What are you reading?

The book is "Bird of Another Heaven" by James Houston, and I'm really liking this book. I like it from the writing standpoint, but also what I think is really hitting me — and I'm about half into it, so I have a good sense of the flavor of it — is I like that it connects Hawaiians and Hawaiian history with history on the West Coast of the United States, and particularly intertwines Hawaiians with the California Indians.

Is it Houston's writing or the Hawaiian connection that most grabs you?

It's both. They're intimately intertwined. It's a joyful experience for me to find a well-written novel, not only on a Hawaiian subject but a deeply Hawaiian subject. He's attempting to get way beneath the surface of a story, and I really appreciate it. To me it's a toss-up, since I'm both a Hawaiian and a writer, so it's a joy to come upon it.

Does this mirror what you have done in your writing — get beneath the surface to really connect at a deeper level?

There are many layers of life, and that has always been very reflected in Hawaiian oral literature and traditions, in songs and chants and anything like that always have multiple meanings. The one on the surface is almost never the most important, but it's the entry point, and the same is true of writing. Good writing is going to have more than one layer, and writing on Hawaiian topics is going to reflect that oral tradition of multiple layers — and I hope my own book is doing that.