To Mom—the only pastor whose sermons I always listened to without daydreaming about my latest story, even when my childhood antics being used as examples made me blush.

The dedication for The Goddess’s Illusion.

The Goddess’s Illusion is dedicated to my mom, who was a Methodist pastor for 15 years and loved preaching, building relationships, and fostering people’s spiritual journeys. (Although I don’t consider myself a true PK—pastor’s kid—because she didn’t become a student pastor until I was in high school. But we attended services since I was little, so church was important part of my growing up.)

The religion in my books isn’t based on Christianity. The Goddess is inspired by ancient harvest/agricultural deities, like Demeter. (The other deities in Damensea, largely unexplored so far since the Goddess is the main deity in Calatini, are based on similar ancient religions.) The four holy festivals of the Goddess are set on the solstices and equinoxes, and they are inspired by traditional holidays during those times. However, the Goddess’s daily services are loosely based off the Catholic Church and the Church of England, as is the hierarchy of the priesthood. (Although there isn’t a day set aside for communal worship, like Sunday for Christians.)

Even though my created religion isn’t Christianity-based, my mom did inspire a lot about the priesthood itself. Priests and priestesses are called to serve the Goddess, of course, but they’re also dedicated to serving their parishioners, work incredibly hard, and love how they’re called to serve—like my mom. Being a priest isn’t an easy career that parents would send their third son to, as in medieval England. (Although some assume that it is because parishioners pay for all their priest’s needs.) But their rigorous training of 3-5 years and the Goddess’s approval at their ordination examinations remove most who aren’t truly called to serve, so only a quarter of novices actually enter the priesthood.

But despite my mom inspiring the priesthood, none of the characters in my books are based off her. (And definitely not the meddling Duchess of Childes, Aragon/Mel/Hawke’s mother, since my mom was always a big proponent of us making our own choices.) I doubt I could do justice to my mom—she was always animated and often loud (whether happy or angry or sad), and she could talk to people about almost anything for hours. Yet certain aspects of my mom show up in many of my characters, like her dedication to hard work, proud love of her family, and her warm insight.

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The image for this book extra is a photograph my mom took when we visited Yosemite. She was a woman of many talents, so before she became a pastor, she held a variety of jobs—including freelance photographer.