A story rooted in personal pilgrimage and connecting with the mind, body and soul.
Eight stones on the altar It’s a unique perspective on how hardship can lead to spiritual awakening.
Written by Emwynn Powers, a San Luis Obispo County native. Eight stones on the altar It follows protagonist Mac McCullough as he navigates a messy divorce and rebuilds his life before attending his best friend’s wedding.
“I wanted to write a book that was very uplifting,” Powers said. New Times. “There are some serious themes that the characters deal with in the book, but I think right now everyone needs something light and fun and makes them feel good when they read it.”
When McCullough’s seemingly perfect life in the town north of Salt Lake City takes an unexpected and dramatic turn, she turns to spirituality through meditation and crystals.
According to Powers, she began to develop psychic awareness and noticed it getting stronger the more she meditated, so she decided to use her newfound powers for good and help slow the effects of global warming – a passion of McCullough’s.
“I wanted the book to include tools like the law of attraction, meditation, and using those in difficult times to help people apply them to situations we can all relate to,” she said. “I love self-help and spiritual books, but I enjoy reading them in fiction so much more because I can see the principles actually being applied to real-life situations.”
Harnessing the power of spirit, McCullough embarks on a life-changing journey that takes her from the iconic sequoias of Santa Cruz to her own private lake near Santa Margarita. Along the way, McCullough stops in places like Cambria to recharge by connecting with crystals.
“Each chapter in the book is named after a gemstone, and the character acquires that gemstone in some way during the chapter,” she said. “Gemstones have a lot of healing and energy, so the gemstone she acquires in that chapter represents what she’s going through at that time. They support her, and each one is different.”
Powers said the main character is psychic and that the author believes everyone has some kind of psychic ability and intuition.
“I kept looking for a book like this and I couldn’t find one, so I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll just write one myself.’ I had this whole world in my head and I wanted to express it,” she said.
McCullough’s journey is loosely based on something Powers experienced in her own life, and writing a fiction book about that transformation has been on her mind for years.
“The book is character-driven and in some ways real life, and of course inspired by my own experiences,” she says. “I’ve lived in Santa Cruz for quite some time, and moved to the area about 10 years ago, so I’m writing about her life in Santa Cruz.”
Powers said: Under the Tuscan sun The book’s protagonist travels around Italy sharing recipes, and Powers adds some surprises to the book by including her own recipes for every dish McCullough makes along the way.
“I thought it was really fun, and no one does that with a fiction book,” she said.
Contact Staff Writer Samantha Herrera at [email protected].
