Like most kids, I loved picture books. Then I grew up, and words pretty much took over. But I never forgot how cool it was to actually see the characters and the scenes I was reading about. Even the black-and-white sketches in the Hardy Boys mysteries I was devouring as a 10-year-old would supercharge my imagination.
So it has been great fun to see the cast of The Secret Guardians come to life in the illustrations below. May you enjoy these glimpses of Jian and the remarkable souls she encounters along her way, as well as the worlds their adventures take them to.
Irish orphan Jian Byrne, our story’s heroine, records her memories in the refuge of the remote Hollow Tree cabin deep in the mountains of Montana.
The Hollow Tree in Montana’s Absaroka wilderness, where Jian’s long search for her missing parents takes on a new dimension.
During an astounding journey beyond the physical world, Jian encounters a radiant saint whose teachings begin to expand her understanding of who and what she truly is.
At Saint Francis School, Anna Rusakov reaches out to troubled classmate Jian Byrne. Thus begins a friendship that will alter both their lives.
Decades earlier, Jian’s Irish father, Sean Byrne, serves as a young soldier in the American army in Vietnam, where a liaison while on R&R changes the course of his life.
Jian’s Taiwanese mother, Lin Dao-ming, addresses a packed East-West conference in Taipei. Her fresh perspectives on age-old, revered spiritual teachings attract much attention.
Jian’s search for answers takes her to an etheric retreat over India, where an eternally young teacher helps prepare her for the challenges ahead.
American Luke Byrne, a friend of Anna and Jian and a grad student in Belfast, moonlights as a musician at Molly’s Cozy, a popular local music venue.
A rustic cottage on Lough Neagh becomes a refuge for Jian and her companions and a place for sharing and learning.
Trapped far from home, Ukrainian teenager Sofiy Tarasenko takes a daring leap to freedom that will bring her into the lives of Jian and her friends.
Working undercover in Istanbul, Jian’s brother Kaelin Byrne enters a dangerous hidden world in his determination to help young women he has never met.
At her home on the Welsh coast, Wren Bowen, a rescuer and mentor helping trafficked girls reclaim their lives, welcomes Jian and her companions into her world.
While sleeping at Bowen House, Jian and her companions journey to the extraordinary Archeia Gardens, where ongoing healing work reaches far beyond the physical body.
On a blustery winter night along England’s Channel coast, Jian and her companions prepare for a dangerous rescue operation.
As dawn breaks over the English Channel, Jian witnesses Nash Davis begin an extraordinary journey into the light.
Returned from Vietnam and back in school, Sean reflects on some of life’s most poignant questions with friend Jenna Poett on a perfect spring day in Ann Arbor.
After years of searching, Jian and Kaelin finally find their missing father in a nameless Taipei bar, only to discover a broken man almost unrecognizable from the father they imagined.
That night, shaken by seeing her father so defeated, Jian is escorted out of body to the Temple of Illumination, a university in the heaven worlds, to strengthen her faith that all will work out.
The illustrations on this page were created by me especially for The Secret Guardians. You’re welcome to share them for your personal use as long as you credit The Secret Guardians. If you’d like to use them commercially or publish them elsewhere, please contact me first.