Shreveport reader leads fan page for bestselling author

As a teenager, Monica Anderson Johnson was walking near her home in the Caddo Heights neighborhood in Shreveport when she saw a book lying in the street. It didn’t have a cover, and it was damp. “I don’t know why I picked it up,” she says.

It turned out to be a 1975 Harlequin romance, “The House of Lorraine” by Rachel Lindsay.

“I hadn’t read romance. That started my journey reading romance.”

And what a journey it has been.

Already a book lover, Johnson had devoured Greek and Roman mythology and all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books she could get her hands on.

When she left on the city bus to head downtown each Saturday, her mother would tell people, “You don’t have to worry about her. She’ll be at the library.”

The found book has even led to a robust role in the romance community, including her friendship with pioneer romance author Beverly Jenkins, writer of more than 60 novels, “a giant of the genre,” according to Publishers Weekly. Johnson is not only a super reader but manages Jenkins’ 5,700-member Facebook fan page with frequent posts and contests.

“Beverly came to me through ‘The Taming of Jessi Rose,’” a 1999 historical novel recommended by a friend in her Sistahfriends Book Club, a club now 25 and going strong. “Oh, my,” Johnson asked her friend, “how did I not know about this woman?”

She quickly read all the books Jenkins had written. “I was going through a divorce,” Johnson says. “She became my haven.” The novels “came into my life at a time of turmoil. They gave me an escape I didn’t know I needed.” The stories went beyond love plotlines. “Beverly gave me my history with a ‘wow.’ I love all of her books.”

A couple of years later, members of Sistahfriends drove to Dallas to visit the Black Images Book Store, and the store’s owner, now retired, suggested they attend a 2002 conference in North Carolina where Jenkins would appear.

Johnson, an ’82 graduate of Fair Park High School who has worked in pediatric medical clinics for nearly 40 years, describes the travel experience like she’s confessing to a joke on herself, including arriving at the conference later than others because of her job. “I’m a black gal from Shreveport. I was green. I’d never been on a plane,” she says with her easy laugh. “Dramamine works.”

When she met up with her friends, they greeted her with, “Beverly said she wants to meet you.”

Johnson, who calls Jenkins “the Empress of black historical fiction,” was so overwhelmed that she “disappeared behind a plant and just started bawling.” Then she stepped out and her author hero hugged her.

That moment surpasses conventional terms of writer success, Jenkins says. “That’s how I measure success — the human connection between everyday people and my stories. The first time I met Monica, she couldn’t approach me. All she could do was look at me and cry. She found meeting me so overwhelming. I told her very gently to come give me a hug. We’ve been close ever since. I love her and all my readers dearly.”

Her appreciation for Johnson shines in this Facebook post: “Please join me in thanking Monica for being the Best Admin an online community could ever have. Her ability to make this a page so many of us visit daily says it all. We love you, ma’am!”

As for Johnson, she still is always looking for a good story and hitting the road with her book club. “I have no limits when it comes to a good book,” she says. “I think diversity in books pulls people together in divisive times. Books give us a common space.”

Upcoming Facebook chat

Jenkins will discuss her novella, “Prisoner of Love,” on the “Author Beverly Jenkins” Facebook page at 8 p.m. CST Feb. 20, posting questions and interacting with readers. For more about Jenkins, see https://www.beverlyjenkins.net.

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Columnist Judy Christie and NYT bestselling author Lisa Wingate co-authored “Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society,” the nonfiction sequel to Wingate’s bestselling novel “Before We Were Yours.”  For more about Christie, see www.judychristie.com or follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JudyChristieAuthor.

This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Shreveport reader leads fan page for bestselling author