Tag: Author Interviews

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Author Interview: Amanda Flower, THE FINAL REVEILLE

Amanda Flower is an academic librarian and the Agatha Award-nominated author of Maid of Murder, the Appleseed Creek Mysteries, and the India Hayes Mysteries. She also writes the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries under the name Isabella Alan. Her latest is The Final Reveille, the first book in the Living History Museum Mystery series.

Amanda Flower

Q: Amanda, thanks for stopping by! Can you tell us what The Final Reveille is about?

A: As the director of Barton Farm, a living history museum in Ohio, Kelsey Cambridge is underpaid and underappreciated, but she loves every minute of it. Determined to keep the struggling Farm open, she plans to impress the museum’s wealthy benefactress, Cynthia Cherry, with a four-day Civil War reenactment on the Farm’s grounds, complete with North and South encampments, full-scale battles, and an Abraham Lincoln lookalike spouting the Gettysburg Address to anyone who will listen.

Cover

 

Unfortunately, the first shot in the battle isn’t from a period rifle but from Cynthia’s greedy nephew, Maxwell, who plans to close the Farm when he inherits his ill aunt’s wealth. On the first day of the reenactment, Cynthia and Maxwell stop by, and Kelsey and Maxwell have a public argument over the Farm’s funding. The next morning, things go from bad to worse for Kelsey when she discovers Maxwell dead in the brickmaker’s pit. Now Kelsey is the police’s number one suspect, and she must start her own investigation to save the museum . . . and herself while the War Between the States rages on around her.

Q:  How does Kelsey’s job affect her sleuthing abilities? Does she have access to important information that even the police might not have?

A: Kelsey Cambridge, as the director of Barton Farm, knows the people and grounds better than anyone. She also knows the history of the area like the back of her hand, which helps her solve the crimes committed on Farm grounds.

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

A: One summer when I was in college I worked as an historical interpreter at a living history museum much like Barton Farm. The job was so much fun and one of my favorite memories from my college years. Even back then, I wanted to be a mystery author, and I recognized that a living history museum would be the perfect setting for a cozy mystery because interesting people choose to work and visit such a place. Many of them are quirky, which I love.

Q. What kind of research did you do for this book?

A: Since I worked at museum like this, I had a lot of first person experience that I drew upon to write the book, and I set the book in NE Ohio because I love the history of the Western Reserve. The Western Reserve is the northeast corner of Ohio and is called such because it once belonged to Connecticut before the American Revolution. After the Revolution when colonies became states, Connecticut gave up its claim. Because of this, there is a definite New England feel to this part of Ohio that is much different than the rest of the state. In addition to Western Reserve history, I researched Civil War reenactors and the Civil War in general. I’m a librarian as well as an author, so I watched a lot of documentaries and read a bunch of books.

Q: Is there one character with whom you particularly identify?

A: I think it would be Kelsey, the main character. She really cares about saving the Farm and preserving the past. As a librarian, I care about history too. Also, she and I have the same sense of humor.

Q: Are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?”

A: Panster 100%.

Q: For non-U.S. readers, can you explain the phenomenon of Civil War reenactments? Who participates in these, and what do they get out of it? Do the participants always follow history, or do the battles sometimes have different outcomes? Is there anything else like them elsewhere?

A: Civil War reenactment is a major and expensive hobby in the U.S. The American Civil War (1861-1865) was the costliest war for America in human life. The casualties from the war, including those who died from disease, were over 400,000. The American landscape is peppered with memorials and parks commemorating almost every battle fought. The war, which began over an argument debate of states’ rights, became an even bigger struggle when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all the slaves in the South. Ultimately, the war was about the issue of slavery. Even today, many Americans feel passionate about the Civil War and many honor it by recreating the battles. It’s their way of remembering. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the war, and I’m excited The Final Reveille came out in this year to honor such an important anniversary.

I know other countries have reenactors for battles and historical events, but I’m not sure that any of them are as big as Civil War reenacting in the U.S. I would be interested in know if there were!

Q: Where can readers follow you? 

A: My main website is amandaflower.com, and you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter , Goodreads,  Pinterest, or  Instagram.

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THE MUSUBI MURDER August 2015 Amazon / B&N /Powell’s /Audible / iTunes

 

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Amazon Gift Card Giveaway and Interview with Joanna Campbell Slan, author of THE GLASSBLOWER’S WIFE

Joanna Campbell Slan is the award-winning author of the Kiki Lowenstein Mysteries (an Agatha Award Finalist) and two other mystery series.

Joanna Campbell Slan

Her stories in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series have been read and loved by millions. Her books reviving the classic heroine Jane Eyre have won the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award. In her past life, Joanna was a television talk show host, an adjunct professor of public relations, a sought-after motivational speaker, and a corporate speechwriter. The Glassblower’s Wife is her latest novel.

Q: Joanna, thanks for coming by to chat about The Glassblower’s Wife. Can you tell us about it?

A: The year is 1684, and glassmakers from Venice have been smuggled into France to create glass for the Hall of Mirrors. The Doge of Venice sends an assassin to kill all the artists, but he underestimates the intensity of one woman’s courage.

Q: Your protagonist is a disabled, a widow, and a member of a persecuted minority. How does this affect the way she approaches solving this mystery? What are her hidden strengths?

A: Because she is underestimated, Ruth is able to work a “miracle.” Ruth’s hidden strengths are her ability to observe carefully and her skill at remembering recipes.

Q: What inspired you to write this story?

A: My sister happened upon something about the Jewish glassblowers, and I was intrigued. There aren’t a lot of stories out there about this segment of the population, so I found what I learned particularly interesting.

Q: What kind of research did you do?

A: I read several books about glassblowers, including one about Daphne du Maurier’s family. Of course, I did as much researching on the Internet as I could. Finally, I consulted friends who know much more than I do about Judaism. (And did I mention that I’ve been to Versailles? I have!)

Q: Did your research turn up any surprises?

A:  I was amazed to hear that forks were considered pretentious, and that they were first used in Italy. And the process of turning a blown bubble of glass into a flat piece was fascinating, as well.

Q: Are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?”

A:  Both. I will work a little, then do an outline or a list, and then go back to the piece and see what develops. It’s different for everything I write.

Q: Is this book part of a series, and are you working on a sequel? What’s next for you?

A: I think it will be a stand-alone, but who knows? Next, I need to write All Washed Up, which will be the third book in the Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series. Back to research!

Joanna is raffling off a $50 Amazon gift card! Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway here!

To find our more about Joanna and her work:
List of Joanna’s Works — http://tinyurl.com/JoannaSlan
Joanna’s Website — http://www.JoannaSlan.com
Facebook — http://www.Facebook.com/JoannaCampbellSlan
Blog — http://www.JoannaSlan.blogspot.com
Twitter — http://www.twitter.com/JoannaSlan
LinkedIn — www.LinkedIn.com/in/JoannaSlan
Goodreads — https://www.goodreads.com/JoannaCampbellSlan
Amazon Author Page – http://tinyurl.com/JoannaSlan
Pinterest — https://www.pinterest.com/joannaslan/

Contact Joanna by emailing her assistant, Sally Lippert, at [email protected].

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Author Interview: Amy Korman, KILLER GETAWAY

Amy Korman is a former senior editor and staff writer for Philadelphia Magazine, and author of Frommer’s Philadelphia and the Amish Country. She has written for Town & Country, House Beautiful, Men’s Health, and Cosmopolitan. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family and their basset hound. Killer WASPs is her first novel. Killer Getaway, the second book in the Killer WASPs series, was just released on March 10th, 2015.

Amy Korman, Author
Amy Korman, Author

Q: Can you tell us what the book is about? And for our non-U.S. readers, what is a WASP?

A: Killer Getaway sees the Killer WASPs characters head south to Magnolia Beach, Florida. The book is a mystery, and a fun escape to a warm, sunny town that’s hiding a few criminals among the palm trees and chic restaurants.

Kristin Clark, who runs a small (and not-too-successful!) antiques store outside Philly, and her basset hound, Waffles, are ready to escape the doldrums of winter to bask in the warm Florida sun and dine at her friends’ new restaurant, Vicino. But when a rival restaurant undergoes an HGTV makeover and attempts to steal Vicino’s spotlight and its patrons, the town is abuzz with gossip, and Kristin and her friends—Bootsie, a nosy reporter; Holly, a chicken nugget heiress; and Sophie, the soon-to-be ex-wife of a mobster—have parties to attend.

Everything is going swimmingly in the glitz and glamour of Magnolia Beach until a bad batch of clams threatens to shut down Vicino and their vacation for good. When it becomes clear that the clams may be more than an innocent mishap, the gang must unravel the mystery before there are deadly consequences.

WASP is a term coined by a writer named Digby Baltzell and signifies an old-school, usually East-Coast American who plays a lot of golf, drives an old car, drinks vodka tonics, and is probably an Anglophile! It’s more of a state of mind than an actual type of person in 2015, but the WASPs I interviewed over the years as a journalist generally had a great sense of humor about their preppy roots.

KillerGetaway

Q: What does Kristin Clark do for a living? Or does she have the means to sleuth full-time?

A: Kristin runs a small antique store outside of Philly, where she barely makes ends meet. She’s not a great businesswoman, but she loves the antique business. She sleuths in her spare time, and is usually dragged along by her energetic friends Bootsie and Sophie. Her other friends are lucky enough to have the means to go on great trips such as the one in Killer Getaway, so Kristin is able to go as well!

Q: What inspired you to write the Killer WASPs mysteries?

A: I’m such a fan of Agatha Christie-style “village” mysteries, and Kristin and her friends all have known each other and their neighbors since they were in high school together, which is a modern take on a village mystery. In Killer Getaway, they adopt a new small town (one with palm trees and margaritas), but the same principle applies—everyone knows each other, and has their own motives and agendas…which might make them try to shut down Vicino, murder restaurant manager Jessica, and run down Kristin’s friends with a “Death Chevy.”

Q: What kind of research did you do for this book?

A: I’ve read Agatha Christie, Carl Hiassen, Sue Grafton and other favorite authors for years, so I like to think anything we read influences us, and I wrote for magazines for many years, which is a great way to learn to meet deadlines and tell chapter length stories. There isn’t a real Magnolia Beach, Florida, but if there was, I wish I could have done research there for a few weeks!

Q: Are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?”

A: I like an outline! It’s always good to have a map, even if you wander off a bit.

Q: Is there one character with whom you particularly identify?

A: Kristin loves Basset hounds, is something of a klutz, and isn’t a great cook, but she’s optimistic and always thinks that her antique store might suddenly start doing a great business. I can identify with a lot of her characteristics, especially the Basset hound obsession, since I share that 100 percent.

Q: Why do we love basset hounds so? Can you explain this?

A: It’s got to be the droopy ears and soulful eyes! Plus, now that I’ve lived with our Basset hound Murphy for 8 years, I can honestly say he’s never in a bad mood, is super loyal, and is always up for a road trip, a walk, or a party. He’ll watch chick flicks with me and doesn’t mind being dressed up in reindeer antlers at the holidays. Plus, I’ve never met anyone who loves food as much as a Basset!

Q: Where can readers find you?

Amy’s Website

Amy’s Facebook

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway to win one of three print copies of Killer Getaway!

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Interview: Andrew Weston, author of the #1 Amazon bestseller The IX

 Andrew Weston

Andrew Weston is a Royal Marine and Police veteran from the UK who now lives on the beautiful Greek island of Kos with his wife, Annette, and their growing family of rescue cats. An astronomy and law graduate, he is a writer of fiction and poetry. Creator of The IX as well as the Guardians and Cambion Journals series, Andrew is a member of the British Science Fiction Association and the British Fantasy Society. When not writing, Andrew devotes some of his spare time to assisting NASA in one of their remote research projects, and writes educational articles for Astronaut.com and Amazing Stories.

Andrew stopped by to discuss his latest work, The IX, which just hit #1 in its category on Amazon. 

The IX
The IX


Q: The IX just hit Amazon’s #1 spot in the Sci Fi Greek and Roman category, and #35 overall for Hard Sci Fi. Can you tell us what it’s about?

A:  Arden is home to a culture that has existed for thousands of years and which spans dozens of worlds. Regardless, their sophistication cannot prevent calamity at the hands of an unstoppable nemesis. Known only as the Horde, this enemy has proven relentless. They have not only stripped the outer colonies bare, but now threaten the existence of the entire Ardenese way of life.

Realizing there is nothing they can do to prevent the inevitable march toward extinction, the Ardenese governing body comes to a drastic decision. They gather together at their capital city, Rhomane, and place their remaining genetic heritage in a vast underground ark, in the care of an advanced AI construct called the Architect. Its mission? To use Rhomane’s dwindling reserves and safeguard their race by reaching out across time and space toward those who might be in a position to help reseed a devastated world at some time in the future.

Soldiers from varying eras and vastly different backgrounds find themselves snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing and transported to the far side of the galaxy. Thinking they have been granted a reprieve, their relief turns to horror when they discover they face a stark ultimatum:

Fight or die!

Despite a host of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, this group of misfits manages to turn the tide against a relentless foe, only to discover the true cost of victory might exact a price they are unwilling to pay.

Q: What are some of the issues or surprises that involuntary time-travelers from second-century Rome have to face? 

A:  Well, first off, they’re not alone. Remember, when the gateway activates, it doesn’t just scoop them away to Arden, it takes their enemies too. So, you can only imagine the tension upon their arrival when they discover various factions of the Iceni marauder bands are there with them. Struggling to overcome that obstacle, they also have to face the hurdles of thousands of years disparity between their technological sophistication. Even with the Nano-bugs assisting to speed up their education, it’s an uphill struggle for them. However, as the story progresses, you find they manage surprisingly well.

Q: What inspired you to write The IX? How did this idea become a book?

A: I undertook the writing of The IX following an animated discussion during a Royal Marines veterans reunion dinner in the early part of 2013. Military history has always been a hobby of mine, and several ex-colleagues started a debate as to the true fate of the legendary lost 9th Legion of Rome. Five thousand men marched into the mists of Northern Caledonia (Scotland) around AD100 – 120 and were never seen again.

LegioIX

That conversation stayed with me for several months until I happened to catch an old movie on TV, Millennium. In that film, time travelers visit the present day and steal passengers from doomed aircraft with the intention of repopulating a barren world of the future.

I am an avid science fiction buff, and the conversation from the reunion dinner immediately sprang to mind. Obviously, I began to imagine what if?  What if they were taken? Not into our future…but somewhere and somewhen else entirely. And what might it be like if their antagonists were also snatched away with them?

I started to let that thought roll, and came up with a nice twist. Would it be a good idea to include other groups of refugees from varying time periods, and throw them together into a nightmare scenario where they had to face the very real prospect of death all over again?

It took a great deal of research and preparation, but I was very pleased with the resulting outline, as it provided a fresh approach to an exciting genre. The rest–as they say–is history.

Q: What kind of research did you do for this book?

A: I had to do a massive amount of research for the IX. Remember, the inspiration was based on the 9th Legion of Rome. But, how were they structured? Who did what? How did they march, set up camp, and operate? What did they wear, and what weapons did they use? The Caledonian tribes of that time were vicious savages, and experts in jungle warfare. However, where did they come from? How did they fight? How far would they travel to engage in combat, and what made them capable enough to defeat entire legions?

Many, many facets like this had to be considered, and that was before I’d even started work on the composition and function of the many U.S. Cavalry companies and the Native American tribes of the eighteenth century. (Thankfully, I had a friend to assist me on that aspect – she’s of Cree descent, and proved to be a goldmine of information)

The easiest part related to the Special Forces unit. For that, I drew on firsthand military knowledge and experience of sticking it to the bad guys!

Once that was done, I then had to make certain the futuristic/scientific technology referred to within the story had a basis in fact. I called on my educational background in astronomy and physics for that. Even so, I still had to research the very latest developments, trends, and breakthroughs to ensure the ‘theoretical’ aspects had that ring of truth. Even though this is a science fiction novel, I wanted it to be believable. There’s no doubt in my mind that if you make things too farfetched and super-convenient, it turns readers off.

Despite the work involved, I really enjoy the research aspect, as it adds a depth of authority to your work that improves quality and reading enjoyment.

Q: Are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?”

A: A combination of both. I plan out where I want the story to begin, end, and where I’d like to stop along the way. But, I’ve also seen how a tale can easily take on a life of its own. So I’ve learned to run with it, and allow the narrative to develop its own unique character.<

 Q: What is the story behind your dedication “to our veterans who faced the ultimate choice?” 

A: It simply relates to those brave men and women of our armed forces who have given their lives in the protection of our liberty.

Q: How did you come to live in Greece?

A: After leaving the military, I became a police officer. Unfortunately, I was injured on duty to such an extent that I was medically retired. (In and out of hospital for a couple of years, registered disabled, told I’d never walk again.) I thought – No…I’m not having that, so I moved to where the climate is much warmer and fought my way back to fitness. I now run, train, teach and work in the security industry.

Q: Is The IX going to be the beginning of a series? What’s next for you?

A: When I wrote the IX, it was a one-off effort. A complete story in itself. However…I always leave the odd back door open, here and there. Just in case I might want to exploit a certain avenue later.

Q: I’ve saved the most important question for last: Where did you get that Captain Picard uniform? On what occasions do you wear it?

A: What can I say, I’m a stalker. I not only managed to get a hold of several of his uniforms, but purloined a year’s supply of Earl Grey tea along with them. I usually wear the uniforms on a weekend, where I pretend to be extremely important.

You can find The IX and Andrew P. Weston’s other works at his Amazon Author page and on his website, andrewpweston.com.

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Author Interview: David Hammes

David Hammes, economist and author of Harvesting Gold
David Hammes, economist and author of Harvesting Gold

Professor Emeritus David Hammes was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has lived and worked in California, Canada, Australia, and most recently, Hawaii. His recent retirement from teaching has allowed him to spend time with his wife, Kathy, and his two sons, Mark and Steven. He enjoys reading, writing, and ultramarathoning at distances up to 50 miles.

Harvesting Gold

David took time out of his punishing marathon schedule to discuss Harvesting Gold: Thomas Edison’s Experiment to Re-invent American Money. 

Q: Briefly, what is Harvesting Gold about? What is the significance of the title?

A:  The title refers to Thomas Edison’s idea to ‘democratize’ the American monetary system. He recommended that the Federal Reserve buy and store farmer’s crops and pay them with money (Federal Reserve notes). He thought this would give farmers power and access to money in the same way that the Federal Reserve bought gold and paid for it with money.Following World War One, the world economy—including America’s—went into a steep economic recession.   After a rapid price inflation during the war, there was a dramatic price deflation. Borrowers faced the difficulty of repaying loans when their jobs were imperiled—the unemployment rate was about 20%–and the real value of their loans rose precipitously.Stimulated by Henry Ford, Thomas Edison turned his inventive mind to solving the nation’s economic woes.  In late 1921 and early 1922 he devoted himself to researching and inventing a new monetary system for the US. One he hoped would provide Americans with a currency of stable purchasing power. He wanted farmers to have access to the Federal Reserve in the same way that the moneyed interests on Wall Street—“the money brokers” he called them–did.

Q: I understand that it was a single question from a student that got you started on the research that led to Harvesting Gold. Tell us about that!

A:  The question was “Why are there two Federal Reserve District banks in Missouri when many larger states don’t have even one?” To answer that I sat in the archives of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C., for a week and also spent time in the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, reading through hundreds of pages of old documents.That led to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University in New York City, where, in researches through hundreds more pages of old documents from the economist who helped write the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, a colleague and I discovered correspondence with Thomas Edison.

As far as the original question, St. Louis was awarded a bank based on the city being a large financial center and part of the old national banking system; Kansas City, MO was awarded a bank because it was the eastern terminus for many western-region train companies, thus easier for western-based bankers to get to in pre-flight days.  As a result of several large floods, the train companies had banded together in 1909 to build a new Union Terminal in Kansas, MO. If the Terminal had been built on the Kansas side, there is a very good chance that the bank would be in Kansas City, KS. I wrote this up and published it in 2001, but the Edison correspondence was so intriguing that we continued to pursue it.

That led to the Edison Archives in West Orange, New Jersey, which provided hundreds of pages more of letters and documents and his plan to change the US monetary system.All of this material helped make the book what it is. Surprisingly, many of the economic issues then are similar to today’s issues. So, a reader can learn a fair bit about today’s monetary challenges by reading how Edison learned about money and the changes he proposed.

Q: Edison vs. Tesla: Comments? 

A: Edison referred to Tesla as “Our Parisian”, somewhat sarcastically. The two had different research styles and Tesla did not stay long with Edison. Tesla was driven more by a theory-to-experiments approach whereas Edison was more of a brute-force experimenter, characterized by his saying: “I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Q: Coming from academic publishing, what was different or surprising about your experience with this book?

A: Academic publishing in economics is about theoretical novelty or working with new and larger data sets. One’s publications have to impress specialists in the field through a double-blind peer review process. Trying to please multiple referees, submitting numerous revisions, means that it can take five years—or more—for a paper to get published from first submission to print.
My intent with this book was to tell a story about the forgotten depression of the early 1920s, the character, persistence, and humaneness of Thomas Edison, and explain a bit about money then and now. There is nothing particularly theoretically novel, nor is it a data-driven empirical study of the era. I did not wish to take years trying to convince the economics profession that this was interesting and important.

So, I chose an end-run around the search for an agent and publisher deciding early on to self publish through the platforms provided by Amazon.com. Richard Mahler, an old friend from high school, who has published numerous books, some with highly respected academic presses, handled the publishing. He designed, edited and did the preparatory work. He made the book conform to all the various formats necessary for the various platforms: e-versions on iPad, Kindle, computers, etc.; print version, etc. Richard now offers his services to others at Relham.com

Q: How have your family and colleagues reacted to the book?

 A:Reaction has been positive. Most people are surprised that Edison would have put so much time and effort in to the issues when he’s not usually thought of as a ‘social’ scientist.The question above that ultimately led to the book was asked in 1999. The book was written in 2011 and published in the spring of 2012. Family and colleagues wondered ‘What took so long?’  Most of that came down to the time it took to publish about five academic articles on the various issues we had uncovered and the fact that the Edison Archives were closed to the public from late 2001 until late 2009.

Q: You were on C-SPAN! Tell us about that.

A: I “cold” e-mailed the DC offices and after a brief back-and-forth, also involving the very nice folks—Christine and David Reed—at Basically Books in Hilo who kindly hosted the event, C-Span2’s, Book-TV, decided to send a crew to film me yakking about the book. People came, I bumbled through it, and we had a fun Q&A afterwards.

Q: I understand that patient readers can get  the Kindle version of Harvesting Gold for free? 

A: Every three months, for five days, the e-version is free on Amazon.com. The next free period will be in the first week of March 2015.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: I am trying my hand at a murder mystery. I have enjoyed my first reading of your entertaining book, The Musubi Murder, and I am hoping I can make a contribution that will engage and entertain as you have.

Harvesting Gold is available from Basically Books in downtown Hilo, the UH Hilo campus bookstore, Amazon, Powell’s, and Barnes & Noble.

Frankie Bow’s first novel, THE MUSUBI MURDER , is available at Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.

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Author Interview: Justina Taft

Justina
Hawaii Island author Justina Taft

 

 

Raised in Hawaiʻi, Justina Taft has lived on most of the major islands except Kahoʻolawe and Niʻihau. She earned her Ph.D. in Theatre Arts from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and now lives on the island of Hawaiʻi where she teaches courses in writing and theater. Her first novel is  After Dawn.
AfterDawn
After Dawn

 

 

Q: After Dawn has been praised as a fresh and original take on the paranormal romance.  I’m not a big paranormal reader myself, but I couldn’t put the book down. Briefly, what is the book about?

A: After Dawn is about a young woman named Aurora who is troubled by dreams that she can’t understand. As she studies Hawaiian Language in college she gradually figures out what her dreams are telling her: she has cancer. Her parents and friends do their best to support her through the medical treatments, but they also face their own challenges. Eventually, a dream lover tries to persuade her to go away with him, and she has to choose between her world – and his.

Q: What inspired you to write After Dawn, and what was the development process?

A: The development process was… a long and winding road. It started when I was a teenager, and a young friend died. That caused me to reflect deeply on impermanence and the unpredictability of life. I wanted to write a story about the need to seize the day, living your life as fully as possible. At the same time, I was trying to live that philosophy, so writing took a back seat. But the story kept nagging at me, so while I was in college I began to put it down on paper. Since my background is in theatre, I initially wrote this as a one-act play and it was staged in my hometown. It was very rewarding to see actors breathe life into the characters. But I didn’t feel that live theatre was able to fully capture the otherworldly nature of the story, so I put it back in my desk drawer and let it sit for a few years.

In graduate school I had to write a short story in Hawaiian for one of my classes. I decided to try writing Aurora’s story to see how it would come across entirely in that language. It was an interesting experiment. I got an “A” on the project (and in the class), but I felt the story was better told primarily through English because part of the suspense involves Aurora’s struggle to understand what those Hawaiian language dreams are about. So again, I put the story away and left it alone for a few years.

Eventually I decided to rewrite it as a screenplay. The story switches back and forth between reality as we know it, and Aurora’s dream world; and writing for the screen allowed me to explore what those realities would look like. I received great feedback about the script but quickly found that local producers already had their own pet projects, and without money, turning my script into a movie was not likely to happen. I put it in a drawer and tried to forget about it.

A few years later, I dug it out again. Although I had no experience in novel writing, I decided it wouldn’t cost me anything to experiment with that form. This allowed me to explore the interior lives of the characters more fully than I could in other formats. Since I was older and had a different life perspective, the story evolved in unexpected ways. I was happy with the result, but having no knowledge in the world of publishing, I didn’t know what to do with it. So I set it aside and continued with my daily life.

Then, last year, I had a health crisis that brought me back to the question of mortality that sparked my initial desire to write the story. I asked myself if I would regret leaving anything undone if my life ended suddenly. With that in mind, I quickly researched publication options, and the day before flying to Oʻahu for surgery I sent my manuscript to an independent publishing company. Suddenly, it was out in the world. It was exhilarating and a little scary, but I’m glad I had that impetus or it would probably still be sitting in a drawer.

Q: The Hawaiian language and culture are at the center of After Dawn, rooting it in Hawai’i; this story couldn’t have taken place anywhere else.  Why did you choose to place the story here? 

A: I wanted to explore the idea of language: how it is tied up with identity, how it is acquired, how it works in our subconscious lives, all those things. I use standard English, Hawaiʻi Creole-English (Pidgin), and Hawaiian in the story, because those are the languages I grew up hearing and speaking. And as you said, that makes Hawaiʻi the only logical place to set it.

After Dawn is set on the island of Oʻahu. I chose that locale for a variety of reasons. As writers, we are often admonished to “write what you know,” and since I was raised in Hawaiʻi, that is the environment I am most familiar with. I would’ve had a hard time writing with authenticity if I had set it anywhere else.

I chose Oʻahu specifically because it has a big city, Honolulu,  where young adults can have adventures, get in trouble, and separate from their parents to immerse themselves in the college experience as they try to figure out who they are as human beings.

Oʻahu also exemplifies the cultural/environmental disconnection that many contemporary people face. Beneath all the concrete and cars, it is a breathtakingly beautiful island with deeply significant wahi pana or sacred places, but that is a reality that most of us don’t see when we are caught up in the rat race of daily life. Aurora grew up on the outskirts of the city, and on the outskirts of her own culture. She knows there is a wealth of traditional cultural knowledge that she hasn’t had the opportunity to learn because her family always encouraged her to focus on the here-and-now; what it will take to survive in the world today. I wanted the setting to reflect that.

Q: You say Aurora grew up on the outskirts of her own culture. What do you mean by that?

A:  Aurora’s father is Hawaiian-Chinese, and her mother is local Haole. So she is the product of two different cultures. Really, her father is the product of two different cultures, and that is reflected in the way he and Eileen have raised Aurora. Like most local kids, especially on Oʻahu, Aurora is surrounded by the trappings of American culture: TV, cars, fast-food, etc. And because her mother values a higher education, she also has that drive to go to college – which is a pretty mainstream American value. Aurora grows up more American than Hawaiian. As a child, she was close with her Tūtū (grandma), who was her strongest connection to her Hawaiian roots. Tūtū wanted to teach Aurora about her culture, but she was discouraged from doing so; and then she passed away, taking that knowledge with her. It’s a common story here in Hawaiʻi. There was a period of time, several generations, when the language and traditional knowledge was devalued, and many kūpuna (elders) passed on without being able to transmit their skills and traditions to the younger generations. Today there is a much stronger desire to acquire that knowledge while there are still people around who can share it.

 

Q: What would you say is the unique twist that makes After Dawn stand out from other books in its genre?

A: Because of the Dream Lover, some would consider it a contemporary “paranormal romance,” but I don’t think readers of that genre would ordinarily pick up a book like this because it is set in Hawaiʻi. And it uses more Hawaiian language than is normal in a book aimed at non-Hawaiian speakers. For readers of Hawaiʻi based fiction, the focus of this story isn’t really to celebrate or to challenge expectations about our unique culture in Hawaiʻi, it seeks to tell a more personal story. I would classify it as a “New Adult” novel, which is different than a “Young Adult” novel. Although the main character is just recently out of high school, there are some steamy scenes in it that make it more appropriate for older readers. And although there are definitely romances of one type or another going on throughout the book, the story is about much more than romance. Set against a backdrop of cultural loss and renewal, it also explores loss and hope on an individual level. While there is no escaping the tragedy at the core of this story, what dances around its dark edges is love in its myriad forms. I guess the unique twist is that it doesn’t fit neatly into any single book classification.

 

Q: Why did you choose to write under a pseudonym?

A: Mainly for a sense of privacy. We live in such a public world now, where information about anyone or anything is right at the tips of our fingers via the internet, it’s a double-edged sword. I just wanted to have that extra layer – however thin it may be – to separate my artistic self from my everyday self.

 

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a Hawai’i based author?

 A:  For me, the advantages are the inspiration I draw from the rich cultural diversity and fascinating history of these islands, along with the breathtakingly beautiful environment that can’t help but color any story set here.

The disadvantage is the difficulty in getting a book “out there,” whether that’s getting it seen by a publisher, getting it into stores, or promoting it through author appearances. There are only a handful of bookstores on this island. To promote the book beyond that means flying to other islands or other states, and those costs quickly become prohibitive. Thank goodness we have the internet these days; it helps us deal with those limitations in ways that we wouldn’t have even thought of a decade ago.

Q: Was there any point at which you had planned to have characters do something, and they insisted on doing something else, and you had to let them have their way?
A: Ha ha! I think Aurora and Eileen are the only characters who did exactly what I had planned for them. The others all surprised me in one way or another at some point in the book. Especially Gary. He was kind of unpredictable.

 

Q: Are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?”

 

A: Normally, I’m a “plotter.” Once in awhile, though, I have to fly by the seat of my pants and let a character take the lead. Generally, I have a starting place and an ending place that I would like each character to get to, and I try to be flexible in how they get there.Currently, I have my sequels roughly plotted out, mainly so I can track the timelines and make sure that if their stories overlap they’ll make sense. But once I get into the actual writing, the characters will very likely influence the way the stories develop.

Q: So, there will be other books?

 

A: I think so. I’ve had enough people ask me “what happens afterward?” that I’ve decided to follow some of the main characters to see where their stories take them. At this point I can’t tell you which characters I’ll be focusing on, because that might give away information that I’ve deliberately left ambiguous in After Dawn. Well, I can tell you one… Aurora’s best friend Alex is definitely getting his own book. He has just kind of taken on a life of his own. I don’t know if that book will be the first sequel I write, but it’s definitely going to be one of them.

I’m definitely going to pick that one up. I adore Alex! For readers who want to find out more about Alex, Aurora, and the rest of the cast of After Dawn, it’s available here:

On Hawai’i Island
Basically Books (Hilo)
Banyan General Store (Hilo)
Kona Stories (Keauhou)
Kilauea Kreations (Volcano Village)
Big Island Grown (Honoka’a)
Bentleys Home Collection (Waimea)
 
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Author Interview: Mark Panek

Mark Panek

 

Mark Panek is a Hilo-based scholar and author and a professor of English.  He is the author of two books on sumo: Gaijin Yokozuna: A Biography of Chad Rowan (A Latitude 20 Book) and
Big Happiness: The Life and Death of a Modern Hawaiian Warrior, which won the 2012 Hawai’i Book Publisher’s Association’s award for excellence in nonfiction. Mark was recently honored with the Elliot Cades Award for Literature.

 

Mark stopped by to discuss his latest novel, the controversial and highly readable Hawai’i.

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Q: Your most recent novel, Hawai’i, has been hailed as “our Bonfire of the Vanities” by the Honolulu Weekly. The novel clearly rings true, and it’s obvious that a good deal of research went into it.  What initially gave you the idea for Hawai’i, and what was your process for writing it?

 

A:  My prior nonfiction book, Big Happiness: The Life and Death of a Modern Hawaiian Warrior, is partly a biography of a friend who was killed as a result of a drug epidemic that is now decades old and showing no signs of getting fixed.  That research taught me much about a real range of issues: how addiction works, post-statehood Hawai’i history, the impacts of development on local communities, who profits and who loses–all these things turned from abstractions into concrete reality thanks to research.  Soon after, I was attending a fundraiser for a local drug treatment center in this Waikiki hotel ballroom, because among what I’d learned was that treatment really works and these places should be supported.  At one point a group of recovering addicts was brought on stage to perform a hula, every one of them clearly Hawaiian, each of them heroic for what they had done to free themselves from meth addiction.  Then I looked out at the ballroom, and all I could see were corporate tables–each had a sign–representing the same interests, I’d learned, that had contributed most to creating a stage full of Hawaiian recovering addicts: tourism, development, finance, and a few show-face legislators who had done little over the decades to effectively address the meth problem or such root causes as public education, the brain drain, absentee land ownership leading to so many multi-generational households, etc.  And all of these people were going to drive home later feeling as though they had really done some charitable good to help the meth problem.  The eighty dollars they’d paid would certainly help the treatment center holding the fundraiser, but that disconnect–it made me feel like something needed to be said.

 

As far as the process goes–I did what I always do.  I bought a few marble notebooks at Long’s and started writing.  Hawai’i required a lot of additional research, of course, but I had a basic idea that I needed some kind of central conflict, POV characters representing different points of local power, and symbolic settings.  After that, I blasted out a draft of set pieces and met with my writing group–Chris McKinney and Robert Barclay–about once a month for two years–one to draft it and a second to revise it–and then had several other people read and discuss drafts as I trimmed it down.

 

Q: In the course of doing your research, did you turn up anything that surprised you?

 

A:  I think what surprised me most in the combined research for both Big Happiness and Hawai’i was what a small town Honolulu is, and how its small-town nature so often contributes to the illusion of corruption.  As a storyteller, you go into these things wanting to uncover the dirt and name names and call out the bad guys, but everyone I interviewed was a really nice person with very good intentions, and not at all “corrupt” in some evil scheming sense of that word.  This complicated things in ways that made for a much more interesting story that tries to get at how all of us justify actions we know have negative consequences for somebody–it could be as simple as failing to choose to buy the more fuel efficient car, but we’re able to justify a choice like that, rationalize it, drive away feeling good about ourselves because maybe (to stick with this example) we’ve just installed solar panels on our roofs to compensate.
 

 

Q: There are few heroes in the book. It’s scathing, because it’s so spot-on. Of course all characters are works of fiction and so forth, but: Do people recognize themselves? And of those that have, how many are still speaking to you?

 

A: Hawai’i is a work of fiction, and because it aims to be completely realistic in depicting a real place and real institutions, I even took steps to further push my first-draft characters away from resembling any real waiter or MMA fighter or legislator, etc., if it was even close.  Having a clearly recognizable character would detract from the book’s value, because it would allow readers to single out a culprit and then assume the problem could be fixed by removing that particular culprit.  If it’s a politician, for instance, I would rather have a character who stands for a type of lazy-lifer politician, because from a social commentary standpoint, it would cast a wider net.

 

The second half of the “character” concept in fiction is kind of wrapped up in what I said above about “justifying” things.  You want to create characters that are deep enough that readers will recognize themselves in all of them–especially those who work in professions and are in circumstances far different from their own.  When readers tell me these very flawed characters in Hawai’i are somehow likeable, I feel as though I’ve gotten it right.

 

As far as folks not speaking to me anymore goes…well, while nobody’s said anything to my face yet, I can assume the book has pissed some people off.  I certainly hope it has.  I do know that the editor of Hawaii Business just declined to hire a friend of mine because his story pitches made him sound “just like Mark Panek.”  But if the book has ruffled some feathers, I would hope that the afflicted at least understand how the fiction technique of Point of View works.  I would hope further that such readers examine exactly why the book might have angered them.

 

Q: While Hawai’i isn’t a sunny book, there’s some sly humor. For example, the restaurant scene and the thing about the octagon near the end were hilarious. Do you think most readers pick up on this? It seems that most people who review the book focus on the serious themes.

 

A: Hawai’i is funny, and I had a lot of fun writing it, and truly enjoyed listening to the readers of early drafts discuss it and point out all the “LoL” parts.  But yeah, you look at the reviews, and it seems like the humor did the job humor is supposed to do as the ultimate pathos appeal: it seems to have softened readers up for the big blows, the thematic stuff about how this place has surrendered its power to outsiders, and who’s been complicit in it the whole time, which is all of us.  Look at the UH/Cal Tech relationship.  Hawaiian Electric now based in Florida.  The public hospitals are about all we have left, and they’re next on the auction block.  So in a way, I’m glad the reviews focus on the serious thematic issues, but I’m sure more people would pick up the book if they were aware of what a fun read it is at the same time.

 

Q: Hawai’i opens with football, and football continues to be an important thread throughout. Any comment on the current state of UH football? Do you think Hawaii will follow University of Alabama-Birmingham’s example?

 

A: Football, as you know, is a tremendous waste of UH resources, time, attention space, media real estate, donation efforts, etc., at a time when the flagship campus is crumbling, faculty lines aren’t being filled, students are being charged more and more, and so on.  An athletic program pitting the ten UH campuses against one another, maybe divide UHM into separate college teams, maybe even invite HPU and BYUH into the league–I’d be all for that kind of replacement.  I just read a great book called Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk that does on a national level (with “America’s Team”) what I try to do with UH football, which is detail how it distracts us all from far more important matters, all at the expense of the athletes themselves.

 

 Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a Hawai’i-based author?

 

A: If I have developed any “insider” status after over two decades here, it’s probably helped most in its effect on the dynamic of the many interviews I’ve done for these books, and on my overall grasp of the context of such seemingly simple events as, say, the TMT protests, or the Superferry.  So from a research standpoint, the advantages are many.  We are also blessed here in Hawai’i with a thriving local publishing industry, which means somebody like me can at least count on having my manuscript read by an editor, even if it isn’t published, and if it is published, that it will be reviewed, or I’ll be invited to wonderful events like the Hawai’i Book and Music Festival.  UH Press, Lo’ihi Press, Mutual, Watermark, Bess, Bamboo Ridge, Island Heritage, Bishop–that’s quite a list for such a small town.

 

The downside to being from here is that a national agent or publisher would rather send a writer way out here like some kind of anthropologist who then returns to “civilization” with the “real story” about Hawai’i–that seems preferable to me or Chris McKinney or Ku’ualoha Ho’omanawanui or Lisa Kanae or any of a number of talented local writers who would know far better about their subject.  Hopefully e-books will catch on and we’ll have less need for national distribution.

 

Q: What’s next for you?

 

A: Next up? I’ve got a manuscript on Hawai’i ag I hope to send to UH Press in a couple of weeks.  We’re working on an audio version of Hawai’i.  But there’s always more to say.

 

Hawai’i is available from Basically Books in downtown Hilo, the UH Hilo campus bookstore, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.