Hello, it’s me I was wondering if after all these months you’d like to read this… Hello from the other siiiiiiiide  As I sat down to write my first post in months, Adele’s opening lyrics from “Hello” came into my head and I realized the above paraphrased version perfectly captured what I was feeling. This site has always been where I share fun news, but 2020 made it hard for me to write or focus on much besides maintaining sanity and not getting Covid-19. But now we’re on the other side and I wanted to poke my head back out and say hi! And I have a fun reason to do so. Shielded and maske ..read more

On March 16, 1991, 16-year-old Ava Matthews walked into a Korean-owned convenience store in South Central Los Angeles to buy milk. A scuffle ensued when the owner thought Ava was stealing, and Ava ended up shot in the back of the head, bleeding out on the floor with two dollars in her hand. Her younger brother, Shawn, witnessed the entire incident, which was caught on tape, but the owner/shooter received only probation and no jail time. In 2019, 27-year-old Grace Park is still living at home with her parents and working in the pharmacy they own. She’s the dutiful daughter, while her older sist ..read more

Hello, my 3 faithful PCN readers! These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of creativity. I shot a TV show and am preparing to shoot a movie and do some voice work. Some of the projects will premiere later this year or next year, but one is available now. A year ago I had a blast working with Kelly Marie Tran (The Last Jedi) on a fictional mystery podcast called Passenger List. It’s about a plane that goes missing, and Kelly plays a young woman digging for answers because her twin brother was on the flight. There are 8 episodes and 5 are available now, with a new one released every Monday u ..read more

The Chestnut Man is lurking A year after her young daughter was abducted and murdered, Copenhagen’s Minister for Social Affairs Rosa Hartung returns to work. On the same day, a woman is found murdered and mutilated, with a nearby figurine of a man—made out of chestnuts. Detective Naia Thulin catches the case and is partnered with Mark Hess, a detective recently suspended from Europol and sent back to Copenhagen for disciplinary reasons. Neither Thulin nor Hess is ecstatic about the work arrangement, but they must come together to chase a killer who makes it clear he has quickly escalating pl ..read more

After a few setbacks in his career, Paxton is feeling hopeful again, even though he’s among dozens of people being bused to a dusty town to apply for a job at Cloud, a giant retailer that has taken over much of the economy. If Paxton is hired, he won’t need to worry about housing or health care; the company provides on-site apartments and medical services. Never mind that it doesn’t pay minimum wage or in cash and makes employees work seven days a week—Cloud takes care of everything! Paxton’s main motivator, however, is a chance to meet Cloud’s CEO, Gibson Wells. The man is responsible for the ..read more

From the end of July until last week, I was hosting various visiting family members and did things out of the ordinary, like seeing the Rolling Stones in concert and touring Hearst Castle and going to the beach and taking more than 11 steps a day. All these activities meant I didn’t read as much but I did manage to finish 6 books in August. Here are my brief thoughts on each.   The Favorites The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell This story about a British family imprisoned in their own home—by strangers who showed up one day and stayed for years—is disturbing yet riveting. Some scenes filled me ..read more

At the start of JP Delaney’s propulsive The Perfect Wife, Abbie wakes up in pain, hooked up to machines and with only vague memories of what transpired before. Was she in a car crash? Her tech-genius husband, Tim, is there and tells her that he and their nine-year-old son, Danny, are fine, that everything’s fine. He promises to fill in the gaps in Abbie’s memory after he takes her home. She learns there was an accident five years ago, and Tim has spent all that time devoted to bringing her back. But soon Abbie starts finding hidden items around the house that indicate their relationship wasn’t ..read more

While playing with her daughter in the park one day, Aubrey meets a little boy and his mother. Days later Aubrey sees the boy again—being dragged into an SUV and calling for his mother, who’s mysteriously absent. After the vehicle peels away, Aubrey files a police report, but no one believes her. Because no one has reported a missing boy. Aubrey fears the mother is dead, but she’s dismissed by police and the media as an attention seeker. Attention is the last thing she wants, however. She’s been living under an alias, hiding from her past. But as a mother, she can’t ignore what she saw, knowin ..read more

I’ve been saying this a lot to friends—how is 2019 half over already?? It feels like I was celebrating New Year’s only a few weeks ago, and I think Christmas lights are still hanging in my bathroom. Part of my losing track of time has to do with a busy spring, flying back and forth between L.A. and Atlanta to work on an HBO show. The good part is, the forced downtime on flights and sets allowed for lots of reading. I read 7.25 books in June, more than my average of 5. Below are some quick thoughts. The Favorites City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. This book about a young woman working as a co ..read more

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, the perfect time for me to run this interview with author Helen Hoang, who is half Vietnamese. Her debut, The Kiss Quotient, was a breakout hit in 2018 and acquired by Pilgrim Media Group for a movie adaptation. Kiss features a brilliant female lead with autism—which Hoang also has—and a sexy half-Vietnamese man as the love interest. Read on for my review of Hoang’s follow-up, The Bride Test, and my chat with her. (Both originally ran in Shelf Awareness for Readers and are republished here with permission.) Review: The Bride Test Khai Diep is certa ..read more