Michael Little - A Little Romance
I write novels and short stories that take a comic look at romance and modern life. I'm a native Texan who landed in Hawaii and discovered that living on an island has many advantages. For example, you can put Jimmy Buffet on the car stereo, keep making left turns, and end up where you started, only happier.
Recent novel: Chasing Cowboys (2009), a contemporary romantic comedy set in Reno. Short stories appear in Bamboo Ridge's collections, including "Mango Lessons," "Walter! Walter!," "Walter and the Dream Girls," "Seven Ways to Tell If You Married a Cosmo Girl," and, most recently, "Pickles and Shawnilynn and Me at the Mall."
Still Life with Blonde and MINI Cooper ...
May 8th, 2010
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 simply pop up before us, like figures in a children's book when we turn the page. Where's the story? Where's Waldo? Not hiding too well.Here's one that popped up last week when I was driving into town. It might have turned into a short story, but I saw it from the beginning as a short poem, a lyrical moment that floated to the ground as lightly as ... but see for yourself. I call it "S [...]
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No choice but to follow (part 3) ...
May 5th, 2010
Poets are time travelers. They move through time as swiftly as the mind darts from today to a dusty past, or from this known moment to an unknown future. The new Bamboo Ridge Press book No Choice but to Follow documents a year in the lives of poets Jean Yamasaki Toyama, Juliet S. Kono, Ann Inoshita, and Christy Passion as they created 48 linked poems.
No choice but to follow (part 2) ...
April 30th, 2010
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.
Read the rest of this entry »No choice but to follow (part 1) ...
April 24th, 2010Christmas arrived this week in the mailbox, either four months late or eight months early, or maybe right on time. It came in the form of a modest manila envelope. I knew right away what it contained. I'd been waiting for it a long time, as a small child waits for Santa. This was the new book of poetry from Bamboo Ridge Press, No Choice but to Follow, linked renshi poems by Jean Yamasaki Toyama, Juliet S. Kono, Ann Inoshita, and Christy Passion.Two cool things about subscribing to Bamboo [...]
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Add new ... an invitation and command
April 21st, 2010
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." As in add new posts, add new media, add new links, and add new pages."Add New" stares back at me as both an invitation and a command. What can we learn from this ever-so-brief invitation/command? My first thought is that it's an invitation and command for both writers and readers. Think about it. And while you're thinking I'll just make a list. Yes, another list, an [...]
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Good things in small packages ...
April 17th, 2010
If you google "good things in small packages," you bring up a list of everything from tiny genomes to boutique wineries in Australia. Here's my personal non-Google list of good things that come in small packages. You may want to make your own list, or add to this one.1. Kelly Majam of the University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine softball team! Kelly is the reason I started this list. She's a 5-3 freshman center fielder from Pine Valley, California, who leads the nation in home runs and has already broken the Wahine sin [...]
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Making lists and breaking rules ...
April 13th, 2010
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 to stop and read a list, will be annoyed, and probably will skip over the list. Even if you love making lists yourself, and even if it’s the hired killer’s list of people to knock off that day, or the heroine’s list of guys who might be worth giving her time and heart to, resist the temptation and keep the list out of the story.Okay, now that we’re all cl [...]
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Some writers do that? Really?
April 9th, 2010
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 downtown, that Noe's dulcet voice wafts through the stereo speakers.
This morning Noe was airing an interview with Lisa Yee, the featured writer at the Pen Women writers conference at Punahou this weekend. On Saturday, Lisa, who writes novels for young people, will be leading a workshop on revision.
Lisa's interview w [...]
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Original book titles discovered!
April 6th, 2010
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:
Read the rest of this entry »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.
A little sweetness ...
March 30th, 2010
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 little sweetness.” It’s the Goldilocks phenomenon again, discovering what is too sweet, or not sweet enough, or “just right.”Imagine our favorite blonde burglar in the home of the three bears. Let’s rewrite the story so that the three bears have left behind, in place of porridge, three plates of pancakes (still warm). One of the pancake stac [...]
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Romance in mystery ...
March 26th, 2010
Our guest blogger today is mystery/crime fiction writer and Oahu resident Deborah Atkinson.
A recipient of the University of Hawaii's Meryl Clark Award for Fiction, she is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and the author of Primitive Secrets (2002), The Green Room (2005), and Fire Prayer (2007).
Debby's latest novel is Pleasing the Dead. I asked her to share her thoughts about romance and mystery. Welcome, Debby!
Cavemen, first drafts, and the quest for fire
March 23rd, 2010
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 man that he was the one who walked upright, discovered fire, and invented the wheel, I wanted the caveman to add storytelling to his list of great achievements, and was about to yell my request at the TV screen, but instead I began thinking about the caveman sitting around the fire at night with his comrades, telling the story of the day’s great hunt, and how that telling must have [...]Read the rest of this entry »
Passions, avocations, and ice cream
March 19th, 2010
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 Nihipali and IPA, for the invitation. I met with about a dozen students in each of two afternoon sessions. For 25 minutes in each session I talked about writing, shared some of my own writing, and fielded questions.As I talked I had one of those illuminating experiences that sometimes show up to surprise us. I'm not sure how much the students were illuminated, but [...]
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Doing the java jive in Kona ...
March 15th, 2010
One fast desktop computer with all-in-one printer: $1,750. One ream of paper for the printer: $2.85. One cup of freshly brewed Kona coffee next to the computer: priceless.
This is my writing world. Throw in some good music coming from the computer speakers and I’m ready to write. At this moment I’m listening to “Java Jive,” first from the Ink Spots, and then the Manhattan Transfer version. “I like coffee, I like tea, I like the java jive and it likes me.” The tempo slow and easy, telling you to take your time, enjoy the journey, don’t get too buzzed.
A good ear for music, and writing ...
March 12th, 2010
I sometimes ask my piano students what parts of the body we use to play the piano. Their answers begin with the obvious one (fingers, hands) and then move on to feet (for pedals) and eyes (for reading music). One student said heart (emotions, soul), an answer I loved.I wait for them to think of the answer that's so important to their playing, and I may give a clue, but eventually we reach that "ah, yes" moment. Of course, we use our ears to play.
If we rephrase the question, and ask what music liste [...]
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