Jennifer Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jennifer Smith 1949 (age 75–76) Wapakoneta, Ohio, U.S. |
| Pen name | Jennifer Crusie |
| Occupation | Novelist, nonfiction |
| Education | Wapakoneta High School Bowling Green State University Wright State University Ohio State University (MFA) |
| Period | 1992–present |
| Genre | Romance, adventure |
| Website | |
| www | |
Jennifer Crusie (born 1949) is a pseudonym forJennifer Smith, an author of contemporaryromance novels.[1] She has written more than twenty novels, which have been published in 20 countries.
Crusie was born as Jennifer Smith inWapakoneta, Ohio to Jack and JoAnn Smith.[2] She chose to honor her maternal grandmother by writing under her grandmother's maiden name, Crusie.[2] Crusie has spent much of her life living and working in Ohio and New Jersey, and now lives in Pennsylvania.
Crusie graduated fromWapakoneta High School, and then earned abachelor's degree inArt Education fromBowling Green State University inBowling Green,Ohio.[2] She has aMaster's degree fromWright State University in Professional Writing and Women's Literature,[2] her master's thesis, "A Spirit More Capable Of Looking Up To Him," was on the role of women in mystery fiction from 1840 to 1920.[3] Her second master's degree is anMFA in Fiction fromOhio State University.[2] She has also completed all the coursework towards aPh.D. atOhio State University.[citation needed]
Crusie married in 1971, and followed herAir Force husband toWichita Falls, Texas. He was soon transferred toDayton, Ohio[2] and they have since divorced. They have one daughter.[4]
Crusie's first career was a teacher, beginning with pre-school, then elementary and junior high art, high school English, and undergraduate college English courses, including 15 years in theBeavercreek, Ohio public school system. Her teaching subjects included art, literature, mythology, the Bible in literature, college composition, creative writing, and British and American literature, as well as time spent directing the sets and costumes crews for the high school's drama department.[2] She has also taught atAntioch University,Wright State University, Ohio State, and McDaniel College, where she helped design the curriculum for the graduate level Romance Writing Program.[citation needed]
Crusie's MFAdissertation focused on the impact ofgender onnarrative strategies. To research the differences in the way men and women tell stories, Crusie read one hundred romance novels written by women, planning on following that by reading one hundred adventure novels written by men. The romance novels were so compelling that Crusie changed her dissertation to focus on romantic fiction and decided to try her hand at writing a romance novel.[5] She quit her job in the summer of 1991 to devote herself full-time to writing.[2] Crusie completed her first manuscript, calledKeeping Kate, in 1991, but was unable to sell it. She entered a Silhouette-sponsored novella contest in the winter of 1991 and won one of twelve places with a novel calledSizzle.[citation needed] Shortly after that, Harlequin boughtKeeping Kate and changed the name toManhunting, which was Crusie's first published novel, appearing in February 1993.[citation needed]
For the first three years of Crusie's career, her books were published as category romances under the Silhouette,Harlequin, andBantam Loveswept lines.[2][5] In 1995, Crusie signed withSt. Martin's Press, and began writing single title novels, beginning withTell Me Lies. The switch to longer, non-category novels was easy for Crusie, who says that "I was never conscious of writing category or single title or paperback or hardcover. You just have to tell the truest story you know."[5] Her long partnership with her editor, Jennifer Enderlin, made it possible for her to explore many different aspects of storytelling, and Crusie explained the depth of her relationship with her editor in an explanation of why she wasn't self-publishing]: "SMP still excels at the one thing I'd have to work full time to do half as well as they do: Tell people my book is out there. But okay, let's say I could market my own book riding on the coattails of everything my publisher has already established for me. SMP still holds one trump card: Jennifer Enderlin. I don't want to write a book without Jen. She makes me a better writer".[6] After a ten-year hiatus from publishing, Crusie began again in collaboration again with Bob Mayer, experimenting with self-publishing.
Crusie's books are known for their humor, although she says she has never "deliberately written to be funny. ... I think my characters just have a particular kind of sense of humor. They use it the way a lot of people do, to cope with the absurdities of life."[3] Crusie usually envisions her characters before the plots,[5] and she crafts them as real people, complete with flaws.[3] Her heroines are usually off-beat and the heroes are clever and charming. Many of her characters collect things because she believes that a person's possessions tell a lot about that person.[5] She has won the Romance Writers of America Rita award twice, once for category fiction withGetting Rid of Bradley and once for single title romance forBet Me.[citation needed]
In September 2004, Crusie met adventure novelistBob Mayer at the Maui Writers Conference. By the end of the conference, they had become friends and begun the outline for a novel. Within a year, they had finished the manuscript, collaborating primarily via email. In the novel,Don't Look Down, Crusie wrote the scenes and dialogue for the female protagonist, while Mayer wrote the scenes and dialogue for the male protagonist. Crusie's longtime editor, Jennifer Enderlin, also edited this book, and had to ask Crusie who had written each section as she couldn't tell them apart. The novel was given an initial printing of 300,000 copies, Crusie's highest initial printing to date.[7] In August 2007, their secondcollaborative novel,Agnes and the Hitman, was released and made the New York Times best seller list. They again partnered up for March 2010's release ofWild Ride. Crusie has also collaborated withEileen Dreyer andAnne Stuart onThe Unfortunate Miss Fortunes (2007),[8] and onDogs and Goddesses (2009) withAnne Stuart and Lani Diane Rich.[4]
In 2010 Crusie published her first solo in six years,Maybe This Time.[9] This is Crusie's version of Henry James'The Turn of the Screw.[10] In Crusie's version the governess is not young and inexperienced, the children are not perfectly behaved, they are not isolated because house guests keep turning up and moving in, and the faraway guardian turns up and becomes part of the story.[10]
Then in 2022, Crusie and Bob Mayer began writing together again, this time writing three-book limited series. The first -Lavender's Blue,[11]Rest in Pink, andOne in Vermillion - came out in 2023 and the second -Rocky Start,Very Nice Funerals, andThe Honey Pot Plot - came out in 2024 and early 2025.
She also continues her interest in the academic side of fiction. Early in her academic career, she published a book ofliterary criticism onAnne Rice under the name Jennifer Smith; and she's been active in pop culture criticism, both on her blog Argh Ink and for Benbella Press, editing three essay collections and contributing to others.[citation needed].
