Interview With a Character 4

Emalie Napunoa

 

Emalie with obligatory cherry blossoms

As I'm polishing up my second draft of Under a Mango Moon, I'm getting to know Kai's mother, Emalie. She doesn't get much story time for some reason, so the other day I decided to get to know her a little better. I started off by imagining what she looked like. And since my drawing skills are not the greatest, I decided to bring her to life through my just-as-meager Photoshop skills!

Once I got to see her, I knew I was ready for a conversation. So here it is!

Episode 2 of the Write Life!

Yesterday did not go as I had expected, and I had to start my hangout fifteen minutes later than originally announced. So I apologize for that last minute change. But here at the end of this post is the second episode to Write Life! and additional links for your viewing enjoyment.

I started off with a discussion that sprouted from the first episode about how long a novella is. A viewer and fellow writer watched this episode later and came up with a question about why I chose to make A Demon Born a novella and not a novel. So look forward to my answer in a future blog post and the next Write Life! episode. (I love questions, so please keep them coming!)

I then went on to talk about an answer to another question I was asked about how long it usually takes to write a novel. I have a corresponding blog post that also responds to this question, and it has links to the websites of the helpful time-management apps/programs that I mention.

The third segment was about research and how it is important to my new novel and what I've learned. Even though I grew up on Maui, there were quite a few things I didn't know about it's history. The whole airport thing threw me off, since I figured Maui would be right behind Oahu in having a commercial airport. Inter-island flights flew in and out of small grass airstrips like Hana airport throughout the '20's, but while the rest of the islands were developing paved runways between 1925 and 1927, the Maui airport wasn't built until 1938.

But the real historical journey for me has become Mango Tree Camp. I will be traveling to Maui soon and plan to do some research at a couple of archives and the library while I'm there. I hope to discover more about this forgotten camp, and I can bring it back to life. In the meantime, enjoy this second episode of Write Life!



Here are a few other links for your reading pleasure:

     I mentioned an anime that I saw many years ago and need to watch again: Steamboy
     Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company is the last commercial sugar plantation left in the islands: HC&S
     Here is the pdf version of the report that has the map showing Mango Tree Camp (Appendix A, first map): General Plan 2030

Searching for lost history : the forgotten Mango Tree Camp

From Hawaii State Archives

When I set out to write my current project about a young boy living in a steampunk alternate history of Maui in the 1930's, my initial question had been, "What if the Hawaiian Monarchy had never fallen?" This was the question that drove my setting, and fueled my 9-year-old son's imaginative character building as he helped me cultivate the story.

I wanted a mango tree to be the anchor to the theme of the novel, a story about perseverance, self-assurance, and growth. And it was modeled after a tree that lived in my grandmother's back yard, next to a house built by my great grand-uncles in an old plantation town. And so, a mango tree was born in the pages of my outlined draft and it's branches encompassed the characters.