About Me

    I have been writing for as long as I can remember, winning my first writing award in a second grade Caldecott Medal contest. Readers’ Digest gave me my very first publishing credit in April, 1994, and I was hooked. I seemed to have followed writing contests around, being a finalist in such online contests as American Title III, sponsored by Romantic Times BOOKreview Magazine and Dorchester Publishing, and two First Chapters contests, sponsored by Gather.com and Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books.

         My imaginary friend was Casper the Friendly Ghost. The little ghoul even had a special place set for him at our dinner table and got blamed for many of my childhood mishaps. I grew up watching Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and The Addams Family–my mom looked like Elizabeth Montgomery and I had a special Barbie outfit that looked like Morticia Addams’ dress. My favorite books are Bewitching by Jill Barnett and A Knight In Shining Armor, by Jude Devereaux, so it should come as no surprise that I like to write tongue-in-cheek lighthearted paranormals

        I love pop culture and manipulating language, so you’ll find lots of puns, double entrendre, plays-on-words, alliteration, clichés, and twisting of phrases, as well as several one-liners in my stories that give me a few chuckles. I studied Spanish at Penn State (Go Lions!), lived in Spain and traveled throughout that beautiful country.

       I’ve always written and still have my journal from fourth grade where, even then, my stories were full of fantastical creatures, whimsy and magic. I wrote my first romance in 9th grade and still have that story in my memory chest. Even back then I dreamed of being a writer.

      And in June, 2009, my dream of seeing my stories in print will come true. Sourcebooks is publishing the first of my Mer trilogy, In Over Her Head, to be followed in November by Wild Blue Under, and then in early 2010, Catch of a Lifetime.

     Please stop by my website: wwwJudiFennell.com to see reviews, quotes, and excerpts as they become available, and enter my contest to win one of 3 romantic beach getaway packages!. 

 

      Thanks for stopping by and feel free to post a comment!

 

I get questions about my road to publication, so here’s some of it:

          In September, 2006, my manuscript, Beauty and The Best, was chosen by Dorchester Publishing and Romantic Times Book Review Magazine as a finalist in their American Title III contest and the search for publication heated up.

         Then in May, 2007 the same book was chosen from over 2,676 entries as a Top 20 Finalist (the only Romance) in the Simon & Schuster/Gather.com First Chapters contest.

         In July, 2008, so many people from Gather and RWA emailed me about the new Gather.com/Pocket Books First Chapters Romance contest that I entered In Over Her Head, and made it to the Top 5, garnering me multiple agent offers. I signed with Jennifer Schober of Spencerhill Associates, and in July 2008, Deb Werksman from Sourcebooks loved the story enough to buy it and the next two in the series!