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Military Kids
Seasons in Manana follows a boy growing up in a military family in the early 1970s, with a passion for baseball, who, after moving to Oahu, is kidnapped by a radical organization, leading to a lifelong trauma. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
My co-author, Scott, and I are brothers—only an 18-month age gap—and we actually did spend the better part of 1971 to 1974 as military dependent kids on the island of Oahu. And, as in the book, we actually were baseball-obsessed. So while the overall story is definitely fiction, there was very little of our baseball experiences that we had to make up. The counter-culture elements we experienced during our time in Hawaii were also very much the inspiration for what happens in the story—again, some of it fictional, some very much taken from real life. Also, it is my brother, Scott, who is the real-life counterpart of the main character, Alan. I would be closer to the Eric character.
Are there any emotions or memories from your own life that you put into your character’s life?
As mentioned above, both Scott and I made liberal use of our own experiences as military kids living in Hawaii for that three-year period in the early 70’s. That would include the stress and awkwardness of trying to fit into an island culture (albeit on the elementary school level) as “haole” mainlanders. In addition, there truly was a growing awareness of the dark and the menacing that surrounded us, even in a gated military housing area (and yes, it was named Manana). Much of that had to do with the current climate of the early 70’s. It actually was a quite unsettled time with America trying to wrap up the war in Vietnam, teenagers and parents often in bitter conflict with each other—not just over politics, but also over hair length, music, clothes, and yes, drug use. But having the Hawaii Five-O TV show on every week, also made that “menacing” aspect of island life seem all the more real (Oahu is a small place)! On the other hand, the emotion of discovering the glory of playing baseball for the first time—that is definitely in the book!
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
It wasn’t just simply exploring the glorious, and sometimes painful, world of all things baseball (Little League, following pro baseball, collecting baseball cards, etc.). Scott and I wanted to share how this captivating game could be viewed through the eyes of unjaded, elementary-school-age boys. Scott and I (as well as my younger brother, Kevin) were all on a mission during our Hawaii years: to play in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. After that, once we reached adulthood, the goal was to play in the Major Leagues. However, Scott and I were on the threshold of teenhood, so the flip side of our idyllic baseball-heavy island life was the aforementioned uneasiness with an often-scary youth counter-culture that was pervasive in the early 70’s. Throw an intense crush on an older teenage girl into the mix, and there’s a cauldron of mixed emotions going on!
What is the next book you are working on, and when can we expect it to be available?
I do know that Scott is working on another book. He hasn’t gone into it with me in detail, but it sounds like it will be a military thriller type novel. As for me, I do have a manuscript completed: it’s a novel having to do with the French Children’s Crusade of 1212. My goal is to have it published next year some time, but I don’t have a definite date yet.
Seasons in Manana
Seasons in Manana tells the story of Alan Cook’s childhood years in Hawaii during the early 1970s. It mixes memories of baseball, schoolyard lessons, friendships, and family life with the shadow of darker cultural forces at the time, including counterculture unrest and the infamous Patty Hearst kidnapping. Baseball runs through the book like a backbone, but so does the tension of being a young outsider learning how to belong in a place that’s both paradise and something more complicated. What begins as a nostalgic recount of sandlot games and Little League gradually unfolds into a narrative with loss, trauma, and the bittersweet pull of memory.
Reading it, I felt a lot of warmth for the way Cook captures childhood. The thrill of hitting a ball over the fence, the pride of finding your place on a team, the confusion of first crushes and cultural clashes. The writing is simple and straightforward, yet it carries weight. At times, I laughed out loud, especially at the awkward moments with teachers, neighborhood kids, and those backyard fields of dreams that turn into battlefields. Other times, I found myself sitting with the heaviness of tragedy, the way innocence bumps up against a world that isn’t always kind. The book doesn’t try to polish everything. That makes it more real, and it pulled me in deeper than I expected.
What I also appreciated is the honesty in how Cook admits his own shortcomings and misconceptions as a kid. It’s not just sports fiction, though the baseball parts are excellent; it’s also a reflection on identity, on being the “haole” outsider, and on the cultural shifts of the 70s. The mix of humor, nostalgia, and darker threads keeps the story from ever being flat. Sometimes the pacing wanders, but even then, I didn’t mind. It felt like sitting with someone who tells stories the way they come, with tangents and side notes that only add to the charm.
I’d recommend Seasons in Manana to anyone who loves baseball stories, but also to readers who enjoy coming-of-age tales set against vivid backdrops. It’s great for people who grew up in military families, or who know the strange feeling of belonging everywhere and nowhere. If you like fictional memoirs that balance nostalgia with honesty, this book is worth your time.
Pages: 257
LITERARY TITAN 