My First Book Cover -- Where are my tissues??

All writers imagine what their first book cover will look like. We make suggestions to the graphic artists or the publishers. We wait. We wonder. Then when the finished product wiggles into our mailbox like a cocoon about to burst, we take a deep breath and click on the attachment, eager to see the book cover butterfly that bursts forth on our screens. Smiles bloom. A whoosh of air escapes and we realize we've been holding our breath in anticipation...or fear. Our eyes drink in every aspect, every artistic nuance of the cover and then it lands on our names. A long-held dream come true: my name on the cover of a book. And the tears start. This was my experience last night.

Rae Monet, a talented graphic artist at The Wild Rose Press and the one I'd requested because of her beautiful cover for Beth Trissels's Enemy of the King, did a super job on my cover as well. She'd taken my garbled "wants" and turned them into a cover that is perfect for my contemporary romance set in the Hill Country of Texas. Did I cry when I first saw it? Does chocolate melt in your mouth?

Here's a blurb about Storm's Interlude:

Nurse Rachel Dennison comes to Texas determined to prepare her new patient for a second round of chemo. What she isn’t counting on is her patient’s twin brother, Storm Masterson.

Half Native American with the ability to have “vision dreams,” Storm dreams about Rachel for three nights before her arrival. Both are unprepared for the firestorm of emotions their first chance encounter ignites. Even so, Storm has two things Rachel won’t abide: a domineering personality and a fiancée.


Yet, ultimately, it is Rachel’s past—an abusive, maniacal ex-boyfriend—that threatens to keep them apart…and Storm’s dreams that bring them together again.


Thank you, Rae, for a job well-done. Doing the happy dance here in Lynchburg, Virginia. Hugs to you and your fabulous talent, Rae Monet.