VAMPIRE DIARIES Author L.J. Smith Has Died

The Vampire Diaries was a write-for-hire project commissioned by Alloy Entertainment, one of the largest book packaging companies in the world. Smith published the first entry into the series in 1991, The Awakening, and she went on to write the next six volumes for the series. Three more series from Smith followed, including The Secret Circle, published in 1992; The Forbidden Game, published in 1994; and Night World, published in 1998.

After that marathon publishing schedule, Smith took time off from writing. She returned in 2008 with a series of new short stories. It was only another year until Vampire Diaries hit the small screens on CW, followed by The Secret Circle hitting small screens in 2011. Smith published two additional entries into the Vampire Diaries series in 2009 and 2010 as interest in the series–and in vampire fiction–increased.

The final Vampire Diaries book to be fully written by Smith was The Return: Midnight. It published in 2011. While Smith submitted a draft of her manuscript for the next book, the publisher disagreed with the route Smith took with the story. They wanted her to follow the adaptation’s storyline more closely, but Smith disagreed–she had a different plot line in mind. This led to Alloy terminating her contract and hiring a ghostwriter to continue additional volumes in the series–though they still bear Smith’s byline.

Smith responded by developing a series of fan fiction stories based on Vampire Diaries , which allowed her to tell the story on her terms and do so without legal trouble.

Many of Smith’s short stories, both those based on the worlds she wrote and not, are available to read in full on her website.

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