Before the term mid-life crisis became part of our popular vocabulary, I had one. I had a degree in Chemistry, a nice job in the Midwest, a husband and four children when an old back injury started me wondering if I could find a new career that let me work from home. From time to time over the years since I'd left Brooklyn, my love of reading had made me wonder if I might someday write. The summer I was twelve,  inspired by the many mystery novels I carried home from the Public Library, I decided to write a mystery novel of my own. I had barely gotten into the story when summer ended. School started and I forgot about the book. Eventually my father made me clean my room and "throw out all that junk." Now I wondered if  I could fan that old spark into something. I began reading books and magazines on writing and studying the shelves of bookstores. A lot of people were selling novels. Could I? I came to the bold conclusion that I had to be as good as at least half of them, so I decided to give it a try.  Since I wanted a new career, not another hobby, it meant publishers had to pay me for what I wrote. I decided to give myself one year to make my first sale.  I read everything I could find about the craft and also found a writers’ workshop where  aspiring neophytes like myself met with enough selling writers to make me hope I could listen and learn. And I wrote. Mysteries, of course. I began with short stories under the mistaken impression that short meant easier. I sold my first one eleven months after I had set my goal. During this time though,  a remarkable thing had happened. One of the selling members of the writers' group offered to help me. He wrote and sold action/adventure and mystery/suspense paperback originals to a small Midwestern publisher I never knew existed. He gave me some  of his books to read to see if I thought I could write the kind the publisher wanted. That was my first real recognition that writing a book that sells meant writing for the intended market, not for myself. I had to come up with an idea and write a book the editor knew his readers would buy. Learning that important basic of marketing put me on the road to  success. When I asked my mentor how I could ever repay him, he said, "Pass it on some day." Now after forty-two years of writing and selling more than sixty novels, I am passing  it on.  See my links below for more information on my books, and my mentoring services.

Praise for M.R Henderson's "By Reason Of"

"A cat-and-mouse thriller that keeps the reader riveted to the page. Scarifying and believable suspense."
- Thomas Chastain

"A well-written, exciting story that maintains a high level of tension throughout. Chills and thrills aplenty. Fans of Mary Higgins Clark will love it.
- Bill Pronzini

Praise for M.R. Henderson's previous novel "If I Should Die"
"Hooks you on page one and doesn't let you go"
- Mary Higgins Clark