It’s coming soon! Mr. Knightley in His Own Words will launch in exactly two weeks, on October 5th! The paperback and Kindle versions should both be available on that date (preorder your Kindle copy here), and I’m excited to tell you that the audiobook is already in production too. So it shouldn’t lag very far behind.

I revealed the Kindle cover over at Austen Variations about three weeks ago, but I always like to hold something back especially for the readers of my own blog. So without further ado, here for the first time anywhere is the full paperback cover!

I’m delighted with the way it turned out, and I hope you like it too! (Click on picture to enlarge.)

As you probably know, I asked for and took into account a lot of reader feedback in developing the cover design – specifically which Mr. Knightley to feature (see The Mr. Knightley Pageant post here, and Cover Prototypes at Austen Variations). But did you know that I received and considered reader feedback for the story line too? I asked what else people wanted to know about Mr. Knightley (since Jane Austen tells us so little), what they thought might have happened in his past. And then I took notes!

I couldn’t use them all, unfortunately, but here are some of the great ideas I collected from you, which did end up in the book in one form or another: heart broken by a gorgeous social climber, wicked uncle scheming to get his hands on Donwell, boyish crush on Mrs. Woodhouse, gratitude for some past service by Mr. Woodhouse, Mrs. Woodhouse taking a motherly role for him, show previous links between the Woodhouses and Knightelys, he lives alone after suffering many losses, a London “season,” ignores/suppresses his growing feelings for Emma.

My thoughts had been running along the same lines as many of yours, and I think you’ll find a few other things not mentioned here that I cooked up on my own. In any case, I loved hearing your ideas! Brainstorming like that really gets the creative juices flowing!

As always, I’ve started with the facts of Austen’s original novel and added on (not varied from them). In this case, I’ve added on in the dimension of time. In fact this book is 2/3 prequel! It breaks down into thirds – three key time periods: Mr. Knightley as a youth (age 15-16), as a young man (age 23), and his present day age (the period covered in the original novel Emma), all told in his own words. Learn the events that still haunt him and yet have shaped who he’s become, the superior man Emma can’t help falling in love with.

I hope you’ll join me in welcoming this, my 12th novel, Mr. Knightley in His Own Words, out into the world on October 5th! (Remember, you can preorder your Kindle copy now here)

“Mr. Knightley’s air is so remarkably good, that it is not fair to compare Mr. Martin with him. You might not see one in a hundred, with gentleman so plainly written as in Mr. Knightley.” – Emma Woodhouse, Emma