My husband Jim Henke is a former cabdriver, bartender, sailor, judo instructor and English professor.

Since I began my career, I’ve appeared on the USA TODAY bestseller list, been a RITA Finalist twice, received a BookraK Bestseller Award, and won three Career Achievement Awards, an Industry Award and three Reviewers Choice Awards from Romantic Times. I’ve also written romantic suspense for Penguin Onyx and Silhouette Bombshell as Shirl Henke. In 2005 I switched over to the “dark side.” Tor published two political thrillers, CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY and HOMELAND SECURITY under the pseudonym Alexa Hunt. Now I can't imagine doing anything but writing for a living. I sold my first novel, a big historical romance titled GOLDEN LADY, to Warner Books in 1985. But there were just so many times I could explain what a verb was to a college senior before I realized that maybe writing a book might be easier. Okay, maybe I just didn’t have the courage. Since childhood I had story ideas in my head, but never the epiphany to write them. More recently I became hooked on thrillers. Since childhood I’ve been an avid reader, everything from Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi adventures to Frank Yerby’s historical romantic sagas. My last two years of teaching were in remedial English-just the nudge I needed to take this writing thing seriously. After that I taught gerontology, sociology, proposal writing for social service agencies and freshman composition at the same university. Unfortunately, when the history requirement was dropped for incoming students, so was my instructorship. I was offered the opportunity to use my history degrees, teaching in a large urban university in the Northeast. In addition to helping brainstorm and research her books, her husband Jim is 'lion tamer' for their two wild young tomcats, Pewter and Sooty, geniuses at pillage and destruction. Louis, where she enjoys gardening in her yard and greenhouse, cooking holiday dinners for her family and listening to jazz.

Moon Flower by Shirl Henke