Author LJ Smith, whose best-selling Vampire Diaries novels were turned into a hit TV show, has died at the age of 66. Lisa Jane Smith published the original four-book series, about a love triangle involving two vampire brothers and an orphaned young woman,

LJ Smith, the author whose bestselling Vampire Diaries novels were adapted into a hit TV show, has died aged 66. The New York Times reports that the bestselling author died on March 8 in Walnut Creek, Calif, after suffering effects of a rare autoimmune disease for a decade.

Author L.J. Smith, who created the 'Vampire Diaries' otherwordly book series that inspired the CW drama of the same name, died this month. She was 66.