Ta da! Here it is, the cover to For Myself Alone, my second (and soon-to-be-released) Austenesque novel. A few weeks ago I showed you the completed painting, which my graphic artist (a very cool and talented guy) has now translated into the finished product above. As you can tell, it’s designed to wrap from front to back, just like the one done for The Darcys of Pemberley. Even though this isn’t my first cover, it still sent a thrill right through me to see it – second only, I expect, to when I soon hold the paperback in my hand.

Dramatization of this imminent event: (or shall we call it Fantasization?)

Best-selling author Shannon Winslow has once again closeted herself away from the world. She’s in her studio, hunched over her computer keyboard, focusing all her considerable mental energies on her current writing project – Return to Longbourn. The muse is with her today; the words flow effortlessly through her fingers and onto the screen before her.

Suddenly the creative process is interrupted by the sounding of two melodic tones. Ding-dong. Dragging herself back to the real world, Shannon glances out the window to see who is there. Her heart skips a beat when she observes the familiar, brown, delivery van parked in the driveway.  Could it be? She races downstairs and opens the door.

There, waiting on the bristly welcome mat, is a small, very ordinary-looking cardboard box. But the contents, she knows from the senders logo, are far from ordinary. To her, at least. This is the moment she’s visualized, the dream that has kept her going through months of work, sweat, and tears. Her hands shake as she rips open the package and carefully extracts the pristine, paperback novel inside. The scrolled lettering nearly leaps off the cover to her anxious eyes. She reads: For Myself Alone, by Shannon Winslow…

…These were thrilling words, and wound up [her] feelings to the highest point of ecstasy. Her gratified heart could hardly restrain its expressions within the language of tolerable calmness. (Northanger Abbey, chapter 17)

Did you enjoy this little scene? And FYI, it’s considered perfectly normal in certain circles to refer to oneself in third person.

(3/23/2012 Update:  My proof copy arrived today, and the scene above played out for real – more or less. I was too excited when I saw the UPS truck to wait for the doorbell to ring!)