Jennifer Crusie

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Biography

Jennifer Crusie's career as a romance author began when she read over 100 romance novels as part of her research for her Ph.D. dissertation on the impact of gender on narrative strategies. This encouraged her to write romance herself, and eventually she put the Ph.D. on hold in order to earn an MFA in fiction from Ohio State University. Although she remains ABD on her Ph.D. in Feminist Criticism from Ohio State University, she has written a a book of literary criticism on Anne Rice (see below) and contributed to the growing body of academic work studying romance fiction. She is known throughout the industry as a generous mentor, while her readers are attracted to her smart, funny style. Crusie began her career as an author for Harlequin. After leaving Harlequin, she moved to Bantam and then to St. Martin's Press where she has been wildly successful.

Crusie recently teamed with author Bob Mayer to co-author a series of books.

As an author for Bantam's Loveswept line, Jennifer Crusie wrote two romances.

On the Web

Books

Fiction

  • "Hot Toy", novella part of the Santa Baby anthology - 2006

Non-Fiction

Honors

Story Elements

Like many authors, Jennifer Crusie taps certain elements and themes from story-to-story. She recombines these in new and different ways while continuing to explore her signature themes.

Dogs

Jennifer Crusie novels often feature dogs as characters. Her ability to make canines come alive on the page has often lead to readers to refer to Anyone But You as "Fred's book". The depressed half-basset hound, half-beagle steals every scene he's in.

A stray dog also plays a key role in Crusie's breakout classic Welcome To Temptation. Other Crusie books featuring dogs in major roles include Charlie All Night, Crazy For You -- the dog leads to a break-up.

Her depiction of dogs draws on her experiences with her own dogs. Cats also feature in a number of her books, in Strange Bedpersons, The Cinderella Deal and Bet Me, and again she acknowledges that she's been influenced by her pets.

Family

A key aspect of Jennifer Crusie's work is family ties. Her heroines tend to come from slightly eccentric yet strongly bonded families. The concept of family extends to close friendships.

Friends

Crusie's heroines tend to have strong friendships with other women. These friendships are integral to the story.