JILL STENGL was born and raised in Southern California, the youngest of four children in a wonderful Christian family. She met her husband Dean in 1982 at Green Oak Ranch children's camp, where she was a counselor and he was a lifeguard. (Her e-mail address contains her old camp name 'Popcorn,' in case anyone wonders). Dean and Jill married the next summer. Dean was an air force pilot for fifteen years, so Jill traveled with him all over the country and to England, having children at various military bases--Tom in AZ, Annie in WA, Jimmy in the UK, and Peter in NC. Now Dean is out of the military and working as a commercial pilot, so the family has settled in Wisconsin. In the fall of 1999, they built their dream house, a log home on a lake. Everyone pitched in, staining logs, laying tile, sanding, painting. Jill says: 'We're all enjoying the novelty of putting down roots and spending holidays with family.' The Stengle family also includes Jill's constant shadow, a ten-year old miniature schnauzer named Fritz, and Rilla, Annie's abyssinian cat. While they were living overseas, Jill decided to try writing romance books, choosing for her first Heartsong book a topic she knew very well--military life in England. Jill had one firsthand experience with F-15E Strike Eagles: a fast taxi ride down the runway--she even got to do the radio calls to the control tower. It was very exciting! But for the most part she relied upon Dean for technical details. Jill keeps very busy at home schooling the children. Raising and training her family is her full-time career for the present. She maintains that 'If God wants me to write books, He will provide the time for me to do it without neglecting my primary responsibilities.' So far, God has provided time for five Heartsongs books. Jill's fictional characters tend to learn the same spiritual lessons she has learned or is in the process of learning--writing Heartsong books can be a spriritual challenge, she finds. Her greatest hope is that her readers will learn to love God and their spouses more because of reading her romantic books.
