Finding Skye Montgomery

Jennifer Rae
May 7, 2016
2 min read

I am a very visual person, and for those individuals who have seen my other blogs about Extol, I do mental casting for my characters. Mostly it is just a way to keep all the characters separated in my mind. It was dire for Extol because of all the different characters I needed to keep track of. Analogue, not so much. For a long time, the only face in my head was Travis Fimmel as Owen.

That did not mean I didn't have particular looks in my head when I was writing. Skye was very clear. She looked a little like me. Tall (for a girl) with dark hair and eyes. And plus size. I never actually considered it to be important until so many people started commenting on the book cover art.

I was lucky that when I was working with an artist that she understood my vision and gave the silhouette a fuller figure without it looking odd. Skye is a girl who has given up a little, and it shows. She eats like one of the boys, never hits the gym as much as she could, and work hours often means a lot of take-out food (all of this she mentions in the series). That is going to make you lose the Hollywood size 0 most lady cops have.

So the cover art is revealed and almost every

one told me "I love how she isn't thin." I didn't even think about it until others pointed it out to me. It was just a side effect of her lifestyle, not some crusade on my part to deliver to a niche market. The problem arose when I went looking for a famous face that could work as a go-to reference while I was working.

There are many plus size models out there in the world, with many looks. Short, tall, blonde, redhead... but it seems like a majority of them are exclusively lingerie models. This perceived attitude and open sexuality worked against the Skye in my head. These images are not just for their physical looks but are supposed to kick start their muse. Skye is not an overly sexual being.

Finally, I did find an image that felt like Skye. The cast of Analogue is complete. You can check it out here on pintrest