Katherine Kayne on “Choosing a location for your novel”
As an author, the question I am asked most frequently is how I chose to write about Hawaii. Let me give you the short answer; how could I not?
So few of us on the mainland know much about the islands. Once I began to learn about Hawaii’s past I become enthralled. Let me share a bit more about it; suffice it to say Hawaiian history is complicated. There is more to unpack her than I can explain in this brief essay. But I will give it a shot.
First the geology. Millions of years ago, through a fissure in the earth’s crust, emerged the miracle that is today’s Hawaiian Islands. First Kauai, then Niihau, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kaho‘olawe, Maui until . . . at last . . . the island still being born . . . the big island of Hawaii.
Geographically isolated as well as geologically young, Hawaii possesses perhaps the best climate in the world—not too hot, not too cold, and rarely the victim of violent storms.
Human habitation came late. A mere millennium or so ago, bold navigators set forth from islands thousands of miles to the south to follow the stars. They sought a legend – a rumor – of new lands in the north. Only then were the islands of Hawaii populated.
Old Hawaii was ruled by chiefs and chiefesses called ali‘i. By 1810 the rule of the island chain was consolidated under one man, Kamehameha the Great, later known as King Kamehameha. Once the western notion of a monarchy took hold, Hawaii was ruled by kings, and finally one queen, for eighty years. That is until the islands became caught within the twin coils of international diplomacy and capitalism. In the late 1890s, the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown by a group of mostly American businessmen, with military backup from the United States. A kingdom was lost.
During the monarchy Hawaii and Hawaiians thrived. A constitution was adopted. Waves of immigrants were welcomed. Education was encouraged and honored. By the mid 1800s, Hawaii was one of the most literate countries in the world. Education was encouraged and honored. This was a particularly stunning achievement given that before 1820, there was no written Hawaiian language. While the impact of the early Calvinist missionaries is debated, one thing is true. In their eagerness to convert the “heathens” to Christianity, the missionaries assembled a method of reading and writing Hawaiian that is the basis for how the language is recorded today. Now a renaissance of the Hawaiian language is in full swing. The written `ōlelo is key to that movement.
Both cattle and horses arrived shortly after the first Europeans. Ranches in Hawaii rapidly became some of the most successful cattle-producing operations in the world, well ahead of Texas, supplying beef for the California gold rush and the U.S. civil war. The granddaddy of them all, Parker Ranch on the Hawaii Island, remains in existence today with hundreds of thousands of acres.
By the turn of the twentieth century Hawaii was a study in contrasts. Cowboys and kahunas, wild pigs and steamships, hula dancers and rickshaws, land barons and mail-order brides made up the stuff and substance of the islands’ colorful history. The rise of the sugar industry gave great fortunes to a few and bypassed the many. Hawaiians today still fight to right the wrongs of that era. Yet despite it all, those times evoke a great nostalgia.
These are the times I write about. Although my stories are pure fiction, I find inspiration in so many wonderful pieces of Hawaiian history. Just as the colors are deeper, the smells sharper, and the sun brighter in Hawaii, the true stories of the people carry richness beyond imagining.
If you (like me) never got over your love for horses…. if you (like me) always prefer the feisty heroine…. if you (like me) crave hunky heroes with senses of humor…. if you (like me) want to believe there may yet be magic in this world, then these stories are for you.
Please, join me. We are never too old to believe in magic, are we?
Aloha!
Katherine Kayne is the author of Bound in Flame, the first in a series about hard-riding Hawaiian suffragettes at the turn of the twentieth century. Her next installment, a prequel novella, Pistols in Paradise will be out this fall! You can check her out and join her newsletter at katherinekayne.com. Yes, there are cocktail recipes!
About Bound in Flame
In 1909, Leticia Lili‘uokalani Lang is en route home to Hawai’I when she dives into the ocean to rescue a horse in distress — and changes her life forever. Brilliant and headstrong, Letty is an accomplished horsewoman, among the first female veterinarians, and now: mākāhā, a Gate to the healing fires of the land. Complicating matters is Timothy Rowley, the horse’s owner, who ignites a special flame of his own in Leticia. Can Letty learn to master her power to have a chance at life and love? Or is the danger of the flame too great?
Conversation with Naiche
Felicia: In my defense, that’s my job. Moving right along, let’s talk about Spooky Action, where we find that after helping the UDC win the war, you’re going to have a fabulous adventure in deep space. It involves the coolest ship the UDC has ever designed. It’s fast, sleek, and the navigation control actually links directly into the pilot’s brain. Since you’re one of the best pilots in the Corps, I know you’re just itching to get your hands on a ship like that – aren’t you?
Reinventing the Gods
Dr. Patrick adopts the stranger. Decides to teach him English. After navigating a string of red herrings, we finally learn the truth. The Greek gods visited Earth long ago. Tried to shape Man in their image. Were so disgusted by the results that they left their brood behind. But now, thanks to an ancient foe, they’ve been returned against their will, stripped of their memories, even their powers. Recast as humans with imagined pasts that mock their former selves.
A long way from a comic book? Maybe. But the power of myth lies in its breadth, its universality. It can be as simple as a nursery rhyme, a story before bedtime. Or as complex, as imbued with meaning, as the work of Jung or Campbell. For anyone who thinks that a god with wings on his feet seems childish or simplistic, remember this. Complexity and simplicity are allies, not foes. In the one exist the many. And the very same people who codified Reason, who first explained the world we see, gave us their gods as well.
A few weeks later, the chairman of one of the biggest agencies in the country emailed me. He loved the story and suggested a few changes. They were good suggestions, and I incorporated some of them into the book. We signed a contract and it was off to the races, or so I thought. But then the real fun began: the serious editing. Seven months later, I gave birth to Huck and Tom as adults. The book went on to reach #1 status in its category on Amazon (twice) and won the Editor’s Choice Award for Best Western of 2013. And just for the record, the final word count was 79,914.
I did everything I had to do. I spent ten hours a day, seven days a week sitting at my computer, writing. When the book was finished, I spent ten hours a day sending out query letters to agents. When the book was rejected because of word count, I wrote another, shorter novel. When it was accepted and published, I spent ten hours a day sending out emails (over 3,000) to book bloggers (each addressed to the blogger by name, and that takes a lot of work) requesting an opportunity to write a Guest Post for the purpose of marketing my book. Then writing the Guest Posts took up another serious chunk of time. To date, I’ve written well over three hundred Guest Posts (another of which can be found right 
Mahoney
The additional research and review of Kado by tribal members and experts added a great deal of cultural context to the book. As historical fiction writers we have a responsibility to retain the facts of history, but even more so we have a moral obligation to ensure that our stories do not uphold bias and misrepresentations of the past. All while creating engaging and alluring characters and stories.
Lost Frequencies is the first book in The Soul Prophecies series and is set on the ancient, planet of Iyeeka, many light years from Earth and millions of years before the dawn of mankind. Iyeeka encounters many issues which humanity struggle with today. The story follows Zerren, Ehi, Ahrl and ten other characters as they travel across their dying world to the home of a time-travelling scientist in the search for answers to their problems. Iyeeka is not the place it used to be, changing weather patterns, natural disasters and increasing global temperatures have destroyed entire continents and left the last two continents barely habitable. Water shortages have left the southern regions completely desolate and their fleeing refugees have pushed the northern regions to their limits. Millions have perished over the last few centuries and some Iyeekans have turned to violence in order to survive.
The process of figuring out who you are is both exciting and terrifying. For me, that process mostly happened during my four years of college and came to a perfect head when my anxiety, my bisexuality, and my androgyny all kicked in at once. These things opened new worlds for me to look into. I searched for hours online and read articles about people who had similar experiences to me with anxiety, sexuality, or gender. These searches often brought both positive and negative results, but either way, I learned a lot about myself and how the world tends to perceive people like me.
I started writing my first gay love story (The Unseasonal Warm Front) in April of 2018. It was based off a short story I had written in high school, but my short story did not have a happy ending. It was not a love story, but a classic “gay guy falls for a straight guy” story. That was not the story I wanted to put out into the world. So, I read a lot of LGBTQAI+ young adult fiction, and I found a terrible thing: there were so few happy endings.
About the Author
Stephenie Meyer is Anne Rice, wearing a new skin. The Hunger Games is a worse retelling of a Japanese comic and light novel series called Battle Royal (I will go down fighting on this point of view). Percy Jackson and the Olympiads series is a retelling of classical Greek and Roman myths with a new twist. Even J.K. Rowling has acknowledged that Harry Potter is an amalgamation of many stories from before – there are notable similarities between Harry Potter and Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising plot, a character receiving a scar from an enemy that lets them know where they are from Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, or a witch school from Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch.
One of my favorite young adult series is Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain chronicles, which started with The Book of Three (I, again, will fight Harry Potter fans that it is better). One of the characters in the book has what the reader is lead to believe is an omniscient book, called obviously, The Book of Three. At the end of the series, he reveals The Book of Three is not an all-seeing book, instead it could just as easily be called “The Book of ‘If’”.
For those don’t like wearing specific books, there are still designs for you. They are still all in vintage styling so they remain cohesive with the collection. This