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.

If this story were a romance, it would be longer than Gone With the Wind. If it were a fairy tale, the prince would grow old tracking down the owner of the glass slipper. If it were a life lesson in patience and perseverance, it would be … perfect.

I don’t cry that often, but today I did. After I had been glued to the TV screen for three days, Sunday afternoon brought an emotional reward. When Michelle Wie tapped in a birdie putt on the last hole of the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara to win her first LPGA tournament, the tears began. I let them flow.

Michelle is only 20, but this day has been anticipated for … forever.

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.”

While folks on the Mainland daydream about romantic Hawaii, I sometimes daydream about how people live on the Mainland. I mostly see them on cable TV. You know, people like Ross and Rachel, our old friends from Friends.

Ever wonder what happens to characters after their series comes to an end? The following short short (really short) story is one I wrote for The Breakup Queen, a collection of romantic tales by 18 contemporary Hawaii writers, cover design by Stephanie Chang (Aloha Romance Writers, 2007).

Searching for romance in Longs? Really? Longs may be the first place you think to look for many things, but romance? I decided to give it a shot anyway. My investigation led me to my neighborhood Longs store in the Kaimuki Shopping Center. It also led me to one of my favorite writers.

If I hadn’t asked Lee Cataluna about romance in her book Folks You Meet in Longs (Bamboo Ridge, 2005), I wouldn’t have known that she doesn’t see romance in those monologues of Longs shoppers and employees. Lee told me, “I don’t really think of romance when I think about that collection. I think about needs/wants and people going through Longs trying to fulfill their literal needs and thus their deeper needs.”

So here’s a situation for you …

Imagine you’re writing a novel and it’s starting out all right. You’ve written only the first three chapters, so you’re not bogged down in the middle yet. You have a character you call Charley Meyers narrating the story first person and he’s easy.

But … and it’s a very large but … there’s this other supporting character, a 19-year-old rodeo queen wannabe with big blonde hair and a bigger personality, and she’s just about bursting to take over the story. Do you stop her? Leave her on the sidelines in most of the chapters?