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.

Win copy of My Particular Friend

Goodreads Book Giveaway

My Particular Friend

by Jennifer Petkus

Giveaway ends April 23, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

My Particular Friend featured at The Jane Austen Book Club

The Jane Austen Book Club is featuring My Particular Friend. Maria Grazia, publisher of many Austen and Brontë blogs, offered author Jennifer Petkus an opportunity to promote her book and giveaway one paperback and two e-books: http://thesecretunderstandingofthehearts.blogspot.com/2012/04/author-guest-post-jennifer-petkus-my.html

Jane Austen: Self Publisher

During the whole truly annoying process of publishing my book, My Particular Friend,available wherever fine books are sold, it occurred to me that Jane Austen was also self published and that she faced many questions similar to those a modern day self publisher encounters.

My Particular Friend

My Particular Friend is now available as a paperback and exclusively for the Amazon Kindle as part of the Kindle Select program. Amazon Prime members can read My Particular Friend for free.


Miss Charlotte House will not admit impediments to marriage, not even when those impediments include scandal, blackmail and even a duel to the death. With the help of her particular friend Miss Jane Woodsen, she deduces all that happens in Bath—both good and ill—and together they ensure that true love’s course runs smooth, even though both friends have suffered tragedies that prevent their own happiness. These six affairs, set in Bath, England, during the Napoleonic War, are inspired by the creations of both Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Jane Austen.

Colorado Book Awards

I’ve submitted Good Cop, Dead Cop to the Colorado Book Awards, held by Colorado Humanities, and if you’re a Colorado-based author (or have written something related to Colorado), you might want to do the same. The contest is held each year, so if you published your book in 2011 you have until Jan. 13, 2011, to submit your book.

I had to send a check for $53 and seven copies of the book, although you can actually just enter your submission online and include a PDF of your work. I was reluctant to enter, thinking it unlikely a science fiction book would win, but my husband pointed out that seven people would have to read the book, dramatically increasing my readership, and I had to agree to his wisdom.

Good Cop, Dead Cop book signing

Get your copy of Good Cop, Dead Cop signed where the story begins, in the bowels of Union Station. I’ll be at the open house for the Platte Valley & Western Model Railroad club in the basement of the building from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 17.




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If you’re not familiar with the book, it opens with my dead cop looking for a shooting suspect in the same basement, and Union Station, of course, is on the cover of the book. The club’s open house will actually be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and if you’ve never visited the club, definitely visit even if you don’t care about my book. It’s actually a fun Christmas thing to do so bring the kids.

I’ll have copies of the book to sell, or you can pick up your copy at the downtown Tattered Cover that’s just across the street.