Jennifer O'Connell
Published teen fiction under the name Jenny O'Connell.
Although she's written about a reality dating show, a prescient pastry chef, and a woman who inspired an 80's rock hit, Jennifer has not spent hours dissecting The Bachelor, she can barely follow the directions on the back of a Betty Crocker box, and she can only dream of a long-haired, guitar-thrashing rocker even giving her a second glance.
While she cringes at the thought of being called Jenny again after all these years, her first teen book PLAN B, was published under Jenny O'Connell by MTV Books (March 2006). Jenny's second teen book, THE BOOK OF LUKE, arrived in April 2007, and her Martha’s Vineyard Novels, LOCAL GIRLS and RICH BOYS, were published in June 2008.
Her days as a high school senior may be long behind her, but Jennifer did receive her B.A. from Smith College and her M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
You can e-mail Jennifer at [email protected].
“At their core, Tiger Eyes, Forever..., and Sally J. Freeman are all books about teenage issues, but to an adult reader, the parents' story lines seem to almost overshadow their daughters. I'm bringing an entirely new set of experiences to these novels now, and my reward is a fresh set of story lines that i missed the first time around. I'm sure that in twenty or thirty years I'll read these books again and completely identify with all the grandparent characteristics. That's the wonderful thing about Judy Blume - you can revisit her stories at any stage in life and find a character who strikes a deep chord of recognition. I've been there, I'm in the middle of this, someday that'll be me. The same characters, yet somehow completely different. (Beth Kendrick)”
“I twirl my ring and think about what Judy has tried so hard to say: You are not any one thing. You are many. Don't let them make you believe that this is an either/or world.- Laura Ruby”
“The first thing I learned from Judy Blume was that God is the wrong one to ask for bigger breasts. (Stephanie Lessing)”