Exciting Cover Reveal for “Fitzwilliam Darcy in His Own Words”

The day is finally here: the cover reveal for Fitzwilliam Darcy in His Own Words! Next to the actual launch, the cover reveal is the most exciting part of bringing a new book out into the world… at least for me.

My mom was an artist, and so I very naturally developed an interest in art from an early age. I enjoyed dabbling in lots of arts and crafts. But I didn’t discover my true art – what I was meant to do – until I started writing novels. Now the writing has entirely taken over. But when each book is finished, I have an opportunity to resurrect my latent artistic flare, turning it loose in the cover design process!

The picture above (a still of Colin Firth’s Darcy, P&P ’95) inspired not only the cover design, but the writing of the novel itself. I like the expression caught on his face here. You can imagine that beneath that perfectly controlled and well-put-together exterior there’s a lot of emotion going on.  He’s a man in pain, trapped by the constraints of his upbringing, and hindered by his own flaws and reserved nature. A man torn between what he’s required to do and an inconvenient urge to do otherwise, between the woman he believes he should marry and the one he discovers he actually wants.  Book blurb:

What was Mr. Darcy’s life like before he met Elizabeth Bennet? – before he stepped onto the Pride and Prejudice stage at the Meryton assembly? More importantly, where is he and what is he doing all the time he’s absent from the page thereafter? And what is his relationship to a woman named Amelia?

With Fitzwilliam Darcy, in His Own Words, the iconic literary hero finally tells his own story, from the traumas of his early life to the consummation of his love for Elizabeth and everything in between.

This is not a variation but a supplement to the original story, chronicled in Darcy’s point of view – a behind-the-scenes look at the things Jane Austen didn’t tell us. As it happens, Darcy’s journey was more tortuous than she let on, his happy ending with Elizabeth in jeopardy at every turn in his struggle between duty and his heart’s desire, between the suitable lady he has promised to marry and the woman he can’t stop thinking about.

See! Just as I suspected and as  the “inspiration” image above reveals, he’s a tortured soul. Okay, he’s also all those other things Elizabeth accused him of – arrogant, conceited, selfish – at least in the beginning. Flawed, as I mentioned earlier.

But now I suppose you’d like to see the cover. So without further ado, here it is. Ta-da!

I’m pretty thrilled with how it turned out, and I hope you like it too! One of my advance readers said, “The cover made my heart flutter!” So that’s got to be a good sign, right? (BTW, she loved the book too!)

Fitzwilliam Darcy in His Own Words publishes May 4th (in Kindle and paperback), but you can reserve your Kindle copy now (available for pre-order at Amazon). Unless of course you adore the cover so much that you want an actual physical copy of Darcy’s handsome face… to hold in your own two hands… to stroke lovingly whenever you feel like it… and… Well, that’s your business; I don’t judge.

One more piece of good news: the incomparable Harry Frost will soon begin production of the audio edition, which means it will be out sometime this summer.

I’m actually hoping you will be so intrigued that you won’t be able to wait that long. In fact, if you’d like to read the prologue now, visit this post on my website/blog. And then watch for the book-launch May 4th right here on Austen Variations!