Bill Fernandez

My barefoot years running on the reef in front of my home in Kapa'a, Kaua'i, in the Hawaiian Islands included making my own toys. There was little money and no stores to buy toys or surf boards so my pals and I used old tin roofs to make tippy tin canoes, made fishing spears from fence wire and roofing tar, and ran alongside the sugar cane train cars pulling stalks as it passed by. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, life changed. I bought cigarettes and candy for the thousands of GIs stationed there and started a business of polishing shoes. Gas masks, blackouts and barb-wired beaches ended lazy days. The family movie theater Roxy avoided a financial disaster entertaining GIs. Because Kapa'a grew out of marshlands sugar planters could not succeed there. Immigrant plantation workers bought small parcels of land and created a multi-racial, multi-cultural town where everyone struggled and everyone helped each other. After graduating from Kamehameha Schools and Stanford University, I practiced law and served as a judge in Santa Clara Superior Court in CA. My values were deeply impacted by the multi-racial people of Kapa'a and their aloha. The Hawai'i governor recently appointed me to the Juvenile Justice State Advisory Council, and I serve on the boards of Hale Opio, a social service agency, the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce, and the Kaua'i Historical Society board where I also served as president for two years. Today, I sit on the porch of my mother's house bought with her pitiful pineapple cannery earnings,count the waves and write about Hawaii. I enjoy sharing my barefoot, smallkid time adventures in a town with no stores to buy surfboards and no money to buy anything. Plantations controlled life and what was shipped in. Kaua'i Kids in Peace and War describes that simple time and then the shock of Pearl Harbor and thousands of GIs coming to the island. In May, 2015, I published my third memoir (Hawai'i in War and Peace) covering my high school years 1944-1949 at Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu. I experienced racism, the impact of the war and atom bomb, and describe the racism witnessed when on a family trip around the continental USA in 1948. But I also found great joy in spearfishing and hunting; I decided to be a fisherman but ended up at Stanford University and its law school. Hawai'i is a hot topic and we see increasing numbers of visitors from around the world. President Obama, movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Descendants, and Hawai'i Five-O drew attention to the islands. Julie Siler's book, Lost Kingdom, about the overthrow of the monarchy is excellent. Rainbows Over Kapa'a, continues to be a best seller to the visitors who are fascinated by my town and Roxy Theater. I enjoy giving my book talks and also history talks, such as explaining the Native Hawaiian sovereignty movement from Cook's arrival up to the modern day. DVDs are available at the Kaua'i Historical Society. Recently I and a group of Kapa'a residents participated in writing an Arcadia Images of America book, Kapa'a, which tells about my hometown on Kaua'i. Old photographs reveal what makes my hometown special: its diversity of people and a sense of freedom. Visitors to my island will see an in depth view of what Forbes Magazine calls: "One of America's 15 Prettiest Small Towns." NOVELS: I turned to writing novels because I wanted to explore the challenges Native Hawaiians faced after Captain Cook arrived, followed by the missionaries and Western business interests, including plantations. Diseases struck the vigorous Hawaiian population, decimating their ability to continue living on ahapuaa where communal working and sharing allowed Hawaiians to prosper. The shock of capitalism and new religion plus disease reduced the status of the indigenous people to physical labor paid in money with little sharing. My first series is about Grant Kingsley, son of a sugar baron whose possible secret ancestry brings a criminal accusation of murder of his grandmother. After release from jail, he struggles to find the true murderer who left a note signed "Ku" which promised more sacrificial murders of Honolulu elite. Cult of Ku, set in 1920 Honolulu. Second in this series, is Crime and Punishment in Hawaii. In 1931-32, Honolulu was embroiled in two real life criminal cases (Massie and Fortescue) which revealed the ugly undercurrent of racism in the islands. Five local minority men are accused of raping a white Navy officer's wife. The failure of a jury to convict them leads to a murder. When that trial concludes, the novel's main characters, Grant Kingsley and his son, worry about the reality of oppression of the minorities and their limited future in a two-tiered society. The sting of white privilege is felt by all locals, especially Grant Kingsley's twelve-year-old son and his friends. When Grant's family is attacked by bootleggers, the revenge vs. rule of law discussion turns personal. My next series features a Native Hawaiian hero, orphan John Tana, who loses his inherited farmland on Maui to a sugar baron. Set in mid-1800s, the series follows his struggles to adapt to the Western world and religion up to the late 1800s and the overthrow of the monarchy. The first book, John Tana, An Adventure Novel of Old Hawaii, introduces you to John's simple farm life when he is kicked off it and sails his canoe to Lahaina to find a distant relative. He is challenged by whalers, sea captains, meets a Chinese man and a beautiful cousin. When he learns the sugar baron hired a killer, he fights for survival and sails to Oahu where life is more difficult. Gods, Ghosts and Kahuna on Kauai is Book two, set on Kauai. John gets plantation work, but finds it hard to fit into that world. The conflict of traditional religion and Christianity affects his marriage. Kauai is a mysterious place, even today: waterfalls, pounding surf that sounds like gods talking, omens like the owl (pueo) that portends a death. The third novel in this series, Hawaiian Rebellions, reveals the increasing power of the Caucasian elite businessmen who plot to take Hawaiian land and government. John's love, Leinani, seeks comfort when the politics of the monarchy overthrow leads to deaths. The era of Kamehameha the Great's battles to unite all of the chiefdoms under his leadership is depicted in Splintered Paddle and Conquest. The battles were brutal, the weapons of wood and shark teeth led to a stalemate. Then the Western sailing ships appeared with cannon. Political intrigue, treachery, romance, and battles set at sea, on land, and near an active volcano are all based on historical events. The overthrow of the Native Hawaiian religion of Ku and brutality for breaking kapu is the focus of End of the Gods historical novel. Many think it was the Christians who arrived in 1820 and destroyed the temples (heiau) and idols but, in fact, that happened BEFORE they arrived. Native Hawaiians, led by Regent Kaahumanu, began to realize the falsity of it all when they saw Western ship crews violate kapu and never get killed for it. As I describe in my newest (not yet in print) historical novel, The Awakening, a prequel to End of the Gods, the willingness to overthrow their gods did not come easily. E como mai - come to my home - Kaua'i and enjoy the breezes. Aloha, Bill www.kauaibillfernandez.com and facebook (Bill Fernandez, Hawaiian Author) Aloha. Bill Fernandez