Talking Story
Balcony House Hat Trick
The signs lie. Standing at the trailhead to Balcony House at Mesa Verde in Colorado, I thought I knew what I was getting into. When I bought tour tickets for family and friends the day before, the signs at the visitor’s center warned me about the 100 plus stairs I’d...
Nani’s Kiss: About Those Nattoos…
Nani’s Kiss A Polynesians in Space Novella for Fractured Beauty eBook Boxed Set 99 Cents until June 1, 2017 Amazon Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Indigo, & Others Click on the Book Nerd graphic to enter a drawing for a free $25 Amazon gift card as our mahalo nui loa...
The Day Uncle Kahana Found Zader
Ever wonder how Zader became part of the Westin family? Birth is a novella about the day Uncle Kahana found Zader abandoned on the reef at Piko Point. There are two versions in the eBook--one told with Pidgin and one told with standard American English. Check it out...
Reborn: Shadows of Valor by Elsie Park
Elsie Park is soft-spoken, unassuming, warm, and generous. She's the kind of person who goes out of her way to make sure everyone is welcomed and comfortable, the kind of person who drops off a meal or an encouraging note simply because she recognizes a need. She...
Hawaiians in Space
A couple of months ago, Adrienne Monson, author of the vampire series The Blood Inheritance Trilogy, came to me with an intriguing idea. Would I be interested in joining four other authors in creating a series of reimagined fairy tales to be published as boxed sets?...
One Boy, No Water FREE eBook
ONE BOY, NO WATER is FREE on Kindle through Dec. 25th. It's a 2017 Nene Award Nominee. Set in Hawaii, it tells the story of 13 year old Zader and his brother Jay. Lua, kite flying, surfing, and shave ice. The easiest way to take a trip to Hawaii without leaving your...
It’s Disney’s Moana
It’s Disney’s Moana. That’s really what it comes down to. A couple of years ago, when Disney announced that in the tradition of Aladdin, Mulan, Pocahontas, and Frozen, they were bringing to the screen Moana, a Polynesian princess tale, I was excited. When I learned...
2016 Whitney Award Nominee
So humbled and honored that One Truth, No Lie, book three in the Niuhi Shark Saga, is a 2016 Whitney Award Nominee. Mahalo nui loa to all the readers who nominated it.
Votes That Matter
When it comes to electing the President of The United States, your vote doesn’t matter. Really. Growing up in Hawaii, this point was hammered home every election year when the new president thanked his supporters hours before our polls closed. Just think about that...
Nightwalker
The following is a true ghost story I wrote for Sick Pilgrim, a blog on Patheos.com. Happy October! Alone in our girls’ dorm rooms in the 1980s, high school summer band camp at Kamehameha was nothing like a slasher-teen movie. Lights went out at 10:30 pm and stayed...
Shark Bait
Author J.F.R. Titchenell, Confessions of the Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know Of), asked what scares me. Here's my response. Picking up The Niuhi Shark Saga, you’d think I was afraid of sharks. It’s right there in the title of the series. In the books people get...
But For The Grace of God Go I
I saw you sitting outside the Olive Garden on a park bench. Your toddler was held across your lap, sleeping. Admiring his blond curls, I almost missed your cardboard sign with its homeless, please help plea. I looked a little closer. It was hot, August-in-the-city...
Cleaning Out the Basement
Most creative types think of spring as a time of renewal. Stores burst with bunnies and chicks, nurseries fling open their doors to reveal shelves of fresh and tender garden starts, the sun warms up, and green things begin to grow. Those with more left-brained...
True Heroes: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales
Opportunities to be part of something this special are rare in life. Back in December Jonathan Diaz approached me and several other authors about participating in his quest to help pediatric cancer patients. He had the deceptively simple idea of taking photos of kids...
Getting Off the Crazy Train
I’ve been slacking on the blog, I know. Big life changing events have been going on and that’s caused me to really think about where I want to go on this journey, who I want hiking next to me, and the mountains I want to climb versus the quicksand I’m bypassing. Here...
Visiting Grammie
You’re wearing that? No. Go change. It’s too wrinkled. What do you mean there’s no iron? The rental has a coffee maker, a microwave, a washer and dryer, but no iron? Figure it out. You can’t go looking like that. You, go shave again. Yes, I mean it. See all of...
Migraine
My head hurts. It's another migraine, one on the epic scale that I'd hoped were gone forever. It's been a couple of years since I had one last this long--three days now--and longer still since I’ve had one I couldn't force myself to function through. If you've had one...
Author Interview: Johnny Worthen
Johnny Worthen recently released his newest novel, The Brand Demand. An eclectic writer whose work spans many genres and ages, The Brand Demand is an adult eco-political thriller set in Utah and published by Cherokee McGhee. It's available as a trade paperback and...
Beach Trash
When I was five we lived in a house on the beach at Kihei Lagoon. I remember getting up as dawn was just a shell-pink hint in the sky and running barefoot down the grass and onto the cool damp sand. It was rare, very rare to walk along the water’s edge and find a...
Bag It!
We rushed into a pew and quickly lifted a hymn book from the rack just as the congregation starting singing. Suddenly, my daughter poked me in the ribs. “Mom!” she hissed. “You forgot to put on your make-up!” Oops. I thought back. Yep. Morning routine interrupted. I...