The design of lover's eyes created for M.J. Rose’s novel Forgetting to Remember by Michael Robinson of David Michael, M.J. Rose and a picture she took of her grandmother’s ring that illustrated her story about the woman and the jewel on The Adventurine.
Profiles
In Memoriam: M. J. Rose
The prolific and pioneering novelist who loved jewelry
December 14, 2024—M.J. Rose is the reason why I publish books under The Adventurine Limited Editions imprint. A novelist who almost always wove jewels into her narrative, she was a legend in the publishing world. But she didn’t tell me about this part of her background until years after we met in 2018. And I only found out about it through a magical turn of events.
M.J. discovered that Augusten Burroughs, the author of Running With Scissors, was moonlighting as a jewelry dealer on 1stdibs, because her husband, composer Doug Scofield, bought her a piece from his Blue Paisley Fox shop. When M.J. wrote about the brush with the famous author on The Adventurine, she included an email Augusten sent Doug after he told her who he was shopping for:
Hi Doug,
Bury the lead, why don’t cha! I know exactly who your wife is. As does basically every author on the planet. She took her machete and carved out the path for self-publishing and ebooks WAY before they were a thing. I know exactly the ring you’re looking for because I think I still have it. I just have to locate it and then I can send you pictures.
Yours,
Augusten
When I asked M.J. about her experience in publishing, I don’t recall her saying that she was the first to ever produce an e-book which was actually made in PDF format “as an experiment” as her friend and co-author Steve Berry recounted in his tribute on Facebook. M.J. always lived in the moment, and in that moment she and her business partners Liz Berry and Jillian Stein were having great success with a book series they published. M.J. made everything seem possible and fun, so I thought I would be a publisher too and she showed me the way.
M.J. is the kind of friend who made sure we stayed in touch on a regular basis. When she came into the city from her home in Greenwich, Connecticut for a day of meetings, we would get together at The Mark on 77th Street during cocktail hour. I brought my little Pomeranian-Chihuahua, Hunter, to the dog friendly location which M.J. loved. She was a dog person and doted on her beloved Fuzzle.
A few years ago, we switched our cocktail hour meetings, which never gave us enough time, to have what I called our “fancy lunch” at Le Bilboquet, where we would each have a glass of rosé with ice, share the sole, an order of fries and sauteed spinach, followed by the coconut sorbet for dessert. We ordered the same thing every time, but the conversation with M.J. was always unexpected.
My favorite M.J. stories, she recounted during lunch, were about her travels to Paris. She loved the City of Light and managed to make the excursions a regular part of her book research. In 2017, she stayed there for an extended period to study jewelry at L’Ecole as background for her book The Secret Language of Stones. She wrote about the jewelry school for The Adventurine on the occasion of L’Ecole’s 10th anniversary.
When M.J. was writing the novel The Jeweler of Stolen Dreams, which included facts about the life of Suzanne Belperron, she managed to get meetings in Paris with Olivier Baroin who has some of the designer’s archive.
Recently, she took a group of wildly successful romance novelists to Paris and told me about the delightful antics shopping at Dior, Chanel and Van Cleef & Arpels where they absolutely Hoovered up the inventory.
M.J. joined in the festivities a bit, but she admired independent jewelry design above all. During a break from the group, she not only managed to get into the legendary jewelry boutique JAR, but somehow charmed the notoriously difficult designer Joel Arthur Rosenthal, who famously turns some would-be clients away. M.J. told him she didn’t have a big budget, but it was her dream to have one of his jewels. He agreed to the commission and the design was in the works. She planned to travel to Paris in the Spring to pick it up.
Last week, M.J. and I returned to the luxurious, dog-friendly Mark Hotel so she could meet my new puppy, Jasper Bear. It was a joyous occasion. The two of them played on the couch. We talked about the extraordinary Belperron collection at Christie’s and ideas for projects on the horizon. We agreed that we needed to brainstorm more, and soon, as we were both in between big projects.
She was so supportive and enthusiastic about my new book under The Adventurine Limited Editions imprint, The History of Diamond Engagement Rings: A True Romance. She told me she was going to Florida to visit her 100+ year-old father and would be back to celebrate the book at the launch party next week.
M.J. Rose died suddenly and unexpectedly in the Sunshine State on December 10. No further details about the circumstances have been released.
What is clear from the memories of the publishing world online is that M.J. had a trailblazing career and made an impact as an author’s advocate for countless writers. I know my life was changed for the best by my friend M.J. Rose.
A Few of the 33 Stories M.J. Wrote on The Adventurine:
Augusten Burroughs Moonlights in Jewelry
Lust: My Grandmother’s Ruby Ring
CODA
When I was looking at obituaries online I found this clipping on M.J.’s Facebook. She posted it in memory of her mother. M.J. always had a way of making any bad situation a little better. The tone of the remarks, I feel, is the essence of what she would have said if I had told her that a dear friend of mine had died.
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