Getting a cover is one of the most exciting and nerve-racking parts of the indie publishing process. You have to find an artist, then you have to explain what you want (assuming you know), then you and the artist have to work through a series of rough drafts before you finally arrive at the cover that best expresses the feeling behind your story.

When it came to covers I was very lucky, much luckier than a lot of other authors. Because Running On Empty is the third book in a trilogy, I had two other covers to draw upon, those for Finding Mr. Right Now and Love in the Morning. I also knew the wonderful artist who’d done those covers: Angela Waters. And like lots of cover artists, Angela works freelance.

I knew pretty much what I wanted on the cover—Angela had set up a gorgeous background that was either a sunrise or a sunset, depending on your point of view. I wanted that background again, with new figures in the foreground, figures that looked like my hero and heroine.

Those of you who have read the first two books will recognize my heroine: the one and only Ronnie Ventura, the bachelorette of Finding Mr. Right Now and one of Lizzy’s saviors in Love in the Morning. My hero may also be familiar, although he’s been more or less in the background up until now—Ted Saltzman, owner and bartender at the Blarney Stone Bar and Grill. In Running On Empty, Ronnie is training for a “triathlon” being run by her old nemesis Fairstein Productions, and Ted is her running coach. I wanted the two of them to look athletic, although I wasn’t sure exactly what that would mean. So I did what authors frequently do when they’re looking for cover inspiration—I visited a stock photo site.

There were lots of pictures of couples in track suits and swimsuits and variations thereof, but somehow none of them seemed quite right. Then I stumbled on one where the couple were standing back-to-back. The man looked faintly miffed. The woman looked radiant. Perfect!

You see, Ted is far from convinced that this triathlon is a good idea. In fact, he can’t see why Ronnie would want to have anything more to do with Fairstein, given their lousy track record where she’s concerned. But Ronnie has her reasons, even if Ted doesn’t entirely understand them. The expressions of the two people in the photo really represented just what the characters were feeling in the book.

I’m taking a bit of a risk here since both people in the picture are looking directly at you (we called that a demand image, back when I was teaching visual communication). Some people are very much against having the cover image address the audience since it may seem too challenging. Then too, some readers don’t like having recognizable faces on a cover since that might interfere with their own mental image of the characters.

Still, I was so taken by the pic, that I decided to go with it. So here it is, the cover for Running on Empty. Hope you like it!