The cleaning is something I use as a reward if I get some work done. I go into a very happy state of mind when I'm vacuuming.

Vividly imagined, beautifully written, at times almost unbearably suspenseful-the stories in Kristiana Kahakauwila's debut collection, This Is Paradise, are boldly inventive in their exploration of the tenuous nature of human relations. These are poignant stories of 'paradise'-Hawai'i-with all that 'paradise' entails of the transience of sensuous beauty.

I read books. Avidly, ardently! As if my life depended upon it.

One writes to memorialize, and to bring to life again that which has been lost.

Not to be alone. To be spared the possibility of knowing oneself, in aloneness.

This is my life now. Absurd, but unpredictable. Not absurd because unpredictable but unpredictable because absurd. If I have lost the meaning of my life, I might still find small treasured things among the spilled and pilfered trash.

People might be surprised to know how much I throw away. For every page I publish, I throw 10 pages away.