Hi! I’m Jennifer J. Coldwater. Thanks for stopping by.

Welcome to my safe space. 🏳️‍🌈

My stories feature diverse characters who (like me) believe love wins. I identify as queer and I have an invisible disability, so perhaps that why my characters love the way they do. 🌈

This blog and all my work comprise a space welcoming and respectful of everyone, including transwomen, those who are nonbinary, and gender non-conforming. I see you. 🤩

I teach journalism and creative nonfiction, so this journey writing contemporary romance has been a joy I hope you can feel in my first novel. Loosely based on the Bible book of Ruth (but with f-bombs, drunken confessions of adoration, and a slow burn to steamy sex scene), Holland, My Heart is the first in a collection of biblical women’s stories retold.

Out now is my second chance, forced proximity, sexy, LGBT+ love-triangle romance called When Ivy Met Adam based on Eve. Yes, that Eve. The first woman. In Genesis.

Next up, I’ll finish Hannah’s Song based on 1 Samuel 2 with an eye toward Deborah (both a prophet and a judge), and the five daughters of Zelophehad (who raised the case in Numbers of a woman’s right to inherit property).

A note about the potential sacrilege of my novels and offending anyone who may find me irreverent: The opposite is true. I'm engaging with these stories because I hold them so dear. Years ago, I was visiting a friend’s synagogue and a young rabbi there draped herself across the Torah like it was her own personal copy. I was shocked and dismayed at first—but I came to see it as her love and affection for God and the words and the people in the scroll and in the room. It is that rabbi I shape my (ir)reverence after.

When I moved to Los Angeles in the early aughts, my commute drove me batty until I discovered audiobooks. Now I’m such an avid listener that I consume audiobooks while doing housework, walking my rescue dogs, eating homecooked Italian meals, writing this bio.

A.J. Hackwith’s The Library of the Unwritten inspired me to create this website and complete my first novel. My other favorites include Lev Grossman’s The Magicians trilogy, all of Penny Reid’s series, audiobooks narrated by human voices, and anything my friends recommend.

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