Gallant Match

Jennifer Blake

Jennifer Blake has been called the Steel Magnolia of women's fiction, and a "legend of the genre." She is a seventh-generation Louisianian who married at 15, began writing at 21, sold her first book at 27, in 1970, and gained her first New York Times best seller nearly 20 years ago with Love's Wild Desire in 1977. She has written over 50 books, including Royal Seduction, Fierce Eden, Shameless, Tigress, and her latest release Garden of Scandal.

A writer of international best-seller status as well, her books have been published in 17 languages for worldwide sales approaching 22 million. She was honored with the position as writer-in-residence for the University of Northeastern Louisiana, and is a charter, and honorary, member of Romance Writers of America.

She has received numerous awards for her work, but among those she values most are the Golden Treasure Award for Lifetime Achievement from Romance Writers of America, induction into the Affaire de Coeur Romance Hall of Fame, and the Frank Waters Award for Excellence in Fiction.

Jennifer and her husband of 41 years live at Sweet Briar, the home they designed and built in 1980 as an energy-efficient replica of an old Southern planter's cottage. On acreage crossed by a spring-fed creek and enhanced by tall pines, beeches, dogwoods, wild azaleas, and Jennifer's garden of antique roses, they entertain friends and family, especially their four grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Here, as Jennifer says in her own words, "I write my fantasies of love and adventure in the romantic South. And sometimes, when I sit on the porch with the sunlight falling across the lawn and the smells of magnolia, sweet olive, honeysuckle and roses wafting on the warm air, I live them."