Just for Precious in Canada about James Patterson's Masterclass

but also fo anyone else who has tried to post a comment here. My comments section seems to be broken. Precious, I read your question about the James Paatterson masterclass and wrote a long reply and that was deleted too. How. Very. Annoying.
For those of you just joining us...
The question was--is it worth it?
I said YES and here's why.

W is for Woody Harrelson

Woody Harrelson kind of sneaked up on me. One minute he was in an endless loop of Cheers reruns, and the next thing I knew he was playing everything from a bad-ass zombie killer to a political strategist to a corrupt Louisiana cop. (I loved, loved, loved True Detective and it was mostly because even when the story got out of hand, watching Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey was an absolute pleasure. I liked them together in EdTV too.) Before True Detective, my favorite Harrelson role was in Game Change with Julianne Moore and Ed Harris.

I really admire actors who move beyond their comfort zone when they're choosing parts and try out new things and change things up. And Harrelson's done everything from Hunger Games to No Country for Old Men to Now You See Me.  His next project is a movie called Triple Nine, which I read when it was being shopped around to distributors. It's a thriller with a great cast (Casey Affleck and Kate Winslet and Chiwetel Ejiofor are just some of his co-stars). I can't wait to see it. And I can't wait to see what he does next.

Saturday Self-Promotion ... Suicide Blonde

Speaking of frugality, I'm a big proponent of free books.  I get all those newsletters DAILY offering freebie books and I just snap those bargains up.  (You do not even want to know how many books there are in my kindle.)
And every once in a while, I want to do MY part to feed your e-reader. Right now I'm running a free promotion for my collection of short stories called Suicide Blonde. It's been well-received, and I'm pretty proud of the stories.  If you enjoyed True Detective, I think you might like this collection. (And wouldn't it be kind of cool if the producers solicited stories for an anthology, the way the makers of the game L.A. Noire did?)

Anyway, Suicide Blonde is free for the next two days. You can snag it here. And if you enjoy it, I'd love a review.

A Celebrity-Free Oscar Story from CNN

Leave it to CNN to cover all the angles of tonight's Oscar broadcast. Not only do they have a picture of the corset Sally Field will be wearing (TMI maybe?) but they have this neat little featurette on how the Oscar statuette is made.

And now for my personal pick for Best Actor:

I haven't seen a lot of this year's nominated films but I was an early fan of The Dallas Buyer's Club. Matthew McConaughey is having a hell of a year with DBC and True Detective, and I hope he wins Best Actor.