PAGES : It’s Never Too Late to Be a Cover Girl

She’s “spirited, smart, attractive and independent,” said Walter Zacharias, chairman of Zebra Books--and Ann LaFarge, Zebra’s “50-something” executive editor, is that company’s latest cover girl.

It was Zacharias who had the “crazy idea” of dressing up his top editor as a cowgirl and featuring her on Zebra’s new “To Love Again” series of contemporary romance novels featuring heroines over 45. Zebra publishes two books each month in the “To Love Again” series, which was launched last year.

In her debut title, Carol Finch’s “A Bid for Love,” LaFarge will appear alongside James Fox, winner of Romantic Times’ “Mr. Romance” pageant in the “40-plus” division.

Cover pictures were shot at the Coyote Creek Ranch in Chino Hills, Calif.

LaFarge said the new twist in her career path proved to her that her childhood image of a would-be cover girl sitting in a glamorous restaurant and waiting to be discovered was completely off base.

“There’s another way,” she said. “Get a job as a book editor.”