Janell Rhiannon was born in Southern California into a military family in 1965. Her father joined the Navy before she was born, during the last decade of the Vietnam Conflict/War. The family was stationed in Hawaii, so life was full of sunshine and ocean. In the mid-seventies, her parents divorced and life changed.
Janell, her mother, and baby sister moved back to Southern California embarking on their new adventure. Her mother went back to school to become a nurse, no easy task as a newly single mom back in the 1970s. Janell said, “The best part if this crazy time for me was living next to my Nonna and meeting my friend, Annie, who’s still one of my closest friends. We did all kinds of shenanigans together.”
In grade school, she always had a book in hand and could be found quite often at Annie’s house where the two wrote fake news casts and performed Sonny and Cher shows. In the 4th grade, Janell wrote her first play entitled Betsy Ross. Her class performed it and her mother made the costumes. And just like that, a life-long love of historical literature was born.
Janell, her mother, and baby sister moved back to Southern California embarking on their new adventure. Her mother went back to school to become a nurse, no easy task as a newly single mom back in the 1970s. Janell said, “The best part if this crazy time for me was living next to my Nonna and meeting my friend, Annie, who’s still one of my closest friends. We did all kinds of shenanigans together.”
In grade school, she always had a book in hand and could be found quite often at Annie’s house where the two wrote fake news casts and performed Sonny and Cher shows. In the 4th grade, Janell wrote her first play entitled Betsy Ross. Her class performed it and her mother made the costumes. And just like that, a life-long love of historical literature was born.
When she started high school, Janell moved back to Hawaii where she skipped her junior year and graduated one year early. College was on the agenda, but didn’t happen until she was already a young mom with two year old daughter. After receiving as A.A. degree in Liberal Studies, she declared as a history major when she transferred to her local CSU for a B.A.
Not long after her son was born, divorce once again changed her life. Juggling single motherhood and university studies was difficult, but she persevered with support of her family. Once, in a graduate seminar, a professor told her she was “taking notes the lazy way” for writing notes in the margin of her history book instead of in a notebook. But, Janell knew it wasn’t laziness; it was a time management necessity.
It was at the university level that she took her first ancient world focus course: Rome. She was hooked by the “sword and sandal” world from that point on. Greek history and mythology and Alexander the Great intrigued her, so she studied everything she could. She feels fortunate to have studied under Diane Harris-Cline and Victor Davis Hanson.
In 2016, Janell published Song of Princes, book one of the Homeric Chronicles, a series dedicated to merging dozens of Greek myths, including Homer’s epics, with plays, history, and archaeology. Her intent is to raise the heroines’ voices equally alongside the heroes, opening up a traditionally male focused genre to a female audience.
She lives in CA with both her grown children nearby and her three grandchildren. She has two big dogs and a cat, who thinks he's a dog.
Not long after her son was born, divorce once again changed her life. Juggling single motherhood and university studies was difficult, but she persevered with support of her family. Once, in a graduate seminar, a professor told her she was “taking notes the lazy way” for writing notes in the margin of her history book instead of in a notebook. But, Janell knew it wasn’t laziness; it was a time management necessity.
It was at the university level that she took her first ancient world focus course: Rome. She was hooked by the “sword and sandal” world from that point on. Greek history and mythology and Alexander the Great intrigued her, so she studied everything she could. She feels fortunate to have studied under Diane Harris-Cline and Victor Davis Hanson.
In 2016, Janell published Song of Princes, book one of the Homeric Chronicles, a series dedicated to merging dozens of Greek myths, including Homer’s epics, with plays, history, and archaeology. Her intent is to raise the heroines’ voices equally alongside the heroes, opening up a traditionally male focused genre to a female audience.
She lives in CA with both her grown children nearby and her three grandchildren. She has two big dogs and a cat, who thinks he's a dog.