Books
A Telling of Ancestors
The reconciliation you seek is connected to the dead.
A long-kept secret reveals Emma Prince is not who she believed. The revelation draws her to the north shore of Kaua‘i in search of Aikue Prince, an elusive Hawaiian artist—and the father she believed was dead. The quest for the truth about why he abandoned his family twenty-five years earlier begins with an address on a telegram and an omen (hō‘ailona) in the form of a plumeria lei—the dead man flower—with a cryptic message, ‘The reconciliation you seek is connected to the dead’.
Kaua‘i is calling and Emma is about to discover why she was always meant to be there. Through ‘a telling of ancestors’ (he ha‘i kupuna), a long-concealed lineage tied to the Nā Pua Ali‘i o Kaua‘i, the ruling chiefs of Kaua‘i, begins to see the light of day after nearly two centuries. She discovers a mystical island paradise filled with wahi pana, ‘legendary or storied places’ where secrets are concealed from the eyes of men and the present is deeply rooted in a mythic past resonating with ancient legends and island magic (ho‘okalakupua). And, as it turns out, Emma possesses a bit of island magic known as mana.
As the island begins to make her whole, darkness descends over paradise, and just as her parent’s feared, Emma encounters danger—and perpetual ‘chicken skin’. Efforts to find her father are thwarted by a family afraid of something or someone, a mysterious stalker called ‘The Watcher’ who threatens her to 'leave Kaua‘i or die', and ‘loafers and hangers-on’, thieves who would do anything to take what isn’t theirs to possess—including disturbing the dead, defiling the land (‘āina) and murder. Emma must quell the disturbance of the land and deliver a dose of ‘island justice’ to the nefarious troublemakers standing in the way of finding her father.
Waking the Sleeping Giant
Old grudges die hard, honor runs deep, and generations hold secrets.
Emma Prince’s island idyll on the north shore of Kaua‘i is once again turned upside down when she discovers a centuries-old grudge lineage marking the Prince family for destruction. Emma resumes the search for her father Aikue, an elusive Hawaiian artist, with more urgency now, convinced her uncle Keoki was murdered by this same grudge twenty-five years ago. Darkness is settling over Kaua‘i again, and among the signs that something bad is about to happen is the strange, unexplained illumination of Nounou Mountain, known as The Sleeping Giant, unearthing an ancient legend about a mythological Giant waking after an eternity to protect Kaua‘i.
As the present-day purveyor of the grudge lineage—and sorcerer—re-emerges from the shadows after learning of Emma’s existence, her dreams (moe‘uhane) and visions (akakū) guide the way as she faces spiraling events connected to the dead, sorcery, murder, and an ominous warning from a tattooed man that her lineage is revealed and she too must atone for her ancestors. As Emma strives to discover the identity of the evil sorcerer who murdered her uncle, Aikue is kidnapped. To save her father and enact more ‘island justice’, she embarks on a dangerous journey to one of the island’s most ‘storied places’ (wahi pana).
Beneath Still Waters (Coming in 2020!)
Touch the water and you will see.
Emma Prince has put down roots and happily settled into her new life on Kaua‘i. She’s reconciled with her father, Aikue, and given her blessing to his upcoming marriage to his late brother’s wife. But, just when she believes calm has descended on paradise, Emma’s dreams (moe‘uhane) and visions (akakū) return again, bringing new premonitions (haili moe), revelations of the night (hō‘ike na ka pō), and omens (hō‘ailona) that something bad is about to happen—if one believes in such things.
This time, the premonitions are connected to Ha‘aheo o Hawai‘i, Pride of Hawai‘i, a hermaphrodite brig originally known as Cleopatra’s Barge which sank under mysterious circumstances in Hanalei Bay in April 1824. At the root of its disastrous ending, the royal ship, perhaps the most famous sailing vessel ever owned by the Hawaiian monarchy, may have been cursed after it was used to kidnap King Kaumuali‘i in 1821, whisking him away from his ‘separate kingdom’ to live out his remaining days on Oahu.
Now, the ancient barge has been re-created by wealthy Hawaiian developer Kioula Alekānekelo as a tribute to his late brother, who was fascinated with the vessel’s history and its underwater archaeological excavation in the 1990’s. With much fanfare and celebration, the newly minted Ha‘aheo o Hawai‘i II arrives in Hanalei Bay to begin its maiden voyage around the islands. But, someone posing a threat to the brig and its handsome owner has also landed on the north shore, and is behind a string of accidents plaguing the vessel—and murder.
Emma must sift through history and a mythic past, and explore more of the island’s legendary wahi pana, ‘storied places’, to uncover the truth about what happened to Ha‘aheo in 1824. On Kaua‘i, the present is always connected to the past, and old grudges die hard, honor runs deep, and generations hold secrets. Only by reconciling the past can Ha‘aheo ‘o Hawai‘i II be saved from the same fate as its predecessor and namesake nearly two centuries ago—or it may end up at the bottom of Hanalei Bay, hidden from the eyes of men beneath still waters.
