An Interview with Jennifer K. Morita

This has been a busy week for Jennifer K. Morita. Her debut mystery novel, GHOSTS OF WAIKĪKĪ, released on Tuesday, November 19. Jennifer’s protagonist Maya Wong, an out-of-work journalist, has returned to Hawaii to ghostwrite Parker Hamilton’s, a controversial land developer’s, biography. When Hamilton dies under suspicious circumstances, Maya finds herself investigating with her ex, Detective Koa Yamada, the very person she was determined to avoid.

Welcome, Jennifer, and thanks for joining us at WRITERS WHO KILL!

                                                                                                                Paula Gail Benson

 

Jennifer K. Morita

Does your protagonist share any of your characteristics?

I drew bits and pieces of my own life to create Maya - my experience working in the newspaper industry and what I remember from the years my family lived in Hawaiʻi. A lot of her inner thoughts are similar to my own, which is why I chose the first-person POV. Maya has a perspective and opinions as an Asian American woman that she wouldn’t necessarily say out loud.

But she’s also more daring, more independent and less old-fashioned than I am. And she’s a runner, and I don’t run.

Have you ever been a ghostwriter? How is Maya drawn into that world?

Back when I first thought up the Maya character, I was a rookie reporter working for a weekly newspaper in Northern California. I was reading Naomi Hirahara’s Mas Arai series about a Japanese gardener in Los Angeles and Jan Burke’s Irene Kelly books featuring a city reporter in a fictionalized Long Beach. I really wanted to read a mystery series with an Asian American journalist, much like the real Naomi Hirahara herself.

By the time I sat down to plot my book, newspapers were dying off. I remember watching drone footage of an empty newsroom before the building was demolished. It was no longer viable to have a working journalist as a main character, particularly one who would come back to her home in Hawaiʻi.

Years ago, I wrote a profile story about an elderly man, who liked the article so much he wanted to hire me to ghostwrite a biography of his life that he would self publish. He wasn’t a rich developer trying to leave behind an Ozymandian legacy, but rather a man who wanted his children and grandchildren to know his story and their family’s history.

Maya takes the ghostwriting gig from Parker Hamilton out of desperation. It’s her last chance to salvage her writing career before taking a state desk job.

Tell us about some of Maya’s family and friends. Are they connected to the death? What advice are they giving Maya?

Maya has lost touch with her old childhood friends Lani and Willa over the years, but reconnects with them when she returns to Hawaiʻi. Lani — who was really fun to write because she doesn’t suffer fools and never shies from expressing her opinion — is struggling to keep her clothing boutique afloat amidst pressures from developers and big chain stores. She has a tangential connection to the case and helps update Maya on the current state of affairs in their home which has implications in the investigation. She also disapproves of Maya’s latest career choice, and frequently lets her know.

Prior to your novel, you had a short story published in the Capitol Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crimes 2021 anthology CEMETERY PLOTS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. What is “Cranes in the Cemetery” about? What are some of the differences you found in writing a short story and writing a novel?

I wrote “Cranes in the Cemetery” while I was querying GHOSTS OF WAIKĪKĪ in the spring of 2021. I had just joined Capitol Crimes, which is the Sacramento chapter of the national Sisters in Crime organization (as well as one of the largest and most active SinC groups.) I wanted to beef up my bio because: (a) I didn’t have any published fiction to my name, and (b) I wasn’t expecting any success with the first round of queries.

As soon as I heard about the anthology’s theme - Northern California cemeteries - I knew exactly which cemetery I was going to use in my story. I believe it’s the oldest cemetery still existing in Sacramento, dating back to the Victorian age, and it’s kitty-corner from the Sacramento Buddhist Church.

“Cranes in the Cemetery” introduces readers to Maya Wong, who is visiting her baachan, or grandmother, in Sacramento. It’s the eve of the annual Bazaar, and Maya has been recruited to help make futomaki when a woman from the church is found dead in the old historic cemetery. The only clue is a trail of folded paper cranes.

I wrote the story after the Bazaar had been canceled because of the pandemic. It was inspired by one of my fellow Girl Scout leaders whose troop organized an origami paper crane “fold in” as part of Tsuru for Solidarity’s protest to end U.S. immigration detention camps.

“Cranes” is the only short story I’ve published, and I found it incredibly challenging to write a fully developed mystery in 5,000 words. I’m hoping to hone my short story writing skills and maybe publish more.

What are you writing now?

I’m currently about halfway through Book No. 2 in what I hope will be my Maya Wong series. Not gonna lie - it’s hard writing the second book. It was the pandemic when I wrote the early draft of GHOSTS OF WAIKĪKĪ, and so I had more time at home. But it was also easier psychologically because in the back of my mind I thought, “It’s not like anyone’s ever gonna read this.”

I also have ideas for other books, including a culinary mystery about a woman who runs a mochi shop with her grandmother in Sacramento’s declining Japantown, and a standalone about a San Francisco bartender in Chinatown whose customer reveals a terrible secret and ends up dead in Portsmouth Square the next day.

Many thanks, Jennifer, and best wishes to you!

BRIEF BIO:

Jennifer K. Morita is a former newspaper reporter, who juggled freelance jobs with being a stay-at-home mom for several years before becoming a writer for the communications department at a local university. She spent the first six months of the pandemic purging and baking with the rest of the world before giving her lifelong pipedream of being a mystery author a chance. She is a past president of her local Sisters in Crime chapter who continues to serve on the board and recently edited the 2024 Capitol Crimes anthology FARM TO FOUL PLAY. She lives in California with her husband and two daughters. Her website is Jennifer K. Morita, Author – mystery author.