Story behind Wings of Love

Wings of Love was the second of my Thin Green Line rural fantasy series. It started taking shape shortly after Beyond the Shadows was completed. At first I was not really intending to make a series from the basic idea but it just took off on its own and ideas kept coming! I am not done yet. Druid in Drag is about three quarters done and who knows what else may surface?


I've always been fascinated with flying--not in an aircraft but just flying like a bird. I often used to dream that I could fly although I did not actually have wings. Maybe levitate is a more accurate term for what happened in those dreams but anyway I was soaring through the air, as high and far as I wanted to and it was an exhilarating feeling!


So when I started to frame a second tale in the Thin Green Line series, the first character that emerged was Alex. He let me know right away that he was a shape shifter and his other form was that of a Raven. Those familiar with Celtic lore know Raven is a bird of death and battle, sometimes a familiar of various deities. Alex had Scots mother and although his father was American he grew up among kinfolk in Scotland some of whom were also shifters. Then the second guy appeared. A Native American of the Tohono O'odham tribe, he was more shy about sharing his gift with me but I learned he was a shifter too and changed to a Red Tailed Hawk!

I really enjoyed the vicarious experience of 'flying' with Alex and as they followed some evil drug dealing aliens and broke one part of the ring. I set this tale in Arizona, where Manual had grown up on the vast desert reservation of his people. The region is a battleground of the earthly drug trade and very dangerous so adding some extraterrestrial aliens only made it more so!

I looked for a photo of Baboquiveri Peak but did not find anything. However, here is the URL of the website of the Tohono O'odham people. It provides some interesting background into the culture and the modern tribe. www.tonation-nsn.gov/





This region is also featured by J.A. Jance in some of her great novels, a series separate from her Joanna Brady series. It's roughly west of Tucson and east of Yuma but extends a considerable distance along Arizona's southern border.