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Zusatztext 77460423 Informationen zum Autor Michael Thomas Ford is the author of Jane Bites Back , Jane Goes Batty, and Jane Vows Vengeance, as well as numerous other books, including the novels Z, The Road Home, What We Remember, Suicide Notes, Changing Tides, Full Circle, Looking for It, and Last Summer . Klappentext After two hundred years undead! Jane Austen still has bite. But will her most recent literary success be her last? Life was a lot easier for Jane when she was just an unknown! undead bookstore owner in a sleepy hamlet in upstate New York. But now the world embraces her as Jane Fairfax! author of the bestselling novel Constance-and she's having a killer time trying to keep her true identity as the Jane Austen a secret. Even the ongoing lessons in How to Be a Vampire! taught by her former lover Lord Byron! don't seem to be helping much. Jane can barely focus on her boyfriend! Walter! while keeping him in the dark about her more sanguine tastes. To make matters worse! Walter announces that his mother is coming for a visit-and she's expecting Jane to be Jewish. Add in a demanding new editor! a convention of romance readers in period costume! a Hollywood camera crew following Jane's every move! and the constant threat of a certain bloodsucking Brontë sister coming back to finish her off! and it's enough to make even the most well-mannered heroine go batty! Chapter 1 "Not again." Jane Fairfax gripped the steering wheel so tightly her hands hurt. Two dozen women stood on the sidewalk. Three of them were peering in Jane's living room windows. All of them were dressed in imitation Regency period dresses. The thought occurred to Jane that instead of adopting the clothing of her time, they might have chosen to copy the tradition of waiting for an invitation before dropping in unannounced. A tall, thin woman in a ghastly pink pantsuit emerged from a parked tour bus and called out loudly, "Miss Fairfax doesn't appear to be at home today, but we can still get a lovely photo!" "It's Beverly!" said a deep male voice beside Jane with lascivious glee. "We should say hello." "We should not," said Jane, giving Byron a withering look. Jane had seen the woman--and her pantsuit--before. Her name was Beverly Shrop. A retired kindergarten teacher, Beverly had devoted the past five years to becoming the number-one-ranked reviewer of romance novels on a very popular bookselling site. That her "reviews" consisted largely of regurgitating a book's cover copy mattered little to her readers. Nor did it apparently occur to them that in order for Beverly to have amassed 12,729 reviews she would have had to have read an average of 6.9 books a day. Beverly had subsequently started a website of her own--ShropTalk.com--on which she not only posted her reviews but also featured interviews with romance writers and kept her readers abreast of what was happening in the world of romantic fiction. This, naturally, had increased her profile even more, to the point where publishers started not just paying attention to her but actively courting her. When Constance was published, Jane had done the requisite interview with Beverly. She'd found the woman dull and her questions insipid (Do you wear any particular perfume when you write? If you were a flower, what would you be?) and had been relieved when it was over. She'd hoped never to encounter Beverly Shrop again. Beverly, however, was determined to make the most of her talents. This took the form of offering romance-themed tours to readers who wanted to visit the hometowns of their favorite authors or to visit the locations that had inspired their favorite books. She had several itineraries, among them The World of Edith Wharton, Love and Lust in Santa Fe (a surprising number of romance writers lived there), and Jackie Oh!: The People and Plac...
