TRAVEL WITH SERENA -- GUEST TRAVELER, AUTHOR SHARON GARNER

Our guest traveler today is author Sharon Garner. Sharon lives in Pennsylvania, but her heart is divided between Hawaii and England. Pele’s Tears is her fifth published novel and is available through Amazon, B&N, and other online venues, as well as bookstores and libraries. To read the first chapter, visit Sharon's website. -- AP

  

Aloha!

I hope readers will hear the drum-heavy theme song of Hawaii Five-0 and “Book ’em, Danno” when they read Pele’s Tears, a romantic suspense set on a flower farm on Kauai. Hawaii is “in” with the retooling of the popular TV series.

Kauai is the oldest of the Hawaiian Islands and is known as The Garden Isle because of its plant-loving climate. Elvis’s film Blue Hawaii was filmed here. Every direction you turn on Kauai, there’s something to see.

The North Shore is the Na Pali coast. All roads end on either side of 17 miles of what I call “folding closet door” rippled valleys and summits, accessible only by boat or helicopter.

The East Side, the Coconut Coast, is famous for Hawaii’s only navigable river. You can cruise the Wailua River to the famous Fern Grotto.

Lihue, the island’s capital, is in the southeast area. North of the city is the breathtaking 80-foot Wailua Falls, famous for its morning rainbows.

The South Shore has Spouting Horn blowhole, surf forced up through a hole in the lava rock, Hawaii’s version of Old Faithful.

On the West Side you’ll find Waimea Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, colorful and awe-inspiring.

I created Lehua Valley on Kauai to suit my story’s needs. I gave the valley mini-climates, especially along its slopes, where the altitude would be right to grow anthuriums and coffee trees.

I had fun with the Hawaiian versions of names. I used my name, Kalana (Sharon), and my late father-in-law’s name, Keneke (Kenneth), for two supporting characters. A black cat named Aumoe, Hawaiian for Midnight, has a peace treaty with the valley’s celebate wild rooster, The Colonel.

Other things Hawaiian that play parts in the story are various hulas; a love chant; Polynesian navigation via the star Arcturus, known as Hokule‘a, Star of Joy in Hawaiian; and, of course, Madame Pele herself. In the love chant, she visits Kauai, only to fall in love.

Pele’s Tears’ story of love and danger begins off screen with a marriage between a New England sea captain and a lovely Hawaiian woman. The good captain is the reason Pele’s Tears came into the Kahoa family. In the present, the trio of hidden gems threaten Dante and Lani—yet help them acknowledge and explore their love.

Mahalo,

Sharon K. Garner

Thank you, Sharon! Hawaii is definitely on my must see list for sometime in the future. What about you readers? Have a hankering to go to Hawaii or some other tropical locale? Let's hear from you. Post a comment to enter the drawing for a book from our Book Club Friday guest author this week. -- AP