Interview With Lono Waiwaiole

In his varied career, Lono Waiwaiole has been an editor, sports information director and professional poker player. He currently teaches english and social studies in Gaston Oregon and writes hard-boiled, noir mysteries.

Lono's debut novel, Wiley's Lament, was named a finalist for the 2003 Oregon Book Awards for fiction and an Anthony award for best first novel of 2003. It was followed by Wiley's Shuffle (2004) and Wiley's Refrain (2005). The three books feature a tough, cynical poker player named Wiley. The first two books are set in Portland, Oregon and the third is set part in Portland and part on the Big Island of Hawai'i. The Wiley books are known for being as noir as they come. The body counts are high.

In 2009 Lono stepped away from the Wiley series with Dark Paradise (Dennis McMillan Publications.) Dark Paradise is set on the Big Island. It is a modern day crime story whose roots lie deep in the imperialism and "internal colonialism" practiced by the United States on this island culture. The body counts are just as high.


This is the first of a two-part interview with Lono. You can read the second part of the interview tomorrow on The Hawaiian Eye.

Tell us about yourself. Everybody in Hawai'i is part something. What are your parts?

I'm half Hawaiian, a quarter Italian and a quarter Pennsylvania Dutch.

You've probably got the perfect Hawaiian name. Lono is the god associated with clouds, storms and earthquakes. Is that your muse?

I think Lono is also associated with fertility. I suspect my "muse" comes more from that angle, if any.

Your Wiley books are set in Portland, how did you come to set Dark Paradise in Hawai'i?

I moved from Portland to the Big Island as I was wrapping up the second Wiley book, so the third in that series is actually set in both places. Dark Paradise was written almost entirely while I lived over there, and my goal was to transfer some of what I was absorbing from that environment to my fiction.

Dark Paradise is a complicated novel with 10 point of view characters--Geronimo, Nalani, Dominic, Sonny, Buddy, Jesus, Kitano, Jay-jay, Kapua, Robbie. How were you able to get inside the heads of all those different characters?

Assuming that I actually succeeded in doing that (readers will render the ultimate verdict), I don't recall it being particularly difficult. You have to keep in mind that I was on a first-name basis with each of them. It might have been more difficult if they weren't all my children in the first place. As it happened, I knew everything they had ever thought, were thinking and would ever think.

Dark Paradise is set against the backdrop of the NBA Championship series between the Lakers and Pistons. Does that have significance in the story?

One of the things that struck me immediately about Hawai`i is the popularity of basketball. Since I am an addict myself, I always have an eye out for my next connection. The Detroit-Los Angeles series was happening when the actual event which triggered my fictional story occurred, and you couldn't go anywhere on the Big Island at the time without seeing it on a television screen or hearing people argue about it. Originally, the presence of the series was mostly atmospheric, but by the time I was done it had become the organizational structure of the story and somewhat metaphoric as well. The difference between those two teams and the way they were popularly perceived was similar to the way the less-informed view the islands.

That actual event, by the way, was "the biggest drug bust in the history of the Big Island." That actually happened, including the attempt to follow the drugs that ended up in the car being abandoned at the mall drugs intact. As usual, truth is stranger than fiction.

The reader won't find the usual chapters here. Instead, the story is divided up by the different parts of a basketball game. What's the significance in that?

See the previous question for the beginning of this answer. By the time I was revising the manuscript, my appreciation of the NBA playoffs at the time had deepened significantly as far as its application to the story is concerned. I think the characters are constrained by some arbitrary conditions they do not control, and the game parameters seemed like a way to symbolize those constraints.

Speaking of constraints, this novel is definitely noir in that everybody is trapped. Is that a good characterization of the locals in Hawai'i?

I just read a headline which stated that Hawai`i is the second-happiest state in the country. That may be true, but only because joy seems to be implanted in the Hawaiian DNA. I think this happiness is overlaid on a very distressed core which has easily discerned symptoms--exceptionally high levels of substance abuse (including food, I believe), domestic violence, child abuse, etcetera. Locals are unlike their tourist visitors--they know both sides of this picture. Within that understanding, I think they do feel trapped to some extent. It is not a world of their own making, but leaving it means leaving family and cultural ties as well.

Instead of the popular view of Hawai'i, you give us ice and gambling. Which one is closer to the truth?

That's the beauty of the situation over there as far as writing fiction is concerned--both are true (and both are exaggerated to some extent for effect). I think they are two sides of the same coin.

The most compelling characters in the book are Geronimo, an adulterous cop with a gambling problem (he's the good guy) and a teenager named Nalani who becomes an effective player because of the abuse she's suffered from her father. The big question in this reader's mind is, "Will Nalani be all right?" Even at the end, we're not sure. What do you think? Can you say without giving the ending away?

The answer to that question is the same as the answer to this one: Will the Hawaiian Islands be all right? I hope so in both cases. Certainly both have the potential to go either way.

Would you have your students read this book? Is there a lesson for them in it?

There is a lesson for my students in this book, both in its content and in the writing, but I do not encourage them to partake of it. In my school, I have to say Dark Paradise is not school appropriate. Fortunately for me, the superintendent of my school district is a fan of my books and hasn't run me out of town yet.

Was Dennis Mcmillan on board this project from the start? What kind of support did he give you?

He (Dennis) sent several of his shirts (they are collectible Aloha shirts) to the graphic designer, who came up with the cover. Oddly enough, Dennis lived on the Big Island longer than I did and knows it very well.

Dennis wanted this book from the beginning, but it started out as a project with my editor at St. Martin's. That editor moved on right after I delivered it, and St. Martin's decided to pass on it. The book was an orphan for more than a year after that while my agent tried to find somebody other than Dennis to publish it (someone more mainstream, let's say), but after I couldn't stand it any more I said send it to Dennis. To be honest, he was my first choice all along--not because of the potential money he represented, but because of the passion and the reputation for excellence.

As it turned out, he gave me the most important kind of support--he published the book, and he did so beautifully. The rest is pretty much up to me, but I'm okay with that. It was all up to me in the first place, right?

What's next? Will there be more Wileys? Any Hawaiian books? Will we see any of these characters again?

I am embroiled in a screen adaptation of Dark Paradise now. Someone in Hollywood thinks there might be a great film in the book somewhere, and my daughter and I are about to start on our third draft of a screenplay for that producer. We think it's great that they haven't already moved in another direction for screenwriters, but we are still several light years away from a movie actually getting made.

Consequently, I don't have a clear idea of what my next book will be. I have been so immersed in the characters from Dark Paradise that it seems natural to work with them again. On the other hand, Wiley is on the Big Island now, too, and it seems likely that his paths would cross with theirs in the near future. Oh, well, I don't have to sort that out until we finish messing with this screenplay--if we ever do.

Mahalo, Lono, for agreeing to the interview. I, for one, would jump at the chance to meet some of these characters again. These characters on the big screen with the Big Island scenery can't miss.

For more about Lono and Dark Paradise, hop on over to my Hawaiian Eye blog tomorrow.

Mark Troy
http://www.marktroy.net
http://hawaiian-eye.blogspot.com

Summer Reads

Since yesterday was the September equinox and the end of summer, it's time to take stock of my summer reading. It was one hell of a good summer. There have been periods when i've read one forgettable book after another and wonder why I wasted my time with them. At other times, one book would make a season. Not this summer. This could go down as the summer when I couldn't miss, when every book I picked up was thrilling and engaging. And still I missed my goal.

My wife and I decided before the summer began that we would complete all of the Michael Connolly books. She came closer than I did to achieving that goal. Once you've read a few Connoly books, you discover that the characters move in and out in interesting ways and form unpredictable relationships with one another. Getting closure on those relationships was one reason why we tried to finish all of them. I have three to go: The Black Ice, The Brass Verdict, The Scarecrow, but now I find myself dragging my feet to the finish because I really don't want the closure. I want there to be always another bend in the road ahead.

So much for what I didn't read, here's what I did, in no particular order.

Shutter Island
The Night Gardener
Dogtown
Soultown
The Last Coyote
Bloodwork
Paper Doll
The Hard Way
The Enemy
Indigo Slam
L.A. Requien
Dark Paradise

You can read about some of them here and the rest on the Hawaiian Eye blog

Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane. This is a complex, scary thriller that will leave you wondering what's real and what isn't. A U.S. marshall goes to Shutter Island, an isolate hospital for the criminally insane, to investigate the disappearance of one of the patients. This was an era when electroshock therapy, chemical therapy and lobotomies were cutting edge treatment. The ending will leave you wondering if there really is a line between reality and madness. It will be released later this year or early next year as a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. If you plan on seeing it, READ THE BOOK FIRST. I'm sorry for shouting, but you will do yourself a favor by reading the book before you see the movie. I can't imagine the movie capturing the complexity of this story, but if it does, it will be astounding.

Dogtown and Soultown, Mercedes Lambert. Whitney Logan is a struggling attorney in Los Angeles. In Dogtown, reviewed on my blog, Hawaiian Eye, she meets a streetwise hooker named Lupe and the two get caught up in the Latino revolutionary underworld. Soultown takes up six months later when we find Whitney waiting for Lupe to be released from prison. Whitney's obsession with Lupe grows intense as they become embroiled in a murder in Korea town. These are underrated classics. Lambert loves her city, her characters and her stories and makes us love them. The third book in the trilogy, Ghosttown, was published in 2007, five years after Lambert's death. I'm torn between wanting to read it right now and wanting to delay taking that last turn.

Dark Paradise, Lono Waiwaiole. My favorite place on the planet is Hawaii and I seek out any and all mysteries set in the Aloha State. Sadly, most Hawaiian mysteries read as though they were crafted in the offices of the Hawaiian Visitor's Bureau. the sunsets are magical, the people friendly, and the breezes are gentle. Dark Paradise breaks the mold. If your only knowledge of Hawaii is a seven-day, six night stay on Maui or Waikiki, you don't know Hawaii. Waiwaiole knows Hawaii and, in Dark Paradise, he nails it. Geronimo Souza is a Hawaiian-Portuguese detective on the Big Island. A member of the drug task force, he struggles with gambling and marital problems while trying to prevent an all-out war between the Japanese and Mexican gangs who are vying for control of the Big Island crystal meth trade. Waiwaiole extinguishes the gorgeous sunsets and tears up the glittering beaches to show the local people and society, a product of a century and a half of internal colonialism by the United States, as they really exist. Dis story is da real da kine, brah. Can you expect less from a guy who is named after the god of music and fertility?

Mark Troy
http://www.marktroy.net
http://hawaiian-eye.blogspot.com

Dark Paradise

Ah Hawaii. Bright sunshine, glistening beaches, soft breezes, green mountains, and friendly people. How could anybody set a hard-boiled story in such a happy place? New York is hard-boiled. Chicago, Detroit, Miami and Los Angeles are hard-boiled. A hard-boiled locale needs darkness, not sunshine. It needs injustice and oppression, not friendliness. It needs violence.

As someone who writes mysteries set in Hawaii, I've run into this from time to time. I've heard editors say no one would be interested in Hawaiian mysteries; they want Elvis and Blue Hawaii. I was on a hard-boiled/noir panel at Bouchercon one year and had a hard time convincing my fellow panelists that there could be any hard-boiled stories set in Hawaii.

Well now I'm reading two books about the dark side of Hawaii. One, appropriately titled, Dark Paradise, is a novel by Lono Waiwaiole (You can't find a more Hawaiian name than that). The other is an historical account of the leper colony on Molokai, The Colony, by John Tayman.

Dark Paradise tells a story of drug trafficking, rape and murder over money and power on the Big Island of Hawaii where ethnic Japanese, Mexican and local Hawaiian groups are fighting for control of the island's methamphetamine trade. "Ice" is a scourge of the 50th state where the appetite for it seems insatiable. Dark Paradise is billed as a "noir-novel-cum-sociological-study" of the society that has resulted from generations of internal colonialism by the United States, beginning with the Calvinist missionaries and continuing through wave after wave of immigrant laborers from Japan, Korea, China, the Phillipines. At the bottom are always the native Hawaiians who are among the most economically depressed groups in the United States and whose only ways out are through sports, entertainment and drug-dealing.

The Colony begins with a man and his family in a desperate flight for freedom that led to a military standoff in the mountains of Kauai. The man's crime? He had leprosy. Leprosy, now known as Hansen's Disease, reached the islands in the 1860s and the government responded in Biblical fashion: anyone suffering from the disease was pronounced "utterly unclean" and exiled to a peninsula on the island of Molokai.

The peninsula, Kalaupapa, was bounded at one end by sea cliffs so high and steep that goats fell off. It jutted out like an overturned flat iron into seas so rough that ships couldn't land. Instead, the exiles were rowed close to shore and tossed overboard with their belongings and forced to swim to the rocks. When they got there, they were greeted with the chilling words, "In this place there is no law." They had been tracked by bounty hunters, taken from their families, and forced to this place where all manner of crime and brutality awaited them. The colony had little food and little medical care.

Talk about injustice! Most were not contagious and many did not have the disease. A case of psoriasis was enough to send a man, woman or child into banishment. It was the longest and deadliest instance of medical segregation in American history. There are a lot of villains in the story, not the least of which are the doctors, public health officials and government servants who carried out and enforced the practice. Mostly the story is about the eventual triumph of the human spirit over ignorance and prejudice.

If that isn't hard-boiled, I don't know what is.

I visited the colony two decades ago when there were more than sixty residents/patients. Less than thirty remain and all are elderly. Soon there will be no more victims of the injustice, only memories. The Kalaupapa settlement served as one of the setting of my book, Pilikia Is My Business, but my account doesn't capture the heartbreak and suffering. Read Tayman's book for a picture of the best and worst of human nature. Read Waiwaiole's novel for a gripping tale of life in modern Hawaii.

Mark Troy
http://www.marktroy.net
http://hawaiian-eye.blogspot.com