Cullen is loosely based on Ethan, who grew up in foster care, spending much time walking through California’s Redwood Forest with a book in his hand.
Ethan spent much time in among nature recently, but this time writing instead of reading. After Christine hammered out the rough draft for “Rowan” in 30 days, Ethan took over, grabbing his pencil and clipboard and heading for the hiking trails to edit, elaborate upon her work and develop minor characters while hiking.
“He has to be among the trees to write,” Christine said. “He gets a lot of his inspiration from nature.”
After about three years in the making - including about eight months of writing - “Rowan” is set for national distribution in November. First, it will be released in Texas on Oct. 18 by Austin-based Dalton Publishing.
The teaming of husband and wife amazes others the Roses have talked to about the book, eliciting comments, Christine said, such as “And you’re still together!”
But, even though it is their first book, Christine holds a master’s degree in medieval/ Renaissance literature and folklore, while Ethan has read “every fantasy novel ever written,” Christine noted.
“Every good one,” Ethan clarified, drawing smiles from both of them.
“It worked amazingly well,” added Christine, an adjunct professor at Austin Community College, about her first-time collaboration with her husband, a general contractor. “It was really wonderful and fun.”
“Rowan of the Wood” mixes fantasy and adventure in a tale focused on Cullen, a 12-year-old misfit with a horrible foster family. Walking through the woods to escape life at home and school, Cullen one day stumbles across a strange stick floating above the ground.
He later learns the stick is a wand belonging to a wizard, Rowan, long ago destined to become a druidic priest of an ancient Scottish tribe. On his wedding day - Halloween - Rowan and his wife faced attack from a fierce enemy bent on decimating the tribe.
The tribe, unarmed during the wedding, fled through a passageway to another world, which according to Scottish lore, becomes most easily accessible on Halloween. But Rowan got left behind, and he hid within the wand to escape slaughter.
Cullen inadvertently frees Rowan from the wand but later blacks out. Rowan possesses Cullen and is able to draw himself out of the boy’s body when Cullen become scared.
The plot for “Rowan” came to Christine on a flight from Texas to Oregon in 2005. Inspired by her young nephews, Christine - who has dabbled in film production, creating two political documentaries - toyed with the idea of writing a book and wondered what would appeal to a wide audience.
She noticed the effect sci-fi fantasy and adventure, as well as longtime comic book superheroes such as Superman and Batman, had on her two nephews, no more than 5 years old at the time.
“I had just spent Christmas with my nephews,” she said. “I saw how these kids got into these things that we got into. I just started thinking of the elements of these different stories [and] characters and tried to find something similar.”
After Christine’s initial idea - the outline was scribbled on several air sickness bags - another year passed before she began writing the story. On breaks at her former job, she began writing.
Christine purchased a book on how to write a book in 30 days, and she followed through, finishing the first draft in a month. Ethan spent time among the trees near Gattis School Road, Lake Georgetown and in city of Austin parks, meshing out details of the book. Last summer, Ethan was again among the redwoods during a trip to California, working on the book’s sequel.
In January, Dalton picked up “Rowan.”
The couple now hopes the book and the sequel will allow Ethan to spend less time on rooftops in his 9 to 5 role and more time among the trees.
“It’s been positive,” said Ethan, who operates Ethan Rose Construction of Round Rock. “I enjoy writing. I wish I had more time for it.”
With “Rowan” going nationwide, chances are Ethan just may have more time for that.
