Jean Burgess’ Second Retro Fiction, Navigating Her Next Chapter: A Retro Novel, To Be Publishes April 2026

For Immediate Release
January 1, 2026
Contact: Author, Jean Burgess
jean@jeanburgessauthor.com

Jean Burgess’ Second Retro Fiction, Navigating Her Next Chapter: A Retro Novel,
Takes Readers on a Vintage Tour of NYC in the 1980s

Second Book in Retro Series by Local Maryland Author Now Available for Pre-Order

Baltimore, Md., January 1, 2026- Maryland resident Jean Burgess’ Retro women’s fiction, Navigating Her Next Chapter, will be released by Apprentice House Press/Loyola University on April 14, 2026.

The new book is now available for pre-order at Amazon, Bookshop.org, and Barnes & Noble.

Navigating Her Next Chapter: A Retro Novel is the poignant, fictional story of 26-year-old Margie Stevens and her career journey once she returned to her small Eastern Shore, Maryland town after touring with a swing band during the late 1970’s. (Book one) Set in NYC in the early 1980s, this story finds Margie moving to the Big Apple to pursue a writing career, despite her Dad’s objections.

Initially overwhelmed by the contrasts between small town life and NYC, Margie takes a job at Radio City Music Hall to pay the bills while she slowly learns how to navigate city life with help from a menagerie of friends-a punk waitress from the neighborhood diner; a gay couple from her apartment building; a dreamy Hispanic man from her writing group; and her fashion-crazed roommate. As the harsher aspects of living in the Big Apple-the cocaine crisis and a mysterious nameless disease-affect people she knows, and a huge anti-nuclear demonstration for world peace shakes her world view, Margie's writing pivots in a surprising new direction.

“I was thrilled when Apprentice House picked up my both my debut fiction and now the sequel for publication,” said Burgess, who believes that it is never too late to publish a first novel, after pivoting from several conventional careers.

“Now, I’m even more exhilarated to have completed the second book in this Retro series,” she said. “I try to write authentically about Margie’s emotional journey and, at the same time, research period-related themes that are also relevant to today. It is my hope that the themes will strike up conversations.”

Burgess’ second novel explores Margie’s challenges with risk-taking and self-doubt as well as the pressure she feels from her father, who wants her to make different choices about her life as a 26-year-old woman in the early 1980s. Similar to the first book, Margie needs to learn to clarify her personal values and goals, and “find her authentic voice” in order to communicate these to her father and others.

Advance Praise for Navigating Her Next Chapter: A Retro Novel

In advance of its official release, reviewers are praising the novel wholeheartedly.

D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer of Midwest Book Review, wrote: “Jean Burgess crafts a powerful saga in which an Eastern Shore non-city girl defies tradition and family edict to do something different. What she discovers is not only intellectually challenging and attractive, but spawns romantic possibilities with the considerate Miguel which Margie never anticipated. It’s about navigating the process of getting to a new place physically, emotionally, and intellectually…which is what makes the story so appealing and easy to love.”

About the Author

For over 40 years, Westminster, Maryland resident Jean Burgess has told stories on stage as a theatre director and actor. Burgess is also the author of That Summer She Found Her Voice (Apprentice House Press, 2024) and the non-fiction book, Collaborative Stage Directing: A Guide to Creating and Managing a Positive Theatre Environment (Routledge, 2019).

Burgess holds a master’s degree in Theatre from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in Educational Theatre from New York University.

The novelist is available for interviews, presentations, author talks, and limited book club visits.

Burgess’ media kit is available at www.jeanburgessauthor.com/bio.htm