Jessica Blair, female romance author, revealed as 89-year-old grandpa
The bestselling novel “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
Jessica Blair has written 22 romance novels, with the latest, "Silence of the Snow," due out this week.
There's just one small thing you should know: Jessica is a he. Bill Spence, an 89-year-old World War II veteran, to be specific.
Spence, a grandfather of four from North Yorkshire, said he was told by publishers that his romance stories would sell better if he wrote them as a woman, the Daily Mail reported.
He'd previously published 36 Westerns — what can we say, the man/woman was prolific.
"You do not say no to publishers," Spence said. "I was just very glad I had found someone who wanted to print my books, and it didn't bother me at all that I'd been given a female name."
His wife, Joan, thought it was funny, and went along with it.
Spence — or should we say, Blair — is hardly the only man to ever write as a woman. Most recently, in January 2012, Russian detective series author Boris Akunin admitted to having penned several novels under the pseudonym Anna Borisova, BBC News reported.
He even had altered photos done to make him look like "Anna" — by digitally mixing his photo with his wife Erika's.
Gotta love a supportive spouse, right guys?
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