Murder
Letter to the Ghosts of Jaku’s Murderer’s Thumbs
What squashed you, Thumbs? Your bully of a boss, Jaku, certainly couldn’t have compressed you playing volleyball, because the only body part Jaku exercised was his mouth—his liar’s lips flapping fast as a hummingbird’s wings. Oh, wait a minute. I’d forgotten about his sticky fingers, which also grabbed wallets, keys and jewelry his coworkers forgot…
Read MoreFollow Your Dreams
Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions. –Edgar Cayce Did you ever dream about insignificant things that actually happened later? I once dreamed that a plastic planter hanging from a tree outside my window broke and the plant inside it splattered on the ground. The next morning, the planter fell. Sometimes, I wake up from…
Read MoreHawai’i Changes the Law on First-Degree Murder Again – Part 1
While attending a Sisters (and Misters) in Crime meeting during May of this year, the topic of first-degree murder in Hawai’i raised its grisly head. Actually, I raised it. My intentions were good. I wanted my fellow SINCs (Sisters in Crime) to get their facts straight when they wrote about murder. Since I’m the only…
Read MoreHawai’i Changes the Law on First-Degree Murder Again – Part 2
On Wednesday, July 6, 2016, two months after my Sisters in Crime Meeting at Makiki Library, the law changed yet again. That’s when Governor David Ige signed a bill into law that broadens the offense of first-degree murder once more. From 2013 to 2016, the offense has been limited to rare cases in which there…
Read MoreBook Author Butterflies, Part 1
On May 7, eleven other writers and I took turns standing behind a podium in front of some fifty folks seated around tables in a large room. We read from our poems, short stories, novels or narratives for five minutes max. The excerpt my writer’s group had helped me select sizzled with suspense. In the…
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