Erica Kennedy | Author of 'Bling,' 42

Erica Kennedy, 42, a music writer turned novelist who came to wide attention in 2004 with the publication of her first novel,

Bling,

a satirical roman a clef about the world of hip-hop, was found dead last week at her home in Miami Beach.

Her family confirmed the death to the Associated Press but provided neither the cause nor the precise date Ms. Kennedy died.

Bling tells the story of a young, innocent mixed-race woman trying to break into the music business. A gifted singer, she is remade in flashy style by a rapacious record mogul. Ms. Kennedy was reported to have received an advance of half a million dollars for the novel.

"Everybody kept talking about how scandalous that book was," she told the New York Times in 2004. "I really didn't see the big deal. I knew I could write a story about a P. Diddy party and show these people what scandal is really all about."

Her second novel, 2009's Feminista, a reworking of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, did not get the immense attention of Bling.

By all accounts, the flash Ms. Kennedy portrayed in her fiction had little place in her own life. "My hope is that the next black author gets six figures for this kind of book," she told The Inquirer in 2004. "I just want to be home in sweats and glasses, writing."

- N.Y. Times News Service