Welcome back, and I’m so sorry it’s been this long since I’ve posted a new chapter. I’m putting up two today to make up for it.
Today’s chapters take us to Fiana in modern-day San Francisco, a look inside her night club, and an unexpected journey.
Stay tuned after the chapter for the Author Notes, where I reveal tidbits of our inspiration, process, journey, and some very big mistakes and lessons we learned along the way. You can also read them beneath the audio player below.
AUTHOR NOTES
Chapter 18 takes place back on Halloween night, the same one with Cullen found the wand. We visit Fiana in San Francisco on the way to her trendy night club. Dressed to the nines. Her new club is of course called “The Green Man“, as an homage to Rowan.
The line “the past is best left there” is something that I have learned again and again. Rarely does reconnecting with one’s past turn into something positive. Admittedly, this is usually because of reconnecting with someone from my romantic past— or romantic regrets, like trying to recapture missed opportunities—friends are generally a different story. Every so often I remember someone who meant a great deal to me back in high school or college, and I search for them on the internets. Recently I found a dear friend from high school, and I want to give a special hello to him: It truly is so great to talk with you again. Thank you for listening to my little story!
Fiana mentions sending scouts to search for the wand and leave a cairn wherever they looked. This calls back to the one Cullen saw in the redwood forest, signifying that James had been so close to finding the wind but didn’t.
I love cairns! I have seen them all over Europe, especially in Scotland. On the road to the Isle of Skye, there is a curve in the highway, and on the side of the road are rocks overlooking a beautiful valley, and on these rocks are dozens and dozens of small cairns. It’s such a beautiful site. It’s one of my favorite pictures from my travels (above).
But those are the kind that earth little stones valance perfectly on top of one another. There are other cairns in west Scotland marking gravesites, dating back to when Rowan and Fiana we’re getting married. These are huge mounds of stones. Usually with an opening in the center, which is where the grave would have been. These huge mounds of stone are the size of a yurt. So large, someone could have lived inside. Pics left them all over the west coast of Scotland. I felt as if I was walking in Rowan‘s footsteps.
Fiana feels Rowan emerge, although she didn’t immediately realize that. Filled with him, feeling him in the same dimension for the first time in over a millennia. The glimpse of Rowan’s soul gave her momentary regret and remorse. Guilt. Somethings she had not felt in centuries. She also became more powerful than ever because of his presents, harkening back to the union they had planned 14 centuries earlier. Just being in the same dimension in time increased her power tenfold. Just imagine how powerful they would be if they were truly together.
Despite my accomplishments—from writing these books to making my documentaries to traveling across Europe—I often feel like a failure. You see those feelings manifest in Fiana here. When the guilt cripples her, she looks at her shoes and all she sees is the success of Jimmy Choo. Her outfit, the success of Vera Wang. When I get really down on myself, that is exactly how I see the world. Everything around me represents the success of someone when I was just a failure. Of course the reality is that I’m not a failure, although I wasn’t as successful as I had hoped, I never got Ethan off that roof, just completing these tasks is something to be proud of, and sometimes I am.
Since these author notes are rather long already, I won’t go much into chapter 19, but this is the first time Rowan sees Fiona on the television, both shocked and thrilled she’s still alive, and he knows he must get to her.
BUY MY BOOKS
You can purchase your copy of Rowan of the Wood, as well as the other books in the series and others written under my former pen name O. M. Grey, at Amazon in paperback or for the Kindle.
Rowan of the Wood 