About Jennifer

I have written a bunch of historical romance novels, (originally published by Avon Books and Zebra Books, almost all of which are offered here), a couple of non-fiction books, six successful screenplays (Warner Bros., Julian Krainin Productions,) two plays and countless angry letters to the editor (LA Times, NY Times), all more or less to my credit.

Bits of backgound (yawn): I was born and raised in San Francisco, California. I moved south to finish my college degree at the University of California at Irvine. Here I fell instantly and madly in love with one of my professors, who I finally convinced to marry me. (Thank you John!)

Anyway, after graduating from UCI with a degree in Social Ecology (don't ask; no one knows what it means) and finding myself not just unemployed, but ill suited for the traditional passage of people with no purpose in life, law school, I read this statement in the newspaper: Half of all novels sold in our country are romance novels. I rushed out to buy a pile of them. While I was flabbergasted that someone thought to put women's sexual fantasies on paper, I knew I could write one. Zebra Books bought my first novel. One novel turned into a bunch. All my books are rated five stars from Publisher Weekly and Romantic Times and the vast majority of Amazon readers. Thank you Amazon and Barnes and Noble readers!

I also wrote book reviews for Publishers Weekly. At first I was thrilled to be paid for my reading habit; I imagined reviewing Toni Morrison's or Margaret Atwood's latest. Unfortunately, being last person hired, I kept getting these long novels about stunningly boring family dramas or novels set in British boarding schools where the characters were involved in a lot of spanking and occasionally found unconventional uses for ropes (gasp). It was hard to write the reviews with a straight face. The editor kept sending me angry notes, Jennifer, keep your personality out of the review!'� I only quit when, finally, sheer perseverance led to a promotion and I was offered the position reviewing romance novels.

Here's where my less than brilliant career turns dark.

My last novels With One Look (the cover appears to read With One Cook, which sent my mostly high brow friends into fits of laughter) and A Kiss in the Night were extremely well reviewed in several magazines, including PW. Most of my romances won awards and one of these awards was almost considered prestigious. Still, I finally stopped being able to write them; I began having increasingly vivid fantasies of killing off my heroines in really dreadful ways. I turned to screenplays, which I LOVE writing!

All of my screenplays been optioned at least twice and two of them have been optioned five or more times.

My two plays, Ben and Me (Ben Franklin visits a middle age author in an attempt to convince her to write a play about his life) and The Weight of God, a story about grief and religion. Both of these plays have excellent reviews/coverage.

I also wrote a non-fiction book Please Don't Eat the Animals: All the Reasons You Need to Be a Vegetarian (Quill Drivers Books); I am one of those nutty animal rights people. This book morphed into another: The Vegetarian Weight Loss Diet. Both of which are offered here.

In between these projects, I wrote my best work, countless angry letters to the editor (NY Times, LA Times). Did I mention I am a prolific letter writer? It got to the point where an editor at the LA Times editor called me and said, "Jennifer, please. We always know it is you. Use one name or we will have to stop printing your letters." Fortunately, the NY Times never has caught on.

I am a voracious reader; favorite authors: Toni Morrison, JM Coetzee, David Mitchell, Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood.

And I'd probably be a way more prolific writer, but most of my life force was sucked up by my husband, kids and various dogs and cats and lots and lots of yoga.