J.P. Smith

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My essay on researching fiction...

Jan.11.2013

My essay on researching fiction...

...can be found here: http://necessaryfiction.com/blog/ResearchNotesJPSmith

Featured Works

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PUBLISHED: Nov.20.2012

Airtight

It’s a Friday afternoon in October 1970, on a college campus in western Pennsylvania, and Nick Copeland is quietly going out of his mind. On the brink of throwing himself out the window, he decides instead to summon the student next door, Rob Johnson, to help him through his crisis, and shortly afterwards, now fast friends bonded over Nick’s...

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PUBLISHED: Sep.22.1998

The Blue Hour

When Adam Füst’s wife, Honnie, suddenly vanishes, the couple’s friends assume she was just unhappy and skipped town. Wracked with worry and confusion, Adam knows there’s more to the story. When the realization hits that he doesn’t know his wife well enough to find her, he enlists the help of a brilliant but amoral cop to comb the streets of Paris for her. The deeper their...

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PUBLISHED: Apr.22.1997

Body and Soul

After fleeing to Paris to escape communist rule, Polish émigré and piano player Jerzy Wozzeck finds it nearly impossible to support his family on his low-paying bistro gigs. So when a friend offers a fat payoff for handling a string of deliveries, Jerzy quickly finds himself in the uneasy employ of an anonymous suit and his sensual assistant. With a couple of flawless jobs...

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PUBLISHED: Jun.20.1995

Breathless

What does grief taste like? What does it weigh? How does it quietly curve around your heart, begging long-kept secrets to become unburied? When history professor Jill Bowman learns of her husband’s gruesome murder in a seedy motel room, she knows he had no business being there—not serious, sincere Peter, the man she’d known in the most intimate ways a person can be known....

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PUBLISHED: Jun.16.1992

The Discovery of Light

Divorced American academic David Reid teaches English by day and spends his free time writing mystery novels that nobody reads. In London he meets his new editor, Kate. Blonde and beautiful, she is also mysterious and aloof—and soon captivates David. The feeling seems mutual and the two are soon wed, but Kate quickly spirals into a deep sadness. In less than two years, she...

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PUBLISHED: Sep.17.1985

The Man from Marseille

For years, Alex Ostroff churns out unsuccessful, unpublished manuscripts. His rejection is complete when he’s rebuffed by London’s literary set and unceremoniously thrown out of a party by the host. His exasperated literary agent encourages Alex to write what he knows, but the writer is loathe to reveal anything about himself. Alex follows the advice, however, mining his...

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J.P.'s Latest Blogs

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May.23.2013 - 4:29 pm

Garbage

...which is the title of my latest blog, to be found here: http://www.jpsmith.org/blog.htm

Mar.11.2013 - 1:12 pm

Making a Monster

My latest blog, about adapting one of my own novels as a screenplay, has just been posted at http://www.jpsmith.org/blog.htm.

Feb.28.2013 - 4:47 pm

On Hiatus

Just back from a trip out west, and three meetings in Los Angeles with people who've read several of my scripts. One of them looks like a potentially interesting (and I hope...

Feb.28.2013 - 4:47 pm

On Hiatus

Just back from a trip out west, and three meetings in Los Angeles with people who've read several of my scripts. One of them looks like a potentially interesting (and I hope...

Comments from J.P.

May.10.2009 - 1:44 pm

In response to: Fly Me to Hollywood

Mary, thanks. All of this is

Mary, thanks. All of this is really part of the process of using autobiographical material. Proust (a writer in whom I...

May.10.2009 - 12:19 pm

In response to: Fly Me to Hollywood

Hi Mary, and thank you for

Hi Mary, and thank you for your note. Well, I mean that as this was something I personally experienced, I needed to...

Apr.25.2009 - 2:12 pm

In response to: Fly Me to the Moon

Many thanks, Aberjhani. In

Many thanks, Aberjhani. In fact, it was where I learned the nature of empathy.

Apr.03.2009 - 4:19 pm

In response to: Well Acquainted with the Night

Mary, it's sort of like when

Mary, it's sort of like when black-and-white films very selfconsciously burst into color in places. Although black-and-...

Apr.03.2009 - 11:54 am

In response to: Well Acquainted with the Night

The plot--or, rather, the

The plot--or, rather, the writing--has to be alive on every page, Mary. If we're reading a novel--if we're plodding...

Writing

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Article: Exercises in Style, by Raymond Queneau

Follow J.P.’s tweets

New script idea is beginning to spark. Biggest concept I've yet had. But first I have to finish the new novel. — 1 week 1 day ago

About J.P.

I was born in New York City and raised five minutes from the Bronx. Once I'd completed my graduate work I returned to teach at my alma mater, Scarborough School. During my four years there I completed a novel a year and, because in the Seventies it was...

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Connections

Causes J.P. Smith Supports

Authors Guild

PEN America