Sail or fly into the San Juan Islands of Washington State and you are immediately struck by the rugged beauty of the archipelago’s shoreline. Twice daily tides, sometimes rising 13 feet, splash the 479 miles (769 km) of rocky headlands and pebble shell beaches of approximately 400 islands, 128 with names. Overhanging Madrona trees, their gnarled trunks encircled in ochre bark, fringe snug harbors and open coves where harbor seals snatch salmon for supper. Black Oystercatchers pluck a banquet of mussels, limpets, and chitons from nearby reefs with their bright red beaks. And people from all walks of life come to enjoy the slower-paced lifestyle, afoot or afloat, in God’s creation.
Welcome to my maritime home in the far northwest corner of the United States! My husband and I have been sailing to the San Juan Islands aboard our sailboat, SV Kelpie, since our first visit in 1983—and we keep returning. For this reason, I’ve chosen them to be the setting for my Christian historical romance novels in Timepieces of the San Juan Islands.
The American San Juan Islands share an international border with southern British Columbia, Canada. My stories explore the conflicts between the two countries during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The NASA satellite photo and map show this island group is located north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, west of Rosario Strait, east of Haro Strait, and south of Boundary Pass.
Another setting, more famous than the San Juan Islands, is found in the Bible. If you’ve read about the Jewish people in its pages, you know that God gave them a homeland in the Middle East. Today, many Jews live in the State of Israel, a nation founded at the end of WWII on May 14, 1948 after the holocaust. The small country, similar in size to New Jersey, shares borders with Jordan, Syria, the Palestine territories to the east and south west, Lebanon, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.
No matter where you call home on this earth, God is with you. And heaven is home for all those who believe in Jesus Christ.
Thank you for reading.
Blessings,
Deb
Makes me wish it was summer already!