Tom lived his early
life on the Upper Mississippi on a backwaters island of Minnesota river folk,
beaver, and ancient burial mounds. After hitchhiking by boat through the South
Seas, he settled on the island of Hawai'i, where he’s lived for two decades.
There, he’s been a mountain and astronomy guide on Mauna Kea and an eruption
ranger, firefighter, and exhibit writer on Kilauea, working closely with
Hawaiian elders and cultural practitioners on both volcanoes.
In addition to his adventures and novel writing, Tom has written newspaper stories and commentaries, magazine articles, public policy studies, and award-winning video productions. Since 1991 hundreds of islanders have attended his popular Empowered by the Pen workshops, through the University of Hawai'i at Hilo, Volcano Art Center, and other venues on the Big Island, Maui, and Lana‘i.
He lives with his wife, artist Catherine Robbins, in a rainforest cottage a few miles below Kilauea’s erupting summit.
Visit TomPeek.com for more information about the author.
Daughters of Fire is a gripping adventure of romance, intrigue, myth and murder set amid the cultural tensions of contemporary Hawaii. A visiting astronomer falls in love with a Hawaiian anthropologist who guides him into a Polynesian world of volcanoes, gods and revered ancestors. The lovers get caught up in murder and intrigue as developers and politicians try to conceal that a long-dormant volcano is rumbling back to life above the hotel-laden Kona coast. The anthropologist joins forces with an aging seer and a young activist, and these three Hawaiian women summon their deepest traditions to confront the latest, most extravagant resort as the eruption and the murder expose deep rifts in paradise. More than a decade in its research and writing, Tom Peek's mystical and provocative debut novel picks up Hawaii's story where James Michener left off. Daughters of Fire illuminates how the islands' transformation into a tourist mecca and developers gold mine sparked a Native Hawaiian movement to reclaim their culture, protect sacred land, and step into the future with wisdom and aloha.