After Hurricane ‘Iniki hit Kaua‘i in 1992, brothers Terry and Lee Motteler got together at Lee’s home on the Big Island. After surviving ‘Iniki in their dad’s home on the Garden Island, Terry was out of work and needed a
After Hurricane ‘Iniki hit Kaua‘i in 1992, brothers Terry and Lee Motteler got together at Lee’s home on the Big Island. After surviving ‘Iniki in their dad’s home on the Garden Island, Terry was out of work and needed a place to stay. At an idle moment, he voiced a thought the brothers had never before seriously considered.
He said to Lee, “You know, we ought to write a book.” Lee had recently been encouraged by a relative in the publishing business who thought everyone should write a novel, so he answered, “I may have a publisher!” That was all Terry needed to hear, and the brothers soon embarked on what was to be a revisitation of their early years in Olympia, the capital of Washington.
Terry moved in, and the brothers began a six-month period of writing, during which they co-authored “The Playhouse,” a novel following the adventures of two boys growing up in the early 1950s amid idyllic surroundings, when things take a sinister turn. Events unfold rapidly, and the book has been described as hard to put down.
The two writers have managed to craft a seamless narrative, one that by all appearances could have been authored by a single writer. For this and other personal reasons, they have chosen to release the book under a pseudonym incorporating their given names: Terry Lee. This was also the name of the title character (Col. Terry Lee) in a comic strip popular during their youth, Terry and the Pirates, a favorite of their father. Although never able to confirm it, the brothers suspect that the strip may have played a part in their naming.
The story, which came together virtually as they were writing, opens in a grand estate on Kaua‘i’s Kalihiwai Ridge, where the brothers, now in their sixties, are going through their recently deceased father’s effects. Over one long evening and night, they open boxes containing items they have never seen that provide poignant links with their past. The tale is told through a series of flashbacks that describe the ordinary and extraordinary events of their young lives 50 years ago.
The first flashback launches the story, and the action never lets up. The boys ride their bicycles home from school at lunchtime and catch a hobo molesting their mother in the kitchen. Everything that follows is tied to this central event, and it drives the plot to a surprising and thrilling climax that will keep readers guessing — and gasping.
Writing the book was an adventure in itself. “We never had writer’s block,” Terry explains.
“One of us would get an idea and run with it, and once that was down the other would come up with something and take over. It was amazing.” “Of course,” Lee adds, “we share the same memories, so that helped. And our different backgrounds meant that I took over in certain areas and Terry had expertise in others, such as the War Story.” When asked about the “War Story,” the brothers exchange grins. “It’s really a flashback within a flashback that returns to our father’s adventures in World War II — but critical to the story line,” notes Terry.
“Some of this really happened, and some of it is embellished.
And we want to remind our readers that this is a novel!” The initial promise of a potential publisher soon faded, and while the brothers found an agent who sent partials to perhaps 50 publishers, there were no takers. After 11 years, The Playhouse has been published by the Maryland-based PublishAmerica, and can be ordered online at www.publishamerica.com.
The brothers have scheduled book-signing events at Borders Books, Music & Cafe in Lihu‘e on Saturday, Oct. 2, at 2 p.m., and at the Hilo Borders on Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 6 p.m.
