Rene' Stanley

I'm a U.S. Army veteran. I served during Desert Storm, and that service taught me discipline and showed me the complicated truth of human nature up close — both of which shape how I write now.

I was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and spent my teenage years in Maryland, between city and suburb. I was a shy, quiet kid, more comfortable listening than talking — and what I listened to, mostly, was older people. I spent hours in the company of elders, learning to value what people who've lived through harder times understand. That habit of listening, of noticing what others walk past, is at the heart of everything I write.

I write Christian fiction, for two reasons. The first is the world we're living in — so full of anger at each other and at ourselves that “I love you” too often stays on the surface and never reaches the heart. The second is to help a younger African American generation understand what their ancestors endured, and why the freedoms they hold today were not free.