Birthday, Stalkers and Mahi Mahi

Birthday weekend has arrived! May 8th is my day of birth and this year I'm celebrating it on Maui. I just spend the last 14 months locked up with my sweet hubby and kids so taking off without them was a no brainer when it turned out I had to use last year's ticket before June. 

I woke on the big day happy to be healthy, on Maui and greet the day. I slept in to 7 and that felt decadent and luxurious here in the islands. It was supposed to be rainy with thunderstorms according to the weather channel but the day was sunny and clear. Clouds on the horizon and all stuck between the West Maui Mountains. Perfection.

After trying to run and feeling kind of ill, I bagged on that idea and did a speed walk back to the house. My friend Bill, who lives on Lanai in the little town at the top of the island, was coming over to Maui for my birthday weekend on the shuttle boat and I picked him up at the Pioneer Inn at noon. We drove back to Lynn's and made lunch to eat out on the lanai, talking about old times when we used to act and sing in shows. If you read my Acknowledgements in Deadly Resemblance, you'll know that I once had a letter-writing stalker who tried to get me fired from a performing job and Bill was my boss who the stalker appealed to saying I'd taken advantage of him in a wheelchair. Anyways, Bill and I have a long history of working and being friends on Maui and so much to talk about that kept us going all day. 

I'd made the birthday decision to gather a small group of trusted and vaccinated friends to go for an open air dinner on the ocean. I wanted a good piece of fish at The Barfoot Bar with a Hawaiian trio playing in the background, with my toes in the sand under the table. Bill had given me a beautiful necklace and earrings the colors of the sea so I wore an outfit to showcase my new jewelry. My sweet hubby had found someone to deliver me a lei and I had that on as well, feeling properly loved and appreciated. 

Dinner was lovely, fun and happy with our little group and back at Lynn's house we watched one of my favorite Rom Coms "Always Be My Maybe." It was a perfect day on Maui with calls from my kids and niece earlier, texts, tweets and well-wishes along with the launch of my 16th novel, and an ocean swim and snorkel with Lynn in the afternoon
.

Lucky, lucky me.

Flip Flops, Lahaina and Picasso

Warning: This blog is not properly edited or even read back a second time to see if it makes sense. Proceed with caution!

Eating fish tacos at a waterfront restaurant, the nearest patrons 8 feet away, the waiter masked, the table and chairs sanitized just before we were seated is how we do restaurant experiences now. Here in Lahaina, Maui, the restaurants have big PASS signs displayed for all to see that insures patrons they're following all guidelines for Covid and hoping to stay open. I don't know what was more glorious--the mahi mahi tacos with a spicy coleslaw and creama or the ocean breeze coming over the railing from the channel between Maui and Lanai. Or the fact I was in a restaurant on Maui with my dear friend after not seeing her for 18 months! Leaving a big tip was on the menu. 

Maui has been like a mix of a blast from the 90's and an overwhelming realization that I'm out of the house, out of the town, out of state and on an island in the Pacific where I believed in the mid 80's that I would spend the rest of my life as a Kama'aina. I left Maui for many reasons, one being that I fell in love with a man who was not suited to the Maui life and we wanted to raise children in a normal neighborhood, not on an island where blonde kids are hassled. It's different now because there is more than one school on the west side of Maui, and private schools and options but back then when we married and thought about having a family, things fell into place for my husband and I to move to Whistler Ski Resort from Maui and that's where my son was born. Not a normal neighborhood either but he was eventually raised in Redmond WA in a friendly neighborhood with excellent schools. My daughter too.

So here I am on Maui on my (ahem, ahem) birthday and feeling so grateful to be alive, to blessed to be on Maui and so much more healthy than I was six months ago after sitting around at a desk without moving for 8 months. In January, I said "enough is enough" and started a running program on the treadmill. Four months later I was able to run for 20 minutes straight which is a miracle to this woman who has never run in her life! Am I running on Maui? Well, I'm trying. The streets go up and down, the trade winds seem to be perpetually blowing against me and the ocean calls my name when I run by. I try to keep running up that hill and remind myself that I can circle back to jump in the ocean which has worked a few times. And a few times, I just stopped and jumped in, clothes on.

Last night, Lynn and I put on earrings, makeup and went in to Lahaina to Art Walk on Front Street, a place on the waterfront, dotted with world-class art galleries. The first one we ducked into featured Anthony Hopkins work and I was properly impressed with his ability to paint a head! That same gallery had Rembrandts, a Picasso, Dali, Chagall and more super-impressive works. It was like a museum but better because Hawaiian music was playing! Lahaina is known world wide as having top tier art galleries and I mention this in my novel The Dream Jumper's Promise. Tina's husband who's gone missing was a former art dealer, drawn to the Maui art scene from L.A.

Speaking of books, today is launch day of my book DEADLY RESEMBLANCE, a novel about a deaf mom who relocates with her child to a quiet island only to be pursued by a secret letter writing stalker. This type of stalker is familiar to me, having had one of these when I lived on Maui. Read the Acknowledgements and you'll know more. The book launched last night at midnight and I'm proud of how it turned out. I worked hard to try to bring my readers something they'd enjoy and something that wouldn't disappoint them after waiting years for my next full-length suspense novel. 

Today, my birthday, I will attempt a run as a gift to myself then at noon, I go to Lahaina to pick up my friend, Bill, at the ferry. In a nutshell, Bill and I performed in the islands together in theatre, in convention shows, in bars with bands. He's a gorgeous singer, actor and Patsy Cline's great nephew. He now plays Santa Claus at Christmas time in the islands because of the resemblance and I've asked fully-vaccinated Bill to Lynn's house for the weekend. We'll head out to dinner tonight to celebrate me and this birthday, maybe to the Barfoot Bar, one of my favorites. 

Tomorrow, I hope to crash the Hyatt Maui pool, go for a luxurious swim and maybe even sneak onto the curly slide if they let me.

Life is good. Birthdays are a gift itself.

Aloha.

Kim

Turtles, Carbs and Gattica

 Got up at 4:45 for a morning meeting. That may sound early to you but back in LA, it was 7:45 and an 8:00 am meeting wasn't unreasonable. 

As the sky lightened, I greeted the day with a pot of hot Kona coffee and cream that I barely pass over the cup to achieve the perfect color of black on the side of brown. Meetings aside, I set to writing on the lanai as Lynn and JoJo headed out the door in the beat-up Maui Cruisermobile to exercise the little canine for the day, before it got hot.

Trying to make a routine of it, I forced myself to get on running clothes and head out through the neighborhood and down to the lower Honoapiilani Highway, past S Turn to Kahana where I remembered my days on Maui selling timeshare at the very corner where I stopped. Good times, good times. 

Back at S Turn, I removed my shoes and walked into the cool ocean to get my body temperature back to normal and hopefully assist my purple face from over-exertion to returning to a normal color for human faces. The day was cloudy, slightly breezy and the temp was much nicer than the day before for running. 

When I got back to Lynn's house, I was determined to get my friend in the ocean for the first time in over 18 months. Although she lives 2 blocks from the beach, she's been fearful of her fragility after chemo, surgeries, radiation, surgeries and then a year of not leaving the property. At the water's edge she saw a giant green sea turtle and I grabbed my mask, snorkel and fins to leave her fending for herself while I pursued the green sea turtle for a look-see. I ended up way out on the southern point, looking at a group of 5 sea turtles, some with large tumors on their necks and wondered what's happening in Hawaii to the turtles. When I got out, I asked my personal assistant (Siri) and found out that FP is common in green sea turtles. You don't want to know what FP stands for because the name uses every letter in the alphabet and you'll be no further ahead knowing. When I taught diving in Hawaii for 11 years, I saw plenty of turtles and never saw FP but it was concerning to see a turtle with tumors at S Turn. 

Two swims and a lie on the hot beach in the sun (that decided to show itself) later, Lynn and I found ourselves back at home napping. Hey, I was up at 4:45. 

I couldn't sleep maybe from all the Kona coffee and instead watched my saved/coveted 2nd episode of The Mosquito Coast with Justin Theroux. By the end of the episode I was wide awake (if  you've seen it, you'll know why) so I got up and started to make dinner. I'm trying to stay low carb because I recently lost 15 pounds of quaran weight and do not want that slab of fat back. I cheated with a little pineapple.

I made another salad and chicken accompanied by a baguette for Lynn. After Lynn and JoJo returned from their sunset walk, we ate on the lanai, watched the sun duck behind the horizon and went inside to watch a movie. Lynn's friend Bryant had suggested Gattica with Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurmin which was strange and wonderful to see them and Jude Law as young adults. I rolled into bed as soon as I saw THE END, passed out immediately and dreamed of rearranging furniture in a house to accommodate turning it into a preschool that included monkeys.

Such is my imagination. Three days until my birthday! Lynn and I plan to have some fun on Saturday!

More tomorrow!

KIM HORNSBY is a USA Today Bestselling Author of 15 novels as well as an award-winning screenwriter who has several movies in development with producers. She lives in the Seattle area where her office overlooks a tree-lined lake and has foot warming muses in the form of large, hairy rescue dogs.

Website: www.bit.ly/KimHornsby

 

Goat Fish, Headbands & Queen

Yesterday was Leave Maui Day but not until eleven p.m. so I had the whole day to think about making my flight and whether I packed everything. On the day you leave a vacation, you wake up partly gone. It's a strange day.

I leave clothes and shoes and toiletries on Maui at Lynn's house so after sorting out what needed to bring home, and throwing my sheets in the laundry, I jumped in the car and went up to Kapalua Bay for a snorkel. I have good parking Karma, wherever I go, which means I get spots close to where I'm going and that morning was no different. Sure, I listened to three songs on the radio before someone left their spot, but that's how I roll.

I set up my towel and chair in the glorious sunshine and went straight in the water. This time of year, it's coolish at 80 degrees but once in, the temperature feels perfect! The water was calm in the bay and I headed out on the left side watching the schools of goat fish lazing happily in their groupings, drifting with the swell of the ocean, all going in to shore three inches, all going out from shore three inches.


I saw an enormous Parrot Fish, the bright blue and pink coloring and a strong beak-like mouth to chomp on coral. It must've been 15 pounds at least! At the mouth of the bay, way far out from shore, it was choppy and I started feeling motion sick riding up and down on the surface, so I headed in and laid in the sun for 20 minutes.
After buying 2 salads to go at the Honolua General Store in Kapalua I returned to Lynn's house to have lunch with Lynn on the deck and watch whales.

Having not strolled Lahaina's Front Street for a year, Lynn suggested we head downtown and walk the three blocks of famous old buildings that now house T-shirt shops and skin care salons of all things. Lahaina was really windy and my hair was driving me crazy so I bought a hippy headband to keep everything from blowing into my lipgloss. The wonderful thing about being older is that you don't care what you look like most of the time. Not really.

We drove to the other side (the airport side of Maui) at 6 with very little traffic, grabbed a taco at this little hole in the wall we always go to and I had Lynn drop me off at the newly renovated and extremely confusing airport. I'd hoped to sleep on the plane but eventually gave up trying and watched Bohemian Rhapsody, a movie about Queen that was really good. I had no idea that Freddy Mercury was really named Farouk and had such an overbite. The actor who played him was amazing.
I arrived first in Portland, changed planes, then Seattle, and by the time I got home I was ready for bed, happy to be home from my visit with Lynn but still, missing Maui, as I always do. A little less every time I go back since I moved from Maui 25 years ago.

KIM HORNSBY is the bestselling Amazon Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, Book    1 in a Supernatural Suspense series. She lives in the Seattle area and writes stories for        women about overcoming tragedy, adversity and coming out the other end.

Find her on Amazon Books.

www.twitter.com/kimhornsby
  www.facebook.com/kimhornsbyauthor

Dragon's Teeth, Humpbacks & Cockatoos

No morning showers here!
Solar panels on the Maui house need a few hours to warm up the water so the first few hours of my days on Maui are spent drinking coffee in PJ's, writing and whale watching.

Every morning, humpback whales jump off shore in exactly the same spot between two palm trees in my field of vision. Not sure why but I can look to the right down the coast and see nothing, yet almost every twenty minutes there's big breaches out of the water between those trees.

For my last full day on Maui, I have to say I did one final read through of the screenplay I wrote about a caterer renting a perfect house in the snow for her parents at Christmas only to find the house occupied by an architectural team hoping to work quietly and avoid Christmas. It's not a book yet but if Hallmark picks it up, you can bet it will be by the end of the year. Fingers crossed.

Once that file was sent I went off snorkeling to watch the little fishies at Kapalua Bay. These days, that is a wonderful place to snorkel with the clarity and a nice little reef on the left that's easy to get to. I followed a sea turtle for a bit and got out of the water feeling satisfied.

Back at the house, we gardened for a few hours, working on the snow peas, the tomatoes, the weeds. Things grow well in this climate and gardening is a full-time job.

Plumeria tree in Winter

The plumeria trees are just starting to grow buds again that will turn into lush green leaves and fragrant flowers. The avocado tree has buds that will turn into baseball-sized avocados in a few months too. I'm here for snow peas and tomatoes. It started to rain, the trade winds blowing the weather in from the north so we decided to a make chicken noodle soup and put on sweatshirts.

Dragon's Teeth

The rain stopped and the wee doggy needed his last walk of the day so I took him up north to the Ritz Hotel where the Hawaiian burial ground is protected land near the golf course. We strolled around to what is now referred to as Dragon's Teeth then home for soup.
Because of the rain, I got a lovely sunset shot just as the big ball of warmth disappeared behind Lanai!

Kris, a neighbor and friend stopped by for soup for her sick husband and I ran to the store for a bottle of wine in her car that blocked the driveway. We each had a glass with our soup and Navajo fry bread and Kris went home two hours later, proclaiming her hubby was probably asleep by now.
Lynn popped in the movie Grand Budapest Hotel and that quirky story was the ending to another perfect day on Maui!

Trail Near the Burial Ground

As I type this, the woman next door is driving off to go ride her horse. Her cockatoo is calling after her, "Bye" in her exact voice. This lasts a full minute. That bird hates to be left alone.
I called over there, "Hello!" The big white bird stopped and mimicked my voice.
Now we're trading "Hellooooo's" across the lawn!

KIM HORNSBY is the bestselling Amazon Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, Book    1 in a Supernatural Suspense series. She lives in the Seattle area and writes stories for        women about overcoming tragedy, adversity and coming out the other end.

Find her on Amazon Books.

www.twitter.com/kimhornsby
  www.facebook.com/kimhornsbyauthor

Pineapple, Snorkeling & Screenplays

Monday was a work day for me on Maui. I needed to get this Christmas Romance Screenplay off to a producer on Tuesday so I had to plant my butt in the chair, overlooking the ocean and get busy. It didn't seem strange to be writing about snow and mistletoe and going caroling while listening to the palm tree fronds swish together off the deck in the trade breeze. Not at all. I wrote for 2 hours before I allowed myself a break to walk around the garden and make some breakfast.

I'd bought a pineapple at the store, something I would never pay for when I lived here because of all the pineapple fields near my house, fields that went to waste, not harvested because of expense. And I'd bought a papaya, something I threw away the first time I cut one open to see the black ball seeds inside. I made a fruit salad with bananas from the garden and these two fruits.

The day was spent writing with a break for lunch and a break for beach time at 3. I went to Kapalua Bay, the place where my husband and I were married decades ago. The beach was packed with tourists, something that always surprises me when I'm remembering the island of yesteryear. It was calm, clear water, sunny skies and absolutely gorgeous.

The snorkel was fun and because I had Lynn's car and she needed to get to work, I soaked up the sun quickly and left after an hour.
I met my reader friend, Ray and his wonderful wife, Diane, from Iowa, at the Barefoot Bar at the Hula Grill and seated right beside the bar we listened to the music, talked, laughed, talked story, drank Mai Tais and ordered food to soak up the rum, Curacao, orgeet and lime juice. I had the coconut crusted calamari with salsa and it was yummy!

Such great fun with two lovely people who absolutely love the Hawaiian Islands and the culture.
Back to KBH to wait for Lynn to finish work and one more Mai Tai later, we were heading home to hit the hay early. We wake up early around here so ten o'clock bedtime is just about perfect. My plan was to spend the morning, doing a final read-through of the screenplay before sending it off, then snorkel tomorrow as my reward!

KIM HORNSBY is the bestselling Amazon Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, Book    1 in a Supernatural Suspense series. She lives in the Seattle area and writes stories for        women about overcoming tragedy, adversity and coming out the other end.

Find her on Amazon Books.

www.twitter.com/kimhornsby
  www.facebook.com/kimhornsbyauthor

Whales, Cats and Gin!

Lahaina Harbor as we left Maui

Day 3 on Maui started with a cup of Kona coffee on the lanai, watching whales jump off shore.
So much nicer than coffee at home, looking at all the housework I should be doing!


I worked at my "desk" for a few hours until it was time to drive in to Lahaina (means merciless sun) and check in at the harbor for the ferry across the ocean to the closest island--Lana'i, which used to be the Pineapple Island. The ride across was full of whales everywhere you looked. So many baby whales, the size of a canoe shooting up off the water for a slap breach on the surface. Everywhere you looked on the 45 minute ride to Lanai, were whales blowing, breaching, tail slapping. I got a lot of photos of slightly disturbed water after the breach was over, but nothing of the whales themselves!
Lanai is now privately owned by some rich dude named Larry who does not care if there is tourism or not. He's had the island for 5 years must have a plan of what he wants but it's hard to tell when you see very little tourism and few people. Prices for hotel rooms are extraordinarily high at the Manele Bay Resort, the only big hotel on the island, and the pineapples are long gone.
The ferry costs $30 each way and was a fantastic Whale Watch Tour as well as delivering me to the dock where my friend Bill waited in Roja, his little red "sports car" that purrs like a kitten (a lion cub) and runs like a charm. It's 7 miles from the ferry dock to the town where Bill lives so having a showpiece car that costs an arm and a leg is so not necessary for life on Lana'i.

First, we drove to the beach where I decided I did not need to swim, instead choosing to go get a burger at The Views, the restaurant at the exclusive golf course associated with the Resort. $500 can buy you a round of golf, or $40 can buy you and a friend lunch with an unrivaled view of Sweetheart Rock at the Lana'i harbor.


Next, it was off to the Lana'i Cat Sanctuary, a place that left me speechless and humbled. Five hundred cats live at the sanctuary and apparently there's a whole night shift that plays in the dark if you ever happen to wear night vision goggles and spy on the felines at midnight.

Baskets in trees, cat houses, perches, toys, lazing around platforms, bowls of kibble and plenty of shade from enormous trees, make this property heaven for cats. There is even a senior center for the elderly cats and separate living quarters for cats with communicable diseases. It costs nothing to visit, wander around, pet the cats, play with their toys, but of course, the care givers won't turn down a donation  if you choose to help on your way out.

The proprietors were kind enough to let Bill (who wrote a children's book on the sanctuary--Kingdom for Cats) and I in after hours. Apparently when the humans leave for the day, the cats get more playful, even if some cats never stray too far from the Catfurteria Feeding Station in fear of never getting another meal.

All the cats have beautiful coats, soulful faces and seeing that many cats of all colors in one spot was something I will never forget, even if I can't take a cat home with me. I petted more than a few who rubbed up against my legs and meowed at me.

Next stop after Bill's cute little Lanai house was the newly renovated Hotel Lanai in Lana'i City (a small village not unlike Yosemite or Jasper, Canada in the olden days) for a drink and pu pu's, which are appetizers in Hawaiian. The hotel is a charmingly renovated boutique hotel done in the traditional plantation style with only 10 rooms for rent. It looked gorgeously quaint and affordable for a splurge night on Lana'i!
For food, I had humus with veggies, crackers and cheese, Bill had fish soup and we split a designer vegetable salad with a sweet vinaigrette. Delicious! You can't dance in the restaurant, even if the duo plays such good music that it's almost impossible to sit still.

Their liquor license doesn't allow dancing so when my dancing shoes started tapping, and my shoulders started moving to the beat, Bill whisked me back to the Off Seasons Hotel (Bill's place) to watch one of the many free movies my actor friend is sent for the SAG award voting privilege. We chose to watch VICE, a movie about Dick Cheney. I didn't fall asleep because the movie was boring or bad but more because a gin and tonic at dinner told me it was an excellent time to close my eyes.
I woke up with a blanket over me and Bill gone to bed. The soft rain on the top most part of Lana'i fell gently outside while I went back to sleep to wait for first light.
Another perfect day in Hawaii!

The Lanai Cat Sanctuary can be found at this web site: CATS

KIM HORNSBY is the bestselling Amazon Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, Book    1 in a Supernatural Suspense series. She lives in the Seattle area and writes stories for        women about overcoming tragedy, adversity and coming out the other end.

Find her on Amazon Books.

www.twitter.com/kimhornsby
  www.facebook.com/kimhornsbyauthor

Gold Toes, Typing and Turtles

Day 1 on Maui and it was a DOOZY!

Because I lived here for over a decade and stay with my GF, I do not do the luaus, the tours, the boat trips when I come to Maui, but instead do a lot of staring out at that gorgeous ocean. At whales!

From my deck desk, I watched a ton of humpback whale activity yesterday. Yes, it was distracting from the task at hand (requested revisions on a screenplay) but who can resist watching whales breaching on the ocean's surface? Not moi.

While the day was spent trying to imagine my latest screenplay changes and how they would affect the plot, character development etc, I took time to BE on Maui. I also watched the ring-tailed doves in the plumeria trees in front of the railing, I drank Kona coffee, I ate those rich Macadamia nuts, and I went for a pedicure. Yes, you heard me.
My friend Lynn was waiting for her pedicure appointment until I arrived, so off we went with the dog who sits quite nicely during a pedicure, I must say. I'm not sure why I chose gold for my toes but the Academy Awards are on my mind so maybe that was it.

After lunch of cheese, fruit, crackers, veggies and a naughty Diet Coke, on the lanai (deck), I wrote all afternoon. fixing, changing, thinking, substituting and made great headway. Then I walked down to the little beach near the house and had a dip in the ocean. Because of the rains, the shoreline water is a bit murky so I didn't take snorkeling equipment. Just swimming/floating around with a 15 minute lie in the sunshine on a towel break between swims. It was glorious. A sea turtle came up for a bit of air just ten feet away near a group of rocks. Kids were out on surfboards for the gentle break off the point seeing it was after school. That's Hawaii for you.







The wee doggy needed his sunset walk so off we went to Fleming Beach to watch Jo Jo sniff every square foot of the park which must have some great mongoose smells. I remembered the day a man exposed himself to me in the bushes at this park and my dog chased him off.

Back home, we set the table and Kris and Lucy came for chicken pasta salad which had been marinating in Italian dressing all day (Lynn is a GREAT cook and Italian!), chocolate cake from scratch and then we watched Crazy Rich Asians on her giant TV. Fun movie. I laughed out loud alot. We all agreed how colorful the visual was and how gorgeous the women were.

Today is cloudy but one never knows when a trade wind will come in to blow away the clouds and show that robin's egg blue sky.

It's a work day anyhow -- writing!
I love this place and it's wonderful smells, sounds and sights...


KIM HORNSBY is an Amazon Bestselling Author best known for The Dream Jumper Series, which is optioned for film, with over 400 reviews on Amazon at 4.5 stars.
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Aloha Maui!

I'm HERE! And by here, I mean MAUI! Yipee Aloha!

Amid snow and rain and shivering in my sandals, I got to the Seattle Airport yesterday at 3 pm and proceeded to my gate with only 1 small carryon, a large purse and my big honkin poster/banner I take to book signings.
The flight was fine even though I was seated across from the rest room and kept getting bumped on my shoulder and head by people trying to squeeze by. The flight attendant gave me a big glass of wine and 500 airline miles to make up for my crappy (pun intended) seat!

I arrived at the Kahului airport at 10:30 last night just as a big storm was passing by. The streets were wet, the air sizzled with ions and my friend couldn't pick me up because the rain was that hard on West Maui~
The rain had stopped at the airport, I knew this because we'd just flown through the bumpy storm, and I grabbed a shuttle to West Maui.

I often tear up when I first get to the Valley Isle, thinking of all this island meant to me years ago, but I didn't last night, maybe because it was dark and I couldn't see much!
The shuttle dropped me off at my friend Lynn's house at 11:45 and after a good girlfriend chat we headed to our rooms for a nice sleep in the cool Maui air, everything washed clean by the torrential rains that had roads closed yesterday afternoon.
I slipped into 900 thread count sheets, laid my head on down stuffed pillows and fired up my Kindle to get in the mode to nod off. I'm reading Sibella Giorello's Raleigh Harmon Series and you can tell this woman was nominated for a Pulitzer! Great story.

Woke to the hint of blue sky and puffy clouds and stayed in bed thinking how lucky I was to be on Maui, listening to the morning doves wake up. My coffee maker is in the attic between visits so I went up there, got the thing, washed it thoroughly and started the java. A girl's gotta have her coffee!
Lynn and her funny little dog JoJo (do you remember her rescuing him 2 years ago?) went off for their morning walk up north on the trails so I'm sitting at my laptop on the lanai (deck) and looking at revisions I need to do on a script. Today is a work day and if I'm a good girl a bunch of us girls are going to watch Crazy Rich Asians tonight on Lynn's Giant TV!

I'm hoping to get in that ocean this afternoon, maybe even meet a few fish.

Here I am trying to show you the same view in the photo above..
https://twitter.com/i/status/1098295909635346432

Stay tuned tomorrow to see what I actually did today, my first day on Maui in 2019!


KIM HORNSBY is an Amazon #1 Bestselling novelist who lives in the Seattle area and writes books about women in dire circumstances rescuing themselves. She tweets her dreams most mornings on Twitter under the hashtag #StrangeDreams
www.twitter.com/kimhornsby

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Pineapple Juice, Music and Dance on Maui

Maui is gorgeous, even when its pouring rain.
And it was
Most of the day
When I lived here we'd tell tourists it was just pineapple juice

I worked on Deadly Resemblance on the deck watching the rain. Although they didn't need to be, my friends were quiet until I took a break and suggested we drive north to the Lighthouse to look for whales.

The rain let up once we reached the Nakalele Lighthouse pullout so we walked the uneven rocky ground with JoJo happily trotting alongside his owner. Neither Lynn nor I had ever seen people walking around way up north like this but there were large groups of them, heading towards the blowhole. In the rain.
Having lived here thirty years ago when there were only four stoplights on the whole island, it's hard to see Maui so busy, every inch of it open to exploring people now. I understand how we all want to experience the wild parts of Maui but it's still hard to see this beautiful island so overpopulated with visitors. We knew when they started building so many mega hotels, it was headed this way, thirty years ago. We talked about the impact it would have on the island. How the road would get so busy and clogged, it would take more than the usual 40 minutes to drive from Lahaina to Kahului.
It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes yesterday to reach the other side of Maui.
We'd gone over to attend a tribute to a wonderful musician and person who'd recently passed away--Fulton Tashombe. Maui Arts and Cultural Center's outdoor pavilion was the venue for the event from 5-8. We went a little early to visit with our friend Neida who runs the gallery at the MACC.
I used to sing and travel interisland with Neida in a band called The Brown Sisters and sisters we were back then. It was incredibly heartwarming to see my friend over a glass of wine as Fulton's tribute began on the stage. The speakers kept the tone light as a rolling photo essay of Fulton's life played at the side of the stage. When three baskets of white doves were released and flew away in a flock, Neida, Cresty and I worried about that one dove that didn't get out and took to the rafters to fret and wait. There were four bands over two hours, many musicians I knew from the old days and the whole 300-person event was filled with musicians and people Fulton had touched as a musician and lovely person on Maui.

During the song, Riders in the Storm, there was an enormous BOOM that had us all going for our cell phones to see if a ballistic missile warning had come in. Some said it was Fulton, some said thunder, but we couldn't explain the noise. Thunder and lightning began soon after that sounded nothing like the BOOM.
We danced, we laughed, we hugged people we hadn't seen in years and Cresty drove us back to the west side in the pouring rain.

JoJo received us like we were zombies, come to eat his brain because Lynn was at work and couldn't protect him. Bill was able to feed him chicken but Cresty and I were not allowed within ten feet of the little guy. Rescue dogs have baggage sometimes and we tried to tread softly and give him a wide berth.


Today we might try to get out scuba diving. The ocean looks calm.

Palm Trees, Barnes & Noble & Gnocchi

Woke to a calm ocean yesterday and I was wondering why we didn't go snorkeling. Cresty was playing tennis and I was blogging though.

I worked on the deck, staring at the ocean. A man walked down the street strumming a ukulele. Not something you see everyday. There is also a bike rider in Lahaina who carries a fifteen foot white cross on his shoulder. We've seen him five times, balancing that crucifix. And a guy who roller blades the highway in only black shorts, his roller blades lit up.

I picked up my friend Bill at the Lanai ferry, we had a lunch on Lynn's deck and headed off to my Barnes & Noble book signing.

I set up my big, honkin' retractable poster and immediately started selling books twenty minutes early. Over the next two hours, I talked to such amazingly interesting, lovely people including a guy named Jim who had a photo of a ghost. It certainly looked creepy and real. And a couple who just got married--her a writer named Holly and him a literary agent. And a retired couple named Rose and Craig who have 4 weeks of timeshare and are waiting for their child to join them on Maui from Israel.

Wonderful people end up in bookstores.

After the books sold out, we went grocery shopping for ingredients to make Italian gnocchi--something Lynn loves. Back at the house, the potatoes started baking, the wine got opened, the conversation flowed and the four of us eventually prepared dinner.


There is something so decent about a candlelit dinner on a deck overlooking the ocean with good friends. Gnocchi, Salad, Chicken, Wine, Friendship, Laughter...

After cleanup in the kitchen where the dog let us feed him chicken, we had a round table discussion in the living room around the coffee table about world affairs, Bill playing Santa Claus every Christmas at the Lahaina Sugar Cane Train, Lynn's garden, and vaping! Bed came early for the girls while Billy watched golf on the couch.

Another amazing day.










KIM HORNSBY is an Amazon #1 Bestselling novelist who lives in the Seattle area and writes books about women in dire circumstances rescuing themselves. She tweets her dreams most mornings on Twitter under the hashtag #StrangeDreams
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