'One Life to Live' ONLINE Is Coming Together

four of the major stars of 'one life to live' have signed on to continuing their roles online (and possibly cable) when the show leaves abc in january. erika slezak, kassie depaiva, michael knight and ted king officialy signed up this week. here's hoping others will soon follow and keep llanview alive for years to come.

Andrea Mitchell and Her Breast Cancer Diagnosis: Listen Up

Oscarbation: 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' Featurette

oscar bait coming nov.18

Breaking out her writing instincts: my Weekend Herald feature article on Tess Gerritsen

Last month, bestselling international crime writer Tess Gerritsen visited New Zealand, attending events at the Women's Bookshop (pictured right), the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference, and "Setting the Stage for Murder" (the Ngaio Marsh Award event). It was great to meet Tess, who came across as a very down-to-earth, intelligent, interesting, and fun person.

Prior to her visit, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tess for an article in the Weekend Herald, New Zealand's biggest-circulation newspaper. This morning, that article was finally put online - so all of you, wherever you are in the world, can now read it.

Breaking out her writing instincts
Doctor-turned-suspense novelist Tess Gerritsen talks to Craig Sisterson about embracing her heritage and seeing her heroines come alive onscreen.

After 22 successful novels, ranging from romantic suspense to New York Times best-selling medical and crime thrillers, Tess Gerritsen says she realised it had become time to truly embrace her own ethnicity in her work.

While she has drawn on some of her experiences as a physician in her previous books, which have sold more than 20 million copies, it wasn't until The Silent Girl, just released in New Zealand, that she strongly incorporated another important part of herself - her Chinese-American heritage.

"With my mother's health fading, I thought it was time to explore who I am and where I come from," she says. "If not now, then when?"

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ONLINE AT THE NZ HERALD WEBSITE HERE.

Comments welcome.

Water-based Cellphone AQUA

A very futuristic and very original mobile phone was offered by South Korean designer Bon Seop Ku from Samsung company. The device is called AQUA and it looks like it really consists of water. Designer found his inspiration on a wet table, where he thoughtfully drew different figures by his finger. As a result he got a concept Samsung AQUA together with a graphical user interface and water-based display. It is assumed that the user can remove icons from the panel by simply rubbing the display with their hands. The cellphone runs on liquid type battery that apart from being eco-friendly supports the transparency of the screen as well.

Hand Art

Guido Daniele has created some gorgeous and fresh trompe l’oeil hand art!

About a boy: My Life as a Book

Thanks to two excellent book bloggers, Margot of Confessions of a Mystery Novelist and Norman of Crime Scraps, I've come across the 'My Life as a Book' meme, which is a bit of harmless fun where bookloving people select titles of books they've read as the answers to a series of questions/statements about their own life. You can read more about the meme here.

I've decided to have a go today, and like Norman, will try to add a degree of difficulty, and do the best I can by only using the titles of books I've read during 2011 (68 books and counting). Also, since Margot and Norman have shared old photos of themselves, I thought I should do the same. Most of my really old photos are at my parents house in Nelson, but for now, here's one that's from my early 'glasses, braces, skinny as a rake' days at high school, hiking the Heaphy Track near Nelson in Easter 1993 (see left). Such a long time ago, haha.

So here goes with my book title answers (a word of warning, my answers here are intended to be very tongue-in-cheek, and just a bit of harmless fun):

One time at band/summer camp, I: (rafted into the) BACK OF BEYOND [by CJ Box]

Weekends at my house are: NO OPPORTUNITY WASTED [by Phil Keoghan]

My neighbour is: THE SILENT GIRL [by Tess Gerritsen]

My boss is: STILL MISSING [by Chevy Stevens]

My ex was: (a) BITTERROOT [by James Lee Burke] - just kidding.

My superhero secret identity is: RED WOLF [by Liza Marklund]

You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry because: (I'd) SHATTER THE BONES [by Stuart MacBride]

I’d win a gold medal in: SMILING, JACK [by Ken Catran] - I am very smiley.

I’d pay good money for: CARTE BLANCHE [by Jeffery Deaver]

If I were president, I would: (be warned against) A POLITICAL AFFAIR [by Andrew Porteous]

When I don’t have good books, I: (am) THE TROUBLED MAN [by Henning Mankell]

Loud talkers at the movies should be: BURIED ALIVE [by JA Kerley]

This little bit of fun has actually inspired me to do a bit more of a real or serious 'my life in books' post soon, biographically and bibliographically tracing my reading life (eg taking readers through the books/series that I loved as a child, adolescent, teen, uni student, lawyer, traveller, now writer etc). I'll try to post that in the coming days - could be fun too, reflecting on the different books and authors that I've loved at different times of my life, and how my reading has evolved etc.

So, what do you think of 'My Life as a Book'? Fire away!