Islands Linked by Ocean (Bamboo Ridge Press, 2009) is a showcase for the short story magic of Lisa Linn Kanae.  Lisa is also the author of Sista Tongue (Tinfish, 2001), about which Susan Schultz wrote,  "It combines the history of pidgin English in Hawaii with memoir with story telling."

Islands Linked by Ocean is all about story telling, and Lisa tells a great story. I asked Lisa to share some of her thoughts about this new collection.

Q. Looking at the stories in Islands Linked by Ocean, I'm struck by the variety of subjects and differences in tone. From the emotional power of the title story to the playfulness of "Sassy" to the comic delights of "Luciano and da Break Room Divas," and all the others, you take your reader on an intriguing journey.  Do you go searching for these stories, or do they seem to find you?

Lisa: I think a combination of both—stories show up all the time, but I have to pay attention in order to "recognize" a concept worth developing. With that said, I believe that writers cannot afford to passively walk through life.  It's like I tell my students: Walk through life like a writer. Keep your eyes and ears open and stay out of the way. A story will show up, you just have to work at paying attention and this will take energy on your part.

The story "Sassy" is an example of a story that "showed up." My girlfriends gave me a small bridal shower at the Banyan Veranda, and there was a group of women at the table next to us playing the now infamous "condom game." Suddenly, there was a story concept reeling in my mind and I was so distracted, I had to excuse myself from MY bridal shower. I went to the restroom to write a few notes in a journal I keep in my purse. I wasn't going to let this one slip past me. I mean, the concept practically landed in my lap. Confession: I couldn't wait to leave MY bridal shower to go home and write.

So story concepts may appear like magic, but the real search for a story takes place while crafting that magic into a structured story with characters I have to develop—draft after draft after workshop and draft, which is ole fashioned hard work. I like to think the real magic happens for the reader.

So I think the "variety of subjects" and "differences in tone," is a result of how those story concepts were revealed to me and how I wanted the story to be different from the one I previously wrote. That's a self-imposed challenge—try to do something different with each piece. That and you have to sit for hours in isolation to turn something out, but being away from the computer is where the stories show up.

I read somewhere once that story is not about what happens; story is about what happens to people, and most of the stories I write, I write as a gift for the person who influenced the story—whether I like that person or not.

Q. I'm a great fan of the short story form, but I often hear from other writers that writing short stories is difficult.  Do you have any insider tips to share?

Lisa: The short story will always be a like a puzzle to me.  Typical process—I start off with one concept, which grows out of control and then I have to delete pages because the story should be, hello, short—concise, focused, unified.

I've read so many articles about HOW to write a short story and the advice on structure is basically the same; limit the number of characters, have the story evolve around one conflict, cool it with the flashbacks, and be aware of time, i.e., hours, days, years. And then I read great short stories that break all of those rules. Go figure.  But a short story can have textbook structure and NO SPIRIT.

If I had to give "insider tips," I'd say the first rule is to make sure you love the story you are telling. And I don't mean fall in love with your writing. That is ego; the best crafted sentences should get axed if they don't help the story.

I try to, with the first few sentences, grab the reader by the guts. I try to begin with action and I try not to waste the reader's time by describing a lot of inaction. Something has to happen to someone!

The truth is, I find that some of the best storytellers are not writers. There is one at every party, that person who can sit on a metal folding chair inside the garage surrounded by a captured audience. He or she has the natural ability to pull a memory out of nowhere, tell the story AND keep everyone engaged. The telling usually involves perfect timing, being animated, knowing what to reveal at the right points in the telling, but most important, I can sense that he or she she feels an obligation to do right by that story.

Translating and then crafting this kind of movement on the page is tough, but that's the challenge. The writing has to have an energy—a momentum, but the most important part of telling a story comes from the love for that story.

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Coming Friday: part 2 of this interview ... Lisa talks about the romance in her stories and also what she's reading these days.

Tags: Islands Linked by Ocean, Lisa Linn Kanae, Romance, short stories, Writing

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 12:05 am and is filed under Hawaii fiction, Hawaii humor, Hawaii short story collection, Romance, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.