On Writing 'Milu'

Ok, so I didn't want to be all gung ho about it, but I figure it's best if I share with anyone interested why I've failed to make a post to my blog in a month and a half, and I promise I have a good explanation. So here it is: I'm writing a book

Those in the know know that I've written another book ('The Right Hand of Justice'). Currently, I'm working on a piece of fiction, a novel entitled 'Milu.' I was perusing the book of Hawaiian Idioms called `Ōlelo No`eau, (the cover of which is pictured here) when I came across mention of ʻMilu, the God of the Underworld.ʻ I didn't even know there was a Hawaiian underworld, let alone one with a cool sounding god. Unfortunately, the book only offered two such idioms, both bland: Aia me Milu, kēlā mea i lalo lilo loa. With Milu, that one gone way down below (as in death); I lalo i Milu. Down in Milu.

Confusingly, Milu is both the god as well as the name of the Underworld, also called Lua-o-Milu, or Miluʻs Pit. To keep things clear, I call the god Milu and the Underworld--or the Afterworld, as I call it--Lua-o-Milu. However, things become less clear when you consider that my protagonist, a young Hawaiian woman, is also named Milu. To me, the name has a more feminine ring to it. Anyway, the short of it is that a young girl loses her entire family in a very short time and becomes possessed with the need to be reunited with them in Lua-o-Milu. Along the way, she discovers that it isnʻt so easy to enter the land of the dead when youʻre still alive. She finds a way, however, gaining the aid and skill of the great prophet Kupaianaha, who bestows upon her the mana (spiritual magic) for the task.

Thatʻs a very simplified account of a very convoluted book, but there you have it. Iʻm quite far along, at 177 computer typed pages. At this rate, I believe it will be far longer than ʻThe Right Hand of Justiceʻ which I also intend to revisit, edit, and submit for publication, after Iʻve finished with Milu.

Working on this novel, so concerned with the Afterworld, got me thinking about what I myself thought about it. Not necessarily Hell, which is a place to vividly emblazoned into even the most atheistic mind. I mean a world after this one, where the dead go to live peacefully, eternally. I found it hard not to think about it in religious terms, and I even resort to the idea of Purgatory in ʻMilu.ʻ But for me, the idea of nothing after life, a true void, that is something that religion didnʻt need to foster in us. Itʻs what fills the void that is determined by the outsider.

Does anyone else have ideas about what the world after this is like? Forget Hell, reincarnation, Purgatory, and the laws of physics, mathematics, reason. Where would your protagonist go if she were going into the Afterworld?