Janet Henderson’s Bio
Janet M. Henderson, an adjunct English professor with the City Colleges of Chicago, writes romantic suspense novels set in Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Hawaii, and other locales. She earned a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Newburgh Theological Seminary in 2007, an M.A. in English Composition/Writing from Northeastern Illinois University in 2002 and an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction (Education) from Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois, in 1996. She earned a B.A. in Psychology, with honors, from Chicago State University in 1979. After teaching in the south suburbs, she joined the Chicago Public Schools in 1993 and the City Colleges of Chicago in 2002. She has also taught at East-West University and Chicago State University.
Born in Chicago, and the daughter of a U.S. Marine, Janet has lived in Virginia, North Carolina, California, Hawaii, Alabama, Georgia and Washington, D.C. She took voice and piano lessons at eight and attended Calumet High School with singer Chaka Khan; comedienne Marsha Warfield of Night Court; April Sinclair, author of Coffee Will Make You Black; and singer/actor Merrill Jackson of the Godspell. All students sang under choir director Alice Maguire, whom Janet says was a great motivator.
A tomboy who once played on an all-male baseball team, Janet joined the U.S. Army after high school with the highest entrance exam test score of any female applicant and was the only Black and female to graduate in the top five of her Advanced Individual Training (AIT) program. Having grown up on military bases, she adapted well to army routines and recalls it as one of the happiest times of her life. She married Andre Mendez Henderson of the U.S. Navy near the end of her enlistment, and two daughters (Tertia and Tracey) were born of the eight-year union.
Her first novel, Lunch With Cassie (2005), about a doctor’s wife and preacher’s daughter-in-law who slips into an affair with a billionaire when her marriage hits the skids, received excellent reviews from Writer’s Digest, BookReview.com and is available at www.janetmhenderson.net, Barnes and Noble.com, Amazon.com and other sites. Her second novel The Assassin Who Loved Her, about a hardworking journalist who falls in love with three different men while coping with the unwanted attentions of a serial killer she once wrote about, will be released in the summer of 2008. Her third novel Jackie and the Preacher, about a former lady-of-the-night who tries to hide a million secrets when she falls for a man of God, will be released some time next year.
As an educator, Janet tries to prepare her mostly freshmen and sophomore students to write in Standard American English, the type required by employers and universities. All students are required to keep a journal and to do outside reading. Janet also studies Greek and Latin, lives in Chicago, and is working on other books and projects. Reach her at janet@janethenderson.net or visit her blog at www.janethenderson.blogstream.com |
