William Harmening

I was born in March 1959, and was raised and schooled in a small farm community in central Illinois. I began writing in the 5th grade, and in that same year my essay “First Time Out,” about my first fishing trip, was selected for inclusion in a national anthology. I haven't stopped writing since. After a stint in the U.S. Army in the 1970s (Military Intelligence), I used my G.I. bill to attend college, and eventually obtained an M.A. in Psychology from Sangamon State University, now the University of Illinois at Springfield. I became a law enforcement officer, and after many years as a deputy sheriff in Menard County (IL), I moved up to a state level law enforcement position, and eventually became a Deputy Chief of Investigations for the Illinois Attorney General's Office, where I founded the State of Illinois' first high-tech crimes task force and computer forensics lab. I am now finishing out my career as the Chief Special Agent for the Illinois Securities Dept., where I've been commanding a cadre of investigators specializing in investment fraud since 2001. I've also serve as an adjunct professor of Psychology at Benedictine University in Springfield, and an adjunct professor of Criminal Justice at Roosevelt University in Chicago. On September 1, 2010, I will be ending nearly 30 years in law enforcement to accept a full-time position with the Adler School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, as a professor of forensic psychology. At the same time I am beginning work on a PhD in International Psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. I continue to live in the same small town where I grew up, a town I've immortalized in one of my books. I have four adult kids, two beautiful little grandkids, 25 African Cichlids (fish), and the two cutest Shih Tzus you've ever seen!