Author Spotlight on
JENNIFER CRUSIE
How’d an Ohio State University Master Student in Feminist Criticism end up writing romance novels? Happily! In 1991 while studying for her doctorate, Jennifer Crusie began to research her dissertation on the different ways in which men and women tell stories. She set out to read one hundred romance novels, but somewhere along the way she fell in love! Crusie found the novels to be so absorbing--and so feminist--that she never got to the men’s adventure fiction (that would come much later), and the following spring she even quit her job to try her hand at writing her own!
Luckily for Crusie, success came quickly. In the fall of 1992 she sold her first romance, a novella titled Sizzle (a story the author now refers to as “really lousy”), but before it even hit bookstore shelves, she had a contract for more novels with the Harlequin romance line. Crusie quickly became known for penning heartwarming and witty stories about contemporary women and their communities, careers, families, and colorful love lives. (Basically, it’s not a Crusie book without an adorable pet or two and some sparkling romantic banter.)
Fifteen novels, countless essays, and one book of literary criticism (on vampire novelist Anne Rice’s work) later, Crusie is an acclaimed, award-winning author, a recipient of multiple Romance Writers of America RITA awards, and most recently, the recipient of a Career Achievement Award in Contemporary Romance from RT Book Reviews magazine.
These days, this versatile writer has come full circle. Thanks to her continuing interest in the way different genders tell stories, she’s co-authored three books with USA Today bestselling author Bob Mayer, that match her quirky romance heroines with his hard-driving action-adventure heroes (the most recent, Wild Ride, was an April release from Macmillan). Also coming soon is Maybe This Time (releasing in August 2010), her homage to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw; two more collaborative novels; and a four-book mystery series featuring a dazzling new heroine aptly named Liz Danger.
Click here to listen to a clip from
Jennifer Crusie's The Cinderella Deal
And coming soon: Trust Me on This
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