My Kind of Town
Editors of the Star-Bulletin have asked me to tell you about "My Kind of Town," which begins in this space on Monday. The first "novel" of the series is titled "The Honolulu Soap Co." Soap gets
in your eyesFiction in a daily newspaper? I see "My Kind of Town" as a column/novel, or "Newsprint Fiction." But unlike most columns, there will be no "I" or "myself". The reason is that it will be fiction and written in third-person, not first-person. My only goal is to tell a good story that entertains and informs. The story is not about me, but about people.
Which is not to say that "My Kind of Town" won't provide commentary, satire and observations of life in Hawaii. It will, but only in the course of telling and advancing the story.
So what is the story about? I don't want to give away the plot, but I can tell you that the story involves both real and fictitious characters and local settings and events that you will instantly recognize. You may wonder which character is real and which is fictitious. While the similarity between real people, living and dead, and story characters is strictly coincidental, it's also entirely possible.
And the more you're into local culture and history and personalities, the more you will get out of it. Only a local resident would get some of the little jokes and observations. But at the same time, the story and the characters are universal.
What kind of fiction will it be? "My Kind of Town" includes elements of mystery, romance, soaps, Tom Clancy, cops and robbers -- styles that I enjoy as a reader.
And as with any serialized story, every detail counts. If you miss one day, you might miss a crucial detail. At the same time, I make the assumption that every reader is picking up the story for the first time, so there will be some overlap from one episode to the next.
What about the plot? The plot centers on the Ah Sun family, as well as their friends, associates and chance encounters.
The family includes: Sheets Ah Sun, the patriarch, who founded the Honolulu Soap Co. and is contemplating retirement; his wife Grace Kanahele Ah Sun, executive secretary for a powerful Democratic state senator at the Capitol; and their three children: Laird, who is in his final year at Stanford Business; Lance, a window-dresser and ballet dancer, and Lily.
Central to the story are Lily's best friends, the identical but very different twins, Shawnee and Fawn Matsuo. Shawnee works for OHA, Fawn for the Good Faith Fellowship Church.
In the first chapter you'll meet the lovely Lily Ah Sun. I'm in love with this woman. She's strong but beautiful, intelligent but sweet, young but mature, competitive but sensitive, modern but old-fashioned, very local but very sophisticated -- the perfect woman.
Let the stories begin.
>> Monday: Trouble in the fast lane
Send E-mail to dchapman@starbulletin.com.