Talking Story
Mo’olelo Aren’t Your Granny’s Fairy Tales
I've been working a new novella that's set in imaginary Lauele, Hawaii. It's going into a boxed set of novellas by the Fairy Tale Ink authors, this one called Fractured Sea, that retells the classic Little Mermaid fairy tale. It seems like a perfect fit for my stories...
I Don’t Wanna Do the Work Today
It happens to all of us. You have a great idea for a story. You sharpen pencils. You plot. You get excited. And then... FIZZZZzzzzzzzz. Writer's block. I think in my case it's a trifecta of summer, life changes, and I just don't wanna. But I gotta. So for all of us in...
How MoviePass Morphed from Hero to Zero
Okay, MoviePass. I really liked your original offer—for $10 a month I could see up to a movie a day in a theater. It was a great opening line, and it made me want to get to know you better. Over the last seven months, you and I have been on 49 dates to the movies....
Review: Big Happiness by Mark Panek
Mark Panek’s Big Happiness tells the true story of Hawaiian sumo wrestler Percy Kipapa and his tragic murder on May 16, 2005. On the surface, the investigative journalism narrative reads as a mystery, a meditation on what it means to be a modern Hawaiian, and a...
Review: Written in the Sky by Matthew Kaopio
Matthew Kaopio’s Written in the Sky is one of those rare books told from a kid’s perspective that’s not for kids. It’s raw and real, and certainly true to the experiences of many homeless kids in Hawaii, but it’s not one I’d give to a kid the age of ‘Ikauikalani, the...
Children’s Literature Hawai’i 2018 Conference
The 19th Biennial Conference on Literature and Hawai'i's Children takes place June 7-9 at Chaminade University in Honolulu, Hawaii. I'll be hosting two workshops--one specifically for teens--all about writing fiction in authentic Pacifica voices and answering...
We Need Hawaiian Kine Voices
I’m five years old, laying on the carpet in our living room in Kahului, Maui. Evening trade winds tiptoe through the lanai door, bathing the house with the scent of Mom’s gardenia and naupaka bushes. On top the tv, an animated Santa Claus dances with a big red sack,...
Target Practice
I’m not a gun gal. Let’s get that straight from the beginning. I don’t conceal carry, although I’ve heard the certification lectures often enough that I could teach the classes. I don’t own a gun. Until last weekend, I’d probably shot a firearm half a dozen times in...
Becoming a Mana Wahine
Purge. It’s my mantra for 2018. If I were hiding the truth, I’d say something softer like simplify. Thanks to a bunch of silly horror movies, people think of mayhem when they hear the word purge. But it’s not chaos that I’m embracing this year; it’s the opposite. I’m...
Review by Tales from Pasifika: Rell Goes Hawaiian
Note: Tales From Pasifika is a website dedicated to reviewing stories that explore Polynesian and Oceanic cultures and themes. If you’re looking for a good book that fits into the Pacific-Lit category, this is the place. The following is an excerpt from their review...
Review by Tales from Pasifika: Nani’s Kiss
Note: Tales From Pasifika is a website dedicated to reviewing stories that explore Polynesian and Oceanic cultures and themes. If you’re looking for a good book that fits into the Pacific-Lit category, this is the place. The following is an excerpt from...
New Lauele Town Novella: Rell Goes Hawaiian
Ilima, everyone’s favorite dog who isn’t a dog, is back in a new adventure! In Rell Goes Hawaiian, you’ll catch up with Ilima, Uncle Kahana, Jerry Santos, and other characters from The Niuhi Shark Saga in a newly imagined version of Cinderella. When Rell Watanabe is...
Aloha ‘Oe, Uncle Brad
Okay, everyone. I need you all to lean in close. I’m going to tell you something you don’t know. Uncle Brad was a secret agent. To my eleven year-old self, there was no other explanation. In the 1970s, he was double-o seven cool in his aviator sunglasses, slacks,...
Rediscovering Joy
Two days ago, I was on my way down Provo Canyon, a hour-long drive that I can do in my sleep. Flipping through the satellite radio stations, the car swelled with Merry Christmas, Darling by the Carpenters. It’s too early, I thought, reaching to spin the dial. I love...
Schrodinger’s Mammogram
I am sitting in a too small hospital gown thinking about Schrodinger’s cat. There are two possibilities before me. Empirically, only one is true, but at this moment of unknowing both are alive in my head. I’ve been here before. Job/no job. Scholarship/no scholarship....
#MeToo
Me, too. But I’m going to tell you about my now seventeen year old daughter instead. When she was starting kindergarten at a private school, they had a get to know the parents, classmates, and teacher picnic. At the picnic I overheard a boy tell his friends how much...
Review by Tales From Pasifika: One Truth, No Lie
Note: Tales From Pasifika is a website dedicated to reviewing stories that explore Polynesian and Oceanic cultures and themes. If you're looking for a good book that fits into the Pacific-Lit category, this is the place. Tales From Pasifika is reviewing the Niuhi...
Review by Tales From Pasifika: One Shark, No Swim
Note: Tales From Pasifika is a website dedicated to reviewing stories that explore Polynesian and Oceanic cultures and themes. If you're looking for a good book that fits into the Pacific-Lit category, this is the place. Tales From Pasifika is reviewing the Niuhi...
Review by Tales from Pasifika: One Boy, No Water
Note: Tales From Pasifika is a website dedicated to reviewing stories that explore Polynesian and Oceanic cultures and themes. If you're looking for a good book that fits into the Pacific-Lit category, this is the place. Tales From Pasifika is reviewing the Niuhi...
Book Review: Kino and the King by Jen Angeli
Kino and the King by Jen Angeli is a middle grade adventure quest set in Hawaii. Cutting to the chase, we need more stories like this one where island kids see themselves as the heroes and Hawaiian culture as something both amazing and ordinary, rather than...