Under Maui Skies and Other Stories

I Lalo o Na Lani o Maui

By: Wayne Moniz

Narrated by: Wayne Moniz

Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Maui's rich history and culture are the foundation of these new, original short stories by Maui's award-winning author/playwright. Under Maui Skies, and Other Stories presents seven Maui tales in different genres set in a variety of Maui locales ranging in time from pre-contact Hawai`i to the 1960s. In The "Cave of Whispering Spirits", a couple and family face the wrath of the goddess of fire, Pele, in the last eruption of Haleakala.

That legend is followed by "The Cruel Sun", the true story of a love affair in Old Lahaina and the demons that haunt them - alcoholism and missionaries. "Under Maui Skies", the title story, is a western set in 1908 Kula and Kama`ole where an ordinary ranch worker is enlisted by the local sheriff to trail and report on the activities of an opium dealer called Albert Devil. The action changes in "Aloha `Oe, E Ku`uipo (Goodbye, Sweetheart)" when a money-strapped Wailuku detective takes on the case of a femme fatale. A rainbow of multiracial usual suspects is under the microscope in this island style homage to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.

A soldier in 1942 Pa`ia and Kihei previews, in a Twilight Zone world, the horrors of World War II at Guadalcanal in "Aunty Becky's Tavern". Hawaiian culture and science fiction blend in "An Island Beyond Hokule`a". A diaspora from a war-ravaged planet use the universal porthole of Haleakala in search of someone who will take a philosophy of aloha to their new home at the edge of the galaxy. The final story, "Climbing Woman", a ghost story, tells the sad legend of a young woman who spirals into depression and eventually death - later sighted as the legendary White Lady who haunts `Iao Valley. Moniz's fresh voice and cadence captures the flavor of the islands and their history, using these traditional storytelling genres.

©2008 Wayne Moniz (P)2013 Maui Film Works

Critic reviews

“Under Maui Skies is one of the most engaging works of fiction to come out of Hawai`i in a long while.” ( San Francisco Chronicle)

“With firm knowledge and a gift of telling stories, Wayne Moniz takes us from pre-contact Hawai`i to the 1960s on an island of gods and royalty, cowboys and schoolboys. These are the stories of Maui.” (Deborah I`ida, award winning author of Middle Son)

“Dip your feet into Wayne’s warm world of cultural tidepools. You’ll want to stay awhile.” (Keola Beamer, songwriter, composer, author, Master of Slack Key)