Janet Evanovich is an American writer. She began her career writing short contemporary romance novels under the pen name Steffie Hall, but gained fame authoring a series of contemporary mysteries featuring Stephanie Plum, a lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey, who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet after losing her job. The 18 novels in this series consistently top the New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists, most recently with Explosive Eighteen. Evanovich is a second-generation American. She was born and raised in South River, New Jersey to a machinist and housewife.... Evanovich attended South River High School. She became the first in her family to attend college when she enrolled at Douglass College, part of Rutgers University, to study art. When Evanovich had children, she chose to become a housewife like her mother. In her thirties, she began writing novels. To learn the art of writing dialog, Evanovich took lessons in improv acting. For ten years, she attempted to write the Great American Novel, finishing three manuscripts that she was unable to sell.
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