The Dork Review: The King's Speech

Wow, it's been awhile since I've gotten out to see a movie. Good thing I picked a good one to go see!

The King's Speech was amazing. There is no other way to adequately describe this movie. If you're a history buff with an interest in World War II or the British monarchy then this is a must see.

Let me set the stage for you. We start in the 1920's where a nervous Prince of England, second in line to the throne, has to give a speech in Wembly Stadium to be broadcast across the wireless, something still new enough that it takes getting used to. The Prince steps up to the mike and...

Nothing. He's a stutterer and he bombs, bombs like the Germans bombed London. From there we get to see the steps being taken to cure him of his stutter and to the time he meets Lionel, the speech therapist that understands the root cause of his problem and is brave enough to help him through it.

Colin Firth's performance as Bertie was amazing. Geoffry Rush as Lionel was magnificent, and Helena Bonham Carter as the Bertie's wife was superb. Of course, they had an astounding cast surrounding them, including many famous faces from English cinema. Watching this movie you will have numerous "Hey, I know that guy!" moments.

I recommend going to see this film. I was interested when I first heard about it with the Oscar announcements, and it more than exceeded my expectations.

First Post of the Year

Wow, it's been awhile since I've actually bothered to put something up here. I should really do something about that.

Work continues on the first draft of my first novel. So far I'm eleven chapters in with over 40,000 words written. By far this is the most I've ever written on any single one project.

It's interesting how things have developed. I've been able to delve much deeper into each character, and they've changed a little bit from my original concept. One character has become a lot more competent than I originally planned for him to be, and the relationship between all three of my main characters has taken on an interesting dynamic. To be honest, I'm really surprised sometimes by what's coming out of my head.

Another good thing I'm seeing is I'm able to get more words down on the page each night. It used to be I'd have trouble getting even five hundred words down in under two hours, but now I'm regularly hitting a thousand in the same time frame. I've doubled my output!

And that's the reason January has slipped mostly past without me putting up a blog post. I want to get a first draft done, so I haven't been going out to see movies or shows or anything else interesting enough to put up a blog post about. Heck, even my readings been suffering. I have a biography of Napoleon that I started before Christmas that I still haven't finished reading. Oh well, maybe I'll have some free time to do stuff after March and after I have my novel in the hands of the readers for Angry Robot books.