From the court room to the theme parks, we have a lot to catch up on in this “Saturday Special.” Let’s get right to it.
1. Amanda Knox. You may recall I blogged about her retrial in December. Thursday an Italian appellate court officially decided to uphold her original guilty verdict. (You’ll recall, that’s the verdict that was overturned in 2011, allowing Knox to go home to Seattle.)
So what does this mean? Does Knox have to go back to prison in Italy? Technically, yes, she’s supposed to. But right now the ball remains in Italy’s court — until (and unless) they request extradition from the U.S. State Department. At that point, the U.S. State Department may decline the request. Or, they can pass it on to federal prosecutors in Seattle. Knox would then have the opportunity to fight the extradition request in U.S. courts.
Knox says she will never willingly return to Italy. Meanwhile, the Italian court has 90 days to provide a written explanation as to why they upheld the conviction. We’ll continue to follow the case’s twists and turns because so many of you are interested in this one.
Amanda Knox
2. There’s a new QUOTE PAGE on dianecapri.com where we’ve posted a few of your favorite quotes from my books. We’re calling the page “Quote Capri” because we hope you will continue to, literally, quote Capri books. Take a look and submit your favorite quotes. We’ll be updating the page frequently.
3. Big news in the world of Harry Potter… As I told you in THIS BLOG POST, I recently took a trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure in Orlando. I was impressed by the level of detail and realism there. Now, Universal Studios has announced expansion plans for the Harry Potter portion of the park, complete with a Hogwarts Express ride. To get an idea of how massive this undertaking is, they’re bringing 60 designers on board for the project. They used only 18 for the original. Now that’s commitment to detail! Read more about the expansion HERE.
4. We’ll announce the winners of our Quincentennial Reader Review Celebration* drawings on February 8th in my NewsFlash! One lucky winner of the autographed copy of Don’t Know Jack, signed by both Diane Capri and Lee Child. Three lucky winners whose names will appear in my next book. And…. well, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we told you now, would it? CLICK HERE to make sure you’re subscribed to get that email.
*Remember: We offer prizes like this every time one of my books gets 500 reader reviews on Amazon.com. So if you haven’t written a review yet, this is your incentive to go write a one-liner, and help us give you more chances to win!
5. Did you catch MY BLOG POST on “American Hustle”? I was intrigued by the way the movie managed to blur the lines between “good guys” and “bad guys.” Good movie, but I’d be surprised if it wins Best Picture. What are your Oscar predictions?
I’m spending some of my weekend studying a missing person’s story, 10 years in the making. This one’s a real doozy. I’ll blog about it next week, but her name is Maura Murray if you’d like to get a head start. Stay tuned to see if you can help solve the case! I have a feeling we’re closer than ever to an answer.
