Pasifika Reading Challenge Suggestions

So the Pacific Islanders in Publishing group has put together a Pasifika Reading Challenge for May which is somehow this week. 

I have suggestions of course, and yeah, they include me. 

Book to Film/Translated Book:

Chapbook/Short Story: I have a few short stories that would fit into this, including Called to the Water. Melissa Llanes Brownlee writes mico and short fiction, and lists her recent publications here.

Climate Fiction: Weird Fishes by Rae Mariz

Fantasy/Sci-Fi: Nafiza Azad has several fantasies that would work for this. 

LGBTQIA author: Kahaula writes queer and polyamorous romance.

Literary: Megan Kamalei Kakimoto's Every Drop a Man's Nightmare is a great read. 

Melanesion: Nilima Rao has a book called A Disappearance in Fiji.

Memoir/Biography: Okay, this is an older pick, but if you've never read Liliuokalani's memoir, written while she was imprisoned in the palace after the Americans overthrew the Hawaiian government, maybe now's the time. 

Micronesian author: Makiia Lucier has a new YA fantasy called Dragonfruit that looks great.. 

Mythology/Folklore:Malia Maunakea's Lei and the Fire Goddess is a great option for this. 

Mystery/Thriller: Michael Bennett's Better the Blood.

Non-fiction: Emma Espiner has a memoir There's a Cure for This that looks amazing. 

Poetry:UH Press has Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Futures, which has a trove of poetry by PI authors. Another option is Jamaica Osorio who has videos of some of her performances on her site linked here.

Polynesian Author: Lehua Parker is a prolific author. 

Romance: Oh hi. So I have many choices that will fit into this, but let's say, Clear as Ice. Also, if you have already read me, consider Azalea Crowley and/or Kahaula.

Middle grade/YA: Juleah del Rosarios has a YA called 500 Words or Less that looks wonderful.

Three Interesting Things

1. As someone who, since the pandemic, has worried about air quality in indoor concert spaces, I was interested to see this article about the Clean Air Club's work in Chicago.

2. I have been doing a little research for a project that led me to historical markers. So this deep dive into historical markers and their accuracies and viewpoints was of interest to me.

3. And also for research reasons, I have been listening to the "Hadestown" cast album.  (Okay, fine, maybe it's just because I like it.) So this piece about how Anais Mitchell took the West End staging of the musical as a chance to tweak a pivotal song, and then how social media meant that change spread, was fascinating.

The Butt Rule

I was once doing a group exercise where we all passed around papers, there was one for each person in the group, and everyone had to write on each one and then pass it on. So sometimes one would take a little longer, or the person you were passing to would clearly be busy and the person passing to you already had another ready for you. 

We discovered one had gotten stuck along the way and everyone looked, and nope. The person passing to me told me they had given it to me. And I was sure I had passed everything but shifted to look again, and discovered I had tucked the paper under me. So it was found and all was well. 

One person told me, they called it the Look Under Your Butt Rule. That it had started when they had kids in carseats who would call out that something was lost. And often once the car was stopped the search would find it underneath the kid.

These days, I often find in my squishy couch that I have lost track of, and often standing up and looking at where I was sitting helps. Though I can't swear I haven't been sitting on a park bench and suddenly realized I misplaced something I had just a second ago. 

We could get very profound about how things you need are often just right there.  But also we are keeping track of so so much these days.  Juggling all the things.  Sometimes, a thing or two slips underneath your butt.

New Release - Dream Catchers Anthology

Newsletter subscribers got the heads up first, but surprise! 

Something a little different from me. I had the chance to participate in an anthology. We all wrote flash stories around the theme of dreams. I have two stories  in this, one straight contemporary with a smooch (flash, so not much time) and the other is a little more folklore based, though there are relationship shenanigans.

Balloon Dreams is about a woman who, after a weird dream, hops into a hot air balloon to see if a change in perspective helps, and discovers that there's a cute balloon pilot.

Dream God's Assignment is about dream god Pahulu, who is asked to send a dream message to a friend's granddaughter.

The anthology is being made available on Amazon in e and paperback. 

It was such a fun prompt and I enjoyed the chance to go in two very different (and yet still very me) directions with the theme.

If Amazon is not your book purveyor of choice, I do have plans to make the stories, including an extended cut of one, available later this year, so stay tuned for that. 

Three Interesting Things

1. It has probably been a decade since I went to Salt Lake City for dayjob reasons.  But while we were there, I insisted I needed to see the lake.  And so I and the one co-worker who felt similarly drove out there, and circled past.  It was winter, there was snow, so we didn't get out of the car.  But it was gorgeous.  So, hearing about how climate change and drought have affected it, saddens me.  This article talks about some of the efforts to address that.  

2. In Wellington, one family has some native birds nesting underneath their house.

3. A DC born artist is part of two Broadways shows coming soon.