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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Today we welcome back local teacher and writer Cami Nihipali, with a guide to finding the right gift for young adult readers. And no, it’s not all vampires and werewolves. Thank you, Cami, for sharing these great tips! Now here’s Cami …

Let’s face it, adolescents are tough to buys gifts for. Sure, it’s easy to give them gift cards and cash, but sometimes that just doesn’t feel personal enough, right? So, here are five types of adolescent readers and the adolescent novels on the market right now to match.

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Were you ever an adolescent? Are you a Harry Potter fan? If you answered yes to the first question, read on. If you answered yes to both questions, this is your lucky day. Local writer and teacher Cami Nihipali is here to lead us through the three F’s of adolescence and Harry Potter. Here’s Cami!

“Remember adolescence? Now that you’ve moved past the shudder, think about it beyond the poor self-image, beyond the acne, beyond the confusion. What do you remember? There are three things that really stand out about being an adolescent for me: finding myself, friends, and first love.

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Let’s make this multiple choice. You can add your answers to this. Feel free to comment. It won’t be graded. Now some of these answers may sound like things your mother used to tell you, or still tells you, and maybe she was right, but let’s see.

Q: Why do lovers have to go through hell to get to heaven?

a) They’ll appreciate it so much more when they have to earn it (thanks a lot, Mom).

b) Fiction writers love conflict, and they’ve been told a thousand times, “More conflict!” (in my case, two thousand times).

c) Anything worth having is worth working for (Mom, enough already!).

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These days you can’t escape them. Edward in the Twilight series is only the latest in a long line of scary and often romantic vampires. Used to be that vampires were confined to Transylvania, and between the covers of books like Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic Dracula (still the best and most frig [...]
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Recently I asked some members of the Aloha Chapter, Romance Writers of America, how much romance they could handle. How would you answer that question? Here’s what the writers said.  (Watch out for romantic vampires lurking below ... we'll take a [...]
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