John M. Henry writes from Juno Beach, Florida, where Spanish gold from the 1715 fleet still climbs out of the sand after storms. He learned his history the right way — barefoot, on the beaches where it happened.
In 2007 he rode eleven thousand miles across America and wrote something down every night, because his mother asked him to; nineteen years later those nights became Grace Takes the Long Way Home. He is also the author of What Happens Next: Thirty Continuations of the Parables of Jesus and The Golden Shore: New Fables from Juno Beach. The Coast of Teeth, first novel of the Salt Kingdom, is coming soon.
The short version
He studied Environmental Geography at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado — with, as the campus liked to say, a minor in single-track mountain biking, whitewater rafting, and deep-powder skiing. That training never left the page: in The Golden Shore the animals are drawn and described as they really live on this coast, because a mind that learns a name begins to care what happens to it. He has been a chef in Yosemite, a mortgage broker in Florida, and a live-aboard sailor on a boat named FAITH. He lives on Juno Beach with his partner Traci, attends Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, and still tries to save the world in ordinary ways between books.
The bike and the beach
Grace was a BMW K1200LT in Pacific Blue — 887 pounds, heated grips, room for a small responsible life. She carried him from sea to shining sea and back again. The beach is the other constant: turtle nests in summer, sharks’ teeth after storms, the pier at golden hour, and the knowledge that the tide does not send invitations. It just comes.
