Lisa Jane Smith

Lisa Jane Smith , as the author LJ Smith , (born September 4, 1965 in Fort Lauderdale , Florida ) is an American writer for young people. She is best known for her series Diary of a Vampire , which has also been filmed for a television series under the title The Vampire Diaries since 2009 . Her trilogy The Magic Circle was also broadcast as a television series in 2011/2012 under the title The Secret Circle . Although she lost the rights to both book series, she still writes fan fiction about the Vampire's Diary .

Life

Childhood and youth

Lisa Jane Smith was born in Florida to Glenn Carroll Smith and Kathryn Jane Cecilia Check. Her year of birth is listed differently, from 1958 to 1965. Her father played football for Clemson University . First he worked as an engineer, later as an entrepreneur, which is why the family moved to Anaheim , California . Before she could read, Smith was making up poems, some of which her mother wrote down, and playing out stories she made up with friends. She has a younger sister named Judy Lee.

In Anaheim, Smith attended Cerro Villa Junior High School and Villa Park High School after elementary school. She studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and English. She then took Elementary Education and Special Education as a Masters course at San Francisco State University, which qualified her as a teacher. After completing her studies, she initially worked as a teacher at an elementary school, until she decided to pursue a career as a writer in 1989.

Career as a writer

Smith first thought of writing a fantasy novel when she was fourteen was when she was babysitting in a house with unusual mirrors. She took notes on a plot and characters and later used them as the basis for her first book, which she started in high school. The Night of the Solstice , not yet published in Germany, was published in 1987. Smith had hoped to give her English teacher, Zoe Gibbs, a copy of her first book, but the teacher was unable to locate it. "She was an incredible inspiration to me and gave me the confidence to try writing."

Her book and sequel Heart of Valor did not sell particularly well, partly because of the unattractive covers and partly because it was published for the wrong audience. Nonetheless, it caught the attention of Alloy Entertainment . Shortly after the publication of her first book, she received an offer to write a vampire novel for young people. However, it was a so-called work for hire contract, which made the books purely commissioned by the author, while the publisher retained all rights to the series. "It meant that I was basically giving up all normal rights as a writer, including the right to keep writing my books." Within nine months she wrote her trilogy, The Vampire Diary . In doing so, she resorted to characters that she had originally created for an adult novel. Harper Collins bought the trilogy and published it in 1991. The sequel was released in 1992, as did Smith's new trilogy The Magic Circle . Thanks to the attention she received from her new books, her first two books also became bestsellers.

In 2009, Smith's books were reissued as the success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series had popularized vampire literature again. The Vampire's Diary became a bestseller, and The CW bought the rights to a television series that aired under the title The Vampire Diaries . Smith wrote the Return trilogy as a sequel to Diary of a Vampire and sent the publisher both Hunting in the Sunset and her ideas for Hunting in the Moonlight . But despite the success of her books, the publisher had other ideas about how the series should develop. With reference to the "work for hire" contract, the publisher announced the author and hired a ghostwriter to continue the series. Officially, Alloy Entertainment said that they wanted to "go in a different direction than the author". Smith himself suspected that the publisher wanted to bring the book series closer to the TV series and that they preferred shorter books for this purpose. In an alleged email from the author to a fan of the series, published on the Tumblr platform , it says:

“They sent me a letter written to the anonymous ghostwriter who was supposed to be doing the series. Because I wrote about Damon and Elena's love - and Damon's feelings for Bonnie, no doubt - I was banned from the show. [...] And so the rest of the series, no matter how long it lasts, is written by an anonymous ghostwriter and not by me. I fought and fought until even my agent stopped supporting me. But Harper (the publisher) and Alloy agree. [...] I was explicitly told to let Elena realize that although she likes Damon a lot, Stefano is her true love. I decided not to do it as it didn't feel right to me. But that's exactly what will happen to the rest of the series because I won't be there to contradict. "

The truthfulness of this statement and the authenticity of the email cannot be verified because Alloy never revealed the details of the conflict. Also , the magic circle has been handed over to the ghostwriter what Smith led to the statement that Work for Hire had helped "her child to mutilate limb from limb and destroy".

After losing the two series, Smith is working to wrap up her Night World series . The release date of the 10th volume, entitled Strange Fate , has not yet been set. In January 2014 she published her own sequel to Diary of a Vampire on the Amazon platform Kindle Worlds with the series Evensong . The two stories published so far - Paradise Lost and War of the Roses: Part 1 - have the status of fan fiction and therefore do not belong to the official canon . She is also working on her story The last Lullaby .

Private life

In 1998, Smith retired from the writing business for ten years to devote himself to her family. Her brother-in-law had black skin cancer, and Smith was helping her sister with her children. She also looked after her mother, who died of lung cancer on January 10, 2007 . While the author willingly answers questions about her hobbies and preferences, she rigorously shields her private life so that even her year of birth is controversial. She lives with a roommate in northern California , United States, and has a dog and several cats. On her blog, she announced in late 2015 that she was diagnosed with granulomatosis with polyangiitis .

Works

Night of the Solstice

1. 1987: The Night of the Solstice
2. 1990: Heart of Valor

Diary of a Vampire / The Vampire Diaries

1. 1991: The Awakening / In the Twilight Original: The Awakening (1991)
2. 1991: The Struggle / At Dusk in the original: The Struggle (1991)
3. 1991: Der Zorn / In der Dunkelheit in the original: The Fury (1991)
4. 1992: Die Rache / In der Schattenwelt in the original: Dark Reunion (1992)
5. 2009: Return by Night in the original: The Return: Nightfall (2009)
6. 2010: Souls of Darkness in the original: The Return: Shadow Souls (2010)
7. 2011: Black Midnight in the original: The Return: Midnight (2011)
8. 2012: Hunt in the sunset (partly by a ghostwriter) in the original: The Hunters: Phantom (2011)
9. 2012: Hunting in the moonlight in the original: The Hunters: Moonsing (2012)
10. 2013: Hunting at Dawn in the original: The Hunters: Destiny Rising (2012)
11. 2014: Dark Eternity in the original: The Salvation: Unseen (2013)
12. 2014: The Spell of Eternity in the original: The Salvation: Unspoken (2013)
13. 2015: In the Light of Eternity in the original: The Salvation: Unmasked (2014)

Vampire's Diary - Stefan's Diaries

1. 2011: At the beginning of eternity
2. 2012: Just a drop of blood
3. 2012: revenge is not enough
4. 2013: Fog of the Past
5. 2013: Shadow of Fate
6. 2013: Curse of Darkness

The magic circle / The Secret Circle

1. 1992: the arrival
2. 1992: Treason
3. 1992: Redemption
4. 2013: The Abyss
5. 2014: The witch hunt
6. 2014 The temptation

Forbidden game

1. 1994: Come on, play with me / The dark game: The hunted
2. 1994: Come on, dance with me / The Dark Game: The Booty
3. 1994: 1, 2, 3, I've got you / The Dark Game: The Decision
4. 1997: The Forbidden Game

Visions of the night

1. 1994: The Dark Gift
2. 1995: The secret covenant
3. 1995: The deadly spell

Night World

• 1. Dark Angel
• 2. Prince of the Shadow Realm (Black Dawn)
• 3. The Chosen
• 4. Savior of the Night (Secret Vampire)
• 5. Companions of the Twilight (Soulmate)
• 6. Daughters of Darkness
• 7. Sisters of Darkness (Spellbinder)
• 8. Lord of the Dawn (Huntress)
• 9.Warrior of the Night (Witchlight)

The series Stefan's Diaries , Hunters , Salvation and the sequels to Der Magische Zirkel come from the pen of a ghostwriter.

Web links

• Literature by and about Lisa Jane Smith in the catalog of the German National Library
• Lisa Jane Smith's official website

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} LJ Smith Bio, Facts, Family . Famous Birthdays . Accessed May 25, 2016
2. ↑ ^{a b} L.J. Smith | Biographies . Epic Reads . Accessed May 28, 2016
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Lisa Jane Smith: Biography , LJ Smith Official Site, August 12, 2010. Accessed May 25, 2016
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Jaime Winston: Q&A: The Vampire Diaries creator LJ Smith on writing and losing the series ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Saltlake Magazine , October 27, 2012. Accessed May 24, 2016 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Dennis McLellan: BOOKS & AUTHORS: Children Save World in Heart of Valor . Los Angeles Times , January 3, 1991. Accessed May 24, 2016
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Alexandra Alter: 'Vampire Diaries' Writer Bites Back . The Wallstreet Journal , April 17, 2014. Accessed May 19, 2016
7. ↑ LJ Smith (creator of The Vampire Diaries books) Fired From Writing the Rest of the Series : "[...] they sent me a letter addressed to the anonymous ghostwriter who will be taking over the Vampire Diaries series. Because I wrote about Damon and Elena's love — and Damon's feelings for Bonnie, too, no doubt — I have been dropped from the series. [...] And so now the rest of the Vampire Diaries series, however long it lasts, will be written by an anonymous ghostwriter, and not by me. I have fought and fought until even my agent wouldn't back me. But Harper (the publisher) and Alloy are in perfect agreement. [...] I was told explicitly that I should have Elena realize that though she is fund of Damon her one true love is Stefan. I chose not to do that because it wasn't what I felt in my heart. But that's what the rest of the series will be because I won't be around to say any differently. " Accessed May 24, 2016
8. ↑ ^{a b} And then I woke up . LJ Smith Official Site, December 6, 2015. Accessed May 28, 2016
9. ↑ 2011-2012 and Friendship . LJ Smith Official Site, January 10, 2012. Accessed May 28, 2016
10. ↑ Mike Pearl: The Writer Who Beat The System: How One Woman Resurrected Her Sexy Vampire Brothers ( Memento of the original from May 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . The Awl , February 6, 2014. Accessed May 20, 2016