“Hōkū Halulu” won first place in HawaiiCon’s story competition in 2020. The story imagines an Māori navigator sailing from Rapa Nui to Hawai`i when he is shocked by the birth of a new and bright star in the sky. The c.1054 supernova was observed around the world by many cultures and led to mystical speculations of the meaning of this omen. Aukai had fewer sunrises ahead of him than sunsets behind him. On his last voyage across the Great Ocean, the wayfinder scratched his month-old beard, lost in his thoughts and lost at sea. His well-developed instinct for navigating by the stars is shattered by Hōkū Halulu, the name he gives to this new star.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Jules Verne’s avant-garde underwater adventure, Pole to Pole Publishing released 20,000 Leagues Remembered. The anthology of sixteen short stories by modern authors is an eclectic collection with a new spin on the science fiction classic that will bring you back to the time you first came across Verne’s fantastic novel. My short story “Farragut’s Gambit” envisions a rematch between Admiral Farragut and Captain Nemo where Farragut hunts the Nautilus with an ironclad warship that carries its own surprising technology. 20,000 Leagues Remembered is a worthy tribute to a great French author and his fantastic undersea thriller. Grab a copy and submerge yourself in these stories. Live in a world beyond the daily news and wander in the great depths below the seas.
These were strange times. The auroras returned that evening, their light shining through the kitchen window near where Hokulani stood next to her mom, slicing carrots and onions for dinner. According to astronomers, they should never have reached Hawai`i, too close to the equator, they said. Despite their beauty, the Northern Lights felt as an omen, or perhaps visiting ghosts. Hokulani never imagined these lights would rip her from her world and send her to a time unimagined. “Crossover” appeared in the Spring edition of Hawaii Writers Guild’s literary review, Latitudes. The story won honorable mention in 2020 for L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest.
In “The Wayfinder,” a Polynesian couple fear for the life of their son as they sail across the Pacific to find a new home in Hawai`i. Threatened a boisterous captain who intimidates everyone aboard the small sailing vessel, they conspire to mutiny against him to save their son from serving as a sacrifice to gods who have forsaken them. This story appeared in the July 2019 edition of the Torrid Literature Journal. The story won honorable mention in 2019 for L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest.