Shot in 2019, my attached iPhone video clip shows a rare time when Kilauea’s summit, Halema’uma’u Caldera, was so dormant that one of the park’s trails led to a spot that would be off-limits during active periods. As I write this caption in 2026, Halema’uma’u is in an active phase, with 1,000-foot fountains that have rained molten lava on the spot where we’d stood in 2019.
My love of Hawaii allowed me to add realism to my character’s soul-searching trip to the islands in “Dead South,” the fourth novel in my Sonny Littlefield mystery series. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRSJBDJ8

Throughout the novel, my character, Sonny, draws strength from the real-life account of Isabella Bird, an unstoppable explorer who spent six months exploring the Hawaiian Islands in 1873. In later years, Isabella compiled her letters into a memoir that is available through public domain sources. It was a joy to include passages that dovetailed with Sonny’s own journey, especially if readers are inspired to seek out and read Isabella’s account, The Hawaiian Archipelago, for themselves.