Chapter 38: Author Panel

Robbie was a married man with a family in his early fifties whom had been struggling with the recent death of his mother.

Given how close he’d been with her all his life, especially since she’d raised him alone due to his father dying before he was even born, he’d been finding it very hard to go about his days without constantly spiraling into a depressed slump.

Despite all the ’It’ll get better,’ and ’It never gets any easier,’ and ’She wouldn’t want you to be sad,’ all Robbie kept hearing was; ’She’s gone and she’s never coming back.’.

Nonetheless, he tried pushing through it all to be the strong man his family wanted and the man the society demanded of him to be... all whilst harboring his emotional wreck within.

Then, one night, whilst listening to the radio as he drove home, a certain song had begun playing.

Though Robbie hadn’t been all that interested at first, especially since he was once again in a depressed slump, the heartfelt lyrics soon found their way to him, cutting through the saddened haze he was in.

So we can keep us,

Inside the corners of a worn-out frame,

Faded edges but it feels the same,

Bathed in that blissful warmth,

Hold on to it close.

It was only after hearing that first half, that the man began truly listening.

Then, when he heard the second half of the chorus a few seconds later...

And if time leaves,

If it steals all the days we’ve ever known,

We’ll still keep living in that afterglow,

Like it’s at the break of dawn,

So hold on to it close,

...he pulled his vehicle over, his emotions swelling to the surface.

The outro of the song however...

And when I’m older,

I will hold onto it like a lifeline,

Keep every bit of it from creasing,

As I whisper to myself,

"I’m holding on to you close."

...now that had ended up being the final nail in the coffin for him.

Suddenly, it felt like the weight on his soul had been lifted.

Then, like a cracked dam that had been trying so hard to hold the waterworks back, he burst into tears and wept like a baby.

When he’d finally gotten himself together, he took the initiative to search out the lyrics of the song again, which eventually led him to finding out the musician of said song.

From the bottom of his heart, Robbie wanted to thank the artist who wrote it.

Afterall, his lyrics had literally said the words he had needed to hear to truly grieve.

And though he remained well-aware of the fact that said artist was probably someone he might probably never be able to reach, imagine how grateful he’d been when he’d stumbled upon Feyre Publication’s post about holding a signing event, and how Niall Parker would be amongst the authors attending.

Without thinking twice, he clicked the link for the registration.

Upon seeing that there were only five slots left--one that suddenly ticked down to three slots, he swiftly inputted his details and hit send.

Watching as the processing icon rolled, seemingly feeling like it was lasting an eternity, a pop-up suddenly slid into place with a successful icon.

Without even realizing it, Robbie let out a sigh of relief.

Then he downloaded the digital ID with his details on it, saved it properly, and duplicated it for good measure.

Only after then did he begin the drive back home.

*

Despite the massive success that [Polaroid] was, a song that already had over seven million streams in a little over a week, Hollywood chose to remain flippantly unaware of it.

The typical talk show invites, variety show invitations, music podcasts and the likes that rising artists were typically afforded... none of it was offered to Niall.

Half was because of the hit piece which was still doing its rounds on the internet, and the other half was because no one wanted to be the sacrificial lamb that would ultimately be linked to the man whom had chosen to reject Hollywood’s unspoken standards.

This was all to say that Niall didn’t have the right amount of star power just yet. One that completely rendered any unspoken standard or system they had useless.

Because if he did have it, the hill Hollywood seemed so dead set on dying on in an effort to keep him from growing his wings would have long collapsed to rubble.

And though there were independent outlets not linked to Tinseltown, alongside streamers who did reach out to Niall for a feature, Niall politely rejected them all.

Not because he wasn’t interested--because he really was--but rather because they couldn’t have picked a worser time to request of such from him.

Afterall, today was the day Feyre Publications had set aside for the signing event.

Currently seated in a medium-sized room, Niall was currently locked in a discussion with his fellow authors as the cameras rolled on the side.

One would think these authors, maybe excluding Niall, would be quite tense by the fact that they were being filmed.

Yet, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Instead, they looked completely at ease, a testament to the fact that they trusted Feyre Publications enough to paint them all in a good light.

Also, the atmosphere was very inviting and charged with excitement, especially for the younger authors who were so glad to be in the presence of other authors they looked up to.

And then there was Niall, the rising sensation and equally, the newbie author that was drawing eyes with every smile, question and answer he gave.

"How did you conceive the idea for the story, anyway?" Dutch Willow, one of Feyre Publication’s YA author who wrote a sci-fi hit novel called [Codebreaker] curiously inquired of him after he’d answered several other questions.

Aged forty, Dutch was a man with an average build, his frame slightly on the larger side, and he had long, black curls that fell all-around his face and a thick, bushy beard.

He quite looked like a punkrocker, rather than an author, and he had previously been the company’s number one author until Niall came along.

"Funny story there, actually," Niall chuckled, his features softening into a nostalgic smile.

Then, he expatiated;

"You see, before I wrote [The Token of Fate], I’d written [The Hero of Fate], a book I was so proud of, but I felt was too generic,"

To that statement, practically most authors around the table alongside Dutch let out curious expressions, some notably surprised.

"So, in an effort to add something I felt could elevate the story, I’d wondered to myself; What if the end of Rayleigh’s story wasn’t as heroic as I’d written?" Niall continued explaining.

"What if he’d been led by the nose all along?"

"From thereon, I just reverse-engineered the story to fit the bill. That’s how [The Token of Fate] was made." he concluded with a subtle shrug of his shoulders.

Once again, his fellow authors nodded in acknowledgement, notably impressed by how articulate and grounded the young man was for his age.

Another author, Luanne Ranger whom had written an adult romance novel that had sold quite well, couldn’t help but ask a question everyone else was curious about;

"So you’re saying you’ve written a prequel already?"

Notably pretty, her shiny black hair fell over her shoulders in a luscious wave, her nut-brown irises curious.

"Work in progress. I do have to revamp it to slot into a couple things in [The Spire of Fate]." Niall simply replied with a thin smile.

"Don’t tell me you’ve began the next book too?!" she said, leaning forwards slightly as her pupils dilated in genuine surprise.

To that, Niall simply nodded, triggering a rousing reaction from every other author in the room.

Suddenly, they were hyped to either begin or equally continue their next books.

If a newbie author like them whom was equally an actor and also an indie musician could juggle multiple things so effortlessly well, who were they to be idling around.

Niall on the other end, couldn’t help but inwardly sigh.

Left to him, he wasn’t the kind to be so open about what he was up to.

However, just before he’d arrived at the event today, Michael and Bob had conference called him, requesting if he could leak a bit of his work to general public and equally his fellow authors for a feature they were planning to have uploaded onto their ViewTube channel.

Though Niall had been a bit reluctant to agree, he figured it wouldn’t hurt as long as he curated his words carefully.

However, before they could continue on with other discussions though, one of the staffs on ground informed them that event was about to begin.

No sooner had they heard that, all the authors exchanged handshakes and proceeded to make their way out of the room and into the fairly wide hall.

Complete with all the modern architecture one could imagine, colorful sashes and banners of several different books were expertly positioned in various areas of the hall.

Alongside these were, direction placards, small booths and tables, each author’s books stacked atop it.

In the far corner of the hall, an elevated stage where an eye-catching podium also stood, chairs arranged before it.

Taking his place on the podium, as he would be the first to kick off the reading session and Q&A, Niall’s fingers brushed the copy of [The Token of Fate] which was placed atop it.

Then, just as he was smiling to himself in pride, the doors to the hall opened and in came in a steady stream of attendees for the events.

Niall had expected it would take a fair while before the seats before him got filled.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Advance Chapters are available on Patreon!

/Caer07