Photo inspiration for my main heroine, Phoebe

My first novel published in five years just released this past December, Lady Wynwood’s Spies 1: Archer, the first volume in a Christian Regency Romantic Adventure Serial Novel (yeah, I know, that’s quite a mouthful).

Basically, it's like a really long novel divided into parts. Each volume has a story arc, but the overarching story continues in each volume and they're not stand-alone novels. It’s been outlined for 10 volumes, plus a side volume, and I already released two prequel novels.

When I write, I like to have a visual idea of what my characters looks like. I also like to extrapolate the personality of the character from the photos I use, so I'm very careful about the model and their pose or the expression on their face.

But lately I haven’t been using real photos, and instead using anime and manga characters. When I first started writing about my main heroine, Phoebe, the photos I used for reference for her personality and looks was this character, Ryu, who is from one of my favorite light novel series, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?. (I know, that's a perfectly awful series title, and the first volume reads a little bit immaturely, but it really picks up in the second volume and has become one of my favorite series of all time.)

I changed Phoebe's hair to dark brown and she obviously doesn't have elf ears, but her looks and personality were a bit like this character in the light novel series. Ryu was betrayed and vowed vengeance, and she gave in to her rage and desire to extract punishment from the people who killed her familia. Phoebe was badly betrayed by her father, who treated her like a slave he owned, and she's struggling with what she wants to do with her life now that her family has abandoned her. I kind of see Phoebe as who Ryu might have been if Ryu had tried to not go on a killing spree.

When I was looking for photos for the cover for this book, I saw this model on a cover photo website and immediately knew this was Phoebe. I absolutely love this model (her name is Chelsea) and the strength she portrays. It perfectly matches the way I view Phoebe.

I hope you order Lady Wynwood’s Spies 1: Archer and enjoy it! Volume 2 will release probably in February sometime and I'm in the middle of writing volume 3 right now!

Back cover description:
Part one in a Christian Regency Romantic Adventure epic serial novel with a supernatural twist
Lady Wynwood’s Spies series, volume 1

She met him again by shooting him.

After four seasons and unmarried because she is taller than most of her dance partners, Miss Phoebe Sauber receives the shocking news that she is being callously banished from her father’s estate because he is remarrying. Feeling betrayed by her father and by God, and wanting to escape her family’s presence, she attends an archery tournament with her friends.

But her perfect aim fails her, and her arrow hits a piece of paper held by Mr. Michael Coulton-Jones, whom she hasn’t seen much in society in several years. But strangely, her arrow tears a section of the paper with a partial symbol that looks eerily familiar to her.

He met her again while searching for a killer.

Michael had quit his work as a spy for the Foreign Office when his brother was poisoned. His search for the murderer leads him to Apothecary Jack, a criminal underworld leader with a penchant for poisons, who is gathering a powerful army through an alchemical potion that can give men supernatural strength.

But his path unexpectedly crosses again with Miss Sauber, who saves him from a trap laid by Jack. She and her Aunt Laura, Lady Wynwood, have found a vital connection to Apothecary Jack and the mysterious group he works for.

Now Michael, who had vowed to never again allow civilians to come to harm, must work with a nobleman keeping dangerous secrets, a human lie detector, a chemist, a fellow former spy, and the one woman he’s never allowed himself to get close to.

And it is only this ragtag group that stands against a traitorous organization that could enable Napoleon to conquer the world.

PLEASE NOTE: This is the first book in the Lady Wynwood’s Spies series, an epic serial novel. Each volume has a completed story arc, but this is NOT a stand-alone novel and ends on a cliffhanger.