Behind the Broken Bondage Book Cover

Welcome to Inspirational Indigenous Women!

I’m excited for you to meet Broken Bondage’s book cover model and my daughter-in-law, Tiffany Peone.

Isn’t she gorgeous? No partiality here!

Tiffany is a Colville Tribal Member, wife to my son, Corey, and the mother of three.

She loves to Jingle Dress Dance at various powwows with one of her daughters who won this year’s Jr. Miss Omak Stampede Encampment title.

Tiff dreamed of dancing as a little girl but never had the opportunity.

Until recently.

“I feel connected to my roots through this dance because it’s healing,” Tiffany said.

The Jingle Dress Dance has a significant meaning.

“The story is that the dress was first seen in a dream. A medicine man’s granddaughter grew sick, and as the man slept his Indian spirit guides came to him and told him to make a Jingle Dress for the little girl.” Click here to read more about the Jingle Dress dance.  

I love that Tiffany and my son, Corey, agreed to be my cover models, and I’m equally thankful my publisher, Iron Stream Media, agreed to accept my photos of them.

Tiffany knew how excited I was about my vision for the cover, and finding First American cover models was a huge struggle. Most of the models my publisher presented to me appeared to be from southwest tribes. They have distinct features as do the Indigenous women of the Plateau and surrounding tribes—the models I needed for my covers.

Let’s take a look at some of the photos from the photoshoot.

Photoshoot Wins

Here’s the photo I had hoped would be on the cover.

 

Here’s the photo Tiffany had hoped would be on the cover.

 

Here are a few other favorite photos from the shoot.

 

 

Here is the photo and cover that made the first cut. Can you see their love? It’s what makes the cover so special.

But the marketing department wasn’t yet satisfied, so we had a second photoshoot, and the cover designer chose another photo…

Here’s the photo and cover the marketing team chose for Broken Bondage. This photo was selected from the first photoshoot.

This image captures my heroine’s, Rita Runninghorse’s, signature side-braid, and my hero’s, Robert Elliot’s, love and devotion to keeping Rita safe. Most of all, the image captures Rita’s new-found sense of safety in the arms of a man she can trust to love and treasure her, and to keep her safe. I see peace and comfort. What do you see?

Thank you, Corey and Tiffany, for being my cover models! Bless you. What an honor to have family support me and my vision.

In the end what blessed me most was to give them photos, even black and whites, as a gift for their willingness.

I’ll discuss why I titled the books as I did in the coming months. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, take a little time to pamper yourself.

So tell me, what do you think of my DIL and this gorgeous cover?