Where did you grow up?
I spent my early years in the Bronx, New York. My family lived in
an apartment building that faced the right field ticket booths of old Yankee
Stadium and to this day, I can clearly remember falling off to sleep on hot
summer nights to the voices of Mel Allen and Phil Rizzuto crackling over my
transistor radio while the rhythmic cheers from the ballpark accompanied the
syncopated beats of the trains as they entered or exited the subway tunnel
below us.
When did you begin writing?
I started writing when I was a teen. In high school I began
writing song lyrics and took a couple of stabs at storyboarding potential
novels but hadn’t been focused enough to resist distraction. However, the
desire to take pen to paper had always remained with me. From the time I was a
small child, I had always found it difficult to verbally express my thoughts
and feelings. I was never one of those people who had the ability to fire off a
quick retort in the heat of the moment. The perfect response to any situation
would always come to me hours later. Writing always came easy. It was a natural
and an enjoyable path for my mind to travel; an easy way to transform my
daydreams into a world that others can experience and enjoy. As I got older,
creating these worlds and the individuals who inhabit them became the
distraction from the noise and nonsense of the real world.
What is this book about?
On the surface, this is a story of a serial killer on Oahu who is
targeting young and beautiful native Hawaiian women and the Honolulu Police
Detective—ex New Yorker Henry Benjamin—whose wife, Maya, was the first name on
the killer’s list. As the story unfolds, we not only try to figure out who the
killer is and why he’s targeting and taunting the detective, but who and why
certain individuals within the Honolulu municipal hierarchy are making it
difficult for Henry Benjamin to succeed in solving the case. Below the surface,
this is a multifaceted story of overcoming personal and professional
challenges, commitment, dedication, trust, betrayal, corruption, honesty,
integrity, and if that wasn’t enough of a smorgasbord (LOL), this is also a
love story between two people and their overwhelming attraction and passion for
each other.
What inspired you to write it?
As with my other four novels, the ideas come to me from out of
nowhere. With To Catch The Setting Sun it was a confluence of several
separate, yet simultaneous, sensory experiences that triggered images which
ignited the creative foundation for this story. Please allow me to explain.
I’ve been involved with acting since my move to Hawaii. In 2018 I was on my way
to the set of a Hawaii 5-O episode where, as a background actor, I had been
cast as an NCIS agent. On the way to set I began utilizing a technique from
acting class; mentally becoming this agent—giving him a name, a history, habits
etc. I then imagined myself being uncomfortably hot while driving to an
investigation because the car air-conditioner didn’t work properly. So, to make
this a real experience I shut mine off, rolled down the windows which then
caused a blast of hot air to rush in along with the smell of trash left in
piles beside homeless tents along the roadside (the image of paradise that
tourists typically don’t see). Then I began to play some instrumental music
which happened to be from the John Dumas CD Kohola Dreamtime. It was at that
moment when my protagonist, HPD detective Hank Benjamin, came to life. Playing
the right background music has always helped to stimulate my imagination. Over
the next several weeks I had repeated this whenever I drove to my day job, or
to a production set. As I did so, and taking creative license with the events I
had experienced and the many people that I had encountered in recent years, a
story began to develop in my mind.
How is it similar to other books in its genre? How is it
different?
I think that any similarities would be subjective and therefore
best left for the reader to decide based upon books they’ve had the pleasure of
reading. How would To Catch The Setting Sun be different? Since moving
to Hawaii six years ago I have had the amazing good fortune to have had a
myriad of first-hand experiences. I have also been blessed to meet and get to
know a wide variety of people from police officers, native Hawaiian community
leaders, cultural practitioners, politicians and bureaucrats at every level of
state and city government. I’ve come to know Oahu from her beautiful sandy
beaches that draws tourists from all over the world, to the economically depressed
neighborhoods of Honolulu’s inner city. Working for a short time as a
legislative aide, community liaison, and ghost writer for a Honolulu City
Councilperson and a Hawaii State Senator, I’ve had an insider’s look at many of
the pressing issues that are at the forefront across this state and especially
here on the island of Oahu. This knowledge and experience provided the seeds
that nourished the creative process that gave birth to To Catch The Setting
Sun. It was these relationships and personal experiences that allowed me to
supplement an already fertile imagination, yielding a realistic story that will
be evident to the reader with each turn of the page. As one reviewer says: “The
reader is easily drawn into this riveting dark noir crime story with its richly
descriptive plot. It is a story that is a tangled web filled with enough drama,
secrets, deceit, corruption, motives, suspects, and intriguing twists and turns
that definitely keeps the reader guessing until the surprising conclusion…I
found myself so caught up on following Henry's investigative pursuit of putting
the pieces of the puzzle together and solving the murders, while also learning
about the dark side of Oahu that the tourists don't get to see. To Catch The
Setting Sun will definitely take the readers on one heck of a thrilling roller
coaster ride.”~ Jersey Girl Book Reviews 9/30/22
What is the most important thing readers can learn from your book?
In his song You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, the late Jim
Croce sings:
“You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim”
There are many take aways that readers can learn from any novel,
short story, poem, or biopic, and I supposed those things would be dictated by
ones’ own awareness, life experience, and view of the world. If there’s
something in this book that can be important to any reader than that’s a bonus.
My hope is that To Catch The Setting Sun is an entertaining and
enjoyable read.
Where can readers purchase a copy?
This book is available in paperback and ebook from Barnes and
Noble and Amazon, Kobo, Scribd and on the Apple ibook format.
What is up next for you?
While I begin crafting my next novel, I am continuing my acting
journey and honing my skills as a student at the Z/A Acting School here in
Honolulu. The “Z” is for actor, director, teacher Robert Zimmerman and the “A”
is for actor, director,teacher Peter Allas. Along with the multifaceted artist,
poet, actor, filmmaker, producer, and teacher Jennii Vo Le, Z/A also
regularly holds classes in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
I had embarked on this adventure called acting in 2018 and after
appearing in over twenty-five episodes of Hawaii 5-O, Magnum PI, and a few
Hallmark movies as a background actor, I was cast in my first co-star role on a
third season episode of Magnum PI. After being introduced to Robert and Peter
in 2022, and knowing a number of the dedicated and talented actors enrolled at
the school, signing up was a no-brainer.
Is there anything you would like to add?
I hope that everyone who reads To Catch The Setting Sun enjoys it
as much as I did creating this adventure for our entertainment. Oh yeah, don’t
always trust the travel brochures ;-)
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