My MC gets some encouragement from an old college friend. #WIPsnips #serious #writesky

Luke sometimes feels that no matter how hard he tries to improve himself, he'll always be inadequate. #WIPsnips #defense #writesky

I paid a Reedsy editor for an editorial assessment on my current WIP and got a swift kick in the ass. I have a lot of work to do.

At twenty-two, Luke gets his first lesson in what it's like to be Black in America. #WIPsnips #select #writesky

Honolulu International Airport, 1987. This is an important moment for Luke. Part I of the novel is ending and Part II is about to begin, his third life he'd call it. #WIPsnips #airport #writesky

I recorded an audiobook for chapter one of the literary-historical novel I am querying. It's about a real-life Japanese immigrant to America set between 1901 and 1913. I hope you enjoy it! #writesky #historicalfiction www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qxC...

For my MC, moving to New York City in 1987 is like stepping into a dream. #WIPsnips #sixth #writesky

A fifteen-year-old Luke asks a pretty girl to go with him to the school football game. #WIPsnips #except #writesky

My MC has been stuck for three years as a mid-level reporter for a small weekly paper in New York. He's hit his ceiling and doesn't like it. #WIPsnips #position #writesky

Max showed us Asians in America in the 1800s (it's on Netflix now). I wish it was better, but I'm glad it exists at all. www.looper.com/1523008/bruc...

TW: anti-Semitic slur, Holocaust. Luke meets a Jewish woman and learns about the ADL. He asks her out before this scene is over. #WIPsnips #perish #writesky

One of the MANY things about Train Dreams that I loved was the historically accurate depiction of the extrajudicial killing of a Chinese immigrant in the American frontier. This widespread stain on American history has been all but erased. Bravo to the filmmaker.

I have "university." Isolated on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, young Luke, who is shirtless here, doesn't know much about the larger world. #WIPsnips #academy #writesky

Luke chafes at being told by his uptown lover not to be so familiar with the housekeeper. It's different back home, he thinks. #WIPsnips #suggest #writesky

When I look at the news and the state of the world, I think of a quote from Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander. "...worse people, worse machines, worse wars... and worse weather. I'm glad I'll soon be dead."

Luke finds his tribe, though he knows it won't last. #WIPsnips #formation #writesky

During these dark times, I like to re-read a poem I wrote in 2019. It helps me; it might help you.

It's 1984 in Honolulu. My twenty-two-year-old MC goes dancing. He's about to lose his virginity. #WIPsnips #storm #writesky

Before I send out another volley of queries for my Matsura novel, I'm rewriting my first chapter. I'm trying to make myself rewrite it, not just revise it.

Minneapolis leads the way. Fascism cannot stand against a people who rise up by the millions against it.

Welcome to a new week of #WIPSnips! The word for January 26th is "commit" #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

It's 1980 and the manager at the bookstore where 18-year-old Luke works part time calls him into her office. #WIPsnips #notice #writesky

More from that scene where Luke lays out the ethnic landscape of Hawaii for his mainland cousin, including an explanation of why he will always be an outsider there. #WIPsnips #bone #writesky

Luke grew up on Top 40 pop, but at the college radio station, his eyes are opened to a bigger universe of music, including classical. #WIPsnips #transfer #writesky

I rewatched Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (1957) with the incomparable Toshiro Mifune tonight. It's still a compelling film and a surprisingly faithful adaptation of Macbeth. Love that shot of the forest marching on the castle. That's a shot Shakespeare couldn't give us.

Luke's discovers his super-cool girlfriend has gotten bored with him. #WIPsnips #tattoo #writesky

It's 1978 and a window to the world opens for Luke. #WIPsnips #activity #writesky

Today, I began working with an editor who will help me improve my query package. This particular ms has been rejected many times by many agents, so this is my hail Mary pass.

Some of these covers are VERY cool. (I know, lame descriptor from someone who calls herself a writer.) #booksky #writesky lithub.com/the-best-boo...

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." —MLK Jr.

The best and brightest are leaving the islands. #WIPsnips #drain #writesky

💙💙💙

1976. A nearly friendless 14-year-old gets his emotional connection from Top 40 music. But then he accidentally ruins one of his favorite albums. #WIPsnips #remain #writesky

Luke takes his New Jersey cousin to see Waikiki. Those "Hawaii 77" t-shirts were a real thing and I never knew why. Here, it emphasizes how isolated and behind-the-times the place feels to Luke. #WIPsnips #gold #writesky

TW: assault. Luke interviews a Chinese-American teenager in Queens who was beaten by a racist gang right outside of Bay Terrace Shopping Mall. Based on a real event, 12/26/1989. #WIPsnips #brain #writesky #AsianHate

It was not widely reported as it should have been. Here's a link. See page 2. caaav.org/wp-content/u...

Because my WIP is partly about labor, I had a lot of managers to choose from. I liked that three separate jobs intersected at this point, though.

Because my WIP is partly about labor, I had a lot of managers to choose from. I liked that three separate jobs intersected at this point, though.

It's 1980 at the college radio station and the Boomer generation is starting to share space with #GenerationJones, the punks. #WIPsnips #current #writesky

Dating a woman in college, Luke is suddenly triggered by the memory of the girl who broke his heart in high school. #WIPsnips #reflex #writesky

Posting today's snip, I saw flaws that need correction. That's one of the good things about #WIPsnips. It makes me hold a random bit of the text up to the light so I can study it more closely.

My snip today is a bit of a spoiler, but whatever. This is at the halfway point of the novel. My MC's feelings will continue to evolve.

Luke recalls the fateful year he moved to Hawaii. Brandon is his younger brother. "Mokes and titas" are Hawaiian tough guys and girls (I've heard "moke" derives from the Haw'n word for "boxer;" "tita" means "sister"). Joseph Campbell might call this his call to adventure. #WIPsnips #fifth #writesky

Luke interviews a Hawaiian activist in 1991 about the new developments coming up in Kapolei, Oahu, including the resort called Ko Olina. #WIPsnips #table #writesky

ok nobody lookup how Hawaii became a state

Luke's girlfriend dumped him on Christmas Eve 1990. #WIPsnips #lock #writesky

I'm getting the feeling my second novel-in-progress might be more publishable than my first unpublished novel.

This passage explains Hawaiian Pidgin English and a core concept in #Kotonk, the historical reason there's a cultural split between the haoles (white people) and "locals" in #Hawaii, and why my MC exists in a liminal space between those two worlds. #WIPsnips #low #writesky