Rachael Herron

(R.H. Herron)

Podcast Archives

Ep. 304: Catherine Prendergast on How Every Writer Lies (For Truth)

Catherine Prendergast is a Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Fulbright Scholar. Interviewed by NPR and New York Magazine, she has written on battles over school desegregation, anxieties over the global spread of English, and recognition of disability rights. Dr. Prendergast’s previous (scholarly) books include Buying Into English (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008) and Literary and Racial Justice (Southern Illinois University Press, 2003). The Gilded Edge is her first work of narrative nonfiction. Originally from New Jersey, she now lives in central Illinois with her husband and son.

Ep, 303: Josephine Smith on How to Launch Your Writing Career Fast with Four Books in a Year

Rachael talks to Josephine Smith about how to launch a career, fast, and answers some bonus questions about indie publishing! 

Josephine Smith is a cozy mystery author with a love of hot cups of tea, tricky puzzles, and spending Sunday afternoons with a good book. She lives in Northern California with her husband, dog, and cat, and they all get along most of the time. The Hemlock Inn mysteries is her current series, featuring a charming inn, two senior citizen sidekicks, and an adorable beagle named Lola.

Ep. 302: Rudy Ruiz on How to Open Yourself to Edits

Rudy Ruiz is a writer of literary fiction. A native of the U.S.-Mexico border, his earliest works were published at Harvard, where he studied literature, creative writing, government and public policy, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. In 2017, Rudy Ruiz was awarded the Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction. In 2020, Ruiz was a finalist for both the Texas Institute of Letters’ Best Short Story Award as well as the Texas Observer’s annual Short Story Contest. In 2020, Blackstone Publishing released Ruiz’s novel, “The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez.” The novel received critical acclaim and multiple awards, and was named one of the “Top 10 Best First Novels of 2020″ by the American Library Association’s Booklist. 

Ep. 301: Isabel Cañas on The Magic of a Reading Journal

Isabel Cañas is a Mexican-American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, and Turkey, among other places, she has settled (for now) in New York City, where she works on her PhD dissertation in medieval Islamic literature and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage. The Hacienda, her debut novel, is billed as Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca set in Mexico after its War of Independence, featuring a haunted house behaving very badly, a hot priest, and witches where you least expect them. 

Ep. 300: Amy S. Peele on How to Keep Your Writing Top of Mind

In this, the three-hundredth episode of How Do You Write, Rachael talks about how happy she is to be here, and shares how she turned her own writing around. Then she talks to Amy S. Peele RN, who is the award-winning, best-selling author of Cut and Match, medical mysteries with a mission and a side of humor. 

Before becoming a writer Amy enjoyed a fascinating 35-year career in the organ transplant field which provides an authentic backdrop to her books. She learned early on in her medical career that humor was an important survival skill and studied improvisation at the world premier school, Second City, in Chicago. Amy currently resides in San Francisco, close to the Golden Gate Bridge, where she loves to swim, teach chair yoga and meditate. She was recently elected to the Novato City Council where she’s discovering a new population of folks who may find their way into being her literary victims.