LOCAL FEATURE

The making of a gay mystery

Local author Neil Plakcy talks about his debut novel, ‘Mahu’

By Andy Zeffer
Friday, September 09, 2005

This month, local gay writer Neil Plakcy touts his mystery novel “Mahu.”

The plot revolves around Honolulu police detective Kimo Kanapa’aka, who bears a deep-rooted secret. Upon witnessing a body being dumped in an alley outside a gay bar, Kanapa’aka must come to terms with his own sexuality.

Like his character, Plakcy’s journey to acknowledging his sexuality and seeing his first novel published was a long one.

Plakcy wrote his first mystery short story at age 16. English was a favorite subject of his, and can remember being mesmerized with John Knowles “A Separate Peace” in the 10th grade.

When he went off to college, Plakcy’s parents wanted him to become a lawyer. But he found the curriculum incredibly boring.

“I took an English class and realized that was for me,” he remembers. “By the end of my freshman year I declared English as my major.”

Patience and perseverance paid off for Neil Plakcy, whose novel “Mahu” is being published more than a decade after he wrote it.

Neil Plakcy
Age: 48
Birthplace: Trenton, NJ
Residence: Hollywood, FL
Education: BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, MBA from Columbia University, MFA from Florida International University
Occupation: Professor of English at Broward Community College
Status: Partnered
Pets: A golden retriever named Sam
Tidbit: was once a contestant on the television game show “Jeopardy.” He came in second.

The road to becoming a writer

Plakcy went on to get an MBA in real estate and operations management. It was something fun to study that he thought he could make a living at. But literature remained his true love.

In 1986, Plakcy’s job with a New York based development company brought him to Miami.

“I fell in love with it here,” he says.

In 1989 a big downturn took place in the real estate market. Plakcy began temping, and soon found himself working for a company that made computer games, including ones based on the game shows “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy.”

It just so happened that Plakcy had been on “Jeopardy” as a contestant. What was supposed to be a two-day assignment turned into a nine-year career.

“I would fly to Los Angeles and present the games for the show’s approval,” he explains. “I also shot videos with Alex Trebek and Vanna White.”

While working for the video game company, Plakcy took part-time courses towards his masters in writing. In 1992 Plakcy graduated with an MFA from Florida International University.

To celebrate his graduation, Plakcy took a trip to Hawaii. He didn’t find a lot of mystery fiction set in Hawaii.

“I decided to set my story in Hawaii,” Plakcy says. “It has all things I love about Florida. It has the fragility of environment, contrasting light and shadow, and shady characters in sunny places.”

Finding a hero in a straight male private investigator, Plakcy wrote 200 pages of manuscript. At a writer’s conference he showed it to his thesis advisor. When his advisor asked him why the lead character quit the police force, Plakcy was at a loss of words.

“You can’t write anymore until you know why,” his advisor said.

Making the hero gay

It just so happened that Plakcy was going through his own coming out process in the early ‘90s. He refers to himself as a late-bloomer. Plakcy decided to have his hero leave the police force because he is gay.

“I gave my hero the same emotional conflict,” he says. “Growing up, the only men I could tell who were gay were very effeminate. That wasn’t me and that wasn’t what I was attracted to. That’s also my hero’s story. He couldn’t reconcile images of what gay people were until he got older and met more role models out there.”

Plakcy’s book sat on the shelf for years. He had an agent but no luck selling his manuscript. Putting it aside, he went on to write a few sequels. When the video company he worked for moved to Sausalito, Calif., in 1996, got into Web development until his current position as an assistant professor at Broward Community College opened.

Not one to give up, Plakcy got out to book fairs and conferences, meeting people and making contacts. Eventually one of those contacts paid off, and in June of 2004, more than ten years after starting his novel, Plakcy signed his first book contract.

“Persistence pays off,” Plakcy sums it up.

And despite coming out late in life, Plakcy is not shy about his sexuality. As an openly out professor, he has gay symbols on his office door.

“I want my students to have a positive role model.”

Andy Zeffer can be reached at azeffer@expressgaynews.com