When I published my first book, I started sharing pictures of the cover when it was still in the theoretical stage, long before the final product was realized. I had never heard of the concept of a Cover Reveal. Let's face it, when I put that first book out, I hadn't heard of a lot of things. Over the last two years, one of the things I have learned is how important that cover really is. It does a lot of the heavy lifting for a book. It has to be appealing in a thumbprint size as well as full-size, it has to accurately convey the genre and tone of the book and ideally, it has to make a reader think "I'm interested in that story." All without the benefit of the story itself. That's why I feel so blessed to work with Linda Boulanger, who has now created the covers for all six of my books and stories, including this one:      First, I want to tell you that this cover is a little bit of a departure for the type of story it is. Second Chance Valentines is a love story. The conventional wisdom is, when you make a cover for a love story, you should see the couple front and center. In both Second Chance Christmas and now Second Chance Valentines, there are lovely, evocative images, but no impassioned lovers in sight. That was my decision. Unless you don't like it, then it was all on Linda. I kid, I kid. It was all me. When Linda showed me this gorgeous bridge, I didn't want to distract from it in any way. Plus, it has the benefit of being metaphorical, as I think of this story as a bridge between their Christmas Miracle and the relationship they will ultimately have. In any case, I enjoy looking at it, and I hope you do as well. 
     Writing Second Chance Valentines itself was a little bit of a gamble. First, it is a short story, which conventional wisdom says doesn't sell well. Also, it is a "sweet" romance, which means that there's no sex or erotic content. Finally, it's pretty old-fashioned, because that's what I set out to write. Writing stories where few things are left to the imagination is what is trendy right now, but I just don't have that in me. A blogger recently said that I didn't write Romance stories, but that I wrote "Love Stories." I loved that, because that's exactly what I am going for. I want to explore that ineffable feeling of falling into and being in, love.
     In any case, Second Chance Valentines, the second story in the Second Chance Love series, is out and available on Amazon and can be found here. Both it and the first story are only .99. Thanks to Dawn Adele (who helped me come up with the plot) J.K. Kelley, my editor (who always makes my writing so much better than I ever could on my own) and my beta readers that tell me when I'm getting things right and wrong, I think it's a pretty good story. I hope you'l enjoy it.