Oh, No! Not Another Book Project!

 
My daughter and I have talked about collaborating on a book tentatively titled Fascinating Facts About Hawaii. We’ve talked about it for several years, but it’s not going to happen … at least not as a collaboration. She’s much too busy as a successful freelance writer, with stories appearing in Science magazine and National Geographic Traveler and in other publicartions of national circulation and serious stature.
 
Still, I do think Fascinating Facts would be of interest to at least some of the seven or eight million of tourists who visit here every year. One possibility would be to self-publish the book and distribute it through the ABC Stores, a chain of stores catering almost exclusively to the tourists.
 
Some years back when this idea first came up, my wife and daughter and I sat down around the dining room table and, in not more than a half hour, came up with over 50 facts that seemed worthy of inclusion in the proposed book. Here are just three:
 
The only royal palace in the United States is located in Honolulu. Hawaii was a monarchy for many generations until 1893 when a group of American businessmen, aided by a company of U.S. Marines who just happened to be on a ship in Honolulu Harbor, overthrew the Hawaiian government
 
There were working cowboys in Hawaii 30 years before there were any cowboys in Texas. Years earlier, British explorer George Vancouver brought cattle to Hawaii as a gift to the Hawaiian king. After many years, the cattle had multiplied and gone wild, becoming a serious problem, so Mexican vaqueros were brought to Hawaii to teach the Hawaiians how to handle the cattle.
 
Everyone who lives in Hawaii is a member of a racial minority. Quite true. There are native Hawaiians, Caucasians, African Americans, Asians (including Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese), Portuguese, South Pacific Islanders (Samoans, Tongans, Tahitians, Guamanians), and I’m sure I’ve left somebody out.
 
The trouble with another book project is that it sounds simple, but I know damn well it will turn into big work. Am I up for it? I really don’t know. Of course, if a dozen or so books sold every day on average … times 365 days … times five or six bucks each . . .
 
Hmmmm.