I have rarely made it to the movies these past many months, but my husband wanted to see Letters from Iwo Jima, so we went today. “How did you like it?” he asked afterward. Trying to keep my voice steady, I answered, “I thought it was excellent… but it’s one of those movies I’ll watch only once.” It was that emotionally wrenching.

The movie depicts the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of a private in the Japanese army. I don’t think it’s a spoiler if I say that the movie conveys both the horror of war, and the horror of being trapped in a situation you never thought possible, with no way out.

The acting was very well done. We are all Ken Watanabe fans here, but Kazunari Ninomiya did a superb job portraying the private Shigo.

In all… highly recommended, at least once.

Anyone familiar with my previous blog will naturally have doubts about the wisdom of my starting another. That first failed experiment took place at my science fiction website, mythicisland.com. My goal then was to record the process of writing a novel. Life and a lack of resolve (not to mention time) got in the way — but being a writer I laugh off failure (or pretend to, anyway). So here I am, ready to try blogging again.

My goal this time is more nebulous. I want to write about things that interest me, from the serious to the simply fun – and on the way, I would like to learn to write short and fast. My natural skills have always flowed in the other direction, which neatly explains why I am a novelist – but on to something new.

Why Hahví.net? It’s a place-name from the fantasy novel. I’ll write more on that subject in a later post, but for now, let it suffice to say that Hahví is an idyllic land that vanished over the horizon long ago.