Current mood: blessed

Hi everyone,

I am happily, not one of those writers who gets writer's block. The few times it's happened, my literary hero William Goldman informed in Adventures in the Screen Trade, was because I'd gone off the track somewhere in the story. His advice was to leave it alone, come back and figure out where I derailed and move forward from that point. That advice has stood me in good stead ever since.

Yesterday however, I was blocked. Not because I derailed, but because I had turned in my latest Kimo and Lopaka book, Beguiled, and felt a ridiculous sense of desolation, even though I have three books in the hopper that have contracts and need finishing. I've learned they don't just write themselves. No menehune - Hawaiian fairy folk - have ever shown up in the middle of the night at my house to finish one of my books for me. Not yet. But I live in hope.

None of these three books by the way. are in a problem stage but dammit, I love my Kimo and Lopaka and I hate saying goodbye. I had resisted going to the Hawaiian Festival at Santa Fe Springs on Saturday but decided to reward myself yesterday for turning my book in ahead of my deadline, like a proper grownup.

With the gates opening at 9, I figured I'd be in and and out, beat the heat. As I drove there, listening to my guys Kua' Ana on the i-Pod, I started to get excited. What I was going on was an Artist's Date. I wasn't frittering away my time. I needed my inspiration and being around a crowd of happy, peppy people at a Hawaiian festival was just what I needed.

The gods and goddesses of writers everywhere congregated yesterday and gave me a good infusion of Aloha. From the second I walked in, I was rewarded with smiles, good cheer and then I ran into that sexy Hawaiian man Nappy, lead singer of Kua 'Ana.  He hugged me, we stopped and spoke and he told me they have a concert July 26. Both Nappy and Kua 'Ana are on my top friends list on myspace. Check 'em out, befriend them and tell them Aloha. They are da kine guys.

When the house band struck up the Hawaiian national anthem and hula girls prepared to take the stage, I watched the crowd, young, old, infants...everybody with tears running down their cheeks, singing along. I felt transported back to the islands, with the smell of barbecue, the families selling lumpia, malasadas - bought me a dozen of those - plate lunches and that old Hawaiian fave, shave ice, I felt the writer in me leaping for joy.

A sense of peace filled me as the MC spoke to the crowd, wishing them all a beautiful day. A sense of destiny filled me as I collected free Hawaiian brochures and flyers on what's happening in Hawaii now made me realize I had made the right decision in playing a little hooky. It's called research.

All of us, with a soul destination of a little time in paradise, got it. And I returned home like a responsible writer and tackled my next book.

Aloha oe,

A.J.

Currently listening : Beautiful Days / Kua’ana /