LJ Smith, author of over 27 young adult books, has died. She is most known for her series The Vampire Diaries, which was made into a huge show. Also The Originals followed a character she created in her vampire universe, and The Secret Circle — a show about teen witches — were picked up by the CW. She’s who to thank for sticking vampires in high schools. She had an ongoing series called Night World, that famously stopped about three books until the end. No reason was given, she just suddenly wasn’t publishing anymore. There was a lot of speculation that she wasn’t actually one person, but was several people writing under that pen name for the publishing company. When she came back it fueled a lot of discourse because her new writing was so different from her original writings. And, if you go back even further, she had two other series that also felt like they were written by someone else. Irregardless, the actual LJ Smith had been pushed out by her publisher and then went to writing fan fiction so that her fans could still see what she wanted to have happen. I think.
She passed at only 66, and partner, Julie Divola, said that she died in a hospital due to a rare autoimmune disease she’d been battling over the past decade.
favorite lj smith books? original 4 vampire diaries, original 3 secret circle, and forbidden game and dark visions are unmatched tbh!! 13 year old me will fight!!
