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Thursday, August 25, 2016

The Story Behind The Stranger’s Cover, by Anna del Mar


If you ask me, the cover of The Stranger is a combination of different types of gorgeous. There’s nature’s beauty, of course, nicely displayed in the background as the legendary Alaskan Range rises over the tundra and reflects on a glassy lake. Very appropriate, since Alaska is the third protagonist of this epic romance.

And then there’s the human gorgeousness, the hunk who graces the cover and still to this day makes me swoon every time I set my eyes on him. Yes, just in case you were wondering, we romance authors are particularly appreciative of the visual assets that cover designers bestow upon the heroes that rule our imaginations.

The Stranger is my newest romantic suspense and the second book of my Wounded Warrior Series, following on the heels of my Amazon bestseller, The Asset. The cover began as Art Fact Sheet, the input mechanism that my publisher, Carina Press, uses to ensure that an author’s perspective is represented in the cover’s creation stages.

I like to be prolific with my descriptions in my AFS, giving the cover designers as much information as I can about my main characters and my settings. I add lots of pictures that come straight out of my notes and storyboards and babble away with all kinds of crazy ideas. Inevitably, my amazing editor, Kerri Buckley and the incredible team at Carina make some sort of sense out of my jumbled AFS. And here’s the funny thing: They always come up with something better, MUCH better than I could imagine in the first place.

In the Case of The Stranger I was blown away when I got my cover concept from Heather Goldberg, Carina Press’s truly impressive Digital Marketing Coordinator. Heather manages to keep a complex process that involves many people, opinions and departments running like a fine oiled machine. The kicker is that she also manages to keep finicky authors like me deliriously happy.

The Stranger on the cover is Seth Erickson. Seth is a powerful Alaskan tycoon dealing with a quarreling family and a hostile takeover attempt. As the cover also implies, he’s a wounded warrior, a helicopter pilot struggling to recover from injuries he sustained while serving in Afghanistan, a man haunted by his past and fighting his own demons. Seth is your classic alpha, blunt, systematic and precise, always cool and in command, a man who despises emotion and sticks to his icy logic… until he meets my heroine, Summer Silva.

The adventure that ensues is beyond the cover, along with the details of Seth and Summer’s hot and sexy romance. For more on that, click here. But I’ll share this. The cover designers chose just the right physical type. The details, according to the story, are right on. The Seth on the cover matches the Seth in my mind. The cover is a perfect merger of storytelling and marketing savvy. Now ask any author out there. That’s hard to do and a total credit to the talented team at Carina Press.

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Here’s a first review of The Stranger. And it’s an awesome one!

 ABOUT THE BOOK
When her sister runs away with a guy she met on the internet, a warmth-loving Miami architect chases her reckless sibling to Alaska and finds her life in danger from more than the elements. Only a stranger, a wounded warrior who is also Alaskan tycoon with a quarreling family as complicated as her own and no time for a lady in distress—let alone one who walks on her sleep—can save her from disaster. Together, two strangers from different worlds and opposite spectrums of the thermometer must unravel the intrigues that threaten their lives to chase after a new dream, together, in majestic Alaska. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anna del Mar writes hot, smart romances that soothe the soul, challenge the mind, and satisfy the heart. Her stories focus on strong heroines struggling to find their place in the world and the brave, sexy, kickass, military heroes who defy the limits of their broken bodies to protect the women they love. Anna enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing, and the sea. Writing is her addiction, her drug of choice, and what she wants to do all the time. The extraordinary men and women she met during her years as a Navy wife inspire the fabulous heroes and heroines at the center of her stories. When she stays put—which doesn’t happen very often—she lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.

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