Real life can be TOO real

The reason I've decided to write 3 more stories instead of 2 is because, to put it simply, Hope and Jake have more to do!

If you've ready The Network, story 5, you'll know that it ends on an ominous note: Where are they going?

Story 6 -- as yet unnamed -- shows where they go, and why they're there. And it does a whole lot more.

Hope is also facing a dilemma around how much of the truth she shares with Jake right now. She knows deep down inside what her future must be. How can she possibly share that with Jake? Their unspoken feelings for one another have made it difficult for her to tell him the truth.

On top of that, there's still the spectre of Pandora out there. How quickly will it figure things out? Fast enough to get its way? With the knowledge it now has, it could be a dangerous force.

Stay tuned for Story 6. I do apologize for the delay! Sometimes my "real" life gets in the way of the life I'm creating inside Arcadia and Cerulean -- which is, to be honest, a place I'd much rather be right now.

Because real life can be, well, a little too real sometimes.

Have you read The Doomsday Book?

Have you read The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis? If you like time travel, you'll love it. The author creates some really fun characters, and it's great for me because it's set in Oxford, which I visited just this past December. I'm really enjoying it, thanks to a friend of mine who recommended it to me. She's definitely a book expert: she works at Scholastic, the magical place that published Harry Potter and also The Hunger Games. Maybe The Pandora Chronicles will be next!

Speaking of The Pandora Chronicles, I'm so excited about Story 6. We're in the second half of this series now, folks. I know there will be at least Story 6 and Story 7, and there may be a Story 8 to finish it off. It just depends how much more there is for Hope and Jake to do once Story 6 is done, so this is a pivotal moment for us.

Stay tuned ...

Story 5 ... so close to being done!

Story 5 is almost ready for prime time. I'm still deciding on a title, too, so hang tight for just a few more days, folks.

In the meantime, I saw another Oscar-nominated movie, Zero Dark Thirty. All I can say is, how could they take one of the most important manhunts of our time and turn it into a snoozefest? I usually like Jessica Chastain, but she was miscast and her character was severely underdeveloped.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Anyone else agree? Disagree?

Back to writing Story 5 of The Pandora Chronicles -- which, if I may say, are a lot more exciting that Zero Dark Thirty. :-)

What's your Oscar pick?

I realized today that I've seen only a handful of the movies up for Best Picture. I need to get out more!

Here's my list, with a couple of words about each one:

• Amour: Want to see it
• Argo: Saw it, was bored
• Beasts of the Souther Wild: Didn't see it, not interested
• Django Unchained: Want to see it
• Les Misérables: Saw it, liked it but wouldn't watch it a second time
• Life of Pi: Saw it, loved it, wanted to dream about it
• Lincoln: Didn't see it, will wait for the rental
• Silver Linings Playbook: Saw it, loved it, want to see it again (and again)
• Zero Dark Thirty: Nope, want to see it

And the Oscar goes to ...

Silver Linings Playbook as Best Picture -- of the movies I've seen so far.

What's your choice for Best Picture of 2012?

The chase is on. What's your favorite?

Chase scenes -- and escape and rescue scenes -- are a blast to write. More than almost anything else in my stories, I see these scenes as mini movies for the mind. They live in front of my eyes, with my characters running, jumping, crawling, climbing, holding on, you name it. A lot of that is happening as I work on story 5.

I swear, sometimes I'm burning calories along with my characters!

Since I started writing these types of scenes, I've paid much more attention to them in other books and also in movies.

Do you have a favorite chase scene, from a book or movie? If so, what is it? I'd love to hear from you.

Did you make any New Year's resolutions?

I'm not big on making New Year's resolutions, mostly because I am more of a long-term goal setter. This year, however, I would like to increase my overall fitness and, of course, keep writing and publishing on Kindle.

My other goal is to make more time to have fun in 2013. Speaking candidly, the last few years of my life have been really tough, in virtually every area: personal life, work life, you name it. I need to find my inner child more often and let her enjoy life more fully.

What about you? Did you make any resolutions? What are your goals for 2013?

Happy New Year! Next episode coming soon

Happy New Year, everyone, and here's to a peaceful and prosperous 2013.

Story 5 in The Pandora Chronicles is coming soon. Now that I'm back from vacation, my computer is revved up and ready to roll with Hope and Jake's next adventure in the series.

I'll tell you one thing: my cat, Sophia, is verrrrry happy I'm home, She hasn't left my side for more than a minute since I walked in the door last night. Here's a photo I just snapped of her, gripping my shirt and making it very clear that she doesn't want me to go on vacation again for a long time. :-)

What are you doing for New Year's Eve?

As for me ... I'll be flying! Back to NYC from England. I'm sure I won't make it to midnight after traveling all day, but I'm going to do my best. And I figure, whatever time I fall asleep, it's already midnight somewhere!

So what are you doing for New Year's Eve?

Merry Christmas!

To all of you who celebrate the holiday, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

I'll be offline for the next couple of days, spending the holiday with my husband and daughter in Oxford, UK. I really like this city -- it's quite bustling, and the food has been surprisingly good!

So stay tuned for more posts in a few days, plus I'll add in some Oxford photos.

In the meantime, enjoy the holiday and drink a toast to Hope and Jake. :-)

Colorful Notting Hill

Walked through the Notting Hill neighborhood this afternoon. What a fun place! Tomorrow morning I head to Oxford and will post a few more photos from there.

I hope all of your holiday preparations are going well. I had a bit of a rough last few days, to be honest. For reasons totally out of my control, I was terribly sleep deprived. So in story 5 that I'm currently writing, I decided to add in a scene where a character is sleep deprived!

Here are 3 photos of Notting Hill ....

Colorful Portobello Rd.

A shop window

Fun antiques for sale

Train to London in the morning

In the wee hours of the morning tomorrow, I'll be boarding the train to London -- or Londres, as they say here in Paris -- but my stay in London town will be brief. The next morning I take another train to Oxford to go see my daughter, who is a student there.

I'm sure I'll be inspired by all the twists and turns of the cobblestone streets: entirely different in character from Arcadia in The Pandora Chronicles, but mysterious nonetheless. I'm excited to see a new city and will post a few photos.

In the meantime, here are trois photos of Paris. More soon!

Red eye, that's for sure

Anyone else have trouble sleeping on planes?

I'm TERRIBLE at it. While I'm excited to go on vacation today, I'm sort of dreading the whole red-eye-flight-thing. I just can't sleep on planes.

I'm sure it'd be better in first class, with all those reclining seats and blankies and Champagne.

I'm in coach, and proud of it. But I'll be tired upon arrival.

Ah, well, c'est la vie.

Oxford, I'll be there soon

Vacation is just TWO DAYS AWAY.

Anyone else feel like they need one? Whew, do I ever!

Even though I'll be on vacation, I'll still post here -- and I will be writing more adventures for Hope and Jake. Expect two new stories in The Pandora Chronicles to be published in January 2013.

Going away someplace -- anyplace, really -- makes you look at things differently when you come home. The last time I went on vacation, I came back super energized and wrote a story in just one week. I'm sure this vacation will do the same for me.

This trip starts in Paris and then on to London and Oxford. I've never been to Oxford before, so that'll be a wonderful surprise. I've see it portrayed in a lot of BBC Mysteries, like "Morse" and "Inspector Lewis." All those cobblestone streets and mysterious corners may make it into Hope and Jake's next episode of Pandora. :-)

What's fun about traveling at this time of the year is seeing all the holiday decorations. I'll try to take some good photos of the lights and post them here.

Amazing writing day

I wasn't supposed to write today, but I did.

I spent the day at a conference surrounded by doctors and researchers. And since I didn't understand a lot of what they were saying -- like, most of it -- I worked on story no. 5! I didn't have a computer with me, so I did it the old-fashioned way: longhand, with pen and paper. Kind of quaint, you know?

Actually, it was a very inspiring and stimulating environment to be around all these MDs and PhDs, since The Pandora Chronicles stories deal with a medical catastrophe.

To be in a room with 100 people whose sole professional goal is to cure cancer? That doesn't happen every day.

Hope, Jake and the rest of the characters in The Pandora Chronicles have an adventure in store for them in story 5, so stay tuned!

Fireworks on Monday? Why not?!

It's a gorgeous Monday here in NYC. Sure doesn't feel like December, since it's about 60 degrees.

Some people have asked me why I'm not trying to get my works published via the traditional publishing route.

I have a simple answer for that: I don't have time.

I want to write and then share what I write with readers like you. If I waited for a traditional publisher to discover me ... well, it could happen (and it still might), but that industry is so complex, I wouldn't have any idea how to navigate it.

And there's another reason, which I wrote about a few days ago. I love being part of the digital publishing revolution. The Internet has opened doors to self-publishing, so even by writing and publishing this blog post I'm doing something that couldn't have happened before the WWW.

How are you a part of the digital publishing revolution?

• Do you read books by self-published authors? 
• Do you read individuals' blogs? 
• Do you write a blog or eBooks, yourself?

Then yes, you are part of the revolution!

Lots of people are now able to share the beauty and creativity they have inside. Thinking about that reminded me of Katy Perry's song, "Firework." Enjoy!

Be a character in Story 5

It's Saturday, and I'm in a great mood because I'm working on Story 5 in The Pandora Chronicles today. It starts in a very dark place for our Hope, and that's all I'll say right now except ...

If you are the first person to comment on this post, I'll name a character after you. Just tell me what name you want me to use (only genuine names, not something X-rated or anything like that, OK?). And then you'll see him/her in Story 5 when it's published soon.

Be a part of the action and suspense. Post a comment below and name a character in my next story!

OK, back to writing for me ... and THANKS!

5 reasons I like writing "Pandora"

I am really enjoying writing The Pandora Chronicles. Here are my top 5 reasons, in Dave Letterman-style order.

Number 5: I'm having great fun incorporating the science I read about every day where I work (at a major medical center) and twisting it into a futuristic vision.

Number 4: Designing the landscape of Arcadia and the suburbs makes me feel like an architect.

Number 3: Writing the action scenes is like watching an action movie over and over again in my head, and I can make the characters do anything I want -- at just the right moments to heighten the tension.

Number 2: It's exciting for me to know the ending and then decide exactly how I want to get there.

And the number 1 reason I enjoy writing The Pandora Chronicles: Writing the character of Hope is allowing me to explore some deep emotions, like grief and determination.

Are you having fun reading The Pandora Chronicles? We learned something BIG in story 4, Blood Line Zero. Story 5 -- not yet named -- takes it to the next level. Can't wait to share it with all of you.

Snowing in NYC

It's a dreary day here in NYC, with a mix of snow and rain. Not too cold, but definitely ... depressing.

But you know what? That's good for me, because if you've read story 3, Freefall, and story 4, Blood Line Zero, you'll know that they take place in the wintertime -- cold, snowy, moody.

While some people may not like this NYC weather, it's going to help me continue writing story 5.

What will Hope learn from her mother in story 5? Will she even get a chance to ask her anything at all?

"Life of Pi": I am the tiger

What a wonderful movie experience this was: miraculous, beautiful, thought-provoking, involving.

"Life of Pi" is so visually stunning, I want to dream about it every night for the rest of my life. I'm totally serious.

While I do go to the movies regularly, I don't often recommend them. I do recommend "Life of Pi," preferably seen in a theater and with 3D (and I normally can't stand 3D, by the way).

If you haven't read the novel, as I hadn't, I won't give anything away here. All I will say is that the movie must be approached from the part of yourself that hasn't fallen victim to cynicism. With everything that's going on in the world, it's easy for us to forget how amazing life can really be. Even when things are bleak, we can find a light somewhere, somehow.

There was a point when I was watching the movie where I truly felt a connection to what was happening onscreen. The young man is facing a life-or-death situation, over which he has virtually no control. Everything is stacked against him.

I've been in that situation, myself. Like the young man, I lost everything -- everything except the essence of my "self," the part of me that can withstand such a loss and continue to battle for whatever remains of my life.

I still fight this battle every day, and it's in my fiction writing that I've found a renewed sense of who I am and what I might contribute to this world. It may be a small contribution, but it's one that I can make.

Seeing this life-or-death struggle played out in such a visually magnificent way was very moving to me.  Because I feel that tiger spirit within myself.

No, that's not quite right.

I don't just feel the tiger spirit. I am the tiger.

How much gore is too much gore?

No offense to the presidential candidates, but I'm debating right now ... about how much horror to include in story no. 4.

These aren't horror stories, per se, but they do contain a bit of gore ("bit of gore" sounds weird, doesn't it?). And certainly the circumstances under which these people are living are horrific, with the annual plague killing thousands of people and leaving those behind with emotional scars.

Decisions, decisions.

What did you all think of the level of gore in The Hunger Games, for example? I really liked the books, especially the first one. But I was kind of shocked at the violence in it, especially since it was child-on-child violence.

So how gore much is too much gore?