YOU JUST KEEP ON TRYING TILL YOU RUN OUT OF CAKE pt. 3

This was going to be entirely a Hula entry, but then something cool happened this morning that I need to document.

A friend of a friend (and now an actual friend) is a published author. She's another bird rehabber (the three of us are,) and her book is about life with birds. Her agent also happens to be a Big Name Agent, with Big Name Clients. I don't want to mention anyone specifically. But the dude is superfly busy. ANYway. So my friend Crow Lady hooked me up with Bird Writer who sent an email to Big Name Agent and asked if he wouldn't mind having a gander at my manuscript. He said he would, as a favor to her. This was a few months ago.

Well, you know how it is, people get caught up in life and work (I often take months to answer emails myself,) and it took him a while to get to mine. Today I got a reply from him.

Okay, don't get all excited yet. Ends up, my ms. is not a genre that he can assess fairly and he didn't have any advice, which is totally understandable. (Like, I wouldn't be able to critique a romance novel, or something.)

BUT. His exact words where: "The material seems very good."

THE MATERIAL SEEMS VERY GOOD. Do you see that "VERY" in there? I do! I definitely see the words "very good" in there. I am absolutely taking those two words to heart. And so, I am going to Snoopy-dance around my house for a while because I am a very good writer, and that comes from someone who knows the business of writing.

Then, that other rejection I got from an awesome agent, who didn't really click with the material but said I was a "wonderful writer", remember that? I still hold onto that, too.

I mean, every single opinion counts. When someone likes what I've written, I don't care if it's some random person on the internet who was like "that was neat," or if it's a friend, or family, or anything. When anyone says "I enjoyed that" it gives me all the happy feelings. But when someone in the publishing business says it, it makes me confident that other people in the publishing business will eventually feel the same way, and a few of them will click with me/the story, and someone will pick it up, and off my novel will go to publication. There's the joy of just hearing someone say "I loved this!" and then there's the joy of hearing a professional say, in essence, "this could happen."

It's as if there are separate goals with writing. 1: I love it. 2: Other people enjoy something I've written. 3: Publication. If all three could mash together one of these times, well that'd just be a great big chocolate chip cookie of happiness.

In other words, I HAVE LOTS OF CAKE LEFT.

Okay, I have to take Haku to his rehab in a bit. When I come home, after maybe taking them to the beach, I'll write my Hula entry. :D

Ke Alaula

Here's the entry that I wanted to make earlier, before I had my day rocked by a really nice agent who said some very heartening words to me.

So as I have mentioned, my Hula class is a go for this summer. I know I've only posted about this in passing. I have this thing about not talking too much about something important to me unless it's solid. I feel like I'm going to jinx things, which I know is ridiculous.

As of now, I have 4 students. They all signed up within hours of the press release, so hopefully there will be more before July. But even if it's just the four, that's also great. They are all between 60 and 70 from what I understand. I love, love, love teaching this age group. They get it. But, I also hope for a wider range, too. From keikis to Tutus, wahine and kane, I want to teach them all.

This morning, my baby bird woke me up for a feeding, and after that I lay in bed thinking about my first year doing Hula. It was a big game-changer for me, Hula was. I mean huge. It made me see myself in a different way, and actually it made me understand this ridiculous affection I feel for my land, my 'aina. Sometimes I still feel like most people don't get that. But Hula people do.

I was thinking that I want to tell the class, "I hope you'll always remember this as the amazing, adventurous summer when you learned Hula. And I hope some of you stick with it. Or if you can't, then you'll at least take it with you when you go."

A big part of my first Hula year was the music I discovered when I started. It was 1999. This was a whole new world to me. My first teacher had a tape of side B of Makaha Sons of Ni'ihau's album Ho'oluana. I listened to the tape constantly, just six songs. I played them for everyone. My Dad actually fell in love with their music immediately, and it sort of became our thing. Any time we were in the car together, that's the music we would have to play.

Eventually, I got the full CD and then I was hooked, buying up every Makaha Sons CD I could find.

The summer after that, I was obsessed with their album Kuikawa. I was playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time that summer, and I was raising a ton of birds; I think I had upwards of about 90 of them that year. Somehow, weirdly, those three things merged in my mind. Kuikawa, FFVII, and tons of baby birds.

After Makaha Sons came Keali'i Reichel, Sonny Ching, Kekuhi Kanahele, Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu, and just and endless stream of Hawaiian artists, doing old songs, hapa songs, new, upbeat ones, techno ones, everything. A world of music over the years.

So I realized that when I teach my class, obviously I'm going to need mele. Especially for the early warm-ups, when I have to show the moves as well as explain them, and do them along with the class. So, for the beginning, I won't be able to pa'i while I'm leading warmups, and I'll just have to play some music. I could get regular recorded pa'i beats of course. But why waste the opportunity to show people new to Hula as much music as possible?

When I was about 3 years into Hula, I started dancing with Auntie Kau'i and her group down in Florida. Down there, Makaha Sons are also really popular.

One group in Orlando, led by the awesome Kumu Kawehi, had choreographed a Makaha Sons song called "Ke Alaula." That means "Sunrise." I remember one older woman in the audience telling me that she started Hula late in life, when she was searching for something to fill the void left by her dead husband, who had committed suicide. She said she felt that the song Ke Alaula had come along and offered her this new path, and for the first time, she thought there could still be some happiness in her life. She said that the song felt like good luck for her.

So, I kind of took on Ke Alaula as a "good luck song" as well. I try to send it to people who need some change, something happy to break an old rut or something. Most people don't get it, I know. But it still feels like good luck.

Now that I'm thinking of it, I need to listen to this song again too.

The thing is, I haven't listened to Makaha Sons since I lost Dad. It's almost like when he died, it wasn't just him, but all of these other things that I had to do without because of it. Everything that reminds me too much of him, etc. The entire state of Florida, for chrissakes. Dad's music. Certain other songs on the radio that he liked, or sang. And, most of all, the Makaha Sons. I was able to listen to everything else (even Keali'i Reichel, who Dad also loved,) but not them.

But now I pretty much just have to. Because I can't deprive my new students of this beautiful music, and I shouldn't go this long without hearing it, either. There's really only one song of theirs that I can't listen to, which is "White Sandy Beach / Mehameha" because that was his absolute favorite out of all of them. And the lyrics are way too sad anyway. It's a gorgeous song and all, but I don't think I can get past that.

Well anyway. So today for the first time I'm putting Makaha Sons back on my iPod, with a really good feeling about it. So, in more ways than one, I'm so glad to be teaching again.

Now, I just hope I can remember how to teach. I know I can dance, but doing and teaching are two different things. And it's been forever since I've taught.

Guess we will find out in about a month and a half! That gives me time to start preparing, anyway. :)