Dale Hermanson
Author of stories and books about the Pacific islands
Seeking agent representation and publishing interest
Dale Hermanson’s debut novel, When Calls The White Owl, is an engaging crime story set in contemporary Fiji. It blends the tension of a drug-smuggling thriller with the deep mythic resonance of ancestral memory. Through vivid imagery, moral complexity, and rich cultural texture, the novel explores identity, family expectations, temptation, and spiritual redemption—offering an original story from the Pacific.
Works
When Calls The White Owl
Upmarket Literary Crime Fiction
When Calls The White Owl weaves drug-smuggling suspense with themes of ancestral memory and spiritual reckoning. The novel explores identity, temptation, cultural expectation, and spiritual redemption through vivid imagery and the mythic presence of a guiding white owl.Manuscript available upon request.
Tuning In: The impact of television news on Fiji communities
Thesis
Does TV news influence the political process in Fiji? This study shows that the influence of TV news is complex and interwoven with cultural, economic and political contexts. Findings for the study indicate television news is not only an influential source of information, but that it is also an agenda setter for Fiji public opinion. Research indicates that TV news influenced people in Fiji prior to the 2006 general election. Television news may not only be informing the public about forces that shape their lives, but it may itself be a shaping force.
Bio
I’d like to believe that I’ve always been a writer. I started early, publishing articles in the local newspaper while still in high school. But then life took me in different directions. As it always does.I dreamed of being a filmmaker and so began producing short films. That took me to university and my first degree in filmmaking.During and after university I wrote screenplays. One led to my first agent who got my script optioned by a popular TV actor. But the world of writing for film is a waiting game. And I wasn’t good at waiting.I rattled around the fringes of the TV, film and corporate video world and continued to write screenplays. I was approached by the head of a Christian film company to write a screenplay about the prophet Elijah. I jumped at the chance, and completed the screenplay. Funding for biblical epics were difficult to find though and the waiting game continued.Faced with more work in corporate videos than I wanted, my dreams seemed to be slipping away. I decided to volunteer overseas to escape the corporate quagmire. I found myself in the island country of Fiji. That was forty years ago.My assignment in Fiji began with writing and producing health and information videos, but I was also the unofficial information officer for Fiji’s Ministry of Health.Life again intervened, introducing me to a Fijian woman who would become my wife and the mother of my two daughters. The responsibilities of fatherhood pushed me to take a job with a regional organisation for the next seven years. I wrote and produced documentaries, but also wrote magazine articles and short stories in my limited spare time. I also obtained a Masters degree from the University of the South Pacific.My career in documentary making continued through my own company, Pasifika Communications, which developed into a communications company servicing the entire Pacific. After writing and directing dozens of documentaries, radio and video dramas throughout the Pacific, I once again turned to writing fiction. The result is ‘When Calls The White Owl,’ my debut novel.I now divide my time between living in Australia and Fiji.
Contact
For publishing and agent enquiries:
[email protected]Manuscript available for agent and publisher consideration.