Rachael Herron

(R.H. Herron)

Rachael

Ep. 020: Holly Robinson

dsc_3777-680x1024-199x300Novelist, journalist and celebrity ghost writer Holly Robinson is the author of the memoir The Gerbil farmer’s Daughter and many novels including most recently Folly Cove, from Penguin.  Her articles and essays appear frequently in The Huffington Post, More, Parents, Redbook and dozens of other newspapers and magazines. She and her husband have five children and a stubborn Pekingese. They divide their time between Massachusetts and Prince Edward Island, and are crazy enough to be fixing up old houses one shingle at a time in both places.

Craft Tip: Read your dialogue aloud and eliminate as many of the “He saids” and “She saids” as you possibly can. Communicate that with the business on the stage.

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Ep. 019: Larissa Brown


larissa-brown-bw-photo-by-lynette-fitzpatrickLarissa Brown writes books – about Vikings and about knitting – as well as creating designs for hand knitters. She writes historical, romantic, time travel fiction set in a fictional world in the White Woods of Iceland’s 10th century. Her first novel was Beautiful Wreck and her second novel just launched and is called So Wild a Dream. She lives in Portland with her husband and son.

Craft Tip: You already know what to do. You know what you should be writing.

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Ep. 018: Julia Skott


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Julia Skott is a journalist and writer in Sweden. She’s published two non-fiction books called Body Panic and Shut Up I’m Counting. She also produces podcasts about knitting and romance literature and is working on a novel or two.

Craft Tip: Change the way you look at your work. Change the font, say the words out loud. You’ll suddenly see all your tics.

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Ep. 017: Jennifer Baker


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Jennifer Baker received her MFA from The New School’s graduate program in Creative Writing. She works as a production editor, and  contributes to Bustle.com, and is the social media director and a writing instructor for Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop. Jennifer is a panel organizer for We Need Diverse Books, a non-profit organization that sprang to life from the #WeNeedDiverseBooks media campaign to increase minority representation (of all kinds) in literature. She is also the creator and host of the podcast Minorities in Publishing. Jennifer’s short story “The Pursuit of Happiness” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for 2017 and in December 2013, her young adult manuscript, The Facility, won the SCBWI On-the-Verge Emerging Voices Award for underrepresented voices in children’s literature.

Craft Tip: Use the Merriam-Webster’s word of the day. “If you’re stuck, write a story around it, or a poem around it. I think it’s a really good writing prompt.”

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Why I Love Fall

I love fall because of the ache.

You know what I mean?

That deep, sweet upswell of nostalgia that comes with the dropping leaves is such an emotional push-pull of happiness tinged with sadness.

You know how there are the four flavors (sweet, salty, sour, bitter), and then there’s that extra one? It’s called umami. It’s that dark, rich, undertone of taste. You know it when you have it. Bacon, soy sauce, truffle mushrooms.

I’m declaring fall the umami season. It’s layered and complex. Spring and summer are happy! Bright! Literally, they are sunny (and god help the people with reverse S.A.D. which I sometimes wonder if I have. I’m not a fan of summer). Winter is bleak, and we need time for that, too.

But fall is both. It’s happy and sad. It looks ahead (new school year! getting older!) and it looks back at the same time. This year is winding to its close. For so many, this year has been so much worse than any of the years before. This fall will ache harder, more deeply.

It’s umami. It’s rich and deep. It’s compost turned into black earth. It’s fires, lit indoors for warmth instead of wildfires running the hills.

If light has a scent to me, it’s this: the smell of sycamore leaves dropping onto dusty ground in yellow sunshine. I have a million favorite scents, but this one might be in the top five, right up there with beach bonfire smoke, mothballs, wet wool, and cedar. (Oooh! All of those are umami, I think.)

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Mills, this morning

This is my first fall as a full-time writer.

I have wanted this my whole life.

Every day I write at Mills College, lately at the library. I sit on the second floor and I open the window at my favorite carrel, and I set my apple carefully next to my coffee mug and my water bottle. (Basically, I’m Frances with her salt shaker.)

Today, as I walked on campus, I caught that scent, the dry sycamore leaves in sunshine one.

My heart nearly lifted right out of my chest.

This is what I’ve wanted.

I’ve got it.

I’m enough of a Buddhist to know I won’t keep it. Everything changes. Right now, this is my life. I am happy. Someday this won’t be my life. That makes me wistful, nostalgic for the very moment I’m standing in.

Fall is rich, and deep. Excitement and sadness. The light falls earlier, and we prepare to cocoon ourselves in our houses for winter.

But right now we’re outside, scuffing through the leaves, realizing that the sound of a leaf’s crunch remains the same, no matter how young or old we are—that sharp, satisfying KRICSHHH. We break something with our foot that hurts no one. We contribute to the leaf returning to dust.

The ache feels good, like a sore, used muscle.

It feels right, rich, and deep.

Happy first day of fall to you, my friends.

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