New York Times bestselling author Shirley Jump didn’t have the willpower to diet nor the talent to master under-eye concealer, so she bowed out of a career in television and opted instead for a career where she could be paid to eat at her desk—writing.
She started out in journalism, selling her first article at the age of eleven and dreaming of being the next Jane Pauley. She hosted two of her own shows on the local cable channel and co-hosted a late-night comedy show. After writing 3000 articles and two non-fiction books, Shirley grew too dependent on her robe and fuzzy slippers, and decided a career as a freelance writer suited her better.
After having two kids, she sold embarrassing essays about her children to anthologies such as Chicken Soup for the Working Woman’s Soul and Chocolate for Women II.
Then she turned to the world of romance novels, where messes are (usually) cleaned up before The End and no one is calling anyone a doodoo head. In the worlds Shirley gets to create and control, children listen to their parents, husbands always remember holidays and housework is magically done by elves.
She sold her first book to Silhouette Romance in 2001. That novel, THE VIRGIN’S PROPOSAL, won the Booksellers’ Best Award for Best Traditional Romance of 2003.
Since then, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shirley Jump has written more than 50 novels for Berkley, Harlequin, Entangled and Kensington books. She has won numerous awards, including the HOLT Medallion, the Booksellers Best Award and Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence.
She’s been nominated multiple times for the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice award, most recently for THE RETURN OF BRODY MCKENNA, the last book in her McKenna Brothers series for Harlequin.
The first book in her new series with Berkley, THE SWEETHEART BARGAIN, has received a Top Pick from Romantic Times Book Reviews as well as a multitude of pre-publication praise from authors such as Jayne Ann Krentz, who called the book “real romance,” Virginia Kantra, who said, “Shirley Jump packs lots of sweet and plenty of heat in this heartwarming first book of her promising new series,” and Jill Shalvis, who called it “a fun, heartwarming small town romance that you’ll fall in love with.”
Though she’s thrilled to see her books in stores around the world, Shirley mostly writes because it gives her an excuse to avoid cleaning the toilets and helps feed her shoe habit.