It’s been a long Memorial Day weekend, and I should have been writing, but instead I settled in one evening with a DVD of John Ford’s 1952 film The Quiet Man. Ford, who is best known for his Westerns filmed in Monument Valley in northern Arizona, directed John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in this beautifully filmed hymn to Ireland.

The Quiet Man was a film Ford had been trying to make for years, until finally Republic Pictures agreed, on the condition that Ford first make the studio a black-and-white Western, to make up for the losses they expected for The Quiet Man.

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As all writers have discovered, the stories are out there, waiting. Often they appear before us when we are on the move. Go for a walk or a drive and they simpl [...]
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The idea of linked poems, so beautifully realized in the new Bamboo Ridge Press book No Choice but to Follow, fits snugly into a larger idea. The four poets—Jean Yamasaki Toyama, Juliet S. Kono, Ann Inoshita, and Christy Passion—linked their poems, one to the next, for twelve months in 2008.

What exactly did they use to link the poems?  They used words.  Taking the last line of the most recent poem as the starting point for a new poem, they connected not only poems, they also connected experiences, memories, and emotions. One poem built upon the other, the project grew, unfolding like an exotic, yet familiar, flower.

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Now this is different. There are half a dozen topics ping-ponging in my mind, but instead I read through the menu of choices on the screen and begin to stare at "Add New. [...]
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Here’s a rule I invite you to break. When you’re writing fiction, never put a list in your story. The reader, who wants to get on with the action, does not want [...]
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I love to listen to Noe Tanigawa's reports on arts and culture on Hawaii Public Radio. Most times it's 7:30 on a weekday morning, when I'm driving dow [...]
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A diligent researcher has recently unearthed some original working titles for books that were later published under more familiar titles.  This person, who has chosen to remain anonymous, revealed only that he or she was inspired by an episode of Seinfeld. Here is the exact passage quoted in the introduction to the list of titles:

Jerry: Hey, you know what? I read the most unbelievable thing about Tolstoy the other day. Did you know the original title for War and Peace was War—What Is It Good For?

Elaine: Ha ha.

Jerry: No, no.. I’m not kidding, Elaine, it’s true. His mistress didn’t like the title and insisted he change it to War and Peace.

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So there you are, beginning to read a new novel, or write a new story, and you ask yourself just how much sweetness you want. If you ask me, I’m going to answer “a [...]
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When I first saw that insurance commercial where the sophisticated caveman, upset by Geico’s slogan (“So easy a caveman can do it”), reminds modern [...]
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On Wednesday I had the opportunity to talk with middle school students at Island Pacific Academy (IPA) in Kapolei as part of their Career Day. Thank you, Cami Nih [...]
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