Rustic Reunion: A Camino Child Holidays Story

by Brien Crothers

Rustic Reunion is about 16-year-old girl Summer Darling, who visits her parents for the first time in three years. They live in a hippie commune in the Pacific Northwest where they grow cannabis. Summer was brought up here until her Grandma Pat took her away due to the inappropriate attention of the commune’s leader. While with her grandmother, Summer traveled to Spain to hike the El Camino de Santiago, a journey she deeply loved. Summer is now visiting after the passing of her grandmother and before the unpleasant likelihood of having to live with her great-aunt, Tilly. During her stay, she reconnects with her parents and recalls her love for the natural surroundings, despite the commune's harsh winters and challenging lifestyle.

15 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 3, 2024

About the author

Brien writes adventure stories based on his many journeys near home and abroad.

If someone offered you a ticket to anywhere in the world, where would you go? Seems a fanciful question but it has inspired Brien to travel the world seeking one adventure after another for more than two decades.

He is currently working on a young adult travel adventure, a novel called Camino Child.

A novella with the backstory to Camino Child is available on briencrothers.com.

He has written for Ultrarunning Magazine and short stories, including one about a pink church in Switzerland, La Petite Cathédrale d’Elsie, which was published in the Napa Valley Writers 2021 anthology titled Third Harvest.

Under the pseudonym Chance Moon, Brien has also written and self-published two novels The Red Sedan and Goldblind.