The symbol from the Lady Wynwood's Spies series

From book 1 in my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series, there’s been a symbol hanging around that connects to the mysterious Citadel group. Michael was carrying a partial picture of the symbol when Phoebe met him on Hampstead Heath (and it was the symbol his brother Richard found before he died).

The symbol was also inside Lord Wynwood’s pocketwatch, and it turns out that Sol had seen that symbol twice before—once when Sep found the letter in the desk of Napoleon’s aide, and again a few months later in The Gentleman Thief when Sol sees a note given to Allinton with instructions for him to obey.

And then in volume 4, they finally find a silver seal that belonged to Bianca, which has the symbol upon it. That’s why you can see a red seal on the cover of Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 4: Betrayer.

I should have probably blogged about this when book 1 released, but the symbol is actually my family crest!

I was thinking I’d like something like the Scarlet Pimpernel, and my family crest was just too perfect, even though it’s not British, it’s Japanese. I did more research into my crest and found that the flowers are gentians, which is why Phoebe nicknames Jack’s group the Gentians.

And some of you might have noticed that I use my family crest for my author logo on my website. A friend of my cousin did my original logo for me. She took a low-resolution version made by another designer and cleaned it up, then gave me the high-res version. Then my graphic designer Dineen Miller added my name over it in the same font that she uses for my name on the covers of my books. I love my logo!

When I was writing Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 4: Betrayer, I knew that Bianca’s seal was going to show up, so I asked my graphic designer if she could put a red wax seal of the symbol on the cover. I wasn’t even sure if it were possible, but she did a great job!

Anyway, I thought some of you might be interested in seeing what I was envisioning when I created the symbol for Jack’s nefarious evil organization. But since it’s my family crest, maybe it’s my nefarious evil organization? :)

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Michael’s Scarf knitting pattern

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Hosea 14:2

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Cleo’s Drawstring Purse knitting pattern w/ @KnitPicks CotLin

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Manuscript done and peachy delights

I finally finished writing The Lone Rice Ball , book 5 in my Sushi series! As a reward, I bought a luscious peach jelly dessert from Kichoan Minamoto , a Japanese store that has a branch in Ala Moana Shopping Center in Hawaii. Their Japanese delicacies are pricey but extremely high quality and delicious. (My husband loves their Baumkuchen cake. I can't eat it anymore because of my IBS, but I guarantee it’s incredibly moist and tasty!)

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