Announcing Jane, Actually

This summer, Mallard Press will introduce a new imprint, Mallard Sci-Fi,  and a new novel, Jane, Actually, by Jennifer Petkus. Here’s the description:

With the invention of the AfterNet, death isn’t quite the end to a literary career it once was, and Jane Austen, the grande dame of English literature, is poised for a comeback with the publication of Sanditon, the book she was writing upon her death in 1817.

But how does a disembodied author sign autographs and appear on talk shows? With the aid of Mary Crawford, a struggling acting student who plays the role of the Regency author who wrote Pride and Prejudice and Emma and Sense and Sensibility. But Austen discovers her second chance at a literary career also gives her a second chance at happiness and possibly even … love.

Jane, Actually is the second book about the AfterNet, although it’s not a sequel to Good Cop, Dead Cop. The events in the book take place during 2011. Advance Reading Copies should become available shortly.