Aaaack. Stomach flu

Need I say more?

Story 5 still coming soon -- I just have to feel good enough to do the final bit, and it'll be up and ready to read!

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.

To kill, or not to kill?

OK, folks. I'm having a debate with myself whether to kill someone off in story 5 ... or not.

The characters are at a point where things are serious. VERY serious. If you've read Blood Line Zero, then you know what I'm talking about.

So what should I do? Kill someone? Or not?

Of course, I can't reveal who I'm talking about because that would give too much away. If any of you read Harry Potter -- not that I'm J.K. Rowling -- then you know the author had no problem killing off some pretty major characters.

(SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ HP: Dumbledore?? And Hedwig?? Sheesh.)

Tell me what you think about authors killing off key characters in their books!

I ate the Justin's peanut butter cups

Yep. Gave in to the chocolate craving -- or should I say "addiction" -- that I talked about yesterday. So sue me.