How Prolific Author L.J. Smith Changed Vampire Fiction Forever

Listen to this article

The passing of L.J. Smith, the author of The Vampire Diaries, last month at the age of 66, came as a shock to many readers. For a certain generation, it was she who introduced them to vampire romance, a genre that became wildly popular over 15 years later with the advent of Twilight and the ensuing paranormal YA boom. For others, the long-running CW show and its spinoffs were favorites that brought to life the juicy soapiness of Smith’s vision. As young adult fiction and romance publishing is experiencing the rush of a new trend, romantasy, it’s hard to overlook the immense contribution made to both by Smith, a hired-hand who transcended the limitations put upon her and fought back when her bosses tried to stop her from telling the stories she wanted to tell.

Lisa Jane Smith started her career as an elementary school teacher before quitting in 1989 to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a writer. Her first book, The Night of the Solstice, was published in 1987 but sold poorly. Her work as an author took off in earnest in 1990 when she received a commission from the book packaging company Alloy Entertainment. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, children’s literature was dominated by very long series by ghostwriters hired to complete a concept created by a company. Consider Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, or Sweet Valley High; seemingly never-ending sagas with multiple releases a year that tricked kids into believing their favorite authors were just incredibly prolific. Alloy, who would later be responsible for Gossip Girl and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, wanted a vampire series. Smith accepted the job and, inspired by her earlier books and her family’s upbringing in Virginia, created The Vampire Diaries. She wrote the first trilogy in nine months.

Most Popular

The first book, The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening, published in 1991, sets it all up. Elena is a human, the popular girl at school, who captures the attention of two brothers. Stefan is gorgeous and brooding, and so is Damon, but they hate one another and are desperate to both claim Elena as their own. It’s a classic high school romantic soap opera, but with fangs. It’s not hard to imagine this world sharing space with something like Sweet Valley High, where all the emotions are heated and the stakes are high in that way that only adolescence can create, but here, the situation is literally life or death. And readers loved it. Teenagers, especially the girls, latched onto this tale. The timing was ideal, as paranormal fiction and vampires were experiencing a cultural resurgence thanks to films like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Interview with the Vampire.

Smith’s writing expanded well beyond that of vampires, even as The Vampire Diaries expanded into a veritable saga. Night World added werewolves and shapeshifters to her roster with stories of a hidden realm of magic and soulmates where humans and creatures are forbidden to fall in love. The Secret Circle was about a coven of teenage witches, while Dark Visions featured a school for psychics. Smith dabbled in fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and even horror. For any kid of this time, Smith’s books—with those painted covers jam-packed with action and smouldering faces—were a staple of high school reading.

After Smith went on a decade-long hiatus to care for her family, young adult literature evolved into the publishing titan it is today, and author Stephenie Meyer created some very sparkly vampires with their own high school love triangle entanglements. It’s not hard to see the direct line between The Vampire Diaries and Twilight, both of which prioritize all-consuming love and earnest emotional catharsis over dense narrative. Certainly, Alloy saw the potential and reissued the Vampire Diaries series in 2007. Smith returned to writing around this time, and The CW turned The Vampire Diaries into one of its most successful shows of the decade. Suddenly, a whole new generation became enthralled by the stories of Elena, Damon, and Stefan. The series expanded with spin-offs and prequels, and Smith’s work was never more relevant.

Things took an unexpected turn in 2011 when Smith submitted a draft of the next Vampire Diaries book to Alloy. They disagreed with a pivotal plot twist she’d written, and Smith didn’t want to change it. So, they replaced her. After all, The Vampire Diaries was their intellectual property, so they could fire and hire as they pleased. Smith was heartbroken. This was her creation from top to bottom, even if she had been an employee hired to do a specific job. From thereon, while both The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle books would still bear her name, they’d be written by ghostwriters following the company line. Readers were furious.

But Smith got her own back in the savviest way possible. At the time, Amazon had launched Kindle Worlds, a service wherein fanfic writers could create stories within their favorite worlds, earn money, and have the legal permission of the publisher. It was controversial for obvious reasons and didn’t last very long, but it did offer Smith a route to finish telling her story for Elena. She published The Vampire Diaries: Evensong, offering the continuation of the official arc that she had been fired for. This is what we in the industry call a boss move.

Vampires are back in style, thanks to shows like AMC’s Interview with the Vampire and the surge in romantasy fiction which borrows heavily from paranormal generations past, like the work of L.J. Smith. This is a genre that will always enthral readers, and Smith knew how to tap into that intrinsic, near-constant hunger for more, sating readers with an increasingly layered tale of love, power, and self-realization that more than changed what vampire fiction would mean for generations of YA readers. Her publisher may have seen her work as a mere product, but Smith knew better, and so did her readers. Her work is what lives on well beyond the value of an IP.

L.J. Smith’s extensive catalog of work is available wherever books are sold.

Kayleigh Donaldson is a critic and pop culture writer for Pajiba.com. Her work can also be found on IGN, Slashfilm, Uproxx, Little White Lies, Vulture, Roger Ebert, and other publications. She lives in Dundee.