DavidMcMurdo

Hey Everyone,

I've been writing fiction for as long as I can remember, and relatively recently I've begun taking it seriously, by which I mean that I've begun to really invest myself in the process. At the moment I'm just submitting short stories to ezines to build up something of a résumé for myself. I'm an avid reader and amongst the books that I've read there are many about how to actually be a good writer. Despite that, and despite having the knowledge of the internet at my disposal, there are some questions I still don't know the answer to as far as the written word goes.

Now I know there are infinitely more appropriate forums to discuss this subject on, but I'm not one who likes to invest a lot of time in forums (as you can tell from my post-count even here), and besides that, it's obvious that a lot of people here are interested in literature generally. I also know I'm not the only one who writes fiction here. With that said, I'm just going to throw some questions out there and see what response I get. Some might seem incredibly obvious and stupid to a lot of you, and I hope so, because then you should be able to explain them to me

1: What's the difference between using "which" and "that"? For example, "There were books which told of ancient mysteries"; "There were books that told of ancient mysteries". I actually did find an explanation of this once, but didn't understand it.

2: What's the difference between using em dashes and commas within a sentence? I've found that the older the book, the more likely you are to see an em dash used. Howard uses them frequently for example. Some authors don't seem to use them at all.

I've got many more questions, but think I'll leave it there for now. I think the most frustrating thing for me as an aspiring writer, is that there doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rules. You could read two books on how to be a better writer (whether it's in terms of planning, structure or just writing), and get entirely contradictory advice. I mean even writing this post asking you these questions is vaguely embarassing because part of me feels that after all I've written I should know the answers by now. But I don't, and part of the reason is that, again, I've read so many different opinions on such matters.

Hey Everyone,

I posted this in the giant thread about the new Conan film, but thought I should post it here as well in case some people don't visit there or just miss it. It's a nice spill.com (who hated the new film) interview with Rick Klaw and Mark Finn in which they talk about Robert E. Howard, a lot of his lesser known characters, the comics and this new Conan film. Skip to the 95 minute mark to get straight to the Robert E. Howard content(you'll have to wait a minute or two for the thing to buffer that far): http://www.spill.com...spx?audioId=724

Hey Everyone,

What I'm looking for is a collection of Howard's Solomon Kane stories in a single volume rather like The Complete Chronicles of Conan: Centenary Edition. I don't expect Solomon Kane to have received as much love as Conan, but surely there must be a compilation out there. Someone once recommended this one to me: http://www.amazon.co...97905650&sr=1-7

It's The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard and Gary Gianni and it appears to be what I'm after. Judging by the price, it seems to be out of print now. I don't mind paying over the odds for Howard stories, but I thought it best to consult you guys on the subject first. I'm only really interested in pure Howard material so if you can recommend similar compilations of other characters such as Kull as well, I'd be grateful. It would also save me spamming each respective forum.

I'm looking to start seriously building my Howard collection. I don't even have that Centenary Edition of Conan at the moment. I bought it for a tutor of mine once, but I myself still have the two Fantasy Masterwork paperback volumes (The People of the Black Circle and The Hour of the Dragon). I kind of like the stories being in order of their inner chronology anyway. I have several other "bits and pieces" as well such as Tigers of the Sea but nothing to compete with that Conan volume.

Hey Everyone,

I'm a long time lurker and after a little back and forth with a guy somewhere else regarding the new Conan film I thought I'd post at last. As some of you might be aware, the U.S. and Canadian home release of The Whole Wide World had a few scenes cut from it (versions shown on TV sometimes still retain them). The studio feared that it wouldn't find a publisher in the U.S. otherwise. The director, Dan Ireland, has been on IMDB expressing his frustration at this, and his desire to one day see the uncut version released over there. He is even offering to mail the uncut copy out to people freely.

Anyway, today I decided to rip my DVD and upload the scenes in question so that those overseas could watch them. Even though I was born and live in Scotland, I'm familiar with the American cut from TV and you can see how these scenes really are essential. For example, there is a moment in the U.S. cut where Novalyne sees a wolf, which then disappears. This makes no sense without one of the cut scenes. I also like the fact that there's another mention of Lovecraft.

Hope those of you who haven't already seen them, enjoy them:



Annoyingly enough, even though the American cut is the only one with these scenes missing, it's also the only one to be presented in widescreen as far as I know. My Region 2 DVD certainly isn't. I hope Dan gets his wish.