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Words and Wine

April 4, 2017 @ 6PM

Each month Kona Stories hosts an event with local and traveling authors. This event happens the First Tuesday evening of the month starting at 6 PM. Authors are available to talk story while you are getting your plate of appetizers and glass of complimentary wine. Authors then give a 15 minute talk about their book and themselves, the writing and publishing process or a short reading from the book. After all the authors presentations there is a time for individual questions and book signings with the authors. Expect 3 -5 authors to attend each month and the evening to wrap up around 9 PM. Dress is Aloha casual wear.

 

M.W. Lilly

M.W. Lilly was a Valley Girl before becoming a Kona Girl over thirty years ago.  At the age of seven, she left Hollywood for the San Fernando Valley, and in 1968 graduated from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, at the peak of the Counter-Culture.  The unmistakable importance of this period, when the innocence and prosperity of the booming ‘50’s segued to the Vietnam War and the assassinations of three key American leaders, this period,  coupled with her attempt to understand her family’s alcoholism, prompted her to begin writing. She went on to Raymond College at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California where she was blessed with small, outdoor classes providing intimacy and focus.  In 1971, she pursued a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology at San Francisco State University.  During this same time she married her college sweetheart and set up house in the Bay Area.  In 1978, she moved to South Kona, her home ever since. During her Kona sojourn of rainbows and volcanoes, the author has indulged nearly all of her fantasies.  One of her proudest achievements was having developed an estate coffee business called Ali’i Farms, in Honaunau.  Where else might a Valley Girl be able to do that? In such an environment of immense natural beauty, and with a social atmosphere of acceptance and island living, the author has been able to pursue her heart, both in writing, and in working as a therapist with West Hawaii families.  She has also taught piano over many years, and, finally, after nearly four decades of being a Kona girl, recently purchased her first ukulele. She continues to work as a therapist, and is writing Part II of Eyes of a Valley Girl.  She plans these first two books as a prelude to a series featuring the main character, Tita, and her adventures in the Valley, Hawaii, Egypt and France.  She hopes to connect with you in the matrix on the Lilly Pad at www.valleygirlpublishing.com.

Eyes of a Valley Girl  is  the  story of an invisible, magical world which sustained the author’s troubled adolescence  during the turbulence of the 60’s cultural revolution.   The main character, Marianne, navigates a swirling brew of family, friends, school, French culture, Viet Nam, and an alcoholic family, as she prepares to graduate from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California. 

 

 

Peter Lester

Peter Lester is a retired college professor living in Kailua Kona. He has a number of technical publications out there including a couple of textbooks, but this is his first foray into fiction. He will quickly admit that story-telling is a whole new challenge -- and he loves it!

In Out of the Shadows and into the Fire we meet Josh Mayer, a high school sophomore who lives in the shadow of his older brother, an accomplished student and athlete. His parents are dissatisfied with Josh's mediocre grades, his simple after-school jobs, and his focus on cycling rather than on team sports. Josh meets a fellow student, Kelly, who, despite excellent grades, has her own issues with her looks and her treatment by some disparaging classmates. Kelly's confidence in Josh inspires him to plan a summer bike trip to prove that his biking is a challenging sport and he is good at it. He receives a hesitant OK from his parents and leaves on a longer-than-planned journey that turns into a series of rousing adventures that include getting lost, facing a rattlesnake, fighting a forest fire, and dealing heroically with a horrendous helicopter crash. At the end of the eventful summer, Josh returns to his family, Kelly, school, and surprises he'll never forget.

 

Patricia Leo

Patricia Leo is a longtime resident here on the Big Island of Hawaii.  From her home studio in Puna, Patricia finds inspiration all around.  Working at what she loves, the home environment allows her access to paint at all times of the day or evening. Wise old trees surround Patricia’s home studio and a rainforest jungle so vibrant that one can feel it growing. It was here, in this lovely environment that the gift of inspiration for this children’s storybook came to be.

Little One, is a story of a day in the life of a wee mouse who lives with a family on a country homestead in the warmth of Hawaii. Through the unfolding of this story, children are given the chance to see through the eyes and heart of this small being as he travels through his waking hours, concerning himself with life as he knows it, finding food, experiencing his environment and relating to others on his way. This storyline goes deeper when Little One heads home to his cozy blankets on the top of the shelf where he sleeps knowing that at the end of his day, is the beginning of their day. The message that Little One comes to understand is revealed in the realization of the ways of his people in the home where he lives. The gentle conclusion arrives with the sweetness of knowing that we are all able to find a way to peace. In the natural world all beings seek a peaceful existence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M.W. Lilly

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Peter Lester

Out of the shadows and into the Fire

Patricia Leo

Little One

Date: 04/04/2017
Time: 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Place:

78-6831 Alii Drive
Suite 142
Kailua Kona, HI 96740
United States