Voices on the page, or on the computer screen of this blog, echo down the last days of 2009. Here are some of the voices that have brightened “A Little Romance” this year:

Local writer and teacher Cami Nihipali: There are discussions in literary circles about whetherTwilight is ‘good’ literature. I know my colleagues and I have had this discussion numerous times. The truth of the matter is that it doesn’t matter. Like the Harry Potter phenomenon, which became embroiled in a religious argument several years ago, Twilight and its subsequent books have gotten kids reading, and excited about reading nonetheless. As for romance, Meyer hits the nail on the head. Whether the reader likes Edward or Jacob, everyone can find that flutter of first love in this story.

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“Low hanging fruit.” Easier to pick. There for the taking. Why venture higher when there’s good fruit you don’t even need a ladder for, or maybe just a short ladder?

I hear that phrase now and then in different contexts, often from someone on radio or TV. When they use the familiar phrase do they see the image in the metaphor? Do they see a tree with low hanging fruit, and perhaps someone picking?

When I hear “low hanging fruit,” an image of a mango tree immediately flashes in my head. Not just any mango tree, although where I live in Kapahulu/Kaimuki, on the island of Oahu, there are beautiful, fantastic Hayden mango trees on every block. I see a tree that is no longer there.

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In the middle of Frank Delaney’s novel Ireland, an engaging 560-page narrative about Ireland and Irish storytellers, there’s one paragraph that jumped off the page at me and said “Take me home with you.” Or perhaps it whispered “Kiss me, I’m Irish.” Whatever. But it’s a memorable paragraph for all writers, and readers, and here it is.

A story has only one master—its narrator; he decides what he wants his story to do. I know, I have always known, what I want my stories to achieve—I want to make people believe. Believe what I tell. Believe in it. Believe me. Belief is the one effect I’m always looking for, and I apply every device, every pause, every gesture, every verbal nuance and twirl, to that end. To achieve it, I myself have to believe; if I don’t, who will? I must believe ancient Ireland was as I describe it. The swords really did ring loudly off the shields. And the armor surely gleamed in the sun.

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Last Thursday morning I had the opportunity to read and speak at Farrington High School, as part of the Farrington Library's visiting writers program. The [...]
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If you read “Attack of the killer cliches” here on Monday, you witnessed the power of words to drive us crazy. Here’s a short story, a cautionary tale, I wrote on the subject.

I read “Obsession” at the Hawaii Book & Music Festival a few years ago. Just one note on this story—yes, it’s important to care about language, but be careful that it doesn’t take over your life. There, you’ve been warned.

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Most of us have way too much on our plate. To make time to read we have to find a personal oasis, a place away from all the modern noise, then turn [...]
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Bill Teter, ed. From the powerful opening words of the Kumulipo to the propulsive rhymes of contemporary slam poetry, Hāpai nā Leo celebrates a diverse range of voices that explore, carry, and regenerate Hawaiian culture. Editor Bill Teter created Hāpai nā Leo as a literary companion to Malcolm [...]
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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.

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In the Company of Strangers, Michelle Cruz Skinner’s new collection of short stories from Bamboo Ridge Press, is set to launch on Tuesday, November 17 (6:30 p.m. reception and book signing; 7:00 p.m. book launch and reading by Michelle; Luke Lecture Hall, Wo International Center, Punahou School; free and open to the public).

R. Zamora Linmark, author of Prime Time Apparitions and The Evolution of a Sigh, describes the book this way:

“Sixteen deceptively simple stories comprise Michelle Cruz Skinner’s much-anticipated follow-up to Balikbayan and Mango Seasons, many of them about Filipinos tongue-tied and alienated in the motherland, or scattered across the map of heartaches and homesickness in the company of strangers called countrymen, family, lovers. A book of quiet gems definitely worth the wait.”

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