Jennifer Horsman

I have written a bunch of historical romance novels, (Avon Books, Zebra Books, which are having a second life on Amazon Kindle), a number of non-fiction books (Prentice Hall , Quill Driver Books) a couple of successful screenplays (Warner Bros., Julian Krainin Productions,) two plays that, so far, exist only in my computer, and countless angry letters to the editor (LA Times, NY Times), all more or less to my credit.

I was born and raised in San Francisco, California. I moved south to finish my college degree at the University of California at Irvine. After graduating from UCI with a degree in Social Ecology (don’t ask; no one knows what it means) and finding myself not just unemployed, but ill-suited for the traditional passage of people with no purpose in life, law school, I read this statement in the newspaper: Half of all novels sold in our country are romance novels. I rushed out to buy a pile of them. While I was flabbergasted that someone thought to put women’s sexual fantasies on paper, I knew I could write one. Zebra Books bought my first novel. One novel turned into a bunch. (Avon Books, Zebra Books). All these novels are rated five stars from Publisher Weekly, Romantic Times and the vast majority of Amazon readers.

My last novels With One Look (the cover appeared to read With One Cook, which sent my mostly highbrow friends into fits of laughter) and A Kiss in the Night were extremely well reviewed in several magazines, including PW. Most of my romances won awards and one of these awards was almost considered prestigious. Still, I finally stopped being able to write them; I began having increasingly vivid fantasies of killing off my heroines—in really dreadful ways.

I turned to writing other things. All of my screenplays been optioned at least twice and two of them have been optioned five or more times. My two plays, Ben and Me (Ben Franklin visits a middle age author in an attempt to convince her to write a play about his life) and The Weight of God, a story about the loss of a loved one, and how both religion and art help mediate this passage. Both of these plays have excellent reviews/coverage, but have not yet been produced. I also wrote a non-fiction book Please Don’t Eat the Animals: All the Reasons You Need to Be a Vegetarian (Quill Drivers Books); I am one of those nutty animal rights people. And the crazily successful e-book: The Vegetarian Weight Loss Plan continues to sell, well, crazily.

Is God Real or Pretend? is my first children’s novel to be published. Here we follow a young boy Franklin on his quest to answer this timeless question. His grandmother, a professor of astronomy, guides him. Franklin explores the differing viewpoints provided by a small cast of engaging characters: A professor of Greek Mythology first offers a historical, cultural prospective on religions, before Franklin meets with a practicing Hindu , a Buddhist nun, a Rabbi, a devout Christian (Franklin’s mom) and his best friend’s father who is a Muslim Imam. In this way Franklin’s journey becomes an introduction to the five major religions; each religious prospective provides insight into the deepest questions we ask of our religions. While Franklin reaches no certain conclusion, his school report on the size and the magnificence of the universe deepens the mystery surrounding all his questions of God.