Media Kit
Author: Jennifer J. Coldwater
Contact: jen@jenniferjcoldwater.com
Website: https://www.jenniferjcoldwater.com/
Agent: Seeking representation
Photo by Lisa Christianson at Castle Rock Headshots
Photo by Lisa Christianson at Castle Rock Headshots
Author Biographies
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Jennifer J. Coldwater’s stories feature diverse characters who (like Jen) believe love wins. She identifies as queer and has an invisible disability, so perhaps that why her characters love the way they do.
Beyond writing contemporary romance novels, Jen works to create a safe space welcoming and respectful of everyone, including transwomen, those who are nonbinary, and gender non-conforming.
Always curious, always writing, Jen wanted to find work that fed her soul. The closest she could get to a career in Curiosity and Questioning was teaching English, journalism, and creative writing at a public high school in San Diego, California in the late ‘90s.
Jen lives her life as an ally and an advocate for the Jewish people. A small sliver of that is embodied in her collection of contemporary romance novels based on the women of the Hebrew Bible.
To learn more about Jen, visit jenniferjcoldwater.com.
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Raised in a United Methodist household, Jennifer J. Coldwater was asking questions about God and religion as early as first grade when she received a red-letter Bible from a pastor. Jen was fascinated by (confused by, worried about, asking her parents why) the red ink denoting the words of Jesus.
As she grew older, that search for knowledge led Jen to wonder about translation: how and why are there so many different versions of the Christian Bible? In her early 20s, Jen bought a Jewish Publication Society Tanakh because she was obsessed with how much research went into that translation of Hebrew and Aramaic into English.
Because it was the closest thing she could find to a career in questioning, Jen started teaching English, journalism, and creative writing at a public high school in San Diego, California in the late ‘90s. She continued to read about Judaism (Yitzchok Kirchner’s "The Art of Jewish Prayer", "To Life: A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking" by Harold S. Kushner, a revisiting of the Chaim Potok novels she read in college) while she developed her career and taught her students.
One sad summer in the early aughts, Jen lost her father to pancreatic cancer, divorced her husband, moved to Los Angeles, and started a new teaching job at a large private high school. One of Jen’s first acts as an Angeleno was to reach out to the American Jewish University in search of a conversion course. In the absence of her beloved father, and seeking comfort after all that loss and change, Jen felt it was time to follow her heart to Judaism.
As she was wrapping up her conversion coursework and fulfilling the personal commitment requirements of the process, Jen was granted a teacher-exchange trip to Israel with her dear friend and rabbi. Jen asked her rabbi if she thought Jen should “finish converting quickly before our trip”—the rabbi was wise enough to laugh at her and advise she not rush into anything. Jen traveled to Israel full of questions, and at Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, she found so many answers.
Yad Vashem is designed to change lives. No one can witness the atrocities suffered by six million Jews and not be moved. As a teen, Jen toured Dachau on a class trip. She taught "Night" by Elie Wiesel to her English classes. She took a teacher seminar at Holocaust Museum LA. Jen thought she was prepared to visit The World Holocaust Remembrance Center. She was not.
Among the many things Jen learned at Yad Vashem was the term “righteous gentile”. As the tour guide told stories of the Righteous Among the Nations, Jen listened intently with tears streaming down her face. While she obviously is not Righteous, Jen lives her life as an ally and an advocate for the Jewish people.
A small sliver of that allyship and advocacy is embodied in this collection of contemporary romance novels.
Social Media Links
When Ivy Met Adam
A second chance, forced proximity, sexy, queer love-triangle romance
Ivy Gardiner wants to find true love like she had with her college girlfriend—devastating, rare, complete—but without risking her heart again.
Adam Lopez watched Ivy go through all of that, but was in no place to be the man she needed back then—or any time in the decade since.
When the two match on a dating app, Adam knows it’s fate and Ivy thinks it’s ... possible. Just when she begins to open her heart to someone new, Ivy learns of their shared history. Adam’s devotion to her—and deception of her—break her heart all over again. She has to learn to forgive him. He has to learn that her forgiveness must be earned.
Based on the biblical story of Eve, "When Ivy Met Adam" is a heartwarming contemporary romance that explores love, heartbreak, and second chances. Told from a dual POV, this queer love story features a compelling love triangle, forced proximity, and plenty of steamy scenes. If you're a fan of LGBT+ romance or just looking for a page-turner to keep you entertained, you will love "When Ivy Met Adam".
Downloadable images of audiobook, eBook, and paperback covers
Holland, My Heart
A sexy, love-after-loss, age gap, billionaire workplace romance
You know that stress inventory you can take? You get one point each for a long list of disastrous life events? Let’s just say I have lost count. In the last year alone I’ve lost my husband (and his brother), sold our home, moved across the country, quietly quit my job, watched my closest friend-slash-sister-in-law move out of the country, and… well, I guess that’s it. Could be worse, right? So, here I am. My name is Holland Gallagher and I'm a twenty-seven-year-old MBA with no job and a broken heart.
Which, of course, is when my best friend-slash-mother-in-law Naomi introduces me to her oldest and dearest friend, Kai Ipu. He’s the empirically attractive Black-slash-Samoan CEO of a corporate consulting firm (think a started-in-his-dorm-room company with an eye to making corporations better citizens of the world). But I’m a mess and he’s significantly older than I am. So, I don’t have to worry about that, right? You’d think. He just invited me to join his company. I’m never one to turn down a challenge… so, here goes everything.
Loosely based on the Bible book of Ruth (but with f-bombs from Kai, Holland’s drunken confessions of adoration, and one spicy sex scene), Holland, My Heart is the first in a collection of biblical women’s stories retold as contemporary romance. Holland, My Heart is an MF, dual POV, love-after-loss, sexy, witty standalone romance.
Downloadable images of audiobook, eBook, and paperback covers
The Badass Babes of the Bible Collection
Released in May 2023, When Ivy Met Adam is Jennifer J. Coldwater’s second novel in the Badass Babes of the Bible Collection. It’s a second chance, forced proximity, sexy, queer romance with a twisty love triangle between a bi+ female main character, her college girlfriend, and the new man in her life.
Loosely based on the Bible book of Ruth (but with f-bombs, drunken confessions of adoration, and a spicy sex scene), Holland, My Heart was the first in this collection of biblical women’s stories retold as contemporary romances. Coldwater is currently writing a novel based on 1 Samuel 1-2 called Hannah’s Song. Next up she will tackle Deborah (both a prophet and a judge from the book of Judges) and the five daughters of Zelophehad (who raised the case in the book of Numbers of a woman’s right to inherit property).
A note about potential sacrilege and offending anyone who may find these books irreverent: The opposite is true. “I'm engaging with these stories because I hold them so dear,” Coldwater said. “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 reverence after.”
Author Q&A
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When the world shut down in March 2020, I was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a plethora of rescue dogs. (In case you’re wondering, a plethora is two dogs more than a pack. This is not science, but it is a fact just the same.) In the absence of anyone but my roommate and our canines, I started writing a novel based on one of my favorite stories: the book of Ruth.
For as long as I can remember, the story of Ruth and Naomi has resonated with me.
וַתֹּ֤אמֶר רוּת֙ אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִ֔י לְעׇזְבֵ֖ךְ לָשׁ֣וּב מֵאַחֲרָ֑יִךְ כִּ֠י אֶל־אֲשֶׁ֨ר תֵּלְכִ֜י אֵלֵ֗ךְ וּבַאֲשֶׁ֤ר תָּלִ֙ינִי֙ אָלִ֔ין עַמֵּ֣ךְ עַמִּ֔י וֵאלֹהַ֖יִךְ אֱלֹהָֽי׃
But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
בַּאֲשֶׁ֤ר תָּמ֙וּתִי֙ אָמ֔וּת וְשָׁ֖ם אֶקָּבֵ֑ר כֹּה֩ יַעֲשֶׂ֨ה יְהֹוָ֥ה לִי֙ וְכֹ֣ה יוֹסִ֔יף כִּ֣י הַמָּ֔וֶת יַפְרִ֖יד בֵּינִ֥י וּבֵינֵֽךְ׃
Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may the LORD do to me if anything but death parts me from you.”
Something about Ruth’s unremitting devotion to her mother-in-law grabbed my heart and would not let go. I think my own mother is the reason I am so connected to this story. As a military brat raised by a military brat, I can say with certainty wherever my mom goes, I will go. And yet, she also taught me that anywhere I am, she is with me. When you regularly have to pick up everything to move thousands of miles away, you learn to keep the important people in your heart.
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When I set out to query agents and publishers, I had very little to show for myself. I saw self-publishing as an opportunity to build a following. I’ve loved the process; it appeals to my personality. I’ve loved figuring out all the steps, leaving myself breadcrumbs for the rest of my books.
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Not one word of this book would have made it to the page if it weren’t for A.J. Hackwith’s “The Library of the Unwritten”. I’ve read horror novels that were less terrifying than her vision of what can happen when we don’t write what is in our hearts. I shudder to think of where I’d be if I hadn’t happened upon her novel.
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In the 20 months I worked on “Holland, My Heart”, I had a ton of help from my friends, family, and new friends I met along the way. The journey of this retelling of Ruth’s story as a contemporary romance has been a joyous ride for me. Some of my favorite women have helped me shape this novel. My bookseller buddy Emma Wdowik told me we needed to see Kai right away (so we could know if he’s good enough for Holland).
My friend and business coach Janae Broadway taught me that men abhor being grilled on a date—a lesson I have yet to learn in real life.
My cousin Lisa Blazer had some shaping suggestions (I mean, some Real Talk—I’m so grateful she gave me the good stuff) that are now tightly knit into the finished product.
When I thought I was finished, my writer friends Arlys Avery, S.F. Henne, Dan del Villano, and N.M. Garrison helped me realize I was nowhere near done. So I went to Sarah Gribble and Joe Bunting for coaching. I could not, would not have finished this without their thoughtful and thorough advice.
I designed my own cover and then asked my graphic designer friend David Burney to help me polish it.