30 Second Interview

Mention the names Stefan and Damon Salvatore, and teenage girls (along with most middle-aged woman), will squeal in delight. But who’d have thought these two dreamy vampires were the creation of a kindergarten teacher.

Lisa Jane Smith, or L.J. Smith as she is known worldwide has had an amazing, if not strange route into writing.

While attending high school, L.J. wrote The Night of the Solstice, and in 1987, she passed the handwritten novel, which filled seven lined note books, to a first time agent who typed the scribbles into manuscript form and sold it to MacMillan.

Although it received good reviews, sales were poor. And in 1990, second book Heart of Valour was released.