So many ideas, so little time...

I usually bring back a story idea from every trip I take, and Hawaii was no exception. After spending all of Christmas Eve Day at Pearl Harbor, I jotted down these notes:




Setting:  small town, Texas, 1994
Protagonist:  recent nursing graduate, female
grandmother was a nurse at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, gives her a piece broken window glass from her living quarters
conversation leads to younger woman taking trip to Hawaii before starting first job
tours Pearl Harbor, recalls grandmother's memories of death and destruction
meets a Japanese American girl  her own age, also a nurse
meets the girl's family who was interned on the island after Pearl Harbor because of their Japanese ancestry
both fascinated and saddened by the story of their experiences
makes impulsive decision to take job opening in local hospital and stay in Hawaii for a year
Enter love interest: the Japanese-American girl's older brother, mysteriously estranged from his family, who has come back to Hawaii in search of something...perhaps himself.

So will it fly? Will I even have time to write it? Who knows?



I'll definitely have to work in "eternity beach" which I saw on a bus tour of the island of Oahu--the beach where Burt Lancaster and  Deborah Kerr heated up the sand and sea in From Here to Eternity. It was a spectacular view, even without the movie stars!