On Nov. 29, 1975, six Boy Scouts and four adult leaders from Hilo's Troop 77 were camping at Halape on Kilauea volcano's south side. Just before dawn, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck, causing the Big Island's south coast to drop nearly 12 feet into the ocean. Then the tsunami hit, washing away the camp, the campers and everything else in its path. Miraculously, nearly everyone survived.

Hawai'i-raised writer Graham Salisbury's cousin, Tim Twigg-Smith, was one of the Boy Scouts who nearly died that day. One of the adult leaders was, in fact, killed by a quake-generated rockslide.

To research his new book, "Night of the Howling Dogs" (Wendy Lamb Books, $16.99), a thriller based on this real-life experience, Salisbury and Twigg-Smith hiked back to Halape and spent the night.

"I think Timmy, my cousin, was alert to everything anywhere near Halape, 100 percent of the time we were down there," Salisbury said. "He had guts to go back and relive his nightmare, for sure. But he wasn't comfortable."

Salisbury's ninth nationally published novel for adolescents is about courage and survival, and opens with Dylan eager to get the camping trip under way. The only thing spoiling his fun is Louie. The two boys share a secret past that has Louie repeatedly taunting Dylan.

"For the fiction writer in me, bullies make the world go round, so to speak," Salisbury said. "But beyond that obvious story element, I wanted Louie to be a hard case to show a core belief I have: that hard-case boys are often good guys behind their cold, dead eyes."

Bullies do tend to spring up in his books, but Salisbury ventures into fresh territory with "Howling Dogs," seamlessly intermingling Hawaiian mythology with natural disaster, creating a potent mix.

"For sure, the legends of Hawai'i are intimately involved in this story. The fact that I grew up in the Islands plays a role here, too." Salisbury said.

"I couldn't go anywhere near the volcano and not think about Pele. I heard all the tales when I was a kid, from the most wondrous to the scariest. I would NEVER deny her existence. Nor should she have been denied a place in 'Night of the Howling Dogs.' 'Aumakua and Night Marchers, too. They are integral elements. Call me superstitious. It's a Hawai'i thing."

Salisbury's long-running success in writing about boys for boys draws heavily on his own childhood experience.

"I grew up without a dad, really. I had three of them, but two died and one was inaccessible," Salisbury said. "I'm always writing about fathers and sons, filling that void."

"Each story has become kind of a problem that probably has something to do with my own problems and my own life that I'm dealing with, in that I can approach it, study it, enrich it, understand it and have some closure," Salisbury said. "And I think that the most fun part about writing, and I guess rewarding, is to do all this work and then go back, after the book is published a couple of years later, and read it and see all the things that I've missed. All the subtext that comes up that I didn't understand. It's quite amazing."

While he visits Hawai'i often, Salisbury lives in Oregon with his wife and eight children.

"They are all great kids," he said, "and not one of them has gone over to the dark side."

Has Salisbury become the father he always wanted?

"In many ways, yes. In some, no," he said. "I don't feel I am involved enough in their individual lives. It's hard enough to manage my own life. I try. They love me and, I hope, forgive that flaw. But I'm a good father, no question. I do my best."

Salisbury's books are popular with readers, educators and critics. His "Under the Blood-Red Sun," winner of the prestigious Scott O'Dell Award and Hawai'i's Nene Award, is a Hawai'i school staple. He has a slew of other awards under his belt.

"I got a lot of awards early on before I understood what they meant," Salisbury said. "I appreciate them more now in retrospect. Now, when I get a starred review, its a big, big deal to me."

The American Library Association's magazine Booklist recently gave "Howling Dogs" a starred review.

Salisbury proves — in real life and on paper — that revisiting the past can be frightening, therapeutic and even fruitful.