On my travels I’ve come across many different societies, religious beliefs and cultures. I’ve always been especially intrigued by legends, and have often found myself wondering about the basis for them, whether founded in fact or fiction. Without a doubt many legends are based on real events, some say the vast majority are, though I can not attest to that.
During a two-month stay in Hawaii, on the island of Kaua’i, 2007, I learnt a lot more about some of the Hawaiian legends. They have a polytheistic religious system comprising of beliefs in various deities and spirits. I was particularly interested in stories of the Sun god Lono, and also the legend of the Menehune people; mythical, mystical people who have not been around for more than five hundred years, and can only be seen in the light of the moon. It’s believed that the Menehune were tremendous masons. To this day there are stone frameworks still standing, believed to have been built by the Menehune. It is said that they could build grand stone structures during the course of only one night. I’ve seen for myself a masonry construction which has been attributed to the Menehune, a huge fishpond with a stone wall almost a thousand feet in length; the Alekoko Fishpond on the east side of the island. This stone structure, a magnificent feat in engineering, has remained intact for all this time; it’s dated at being over a thousand years old. Common belief is that Hawaii was first inhabited only eight hundred years ago….
Having also visited a number of Buddhist countries, and knowing something of the Buddhist legends, I’ve been able to pair some of the legends from Tibet with a few from Hawaiian, with rather fantastical, explosive results.
Whilst exploring Kauai’i I found myself questioning where, if they still existed, would one be likely to find the Menehune? Having been blessed with limitless imagination, a quality I share with a great many of my readers, the more I pondered the question, the more I began to create a place that could exist deep within the island. There was no curbing my creation, a mystical and hidden forest that existed deep within the island of Kaua’i, and was almost as big as the island itself. A region where not only the Menehune, but also many other mythical, some good, some evil beings could be living undiscovered…. A magical world was created and a fantastical story was born.
The story has been almost three years in the making. The writing of it, in total, took about a year and a half, added to that was a further year and a half editing, copy and proof reading. I used to work a minimum of ten hours per day, spread out from the minute I woke in the morning, right up to putting my pen down late at night - I do write digitally, so that would be logging off at night. It was easy keeping up with the hours because as the story revealed itself I became extremely eager to write more. It is a great work, with the hard copy book 1 containing 550 pages. Not everyone goes for such large volumes, but if you love great fantasy epics, this book will not disappoint.
Rick & Wylie’s Fantastical, Magical Adventures
Book 1
[Journey to the Kingdom]
By Andi Katsina
Kindle
File Size: 1225 KB
Print Length: 662 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: KatsInc.; 1 edition (June 6, 2007)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
Synopsis:
Every few thousand years, true evil, the likes of which roamed the earth eons ago, attempts to rise up from the navel of the world, to once again instil its darkness and establish its reign.
Rick and Wylie’s fantastical, Magical Adventures, tells the story of a father and daughter, Rick and Wylie, who go on a week’s vacation to the island of Kaua’i, in Hawaii.
Wylie buys a bag of costume jewellery from a yard sale, to decorate a ship’s anchor, as part of a school project. Amongst the jewellery is a small quartz pebble. Wylie asks her dad can she take it with her on vacation. Rick takes teardrop shaped pebble to the old traditional Chinese jewellers, near his L.A. studio, to have a ribbon threaded through the hole, so that Wylie can tie it to the inside of her pocket, to guard against loss. The jeweller, Mr Fang, says he needs to keep on to the pebble for a few days, Rick doesn’t let him.
Rick and Wylie have a great time on holiday. Friends come to visit them. They go to visit friends in Maui. In Kaua’i they go ziplining, they visit lots of places, and go kayaking.
On two separate occasions Wylie tells her dad that she has seen the jeweller, Mr Fang, lurking about. Very concerned, he contacts his Production Company staff in L.A.. They go to Mr Fang’s shop to establish his whereabouts. Strangely enough, they are unable to find Fang’s shop, it has disappeared! They all become quite anxious about this, but with only a day of their vacation left, they agree it should be okay.
On the last day, Rick and Wylie go on a boat trip, during which, Mr Fang can be seen on the cliff tops, screaming up to the heavens, screaming out to the ocean, as if controlling the elements. A storm ensues. The boat capsizes. Rick and Wylie are separated.
Wylie is taken by the magical, invisible Manini fish, to an underground seawater cave, where she meets the Forest Keepers, Cherub like people, caretakers of the Mystical Küpono Forest; a mystical, magical forest, deep within the island of Kaua’i.
The Manini fish tell Wylie that she must wake up the Sleeping Menehune Kingdom, and that’s where her dad will find her. On her journey she passes from region to region, encountering many trials, and creatures. Wylie makes it to the kingdom, discovers the underground palace, and waits for her dad to rescue her.
After the boat capsized, Rick began sinking. When he realised Fang was after the Wylie’s quartz teardrop, he took charge of it. Sinking, he remembers Wylie had said there was a name scratched on the back on the teardrop. He utters the name. Suddenly he is flying up in the air, in a little fluffy cloud. Rick zooms off to a holy mountain in Tibet, it opens up, and still in his cloud he plunges deep down, ending up on top of the sacred Mount Meru. It transpires that the cloud is the hat of a genii, a Meru Guardian, one of the guardians of the world.
The Meru Guardian takes Rick back to Kaua’i. His brother, and members of his Production Team have come to Hawaii to join the search. Two of Rick’s friends, and his brother, return to Los Angeles to try to contact the holy people from the sacred Mount Kailash monastery in Tibet, who’s help they need in dealing with Mr Fang, who is in actual fact a ten headed man-snake demon, in the form of an evil wizard, Wan Chu Fang.
Rick and three friends go into the Mystical Forest to search for Wylie. The route they take leads to many trials and mishaps. In the kingdom, Rick and Wylie go down a dry water well to retrieve a stone key. It’s very hair-raising with bubbling lava hot on their tail. In the underground palace their friends remain in one of the grand stone chambers, whilst Rick and Wylie go along a passageway to insert the stone key into a stone disc. They hear a loud voice, claiming to be that of the Menehune king, asking them to come forwards and declare themselves…. It’s at this point that Book 1 ends, and book 2, with a whole new fantastical, magical adventure, begins…
This is a wonderful story, enjoy!
About me
Hello my friends
I'm English, of rich Irish, African descent. Born in the sound of bow bells, an orphan, I grew up in Manchester, England. Quite a bit more than forty, I‘m a vegan, though occasionally lapse into vegetarianism.
Throughout my school years I was a champion athlete and swimmer, going on to become an athletics coach, swimming teacher and youth leader. After which time I was trained as a Chartered Accountant. Interrupting my training, I branched out, working freelance as a troubleshooter in the field of accountancy. Six years of adding and subtracting, was followed by two years of trading as an international commodities broker. This led me to the sedentary position of ‘trader in antique, oriental carpets’. It was at this juncture that I became completely inspired to become a writer.
As a ‘school kid’ I very much enjoyed writing plays in English, Latin and French. Fortunately for me, writing came naturally. I so, so like writing stories that give people, especially young people, and people young at heart, the chance to exercise their own imagination.
I love taking my readers on fantastic journeys. The enjoyment and taste of adventure my stories give to my readers, warms me greatly.
Personal contact
Andi Katsina
Website: www.theindieoracle.com
Email: info@theindieoracle.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/andikatsina
Twitter: twitter.com/andreakatsina
1 comments:
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