I was writing before I knew it was called writing. I mean, I was making up both stories and free-form poetry before I could read. Unlike authors who were prodigies, I didn’t learn to read until I was taught it in first grade, but I certainly knew how to make up a story. Astro-Boy, a Japanese anime character, was often my companion in my early fiction, but every movie I saw or book that was read to me got at least a try to see if I would fit into its world. (Including the wonderful D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, which made a huge impression on me—after that my companions were fauns and dryads, centaurs, nymphs, and demi-gods.)
And I constantly, silently, made up stories in my head based on whatever I was doing. Like, what might happen if . . . the door to the abandoned house on our block was really the doorway to another planet. Or to a land where unfairly enslaved animals talked. Or to a kingdom where the true princess had been kidnapped by a wicked faun. I did this 24/7 and never told a soul about it until I was in high school.
But as a kid, I loved to play the princess sort of pretend with my girlfriends—and a lavish wardrobe of flower girl dresses supplied by my great-aunt who ran a bridal shop. And I loved playing—not doctor—but space explorer with my boyfriends. Although I didn’t start reading early, I did catch up very quickly to take a look at what I had missed. By fifth grade I was reading adult books; by sixth my mom was horrified to find me reading her copy of Valley of the Dolls. Now that doesn’t mean I was reading all grown-up books. I was unfailingly faithful to Nancy Drew and patterned my mystery stories on her adventures. And I read any book of any kind that had any sort of “urban magic” in it. I knew I was going to find real magic . . . right up until the moment when I realized that I was going to have to write about it instead.
As to my juvenilia, I am devastated to report that some of it has survived. Ye gods, does it suck!
Hey !
I was just wondering if the TV series Vampire Diares ever like references your books because they messed up big time. Do they like ever ask you for help or are they just doing things on there own ?
Your books are awesome !!
Thanks, Payton
hey.
I’m with Payton on her comment. I was a little mad that elena wasn ‘t blonde because i thought that was a very important part of the book. Otherwise i’m very happy about it being a tv show.But it still is off.
keep wrighting amazing books,
Jalen
Hey
I was wondering if there will be other books after Strange Fate in the Night World series. I love these books. I started reading and could not put them down. I just picked up one to have something to read on a plane ride, and then had to buy the rest because I loved them so much.
keep writing, love your books
Amanda
And how lucky are WE that you decided to try and get some of your stories published?? Ahh, The Forbidden Game Trilogy was life changing for me. It gave me a fascination with Runes that I’m still pursuing!
Hi again, wow thanx 4 replying that has made me sooo happy and has made my day. :) I am such a huge fan of yours. May I ask is there any more books of Dark Visions to come 4 the next sequal? Those r my favouites.:) Which is your favourite out of all your books that you have written? I am now on The Reunion and im just loving every minute of reading the Vampire Diaries series they r just amzaing. :)How is the Vampire Diaries TV show doing in the US what was the reaction from all your fans? I bet its doing so well I can’t wait 2 watch it. from your huge fan em. :) xxxx
Please Hurry up with the next book in Vampire Diaries Can’t wait I am a 32 year old mother of 2 and CAN’T WAIT for the next book!
hey!
I love your writtings. i read your books all the time. even when im done with them i would read again, i just love them.
the vampire diaries are amazing. after i read the books i couldnt stop thinking of damon. you are an amazing writter, no other story would get me to think of a charachter. how do you do it??
your awesome! from your hugest fan..=)
Hello Lisa! ^_^
I am so thrilled to see you back on the writing scene after all these years. I have been a fans of yours since way back in 92. The Forbidden Game trilogy changed my life and views on supernatural YA. When I read The Vampire Diaries at 16, I kept thinking,”Wow. Elena Gilbert sounds just like me.” I get aggravated at how the CW has changed book elena into some washed up version. Yes, Elena was strong, schemer, and culd be selfish, but what teenager isn’t? I love all your stories. I adore the fact that my name is the same as the main character in Night World’s Huntress. Awesome. I know you can’t give too much away, but I am an avid Bonnie/Damon fan. I never really cared for Damon/Elena since I love her with Stefan. She’s changed so much b/c of him. Any hints that possibly D/B will end up together? I think Bonnie would make an awesome vampire,lol.
Hey!! I love ur books SOOO Much!!
Especially all the bad boy characters. You Rock!!!
anyway i was just wondering if u could help me find ur book called “The Forbidden Game:The Hunter” cause i’ve looked everywhere.
Thankx
Why did you pick the charecters you did to play in the new tv show the vampier diaries.I think you need to switch stefan and damon’s charecters around
OMG! I was SOO mad that they got everything wrong with the first two episodes of vamp diaries! EVERYTHING! Well, they didn’t get the football thing wrong. They picked a good cast though. Especially Damon! (Wolf whistle)lol.
Do you help them make the tv series? Caroline is NOT supposed to be their friend! And what is with the whole jason thing? She’s not supposed to have a brother. . . she’s supposed to have (a sister or a neice?) can’t remember but i know she didn’t have a brother. I was a little lost with the first episode.
hey, my 17 yr old sis introduced your work to me, im 19, i had to move from home to china to study university,i am always conforted wen i read your books,while i was on vacation before i cud start uni, i begun the third set of night worlr,the one with the chosen,huntress…,i completed it and am hoping for another book in that trilogy..now am in china and everything is in chinese,i get nostalgia reading your books they remind me of home…keep up the good work…
okay. Maybe i sounded a little. . . Mean when i posted last. But I actually like the series so far. I was just expecting something a little more. . . similar to the book? I mean, if you think about it, they did change A LOT of stuff. Still like it! :)
hey:)
May I meet Damon in your book? :);p hehe ;p
My name is Kate, I live in Poland:] I like Ur stories, think there are full of passion and my unreal dreams.
:)))))
Hi :)
I’m Alice and I’m one of your Italian Fans :)
I’m reading the vampire diaries and I like it so much!!
Stefan is so cool!!
I also watched the pilot and I liked it even If I was a bit disappointed from ELena’s look. I mean, she’s gorgeous but where’s her blond hair? :(
And why they changed the part about Italian REinassence? :(Anyway, thanks for your books and keep on writing ^o^
hi again, I have a question to ask. See, I’m 15 and as you can guess, have no idea how to get hold of a literacy agent that is easy to work with so that it doesn’t mess with school. I wanted to ask if you can write about your entire journey from finding an agent and publishing the your books. Thanks
I Love The Vampire Dairies Tv Show… I Just Make Myself Think That Its Not After The Books But The Names Are Alot Alike… AHHH I LOVE DAMON!!! Ok Anyways I Was Just Wondering If They Are Gonna Reprint The Forbidden Game? Because I Payed 100$ For Them And I Just Got It In The Mail And If They Gonna Reprint Em I Dont Wanna Open Em!!! Lol
Hey,
Are you going to make a 4th Vampire Diaries book? Because i think that you totally ended the third one wrong. Stephan has to be back with Elena! He is the perfect man and he needs to come back. Please let us know SOON if you are. That would be great.
Thanks.
HEY!!!!
HEY!!! oh my gosh i absolutely LOVE your books. they are amazing!!! but why, oh why, are they messin up the t.v. series for vampire diaries its nothing like the books. what happened to meredith??? Vampire Diaries are my top books right now though, I LOVE THEM!!!! anyways, all your books are awesome. PEACE!!!
Emerald
HI! I just started reading your books, but i am already in love with them. i got the first three books for night world(my all time favorite books ever) sunday and now on monday i am almost done with the second book. I want to be a writer when i grow up(but i bet you get a lot of people telling you that). I have already wrote two books, each 90-120 pages each. RIght now i’m writing a fan story that has kinda the form of Night world. i want to go get vampire dairies now that i have heard so much about it. i hope to see alot more of night world in my future, and right now in life, i don’t picture my self as a human, but as a lost citizen of the night world that is trying to find their way back to their world. I love your books and your way of writing.
Abbe, the lost citizen of night world
I was wondering if you will be coming out with an omibus for The Forbidden Game? I’ve been reading your books since I was a teenager and it’s 15 years later and I still read them. I love your books and I can’t wait to read Strange Fate.
Forever a fan
Lin
What a great story! Hearing the names of the main characters, Elena & Stefan, I got a kick out of it because my name is Elena, and my young daughter’s name is Stefanie. So how did you come up with the character’s names?
Hey!!! I love Vampire Diaries!!!!! As many people have said, I think they messed up BIG TIME !!!!!! What happened to Meredith? What happened to the cousin who I cant remember her name right now? Whats with the new Brother? How come Stefan talks to Elena He’s not supposed to talk to her til later!!!!!!!! He talks to her in the FIRST EPISODE!!!!!! And whats with the hair on Elena?????? What did they think you did a bad job and just decide to redo the whole thing how they want it? I just dont get it maybe its just me :) love your books keep writing!!!
Hey! I am so inspired by your Vampire Diaries series and how they are so interesting! I love the perfect combination of terror and romance! I am actually in the process of writing my first book and i was wondering if you had any pointers for me. My book is also about vampires but it is completely different from yours. I would really appreacation any help I can get on this and help from you would be such an honor!
Hello Mrs. Smith,
First of all we would like to thank you for your creativity. Books which leave from under your hand, the real works of art. In Russia it is a lot of fans of your creativity.
We are moderators of the Russian creative site. Our site isn’t commercial and from it we don’t receive money. It simply that place where creative and talented people are going to, communicate, read and write.
We would like to address to you with the request to allow to place to us your books of series Vampires Diares on our site. We do not wish to break copyrights, therefore we ask of your permission. Whether it is possible?
And still to us would be very pleasant if have agreed on small interview. We will send you all some questions on which we would like to learn your answer. Whether we can count on your consent?
Yours faithfully, moderators of site Julia and Darya.
Hi,
So I am a huge fan. I started reading the Vampire Diaries back in like 1995, lol. I’m an older reader. I also read the Dark Visions trilogy. Never did get a chance to read the others until just recently when I found Nightworld….and I gotta say….wow. I read all 9 in just over a week and a half. Awesome series. I am really glad that you have started writing to the Vampire Diaries again, though I must say it’s not quite what I expected, it’s a bit farther out there then I would have thought…but I suppose Elena coming back from the dead was pretty big in itself. Anyways, can’t wait for the rest of the series, you are an awesome writer and I hope to reach your level one day. Just one more question, when is the last book coming out for Nightworld? Strange fate? Have a wonderful day and I look forward to reading more of your books.
Rachel
hi
just like to say that i love all your books glad that you are back writing again and look forward to the next instalment of vampire diaries and strange fate and any others to come love seeing your books on the stands in the shops and not having to order them in and as with other comments i am the same when i read your books i can’t put them down and i love re reading them all the best
sharon.
Hey!
When is the ‘Vampire Diaries’ being aired in britain?
Or is it already being aired? When is strange fate coming out?! And when are you going to finish ‘Ash and Mary-Lynette: Those Who Favour Love’? That’s my favourite book of the night world series!
Sophie
By the way i love the ‘Night World’ series SO MUCH it took me 2 days to read ‘Dark Angel’, ‘The Chosen’ and Soulmate’. I’ve read all 9!! When is the tenth coming out?!?!
Sophie
I love your books but would like to know if maybe u will be writing any more vampire diaries books after the return of nightfall.
By the way another book series of your i love is the secret circle are u making a 3rd book and is there such thing as the secret circle omnibus
just wanted to tell u that i think u are a great writter. iam a older reader.not sure if i should say this but i think u are better then stephine mayers AND I LOVE VAMPIRE DIARIES PLEASE PLEASE LET ELEAN BE WITH STEFAN.
L.J,
I just finished the second secret circle book, I’m done now right? Here’s the thing, I don’t want to be done. I have grown attached to the characters and miss them already. There is only one person that I can think of who can remedy my situation. Guess who she is.
Thank you very much for replying in person like that.
Well, you’re right I would never threaten the ladies. It would be like harming a priceless piece of art. You just don’t do that.
One issue though, I know lapis lazuli stones protect against sunlight in the Vampire Diaries, but you wrote other books which I don’t know if they were Nightworld?
Not of the Vampire Diaries though, there were vampire and werewolf sects that wore particular rings. Do I remember a guy named Thierry? The names Rashel and Quinn.. or was that another book? Agh, I don’t know! Those vampire/werewolf cult rings are what I can’t remember, sorry for the confusion.
Hey, i LOVE all of your books. read them when i was 13…. i’m 23 now. actually got the idea, when reading Soulmate and the secret circle to write my own book. (i’ll have to work up the courage to publish it one day.)
i love the idea of soulmates and ‘love throughout the ages’, in fact that’s what my book is about. it is titled ‘the first love’
the Night World, vampire diaries, dark visions trilogy and the secret circle still are my favourite books, i’m obsessed by them!
Hey, i am 12 and live in england .I started reading your books in the summer holidays when i bought one in a bookshop. I LOVED it and have now read all of night world(my favE) dark visions and vampire diaries. I wish they had more of your books on sale here :(. I thnk you are a really good author and your characters are really awesome, I wish they re real! Cant w8 until vampire diaries comes to televisin here. xxx
I read on your blog that you were writing another Secret Circle story! These (along with Vampire Diaries) are my favorite books. Please let me know when or if you are still working on this and when it might be out!
Hey Everybody,
Sorry to have been away for so long! I’ve been working hard on the sweet and gentle Vampire Diaries book Shadow Souls (and no, I’m not joking about the sweet and gentle part of it–although since it’s a horror romance there has to be some horror, but there’s lots of romance since Elena is forced to travel with Damon in order to save Stefan). Anyway, the book is due but my readers are very important to me, so here I am, back!
Hey Payton–
Your post makes me laugh, although I think the TV series is terrific. No, they didn’t consult me. This is one of those sad facts about TV shows: often the author of the original book isn’t consulted.
I’m sort of like Yertle in Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss. You know, the turtle that all the other turtles stand on, so the King Turtle can do a TV show … I mean can rule all he can see.
But really, what’s so bad about the show? I think it’s fun!
Hi Jalen–
Yes, well, I may as well admit to a moment of surprise that Elena wasn’t going to have her signature blond wavy hair. But Nina is a great actress and I really enjoy watching her play Elena. They’re like two different flavors of Vampire Diaries to enjoy.
Thank you for a pointed and provocative post!
Hi Amanda–
How could I ever give up the Night World? Especially with all that I’ve built into it now. I think there will definitely be more Night World books, because the draw of that world is just too strong for me to exist~
I’m so glad that you’ve enjoyed reading them! I know I’ve enjoyed writing them, and I thank you for your post!
Hey Jessica–
Runes, yes! Runes are fascinating. A whole new language of meaning! As always, I’m dellghted you enjoyed Forbidden Game . . . and I’ve really got this yearning to do something else with it. I don’t know what. But I’m very fond of Julian. And I thank you for your encouraging post!
Hey Emily–
Dark Reunion wasn’t a book (originally a trilogy) that I thought of doing a sequel to. To be honest, I didn’t think that many people liked it. That was when it first came out years ago. But I’m so glad to find that many of the readers who are writing in to Blogfest did enjoy it!
As for the show, well, I think it’s easier to get into immediately if you don’t know the books first, but I love it and many of my readers do, too. Others, like Payton, don’t. Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion. As for the critics and ratings, the show has been a hit. (Yay!) Thank you for posting!
Hi Arlene!
Yes, ma’am! The book will be out in February, ma’am! I hope it pleases you, ma’am! I will hurry and edit another page right now, ma’am!
Thank you for a post that made me laugh, as well as pepped me up! Ma’am!
would like to know if there is any audiobooks for ur books..
Hi L.J Smith,again thanx u so much.:) I have jsut had the best time reading your books just truley all of them are magnificen,Im really glad that there are more books to come. Just keep on the amazing work you are doing. You are defentley on my list for one of my favourite authors. I was just wondering are The Secret Cirlce series going to be published in UK aswell as I see people here have read them? Lots of love; from huge Emily.:)xx
Hey!
Oh wow! I love all of your books! I started out reading the Vampire Diaries and then the Secret Circle. But as i was wondering throught the book store, I came across the Night World Series! I fell in love with all the characters and wanted to be pulled right into your stories. I visited the website and made sure I knew when new books were coming out, I swear I waited so impatiently for the Dark Visions book! Not surprisingly, I loved it too! I even have my friends and younger cousins hooked on your books, including ones that dont like reading!
What’s even better, is that I met this mom and her mom and found out they loved your books too! People who work make time to read your great stories!!
Thanks for being amazing and keep it up!
Cassie
Hey,
I was wondering if The Forbidden Game trilogy would ever be made into an omnibus. You cannot buy it new anywhere!! I love all of your books; I’m just absorbing them like a sponge. It’s so refreshing to find books that I can just drink up.I would love to read this series, and if possible, have the omnibus on my shelf, next to the rest of your books.
-Steph
Will you ever be visiting Seattle Washington? I am 13 years old and love your books so much