Biographies: Jennifer Blake/Patricia Ponder Maxwell, 1992, Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: May 13, 1992 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Born In Winn, Known Worldwide "If you're standing still, you're losing ground" by Sherri Taylor Enterprise Feature Editor If you buy the book "Love and Smoke" by Jennifer Blake, one of the top rated authors in the United States, and read the note about the author of 36 novels as being born near Goldonna, Louisiana, they mean Ward Ten, Brewton's Mill. Born Patricia Ponder, she is the daughter of Daisy Durbin Ponder and granddaughter of Viola Blake Durbin who was the midwife attending Patricia's birth. Part of her pen name, Jennifer Blake, was taken from her grandmother's maiden name. Jennifer was born in the 120 year old home of her grandparents there in Ward Ten. In 1961, she married Jerry Maxwell of Jonesboro and they have four children. Jennifer, as she prefers to be referred to, looks like on of the heroines in her own novels. Slender, with soft southern eyes and shoulder length hair, she would look picture perfect on the porch of a huge plantation wearing one of Scarlett O'Hara's dresses. It was a natural for this Winn Parish girl to start her career with a novel based on the lovely old Prothro mansion in St. Maurice, Secret of Mirror House, published in 1970. "When I was a child, I read in the afternoons, in the evenings, and through the long summers," Jennifer told the Enterprise. She noted that television didn't take up her time, they didn't have one. Living on a eighty acre farm near Quitman, there was little else to occupy a young girl and she came to thoroughly love reading. Her mother was also a reader and exchanged books with neighbors and friends and Jennifer read everything she could obtain, including Mickey Spillane and westerns. After her marriage she carried on reading for relaxation. "When I read it, it made me feel good," she explained. "But after your read a certain amount, you become critical of authors." Finally she found herself writing new endings to some of those books in her head. She noticed places in the books where the author missed an opportunity to make the story stronger, more appealing. Her first short story came as the result of a dream, "in living color" she said with the lovely smile that characterizes the famous author. In a historical contest, she wrote it up and sent it off to the Saturday Evening Post. She was living in Winnfield at the time at 525 North King Street. "It came right back, of course." But Jennifer was launched onto her career of writing. She soon published a poem, she got a dollar for it, and a short- story. Based on that she became a member of the National League of American Pen-Writers and did the research for a series on Louisiana Landmarks, including the mansions mentioned that were later published as vignettes. That was the catalyst for beginning to write novels based on Louisiana with its gorgeous landscapes and unusual people, its hanging moss and decaying mansions instead of basing them in England or the Northeastern U. S. The result was a second novel based on the Smith House in Mt. Lebanon just south of Gibsland, The Stranger at Plantation House. Two years ago, she had more than 15,000,000 books in print. That's not how many have been sold, she doesn't have that figure. Her books are consistently on the Publisher's Weekly list. Several have even sold more than a million copies. Today her books are available in the French, Spanish, Italian, German, Norwegian, Danish, Hungarian, Chinese and Japanese languages. Not bad for a girl born in the backwood rolling hills of Ward Ten. Jennifer has written mysteries, gothic romance, historical romance, and is now being published in hardback, as well. She is moving forward, making progress from the backwater of a country town. "I feel like if you're standing still, you're losing ground," Jennifer told us. No one can deny Jennifer Blake, or Patrician Maxwell as we know her, is losing any ground at all. She becomes more popular with every passing day or written word.