Literature in Hawaii

Back in November last year, Jill Engledow, a British writer based in Hawaii appeared on my blog in order to introduce her new book.  The Island Decides is set in Maui in the 1960s, and follows a young mother's plight to reclaim her lost child.  I was taken by Jill's story, and by the idea of life on what is known by most as a tropical holiday paradise.  So I was excited when she agreed to come back and tell us more about the world of books and literature of Hawaii.  Over to Jill.

On a plane to Paris a couple of years ago, I discovered that Hawaii is not as famous as we who live here like to think. To my amazement, the Frenchwoman sitting next to me had never even heard of Hawaii. So for those who also are unfamiliar with these lovely isles, allow me to introduce them.

Hawaii is a chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, stretching some 1,500 miles from the ancient, almost submerged original islands in the northwest to the largest, newest and still-erupting Hawaii Island at the southeastern end. These islands grew from a “hotspot” under the Pacific tectonic plate, which sends a plume of molten magma from deep within the planet to build new land in long-lasting, spectacular but gentle eruptions. Because the plate moves very slowly to the northwest, older islands are carried away from the hotspot and gradually dissolve into the sea. Six of the newer islands at the southeastern end are populated. 

That’s the geological background of islands that are farther from other landmasses than any place on earth. Today, Hawaii is the 50th state in the United States of America (and the birthplace of President Barack Obama), a place many Americans dream of visiting, a tourist mecca attracting people from around the world. 

 

 

I live on Maui, the second-newest island, still bearing the marks of volcanic eruptions less than 600 years ago and still potentially live, since 600 years is nothing in the life of a volcano. Maui is a place of great natural glamour, a “Goldilocks” island that is not too big, not too small, not too hot, not too cold. It has miles of beautiful beaches, an amazing geological feature we call the “crater” at the top of the volcano that makes up the eastern end of the island, a wealth of talent among its people, and gorgeous views anywhere you look. Obviously, I am proud to live here, but it’s not just me. The island slogan is Maui No Ka Oi: Maui is the best. And Maui is regularly named the “best island in the world” by various travel magazines.  

 

With that background, I’d like to share some suggestions for those who want to read about Hawaii. The islands have a long history of storytelling. The Polynesian people who first arrived here nearly 2,000 years ago believed fervently in the power of the word, and though they never developed writing, they memorized long, subtle, elaborate chants to preserve their history, tell of their chiefs’ adventures and praise the beauty of the land.

When Christian missionaries arrived in 1820, their first task was to create an alphabet, and within a few decades Hawaii had one of the most literate populations on the planet. They filled thousands of newspaper pages, putting ancient stories into writing. At last, that work is being digitized and translated into English, bringing a long-lost literature to the modern world. One great saga, of journeys undertaken by the little sister of the volcano goddess Pele, is The Epic Tale of Hiiakaikapoliopele. This illustrated book is pricey but precious, a collector’s item indeed. But there are plenty of Hawaii-themed books for regular readers.

A contemporary look at the skills and knowledge of the native people of Hawaii is in Voices of Wisdom: Hawaiian EldersSpeak, by MJ Harden, who interviewed highly accomplished elders, tapping wisdom passed down through generations. The beautifully written book is illustrated with equally beautiful black-and-white photos.

 

James Michener, an early master of the multigenerational saga, lived in Hawaii for years and wrote the fabulous book called Hawaii. I first read this when I was a youngster, and I remember sitting in the car waiting for my mother to buy groceries, reading the incredible first section that describes the Islands’ fiery rise from the ocean. Though I myself had seen amazing recent eruptions, it still boggled the imagination to think that the supermarket and its asphalt parking lot were built upon that fiery base. Michener’s version of Hawaii history is fiction, but I think it is true to the spirit and the general trend of Hawaii history over many generations. This classic is now available for the Kindle.

The American artist Georgia O’Keeffe visited Hana, a remote and beautiful area on Maui, in 1938. She stayed with a family whose daughter, now an old woman, has written a memoir of that visit, illustrated with paintings O’Keeffe did while in Hawaii. 

My own writing has been nonfiction until recently, mostly appealing to regional readers who know and love the Islands. Now I’ve ventured into fiction with The Island Decides, a tale of a young mother who “finds herself” when she travels to Maui to reclaim her lost child. I specialize in writing about the history of Hawaii (The Island Decides is set in 1971, which probably qualifies as history for younger people), and future novels will draw on the knowledge I’ve accumulated writing about Hawaii’s past. 

There are many other books about this beautiful place, including some by famous early visitors such as Mark Twain, Jack London and Isabella Bird. More are on the way, with a lively set of self-publishers on Maui alone; mysteries set in the Islands are particularly popular. If the books I have mentioned pique your interest, perhaps you’ll want to read more--or even come for a visit.

   
 

Catching Up!

Busy busy day so let's not beat around the bush.  I have got three things to say, and so I might as well say them all in super quick time because you, like me have loads to do if you are celebrating Christmas.  So, this is a quick Monday night check in to tell you that..........

 The Loss of Deference and Escaping Life are on sale today. Free in fact! Help yourself!

 

 

THE LOSS OF DEFERENCE ON AMAZON     

 

ESCAPING LIFE ON AMAZON 

Secondly I have written an advice article for new writers, hosted by the Gal in the Blue Mask.  It's not really a do this and do that article, but pop over, say hi to Meghan and see why I think that believing that you are a writer is just as important as opening your blog and your Facebook page.

THE GAL IN THE BLUE MASK

Finally, I got a lovely new review from Barbara over at Sun Mountain Reviews.  She also has some great giveaways happening at the moment.  Head over and check it out and see what she has to say about Identity X.

 

IDENTITY X REVIEW AT SUN MOUNTAIN REVIEWS

 

That's it for today.  Catch up with you all tomorrow in the final hours before Christmas!

That special ingredient

 
There has been a distinct lack of posts this month so far from me, but its NaNoWriMo time and the concept of a word count has taken over.  In fact it has become such a personal challenge not to fall flat on my face that I am wondering where I might get a NaNoWriMo app from for the rest of the year.  I am just loving the counting.  Whether what I have written so far is any good, well, they do say the proof is in the pudding.  I guess we'll find out once I complete the first read through.

 

But how is it that you know you have got something good?  What is it that sets one book aside from the next?  This secret ingredient is what we are all trying to reproduce and what everybody is looking for when they pick up a book to read.   One book where this was so evident to me was Captain Corelli's Mandolin.  I am always harking on about this book, so please forgive me another reference, but after completing page one and reading about the extraction of a pea from an ear I was completely hooked.  How can this subject hook me in with the same precision as required for the said extraction?  In all honesty, short of providing you with a stock answer like, 'the writing quality is wonderful', or 'his use of words is so poetic', I can't actually tell you I know.  Sometimes it's like describing the one we love.  It is easy to name things like he makes me tea when I want, takes care of me when I am poorly, he makes me laugh, or we like the same movies.  But usually a much more accurate, if somewhat abstract answer is that there is just something about that person that you cannot be without, but as to what it is, only Cupid really knows.


And this is what happened this week.  At the moment I do not read Kindle books because a friendly neighbourhood thief popped by and relieved me of mine.  But yet this week I purchased a book after seeing it on Facebook and finding myself so drawn into it that I had to buy it.  Right then and there.


The strange things about this are that generally I don't read space novels.  The second thing is that I'm reluctant to get involved in trilogies.  But mainly I don't have a Kindle anymore and reading on my phone, well just forget it.


But there was something that worked so well for me about this story, the idea, the cover, the text, the colour.  Everything combined to make it irresistible.  I don't know what, but I just knew this book was for me, and waiting two weeks for the Cypriot post wasn't an option.

So what is it?  What is it that makes you say you have to read a certain book?  Answer's of an electric postcard please!

Review sharing for Identity X

Reading a new review for Identity X is always fun and I really like this one!  This review is courtesy of K Ree at Kitty Muse Book Reviews (kathyree.wordpress.com) and can be found here.  But I am also sharing it with you below.  In other news, it's Sunday, it's late, my throat hurts and my nose is blocked, and there is a seven year old sat next to me who has also decided to write a book who needs my help, so forgive me, but the rest is copy and paste!  Enjoy!

"Persona non grata" is a phrase defined as "someone who is not wanted", in a nutshell. But what if someone decides to take that "not wanted" stigma a step much further?

Ben Stone becomes the target of such an ambition when, after a discovery of global proportions, he is suddenly, for all intents and purposes, wiped out of existence. The only thing that remains is the troubling fact that he is still breathing. Overnight, his lab, his work, his co-workers, and his very identity have all disappeared. Someone way up in the governmental hierarchy has gotten what he wanted, and is now hell-bent on making sure Ben gets erased.

But what this menace does not foresee is how very resourceful Ben is when it comes to surviving. Even though he is completely bewildered, with absolutely no idea of what has happened, Ben keeps his wits about him and eludes the bullets that rain down on him at every turn.

All too soon, though, with no one he can trust, and his options running out, Ben has but one choice-to trust the one person he thought he knew better than anyone. She risks her life to save his, along with the life of their son. But running like a low-voltage current through all of this is the one question: What happened to Ben's discovery? And what will the people who stole it from him do with it?

To be honest, my only regret is that I didn't read this book sooner. Ms. Muckley has a way with words that is in the upper echelons of writing. Her turns of phrase are so accurate and so descriptive-some of the best I've ever read. For example, at the beginning of the book, Ben is facing his peers, ready to announce his discovery. This is what Ms. Muckley writes:

He felt the weight of all great men before him who had stood on the same precipice of achievement, isolated in the solitary moment before the world learns what has been accomplished.

The book is rife with descriptions of this caliber. Her characters are so real that I could almost hear them breathing. Beautifully crafted, and it has an ending that just cries out for more. It was a total surprise, and, as they say, "therein lies another story".

More, please!

Options for getting your book reviewed

If you spend any length of time in a writers forum, or a discussion group it won’t take long before you come across a writer asking for reviews of their work.  In fact, many writers put as much effort into their solicitation of reviews as they do the writing of their books in the first place.  But why is it that we consider reviews to be so important?

When consumers buy a product, they naturally wish to do so with confidence.  They want to determine that their decision will represent value for money, and therefore often seek out the collective consumer opinion to see what it has to say about the product before they commit to buying it.  It makes them feel like they have done their homework.  This is also true when it comes to books.  Readers want to know what somebody else has to say about it before they consider reading it themselves.  In 2009, a Nielson Survey found that out of 25,000 respondents from over 50 different countries, 90% would trust the review of somebody that they know, and up to 70% of respondents would trust a consumer opinion posted online.    Consumers believe peer reviews to be credible and therefore use this information when taking a decision to purchase a product. 

But it is not just the consumer that uses reviews to gauge the value of a book.  Reviews also nurture online credibility and help to improve sales figures, which in turn improves rankings and product visibility with an online retailer.  I myself have noticed this sort of positive feedback.  When I receive a new review, it is often followed by a sharp sales bump and I consider this positive effect likely to be secondary to a more favourable position in search algorithms, with my book being shown to a greater number of online shoppers.  Therefore it doesn’t take much imagination to see why numerous positive reviews seem like an attractive option for an aspiring writer.

But it is also true, that should the credibility of these reviews be called into question, this can result in an entirely different perspective on the work.  This fact was detailed extensively last year in The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy in the New York Times, August 2012.  It discussed the case of John Locke, a self published writer who had clearly understood the benefits of having many reviews.  In 2010 he solicited the services of the now defunct firm GettingBookReviews.com.  This company offered a paid service for writers to gather a set of reviews for a onetime fee, and Mr. Locke initially paid $1000 in return for 50 reviews.  Whilst he remained entirely confident in his work, clearly stating that all reviewers should feel free to express an honest opinion, and ‘freely admit if they did not enjoy his book’, readers would receive a lower payment should they not write a positive review.  One reviewer even admitted that she often read no more than a fifteen minute sample, such was the demand on her time, and desire to produce an adequate number of reviews to ensure her payment.  There was much criticism of this approach to reviews, not only from Amazon as demonstrated by their removal of many of these false reviews, but also from other writers who work honestly to carve out their own niche.   False reviews have the effect of diminishing the achievement of every self published author, those very authors that already fight against a predetermined industry belief that their work is of substandard quality, if readers cannot be certain of the genuine nature of the reviewer’s comments.

So as writers in a community where we crave reviews, and where it seems they might be the difference between our work remaining on the Amazon servers or arriving on consumer's kindles, what exactly are our options?

There are paid services that writers can employ, but which function entirely differently from the aforementioned paid services.  These are real reviews from well respected publications.  Kirkus was established in 1933, and has long since established itself as a dependable voice in the world of publishing.  It is not a cheap service, and by no means guarantees you a glowing report.  From $425 you can acquire yourself an editorial review which you can use in marketing, in letters to agents and publicists, and additionally have your work considered for inclusion in their own magazine, which is distributed to 40,000 industry professionals and consumers.  Another revered example of a paid review service would be Foreward.com, and their ‘Clarion Review’ service comes with a price tag of $335.  For this you will receive a 400-500 word review with a turnaround time of around 6-8 weeks.  Also worthy of note for all authors who have an impending release, is their prepublication review service which is free of charge and offers writers a chance to appear in the pages of ForeWord Reviews.  All submissions must be sent to them three months prior to publication.  This can be a useful service if you are hoping to generate some prepublication buzz about your work.  Inclusion however is not a guarantee.

Whilst these services are highly regarded, the price may render them inaccessible for many writers.  There is also no promise of a positive review, so it could be that after paying for the review you are left with an honest, but less than favourable evaluation of your work.  However there are other review channels that you can investigate that cost you little more than a copy of your book.

Reviewthebook.com will list your book for a fee of $25.  This fee will ensure that your book is available to their reviewers, a group made up of avid readers, and up to five of these reviewers has the chance to request your work.  The review is then listed in over ten different locations online, which could mean up to fifty reviews.  They accept either paperback or eBooks, and each time the book is requested you must send another copy of the book.

Readerviews.com offers a free review service, but numbers are limited and your book will only be reviewed if it is chosen by one of their reviewers.  They also offer publicity packages which start from $119, which guarantees you an honest review.  Remember, I didn’t say positive.  They will not post the review to Amazon, but you can use an excerpt yourself to post as an editorial review.

The Midwestern Book Review will consider your work for review.  You must furnish them with two copies of the finished book, a cover letter and press release.  If your work is chosen it will be reviewed and available in their online publications.

The San Francisco Book Review/Sacramento Book Review accepts a similar submission.  They will review books that have been released in the last ninety days, and you have to send them two copies.  This is not a guaranteed serviced either, but they also offer a sponsored programme starting at $125, which gives authors a chance to be professionally reviewed and subsequently promoted to a wide audience of potential readers.

Other than paid services you also have the option to approach people individually.  Through the channels of Facebook, twitter, and personal book blogs you can develop individual relationships with readers and potential reviewers, and whilst time consuming this stepwise approach may help to form excellent personal relationships with other writers and readers.  Book blogs are created by avid readers, and they are keen to receive complimentary copies for review, and will often post their review to the site of your choosing.  This individual approach works very well when contacting book bloggers, especially if you take the time to write to them personally and state why it is you have chosen them, rather than sending out mass emails.  Be sure to include a press release and contact details, so that should you get lucky and find somebody willing to review your work, they can blog about you and your book easily without having to come back to you first.  The validity of such reviews is on occasion questioned, as the provision of a free book is considered as a payment and therefore less likely to result in an impartial evaluation as the blogger may not want to appear negative or rude about a book that was provided to them for free.  However, many book bloggers take their blogging as seriously as a writer takes their writing, and want their own readers to value the content they choose to display.  Without offering an impartial and honest opinion, their readers would likely find somewhere else to read about books.

A final and very important note would also be to consider the use of giveaways.  Both www.goodreads.com and www.librarything.com offer the chance to set up pre-release giveaways.  Readers will request your book (eBook or paperback for Librarything, but paperback only for Goodreads) and after sending it to them they have the chance to review your book.  Not everybody who receives a copy is likely to review it, but you are likely to pick up some reviews from this process and generate a buzz prior to release day.

There are clearly many options available, and the options outlined here are just the tip of the iceberg, and it is important to remember that reviews are not the only piece of the jigsaw.  Even searching for J.K. Rowling’s latest offering The Casual Vacancy on Amazon.co.uk reveals a listing with 188 one star reviews.  Books sell with bad reviews, and other books which have nothing but praise from critics still fail to hit the mark for the reading public.  Ultimately, if you don’t enjoy what you write, you cannot expect to be convincing enough for others to enjoy it.  But, no matter how many reviews you seek out, there is one other type of review that will mean more even the most expensive review from the most hardened of critics; a glowing review that you didn’t chase and that you didn’t expect.  It will come, and when it does, it will hold a personal value greater than any number of solicited reviews because it will be from somebody that chose your book just because they wanted to.  These sorts of reviews, we might say, are priceless.

UPDATE 15.10.2013  I have come across another website that is a great resource for writers seeking reviews.  This is not a review site, but a listing of book bloggers who you can approach for reviews in exchange for a book.  The Indie View has a very comprehensive list and is worth a look.

 

Disclaimer

Michelle Muckley has no affiliation to any of the organisations mentioned, and the comments stated are the opinion of the writer and not supposed to reflect the opinion of the organisations listed.