THE GUIDING DWIGHT

I've decided to put new and evolving info about my books and web design and life in this handy blog page, rather than in the body of my home page.  It's easier to maintain and may encourage me to blog with greater frequency. NOVELS -- My first novel The Prospect of My Arrival is on Amazon.  It is being shopped around Hollywood as a possible movie or TV project.  My second novel The Hope Store is complete and I want to start shopping it to publishers open to unagented writers.  My third novel Every Time We Say Goodbye is being developed as we speak. WEB DESIGN -- I'm thinking I might do a Spring Sale for those interested in having me design their websites. Contact me if you're interested.  Samples of my work are on this site. CUDDLING: GROUP & PRIVATE -- As some of you know the Cuddle Movement has been growing for over a decade.  I started my own meetup group "Cuddle Adventures for Gay Men" about half a year ago and that's going well.  

R ecently I was asked by three different people if I could provide various services and what would I charge.  I didn't know what to say at the time. ​ -- An entrepreneur asked what I would charge for 3 hours of marketing assistance for his new business venture. ​ -- A woman wanted to give a holiday gift to her sister who had finished her memoir.  She was curious what I would charge for my professional feedback on the manuscript. ​ -- A counselor and energy worker offered to pay me to give feedback on how to make his existing website more compelling and effective. ​ ​ Since there is a need, I thought I would expand the services I provide: ​ ​ WEBSITE FEEDBACK FOR EXISTING WEBSITES NEEDING REFRESHING OR A MAKEOVER: $25 an hour.   (Will post Before & After photos on my site.) ​ ​ ​ ​MANUSCRIPT FEEDBACK ON COMPLETED OR EMERGING NOVELS & MEMOIRS: $25 an hour. ​ ​ ​ ​MARKETING ADVICE FOR NEW BUSINESSES OR EMERGING AUTHORS: $25

Charlie Kaufman's film ANOMALISA is the movie that moved and thrilled me the most this year. It's not for everyone, but it was for me. Kaufman gives us trippy, amazing movies like ETERNAL SUNSHINE, and BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. And this movie is just as trippy and amazing but not in his usual way. Eternal Sunshine threw us into sci-fi territory with a machine that could erase painful memories, and the visuals were a beautiful nightmare. Malkovich gave us John M in a red dress on a p iano, John M in a hallucination of multiple Malkoviches. But ANOMALISA felt different to me. What was trippy was the presentation (stop motion puppets) but for a change the content was surprisingly naturalistic and realistic (middle aged man has identity crisis en route to giving a motivational speech). But it's in the lovely, cryptic dialog, the surrealism appears. Kind of like in a Haruki Murakami novel where simple reality starts taking tiny, menacing, magical U-turns.  It also rem

by Dwight Okita Today was the launch of my Chicago Meetup Group "The Hug & Cuddle Group for Single, Gay Men" at the Center of Halsted, Chicago's LGBT community center. Our first man hug session was an intoxicating, nurturing mix of beautiful diverse music, a safe cozy space, and 12 men who were strangers in search of tenderness and intimacy in a non-sexual setting. It was about an hour and a half of embracing, talking, caressing, and engaging. If you look at the picture above, it looks like we're slow dancing. The effect was a deep feeling of affec tion and connectedness. I'd never quite felt this feeling before. Our group currently has over 70 interested members.  I developed this event with Assistant Organizer Charles Gamble.  Initially at the event, people seemed a bit nervous which is natural.  Chairs were arranged in a circle and people were asked to tell their name and a little about themselves.  I spoke a while giving an overview of the Cuddl

NOTE:  To me it's always fun to read excerpts of novels in progress.  Here's less than a page from  MY NEW NOVEL "Every Time We Say Goodbye" by Dwight Okita (c) 2015. FEEL FREE TO READ AND GIVE COMMENTS. THIS COMES FROM THE END OF THE BOOK. The two men entered Casa de Esperanza, or The House of Hope for dinner. Frank's cell kept ringing through the night, so he put it on vibrate. In fact it wouldn't be till he got home after midnight that he would listen to his voice mails and learn that Trudy had shot herself to death. He would be shocked and  saddened. He was just starting to like her, getting to see her more vulnerable side, starting to see her less as an adversary and more as something else. He would have to write a difficult column about The Death-by-Gun of a Gun Lobbyist. It would be provocative, drawing ire from both peace activists and gun activists alike, how one American grew up to be a statistic. And it would be part cautionary ta

Here we go again. I chant for a solution to the violence and madness that America has become. I pray for the enlightenment of the NRA and gun owners -- both responsible and not responsible. I chant for more meaningful background checks that will prevent weapons from getting into the hands of malicious killers and those who are severely mentally disturbed. I chant for a peaceful world we can be proud of.  That we as an American society can put all of our heads together -- both conservative and liberal -- and learn whatever lessons these acts of violence are trying to teach us. I pray that we evolve before we become extinct. Tennessee movie theater shooting suspect killed by police - CNN.com

Hi folks, a while back you subscribed to my blog which deals with my being an indie writer, an online dater, a gay asian man, a Nichiren Buddhist, a person recovered from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and a frequent movie-goer.   Please let me know you got this email as my previous gadget wasn't sending them out properly.  You could post a comment below or email me at DwightOkita@gmail.com  Thanks. My first novel THE PROSPECT OF MY ARRIVAL will always be a top three finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards contest, out of 5,000 entries.  I self-published it in 2011 and it has doing respectably, garnering enthusiastic reviews. My second novel THE HOPE STORE I've been fine-tuning to enter in the new Kindle Scout competition presented by Amazon. I wanted to mention the next two novels I have in the works which I'm developing concurrently: SLUMBER PARTIES FOR GROWN-UPS is the third novel. A mid-life guy regrets he never attended slumber parties as