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To purchase Ghosts of Waikiki, click the following link to access all your favorite outlets:  Penguin Random House

Interview with Ghosts of Waikīkī Author Jennifer K. Morita

Ghosts of Waikīkī centers on Maya Wong. What would you like readers to know about her?

Maya is an idealist whose mounting bills force her to sell out and move back home to Hawaiʻi. She has a plan to get her career back on track and return to California ASAP, but it goes awry when a man drops dead her first day on the job.

Her reporter’s instincts won’t let her ignore niggling doubts about her employer, and the longer she’s on the Islands the more she questions her life’s path and where she truly belongs. 

Also, for the record, Maya is an Asian American who was born and raised in Hawaiʻi. She’s what people in Hawaiʻi would call kamaʻaina, a long-time local. She is not Native Hawaiian.

Ghosts of Waikīkī includes a busted romance. How does the history between Maya Wong and her ex, Detective Koa Yamada, enhance the mystery?

The history between Maya and Koa creates tension. Their past relationship gives Maya access to information about the murder investigation that a new, civilian acquaintance probably wouldn’t have.

But it’s also a source of conflict for her both professionally and personally, on several levels.

Ghosts of Waikīkī is set in the Hawaiian Islands, one of my favorite places in the world. What drew you to locate your debut in Hawaiʻi?

My family bounced around the states a lot when I was growing up because of my dad’s job. I think that’s why I love books with vibrant settings that either make me want to visit those places some day or bring back fond memories.

We lived in Hawaiʻi during the eighties. It’s still the place that feels most like home to me. Ever since we left, I’ve wanted to read a mystery set on O‘ahu – the kind of book where the setting is as much a character as the protagonist.

It never really occurred to me to write it myself. I spent years playing around with ideas for characters and plots, all set in Sacramento, where I live now. Nothing gelled. Until I was on vacation, crossing Ala Moana Boulevard in Waikīkī. I looked up and saw apartment balconies, where people were drying clothes on the railing and growing potted plants. I thought, “What if Maya lives in Waikīkī?”

And that’s how I ended up setting my book in Hawaiʻi.

Tell us about your path to publication with Ghosts of Waikīkī:

I did everything ass backwards.

I spent a lot of years thinking about writing a book, but more about the characters, the mystery, where it would take place, not about how to structure a plot or create multi-dimensional characters. I didn’t even know what a plot point was, and the only thing I really knew about getting published was that I needed an agent.

A few months into the pandemic, I finally started writing it. We were sheltering in place, and the luxury of time helped my words flow. When I thought I was done, I queried, tried the Twitter pitch thing and struck gold with Lori Galvin. She was very honest with me and said that the manuscript needed a lot of work before we could go on submission with it.

It took two years and a total rehaul. While I was “revising”, I signed up for almost every online class the Sisters in Crime Guppies chapter offered and Zoomed a bunch of writing craft webinars to figure out how to fix my book.

I should’ve taken those classes during the years I was thinking about writing my book, and maybe would’ve figured out how the publishing world works, too. It’s been a crash course for me, instead. But no one’s journey is the same, ya?

Lori went on sub with my book in June 2023, and I took Crooked Lane’s offer on my birthday in August.

Rumor is that you can be found pushing Girl Scout cookies … what’s your weakness (Thin Mints here), and what do you love about Girl Scouts?

I’m a Thin Mints gal, too. But I also really like the Peanut Butter Patties, which are like peanut butter cups but with a crunch cookie. I like both frozen. They’re great crushed up and sprinkled over ice cream.

YUM!

What are you working on now?

I’m working on Book 2 of what I hope will be my Maya Wong series.

I’m also jotting down notes for two other ideas I’ve got floating around, including a culinary mystery about a woman who runs a mochi shop with her grandmother and stumbles on a decades-old murder, and one about a bartender at a restaurant in San Francisco Chinatown whose customer confesses a terrible secret and ends up dead in Portsmouth Square. 

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:

I tell them what my friend Laura Jensen Walker told me: Just do it.

Don’t get too caught up in so-called “rules” or what other writers say you’re supposed to do. Just do whatever works to get words on the page.

Author Pet Corner!