Sisters in
Crime/Hawai`i: Thank
you for sharing with readers your short story, and for taking time to visit today, Bob.
Can you please offer a brief insight into
something humorous, poignant, or unusual in your life that led you to a career
in writing?
BOB NEWELL: I
can't point to any one thing. Writers have
to write. It's part of who and what they are. I write because I can't not
write. If you're a writer or some other type of artist, you'll know what I
mean.
Sisters in
Crime/Hawai`i: Why did you choose to collaborate with 12 other authors to participate
in a short story anthology?
BOB NEWELL: Writing
for anthologies is a lot of fun. It's a chance to join in providing the reader
with a rich and varied experience. It's an opportunity as a writer to compare
notes with other writers and see different ways of looking at things.
Sisters in
Crime/Hawai`i: In The Kahala Caper,
what is one phrase or scene that reflects something about you as a writer?
BOB NEWELL: The
story wasn't written to be filled with layers of existential meaning, but I
think if you look at the relationship between Jasmine and Jimmy, there's
something deeper. What does it reflect about me as a writer? Putting that into
words is difficult, and I'm not sure I even really know in a conscious way.
Sisters in Crime/Hawai`i: Can
you tell us a bit about your current project?
BOB NEWELL: I
have a few things going on. Top of the list is a novel with the working title
"Courting Jane" which is most of the way through a second draft. It's
a romance at heart but it has sci-fi elements and some of it is set in
Honolulu. I hope to have it out by the end of 2014, but we'll see how it goes.
I also have a couple of short stories that I'm getting ready to try to market.
I'd like to write a few more Jimmy Chan stories but I won't get to that right
away.
Sisters in
Crime/Hawai`i: What's it like to be a writer in Hawai`i as opposed to the
mainland or elsewhere?
BOB NEWELL: I
have to say that it's definitely different. There is a vibrant community of
writers here. That's true elsewhere, of course, but the attitudes and
approaches are, well, Hawaiian. That means friendliness, mutual support,
rejoicing in one another's successes rather than being jealous, a sense of
family and taking care of one another, and of course gathering to write where
there's plenty of food.
Most of us tend to write about Hawai`i or at least include
Hawaiian settings in our work. I've got one novella in draft that explores a
romance between a haole and a leader
in the Hawaiian independence movement, and I have a project in the planning
stage that reimagines Pride and Prejudice
in the Kingdom of Hawai`i.
Bob Newell can be found at his Internet website, where he shares a variety of entertaining and educational
material on a range of subjects, from checkers to tea to Talmud:
