Who are your writerly crushes?

My biggest writerly crush is Jennifer Crusie, who writes adult romantic comedy.

You may ask, "Why do you have a crush on somebody who doesn't even write what you write?" Well, I DO write adult romantic comedy. Just not very well, apparently. And for the first time in years, I'm not even working on one at the moment because I have so many YA projects.

It's not that I don't love writing YA. I do. But my plan was always to write adult and YA romantic comedy, back and forth. The YA romantic comedy, Major Crush, sold quickly, kicking off that half of my career. The adult romantic comedies never did.

Luckily I have Jennifer Crusie to write those books for me. I have a terrible habit of reading a book--even a great book, even a classic--and thinking, "I would have done this differently." With Ms. Crusie I rarely feel this way. The last of her books I read was Fast Women last Thanksgiving, and I remember reading a few pages and saying to myself, "I AM SO GLAD TO BE READING THIS JENNIFER CRUSIE BOOK!" It's a nonstop party in my mind, I tell you.

Here is how much I love her books. I don't often recommend books to my mother because she is extremely picky and very snobby about romance novels in particular. She is more of a high-falutin' literature kind of girl. But Tell Me Lies is my favorite Crusie, I had just finished it, and I loved it SO MUCH that on a whim I sent it to my mother for her birthday. A month later I checked in to see if my mother had read it, and whether she had liked it. Not only had she read it and liked it, she had proceeded in that month to read all of the Jennifer Crusie books. ALL OF THEM.

So I guess it is not just me.

Even I have not read all of them. Here is my Jennifer Crusie TBR pile:



And I am thankful I have so much left to read. I savor them.

My gosh, have I sold you yet? Are you wondering where to start? As I've said, my favorite it Tell Me Lies. People who already like Crusie seem divided on whether that book is their favorite, too, or whether they hate it with the white heat of a thousand suns. It is one of those polarizing titles. The one everyone seems to love (though it is not one of my favorites) is Bet Me. I'm also partial to Welcome to Temptation and Crazy for You. Another good place to start would be Maybe This Time, which will be published on Tuesday! Congratulations Ms. Crusie!

Mine is pre-ordered.