Book ‘em Kimo!

Neil Plakcy chats about writing, coming out and whether Kimo—the gay Hawaiian cop in his Mahu mystery series—can ever settle down.

by Ross M. Levine

Native Pennsylvanian Neil Plakcy (rhymes with “taxi”) is an author on the “edge,” as he puts it, in a “place of infinite possibility, symbolized by the ocean’s edge ... a place all kinds are drawn to.” For Plakcy, that place is his current home, South Florida, where he’s an assistant English professor at Broward Community College. Plakcy is the writer behind the Mahu mystery series featuring gay homicide detective Kimo Kanapa’aka, whose own “edge place” is the mean streets of Honolulu.

In Mahu Fire—the third in Plakcy’s series—Kimo discovers his “softer side” as he investigates a rash of anti-gay crimes, including the firebombing of a fundraiser for gay marriage. A brazen assassination follows, and as Kimo works the leads and zeroes in on the perpetrators, his life is complicated by a troubled teen, a sick father and a hunky, semi-closeted fireman named Mike, with whom the hard-bitten detective may be falling in love.

Why mysteries? Have you considered other genres?

As a kid I was drawn to the classic mystery authors and tried my hand at mystery stories, but it wasn’t until graduate school that I started to understand how plot works, and how to use it to build a story about character. I’ve dabbled in writing gay romance, and love to write erotica. I just edited an anthology of construction-worker erotica for Cleis called Hard Hats.

What did you learn at U. Penn studying writing with Philip Roth and Carlos Fuentes?

Roth was a rigorous critic. You couldn’t get away with a thing—not a misplaced comma or false sentiment. I’ve tried to bring that rigor to my own work. Fuentes was relaxed. From him I learned to let the story go where it wants, then tame and shape it. [I’ve also been influenced by Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway and Jimmy Buffett.] It’s about how their lives intersect with their work. All are known for going out and living—on the road, in war zones, at the beach. I think all have terrific insight into human nature and the search for an authentic way of living.

What’s your approach to teaching writing?

I’m big on structure. One way I learned to write was by picking up a mystery novel and looking at how many pages, when the bodies appear, etc. If you get those patterns in your head, then your creativity works within them. It’s also important to have something to say—hard sometimes for young writers.

Describe your own coming out.

In the 1990s [my late 30s], I worked in software development. A co-worker, who generally spoke to people through a hand puppet called Mr. Squirrel, asked if I was gay. My heart started to pound. I considered ducking the question, but said yes, then spent the whole evening driving highways, listening to Bruce Springsteen and calming down. Shortly after, I was flown to L.A. for a job interview. After the interview, I went for a long walk along Santa Monica beach, thinking about the chance to start over as a gay man, without the mess of coming out to people in my old life. I decided to go back to Florida and fix what was wrong with my old life. I lost a couple friends, but several people said things like, “This is not a big surprise.”

In Mahu Fire, what were the challenges of developing Kimo's “softer side”?

Kimo works in a macho environment. He’s still struggling with a bunch of issues—[discomfort] around effeminate guys (“Will others think I’m like that?”), enforcing laws that [discriminate against] GLBT people. He wants to learn to be gentle, to express love, but [lacks] role models. There’s tension when another guy tries to dominate him in any way, even just grabbing and kissing him. His initial instinct is to fight, until [he realizes], “Hey, this is pretty cool.”

Do you worry straight readers might be put off by the sex in the book?

It wouldn’t be reasonable to have two hot guys fall in love without physical expression of their emotions. Lots of straight people don’t mind reading about gay sex, so I don’t feel I need to censor myself.

Are there more Mahu books in your future?

Yes. After I wrote the first (Mahu), the character of Kimo wouldn’t leave me alone. I realized coming out isn’t a one-time event, it’s a process. You have to keep coming out to new people, and you go through stages, like a second adolescence. A teenager learns to be an adult; coming out, you learn to live as a gay person. There’s a lot more Kimo can explore in his personal life—moving in with a partner, [raising] a child perhaps, his changing relationships with family and friends.

What does your partner do, and how did you guys meet?

When he first answered my online ad, nearly 10 years ago, he was an MRI tech. He went back to school and shifted to healthcare risk management. Now that he writes a lot for his job, he has a better understanding of what I do!