Recent content by sdmckee

Exactly. As my wife keeps reminding me, "It's a marathon, not a sprint."

It depends. If I've got a good rhythm going, I prefer to listen to music while I write. But if I'm struggling with a section, or trying to work out the science or military tactics to a particlar situation in the story, then I prefer silence.

Actually, no. This was the first I'd heard of that. Thanks for mentioning it. I'll look into it, although a quick search suggests that the United States doesn't have such a thing. Is that correct?

No offense taken. I understand what you're saying but I don't believe I'm deceiving myself. It took a while to figure out where my main hang-ups where coming from (i.e., why I was hitting one long stretch of writer's block after another). You just have to understand my personality. I tend to be...

Yeah, that may be true in part. I've got a friend who's been going through what I've written so far and is going to give me detailed feedback on what he thinks of the story (he was very helpful with the first book). But as I've been thinking about this lately, I'm feeling that most of my issue...

I hear ya. I had started my first novel a few years back when the company I was working for was going through some financial problems, which resulted in massive layoffs (myself included). Writing provided a nice release for my frustrations and the story definitely took a darker turn on days...

My wife and I have both enjoyed his films, with Sixth Sense and Unbreakable topping the list. We haven't watched Lady in the Water yet, however. The bad reviews put us off from seing it in the theater, but I think we'll pick up the rental this week and give it a chance. Has anyone heard...

I'll second that. For my first attempt at writing, I decided to jump right into a novel. I had a good rhythm going and finished the first draft within a few months (though it wasn't exactly golden--quite a few edits/re-writes followed). But so far my second novel has been more perspiration...

This might sound a little odd, but check out a book (or website) that deals with baby names. Most of those will explain the meaning/significance of the names, especially with regard to the culture of origin. This might prove helpful if you're looking to use names that will serve as more than...

My 12-year-old niece really enjoyed The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. It's a fairly popular fantasy novel that was released last year (with the sequel having just come out).

Well, I can't really recommend this one (since I haven't read it yet), but you might want to take a look at "The Re-Killing of Greyeyes" by Mark Nosack. I met the gentleman a couple of months ago at a Barnes & Noble--we were both doing a book signing that day. He mentioned that his novel is...

<Begin Montgomery Burns impersonation> "Excellent!" <End impersonation>

Yes, well, I'm going to have take the 5th on that one. :D And thank you all for the welcome.

Same here. In fact, that one is still my all-time favorite flick.

I rented "Primer" the other day. Anyone seen it? It's an independent film dealing with time travel. It's low budget and void of special effects, but it was clever albiet a little difficult to follow.