It glows by night, filling the air with a blood-red cloud.
By day, its rising steam billows dull gray from an active crater. Either way, it’s a wonder to behold, a doorway to a hot spot of subterranean fires that recalls the opening lines from Canto Three of Dante’s Inferno:
Only those elements time cannot wear
Were made before me. Beyond time I stand.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
The Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii has been active at the Halema’uma’u Crater since 1955. It’s the volcano responsible for nearly taking out the village of Pahoa back in October. Situated over the volcanic hot spot responsible for forming all of the Hawaiian Islands, it remains one of the most consistently active volcanic sites in the world. And since volcanoes feature prominently in my current writing project, I was keen on getting a firsthand look at the monster and its surrounding terrain.
Dante had the poet Virgil to guide him on his journey. As both Dante’s soul mate and long-term resident of the Inferno, Virgil was well suited for showing a novice around the wonders of the dolorous abyss.
For my trip, I had three guides (see left): information-specialist Ginny Connolly, award-winning travel writer Brandon Wilson, and long-term Hawaii resident John Connolly. Wife, friend, and brother — a perfect trinity to keep me on the straight road to enlightenment.
Winner of the Lowell Thomas Award, which is given each year by the Society of American Travel Writers, Brandon Wilson currently makes his home in Volcano Village, a few miles east of the active crater. You can read more about him at his Amazon page and at his website. A seasoned traveler and fine storyteller, Brandon led the way through the rain forest surrounding Kilauea Iki (south of the active crater), then down a steep mountain pass and out onto an expanse of hardened lava where steam rose from vents in rocky fissures. It was like stepping onto the surface of an alien world.
Afterward, Brandon led us back out through the rain forest and into a cylindrical cavern (below left) that once served as a conduit for flowing lava. Molded with organic curves reminiscent of the Queen Alien’s lair in James Cameron’s Aliens, the tube stretches deep beneath a volcanic mountain, through darkness and back into leafy sunlight.
Puddles dot its floor while thready roots from the forest above dangle overhead like living stalactites. My notes on the place will certainly come in handy as I expand the climax of “The Others,” which takes place in the underground lair of creatures called “the fang-claws.”
Interestingly, the lava tube also brought to mind the underground passageway that Professor Challenger visits in my story “King of the Moon” from the newly released Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places.
Time and again, whether presenting wonders that informed new projects or recalled previous ones, these travels around the Hawaiian islands proved time and again that the connection between life and art flows both ways.
This post is part two of a series about researching a novel based on the previously published stories “Daughters of Prime” and “The Others.” You can find the first installment here. For the next, we’ll take a look at Mauna Kea — the tallest mountain in the United States and possibly (depending on how you measure) the entire planet. I have some photos that compare it to the Amazonian plateau that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. It’s pretty cool stuff. I should have it ready in a day or two.
Until then . . . scop on!
Image Credits:
Kilauea Volcano by night. *
Kilauea Volcano by day.*
Three guides.*
Yak Butter Blues copyright © 2013 by Brandon Wilson.
Inside the Nāhuku Lava Tube.*
Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places copyright © 2015 Edge SF & Fantasy.
*Photos copyright © 2015 by The 21st-Century Scop.
Leave a Reply