About Me

I'm a native Manhattanite and editor at a major New York publishing house , and have written more than 30 children’s books, including the New York Times Bestselling Fancy Nancy series, about a young girl with an affinity for anything sparkly and accessorized. DANGEROUS ADMISSIONS is my first adult novel.

I’d never written a mystery before, and had no idea how difficult the whole process would prove. It took me three years to complete. The most fun thing was finally – after writing children’s books for 25 years – to write sex scenes. The book is definitely not a cozy; I like to think of it as a mystery ‘with benefits.’

I attended college at Smith, where I earned my B.A. in English Literature. Aside from rising in the ranks of the New York publishing world, I love to travel and spend every extra nickel she earns on plane trips and souvenirs. This includes St. Martins, Amsterdam, Bruges, Japan, and Hawaii among my latest conquests, and these are just the places I've been in the past year!

DANGEROUS ADMISSIONS hits closer to home than my far-flung preferred vacation locales, though. I set the book in my native New York, at a competitive prep school – a subject that is significant personally. My sons each spent 13 years at a very high-powered private school in Manhattan, and so twice my husband and I had to suffer through the process of applying to college. (Of course, it was our kids, not us, who were actually applying, but the angst involved as parents often made it feel as if we were the ones waiting for the proverbial fat envelopes.) One day, an idea for a mystery just popped into my head – Dangerous Admissions. The story would revolve around nasty doings at a New York private school where the seniors are all vying for slots at the same ivy-covered places.

I currently live with my husband on the Upper West Side– four blocks from where I grew up. I have two grown sons.

Member Since

Oct 4, 2007

Sites

• Jane O' Connor