3rd Book launch of "Maui and Sina" tomorrow!

It's getting quite exciting with one last day before the launch of our 3rd edition/offering. The book is called "Maui and Sina" and it's the first of 3 plays that I wrote for High schools back in the 1990s for a Pasifika/Maori audience in South Auckland, and in case Otara of which I used to call my second home when I taught our there for 6 years.

In total, I actually wrote 6 plays but the first three were special as they were written with a specific audience in mind as well as students and it was well received by the audience and they understood the humour and my depiction of tragic situations that can often happen in our households.

The actual background to me writing plays goes back to my days as a Bible class teacher at Mangere PIC (Presbyterian) and we had to come up with Easter, Christmas, White Sunday plays etc. I would write them into mini productions which would have the (conservative) congregation laughing in church or crying. It's all in the power of the pen (think of the Bible :)

And the situation that gave me the impetus to write my first school production was having watched one of my colleague's High school production a year earlier with students who were Maori/Pasifika students enacting a European Fairy Tale story and that got me angry because I knew that there were few (if any) play scripts that were relevant to us and I knew I had to do something about it.

So it is a play that weaves together themes about mythology, the importance of our family ties as Maori/Pasifika people and discusses the tensions that often exist between parents and their children. At the heart of the story, it's about getting parents and their children to share in a dialogue before it is too late.

The cover illustration was designed by my eldest daughter and as you can see with all of my books there are definitely bright colours in play on every cover and this will be evident in every cover design to come with original art (my signature move). It's actually a vinyl cut out that she designed under the tutelage of my youngest sister as we're all a little bit arty on the female side of our family.

Many thanks to the many people who've attended and bought books or supported these endeavours with helpful comments or constructive thoughts, it's through your alofa and love in sharing that has made this journey possible and looking forward to many more to come...