Of all the authors I’ve read, met or loved L.J. Smith will always have a special place in my heart.
Part of it is the books themselves. I’m a sucker for paranormals. Smith’s first books came out in the 90s, back before urban fantasy and paranormal romance were the genres they are today. To invoke that old saying–back in my day there was only one flavor of vampires, werecritters or ghosts. That was horror. So if you loved bloodsucking beasties you had to read horror.
L.J. Smith and Christopher Pike were among the first authors to write (for YA) paranormal creatures that weren’t just the things to be killed to protect humans. And I loved it.
I started by reading The Vampire Diaries, but it wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t sympathize with Elena at all. I didn’t see why she was such a big deal. There was one reason (in my mind) to read VD–Damon (swoon!) I did enjoy a lot of Smith’s other stories, particularly the Forbidden Game trilogy and the Night World series.
The Vampire Diaries remains a sparkle in my vamp-ucation, not because of the original books, but because of the time I spent reading VD fan fiction. A lot of it was fun. Some of it was good. Did you know some of it has even been reworked and published? (Full confession: I wrote VD fan fic too.)
The second part of my L.J. love comes from the fan base I spent loads of time talking to online. In fact I met my very first online friend, who became a real life friend, on an L.J. Smith fan board. We’re still friends today. Its hard to beat that, or knowing that I cut my writing teeth on Smith’s world.
The final reason is just as sentimental. In 1997-98 Smith dropped off the face of the earth, to us fans anyway. She left no note, left her Night World series unfinished and most of us moved on to adult storytellers. But then the Vampire Diaries sold to the CW for TV production and one of my favorite authors got a second chance.
By this point I was a bona fide author myself with a few short stories published and I knew how amazing it was. Many, maybe even most, writers don’t even get one chance at Smith’s career and somehow she’d gotten two. It’s hard not to feel a fierce desire to cheer for that.
So it seems right to let myself go on a little flashback through L.J. world, see how it’s changed or how we readers have changed. That’s what you can expect for the next few week from me. And hey, we’d love to hear some of your thoughts so feel free to send them in!
Send an email to zombiemicheleATgmail.com and we might use your story about L.J. Smith in our reader feedback post!