Bio
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says USA Today bestselling author Wendy Wax “writes with breezy wit and keen insight.” Her contemporary women’s fiction explores family, friendship and self-discovery and has been compared to that of Jennifer Weiner, Jane Green, and Mary Alice Monroe. Her books, A Week at the Lake, While We Were Watching Downton Abbey and her Ten Beach Road novels—Best Beach Ever, One Good Thing, Sunshine Beach, The House On Mermaid Point, Ocean Beach and Ten Beach Road—have been featured in national media such as USA Today, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Woman’s World.
Other works by Wendy Wax include Magnolia Wednesdays, The Accidental Bestseller, Hostile Makeover, Leave it to Cleavage, Single in Suburbia, 7 Days and 7 Nights and the Ten Beach Road novellas Christmas at the Beach and A Bella Flora Christmas. Many of her novels have been published internationally and as audiobooks.
A former broadcaster and the mother of two grown sons, Wendy lives in Atlanta where she’s traded in her picket fence and gardening gloves for hi-rise living and a desk with a view from the 37th floor.
More About Wendy
Ten Beach Road and While We Were Watching Downton Abbey novelist Wendy Wax is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary women’s fiction.
She turned to fiction after a career in broadcasting as a television writer, producer and on-camera talent. Her claim to fame during this time was serving as the voice of the Publix Teller machines and hosting a live radio show called Desperate and Dateless. (She was both.)
Her sixteen novels and two novellas explore friendship, loyalty, self-discovery and the seemingly insurmountable challenges life sometimes presents. Born in St. Petersburg, Florida, she grew up on St. Pete Beach within spitting distance of the Gulf of Mexico. Appropriately enough, Wendy attended Sunshine Elementary School where recess and art class sometimes took place on the beach, and the highlight of every school year was the annual fish broil. Not surprisingly, some of her favorite Florida beaches were destined to become settings for her best selling fiction.
It’s hard to be a type-A personality when you grow up in such a laid-back environment, but somehow Wendy managed. Convinced that you were expected to know how to read before you showed up for kindergarten, she convinced a neighbor friend to teach her. She’s been devouring the written word ever since. Books, one of Wendy’s greatest treasures and best forms of escape, have had a major impact on her life and on her decision to create stories about women, friendship, family, and triumph over adversity leavened with her trademark honesty and humor.
USA Today has praised her ‘plucky women who rise to the occasion.’ Booklist said, “Fans of Jane Green and Mary Alice Monroe will adore Wax’s lively characters, witty dialogue, and heartfelt prose” and acknowledged her ability to tackle serious subjects with a light touch—”Wax offers her trademark form of fiction, the beach read with substance.”
She has won numerous writing awards including the RT Career Achievement Award for Mainstream Fiction and was honored by the City of St. Pete Beach in 2011 when the City Commission declared May 12th (which happened to be her mother’s birthday) “Wendy Wax Day.”