What are you reading?

I'm always halfway through a number of books. The one I'm reading now is part for interest and part for research: O.A. Bushnell's "The Gift of Civilization: Germs and Genocide in Hawaii." It's probably the most important and best out-of-print book I know of. It's about the diseases after Captain Cook. I bought this a little less than a year ago because of research I'm doing for a book I'm writing, but it's fascinating in itself.

Why does it capture your imagination?

Just because the information is fascinating. Bushnell was a novelist and also a microbiologist, so he knew all about this situation of the effect of important microbes and imported germs on the population here. He explains all that and why it happened the way it did. He's very accurate, and the implications are still in place today.

Is your new book related to today's fight against foreign plants and animals?

It's a historical novel set in Hawai'i. Bushnell's book covers the time period I'm dealing with — the late 18th century.

Do you read a lot when you're writing, or only for related research?

I don't have any problem reading while I'm writing. What I read most is my students' work. So switching from their writing to something I'm working on is no problem. I just read to get a good story.