One of the most exciting parts of bringing out a new book is seeing the cover art for the first time. Now the characters that have so far been only in my head have faces and bodies (very nice bodies, in most cases!). Here’s the new cover image for my September 23 release, A Tryst With Trouble.

Isn’t it gorgeous? The redhead is Lady Barbara Jeffords, and the very attentive gentleman behind her is Ben, short for the Marquess of Beningbrough. It’s a fun book and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Today I’m at Romancing the Past, blogging about the Cato Street conspirators, and why until 1814 British law was still condemning certain prisoners to have “your privy members be cut off, your bowels taken out and burnt in your view.”

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Nothing’s signed yet, but I’m thrilled to announce that my publisher, Carina Press, has expressed an interest in acquiring A Tryst With Trouble.  I don’t have a suggested publication date yet, but I’ll post more when I do.

I officially got my rights to A Tryst With Trouble back from Dorchester Publishing today. I’m submitting the story to my new publisher, Carina Press, so keep your fingers crossed they’ll be interested in publishing it. I love my editor at Carina, and they have the BEST cover art.

I just discovered today that back when A Tryst With Trouble was supposed to come out in January of this year–specifically, in June, 2011–Publisher’s Weekly included it on their list of “Damsels Who Rescue Themselves” book picks. PW called Tryst “a passionate Regency romance debut.”

Here’s hoping the book will be released one day soon.

There’s a bit of breaking news this morning about Dorchester Publishing, the now-defunct publishing house that holds the rights to my first regency, A Tryst With Trouble. Digital Book World is reporting that unless another bidder steps forward, Amazon will acquire Dorchester at auction in August.

The article–available here–reports, “In practice Amazon, or any firm that outbids Amazon in an auction to be conducted in August, will tender amendments to authors and agents transferring rights to the new entity, in exchange for which back royalties will be paid in full.” Since my book was never published, I’m not owed any back royalties, so I’m not sure whether I’ll be tendered a contract amendment or not. In other words, it’s not clear whether my book will automatically become Amazon’s, or (since my original deal with Dorchester was for both print and digital, but Amazon is strictly digital) whether I’ll have an opportunity to opt out, take my rights, and publish the book elsewhere. Even if Amazon does acquire the rights to A Tryst With Trouble, I don’t know when the book would be released, or if the cover art would look the same. But at least there’s some movement on the Dorchester front.

P.M. Update: Publisher’s Weekly has also reported on Amazon’s bid here, including a quote from an Amazon spokesperson:

Moving forward, Dorchester authors will, Amazon said, be offered the choice about how they want their titles published. An Amazon spokesperson explained: “We want all authors to be happy being a part of the Amazon Publishing family going forward and we have structured our bid so that we will only take on authors who want to join us. As part of this philosophy, if we win the bid, Dorchester has committed to revert all titles that are not assigned to us.”

I’ll continue to post more information as it becomes available. The auction isn’t until August 28, so whether the news is good or bad, a resolution is still months away.

Though my debut release has been postponed until the spring, I’ve received two pieces of good news about A TRYST WITH TROUBLE. First, it’s up on NetGalley for romance bloggers, librarians, and other book reviewers to preview.

Second, I got my first ever review!  Click here to read it.

I hope you get nothing but good news this Christmas (or whatever holidays you celebrate at this time of year).