Well, I’ve been marketing a collection of original short stories for a while now. I think I’ll take a second look at some of them and give them another round of edits before trying to find a publisher again. After that…well, we’ll see. With The Pure World Comes accepted for publication, it’ll soon be time to start editing it and that’ll take up some time. I don’t want to commit to anything knowing it might be sidelined after starting.

At least I was able to get one more story done. And like I said, it’s one hell of a story. If kind of…batty.

Oh come on, I had to make that joke! Sue me.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Until next time, pleasant nightmares and RELEASE THE DRAGON BATS!!!

Oh, and one more thing: you have ten more days to submit a question to my Ask Me Anything, or AMA. If you submit a question to ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com by 11:59 PM on July 28th, 2021, you’ll be eligible for a prize. This is all to celebrate ten years of blogging on this platform, so I hope you all send questions my way. Looking forward to reading them!

Funny story: when I was writing the title of this post, I accidentally wrote “Days’ instead of “Years.” I thought about the confusion my Followers of Fear would feel when they saw that title, smiled maliciously, then decided to change the title. You’re welcome.

So, today marks eight years since The Quiet Game: Five Tales to Chill Your Bones was released. This was my first published book, and my first published collection of short stories to boot. I wrote it in early 2013 because I decided to self-publish the year before. As I was working on a novel that wasn’t ready to be published, but wanted something out anyway, I started writing stories with the goal of making a small collection. A lot of work, some feedback from one of my creative writing classes, and on July 17th, 2013, The Quiet Game was released!

Looking back, the work I wrote then sometimes feels a bit amateur to me. If I wrote some of those stories today, I think I would have written some of them differently. Still, I’m proud of them and I’m glad that people enjoy them (more on that in a bit).

And then there’s the cover. I actually took that photo on a snowy night at Ohio State. It’s actually Orton Hall on the Oval, our central quad. I then added some special effects to make writing in the sky, and then added the letters. Which, as I mentioned in my unboxing video from March, accidentally had an extra F in the subtitle. Oops. But I’m fond of the typo now. It means people shiver when they read it!

And shiver they do. Here is what people have been saying about The Quiet Game:

A collection of five varied stories that get stronger as the collection builds, with the final being my favorite. Though I fancy myself able to “solve” the stories before the reveals, there were several surprises here, especially the reveal in the Quiet Game and I’m Going to be the Next James Bond. I also liked that Rami pulled no punches with his characters. In one instance, an anti-semite for instances uses words that would be hard for any author to write -though are necessary to his character. There are other examples sprinkled throughout the stories that show Rami’s commitment to telling the story in the way it needs to be told. A good collection for a stormy night!

Joleene Naylor, author of the Amaranthine vampire novels.

Imagine if you will a young Stephen King penning dark scenarios inspired by his youth, and what you get is this anthology. Through this collection of short stories, Rami Ungar brings us into the world of dark urges, childhood traumas, ghosts, phantoms, and dark psychological thrillers. An inspired creation, and definitely a good intro to this indie author’s world!

Matthew Williams, author of The Cronian Incident.

this book was filled with action pacted fun and the scary vibes are always coming and I think that you need to write more of these 5 book scare rides. totaly a 6 (; star book.

KATHLEEN LYNN LEVEN
My friend and fellow author Allen Huntsman with his new copy of “The Quiet Game.” I look forward to hearing his thoughts.

I should mention, the reviews come straight from Amazon, so any typos are the reviewers’ and not mine.

Anyway, most of the reviews are like this and I’m happy that people enjoy the book so much. In fact, before Rose, The Quiet Game was my most reviewed book on Amazon. And while Rose may still be ahead in terms of reader feedback, I still get people picking up The Quiet Game every now and then and leaving their thoughts. So, I guess I wrote some stories that have aged well.

One can hope, anyway.

If you would like to check out The Quiet Game, I’ll leave links below. It’s a short but enjoyable read, so I hope you’ll get a kick out of it if you pick up a copy. And if you like what you read, or if you don’t, please leave some feedback for me. Positive or negative, I love reader feedback and it helps me, as well as other readers, in the long run.

Thanks for checking the book out, and happy publishing anniversary.

The Quiet Game: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooksSmashwords, and Kobo.


One last thing, my Followers of Fear: the tenth anniversary of when I started this blog is coming up, and I’m having an Ask Me Anything, or an AMA, to celebrate. Submit a question to me, along with your name and where you’re from, to my email at ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com by 11:59 PM July 28th, 2021. Not only will you get your question answered, but one lucky person will win a prize!

I look forward to answering all your questions and celebrating the big event with you. Until next time, stay safe and pleasant nightmares!

I made a nice graphic for “The Pure World Comes.” It’ll work till I get a proper cover for the story.

If you read the poem in my last post, you probably noticed a key phrase in the last stanza. How did it go again? Oh yes. Now I remember.

Behold! THE PURE WORLD COMES!

That wasn’t just some incomprehensible poetry mumbo-jumbo (though I wouldn’t blame you if you thought it was). No, this poem has been a prelude for something big.

As many of you are aware, last year as we were all in lockdown, I wrote a novel set in Victorian England. The novel followed a young maid who went to work in the home of a mad scientist. I then did another draft, sent the novel to a couple of beta readers, and then made a third draft based on their feedback. Then I started shopping the book around, seeing if I could get anyone interested.

I’m happy to say that one company did show interest. And after some back and forth of the terms, we came to an agreement, culminating today with my signing the contract. So with that said, I can now say, my novel The Pure World Comes will be published!

Specifically, the novel will be published by VitaleTek, a company that releases stories through its app Readict. Which, honestly, is kind of Victorian: novels were released through periodicals like newspapers or magazines before being collected in hardcover and paperback (I think the latter, like now, is for more commercial books). And apps like Readict can be the newspapers and magazines of today.*

Anyway, I’m super excited to have this novel come out. The Pure World Comes is a love letter to all I love about the Victorian era (and probably won’t be the last). That several people, from my beta readers to the folks at VitaleTek, thought so highly of my story and that it’s been accepted for publication only a year after being written (Rose took five) is a huge deal for me.

As of right now, we don’t have a release date. However, I can tell you that the latest draft of the novel has been sent to the company and I’m sure their editing department will be in touch soon so we can polish this novel up. I cannot wait to share this book, its protagonist Shirley Dobbins, and the strange going-ons at the Hunting House mansion, very soon.

Thanks to Ms. Keheaku and the team at VitaleTek for taking on this project; Patrick Freivald for introducing me to the company; to Ruth Ann Nordin, Tim Purvis, and Angela Misri for beta reading the book; and many more people who helped me get to this point. It could not have been done without you.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I have posts and videos to make on my other social media platforms, pizza and ice cream to eat, mead to drink, anime and movies to watch, monsters to summon, and so much more. Until next time, pleasant nightmares and God Bless Queen Victoria!

*As for whether The Pure World Comes will get a print edition, you’ll just have to wait and see.


Oh, one more thing, my Followers of Fear: there’s just over two weeks left to submit questions to the Ask Me Anything, or AMA, to celebrate my ten-year blogging anniversary. Send your question in an email to ramiungar@ramiungarthewriter.com by 11:59 PM on July 28th, 2021 and you’ll get entered for a prize. I look forward to reading your questions!

Also, if you’re looking for something to read until The Pure World Comes releases, you can check out any of my previous work below. People are still discovering my stories all the time, and apparently they’re enjoying them too (thank you for the review on Agoraphobia, Jennifer Patino). Who knows? You may find something that will give you one or two…pleasant nightmares.

The Quiet Game: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooksSmashwords, and Kobo.

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

Snake: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Barnes & Noble, iBooksSmashwords, and Kobo

Agoraphobia: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada

Mother of the King: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada

Across the plains of the imagination,
What terrifying creature
With head and neck of snake and body of a thousand arms and eyes
Slithers forward to the realms of reality,
Waiting to be spread?

Anticipation builds.
Come forth, child, pathogen of the mind.
You are wanted and desired.
Naglaeria fowleri, this imposter, envies how you burrow
Into the heads of all who come upon you.

The signature has been put down
Through an app the meme-like transmission and infection will begin.
Let us pray to the dark gods and give our thanks with blood and wine.
The denizens of the Underworld shiver and tremble. For
Behold! THE PURE WORLD COMES!