From the moment I penned Tempered Hearts in a 5 subject notebook, I envisioned the cover…. entwined hearts and the title and my name in rope font. When the novel was contracted by Writer’s Exchange E-publishing Co. I asked the editor what the criteria was for cover art, told her my idea, and she said I could provide my own.
Other than the old fashioned bodice rippers or sweet covers with cardboard characters, I really had no idea what romance covers should look like. All I knew was I wanted something different and unique. So, I talked with my aunt who owns a marketing firm and she created the cover for Tempered Hearts. For Tempered Dreams, book 2 in the series, still having no clue, I thought of a dreamy sky.
In 2004 the entire Tempered series which included these two, along with Tempered Fire & Joy (books 3 & 4) was contracted by another small press, ComStar Media.
Wanting a little more consistency with the covers, they came up with a double heart graphic that would be used with all 4 covers while tweaking each to fit the title.
Then the work really began.
I am a writer, not an artist and in most instances, I have some idea of how I’d like the cover to look, but for the life of me, can’t put one together! I still loved the idea of entwined rope hearts and rope font, and wanted a color scheme that would enhance the title & photos to reflect the characters, so I called upon a dear friend and excellent cover artist, Delia Latham (Heaven’s Touch Designs).
Although I did want couples on the books, I didn’t necessarily want them embracing. These are contemporary western romances so cowboys, horses and ranches, were a big plus. Tamera, the heroine in Tempered Hearts is a veterinarian, so a sexy female character wouldn’t work. Katrina (Tempered Dreams) is a battered wife when Scott, a doctor first meets her. Tempered Fire & Tempered Joy involves high school/collage age H/H so again, typical romance covers with couples embracing wasn’t what I was looking for. Not to mention I write Inspirational!
This is what Delia came up with and how the covers look today……
When I wrote Lori’s Redemption, a short story spinoff of Tempered Fire, once again I called on Delia…and then more recently, when I put together an E-bundle containing all 4 novels + the short story…..
As you can see these covers have gone through major transformation over the years. I don’t know about you, but I love the current ones!
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