Jennifer Sienes lives in Northern California with her husband of eight years. She holds a bachelor of arts in psychology and a master’s degree in education. After teaching middle school English and U.S. history for several years, she was given the opportunity to leave this career to write full-time, a dream she’s had her entire adulthood.

A series of tragic events brought her to Christ and showed her the importance of 2 Corinthians 1:4-5: “…so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” (NIV)

The first event was when Jennifer’s brother, Michael, a seemingly strong Christian, committed suicide in 2009 due to undiagnosed bipolar disorder. It is this tragedy that inspired her first book, Absolution.

And then her daughter, at the age of eighteen, was in a near-fatal car accident and suffered a coma and months of rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury. Jennifer uses this experience to bring to life the issue of traumatic brain injury for her second novel, Redemption.

Unlike her previous two books, her third novel, Surrendered, was not inspired by an experience, but by a minor character who appeared in the first draft of Absolution. Although the character was written out in the second draft, her essence remained with Jennifer, like someone you meet briefly and can’t get out of your head.

Publications include her article, Beauty for Ashes, published in STANDARD in March, 2010. Three short stories, Working in the Three Percent, Little Houdini and A Cry in the Storm were published in the anthology Inspire Faith, April, 2013. Her non-fiction piece, God-Colored Lens, was published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Recovering from Traumatic Brain Injury, released June, 2014. You can read her blogs at her website at www.jennifersienes.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter (Twitter.com@Jennifer_Sienes)

She is represented by Karen Ball of the Steve Laube Literary Agency.