Debut novel for young adults: Author talks of inspiration for new book for children aged 11 plus
A magical tale of two parallel worlds – one set in post-Covid Hawaii, the other in the Manaful World – merges Hawaiian myth with metaphorical richness to present a story designed to thrill and inspire, tackling many common life issues that can drag us down … unless we find our inner power, or ‘Manafulness’.
Q. How did the Covid pandemic inspire you to write The Secret Club and the Manafuls?
A. Everyone was sad everywhere. People were dying from Covid and scared of breathing, much less touching each other. My students were really sad and anti-people, maybe even anti-themselves. The Manafuls came to my mind and heart as a way to brighten the world in my own small way. The children in the book symbolize the difficulties people have inside and outside of themselves. The Hawaiian mythological Menehune, a race of forest-dwelling magical dwarves, were always my comforters and cheerleaders. The Manafuls are my version of the Menehune to bring comfort and joy to everyone worldwide.
Q. Your novel draws upon the rich mythology and heritage of Hawaiian culture. Why did you feel this was important to incorporate, and how did you handle its inclusion?
A. One of my gifts and pleasures is expressing love. I love being a Native Hawaiian; it’s in my blood, my soul, and my spirit. If I could give the world one thing, it would be a combination of these two thigs: sharing love and Hawaii. A deep historic dive isn’t something I’m educationally equipped to do as I studied English and Education. However, a lifetime of absorbing word-of-mouth, oral tradition of Hawaii is what I do have to offer. Everything else is Googleable, hee-hee! Hawaiian experts abound online, but more closely in my family.
Inclusion of Hawaiian culture is hugely immersive as soon as the Secret Club-to-be – 11-year-old school kids Nicole, Pierre, and Malie – breach the time portal to the Manaful World, AKA the “Shimmery Wall”. It permeates every fibre of the story: everything from the Elders and the magic (Menehune were magical), to the anthropomorphism, language, spirituality, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim's Progress-like metaphorical intentionality and purposefulness of character names.
Inputting Hawaiian language in the novel was a big question and hard decision for me. I wanted to put more. However, I also wanted to reach more people and touch more lives. I took out a lot of Hawaiian vocabulary while writing, even if it pained me to do so.
Most of all, the music is a huge part of Hawaiian inclusion in the novel, and will be in future instalments. Hawaii, like all cultures, is all about music. Music captures people in real life and in the novel. It’s in all of our hearts. It lifts us up. You can’t have a Hawaiian culture-infused book without music!
Q. How would you sum up the magical Manaful World to a new reader?
A. Always remember that magic comes fourth after love, faith, and hope. Manaful is wonderful only if you embrace that inner strength within you and share your ‘Mana’ or power with everyone and everything selflessly and lovingly. In Manaful, sure there’s music, magic, psychic powers, gorgeous surroundings, and dwarves. Yet, if there’s no love, faith, and hope for yourself, others, and the environment, Manaful World means nothing. It becomes Nothing, like the Nothingness in The Neverending Story.
Q. Can you explain more about ‘being Manaful’, and how you achieve it?
A. ‘Mana’ means power in Hawaiian. To be Manaful is to recognize and harness that inner strength for the good of all, for love, for faith, for hope. Physically, mentally, spiritually, financially – being powerful or Manaful is the goal.
How to achieve it? Forgiveness and trust. Forgive yourself and others. Trust yourself and others. It’s soooo hard to do this sometimes. My childhood and adulthood has been riddled with some quite tragic downs countered by ups. All of the things the children go through, I personally went through. Yet, I’m forgiving myself and others every day with every breath. I’m trusting myself and others, but mostly God, that positivity wins.
Q. How has being Manaful helped you in your life?
A. When I was bullied, I sought help from loved ones. I became Manaful through their support. I acknowledged that I needed people. I still do. We all do.
When my two younger sisters died, I reached out again. Being Manaful is tapping your strength only AFTER getting help.
Being Manaful also means helping others. Supporting others in turn builds up all of those inner strengths.
Q. What do you hope young readers will gain most from reading your novel?
A. Self-love. If they could take one thing, it would be that. Love yourself no matter what you look like, who are, where you’re from, what people think/say about you, what you did in the past, or what your family/friends did in the past. Love yourself.
Q. You have a series of eight Manafuls books planned. Without giving away any spoilers, what can you tell us about what to expect in future novels?
A. No spoilers, huh? Well, the three main protagonists – Nicole, Pierre, and Malie – will grow older, of course. They’ll learn from changes in circumstances (family, school, sports, jobs, identity crises, body changes, new friends/significant others etc.). Their growth, or Manafulness, will regress due to their varied reactions to those changes. Of course, they boomerang back to their strong selves. Back and forth they regress/grow/regress. Kind of like real life, hee-hee!
Manaful World will shift somewhat in leadership and faith. The big bad, Lapu, continues to exist and persists, as it is not a person. That’s fearsome and haunting. It is God’s antithesis – the Devil, really. It empowers Manafuls with bad, evil Mana.
Q. You are actively inviting fans of the book to contribute to a soundtrack to accompany the novel, and future installments. Tell us more about this.
A. Music is the lifeblood of the novels. Understanding and loving the music equates to understanding and loving the characters. Becoming one with the music, contributing to its creation, enlivens the characters in your heart, soul, and spirit. The lyrics come alive in you as you sing it and compose for it. There’s Mana in words. There’s love in the words. I share my love and Mana with the world through my lyrics. When the readers contribute to the songs, they share their love and Mana with me and the world too. Together, we make the world a more loving place, a more Manaful place.
Q. You are also wanting fans to contribute to the wider Manafuls universe in other ways. Tell us more about how you’d like fans to get involved, and why this is important to you?
A. People have different ways of expressing themselves via art. I want readers to share how the characters and Manaful world touched or helped them. Again, sharing and collaborating enriches lives. Earth isn’t that big anymore once people reach out and give a little bit of themselves. If Manaful World or the characters affected them or impacted them, I’d like them to express that in their art. They can do so at HitRECord.com.
HitRECord.com was created by actor/director Joseph Gordon-Levitt for this purpose: collaborating, creating, and loving yourself and others via art on his platform. As with any platform, there are terms and conditions, rules for behaviour and for posting. Respecting each other is key there.
It’s important that my fans collaborate with me, each other, and others at HitRECord because the platform is a safe, loving, respectful place. The art collaborations are unforgettable and life changing. It’s also important that they collaborate with me because I care about them.
Q. As an author, which other writers or books have you found inspirational, and why?
A. For spirituality and mental health/growth reasons, to nurture my soul and to inspire me to have love, hope, and faith every day; and to be a forgiving, positive person, I would list The Bible; Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan); The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle), and The Zero Point (Dr. Joe Vitale).
In terms of learning more about Hawaiian cultural roots and longevity of heritage/ancestral knowledge, I must praise The Hawaiian Dictionary (Kawena Pukui), The Kumulipo, a mythological creation story (first written down by King Kalākaua), and Ōlelo No‘eau: Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings (by Kawena Pukui).
Finally, for general inspiration, credit should go to all of William Shakespeare’s works, both plays and sonnets, the Lord of the Rings series by J. R. R. Tolkien, and, of course, the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling.
The Secret Club and the Manafuls by Dorimalia Waiau is out now on Amazon, in paperback, hardcover, and eBook editions, priced £10, £20, and £6 respectively. An audiobook adaptation will be released later this year, priced £10. For more information, visit www.dorimaliawaiau.com or follow author Dorimalia Waiau on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.