Jessica Brody

This article is about the author. For the character in the television series Homeland, see Jessica Brody (character).

Jessica Brody is an American author and writing educator. Her writing consists mainly of young adult fiction.

Jessica Brody
Brody interviewed by Librairie Mollat in 2015
Alma mater	Smith College
Years active	2005–present
Website
jessicabrody.com

Early life

Brody graduated from Smith College in 2001 with a double major in Economics and French and worked for MGM Studios as a financial analyst until 2005, when she began to develop her career as a full-time author.^[1][2] She credits Bridget Jones's Diary with reigniting her childhood passion for writing: "I was so inspired and awed by the fact that a book could take me away from my life like that." Brody sold her first novel a year and a half after quitting MGM.^[3]

Books

While most of Brody's books are for teens, her first two published novels, The Fidelity Files and Love Under Cover, were women's fiction for adults.^[4][5][6] The first novel she wrote after leaving MGM was never published; after three years of submitting the completed manuscript to different agents, Brody started a new novel during the shopping period. She was signed by an agent for her second novel, five years after starting her career as an author. The agent sold that novel in ten days.^[2]

Brody published her first young adult novel, The Karma Club, in April 2010.^[3] She is known for her Unremembered and Disney Descendants: School of Secrets series of young adult fiction novels. The genesis of the Unremembered trilogy started with a news article about a teenage girl who was the sole survivor of a plane crash, which inspired Brody to speculate reasons why she was the only survivor.^[7]

Brody sold the publishing rights for her first middle-grade novel, Addie Montgomery's Shortcut to Growing Up, to Delacorte Press in 2015.^[8] The novel was eventually retitled Addie Bell's Shortcut to Growing Up when it was published in 2017.

Brody and fellow author Joanne Rendell developed the System Divine series, the first book of which, Sky Without Stars, was published in March 2019.^[9] The publishing rights for the series were sold to Simon & Schuster in a six-figure deal in 2017.^[10]

Jennifer Hunter

1. The Fidelity Files. St. Martin's Press. June 10, 2008. ISBN 9781429926034. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
2. Love Under Cover. St. Martin's Press. November 10, 2009. ISBN 9781429983648. Retrieved 6 September 2018.

The Unremembered trilogy

1. Unremembered. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. March 5, 2013. ISBN 9780374379919. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
2. Unforgotten. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. February 25, 2014. ISBN 9780374379902. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
3. Unchanged. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. February 24, 2015. ISBN 9780374379896. Retrieved 6 September 2018.

Short works in the Unremembered universe

• The Memory Coder. Tor/Forge. February 26, 2013. ISBN 9781466838994. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• The Intelligence Director. Tor/Forge. January 14, 2014. ISBN 9781466861640. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• Undiscovered: An Unremembered Novella. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. February 14, 2014. ISBN 9780374301255. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• Unleashed: An Unremembered Novella. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. January 13, 2015. ISBN 9780374379797. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• The Human Engineer. Tor/Forge. February 4, 2015. ISBN 9781466886216. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• "Unstolen" in Burniac, Lauren, ed. (2015). Fierce Reads: Kisses and Curses. Square Fish. ISBN 9781250060532. Retrieved 6 September 2018.

Disney Descendants: School of Secrets series

1. . Disney Book Group. August 30, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4847-7864-7. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
2. Freddie's Shadow Cards. Disney Book Group. October 25, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4847-7865-4. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
3. Ally's Mad Mystery. Disney Book Group. February 28, 2017. ISBN 978-1-4847-7866-1. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
4. Lonnie's Warrior Sword. Disney Book Group. August 15, 2017. ISBN 978-1-4847-7867-8. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
5. Carlos's Scavenger Hunt. Disney Book Group. November 14, 2017. ISBN 978-1-3680-1398-7. Retrieved 6 September 2018.

System Divine trilogy (with Joanne Rendell)

1. Sky Without Stars. Simon & Schuster. March 2019. ISBN 9781534410633.
2. Between Burning Worlds. Simon & Schuster. April 2021. ISBN 9781534410671.
3. Suns Will Rise. Simon & Schuster. August 2022. ISBN 9781534474444.

Standalone fiction

• The Karma Club. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. April 27, 2010. ISBN 9781429946391. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• My Life Undecided. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. June 7, 2011. ISBN 9781429940993. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• 52 Reasons to Hate My Father. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. July 3, 2012. ISBN 9781429955232. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• Boys of Summer. Simon & Schuster. April 2016. ISBN 9781481463485. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• A Week of Mondays. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. August 2, 2016. ISBN 9780374382704. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• Addie Bell's Shortcut to Growing Up. Penguin Random House. February 14, 2017. ISBN 978-0-399-55510-7. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• In Some Other Life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. August 8, 2017. ISBN 9780374380762. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• The Chaos of Standing Still. Simon & Schuster. November 2017. ISBN 978-1481499187. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• The Geography of Lost Things. Simon & Schuster. October 2018. ISBN 9781481499217. Retrieved 5 October 2018.

Nonfiction

• "End of the World" in Hall, Megan Kelley; Jones, Carrie, eds. (September 6, 2011). Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062060983. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
• The Complete Guide to Getting Published: An author-to-author guide to selling your novel to a major publisher. Jessica Brody Entertainment LLC. October 5, 2016.
• Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You'll Ever Need (based on the books by Blake Snyder). Penguin Random House. October 9, 2018. ISBN 9780399579752.

Film adaptations

Film rights to Brody's book Unremembered have been acquired by Reliance Entertainment and Kintop Pictures.^[11] The Fidelity Files and 52 Reasons to Hate My Father have also been optioned for films.^[12] 52 Reasons is also being developed by Reliance and Kintop;^[13] and a screenplay has been written by Karen McCullah.^[14]

Writing Instruction

Brody offers writing instruction and advice on a variety of platforms, including YouTube and Udemy. She founded Writing Mastery Academy, an online, subscription-based writing instruction platform offering video classes, webinars, and a community site.

References

1. Brody, Jessica. "Bio". Jessica Brody. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
2. Jessica Brody (23 November 2015). "Interview with Author, Jessica Brody!". LockerStyler.com (Interview). Interviewed by Sarah Hamilton. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
3. Jessica Brody (10 November 2009). "Interview with Author Jessica Brody – Contest, too!". CarolynJewel.com (Interview). Interviewed by Carolyn Jewel. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
4. Spielberg, Lauren. "The Fidelity Files". RT Book Reviews. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
5. Snyder, Diane. . RT Book Reviews. Archived from the original on 15 January 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
6. "Love Under Cover". Publishers Weekly. 7 September 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
7. Jessica Brody (25 February 2015). "Author Interview with Jessica Brody and Alexandra Monir + Giveaway!" (Interview). Books Inc. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
8. "Rights Report: Week of September 7, 2015". Publishers Weekly. September 7, 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
9. SKY WITHOUT STARS | Kirkus Reviews.
10. "Rights Report: Week of March 6, 2017". Publishers Weekly. March 7, 2017. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
11. Ford, Rebecca (March 24, 2014). "YA Sci-Fi Book 'Unremembered' Acquired by 'Vampire Academy' Producers (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
12. Lamb, Joyce (March 6, 2013). "Interview: Jessica Brody, author of 'Unremembered'". USA Today. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
13. Bhushan, Nyay (2 March 2015). "YA Book '52 Reasons to Hate My Father' Acquired by 'Vampire Academy' Producers (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
14. Brody, Jessica (February 2018). "Movie Update! Guess Who Wrote the Screenplay for 52 Reasons to Hate My Father!". Jessica Brody [author's blog]. Retrieved 6 September 2018.

•  Children and Young Adult Literature portal