Jennifer Brown
author of Hate List
The Official Stuff...
Author, columnist, All Around Good Guy... Jennifer Brown has been writing since... well, forever.
Two-time winner of the Erma Bombeck Global Humor Award (2005 & 2006), humor columnist for The Kansas City Star (winning the Missouri Writer's Guild 2008 Conference Award for Best Newspaper Column), and Saturday Featured Blogger for Mom2Mom KC, Jennifer has been out to prove since childhood that being a smart-ass can, indeed, be considered "making a living."
When not rolling her eyes and thinking up news ways to incorporate the words, "Ch-yeah," "Puh-lease," and "Hell-o!" into her writing, Jennifer is hard at work on her young adult fiction. Her debut novel, "Hate List," (Little, Brown) will be released September 2009.
Jennifer writes and lives in the Kansas City, Missouri area, with her three wonderful kids, adorable hubby, two cats, a boxer pup, and the best basset hound baby anyone could ever ask for.
Wanna know more official stuff? Check out this interview!
Jennifer is available for workshops and speaking engagements. Contact her to book her for your next event!
Two-time winner of the Erma Bombeck Global Humor Award (2005 & 2006), humor columnist for The Kansas City Star (winning the Missouri Writer's Guild 2008 Conference Award for Best Newspaper Column), and Saturday Featured Blogger for Mom2Mom KC, Jennifer has been out to prove since childhood that being a smart-ass can, indeed, be considered "making a living."When not rolling her eyes and thinking up news ways to incorporate the words, "Ch-yeah," "Puh-lease," and "Hell-o!" into her writing, Jennifer is hard at work on her young adult fiction. Her debut novel, "Hate List," (Little, Brown) will be released September 2009.
Jennifer writes and lives in the Kansas City, Missouri area, with her three wonderful kids, adorable hubby, two cats, a boxer pup, and the best basset hound baby anyone could ever ask for.
Wanna know more official stuff? Check out this interview!
Jennifer is available for workshops and speaking engagements. Contact her to book her for your next event!
The Unofficial Stuff...
Where I'm From and Where I've Been: 
I grew up mostly in a Kansas City-area suburb called Lee's Summit, and though I also spent some time growing up on the east coast (New Jersey), I consider myself a rural Midwest girl through and through. Yeah, it sounds all Clampett, but I'm great with that (in fact, I remember being very excited once when Granny Clampett mentioned Lee's Summit in an episode of Beverly Hillbillies).
My parents were big on adventure, though, both indoors and out, and a lot of my time was spent dodging snakes and tomato-worms on a farm and taking looong sibling-battling road trips to the mountains and the beaches and the, uh... Corn Palace. To this day, I'm inspired by places and adventures and am a sucker for a road trip.
The Dreamer and The Dream:
I've pretty much always been a dreamer, making up elaborate stories for my dolls
and Barbies, lining up my toys on the stairs and "teaching" them things. I had imaginary friends (which was good because we moved pretty often and I pretty regularly found myself with few real ones) and would tell them stories and hold "conversations" with them (it's great to hold a conversation with someone who exists only in your imagination because you get to tell them what to say and they're almost always very flattering of you!!!).
I never wanted to be a writer (I was going to be a teacher), even though I was always writing. My first story was a short story, written in 4th grade. It was two pages long, hand-written, and my characters had names like Donna Schlieigermeigssterkks. I showed it to my grandma, who loved it so much she called my aunt on the phone and read it to her.
Even though Grandma was cracking up while reading it, I was hooked by the celebrity of it all. Since then, I've always written, even when I thought nobody would ever read any of it.
Writing didn't turn into a dream until about 10 years ago when my husband, Scott (the smartest person I've ever known), assured me people wouldn't laugh at me. Turns out, he was wrong. People laugh at my writing all the time. It's just... well... I'm a humor-writer... laughing is what I want them to do. It also turns out he was right. Sometimes I can write serious stuff, too.
The Path and The Plan:
As a dedicated Dreamer/Adventurer with a Grand Plan and a lion's share of independence, I left home and went out to Learn Life's Great Lessons just a couple months after I graduated high school. I transplanted myself into the inner city and slung pizzas for a living, soaking up the color of life all around me and meeting people I'd otherwise never have known. I moved and molded my lif
e often, eventually ending up working at a preschool, where I was deliciously childlike as a matter of job requirement, took night classes at William Jewell College and came away with a degree in Psychology. I landed a few Human Resources jobs stuffed into cubicles, waiting for slices of day where nobody was looking and I could pound out poems and short stories at my desk instead of actually working. It didn't take long to realize that Psychology wasn't my Grand Plan; writing was.
I grew up mostly in a Kansas City-area suburb called Lee's Summit, and though I also spent some time growing up on the east coast (New Jersey), I consider myself a rural Midwest girl through and through. Yeah, it sounds all Clampett, but I'm great with that (in fact, I remember being very excited once when Granny Clampett mentioned Lee's Summit in an episode of Beverly Hillbillies).
My parents were big on adventure, though, both indoors and out, and a lot of my time was spent dodging snakes and tomato-worms on a farm and taking looong sibling-battling road trips to the mountains and the beaches and the, uh... Corn Palace. To this day, I'm inspired by places and adventures and am a sucker for a road trip.The Dreamer and The Dream:
I've pretty much always been a dreamer, making up elaborate stories for my dolls
and Barbies, lining up my toys on the stairs and "teaching" them things. I had imaginary friends (which was good because we moved pretty often and I pretty regularly found myself with few real ones) and would tell them stories and hold "conversations" with them (it's great to hold a conversation with someone who exists only in your imagination because you get to tell them what to say and they're almost always very flattering of you!!!).I never wanted to be a writer (I was going to be a teacher), even though I was always writing. My first story was a short story, written in 4th grade. It was two pages long, hand-written, and my characters had names like Donna Schlieigermeigssterkks. I showed it to my grandma, who loved it so much she called my aunt on the phone and read it to her.
Even though Grandma was cracking up while reading it, I was hooked by the celebrity of it all. Since then, I've always written, even when I thought nobody would ever read any of it.Writing didn't turn into a dream until about 10 years ago when my husband, Scott (the smartest person I've ever known), assured me people wouldn't laugh at me. Turns out, he was wrong. People laugh at my writing all the time. It's just... well... I'm a humor-writer... laughing is what I want them to do. It also turns out he was right. Sometimes I can write serious stuff, too.
The Path and The Plan:
As a dedicated Dreamer/Adventurer with a Grand Plan and a lion's share of independence, I left home and went out to Learn Life's Great Lessons just a couple months after I graduated high school. I transplanted myself into the inner city and slung pizzas for a living, soaking up the color of life all around me and meeting people I'd otherwise never have known. I moved and molded my lif
e often, eventually ending up working at a preschool, where I was deliciously childlike as a matter of job requirement, took night classes at William Jewell College and came away with a degree in Psychology. I landed a few Human Resources jobs stuffed into cubicles, waiting for slices of day where nobody was looking and I could pound out poems and short stories at my desk instead of actually working. It didn't take long to realize that Psychology wasn't my Grand Plan; writing was. The Other Stuff...
I'm the youngest of three siblings. My wit definitely is inherited; there isn't a boring member in the family, and family gatherings are sometimes more like stepping onto the set of Live at the Improv.
I love music! At age 30, I taught myself how to play the piano because I wanted to learn the "Peanuts" theme song and John Lennon's "Imagine." I also love musicals and usually have one running through my head at all times. Usually, it's "Wicked" (see blog for explanation on Weird Kristin Chenoweth Obsession).
I am hardly a slave to fashion, and blame my mother for starting the bad taste early in life. I guess I should thank her. After all, when your mother dresses you in red plaid pants, do you have any choice but a career in humor?
I'm an extreme camera-phobe and have a habit of making faces at the camera every time it's near. A habit, apparently, started at birth.
I love music! At age 30, I taught myself how to play the piano because I wanted to learn the "Peanuts" theme song and John Lennon's "Imagine." I also love musicals and usually have one running through my head at all times. Usually, it's "Wicked" (see blog for explanation on Weird Kristin Chenoweth Obsession).
I am hardly a slave to fashion, and blame my mother for starting the bad taste early in life. I guess I should thank her. After all, when your mother dresses you in red plaid pants, do you have any choice but a career in humor?
I'm an extreme camera-phobe and have a habit of making faces at the camera every time it's near. A habit, apparently, started at birth.
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