Nali book signing
Local author Esther Henry will sign copies of her new book "Nali."
- Where: Chocolate Temptation, 1004 17th Ave., downtown Monroe
- When: Thursday, Dec. 15 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
MONROE - The seed for Esther Henry's latest book, the novel "Nali," can be traced to when she was an 8-year-old growing up in Iowa.
She attended the only elementary school in the county that served deaf children, so she started learning American Sign Language to communicate with her deaf classmates, and the friendships she made with them continued through high school.
Fast forward to the 1990s, when Henry and her husband, Brian, were sent as Pentecostal missionaries to New Guinea.
"Living overseas really opened my eyes to the plight of the deaf in developing countries," said Henry, who speaks three languages and writes in her author's bio that she has made it her life's goal to help people understand one another.
Last year, having already published the memoir "Adventures in Paradise" about her decade on the South Pacific island, Henry decided her next project would be a work of fiction about a deaf New Guinean.
Twenty-five-thousand words later, as Henry wrote background plot for characters, she realized she had a series on her hands. The title character of "Nali" is not deaf, but deafness plays into the next anticipated book in the series, "Samina."
Henry is scheduled to sign copies of "Nali" from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15, at Chocolate Temptation, 1004 17th St. in Monroe. She also plans to display traditional clothing and artifacts from the island, such as the "bilum," a bag handwoven with cassowary feathers.
She and her husband moved to Monroe 4 1/2 years ago when she took a job with the Monroe School District as a sign language interpreter. Laid off in June due to budget cuts, Henry said she is preparing to start a job in January at Blackhawk Technical College interpreting for the deaf.
Before the couple moved to Wisconsin, they traveled around the world. Papua, New Guinea captured their hearts.
"We were there less than six months and we fell in love with the people," she said. "And stayed for 10 years."
By the time they moved on in 2004, they were overseeing mission work in the country and had made close friends.
Henry and her maid, Grace, soon became best friends. A bone-breaking beating Grace received at the hand of her husband inspired portions of "Nali," which follows a child bride who is abused by her husband and must reconcile ancient traditions with her own dreams.
Henry said she was careful not to lift scenes, places or characters out of real life, since she's sure any New Guinean who got wind of it would demand royalties or other compensation. In the tribal mentality of New Guineans, she said, "everything that's yours is mine."
That works both ways, however, as ownership is conceived communally, and "what's mine is yours." For years, she and a New Guinean family traded a big basket back and forth as a gift, each Christmas filling it with necessities such as toothpaste and toilet paper.
"That was our Christmas basket," she said.
She got the inspiration to finally sit down and write "Nali" after the evangelist Freddy Clark visited her church in October 2010. "You're going to be prolific," she remembers him telling her.
"He encouraged me to get 'er done," said Henry. Since then, she's used novel-writing apps on her iPad to keep herself focused every day on writing. At least of half of "Nali" was composed on her iPad, sitting by her gas fireplace at home.
She published the book with Xlibris, and tapped three trusted friends for careful editing chapter by chapter and two more for whole-novel editing. One of her editors flagged all the American idioms in the book as sounding out of place, phrases such as "water off a duck's back." Henry went through each chapter and replaced each one with more culturally neutral language. Throughout the book, she sprinkles in words and phrases in the tribe's native tongue, which she can speak herself.
"Nali" is available for purchase at Chocolate Temptation, online via Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Xlibris or through Henry directly at nalithebook.com. It's also available for checkout at the Monroe Public Library.
Henry and her husband haven't been able to afford a return trip to the island of New Guinea, she said, but they're still involved with the issues they encountered while there. This year they founded International Deaf Advocacy Group, LLC. The company is still in its infancy, but its mission is to help the deaf in developing countries, people who are rarely taught to sign and don't have access to cochlear implants and other medical treatments and technology.
It still may be a long time before Henry can show "Nali" to Grace, since her old friend lives in such a remote area of the island.
"I miss her," she said.
She attended the only elementary school in the county that served deaf children, so she started learning American Sign Language to communicate with her deaf classmates, and the friendships she made with them continued through high school.
Fast forward to the 1990s, when Henry and her husband, Brian, were sent as Pentecostal missionaries to New Guinea.
"Living overseas really opened my eyes to the plight of the deaf in developing countries," said Henry, who speaks three languages and writes in her author's bio that she has made it her life's goal to help people understand one another.
Last year, having already published the memoir "Adventures in Paradise" about her decade on the South Pacific island, Henry decided her next project would be a work of fiction about a deaf New Guinean.
Twenty-five-thousand words later, as Henry wrote background plot for characters, she realized she had a series on her hands. The title character of "Nali" is not deaf, but deafness plays into the next anticipated book in the series, "Samina."
Henry is scheduled to sign copies of "Nali" from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15, at Chocolate Temptation, 1004 17th St. in Monroe. She also plans to display traditional clothing and artifacts from the island, such as the "bilum," a bag handwoven with cassowary feathers.
She and her husband moved to Monroe 4 1/2 years ago when she took a job with the Monroe School District as a sign language interpreter. Laid off in June due to budget cuts, Henry said she is preparing to start a job in January at Blackhawk Technical College interpreting for the deaf.
Before the couple moved to Wisconsin, they traveled around the world. Papua, New Guinea captured their hearts.
"We were there less than six months and we fell in love with the people," she said. "And stayed for 10 years."
By the time they moved on in 2004, they were overseeing mission work in the country and had made close friends.
Henry and her maid, Grace, soon became best friends. A bone-breaking beating Grace received at the hand of her husband inspired portions of "Nali," which follows a child bride who is abused by her husband and must reconcile ancient traditions with her own dreams.
Henry said she was careful not to lift scenes, places or characters out of real life, since she's sure any New Guinean who got wind of it would demand royalties or other compensation. In the tribal mentality of New Guineans, she said, "everything that's yours is mine."
That works both ways, however, as ownership is conceived communally, and "what's mine is yours." For years, she and a New Guinean family traded a big basket back and forth as a gift, each Christmas filling it with necessities such as toothpaste and toilet paper.
"That was our Christmas basket," she said.
She got the inspiration to finally sit down and write "Nali" after the evangelist Freddy Clark visited her church in October 2010. "You're going to be prolific," she remembers him telling her.
"He encouraged me to get 'er done," said Henry. Since then, she's used novel-writing apps on her iPad to keep herself focused every day on writing. At least of half of "Nali" was composed on her iPad, sitting by her gas fireplace at home.
She published the book with Xlibris, and tapped three trusted friends for careful editing chapter by chapter and two more for whole-novel editing. One of her editors flagged all the American idioms in the book as sounding out of place, phrases such as "water off a duck's back." Henry went through each chapter and replaced each one with more culturally neutral language. Throughout the book, she sprinkles in words and phrases in the tribe's native tongue, which she can speak herself.
"Nali" is available for purchase at Chocolate Temptation, online via Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Xlibris or through Henry directly at nalithebook.com. It's also available for checkout at the Monroe Public Library.
Henry and her husband haven't been able to afford a return trip to the island of New Guinea, she said, but they're still involved with the issues they encountered while there. This year they founded International Deaf Advocacy Group, LLC. The company is still in its infancy, but its mission is to help the deaf in developing countries, people who are rarely taught to sign and don't have access to cochlear implants and other medical treatments and technology.
It still may be a long time before Henry can show "Nali" to Grace, since her old friend lives in such a remote area of the island.
"I miss her," she said.