Rachael

Ep. 253: Catriona Turner On How to Write the Miraculous in the Everyday

January 27, 2022

Catriona Turner is a writer and editor currently living in Esbjerg, Denmark. A veteran of six international moves since leaving Scotland 12 years ago, she’s also lived with her family in France, Uganda, and the Republic of Congo. At her website, The Frustrated Nester, she writes about Danish living, travel, and the expat life. She has contributed a regular column to a magazine for internationals in Denmark, and her writing has featured in anthologies about international living. She also works as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. With a couple of to-be-completed novels on the shelf, she’s currently working on a memoir, due for publication in early 2022, while preparing for her family’s next big move.

Transcript:

Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

[00:00:15] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #253 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. I am so pleased you’re with me here today, because today we are talking to Catriona Turner, who is a friend of mine, but she is also an amazing editor and she is a writer and she is basically a professional expat. So in this interview, you will hear me pick her brain about moving as well as writing. And I have to say that I was just handling some of her edits that she did for a rereleased book that I’m working on right now. And she’s just brilliant. She really, really is. She’s completely delightful. And in this episode, we talk about looking for the everyday in the miraculous-ness of writing, and I know that you are going to enjoy it.

[00:01:09] So, before we get into that, what’s going on around here? Well, so goddamn much. Holy crap! We’re out of MIQ, which was managed isolation/quarantine. We are out of it, and we are, I’m recording this on Friday, we have been living in Auckland for four days since Monday, and this is temporary. Actually, we leave on Sunday to go up north to a place called Russel where apparently we’re going to have a house which you can’t always drive to. You can only drive to it when it is low tide. So if it is high tide, you got to leave your car at the car park and perhaps wade through the ocean water to get to the house. So that’s going to be super cool and exciting. And I can’t wait to tell you about that, but that’s not right now. Right now, is Auckland. We have an apartment pretty, right between the central business district in Ponsonby. I’ve got a great view of the sky tower from our apartment, and we have just been doing so much stuff. We bought a car. In order to buy a car, we needed to set up a bank account. In order to set up a bank account, we had to do a million different things. It’s difficult to do any of these things, to do any of this red tape stuff when you don’t have an address. And when you don’t plan on having an address for a long time, how do you get a social security number? or here, they are known as IRD numbers. How do you get that without a permanent address? What you do is you talk the bank into accepting your old address, even though you don’t own that home anymore, and you are above board and you tell everybody what you’re doing. In the states, I can pretty much predict that the, somebody in those government official entity positions would say, nope, sorry, can’t do it. Here, they’re like, oh, okay, let’s make it work. If we do this and this, and then you cross off this and then I pull this for you, can you wait for 10 minutes? I’m going to go handle this. Okay. I’m back with you. I fixed it. That’s how new Zealanders handle things and it’s been wonderful and exciting. But it has just been a lot, a lot, a lot, and I’m not tired, I’m excited.

[00:03:32] Every day, we get out and walk around. As soon as I record this, we’re going to go walk down to the promenade on the water and explore that area and it’s just been pretty great. Last night, it was for the first time in months, I cooked a meal in the kitchen that we have here. We have been subsisting on takeout before we moved. And then when we were in quarantine, they delivered our meals to us three times a day. So we didn’t even have to think about it. We just had to eat as often as possible, which was good and bad. But last night, I made a gorgeous salmon with radishes and peas in a Miso Dijon, caper sauce, lots of butter and it was delicious. Also, I’m very much enjoying grazing, again, you know, for breakfast might be a handful of peanuts and an apple kind of thing, rather than having a full meal delivered to you three times a day. And I’m one of those people who I just, it’s very hard for me to throw out a whole meal, a hot meal. So, it’s kind of nice not to have to eat that often, to be very honest.

[00:04:37] What else? Oh, in terms of work, it’s been great. I’ve been getting stuff done. I have picked the next project that I am really focused on. And, I don’t know if I’ve said it on the air yet, but I am writing the book, 90 Days to Done, based on the class I teach. My goal is to have eventually a book, at a book price, and then a walk yourself through, a do it yourself, evergreen course at an evergreen course price. And then my hold you by the hand and take you through it, which is what I do nowadays at the higher price, so all three price points in the market for 90 Days to Done because I love teaching it. And I love nothing more than watching people finish their books, especially people who are finishing their books for the very first time and I want to help more people do that. So that is what I am focusing on right now. Hopefully get the first draft done in a couple of months. I could probably do it faster, but I don’t want to. We are in New Zealand to try to embrace some of their famous work-life balance and it is almost 3:30, so my day’s almost over. Cause that’s when I’m trying to finish right now, I don’t think I’m going to finish in the next two minutes. I’ll still have to upload this thing, but you know, I’m trying to not work until six and seven at night, which is what I did in the states. And I don’t want to do that here.

[00:05:58] So, it’s been quite great. I love it. And it just feels good. It feels like the right choice and that is a huge relief and I’m sure that we will have ups and downs, times that we will think what the hell did we do. But right now we’re both really enjoying it. I want to shout out and quickly thank new patrons. Thank you to Lynette Carter and Elizabeth Adams and Isabel Peringue. I’m guessing on that name, beautiful. And Kate Havroq, thank you so much, you all for joining over at patreon.com/Rachael. Over there, you can get all the essays that I’ve written about living your creative life and right now I’m writing about doing something big, like making a move like this. And also, if you’re at the $5 level, which Kate came in at, then you get me for a mini coach, Kate. Thank you for your question. And I will be getting to that very soon. So, let’s jump into the interview with Katrina, cause it’s a little longer than most because I adore her. And you will too. She is delightful. Plus, she’s got that incredible accent. So please enjoy, please do your writing. I got a couple emails this week from people who say, okay, Rachael, you always want me to email you and tell you how I’m doing with my writing and here I’m doing it. And I love them. You can always reach out to me, Rachael, at RachaelHerron.com. You got to spell it right, but that’s the only bar, that’s the only barrier to entry. Please email me, tell me how your writing is going. Please be kind to yourself, be gentle to yourself. If you’re not writing, forgive yourself for every moment you’ve ever not written in your whole entire life. Forgive yourself right now. It’s all fine. It’s exactly right. It’s you’re in exactly the right place where you are supposed to be. And why don’t you fit in 10 or 15 minutes tonight or tomorrow morning? Don’t put it off anymore. Do a little bit of it. And then email me, tell me how it went. Okay. I know I’m speaking quickly because, got to get off the clock. Okay. Enjoy the interview, my friends, and we’ll talk soon.

[00:07:54] This episode is brought to you by my book Fast Draft Your Memoir. Write your life story in 45 hours, which is, by the way, totally doable. And I’ll tell you how. It’s the same class I teach in the continuing studies program at Stanford each year, and I’ll let you in on a secret. Even if you have no interest in writing a memoir, yet, the book has everything I’ve ever learned about the process of writing, and of revision, and of story structure, and of just doing this thing that’s so hard and yet all we want to do. Pick it up today.

[00:08:26] Rachael Herron: Okay. Well, I could not be more pleased today to welcome to the show, my friend, Catriona Turner. Hello, Catriona!

[00:08:33] Catriona Turner: Hi, Rachael! Oh my goodness, the honor is entirely mine.

[00:08:36] Rachael Herron: No.

[00:08:37] Catriona Turner: This was like an author bucket list thing that I was going to do like in two or three years, but you invited me today. So,

[00:08:44] Rachael Herron: I invited you and I’m also like strong-arming you into being here, just a bit.

[00:08:50] Catriona Turner: Coaxing me, you coaxed me.

[00:08:52] Rachael Herron: So let me give you a little bit of an introduction for people. Catriona Turner is a writer and editor currently living in Esbjerg, I already forgot how to say it, Denmark. A veteran of six international moves since leaving Scotland 12 years ago, she’s also lived with her family in France, Uganda, and the Republic of Congo. At her website, The Frustrated Nester, she writes about Danish living, travel, and the expat life. She has contributed a regular column to a magazine for internationals in Denmark, and her writing has featured in anthologies about international living. She also works as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. With a couple of to-be-completed novels on the shelf, she’s currently working on a memoir, due for publication in early 2022, while preparing for her family’s next big move. And everyone listening, I want you to know that Katrina and I have spent time together in Venice, Italy, and that’s how we really got to know each other. But it’s the honor has been mine and getting to watch and read your writing. You are a beautiful writer.

[00:10:00] Catriona Turner: Thank you.

[00:10:02] Rachael Herron: The way you write about your family and about the international living, when you made it official that you were going to write this memoir that you were writing this memoir, I was so pleased. So first of all, I want to ask about that. How is it going? How is the work going?

[00:10:18] Catriona Turner: Okay. It’s going, so my mantra is inching onwards.

[00:10:24] Rachael Herron: That is wonderful.

[Read more…]

Ep 252: What If I Can’t Fit Everything Into My Book?

January 27, 2022

In this bonus mini-episode, Rachael talk about when to have multiple POVs, and also tackles the question, What if I can’t cram everything I want to into this book?

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

[00:00:18] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #252 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. This is a bonus real quick mini episode. I am still in the bathroom in Auckland, New Zealand in our managed isolation still on day 10 of 14. This is coming. I’m recording this right after I recorded the last podcast. So I’m still in the same place. Still with the same lipstick on that could use a refresh if you’re watching on YouTube. So let’s get into a couple of questions from people who pledged to Patreon at the $5 a month level. I am your mini coach. You can ask me any damn thing you want. I will probably respond to anything you ask, unless it is absolutely outside, how do they say that outside the pail, but otherwise I’m going to answer it and I’m going to answer it on the air. So let’s go.

[00:01:10] This one comes from Lamar Dixon, hello Lamar. Okay. So Lamar says, so my question is I have this story I want to do. But it’s been so long since I had to actually write for school or college. And I feel as if my skills have diminished and I’m not competent. And as for my story, I don’t know if I should write or make a comic out of it. I can’t draw, but I can do the writing part. But for the book aspect of it, I feel like I can’t cram everything into it, but I don’t know. Thank you for your help. Okay. So Lamar, I love this question because it is really broad and a lot of people are going to be feeling exactly like you are. And there is a simple, simple answer. You just have to start writing. If you are the kind of person who is listening, who needs a plan of action before they write, that’s absolutely fine, but give yourself a time limit and don’t let yourself have more than a week of maybe an hour and a Monday and an hour on a Friday. There you go. There’s your week. You’ve thought about it, you planned, now start writing, or you could use the whole week. You could use every day to do a little bit of plotting and planning, but don’t give yourself more than a week for me. I don’t give myself more than two days to do that because I will get into a loop in my head and most writers do. We start spiraling. We start wondering every single thing we think of is a great idea until we think about it a little bit harder and write about it a little bit more, you know, for journaling about it. And we realize, no, that’s a terrible idea. And here’s why I need to start all over. And I thought it was, this was great, but, it’s the worst thing that’s ever been thought of. And we can do that for days, weeks, months, years as we try to come up with the absolute best plan of action.

[00:02:55] So give yourself a time limit. One week is good. And then after that, you just start writing and you are not ready, but here’s the thing: you never will be ready. We will never be ready to write the books we want to write or to write the essays or to write the memoir, whatever it is that you were writing or to write the graphic novel, we’re never going to be ready. We just have to write a terrible first draft. And I mean, Terrible first draft. I think it is at rachelheron.com/SFD, which stands for a Shitty First Draft. If you want to look at an example of a page of mine, that is a first draft. It is terrible. I’m missing whole words and ideas. I’m talking to myself on the page. That’s all that first draft is, is it’s us thinking about what we might wanna do, putting it on the page, realizing it’s awful, getting confused, and being kind to ourselves anyway, continuing to move forward into continuing to put more direct onto the page. That’s our job as a writer. So the worry that you have, that you have too much stuff to put into one book, you might be right. Another really common worry is that, I don’t have enough to put into a book and you might be right about that too, but you will never know until you write the book and when you write the book and it has too much stuff, guess what? Then you get to choose what to take out. And if you write the book and it’s not long enough, and it doesn’t have enough substance, then you get to figure out what to add, but you cannot decide those things before you write the book and it tells you what it wants to be.

[00:04:34] Because no matter what, no matter how smart we think we are about our books, they have different plans and they would like to tell you about them. And the only way they are going to be able to do that is if you let them, if you put down some terrible sentences, let them be terrible and learn from them. And come back to them later and fix them and change them and move them and delete them and add to them. But the terrible writing has to be done first. So thank you for asking the question that I love to answer over and over and over and over again. I don’t think we can talk about it enough that we have to lower our expectations for our own writing and right down to the floor and then dig a basement. We have to be comfortable with the bad writing. The good writing will come later. I promise, but the bad writing has to come first. Even if you’ve written 30 books still has to happen in that order. So thank you for that. Next question is from, here it is from Michelle. She says I, is there a sort of pro versus con to having two points of view in a story? I’m trying to write two points of view, but sometimes I get annoyed at books with more than one point of view because I like a certain character best.

[Read more…]

Ep. 251: Mark A. Alvarez II on How to Write Scars and Vulnerability

January 27, 2022

Mark A. Alvarez II is Hispanic-American born in Houston, Texas. He’s a graduate of Texas State University, where he studied Public Relations and Mass Communications. He is a graduate of the NEW Apprenticeship, the first tech-apprenticeship program accredited by the United States Department of Labor. He is the CEO and Founder of Light Wings Promotions LLC, a digital marketing and creative branding agency based in San Antonio, Texas, where Mark currently resides. Dutybound is his first novel.

Transcript:

[00:00:16] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode # 251 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. I’m so pleased that you’re here with me today in New Zealand as I record this intro. Today, we are talking to Mark A. Alvarez II. When we spoke, I was not in New Zealand, so you’re going to be flashing back and forth in time as you hear these things. If you watch on the YouTube channel, you will see me in my old office and in different places for the next couple of months because I stacked up so many episodes in order to give myself a little bit of breathing room, so that’s happening. But, Mark was really, really awesome to talk to. We talk about our own scars and how to show them in our writing. Basically, we talk about writing with the vulnerability, that means we are actually writing with truth and with honesty, with the kind of voice that readers lean in to listen to.

[00:01:16] So I know you’re going to enjoy the interview, just a little catch up around here. Again, if you are watching on the YouTube channel, number one, did you know there’s a YouTube channel? Number two: Did you know that you should subscribe to it? I think it’s YouTube, just google it YouTube Rachael Herron (RachaelHerron) or RachaelHerronWrites and it comes right up. Trying to do a little bit more with the YouTube channel these days. So if you did want to watch over there or put it on in the background while you’re doing something else, I would love that. But if you’re watching on it, you get to see what the inside of a New Zealand bathroom in a hotel looks like. And let me tell you, it is like nothing you have ever seen before, except it is actually like every other bathroom you’ve ever seen before.

[00:01:54] Lala, my wife, made a very funny joke on Twitter yesterday, which nobody seemed to think was as funny as I did, but she said that she’s starting to get Stockholm syndrome because she finally understands how all the faucets and taps work. You know how, when you’re in a hotel room, you can never figure it out. By the time you start working it out, you’re leaving the hotel room. Well, we are in here long enough to figure out how to work every single little thing in this hotel. Including all the knobs of taps in the shower bath, which is where we are spending a lot of time because out there, it’s basically a 10×10 room with a queen size bed in the middle, a tiny desk that I have given to Lala because she is a web developer and she codes and she needs a couple of screens and I’m a writer. I can curl up in a corner, I can curl up on the bed. I have a standing desk, that is what I am at right now, in the bathroom. I’m so glad that I packed it in my suitcase and didn’t throw it out a million times. Also, I have like a little riser stand for my computer. And a friend sent to the hotel a little lap desk which is fantastic when I’m in bed.

[00:03:01] So I am set up when it comes to that, but the room is tiny. And if I’m talking at this volume, I’m going to annoy everybody. And also, if my wife is talking on a meeting at this level, she’s going to annoy me. So we repair into the bathroom at this time when we’re doing these kinds of things, which is pretty hilarious to me. But, we are spending a lot of time in this bathroom because there’s no place to get away from each other. And I was talking to her yesterday and actually I’m writing about this for my next Patreon essay, but, I’m not tired of her. I don’t want to get away from her. She doesn’t want to get away from me. It’s weird. This is day 10 of 14, trapped in a room. They bring us all our meals to the door. We open the meals after they’ve left, wearing our mask, bring them inside, eat them on the floor, cause the desk is too small, but yeah, we’re just not tired of each other yet.

[00:03:53] However, we are both people who value alone time, more than anybody else we’ve ever met. So I don’t want to get away from her, but I want to be alone. So this bath tub has been saving us. I’ve been taking like a two-hour bath a day. She’s taking a two, two and a half hour bath a day. That adds up to four hours alone, four and a half hours alone when we do that. So that’s been awesome, a lot of tub time. What else has been going on? Really nothing’s been good on because I’ve been trapped in this room for 10 days. And I say, trapped, we are allowed at once a day if we make an appointment. And there’s a little yard, there’s a parking lot, small parking lot that you can walk in circles in, if you make an appointment and so we can go out there once a day. Today, my walkies are at 6:00 PM and I will definitely be utilizing that. I usually put a podcast or an audio book in my ears, and I just walk around and around and around and around and around, and I’m wearing a mask. So I can’t even smell New Zealand.

[00:04:55] It’s this really strange liminal space we’re at that we are in New Zealand, but we’re actually not in New Zealand. I’m recording this on a Thursday. On Monday, we get out and we move to an apartment for a week in Auckland. And we’re going to be able to walk around, no masks cause there’s no COVID here, not quit. And just live, we’ll be able to live. And I’m super, super, super excited about that. So I will keep you posted on how that is going. Everything else is continuing a pace I’m actually managing to get work done in the hotel room. I dunno, I said actually, there’s not much else to do, so of course I’m getting work done. It’s a pretty great environment for that. I wanted to quickly thank some new patrons cause I haven’t done that in a while, I think. Penelope Penn, my friend Penn. Thank you Penn. Very much. Melody Maclntyre, Kaye Neil, thank you. Thank you, Catherine Van Auken. Thank you, Kiersten Saxton. Yay Kiersten! and Julie H, thank you, thank you! And Juliet Martin, lovely person edited her pledge up to the $3 level, which is where you get texts from me. So, Juliet help that you have signed up for that. If you have not just going to Patreon and look at any of the essays and it tells you in there how to sign up for those text messages from me, which people like getting, and you can text me back and that’s, I really, really enjoy doing that. So thank you, thank you to everyone who follows along on Patreon. I hope you are enjoying the essays about moving to New Zealand and about existentially a little bit bigger than that. Like what the hell does it mean to make such a big move at midlife? And we bind everything that you know.

[00:06:41] Thank God for writing. How do non-writers get through the world? How do they get through a life without writing? I was super upset, a very, very, very small thing. It was not matrimonial. It was an outside issue. And when I say super upset, like I was annoyed. For me, that’s pretty upset. And I went to bed annoyed and I went to bed thinking I cannot wait to write my journal because I’ll fix it then. And in the morning, I was still annoyed and I wrote in my journal and I realized, oh, there’s nothing to be upset about. Writing about it got me to understand the thing I hadn’t been able to understand to make it not annoying anymore. How do people function without that? So I think that we are just a very, very cool subsection of people that get that extra tool.

[00:07:30] So I hope that you are using your tool that you are putting it into service of your life, of your heart, of your happiness, only you can do that. If you’re not doing it, don’t beat yourself up. That’s the worst thing you can do. If you are not writing, stop beating yourself up and just write for 10 minutes. Write something terrible, something awful, terrible words that will let you down. That is fine. That’s what they’re supposed to do. That’s normal. Write for 10 minutes and then you get to feel smug that you did a little bit of writing and it will make you happier. So, that’s my prescription to you today from the inside of a bathroom. The next time we talk, who knows where I’ll be? I think I’ll be an Auckland, in an apartment but, anything could change. So, happy writing, my friends. Please enjoy this interview with Mark and we’ll talk to you soon.

[00:08:18] Hey, you’re a writer. Did you know that I send out a free weekly email of writing encouragement? Go sign up for it at www.rachaelherron.com/write and you’ll also get my Stop Stalling and Write PDF with helpful tips you can use today to get some of your own writing done. Okay, now onto the interview.

Rachael Herron: [00:8:36] Well, I could not be more pleased to welcome to the show, Mark A. Alvarez II. Hello, Mark!

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:08:42] Hi. How are you doing? Thanks for having me today.

Rachael Herron: [00:08:44] I’m so excited to have you, so excited to talk to you. Let me get you a little introduction here. Mark A. Alvarez II is Hispanic-American born in Houston, Texas and I have a lot of friends in Texas, in Houston, actually. He’s a graduate of Texas State University, where he studied Public Relations and Mass Communications. He is a graduate of the NEW Apprenticeship, the first tech-apprenticeship program accredited by the United States Department of Labor. And he is the CEO and Founder of Light Wings Promotions LLC, a digital marketing and creative branding agency based in San Antonio, Texas, where Mark currently resides, and Dutybound is his first novel. So welcome to the show! Congratulations on your release. Tell me again, when it came out.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:09:32] It actually, it’s not out yet. It’s coming out in June 22nd. We’re taking pre-orders right now. You can, you know, you can go and find it on my website. We’ll get to that in a little bit.

Rachael Herron: [00:09:44] I also saw it over on Amazon and by the time this podcast goes live, because I’m pretty booked out right now, your book will be live and you will be an author already. So how does it feel to have your first book coming out?

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:10:00] It feels absolutely amazing just because, you know, I spent so much time on it. I mean, I’ve been working on this and it’s really hard to believe. I’ve been working on this book since I was a kid. I was about 14 when I started writing it. Even, you can even say before then, because I had some source material, like I was actually like sort of dreaming of designing a video game whenever I was younger. But it was the day I finished reading Harry Potter and Deadly Hallows that I decided that I wanted to write this book. And I remember that day, cause like, as soon as I closed the book, I was like, I can’t believe it’s over. Like my Harry Potter journey is over. And I was like I need to start my own. And that’s how Dutybound, all the seeds for Dutybound started.

Rachael Herron: [00:10:46] I love that and all these years later. So what are you going to do to celebrate when you’re book comes out?

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:10:52] Well, my mom is planning a small get-together. It’s a little launch party for me with close friends and family. I’m inviting some people from my, you know, high school and some people that I grew up with, things, people that haven’t caught up with in the long time because you know, it’s like a homecoming. I left home and did what I was sought out to do and, coming home, you know, finally fulfilled, finally reached the dream. And, you know, there’s still much more work to do, but that’s the way I’m treating it is, you know, a homecoming and, you know, I finally, I’m a champion and triumphant, victorious.

Rachael Herron: [00:11:30] I love that.

[Read more…]

Ep. 250: Rachael Herron and Sara Shepard in Conversation – How To Launch a Book in Strange Times

December 8, 2021

From Rachael Herron’s book launch, an awesome conversation between her and Sara Shepard (Pretty Little Liars) about what it’s like to launch a book in the middle of a pandemic!

Transcript:

Edward Giordano: [00:00:00] Hey everyone! I’m Ed, Rachael’s assistant. As you know, she’s off busy moving to New Zealand and we wanted to get this great recording from the Hush Little Baby launch at Murder by the Book out into the podcast world. This is an awesome conversation between Pretty Little Liars’ author, Sarah Shepherd, and Rachael about Rachael’s new book and both of their writing processes. Special thanks to John at Murder by the Book in Houston for letting us use this audio who also hosts many other great author events on their Facebook and YouTube page. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show!

John McDougall: [00:00:38] Hi, everybody! Thanks for joining us this evening. This is John. I am the event coordinator at Murder by the Book here in Houston, and I’m so excited for tonight’s event. But before we get started, I just wanted to give everybody a couple of general announcements about what’s going on in the store. So if you have not come to visit us in a while, we have been open since October for in-store browsing, so you can come visit us. We’re still limited to six people in the store at a time, just because it’s a small space. I’m sure, in the next couple of weeks, we will probably adjust that a little bit with the new CDC regulations. But even with those, we’re still asking everybody to please wear a mask when you come in. As many of you know, with us being in Houston, so close to the medical center, we do have a lot of immuno-compromised people that come in that are getting treatment at MD Anderson and we just want to make sure that everybody feels comfortable in the space. So we hope that you will continue to mask up when you come to visit us, but please come visit us. We know that not everybody is getting out and about just yet. So if you were still doing curbside pickup, if you want to do that, just give us a call when you pull up. We used to have a table where we would set your books outside. We’re not putting the table out anymore mostly because we’re lazy booksellers in generally forget that the table is outside. So inevitably we would set the alarm, walk out the door to lock up and realize there was a table in there and try to scramble to get it in before the alarm went off. So just give us a call when you pull up and we’re happy to run books out to the parking lot for you.

John McDougall: [00:01:54] We’ve got lots of great stuff coming up. So if you have not checked out murderbooks.com lately, we’ve got a bunch of virtual events, we had done over 200 of these with over 350 authors since the pandemic started. So those are all up for watching on our Facebook and our YouTube channel. Next Monday, we’re going to be doing another a Gore and Pulse Event. Next Thursday, we’re super excited, we’re going to be chatting with May Cobb about her new book, The Hunting Wives, which comes out Tuesday and then another great Texas author, Amy Gentry, is going to be in conversation with her. So we hope that you guys will check that out. Also when you’re perusing the website, make sure you check out the signed book and signed personalized pages cause we’ve been getting, we just confirmed a lot of really cool sign stuff. And also, a general disclaimer, we haven’t had any issues in a couple of days, but sometimes when we do our virtual events, especially on Facebook, we will get some spammers pop up and post links asking you to click away from the event to go somewhere else, to put in your credit card info to watch the event, you don’t have to do that. The event is free to watch. You’re watching it already. So you don’t have to click away to get somebody, your credit card info to watch something that is out already. If any of those pop up, I will block them as I see them. But sometimes I just wanna make sure you guys don’t click on them before I can get to them.

John McDougall: [00:03:05] As I said, I’m so excited for tonight’s event. R.H. Herron, Rachael Herron, is one of my favorite people in the world, as we were talking before. She has come and stayed at my house when she was in town. I visited her out in San Francisco with her wife and everybody that lives out there. So I’m so excited that we’re doing this. If you guys have not read Hush Little Baby yet, you are in for a ride. It is a nail biter. It’s twisty. It’s so fantastic. And we’re super excited to have Sarah Shepherd to be chatting with us this evening. So I’m going to bring them out. I’m going to start with Rachael. How are you tonight, Rachael?

Rachael Herron: [00:03:35] I’m so thrilled to see you. I would really, really like to give you a hug, but this will do. Are you in the downstairs bedroom where I sleep?

John McDougall: [00:03:43] No, I am actually, I’m in our, in the library and the computer room that we just repainted and just got new bookcases. So it’s all like,

Rachael Herron: [00:03:50] It looks beautiful by the way.

John McDougall: [00:03:51] Thank you. Pro tip, don’t remodel a room in your house when you’re serving on jury duty in the middle of a pandemic, because it’s exhausting. Like, don’t do it.

Rachael Herron: [00:04:00] I cannot even imagine! Good for you. Well, it looks great.

John McDougall: [00:04:02] Thanks. Congratulations on the new book, Hush Little Baby. It just came out yesterday. So for anybody who is watching, if you pre-order from, or if you order the book from us, Rachael will send you a signed book like. So when you order, when I send you your order confirmation, I will send you her email address so she can get in touch with you, and if you want to personalize, let her know. But so if anybody is tuning in and doesn’t know Rachael AKA, R.H. Herron, she received her MFA in writing from Mills College, Oakland. She is the author of the thriller’s Stolen Things and this new one, Hush Little Baby, as well as the best-selling author of more than two dozen books under a different name. She lives and teaches in California. And as I said, we’re super excited to have Sarah Shepherd with us this evening. I’m going to bring her out. How are you tonight, Sarah?

Sara Shepard: [00:04:46] Hi! I’m good! How are you?

John McDougall: [00:04:48] Thanks so much for being here with us.

Sara Shepard: [00:04:51] I’m so happy to be here.

John McDougall: [00:04:53] So, Sarah Shepherd is the number one New York times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars series, the Lion Game series, the Heiress, the Eliza’s, the Perfectionist series, and Reputation, which is her most recent. We have copies of both authors’ books in store. So if you want to order those, you can do that at murderbooks.com. I’m going to drop a link in the comments in just a second, so you can get more information about them. And I’m going to turn this over to Sarah in just a second. But before I do, if you guys have any questions while she and Rachael are talking, please, please, please post those in the comments on Facebook and YouTube. I will be collecting those while I’m listening to them chat. And I will pop back in and just a little bit to relay those. So Sarah, I’m going to turn it over to you. You guys have fun and I will see you in just a little bit.

Rachael Herron: [00:05:36] Thank you, John.

Sara Shepard: [00:05:37] All right, thank you! Hi! How are you?

Rachael Herron: [00:05:41] Hi, Sara! It’s so nice to meet you in person. We were kind of saying a little bit backstage that we have a mutual bestie.

Sara Shepard: [00:05:48] We do.

Rachael Herron: [00:05:50] Cari Luna, who is an amazing writer and wrote the Revolution of Every Day. And, she said she’s here tonight. So shout out to Cari.

Sara Shepard: [00:05:56] Hi, Cari!

Rachael Herron: [00:05:58] But because of that, you and I go back like maybe almost 20 years.

Sara Shepard: [00:06:03] Yeah. So I, it’s so funny because when I got the request to be on, in this event, which I was really excited about, I was like, I know that name! Why do I know the name R.H. Herron? And I think, I mean, I know the other name that you published under, but I really knew you from the days of blogging and we both used to be really into knitting. You probably were a more talented knitter than I was. I just made stuff but I feel like you’ve designed patterns and like.

Rachael Herron: [00:06:41] I have like designed four patterns and they were so broken. They were,

Sara Shepard: [00:06:45] Really?

Rachael Herron: [00:06:46] They were not good at all.

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We’ve Moved!

September 6, 2021

We’re in New Zealand! It’s wonderful to be in my mother’s homeland. We’d been planning to move around a lot once we got here until we found a house to rent, moving week to week, with the hopeful destination of Wellington where we’d settle into a rental, but we got locked down eight days after we got out of MIQ (the quarantine hotel where we spent 14 days when we arrived).

Of course, we got locked down in heaven. Just south of Russell, we ended up in a house on the Bay of Islands, and it’s been magical. We’re both working full time, of course, so that’s worked out well, as we haven’t been allowed to do much else as we stay indoors!

Our house is the 2-story one – that’s Lala in a kayak

While we were at level 4, we took our one walk a day. At level 3, we were allowed to take out the kayaks! Excellent, exciting exercise! We enter level 2 tonight, which means we can get on the road again soon on our way to Wellington! (We’ve found a darling rental that we’re so interested in — it’s lovely and would come with the bonus that the people moving out are leaving the country, and we could buy their furniture from them! Since we have none, how ideal would that be? Please cross your fingers for us – it looks like an ideal place for a writer to be settled.)

I’m not blogging much, but I wanted to make sure that if you want to see lots more pics of our journey, you can go to Instgram or Facebook, where I’m trying to cross-post pics and videos of our adventure at both places.

We’re so lucky, and so grateful, and so excited to be starting our new life here.

Discovering the bush walk up the back of the house!

Ep. 249: The Best Method for Building Your Writing Platform

August 11, 2021

In this bonus mini-episode, Rachael Herron talks about what she’s found to be the best platform-building tools for writers.

Also covered:

Turning your book into a screenplay
What if your book just isn’t as strong as you’d like yet
How do you handle not being historically accurate?

Go HERE to get Rachael to be your mini-coach!

Join Rachael’s Slack channel, Onward Writers!

Transcript:

[00:00:16] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #249 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. Thrilled you’re here with me today on this mini bonus episode, which I’m just going to try to do more of. If you are a Patron of mine at the $5 or up level a month, not only do you get all the essays that I write, and right now I’m writing about, moving, and fear, and courage, and how both of those things feel in the body, but you get to have me as your mini coach and you get to ask me any questions. I’m finishing up all the questions right here. Got a couple of questions and then it will have no more. So you mini coaching clients, please send me some and I’ll be doing more of these videos, which I really, really love to do.

[00:01:07] So, right now, just a little catch up. I am doing this right after I filmed the last episode. So I’m still in Idaho as we speak. Although when you get this, I will be one day away from leaving the United States of America and moving to New Zealand. We leave tomorrow as this is released. So perhaps when you listening to it on crying on an airplane, somewhere over the Pacific. Anything is possible. I have reached a really deep level of happiness though, and acceptance and excitement about this. Finally, the fear is almost gone. I’m sure there will be more of it in the days to come, but, we’ve done all the things we’ve sold the house, we’ve sold the cars, everything we own is in suitcases. And now all we have to do is live and follow our noses to where they feel like going. And that’s super exciting and I’m just tremendously overwhelmed by this feeling of anticipation and also deep happiness in the moment which is the most important thing. I’m not trying to get anywhere. Yes, we are going to New Zealand, but I don’t have an idea of what that’s going to look like or what it needs to be.

[00:02:21] It is just going to be what it should be. And what matters is this moment sitting in this particular co-working space in Idaho and how it’s a little bit hot in here and a little bit muggy, which is impossible in place. I don’t know how that’s happening. But I know that after I record this, when I go home tonight, we’re going to have Mexican food. And at this moment I really am enjoying the width and the height of this desk that I’m sitting at it’s really, really good, fits my body. I’m enjoying the incredible speed of the internet. That’s what’s going on for now. And it’s good. So, just for one second, why don’t you take a moment to think about where you are? How does your body feel? How’s your back feel? How does your brain feel as I’m talking to you? What’s going on in this very minute, what can you see? What can you taste? What is good right now? What is difficult right now, what hurts? Acknowledge that, I’m going deep and really, I meant to just answer questions.

[00:03:26] So, but do take a minute to maybe think about what you are glad of in this moment and it doesn’t have to be just good things. You can be glad about hard things too. So, I am glad that I’m with you here in this moment, in a very cool kind of time, travel way and all right, let’s jump into the questions. We can go less metaphysical and into the nitty gritty of writing.

[00:03:52] Okay, so this first question, and the second question are from Maggie. How rude my cell phone is still on, I’m turning that off. Okay. All right. She says I’m in the process of drafting my first complete novel, where the romance between the two central characters is both of the theme and the main story I want to tell. I have a solid premise and I know my characters inside and out. Still, I’ve struggled to develop the finer points of my plot in a way that supports my character’s development while also keeping the story moving in an interesting and satisfying way. My concern is that my plot devices will feel forced and inadequate. Do you have any advice on crafting a story driven plot without over complicating the heart of the story? And then it goes on to ask a different question. I want to answer this one first.

[00:04:43] So, you’re in the process of drafting your first complete novel of this particular book. And I would just like to reassure you and everyone listening that the finer points of your plot will be awkward and weird and wrong and flat and strange, you want them to move in an interesting and satisfying way. They will not, they will move in a dull, boring and completely unsatisfying way. That’s a first draft’s job. It’s also sometimes even a second draft’s job and the more we get comfortable with allowing our books to really just suck the big one. The closer we get to being able to create books that satisfy us completely, that satisfy every single thing that we want them to do. First, they have to be written wrong. And, that is a truth that is just gonna continue to be a truth for the rest of our lives as writers. So it’s kind of liberating, isn’t it? In a first draft or sometimes even a second draft, what we do in the book is just, it just feels bad. It just feels wrong because said with love, it is it’s not good enough yet, but you can’t make it good enough until the book is written. There’s no way, right, there are a few exceptions to this. I’ve known like I, and I’ve told- I’ve said this before, I have known four or five professional writers with, you know, 30 or 40 books under their belts who go through the book and they make the book good as they go. That is less than 1% of the writers that I know. The rest of us cannot make chapter six. Good. And then go on to chapter seven, we just write chapter six and it’s bad, and it is not interesting and it is clumsy and wrong.

[00:06:44] And then we go on to chapter seven and we have to do it that way. Ninety nine point- I’m going to say 99.3% of writers have to do it that way. If you think you’re not that kind of writer, and maybe this is not you, I’m not talking to you because I know you and you’re not this kind of writer, but if you think you are the writer who has to get it right before moving forward, that is only your method if you are regularly completing good books that you are proud of, if you are not, and you think that that is your method. That’s not true. You’re wrong. Your method is to write a crappy first draft and get to the end and then revise it just like everybody else. The only way that you know, that is your method, that perfectionist method of making a chapter good and then moving on to the next one and then making that good and then moving onto the next chapter is if you are regularly completing good books. So that is a really useful test to see if you are in that .7% of people who can do that, are you doing it? Then that’s you, if you’re not doing it, then you’re just like the rest of us.

[00:07:44] So going back to Maggie and her question, the next part of that is my novel is loosely inspired by sensitive and important events in history. However, my goal and vision is not to write historical fiction. What are your thoughts on how to be sensitive to historical themes without needing to make sure I’m being historically accurate in my representation of the events? So this is great. I think a lot of writers struggle with this because history is important. It is important, it’s how we got here. History it’s how I got here, it’s how you got where you are, history matters and you mentioned the word sensitive, which means that these are probably historical events that perhaps have two different sides as most historical events do. And what I like to recommend when writing historical events is to hold them with a loose hand, move stuff around. If you want to, there are some writers who really, really, really want to be historical writers and getting the history in the right place. On the right day, at the right time of day with the right weather is going to be very important to them.

[00:08:55] And that is perfectly fine. However, you’re currently saying your goal is not to be a historical writer is to tell this story of these characters. So hold it loosely. If you need to move stuff around, allow yourself to do so. And then, before the book is published you just get to put in that magic line at the beginning of the book that, or at the end of the book that says some historical events have been moved or changed in order to suit my story. There. You’re in the clear, the average reader who doesn’t know much about these events will be learning from your events even if you have changed some things, they’re learning deep lessons from what you are showing them and the avid historical reader, who knows every single thing about this particular battle and where it occurred and who died first, who died second, who won, who lost? They will be comforted by the sentence that says, I know the history and I’m choosing to change it, to suit my story. And you get to do that. You are allowed. And in fact, I encourage you to do that because I think that’s really fun.

[00:10:01] All right. Next question of all the different methods you have tried newsletter, social media, promotions, podcasting, et cetera, which one has been the best for building your platform/finding your specific readers/fans? What in the early years of your writing career, pre-published, to a few books published, do you wish you had done more of, or less of? Okay, so I have two answers for this because I have two different basis of readers. I have the writer base, people who come to me to hear podcasts like this, to talk about writing, to talk about how to complete books and how to get out of their own damn way and get their work done. So that has a particular niche of people. The best thing that I have done in finding them is podcasting reliably for more than five years now. This is episode 249 and that’s awesome. That’s a lot of freaking podcasts for, I dunno, three or four years. I did the Writer’s Well podcast with J. Thorn that also increased my visibility as a teacher of writing. Probably another thing I did that really got me to know a lot of people was teaching both at Stanford and Berkeley and having that kind of word of mouth. And that’s how writers have found me as a person to listen to and ask questions of. So podcasting is probably my primary purpose for that, but if you, but for my readers, for finding readers of my fiction and of my memoir that I write, this was such a good question.

[00:11:44] What I wish I had focused on earlier is the thing. I always encourage everyone to focus on as early in their careers as they can. I wish I had been building my mailing list as early as possible. And I was to a certain extent, I did have a mailing list that readers could join before my first book came out and I was able to do that because I was a regular and reliable blogger. I started blogging in 2002, so almost 20 years now. And I had a quite large readership on the blog. So I was able to move those readers over onto my email newsletter list for the books that I write. And a lot of those people liked the books that I wrote. So they came along with me on that newsletter experience. However, I didn’t do a great job of catching the people who read the first few books and in part that is because those books were traditionally published. And at the end of a traditionally published book, those were from Harper Collins, my first five or so books were Harper Collins. And at the end of the book, they say, please sign up to follow Rachael Herron. And then they give you the Harper Collins website to follow Rachael Herron’s books at Harper Collins. I didn’t get any of those email addresses. It’s hard to do if you’re traditionally published because the publisher wants those email addresses too. They know how valuable they are, but set up a phone and I’ll say it again. The most valuable thing you can do as a writer is to get those email addresses for yourself. Not Facebook, not Twitter, not Instagram, not TikTok, getting followers on that is fine.

[00:13:24] If you love doing that, great. But the only thing you own, you really own that is yours are those opt in newsletter subscribers never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever put anyone under newsletter, even if they’re your best friend without asking. That’s just something that I will always, always say, if you and I have been friends forever, don’t put me on your email newsletter without asking me if you ask me, I will say yes, if you don’t ask me suddenly we are not friends anymore. And I will send your email to spam and that’s just not good. I mean, that is just one of those things that everyone hates. So you want opt in newsletter subscribers. People who have said I like you. And I am choosing to ask to continue to hear more about you. That is the number one most important thing to have.

[00:14:18] I think number two, most important thing to have is just a place on the internet where you can be found. You own your own website. So that is the most, that’s the safest place to have. If you are a blogger and like blogging, do that. That’s a great way to go because then your voice is out there and people are finding you organically through search engine optimization, talking about the things you’re writing about, and then they have an option to follow you and people do. That’s the weird thing is people sign up for newsletters, but that’s true of me too. When I find something, a voice that I like, the first thing I do is I sign up for their newsletter. Often I unsubscribed after a while because either they aren’t who I wanted them to be or what I thought they were going to be. But I give a lot of newsletters, a try and certain newsletters I just absolutely love and don’t ever want to be off of, and you want to be that person and you want to be find-able. However, I will say about blogging. You do not have to blog at all. Only blog if it is something that you are passionate about doing and know that if you’re starting a blog, it’s going to be probably years before you gain traction and a large readership. So again, only do it if you love doing it.

[00:15:30] Otherwise my take on social media. It’s changed a little bit. I’ve always said that you don’t have to build up any kind of social media following before your books come out because publishers would love it if you had a Kim Kardashian following, but they don’t expect you to. However, that’s changed recently to say that I don’t think you have to have a lot of followers, period, but you should be visible on the major platforms. You should be find-able and you should not be an asshole. Publishers are going to check. Agents are going to check. They are going to search for you on Instagram, Facebook, maybe Twitter. And if they find that you’re out there trolling or saying negative things to other people, they will immediately ignore you. They will send your email to delete. They don’t want to work for the person like that. They also want to see you out there interacting kindly with other people, maybe with writers, maybe with readers, maybe with just your friends that you went to high school with. Be visible on at least one platform perhaps.

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