'ōiwi

What was the journey like to becoming an artist? Did you always knew you could create art?

As long as I remember, my dream was to illustrate children’s books, from my young age. That dream came true when God brought me to Hawaiʻi. In my early career, I was given the opportunity to illustrate a textbook by Bess Press in 1989 and illustrated and designed many island products by Island Heritage Publishers. I also illustrated many cultural paper dolls for magazines and a publisher on the continent, Dover Publications, for about ten years.

Then from around 1996 through 2000, I illustrated a series of Hawaiian theme educational coloring books, including Hawaiian Plants and Animals and Exotic Flowers for artists (76 pages), for Dover. To accomplish the task, I did intensive research and study, and that knowledge became my foundation for illustrating Hawaiian childrenʻs books. I give thanks to God how He has guided my illustrating career, which I have never dreamed I’d have when I first landed on the Big Island.

I also cannot thank enough for the relationship I have with Island Heritage since my first encounter in 1993 designing island products and my first book in 1997. I illustrated many childrenʻs books, board books, paper doll books, and coloring and activity books, and we continue to work to create for island keiki to this day. One of the longest selling books I illustrated with them, Humu: The Little Fish Who Wished Away His Colors, is 23 years old now! The author Kimberly A. Jackson and I are still good friend, and we are learning ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, Hawaiian language, together now.

What do you enjoy most about creating art? 

When I see keiki reading my books in the library or other public places, or when moms of my art class students tells me they used to read my books when they were young, I feel so humbled and grateful, and feel rewarded for my hard work.

What do you enjoy most about writing, especially for kids? What are some of your greatest challenges?

I love reading my books to children and seeing their reactions! My greatest challenge is finding time to grow as a writer. I’m busy as an English instructor and tutor, but I read craft books and watch craft webinars when I can.

What is your writing process like?

I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about story ideas before drafting. I usually revise drafts countless times.

Three of your books are co-authored by your brother, John Payne. What is it like to work with a family member? What strengths do each of you bring to a project?

I like working with my brother to develop stories. He brings his imagination; I bring my analysis. While he comes up with new ideas, I follow industry standards for plotting.

Please tell us about Chepchop Unai. What inspired you to write that story? Who inspired your main characters? What do you like best about them?

I’ve always wanted to write about Guam because it’s my home. Chepchop Unai is written mostly in English, but it has a sprinkling of CHamoru/Chamorro words. It reflects the way I speak. My first language is English, but I use CHamoru/Chamorro words to express certain ideas. My family inspired my main characters because the story depicts a close relationship between a child and his grandparents. I like showing how grandparents are important in children’s lives.

What inspired you to write these stories? Is there any particular story that speaks to you? 

I’ve always loved writing short stories and living in their world of brevity and subtlety. These stories in particular came to me over a long period of time (the first story I began around 2015, I believe) and emerged out of a love and admiration of our Hawaiian community and particularly the mana and ferocity of our women.

In terms of stories that speak to me, I’d say “The Love and Decline of the Corpse Flower” has a special place in my heart, in that it came to me almost fully formed. I felt an instant affinity for the women in this piece, and knew right away I wanted to do right by them.

I love that story, too. What was your favorite part of writing your collection? What was most challenging? 

My favorite part of writing this collection is also my favorite part of writing stories in general—I love living in the language and taking the time to play with my sentences. Usually on the line level is where characters first emerge for me, so seeing how these women slowly started to reveal themselves in the collection’s many stories was such a pleasure.

The biggest challenge I faced was more of an internal struggle in that for many months I feared how these stories would be received by kānaka readers. I so badly want to make native Hawaiian readers proud, which creates a twofold emotional response for me, in that I also have lots of anxiety around disappointing them. While I know there’s no universal or monolithic Hawaiian experience, I couldn’t help but feel paralyzed by the fear that the experiences I was writing into through these stories simply weren’t valid, and this brought a lot of pressures to stories that were still in their infancy. I really had to work through this fear for a while, and sometimes it still creeps up.

Oh, yes, I understand the pressure. What characteristics do you love best about the protagonists in Every Drop? Are they modeled after specific people?

I just love messy women and seeing them be messy on the page! I also really admire when characters in fiction are afforded the full range of their humanity, which I tried to do for the women in Every Drop. While none of the women are modeled after specific people, there are so many strong, resilient, messy women among my friends, family, and community who I’m sure have seeped into these characters with or without my knowledge.

What was the journey to getting Every Drop published like? How long did it take to write your book? 

It’s strange — the journey feels both incredibly long and very compressed simultaneously! There’s a pretty wide range in terms of when these stories came to be; I began a few of them as early as 2015, while one I wrote as recently as 2021. I had been nursing the majority of the book’s stories for many years before I was able to conceive of them as a collection. Then COVID hit, I began my MFA at the Michener Center for Writers remotely and really got to work on curating a collection and taking it very seriously. I signed with my agent Iwalani Kim in April 2021, after which we spent over six months revising and polishing the stories before she went out on submission. The book sold at auction fairly quickly after that.

Why did you become author? Have you always wanted to be an author?

Yes, it’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to be and honestly likely one of the only things I’m good at! In all seriousness, I’ve taken artmaking seriously since I was a child and always knew I wanted to do something in the literary space. For a while, I dreamed of becoming a journalist, then a novelist. Reading widely and being exposed to so many incredibly gifted authors was what propelled forward my passion to become an author myself.

What do you enjoy most about writing? What are some of your greatest challenges? 

I love the playful and generative space of starting a story. Before any pressure is put on it to become the thing it wants to be, there exists a sense of endless possibility that just thrills me. I think one of my greatest challenges is learning when to end something. I have a tendency to overwrite (which is why I also take so much time with the revision stage), and it can be hard for me to see an ending clearly because I often just want to keep going with a character, a world, an atmosphere, etc.

What are your hopes and dreams for the year and beyond in terms of your publishing career and what you would like to see published in the future? Can you share a bit about what you’re working on next?

I would love to see the story collection welcomed into the larger literary landscape, particularly because there are so few works being published on a large scale by native Hawaiian authors. There are plenty of books written about Hawaiʻi and Hawaiians, but few have been penned by Hawaiian authors, and it’s really important for me to champion Indigenous writers and their work.

In terms of future projects, I’m on contract with Bloomsbury (my publisher) for my first novel. It’s tentatively titled Bloodsick, and while I won’t give too much away, I can share the book is invested in the topics of motherhood, menstruation, and anxiety.

What beliefs are your work challenging? 

One of the beliefs I hope my work challenges is the aforementioned idea of a monolithic Hawaiian experience that stems from a lack of representation of Hawaiian experiences in contemporary literature. I also hope to push against the idea that Indigenous characters in fiction should be represented well and admirably—this expectation ends up stripping them of so much of their humanity. Instead, I wanted these stories to champion characters who made bad decisions and said the wrong things—and were ultimately still capable of receiving and returning love.

What advice would you give an aspiring writer?

Take pleasure in the work. It’s easy for writers to aspire to publicity and rave reviews and awards, but no external recognition can compare to the pleasures of a fully realized story. A writing career also takes a lot of grit, persistence, and patience, so it’s important for you to locate your love and inspiration first and foremost in the work itself.

What’s your online presence like? Do your readers contact you? What do they say? 

I have a humble online presence, mostly in the form of my website and Instagram. A few readers have contacted me with overwhelmingly kind things to say about the collection, which truly means the world to me. When the readers in question are kānaka, my heart absolutely soars. 

And now a few niele questions, if you’d like to answer. Who is your biggest supporter?

My parents are my biggest, longest running supporters, without question. My partner Van has also been in my corner since day one.

Is there a fun fact youʻd like to share about yourself with readers?

Since book promotion began, I’ve become obsessed with taking stationary rhythmic cycling classes as a stress relief and now cannot imagine my life without it!

What kinds of stories do you enjoy reading? Any favorites?

I love stories that yield deep insights into what it means to be human and in a body. I also gravitate toward stories that subvert my expectations, are playful on the line level, and demand an attention to the language, sometimes so much so that I must return to them again and again. Just a few story collections that stand out to me: The Visiting Privilege (and especially “Honored Guest”) by Joy Williams, Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz, Sing to It by Amy Hempel, and most recently The Sorrows of Others by Ada Zhang.

This has been so fun! Mahalo nui, Megan, for talking story and sharing your mana’o with us. Our best wishes always for your continued success! To learn more about Megan and to read more of her work, visit her website and follow her on Instagram.

Images courtesy of Megan Kamalei Kakimoto

Can you share a bit of your upcoming debut picture book, Aloha Everything, illustrated by you and written by Kaylin Melia George? Is this your first picture book?

I don’t want to spoil anything but in a nutshell, it follows a girl named Ano who learns about her Native Hawaiian heritage through hula and her adventures. And yes, technically Aloha Everything is my first children’s picture book although I was working on it along side another book called Aloha Christmas by Burton Richardson.

What was the process like to making those beautiful illustrations in Aloha Everything?

The creative process was awesome. My collaboration with Kaylin was a very special experience that made the project so much fun. We first started the creative process by discussing the mood boards that Kaylin created. She did a really great job setting the visual pace of the book. Once we were on the same page, I began the conceptualizing phase which mainly consisted of creating simple compositions that highlighted the text best. We generally refer to these as thumbnail sketches. The book is split into three different sequences: Main, Rest, and I Spy. Early in this stage we didn’t have a style established yet but what we knew that it was important for us to have consistency for all three sequences. We wanted to make sure that the I Spy and rest pages were distinguishable from the main pages. The next step was creating character designs for Ano who was the protagonist. We created a handful of versions. We also created character designs for a couple of recognizable names such as Laka, who we ended taking out in the final, and Pele.

To achieve the overall looks of our characters, I referenced sources such as The Merrie Monarch Festival and archives from UHM’s database that held images of different instruments, traditional attires, and tools. I also looked at different modernized Native Hawaiian looks that inspired the fun and whimsy element that children would enjoy.

After the long and tedious job of gathering references, I started creating drafts of the pages based off the thumbnail sketches. Then, I created color swatches followed by digital renderings to further explain my visions. After that, we took it to the big paper. I cut 300 lb Arches watercolor paper to the proper dimensions and dove into painting. We didn’t paint the pages in chronological order which was nice.

Do you have a favorite illustration? Which one and why?

Honestly, I hold every illustration close to my heart. It’s as if all the pages of artwork have a mind of their own and they’re trying to come out of the paper. If I had to choose one, page eight clicked to me from the beginning. Ano has her arms stretched wide as if she is overseeing and embracing the land.

I love that one, too! What was your favorite part of working on the book?

The book reveal was the most rewarding. I teared up a bit. When you work day in and day out on something you don’t get to take it all in until it’s in your hands.

What was the most challenging?

The biggest challenge for me was ensuring consistency with all the illustrations. There would be times where my mind would go wild and I would want to implement new things (I secretly did anyway) but I had to dial it back.

How long did it take to complete the illustrations?

It really depended on the complexity of the design. Some, such as page three which has a ton of sea creatures following the mighty honu, took me what seemed to be a billion years—it actually took maybe two weeks while the last page took me about a week.

What techniques and resources did you use to illustrate the book?

After doing a few material swatches and mini painting samples we settled on acrylic and gouache on paper. I really loved how versatile and opaque the paints could be while being able to bleed like watercolor. It was important for me to be able to have access to a wide range of textures.

Can you share a bit of your upcoming debut picture book, Aloha Everything? Without giving too much away, what is it about? 

Aloha Everything is a journey of adventure and learning. Within its pages, you’ll encounter mighty canoes crashing over ocean waves, royal hawks soaring high above the clouds, and, most importantly, you’ll meet a courageous young girl who learns, grows, and comes to love her island home with all her heart. In the book, knowledge surrounding Hawaiian history, ecology, and culture is carefully woven into a beautiful rhyming scheme that will lull little ones into brilliant dreams of vibrant adventure.

What characteristics do you love best about the protagonist? Is she modeled after someone specific? 

From the beginning, my mother’s stories about growing up on Molokaʻi were a huge inspiration for the story. So, when we were designing our protagonist, it felt only natural that the character be partially modeled on my mother herself. Mae Waite (the incredible illustrator of Aloha Everything) and I referenced old photographs of my mom growing up on the islands. We were looking to capture landscapes, flora, and animals to reference in the book. But, even more importantly, we were looking to capture the spirit of a little girl who deeply loves her island home.

I remember one photograph in particular that was heavily referenced. It’s my mom as a little girl, and someone was clearly trying to catch her with the camera, but she shows up a little blurry because she just wouldn’t stay still for the photo! Even with the blurriness of the photograph, the one thing that’s absolutely clear is the image of a child who is full of energy and adventure and excited to be outside and taking in the joy of the islands. That’s a feeling that we try to recreate in every illustration of Ano, the protagonist of Aloha Everything.

What was your favorite part of writing your book? 

We always dreamed that the story would be not only an exhilarating adventure but also an opportunity for learning. That’s why, while the book was still in early stages of development, we consistently consulted with teachers, parents, and, of course, with kids themselves. We brought the book into over a dozen classrooms and to nonprofit readings to see students of every age experience the book, and that was definitely one of my most favorite parts of the process. Seeing keiki as young as preschool age and as old as fifth grade all deeply engaged and learning and interacting with the book in different ways has truly been such a remarkable gift. I met students who were so joyful to see Hawaiian words they recognized included in a book for them. I met other students that were so excited to learn Hawaiian words for the first time. Those experiences, and seeing the genuine excitement in students’ eyes, are something I’ll cherish forever.

I must also say that as much as I hope that Aloha Everything will be an awesome learning experience for kids everywhere, certainly no one has learned more from creating this book than I did. And that is most definitely my other favorite part of writing the book.

Growing up away from the islands, I always learned about my Native Hawaiian heritage from my mother’s stories. But through the creation of this book, I found an opportunity to seek out new learnings in a whole new way. I was having new conversations with my family about our histories and our heritage. I was interviewing inspirational and influential kumu. I was spending years in reading and research. And I was having the most incredible interactions with members of the community who have been so kind as to share with me their personal stories and their manaʻo. It has been truly transformative for me; I was constantly learning new things about myself that I had never known. And I am so grateful for that journey and everyone who has made it possible.