For most people, there comes a time when a change in lifestyle just feels right. For Kay Hadashi, author of the Island Breeze series of June Kato novellas, that time came to her writing recently. She decided it was time for her character of seven intrigue novels to move to Maui. Here’s a look behind that decision and where it has led Hadashi.
“I was surprised at how many fans I had in just the short time of writing and publishing June Kato stories,” said Hadashi. “Not all feedback was great of course, but one of the common themes in discussions with fans was how they wanted June to have a boyfriend. It was disappointing to me also that in seven novels I could never quite get her connected with someone.”
With her character unable to find “the one” in LA, it was time for Hadashi to take June Kato back to her roots. Hadashi said, “‘Chasing Tradewinds’ is about a woman at the top of her career, but she wants more than the daily grind. She finds it on a quick trip to Maui, where she meets a local hospital worker after a spider bite, and she quickly allows herself to fall in love. What followed are monumental changes in her career and lifestyle to finally find true happiness.”
Love might be what Hadashi’s fans were looking for, but this third generation Japanese American writer who grew up in a multi generational home in Honolulu and learned Japanese traditions from her grandparents knew Hawaii had more to offer. She said, “There is something that has crept into my recent plots, what is called ‘ohana’in Hawaii. Ohana is the word for family, and extends to include close friends and neighbors, the people most important in a person’s life.”
Hadashi added, “Ohana are the people we rely on for friendship and love in good times, and comfort and safety in bad. For my main character, June Kato, it means finally having a marriage, and on the heels of that, a child. Much the way many people live in Hawaii, she shares her home with her parents while raising her child in a three-generation home.”
“Chasing Tradewinds,” the first in the Island Breeze series, is the segue between two series that include June as the main character. According to Hadashi, June’s decision to move her neurosurgical practice from busy Los Angeles to quiet Maui teaches her many new lessons in life. One of the people who help her discover the deeper meaning of ohana is Auntie Haunani, a fictitious, yet prominent, island kahuna (person of importance or power).
Auntie Haunani is just one of Hadashi’s island characters, yet she does play an important role in the novellas. Hadashi said, “Throw in some Hawaiian folklore and a ghost or two, and June gets to know the ways of ohana and island life very quickly.”
Hadashi described the change in writing style as a shift from the intrigue of an LA lifestyle into a bit more romance, with Hawaiian folklore blended in.” She said, “It was a fan-driven shift. Somehow, June had come alive for fans, and they wanted more happiness in her life. She eventually found it in her daughter and husband on Maui. I must admit that learning directly from fans and readers has been very rewarding, and humbling.”
As someone who divides her time between Hawaii and the mainland, Hadashi likes to spend her time refining her Tai Chi skills, taking Zumba classes, and balancing her writing with a busy career in health care. Hadashi does not see herself as someone who seeks the limelight. “I guess that I’m a highly private person, as is my family. Publishing and promoting requires a lot of fairly high profile activity, if we want to be successful in gaining a fan base and in selling books.”
“It’s the fans’ enthusiasm for reading that keeps writers going,” said Hadashi. “For me the tradeoff between the higher profile aspects of publishing and the privacy of home and family is something like keeping my hospital work life separate from home, not bringing home troubles or headaches. When I’m done with writing, promoting, and visiting with fans, I like to step away and leave it all behind.”
In writing “Chasing Tradewinds,” Hadashi helped her character to find love and family. That decision may, in a way, have been inevitable. In a world filled with writers screaming “Pay attention to me!” Hadashi appears to know what she must to do to maintain her own ohana. “I imagine it seems very snobbish, and I really don’t want it to be, but home seems so much healthier when I can retain a personal life that could become too public.”
More information
Learn more about Kay Hadashi on her website at www.junekatointrigue.com.
Hi Peggy, I’m glad you liked the interview and hope you love her books.
oh my goodness yes and Hadashi really has her hands full Chasing Tradewinds sounds like a gotta read sounds so interesting thanks Terry for interviewing a new author I have not heard of it’s nice to add to my lists.