ABIDING HEART
By A.J. Llewellyn
My new book Abiding Heart is out today and this third installment of the Pearl Harbor series is probably my favorite. Tinder and Jason are together, united in their desire to protect Hawaii and help rebuild their precious island home in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
I’ve immersed myself in history to write the love story of Tinder and Jason, two gay men living in war-torn Honolulu. When I was in Hawaii in September researching Book 4, Avenging Heart (which will be released April 23, 2012 by Total-e-Bound) and my upcoming December 18 release Christmas in Flip Flops (Amber Allure), it was a very different Honolulu I visited from my previous one.
The Honolulu of this very minute actually gave me a small glimpse into what the island city must have been like after Pearl Harbor. Anyone who reads my books knows I love Hawaii and I am guilty of romancing its past…wishing I could have experienced it before ‘we all came there’. The truth is there wasn’t really a gentle past. In King Kamehameha’s time the kapu system was so rigid it was easy to commit a fatal offense. Even looking the king in the eye guaranteed a death sentence.
In Tinder and Jason’s time, with America’s entry in WWII, neighbors feared one another. Food was scarce, martial law was in effect… Gossip, slander, unfounded rumors, the threat of Japanese internment camps…all of it was real.
The islands swarmed with servicemen…and today they do as well. I noticed a huge surge of armed forces on my most recent trip. Some 15,000 families have recently come to the islands, their men and women preparing to ship out from the various military bases scattered around the islands to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hawaii today is experiencing a deprivation I’ve never witnessed before. Whole families are losing their homes and camping on beaches. Ewa Beach, for example, has a two-mile tent city that is heart-breaking to see.
On the flipside, what is uplifting is the way the islands have rallied behind these many military families – all of whom are sacrificing for our country, for our freedom. Movie theaters, the snorkel bay of Hanauma, restaurants, cafés, supermarkets all have special discounts for them. And so they should. When I first started working on my Pearl Harbor series and talked to the families of Pearl Harbor survivors and a few remaining ones still with us, I learned to thank them all for their sacrifices, for what they are doing for our country.
At Hanauma Bay, as I stood in line to go snorkeling, I met a young military family newly arrived from Texas. He was a new recruit and seemed excited. He was so young and sweet I couldn’t help but pray he comes back to his family when so many don’t.
I am grateful to this young man and all the other brave men and women who’ve given so much in the war against terror. I thank them all and their families who are also sacrificing by having to cope without their loved ones. I thank them for their priceless gifts.
For more information on this book and the Pearl Harbor series, please follow this link:
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=1433
Aloha oe,
AJ
