Bodies found underneath Central Bucks West's football field, zombies killing people with lacrosse sticks.
That is what you get when a writer of erotic, supernatural, psychological thrillers is also a former sports standout from Doylestown.
Kelly Cuthbert Jameson comes from a family a family of standout athletes who played CB West.
Her brother Randy Cuthbert was a star running back who went on to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers and is currently the football coach at Pennridge. Her sister Alison Cuthbert was a standout in field hockey and lacrosse and went on to play at LafayetteCollege and made their hall of fame.
Kelly played lacrosse and field hockey for the Bucks and went on to play lacrosse at BloomsburgUniversity, getting inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2007, but now she wields a pen rather than a stick.
Jameson recently released her second novel 'Shards of Summer', called by bestselling British novelist Ken Bruen "The Great Gatsby for the beach generation"
Jameson wrote her first novel, Dead On (where a body is found under War Memorial Field and a medical examiner is chased through time by the killer) under the pseudenym Ann Kelly. It was optioned by Eagle Circle Films for a movie and sold over 2,000 hardcover copies. She is currently working on a novel for Plexus Publishing about zombies in the New Jersey Pine Barrens she is expecting to finish by July.
She also works full-time in the editorial department for Merck and has a husband of 17 years, Jerry Jameson, and a nine-year-old son Nolan who is a regular at Pennridge football camps.
"I'm always busy, but in a good way," said Jameson, a 1985 CB West graduate. "I'd love to write full-time someday but in this day and age it's very tough."
Jameson remembers how hard it was growing up in the shadow of Randy and Alison.
"I come from a super athletic family and I am very proud of my siblings," she said. "I peaked late. No one said anything to me, but I would overhear little things, like 'She's no Alison' and I like to prove people wrong - even in my book writing."
On the surface, Jameson seems like the All-America wife and mother, yet, she likes to write erotic thrillers that delve into people’s minds - with a bit of the supernatural thrown in. When she showed the family 'Dead On', they were a bit surprised at its graphicness.
"My mother would just tell her friends 'It's a little dicey'," said Jameson. "Your subconscious comes up with things you even didn't expect. Writing is kind of my way of making sense of the world.
"Growing up, I was shy, except when I was on the field, I was a different person then. Maybe I like writing because it’s like playing sports for me. It's my chance to be brave."
Cuthbert has strayed far from her original idea to be a sportswriter. She got a temporary job writing at a pharmaceutical company and has stayed in that business since.
"I found I'd rather write on my own than interview people, so it's worked out," she said. "There are so many things I want to write about."
Besides her novels, Jameson has also written numerous short stories. She had a novella about zombies in post-Katrina New Orleans that finished in the top 14 of an international writing competition. Plexus took notice and commissioned her to write a novel for them.
However, being a writer just starting out is not easy.
Eagle Circle let its two-year option drop for Dead On and Jameson had an agent for eight months until they dropped all but the biggest clients.
"To be an author who had their book optioned for a movie is still a great thing to have on the resume'," said Jameson. "It kind of validates you as an author.
"Erotic, psychological thrillers are not the easiest things to explain to publishers."
Besides her zombie novel, Jameson is setting up a book tour for Shards of Summer. She will be doing a book signing on March 20 at the Doylestown Book Store from 2-4 p.m.
All of her teammates, even her opponents, from her days at CB West are welcome to come.
"Actually, I think it would be pretty neat to have someone come to a signing I played against," she said. "Hasn't happened yet but be interesting someone I decked came to buy my book."
For more information on Kelly Cuthbert Jameson, go to kellyjameson.blogspot.com
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