Kona Stories Hosting ‘Words and Wine’ on April 2

Courtesy photo.

Kona Stories Bookstore will host its monthly Words and Wine author meet-and-greet on Tuesday, April 2, at 6 p.m. in Kailua-Kona.

The public is invited to meet local authors and enjoy complimentary pūpū and wine during this free event. This monthʻs featured authors are Gary L. Ivey, Leslie Karst and Mike Taylor.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. with an informal meet and greet merging into a more formal book presentation by each author. It will conclude around 8 p.m. after a Q&A session. Dress is casual aloha wear.

Kona Stories is located in the Keauhou Shopping Center. For more information, call (808) 324-0350.

Author Bios 

Gary L. Ivey was born and raised in Oklahoma and moved to Kailua-Kona with his wife in December 2015. Ivey has worked as a pastor, a magazine editor and media communication specialist, a TV Ministry director and has had his own video production business.

Ivey began writing BACKLASH in 2000 and published the first edition in 2011. The second edition was released in 2017, followed in 2018 by the release of BACKLASH 2: JUSTICE DENIED. Ivey also recently finished a biblical novel called THINE IS THE KINGDOM about the reign of King Saul and the rise of King David.

Daughter to a law professor and potter, Leslie Karst learned the value of careful analysis and the arts at a young age—both ideal ingredients for a mystery story. Karst is the author of the Sally Solari Mysteries (Dying for a Taste, A Measure of Murder, Death al Fresco, Murder from Scratch), a culinary series set in Santa Cruz, California. Originally from Southern California, Leslie moved north to attend UC Santa Cruz and, after graduation, parlayed her degree in English literature into employment waiting tables and singing in a new wave rock and roll band. She later attended Stanford Law School and worked as a research and appellate attorney for Santa Cruz’s largest civil law firm. During this time, she rediscovered a passion for food and cooking, and returned to school to earn a degree in culinary arts. Her last book, Death al Fresco, was recently nominated for the prestigious Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery of 2018.

Mike Taylor left his life in the wilderness of Montana to move to Hawai‘i Island. He was the esteemed technical director at the Aloha Theatre and Cafe, and racked up an impressive number of productions in his eleven years. Most of his work deals with the American West before the turn of the century, finding humor amid the harsh environment he writes about. Taylor’s first three novels are A Thousand Sleeps, Plentiful and Malama Ko Aloha (Keep The Love). Malama Ko Aloha is the passionate and often brutal story of Hawai’i Island following the death of King Kamehameha the Great and the arrival of colonial missionaries. He is now working on his fourth novel, Double Cross, set in Montana Territory during the 1890s.