My latest novel Juan Pablo and the Butterflies (Simon and Schuster) won the Westchester Fiction Award.  My latest nonfiction is Grief Is Love (Lantern Books). Before this I wrote a bunch of historical romance novels (Avon Books, Zebra Books under the name Jennifer Horsman,) some of which hit best seller lists, many won awards and one of these awards was almost considered prestigious. I finally stopped being able to write these novels when I began having fantasies of killing off my heroines—in really dreadful ways. I have also written six screenplays. Four of these have won awards, all have been optioned and one Clarence Darrow’s Last Stand was auctioned and received six bids, including Warner Bros and Paramount. A number of producers suggested writing it as a stage play, and since theater is my first love, I wrote it up and it was a finalist in the AACT New Play festival. (Two judges said it would have won hands down but it had too many characters.) Recently Richard Harding of Six Sense Productions hired me to write The Emma Edmonds Story, the epic true story of a young woman who disguised herself as a man and fought heroically in the Civil War. 

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The Story of Ben Franklin is based on a true story--my love affair with Ben.

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The play opens with Ben Franklin waking up writer Jane Roth in the middle of the night. Ben has become a frequent visitor in Jane’s life, appearing at inopportune times: her young daughter’s piano recital, an important teacher’s conference, and a friend’s wedding. Ben tries to convince Jane to write a play about his life, but as Jane protests, “… Your life, wonderful and meaningful as it was, has all these interesting antidotes, precious moments that illuminate not just you and your remarkable character, but that momentous time in history.  I just don’t think it is enough for a play.” Still, they begin a review of the wealth of Ben’s life in search of a story for a play.  The journey includes appearances by Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain and his creation Jim from Huckleberry Finn, Ben’s African American slave/friend King, (this in itself is a great story), Silence Dogooder and Polly Baker and so, has roles for six people. The hilarity comes not just from the treasure of Ben’s wit, but also from Jane escaping her ordinary life for the ongoing imaginary and infinitely more rewarding conversation with Ben Franklin. In this way, the play is about how art overwhelms real life. The emotional conclusion to the play takes on a surprising poignancy.