 My name is Elaine Gallant and I am your host of Books Live Streaming Series with Think Tech, Hawaii. In these episodes, we will talk about reading books, writing books, and everything in between. I'm very fortunate tonight to have a very special author. She writes multi-faceted World War II Pearl Harbor fiction novels. Her name is Sarah Ackerman and she is a USA Today best-selling author. Sarah, welcome to Books, Books, Books. Thank you, I'm excited to be here. And we're excited to have you. You are on the big island at Waimea, and I'm on Maui, and Think Tech, Hawaii is on Oahu. So we're covering the islands kind of the way that you cover the islands in your books, sort of. I have to say that as we're waning on a World War III, this is very, very serious news in our society, in our world right now, your books occur at the waxing of World War II. The things that happened at Pearl Harbor, it's not necessarily the blood or the bore, but it's about the individuals that use spotlight, that come into play and have had a big part, not only in, well, not a big part, sometimes a little part, but they played important parts in the end of World War II and helping people. So I wonder if we can expand on some of that with each of your novels. For instance, your first novel, Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers, you have your main character, Violet and Ellie. No, Ella, Iverson. Tell us how they played a role in Pearl Harbor. Okay, so this story was actually towards the later part of the war. And I was inspired by, well, I had been living in Waimea, but also my grandmother, my grandparents had been in Honoka during the war. And my mom was raised there until she was, I think, eight. But my main character, they were residents of Honoka. My grandfather was the principal of the school there during the war. And so Violet and her friends actually ended up, in my novel, they befriended a lot of the Marines that lived at Camp Terawa. And they became close with these Marines and they became a support for these Marines as they were far from home. And they didn't know where they were going. They knew that they were training for battles in the Pacific, but they had no idea that they were off to Iwo Jima. And so this is a story, kind of, it's a love story, a story of friendship, and also kind of spotlights, I think, the local people of Hawaii and what they went through during the war. I have to say, you had me at Aloha when with your opening line, I had seen the book on the internet, but I didn't purchase it right away. And then I'm shopping through Costco and I open the book and your opening line is Mr. Macadang-Dang showed up with a truck full of coconuts this morning. And I had to laugh because how wonderful is that to the Hawaiian Islands? Macadang-Dang's not an unfamiliar name through these islands. We have Joey Macadang here on Maui. So when I read that line, I just went, oh my gosh, what a great opening line. This is gonna be a really good story. And it was, I really appreciated that story. The second novel was The Lieutenant's Nurse, another wonderful tale of a woman with a secret past. And she has a job to do. She has a job to do. So you wanna talk about that one? Yeah, again, this one was inspired by my grandmother who did come over before she was a teacher. She came over on the Lerlene and she had kind of met this, she had met this man. And so on the ship, even though she was coming over to my grandfather had sent her a ticket to come. She fell for this guy, but my grandfather was waiting on the dock and he proposed right when she got there. And so she always kind of wondered about this man. And we had always thought about it. And so when I started thinking about book ideas, I looked into the Lerlene and I discovered some interesting information that I had never learned about in school and how they picked up because they were en route to Hawaii a couple of days before the attack. And they had picked up all these mysterious radio signals. And so that got me thinking. And then I knew that as a woman, there weren't a whole lot of roles for women during the war but nurses played a really important part of Pearl Harbor. So that's how that one came to be. Say, look at your website and you give a lot of explanation for each of your novels. And by the way, that website is fantastic. It has a little something for everybody, the reader, the writer, the kitchen chef. I loved your recipes for Malasada and all this but I don't wanna digress on that because it's just a fun. I wanna encourage everyone to go to your website which is www.acrimanbooks.com. Is that correct? Yes, thank you. Okay. The other thing about this new tenant's nurse is you do go into your grandmother's story a little bit and how she actually had an affair on the boat and then ended up arriving in Honolulu and your grandfather proposing to her and her accepting. But more importantly, she has a secret. She's come, not your grandmother but your character has come under an assumed name. And so that has to be as well. I thought the story was really great. I really got involved in that one. Thank you. Red sky over her. My goodness. My goodness. A friend of mine who had read my previous book who was telling me about her mother, her friend's mom in a retirement home in Kona that had, this was the inspiration actually for my story whose parents, she was 10, her parents had been and taken away for a couple of years and at least her dad was for a couple of years and they were kind of left on their own. So that was half the story, half the inspiration for that one. Yeah. And then your protagonist is Alana and she ends up not only protecting the children of the German couple but also a Japanese boy. Because we all heard about the Japanese going into internment camps and the military looking for them and taking them away. So this was a pretty brave woman and she had a daughter herself, right? That was growing and learning and involved. No, she had German girls with her. And Coco, Coco Hitchcock. Coco was one of the two German girls that she took with her up to the volcano. Yeah. Yeah, I see. So she didn't have any kids of her own but she had just arrived in Hilo, her dad passed away but he had built this house in case of an invasion. You used the locations effectively. I mean, I... Sorry. Revisiting that area. You must know it very well. I do, I love the volcano. I've been going there a lot since I was little. My grandparents, actually both sets of grandparents were from the Big Island or lived on the Big Island. And so I grew up going there and then I go there all the time. It's one of my favorite places. So it was easy to write about in that respect. Yeah. It's amazing. And then you have radar girls. I haven't read this one yet but I got it on my list to do. I'm very excited about it because you say that all of the girls had to have a crash course in radar codes, were taught complicated calculations and shown how to guide pilots into blacked out runways or talk them home when they were lost. And these were volunteers and they were women from all over. And they had to go through this whole process. You wanna talk about this novel briefly? Yeah. To start with, they were mostly all from Hawaii and they started on Oahu but then the outer islands, then they set up stations as well. So this was right after the attack on Pearl Harbor the men to free up the men for fighting. They recruited all these women and they had to be I think 19 to 34 with no kids to run the radar stations and radar was brand new at that point. So they just had discovered really that it worked on Pearl Harbor and station O'Ponna and that whole story, how we actually saw the Japanese planes coming but didn't realize what it was. And so these women were top secret. It was top secret and no one even knew about it. If you ask, when I started asking some, a lot of my older family friends, no one had even heard about it. So these women were working around the clock. And like you said, they were guiding pilots. They were tracking planes. We did have another, I think it was in March of 1942. We had another attack, although it was botched. They didn't succeed but they did end up dropping two bombs here on Oahu. Okay, I was just looking at the chat room. There are some questions there and I do want to go to them but I want to mention two things. One, because you are looking at a multifaceted, you're taking a multifaceted look at the war. In other words, each novel looks at it from a different direction and from a different person's perspective but it's the same war. So some information is the same in every novel. And one of those things that came out of it for me was that the United States had a pretty good idea. This was about to happen. That there's some information out there. They did. Yeah. But it had not acted on. Yeah, and there's a lot of speculation. There's a lot of theories on really to what degree they knew it was going to happen. And people were, or the state of Hawaii, we were having people build bomb shelters even the year before or the whole year leading up to it, air raid shelters. So yeah, there's been numerous accountless actually books written on that subject. And the more you look into it, the more you start scratching your head. Let's ask a question from the chat room. One of them was, and you might giggle about this, I understand you're a trained acupuncturist. Will we see that in a character someday? Well, it's funny because I have a couple unpublished books. So in my unpublished books that I'd written before, I do have an acupuncturist character. I have like an herbalist character. So, and I actually have a book that I, I proposed to my publisher as a future book that involves, you know, it's kind of partly set in Chinatown during actually during the war, but we'll see. I'm not sure yet. That's a good question. Okay, well, Helen, I'd like to know that. Faith Bashar is asking, what is your attachment to animals and humans? Since they appear in every one of your novels and do you have a favorite of these animals in your novels, of the four that we've mentioned already? Well, I love animals, obviously. And I'm a big believer, you know, in animals, therapy animals, and that's what, you know, that's how I ended up writing in The Lieutenant's Nurse. But also the whole spark, the whole idea for my first novel was this lion that the Marines had with them Roscoe in Waimea. They had smuggled this lion in. And so that lion became my, you know, my idea for the story. And then, and I knew the little girl in my story was gonna be traumatized by something. And so this lion was kind of almost like a little, it was a therapy for her. And then the dog as well in Red Sky or Hawaii, I think I'm just really interested. And I think when you start looking more deeply into each individual's stories during war, you see, like you'll hear about the animals, you know, like if you're reading the battle stories, you don't, but when you hear about people in their individual lives, when I was reading through old accounts, my dad's classmates on Pearl Harbor, they always mentioned the dog or the cat, you know, something like that. So I think added an element of realism as well. Yes, he had horses in another one. And the question that I momentarily lost because I am a senior at this point was that you and I had a conversation and you said someone was calling your novels a series. Now I kind of look at them as a collection. How do you see your novels? Yeah, it's definitely a collection. Somebody had said series and then someone else had said collection. And I said, yeah, I like collection better because they are not a series, it is. And they're all, there are Pearl Harbor stories. I think Radar Girls and Lieutenant's Nurse are more actual Pearl Harbor stories and the other ones are wartime Hawaii stories. But yeah, I think they're all, I like collection. Can we see the graphics of Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers? Okay, there it is. And then the Lieutenant's wife, I mean, the Lieutenant's nurse. There you go. And then Red Sky over Hawaii and Radar Girls. And then Drumroll, please, Sarah, tell us about your newest novel, The Code Breakers' Secrets. So the Code Breakers' Secret, the original title was The Last Plane to Honolulu, but The Code Breakers' Secret actually, I think is more telling of what it's about. So if you had read The Lieutenant's Nurse, you are familiar with the dungeon, which is the building, it's underneath the administration building in Pearl Harbor. And I actually just got to go on a tour of that. So that was really amazing. But that's where all the code breaking took place in World War II or in Hawaii during World War II. There was Pearl Harbor in Washington, mostly a little bit in the Philippines and some in Australia. But so this book is about a female code breaker that comes to Hawaii and she's in the dungeon. And then it's a dual timeline novel. So there's also another story and they're tied together kind of by a pilot. So he's in both timelines and there's a mystery. And the second storyline is set at Monica Beach Hotel in 1965. And so the two stories kind of converge at the end. Okay, now we can pre-order this novel, but we can't get our hands on it yet. Is that correct? Correct. It releases on August 2nd, but I'll do some advanced giveaways. I'll do a few giveaways beforehand. So if people are following me on Instagram, usually your Facebook, then I'll do a couple of giveaways because it's always fun to send them out. How can people get your books? Are they on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles? Are they in individual bookshops? How do people get their hands on your novels? Yeah, they're pretty much anywhere that you can find books. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, they're on Audible and they are in Kona. I mean, I like to have people by local obviously. So I know they have them here at the shop in Kaimaki. I think they have some at Native Books, Barnes & Noble, on the Big Island, Kona Stories and Kona Bay Books. And I hope I'm not forgetting anybody, but yeah, those are the local stores that I know of and anywhere online that sells books pretty much. Will we see more of them in Costco? I hope so. They have my first time in Costco and during the pandemic, everything got really weird. So hopefully again in Costco, I know Walmart also has had them for, Walmart has had radar girls for a while and I was in there the other day and they still had some. So if you're not near a bookstore, Walmart also has some. Yeah. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. What else are you writing, Sarah? Because a writer never stops. They're always thinking of something ahead. Are you gonna remain with, are you gonna stick with the Pearl Harbor theme or are you going to break out from that? Well, my next book, which I haven't actually announced yet, is not Pearl Harbor. It is historical fiction. It is set partly, mostly in Hawaii and so yeah, I think we're veering away from World War II. I think five World War II books is probably enough. However, if a good story came up, I would be interested in that. I'm not saying, never say never. Never say never is right. Once you've decided on the basic idea of your story and you have your characters in mind, this is for all the writers now because we've satisfied the readers here. Let's give the writer something because I'm very heavily involved in the writing world as well, not to your level, but I have my own little thing going. Tell us about, once you understand how your story is going to go, what is your research like? How do you begin with that or end with that? I think at least over time, it's gotten a little easier because I have more to draw from just in the World War II Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Pacific arena. But usually I'll have one or two books that I usually always read, articles online. I try to talk to people as much as I can. I have a lot of people here to draw from family, friends, and acquaintances that I know of that if not lived through it, maybe their parents have. I usually also watch some old movies to try to get a visual as much as I can. I was just wondering if the events of today will have any influence because it's live now. Everything's are live now, even though you're getting away from the Pearl Harbor stories. Yeah, you know, I'm not sure. I think it's just, it just will depend with the book as what I'm writing. Yeah, yeah. But I do, you know, I don't go to too much in depth in the book beforehand because I know also as I'm writing, that informs what I'm gonna need to know. So I'll kind of have my baseline what I'm learning. And then as I go, I end up having to do a fair amount of research as well. Like code breaking, I had to learn a lot about code breaking. And I would explain it. And that was really challenging. I think that may have been the hardest. I bet. Speaking of code breaking, how did you get into that bugger? Somebody that had read my books actually works on Pearl Harbor. And he's in a similar field but with computers as the code breakers. And so he asked me if I had been there and I said no. And then there was a tour happening just so happened. And so I got to tag along. Yeah, it was timing. Yeah. Timing is exactly right. So we're just about out of time. Is there anything that you would like to tell us that about your novels, like do you have a favorite one of the ones you've written? Is there a particular character that you assimilate to or you especially appreciated because it reminded you of someone in your life like your grandmother or your mom, your mother. Well, Daisy, the main character in this radar girls was even though my mom, she wasn't in a women's air raid defense. Just my mom did grow up in Wailua and she was a little, just running around out there barefoot kid after she had left the Big Island. So that was somewhat inspired by my mom. All my characters, there's a little piece of, either family or friends in my characters. But it's usually a mix. It's not usually just the entire like modeled completely after someone. The authenticity is what counts, right? When you're writing. Yeah, definitely. So what's on your bedside table? What are you reading? Well, I'm reading a book that I'm writing for an author friend of mine and it's called Angels of the Resistance by Noelle Salazar. She wrote The Flight Girls and it's really good. It's really, really good. People are gonna definitely want to pick that one up. It releases in November. So I'm reading that right now. Let's see what else am I reading? I'm listening to, I just, I started listening to Nugget. It's a Pearl Harbor story about a pilot and it's fascinating. Yeah. It's about a, I haven't heard it. I just started it. I just started it and it's fascinating. It's very detailed. Clearly, the author was in the military and knows his stuff about aviation and the war. It's really good. It's called, I'm pretty sure it's called just Nugget. Nugget. Oh my goodness, we'll have to look. It's good. But I went to find everyone to look up all five of your novels and you can find them on Amazon and various locations. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today. It was so lovely meeting you and talking about your novels. And I wish you such success. I really do. In closing, I would, yes, I would like to thank the technicians and the staff of Think Tech Kauai. I'd like to thank J. Fadal, the producer, our underwriters, all the viewers that watch the show. It's very appreciative and I think the shows have, all the shows have great value. My novels also can be found on Amazon. I'll just put that little plug out there. Is there any websites, Sarah, you want to mention besides your www.acramenbooks.com? No, Facebook. I mean, I'm mostly, I think I'm most active on Instagram at Sarah Ackerman Books. Yeah, that's my, I don't want to. I hope everyone will follow. Again, much success. Good night, everyone. Sleep well. Good night. Bye. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Kauai. 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