Something of a Mystery: How and Why I Drew This Orca

 

I should say from the start that as linked-fiction partners for Islands of Intrigue, a romantic suspense series set in the San Juan Islands, Lynnette Bonner, Lesley McDaniel, and I usually see eye-to-eye. Besides respecting one another’s writing, we decided to work together because of our compatibility. It wasn’t that we disagreed exactly, it was more like only two of us at a time would like a possible image to divide one scene from another in our books. To help connect and brand the series, we wanted to use the same image in all three books. Lynnette has guns in her book, The Unrelenting Tide, which just released May 1st, so she wanted to use a gun image. I was neutral on the use of a gun, but Lesley was all for gun control, at least when it came to the divider art for our books. Lynnette suggested the idea of shells, and Lesley was happier with that idea, but I didn’t think using shells would work well for romantic suspense, so we went back to the planning stage again. I love that we consider one another in this way because we always come up with something better than we’d have settled on alone.

We finally settled on an Orca, which if you didn’t know is an iconic symbol of the Pacific Northwest and the San Juan Islands in particular. But then we had trouble deciding what sort of Orca to use. None of the pictures we found pleased all three of us. That’s when I volunteered to draw what we wanted. It was a bit presumptuous of me to assume I’d come up with a drawing to satisfy us all, but then I’ve been known to rush in where angels fear to tread before. Anyway I drew an arching Orca that was Native American but not too Native American. I seem to have nailed it or else my partners don’t want to hurt my feelings.  At any rate, the Orca above will appear in the pages of the San Juan Island editions of Islands of Intrigue, with one modification. It was suggested that my Orca is a little too cutesy for inclusion in novels of romantic suspense, so Lynnette stretched the drawing slightly. We all loved the more-sophisticated version. You can see it inside  The Unrelenting Tide.

The Unrelenting Tide (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans – Christian Romantic Suspense)
She’s been living a lie that could just get her killed…

Widowed former Hollywood actress Devynne Lang has been living a quiet life in the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest. For years, she’s hoped her fabricated death would keep her identity safe from the public, and more to the point, from the stalker who forced her into hiding. But strange things have been happening around her place and this time, with a daughter to protect, she can’t afford one mistake ‐ even if it means letting Carcen Lang get close enough help.

Carcen would do anything to protect his brother’s widow and her daughter. So when he discovers Devynne may be in danger, he vows to find the man responsible. But dead lead after dead lead frustrates and baffles. Until the unthinkable happens and he realizes the danger has been closer than either of them could have imagined the entire time.

…because lies always have a way of coming back to bite you.

Note: Janalyn Voigt is an Amazon Associate and benefits when products are purchased at Amazon.com through her affiliate links. 

©2013 by Janalyn Voigt

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