I’ve been involved with community journalism since 1968 when I wrote for my junior school paper, the "Tumbleweed," through high school and college and then wrote for the "Wyoming State Journal." I put aside my newspaper pen and began Boulder Community Media in 2005. There wasn’t much community journalism opportunity, so I resurrected my writing career as a screenwriter. My first short screenplay, “Stardust”, won an award in the 2005 Denver Screenwriting Center contest. I've made a number of movies over the years. Filmmaking is time-consuming, labor and equipment intensive. I recently changed my workflow to first write a book and make a movie based on that content.
- Electric Vehicle Anxiety and Advice - This is a memoir travelogue of three trips covering 2,600 EV miles around Wyoming (2022)
- Beyond Heart Mountain - Winter Goose Publishers released my memoir in February (2022)
- The Zen of Writing with Confidence and Imperfection - This is a book recounting how luck planed into my signing a book deal after a 15-minute pitch meeting. (2020)
- True Stories of an Aging Baby Boomer - War stories about living in a cohousing and lessons others can learn when starting their communities (2021)
- Beyond Sand Creek - About Arapaho tribal efforts to repatriate land in Colorado (PBS - TBA)
- Beyond Heart Mountain - Based on my memoir about my childhood in Cheyenne facing overt and subtle racism toward the Japanese following World War II (PBS - 2021)
- New Deal Artist Public Art Legacy - About artists who created work in Wyoming during the Great Depression (PBS - 2018)
- Mahjong and the West - SAG indie feature which premiered at the semi-important Woodstock Film Festival (2014)
Over the years, I’ve produced directed, filmed and/or edited several short movies, “Running Horses” (Runner Up – Wyoming Short Film Contest), “On the Trail: Jack Kerouac in Cheyenne” (Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival, Top 10 Wyoming Short Film Contest), “Gold Digger” (Boulder Asian Film Festival), “Adobo” (Boulder International Film Festival), “A Little Bit of Discipline” (Rosebud Film Series), and two feature length documentaries “Your Neighbor’s Child” (Wyoming PBS and Rocky Mountain PBS), and “Serotonin Rising” (American Film Market, Vail Film Festival). He also directed and produced the award winning stage play “Webster Street Blues” by my childhood friend Warren Kubota.
Boulder Community Media is a non-profit production company dedicated to democratzing media in all their forms - large and small screens, printed page and stage by providing sustainable and community-based content.
I mostly work with community-based media producers, organizations, and socially-responsible businesses to develop their content via – the written word, electronic and new media, the visual and performing arts in a culturally competent manner – I’m what’s commonly called a niche TV and movie producer.
Along with all this is plying my forte’ – fund development through grant writing, sponsorship nurturing and event planning.
Be a part of the recording session for an original movie soundtrack on October 14th at 7:30 p.m. at the Pine Street Church 1237 Pine Street, Boulder, Colorado. Buy tickets now since there is limited seating.
Join Artistic Director Devin Hughes the Boulder Symphony & Music Academy, and the Northern Arapaho Eagle Society as they record a new and inspiring reimagining of the soundtrack for “The Covered Wagon” (87 min).
The epic 1923 silent film about settlers traveling in wagon trains from Missouri to Oregon. The pioneers encounter conflicts with Arapaho along the way. The music retells the story from a tribal perspective and reverses negative Native American stereotypes perpetuated by popular media spanning three centuries. The Arapaho Redux provides a safe space for diverse and collaborative voices to support the Arapaho people as they pass on the tribal language and ceremonies to their children.
Boulder Community Media (BCM) and Off-Broadway Arts present a documentary film by Alan O’Hashi – Author and Filmmaker, Director of Photography and Editor – Michael M. Conti.
Thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts, Boulder Arts Commission, Wyoming Arts Council, Wyoming Humanities, Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, and many individual supporters like you.
“Views from Atop My Bedpan” is set to release on April 1, 2023. The cover picture is of author Alan O’Hashi as if he aged 10 years.
Views from Atop My Bedpan, a memoir by Alan O’Hashi, is scheduled to be released on April 1, 2023. The book is a memoir about the author’s experiences with the American healthcare industrial complex spanning seven decades.
During his journey, Alan learned about the Emergency Department bottleneck when he was nearly dead for six weeks. His road to recovery was a long one through alternative treatments. As he grew younger, his contact with the healthcare system was much simpler.
The book moves back in time starting his healthcare in a Boulder, Colorado senior cohousing community. Read about his acupuncture torture and drunken raisin arthritis remedy until he was kicked out of his retirement home for being too healthy and young.
The book recounts Alan’s medical-related experiences in the working world, including a small town hospital merger and an emergency CPR RESCUE.
The story tracks his time in college, then traces his life through high school, sex education as an adolescence and his bad eyes and teeth in grade school.
Is life ends as a twinkle in his parents’ eyes.
Some content may not be suitable from some readers.
There’s a paradox. Public and private healthcare providers are dedicated to keeping people alive and free of disease, but, at the same time, they must financially profit to maintain themselves.
At the same time, the industry keeps its heart thumping and pumping based on continually expanding the number of patients who consume the latest pharmaceuticals, visit doctors, and are diagnosed by the newest machines. It’s better that people stay a little sick rather than be cured from a profit-and-loss standpoint.
At last check, according to the Social Security Administration actuary chart, the author has 10.4 years to go. He conjectures his death at 79. He’s had a flirt with death every 20 years or so, most recently, surviving an exotic lung disease in 2013.
“We all have unique experiences as we move through life. Being at the top of my game has been hard work. I prefer to have positive influences on others I meet.” Alan O’Hashi
“The Covered Wagon” is a 1923 silent film. BCM and the Boulder Symphony are collaborating on a new soundtrack that retells the stereotypical cowboys and Indians movie with a tribal perspective featuring the Northern Arapaho Eagle Drum and Singers.
Boulder Community Media (BCM) had great success in 2022 and wants to keep it up through 2023. BCM was awarded a highly competitive $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant for “The Arapaho Covered Wagon Redux,” four years in the making.
BCM is seeking matching funds to record a contemporary soundtrack for the 1923 epic “Covered Wagon” silent film. The original score compiled by Anne Guzzo will be performed by the Boulder Symphony led by Devin Hughes in remembrance of the 160th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre. Most of the funds will pay musicians and the Northern Arapaho Eagle Drum. For information, watch the trailer.
When “The Covered Wagon” screened, tribal members appeared before the audience while casting directors Ed Farlow and Tim McCoy provided information about why they hired 500 Native Americans, mostly Northern Arapaho to perform in the film. Ironically, the realism they wanted to purvey added to tribal stereotypes.
Your tax deductible contribution will make an impact by undoing old stereotypes whether you donate $5 or $500. Every little bit helps. Thank you for your support. We previously raised $500 for the project.
BCM is a 501c3 production company dedicated to make media in all their forms accessible to all.
If you’re a facebook user, BCM has a year-end fundraiser happening through the end of 2022.
Support local independent artists this holiday season. Author Alan O’Hashi is offering three Kindle books on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, November 28th!
True Stories of a Mediocre Writer is Alan’s memoir about his unique writing style and process that resulted in the publication of his first book, Beyond Heart Mountain released by Winter Goose Publishing in February 2022.
He explains how he overcame perfection that made him more confident.
In his case, luck plays a big part. In June 2019, he attended a writing conference and talked to Winter Goose Publishing. He was asked to submit a full manuscript. He wrote 80,000 words and signed a contract in November.
True Stories of an Aging Do Gooder is another memoir about his journey through life living in accidental and intentional community settings. Those began with a large extended family in Cheyenne, Wyoming, living four years in the same dorm room at Hastings College, a “Golden Guys” house in Gillette, Wyoming, an apartment above the Ace Hardware store in downtown Lander, Wyoming and a Buddhist-centered coop house in Boulder, Colorado.
Those housing configurations set him up to finally move into the Silver Sage Village cohousing community. The book relates his experiences and war stories for anyone who wants to overcome loneliness.
On the Trail: Electric Vehicle Anxiety and Advice is Alan’s real-time travelogue about a “Beyond Heart Mountain” book tour he took driving his Nissan Leaf 2,600 miles on the open roads of Wyoming.
The first leg was a 178 mile drive to Casper that took 15 hours.
He recounts his “range anxiety” navigating through wind , cold, and snow with no charging stations in many Wyoming communities.
Beyond Heart Mountain is Alan’s memoir published by Winter Goose Publishing. He doesn’t have control over those book sales, but if you’re in Denver, Alan will be signing copies at the Tattered Cover Book Store on Colfax on Black Friday, November 25th from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
His book is about growing up Japanese in Wyoming after World War II and the demise of the once vibrant Japanese community on the 400 and 500 blocks of West 17th Street in Cheyenne.
Wyoming was the site for the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, one of 10 camps set up in the U.S. interior.
Even though his family didn’t spend time in a camp, they had to endure the subtle and overt racism toward Japanese. The upshot of the story is to close economic and social divides, Americans should become more civil.
If you’re in Denver on Black Friday, November 25th, author Alan O’Hashi will be signing his memoir Beyond Heart Mountain at the Tattered Cover Bookstore on Colfax from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The book is Alan’s story about growing up and living in Wyoming after World War II. He recounts the subtle and overt racism he and his family had to endure. His family was spared from living in a War Relocation Center because Japanese individuals who resided in the U.S. interior were deemed as being interned in place.
I wrote a new book that was just released by Boulder Community Media entitled, On the Trail: Wyoming Electric Vehicle Adventures. It was written in real-time between May 16th to July 2nd on three road trips totaling 2,600 miles around the vast sparseness of Wyoming.
Here’s the third person blurb from the back cover:
On the Trail is a memoir recounting author and risk-taker Alan O’Hashi’s reflections on his experiences with the automobile over the years and how his life evolved along with those vehicle choices. Now in his twilight years, he trekked 2,600 miles around Wyoming in a 2021 Nissan Leaf SV Plus electric vehicle (EV) 62 kWh at a time (that’s the battery size).
If you’re curious about EVs, he explains some about the different kinds of vehicles in the marketplace, but more about how to overcome “range anxiety” when there is no charging station nearby and the battery is about empty. He explains, in lay terms, about charging station subtleties, general details about battery efficiency, and the pitfalls drivers may encounter on short trips around town and longer drives over, say, 100 miles, including confusion around the three levels of charging stations and different types of plugs.
Alan was not the first driver to embark on a long-haul EV road trip but was a pioneer in navigating the road in the sparsest state in the Lower 48, having to figure out how to keep moving forward despite numerous setbacks including snow and 30-degrees.
His sojourns weren’t as arduous and rustic as they would have been in a covered wagon or a handcart but navigated gravel roads and isolated ribbons of highways in search of 50-amp power at campgrounds, motels, and businesses with external electrical outlets.
Joining the EV movement meant a big lifestyle change, mostly around slowing down
the pace of his life. “Maybe there’d be less road rage if traffic moved slower and drivers put less pressure on themselves to get from place to place,” he said. “I’ve been reimaging ‘Superman’s American Way” and changing my material consumption habits.”
The cover photo is of Alan’s Leaf charging at the Indian Campground in Buffalo,
Wyoming. He found that campgrounds consistently offer 50-amp power in the hook-up pedestals. Plan to stay someplace overnight and wake up with a full charge.
May is Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Beyond Heart Mountain author and filmmaker Alan O’Hashi will be on the road showing his documentary and speaking about his memoir. The program is entitled, Civility, Culture, Community, All times Mountain Daylight Time. To schedule an event, please send us an email.
Two one-of-a-kind versions of the “Nishigawa Neighborhood” coffee table book is now available as NFTs on the opensea.io blockchain. If you want a true collectible, one or both of these have premium value because they are unique with colorized covers.
Both include unlockable assets that can be downloaded by the successful buyer. Both NFTs are watermarked with March 17, 2022, the publication date. The first is a one-of-a-kind digital version. The second is an MP4 movie of the 84 pages tracked by original music compiled by author Alan O’Hashi. If you want an autographed copy of the hardcover book, they areavailable from the author.
Click the image: Nishigawa Neighborhood LTD one of one unlockable MP4 NFT
Click the image: Nishigawa Neighborhood LTD one of one unlockable digital book NFT
Buy Beyond Heart Mountain memoirpublished by Winter Goose Publishing. It is available as a printed book and ebook. Signed copies can be purchased from the author. The book was released February 27th. That week coincided with the 80th anniversary of President Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 that sent 120,000 Japanese to 10 war relocation camps, that included Heart Mountain in northwest Wyoming.
Beyond Heart Mountain book and related are no for sale.
Boulder Community Media (BCM) produced a documentary that aired on PBS that aired in December 2021. The Nishigawa Neighborhood is a coffee table book that will soon be released.
During World War II, Cheyenne native Alan O’Hashi’s family avoided life in internment camps such as Heart Mountain.
As a Baby Boomer, Alan documents the overt and quiet racism pervasive in Wyoming and throughout the United States during and following World War II. He relates his experiences to current violence towards Asians and the issue of civility within society.
The backdrop to Alan’s account is the history of the once vibrant Japanese community in the 400 and 500 blocks of West 17th Street in the downtown area of my hometown, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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“My grandmother and grandfather Ohashi and their large family lived in worked in that neighborhood where I spent quite a bit of time between elementary and high school. Having been away from Cheyenne for many years, I stashed those two blocks in the back of my mind until I learned that two classmates of mine were planning to build a housing development at 509 W. 17th St. The biggest obstacle was obtaining permission to tear down an old building. It was the last structure in the Japanese neighborhood. It was the site of a rooming house operated by Mrs. Yoshio Shuto.”
Buy the Beyond Heart Mountain movie
Buy the Beyond Heart Mountain DVD is mainly about the West 17th Street Japanese community history and a general overview of Executive Order 9066 that President Franklin Roosevelt signed that relocated 120,000 Japanese into 10 internment camps, including Heart Mountain in northwest Wyoming.
I interviewed four childhood friends for the documentary. Robert Walters formerly worked at the City Cafe. He still lives in Cheyenne, where he practices law.
Terie Miyamoto and her family-owned Baker’s Bar. It was the only racially-integrated bar in Cheyenne at the time. She now lives in the Denver Metro area.
Brian Matsuyama now lives in Seattle, Washington. He resided in Cheyenne during his childhood. His family owned the California Fish Market. Carol Lou Kishiyama-Hough is in Cheyenne. She and her family purchased the Fish Market from the Matsuyamas.
Mrs. Shuto’s tenants were mainly Japanese residents who made their way to Cheyenne. She later opened the City Cafe across the street which became a gathering place for the Japanese in town.
My grandmother was a cook at the City Cafe. Next door, my grandfather was the third owner of a pool hall.
Whenever we went out to eat, the restaurant of choice was the City Cafe. It was a gathering place for the Japanese in Cheyenne. My friends enlisted me to do a cultural and historical survey of the Japanese residents who lived and worked there from the 1920s through the 1970s.
Buy a Beyond Heart Mountain cap are also available. They are low-profile baseball-style hats. Select Beyond Heart Mountain from the dropdown menu.
The logo is an adapted version of the Wyoming state flag. One size fits most.
I read on many of the facebook groups about the frustrations self-publishing authors experience when they try to upload their manuscripts to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
Brain damage and frustration are the prices you pay to self-publish all by yourself without signing up for a “pay to play” publishing house or hiring consultants to help you.
I’m an analog writer and dealing with the technology of authorship can be frustrating.
Self-publishing means we do it ourselves. I also have a publisher that takes all the brain damage out of all this.
Making my own books gave me an appreciation for what established publishers do on behalf of writers. I can attest that they earn every penny they squeeze out of each book sale.
The issue I’ll address here is how to layout your manuscript for a hard copy book. I’ve published three books on KDP.
The first one had me pulling my hair out, but once I settled on a format, the others were simple, since I followed a template I made for myself with the first book.
Pick out the size of book you want to publish. The instructions I’m providing are for 6″x9″
Here are some simple steps I followed using Microsoft Word (Word). The first step is to decide what size book you want to publish. I chose 6″x9″ from the list that KDP supports. After you’ve opened up Word, pull down “File” and open up “Page Setup.”
Pull down “Page Setup” and open it.
This will bring you to the “Page Attributes” tab where you can set up the page size. After you’ve opened “Paper Size” choose “Other” and type the size. In this case, for 6″x9″ I chose 6.11X9.25.
Pick Other, then type in the desired dimensions from the KDP page size list. For a 6×9 book, I use 6.11×9.25. Also orient your page to be vertical at 100 percent scale then hit OK.
After you’ve chosen your page size, open up the drop down the “Page Attribute” box and choose “Microsoft Word.” That reveals a tab and select “Margins” and then OK.
Select “Margins” then OK
A new window will open that allows you to select your margins. This is where you can get frustrated, because the margin sizes can be adjusted to meet what you think is visually pleasing. This may take you three or four uploads to KDP to see what they will look like. KDP allows you to change your formatting and layouts. If you walk away, remember to save your project as a draft so you can come back to it without having to do an edit of your “sent” project. I did that after I had second thoughts about the layout. For projects that you “submit” and you want to edit, it takes a few days for KDP to process the data and make it “live.” My advise is to be patient and not be in a rush. KDP allows you to sell your “coming soon” book. I settled on these setting, and you can try them. What you pick can vary depending on font and type size. After you hit OK, your manuscript will change. Take a look at it, if you like the balance, upload it to KDP as a draft. Why this is frustrating is because once your manuscript is uploaded, KDP will make its own version, which will be slightly different than what your Word document looks like. Be patient and take your time.
Deciding on your margins is hit and miss. If there’s any part of this that can be frustrating it will be your margins. I suggest you jot down the margin combinations you’ve tried, rather than trying to remember them. As for multiple pages, mirror the margins. This allows for the gutters to match up with the facing pages.
After you’ve set your margins, open up the “Layout” tab at the top of the box. I use half inch headers and footers. Again, you can mess around with the settings, but if you have page numbers, you’ll want adequate space so that they fit relatively centered in the header or footer – not to high, and particularly not too low to the page edge.
Select your header and footer. I wouldn’t mess around with the line numbers – that’s for legal documents and legislative drafts. Borders are just aesthetics, but likely unnecessary for book publishing.
That’s it for a KDP self-published books. I can’t over emphasize the need for you to be patient with the trial and error you’ll likely experience.
When it comes to the KDP e-book version. You’ll keep your manuscript “one-up” with a single sheet. The frustrating part is with table of contents. I would leave that out of the e-book because the pages float around and change. Also the Word table of contents tool doesn’t change as the pages change and it gets all messed up.
The e-book title pages and other stuff at the beginning like Dedications may get scrunched together, so be prepared not to have separate pages for the introductory information.
I use a website called Online-Convert to make e-books other than for KDP. It does a pretty good job of converting my Word files, including adding a front cover. Again, nothing is 100 percent. You’ll have to mess around with pages and formatting.
Be a part of the recording session for an original movie soundtrack on October 14th at 7:30 p.m. at the Pine Street Church 1237 Pine Street, Boulder, Colorado. Buy tickets now since there is limited seating.
True Stories of an Aging Do Gooder
On the Trail: Electric Vehicle Anxiety and Advice
