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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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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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.”

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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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