He does what he teaches, ergo, not just preaches. I appreciate Prof. McKinney’s personal perspective on character over nostalgia. My olde-tyme pacesetters Gessler and Blanding were so “Very Thirties,” led a milieu of purple Island writers, but even Don B. livened things up with real characterization when he described “The Virgin of Waikiki.”

Prof. McKinney is helping me to understand today’s milieu with his writing about contemporary folks around here. In one of his hottest, “Mililani Mauka” (2009) …Kai kisses a shaky Banyan, she’s shaky, too.

“You should lose the nose ring.”

“I should.”

…And all done in present tense, too…real today stuff in a Karaoke Bar. I’m studying and learning because he’s breaking ground, not sifting sand.