Smolinski, Jill

PERSONAL:

Divorced; children: Danny. Education: Central Michigan University, B.A., 1983.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA.

CAREER:

Writer. Former staff member, Teen magazine; has worked for nonprofit agency promoting ridesharing since 1990.

WRITINGS:

Supermodels!: Everything You Want to Know about Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Niki Taylor, and Many Others!, Lowell House Juvenile (Los Angeles, CA), 1993.

(With Carol J. Amato and Eric Ladizinsky) Fifty Nifty Super Science Fair Projects, Lowell House (Los Angeles, CA), illustrated by Kerry Manwaring, 1995.

Holiday Origami, illustrated by Mary Ann Fraser, Lowell House Juvenile (Los Angeles, CA), 1995, new edition (with Andrea Urton), illustrated by Dianne O'Quinn Burke and Mary Ann Fraser, Lowell House Juvenile (Los Angeles, CA), 1999.

Scary Origami, illustrated by Anita McLaughlin, Lowell House Juvenile (Los Angeles, CA), 1995.

Sixty Super Simple Travel Games, illustrated by Leo Abbett, Lowell House Juvenile (Los Angeles, CA), 1997.

Fifty Nifty Super Animal Origami Crafts, illustrated by Charlene Olexiewicz, Lowell House Juvenile (Los Angeles, CA), 1998.

Sixty Super Simple More Travel Games, illustrated by Leo Abbett, Lowell House Juvenile (Los Angeles, CA), 1998.

Girls Wanna Have Fun: Friendship Origami, illustrated by Charlene Olexiewicz, Lowell House Juvenile (Los Angeles, CA), 1999.

The First-Timer's Guide to Origami, illustrated by Neal Yamamoto, Lowell House Juvenile (Los Angeles, CA), 2000.

Contributor to American Girls about Town, 2004. Contributor of articles to women's magazines. Author of My Life List Web log.

NOVELS

Flip-Flopped, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

The Next Thing on My List: A Novel, Shaye Areheart Books (New York, NY), 2007.

ADAPTATIONS:

The Next Thing on My List has been optioned for film by New Line Cinema.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jill Smolinski realized her dream of writing fiction in 2002 when she published her debut novel, Flip-Flopped. The work centers on Keely Baker-Kekuhi, a scientist who leaves her Midwestern home to live in Hawaii, where she is assigned to study an extinct volcano. Keely's husband leaves her for a hula dancer and then demands custody of their young son. Keely's life takes an unexpected turn for the better when she meets Ian Gardiner, a British art dealer who is friendly with Davy Jones, the lead singer of The Monkees and Keely's childhood crush. "The best thing about Flip-Flopped is its offbeat sense of humor, which is fueled by Smolinski's creativity," observed Romance Reader critic Susan Scribner. Beth Warrell, writing in Booklist, praised the author's "honest and funny look at the loss of love and the process of grieving."

The Next Thing on My List: A Novel, Smolinski's second book, concerns June Parker, an aimless thirty-four-year-old who undergoes a life-changing experience after her young acquaintance, Marissa Jones, is killed in a car accident. June takes possession of Marissa's list of "20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday," which includes riding in a helicopter and kissing a stranger, and determines to finish the tasks in her friend's honor. "I think women in particular have a habit of putting things off for ‘later’—when the kids are grown, when we lose weight, when the house is in perfect order," Smolinski told Reader Views contributor Juanita Watson. "Unfortunately, this idyllic later doesn't always come—and in the meantime, we're left with a day-to-day life that feels hollow, and we can't figure out why. June sets out to complete a list, and she doesn't have the luxury of procrastinating because she's doing it on behalf of someone else. In the process, she learns the value of taking charge of her own dreams." Reader Views critic Cherie Fisher called The Next Thing on My List "a wonderfully written heartwarming story about a woman's self-discovery," and Library Journal reviewer Lisa Craig-Davis stated, "June's odyssey is funny, charming, and moving."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2002, Beth Warrell, review of Flip-Flopped, p. 1688.

Library Journal, April 15, 2007, Lisa Davis-Craig, review of The Next Thing on My List: A Novel, p. 76.

Publishers Weekly, January 1, 2007, review of The Next Thing on My List, p. 30.

ONLINE

Jill Smolinski Home Page,http://www.jillsmolinski.com (August 15, 2007).

My Life List,http://todayslifelist.blogspot.com (August 15, 2007), author's Web log.

MySpace.com,http://www.myspace.com (August 15, 2007), "Jill Smolinski."

Reader Views,http://www.readerviews.com/ (March, 2007), Cherie Fisher, review of The Next Thing on My List; (August 15, 2007), Juanita Watson, "Interview with Jill Smolinski."

Romance Reader,http://www.theromancereader.com/ (August 15, 2007), Susan Scribner, review of Flip-Flopped.

Trashionista,http://www.trashionista.com/ (July 5, 2007), Diane Shipley, "Author Interview: Jill Smolinski."