Jennifer Crusie was born as Jennifer Smith in Wapakoneta, Ohio. "Crusie" is a pseudonym she uses for her writing. She chose this surname to honor her maternal grandmother who was born a Crusie. She has two Master's degrees: One is from Wright State University in Professional Writing and Women's Literature, and the second is an MFA in Fiction from Ohio State University. Crusie began her writing career with romance novels. In 2005 she won a Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Contemporary Single Title for the novel Bet Me. This novel also became her first New York Times bestseller. Since then she has written over 15 novels which have been published in 20 countries. She resides in… Ohio.