Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Follow to get new release updates and improved recommendations
About Rachael Herron
Customers Also Bought Items By
Are you an author?
Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography.
Author Updates
-
-
Blog postWe are moving to New Zealand! It’s been a lifelong dream to go, and we can’t pass it up (I’m a citizen, and Lala’s visa came through!)
The hardest part for us, after leaving our loved ones, is the animals.
We couldn’t bring Clementine with us as she was at the end of her life, and we wouldn’t leave until she did. Then she left.
Dozy is young and strong, and will be living with her friend Sophie until we settle down and can send for her.
But our -
Blog postWritten on December 5th, 2020
It is, after all,
a command she understands.
Sit.
So we do.
Stay is harder.
Rest in the breath is only as good
as your hammock mind allows,
and currently the swing is occupied by:
ten undone monkeys,
a small, cheerful rat,
an elephant wearing a magician’s cape,
and one very nervous jackalope.
She doesn’t mind the interlopers, though.
Age has -
Blog postShe picked Lala. Thirteen years ago, we went to the pound to look at another dog, but the one in the cage next to that one just looked at Lala and asked to be met. In the meeting area, she leaned on Lala, and Lala leaned back against her and that was it.
with a wee Miss Idaho, too She liked two things – everyone, and all food. She wasn’t crazy about other dogs, but if you were a human, and especially if you were a human who knew how to carry food in your hands, she was your best frien -
-
Blog postYou’re already ready. That’s my battle cry and my deepest truth. There’s nothing you aren’t ready to make, to learn, to do, or to become.
But you may have already noticed that doesn’t make it easy.
Just being ready to do the Big Scary Thing you want to do isn’t a cure-all. Simply being ready doesn’t make you leap up in the morning to work hard to chase your dream.
And that sucks! I know.
Often, artists (like you, like me) wait for the in -
Blog postI realized last night that I’d gotten all caught up in thinking that each post here at You’re Already Ready should be deep and life-changing. And of course, that led to thinking I needed these to be well-written and lyrical.
Now, you already know this about me. I can write well, and I can write lyrically.
But mostly, I’m a sturdy writer, and proud of it.
Sturdiness is great, in both mind and body. I have short legs. In fact, just this morning I stood -
Blog postLISTEN HERE: I’m propped in bed, with my new bed desk over my lap. It’s a wonderful piece of equipment, and I’ve got my laptop propped up on it using a stand I normally use at my office desk. That brings the computer up to eye-level, and my separate keyboard and mouse are lower. It feels ergonomically comfy.
Calm jazz workflow—well, that’s what Spotify calls it—is tinkling out of the computer’s speakers. I’m burning a Falling Leaves candle that smells like vanilla and burnt sug -
-
Blog postPhoto by Kenan Reed on Unsplash
I talked about this in my writer’s email today, but I can’t stop thinking about it. (Yes, this means that you might hear some overlap if you subscribe to that list of writing encouragement. If you’d like to join that list, just go to rachaelherron.com/write.)
LISTEN HERE:
Let’s talk about goals. But let’s do it realistically.
As real people, with messy and hard and beautiful and true lives.
In January, -
Blog postIn early February of this year of the pandemic, I went to Austin for a writing conference. There, I had my own hotel room. It was a small con, and I didn’t know many people. Add that to the fact that I’m naturally an introvert, I ended up spending a lot of time in the hotel room by myself. That’s normal for me. I read a whole book. Room service brought me exactly the food I wanted, like the magic that room service is.
I do regret a few things about that weekend, though. -
Blog postWhen I was a young woman, I loved the wearing purple poem. You probably know the one. In the nineties, it was everywhere – there was a collection of stories made into a book we couldn’t keep on the bookstore shelves. There were posters. The Red Hat Society came about because of it. It was the Mary Englebreit of aging gracefully or, really, with joy.
In case you don’t know it, here it is.
I’ve been wearing purple, metaphorically, all my life, but sometimes it was hi -
Blog postIn the spirit of old times, here’s an actual finished sweater, hot off the needles! Here are the Ravelry details.
Please forgive my styling and ponytail wake-up hair – I was tugging at sweater in front of the mirror, trying to decide how to best wear it, and then I realized there was only one answer: with lipstick. Damn the rest.
I loved making it – SUPER easy and mindless, perfect pandemic knitting. It is, however, almost impossible to photograph. Here are my best attempts. < -
Blog postPhoto by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash “Swimming is an antidote for the existential anxiety from which I suffer.” – Bonnie Tsui, Why We Swim
I’m lying on my back in a heated pool in the dark. My arms and legs move in a lazy frog-like pattern, just enough to keep moving, not enough to take much energy. I’ve been doing freestyle back and forth, and since I’m still really in the learning phase of swimming, I use this elementary backstroke to recover my breath once I’ve done somethin -
Blog postI have been looking for this beach for most of my adult life.
Above Keller Beach. Photo by Mia Cotton Harlock One of my most vivid memories as a child is being on the sand in a small sheltered cove. My dad was far out in the water in his styrofoam sailboat. I loved that boat, loved the way I could pick small pieces off with my fingers. (I know! But those little chunks of styrofoam were like bubble wrap to other people. I just couldn’t help myself.)
On this day on the bea -
Blog postListen here:
So, what’s You’re Already Ready about? Well, it’s a book that’s being written, so that’s Thing One. That book is non-fiction, and it’s about how you – yes, you! – are already ready to do what you want most to do, whether that’s to start a new business, to learn to scuba dive, to write a novel, or to teach ballroom dancing.
Here’s the truth: you’re never going to feel confident enough to start. Ever. You’re never going to feel like you’re ready to make the leap, n -
Blog postLala and I are starting to get a little bit more freaked out about this planned move to New Zealand.
Last night we sat at the dinner table and looked at each other with very big eyes.
“I’m just nervous,” she said.
“Me too.” I’m nervous about so many things, number one being that we’ll regret going so far away from our loved ones. “What are you nervous about?”
She said, “That I’m going to be cold.”
This is something we’ve been mildly squabbling about for -
Blog postHello!
I just did a podcast (How Do You Write #167) on recent podcasts that have lit me up, inside and out, and I wanted to list them here (placeholder only – usually all podcasts and notes will be available here, but that’s not working right now).
I promised the list: here it is!
Food, We Need to Talk, all episodes
Ten Percent Happier, episode #221
The Happiness Lab, Mistakenly Seeking Solitude
Whare are you loving?
The post Recent Podc -
Blog postOnce upon a time, I fell in love with dogs. Well, really, I fell in love with my future wife Lala, and she had two dogs and I fell in love with them, too, and then suddenly, the world bloomed with dogs! It’s like when you buy a blue Nissan and then you see blue Nissans everywhere – I finally realized that dogs weren’t just mildly cute, but they were AWESOME and EVERYWHERE and after a while, I wanted one of my own.
We went to shelters one day. I was gonna get me a dog. I met Clara. I l -
Blog postHello, dear friends! Happy New Year! Okay, I have to confess, I love to plan. I’m a List Maker. I make out with bullet journals in public. My washi tape stash could probably stretch from Oakland to New York, and I’m unfaithful to every planner I’ve ever bought (Shiny New Planner syndrome). I normally start brand-new years […]
The post 3 Reasons Resolutions Can Bite Me appeared first on R. H. HERRON.
-
Blog postI dream about being in Venice more than anywhere else. Yesterday, in real life, I was toying with leading a retreat next year somewhere that is not Venice. Last night, Venice showed up in my dreams. In my very-frequent Venice dreams, I’m usually fighting to get into the city, just outside the gates (there are no gates) and unable to push my way in.
This time, though, I was inside the city, and being presented with places I could live while there. A small apartment in a twisted house, -
Blog postSelf-critical scripts are actually addictive, says neuroscientist Alex Korb, author of The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time. ‘Guilt, shame and self-pity activate the reward circuitry in the brain. The only way out of this addictive loop is to practice radical self-compassion instead.’
The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, Catherine Gray Guilt and shame and self-pity activate the reward circuitry? This explains so much. Self- -
Blog postI’ve been practicing gratitude for a while now, and on certain days, I have so damn much of it that it feels like I could drown in joy. (Other days, of course, are normal, with mosquitoes and flat tires and bad choices and rotten bananas. But today is not that kind of day.)
Today my first thriller, Stolen Things, comes out. And all I can think is: it finally happened.
I wrote the 911 dispatcher book I’d always wanted to write. My agent, who is so smart -
Blog postToday is the third anniversary of my self-employment.
Honestly, y’all, I didn’t know if I would still be self-employed three years after starting this full-time gig. When I quit my day job, which I’d had for 17 years, I wondered if I would have to go back to it, tail between my legs. In fact, for the first two months after I left, I stayed on as a part-time employee, available to fill-in for emergencies.
I only ever went in twice, and after the second time, I got the mother of -
Blog postOne year ago today, I wrote in my journal, “I am an alcoholic.” Then I wrote, “F*CK.” You see, I’d been writing in my journal for months about how I couldn’t be one (because that’s what non-alcoholics do – ha!).
Reasons I couldn’t be an alcoholic: 1. I’d never gotten a DUI.
2. I’d never lost a thing, not a house, not a car, not a relationship, not even my phone or wallet.
3. I’d written 20+ books to critical acclaim.
4. I didn’t drink in the morning. I rarely -
Blog postThe uniform project is great so far! I’ve been carrying out my mission to not have to think about my clothing since about mid-December (I always get big ideas at the end of a year and then I can’t resist starting early).
The project is related to my #DepthYear that I’m focusing on this year – saving money and staying close to home and the things I already have. Know what I have a lot of? Black dresses.
I LOVE black dresses. I love LBDs that are barely decent and long heavy dre -
Blog postY’all, I wrote another book.
ROCK THE BOAT BUY LINKS: Amazon | Kobo | iBooks | B&N | Google Jake’s story was SUCH a long time coming. I feel I owe this sailor an apology. When I started the Ballard Brothers, he was the one I really wanted to get to — I was in love with him, and the idea of him sitting on his boat docked in the Darling Bay marina, waiting for love.
But I got busy writing other things, and other genres trumped romance for a while.
Now he has hi -
Blog postHello writers!
Every year I write about what I make money-wise as a full-time author. I do this for a few reasons, but the biggest one is that there’s always been a veil of secrecy around how much writers make. You can find stats, but they’re anonymous. Many times, I say that I’m a full-time author with two dozen books out, and people think I’m rolling in the dough. And honestly, I AM, truly. I can afford to pull my weight with our San Francisco Bay Area bills. My wife provides our in -
Blog postI just read A Year of Less by Cait Flanders, and I loved it. I originally picked it up because I love books on minimalism and clearing clutter, but this one is truly about money, not clutter. I didn’t know I needed it, but I did.
She put into place a spending ban for a year, and her whole life changed.
I’m going to do something similar in 2019, and here are my personal rules (subject to change! but not at a whim so that I can buy a new blender or something):
MY BUYING LESS -
Blog post(Oh, damn it! I wrote a post yesterday but it never posted, apparently. I didn’t win NaNo. I revised a book instead. I’m happy with that. There, now you’re caught up.)
I’m in bed. It’s gray outside, and I’m fighting a cold. Wait, why do I say that? The cold has me—I’m not fighting it. I’m reminded that I haven’t gotten my flu shot yet and won’t be able to until I’m well. Damn it.
Dozy is under the covers resting against my calf, lazily licking one paw. None of our dogs are peo -
Blog postWell, I failed at NaNo, but what a good way to do it.
I didn’t finish my project. Hell, I barely started. But I learned two important things: the Venice memoir has no So-What yet, so it must sit on the back burner for a while.
And I learned that I don’t mind not winning Nano. In fact, on the contrary – I’m almost proud of my non-accomplishment! (I did write a whole book in October, so that does help with the feeling.)
But what I’d still really like to do is to blog mor -
Blog postIt’s day eight of NaNoWriMo and I haven’t started the memoir I meant to write this month.
I’m actually liking this method of doing NaNo this year–I’m using NaNo as a challenge to take myself less seriously. I really meant to start today (I couldn’t before this – Monday and Tuesday were 14-hour days of grading and teaching) and I didn’t. I still could today, this I know. I have lots of work, but I could squeeze in 30 minutes of writing before I go out tonight.
But will I? -
Blog postSo, I’m already behind with NaNoWriMo, and I’m here to tell you–that’s OKAY! If you start on November 21st, and only get 1200 words all month, if that’s more than you would have gotten without the challenge, you’ve done an awesome thing. The point of NaNo is to get you out of yourself and get you moving on the page.
Here’s my excuse: I’ve been at Walker Creek Music Camp. It was important for me to take these four days (okay, three) off writing altogether. I had a vague hope that -
Blog postSo it’s November 1st, and you know what that means, my friends. It’s time for NaNoWriMo! I’m going to try something (and I very well might fail! I’m okay with that. I fail a lot, and it’s just part of life. I also succeed quite a bit, since I’m not too scared of failure).
I’m going to try to blog every day about how my NaNo is going for 2018. This might not work right off the bat, since Lala and I are off to music camp for four days, and I don’t suppose I’ll have much time to write my -
Blog postEMAIL NIRVANA! I have found the holy grail of email. Maybe you already use this, but I didn’t, and one week in, I don’t know how I didn’t use it before.
I’m always struggling with email. I use SaneBox – it helps a lot (affiliate link). I send emails to certain days when I can try again to get something done (I have emails I’ve forwarded to dozens of later dates. Eventually it either gets done or I delete it, realizing it doesn’t matter anymore). SaneBox does a great job of filte -
Blog postThe funny thing about quitting drinking–I finally feel like I’m in the right place. There’s a quietness within me, and it’s not something I ever expected to be able to cultivate. But it’s there. Once, early on, I texted a sober friend and said, “I’m not upset about anything today.”
She texted back, “Sounds like you found some serenity.”
Huh.
I just didn’t think I was a serenity gal. I’ve always been all motion and action and drive and mania and DOING until I crash into -
Blog postSomething I’ve been loving late is coconut chia pudding. It’s so easy, takes like 3 minutes to make, and serves you for days. My friend Stephanie introduced me to it in New York (she also introduced me to halal cart-style chicken and rice, which I’m obsessed with and made last night) and I love it. (Many good things come from knowing Stephanie.)
Put one can of coconut milk, light or not, into a small bowl and add 1/4 cup chia seeds. Add some unsweetened flaked coconut if you like -
Blog postThere should be a fancy German word for the yearning to quickly create something that will look beautiful on goddamn Instagram.
I have a new routine (and you know I love me some new routines), and it involves me getting up at five in the morning (yes, this is what some self-employed people do). I do a bunch of things that are good for me (yoga! meditation! journaling!), and then I’m working by 7:30 AM.
If you subscribe to Cal Newport’s Deep Work theory, which I do, you kn -
Blog postFREE PDFs TO MY LESSONS BECAUSE I ROYALLY SCREWED UP – As I usually do when I teach, I promised all the people who were in my sessions at Writers Digest Conference last weekend that they didn’t have to take notes or take pictures of my PowerPoint slides — if they signed up for my email list, I would send them the PDF of the sessions. It’s a great bribe – it always works, and it’s totally win-win.
Guess what? I’ve misplaced two of the three email lists from the -
Blog postWin an In-Person Visit from Author Rachael Herron!
The post Patreon Pledge Drive appeared first on R. H. HERRON.
-
Blog postLast night, I went to hear my dear friend Adrienne Bell teach from her book, Plot MD: Your Personal Prescription for Crafting Compelling Stories. You know that thing where you believe you know how awesome your friends are and then they blow you away? (It’s always one of the most delicious surprises of life.) Yeah, that happened.
I love Adrienne’s book. I’ve had her on my podcast. And still, hearing her speak about her method of generating organic story structure for novelists abs -
Blog postI worked 911 dispatch for seventeen years. As I’m incredibly young, this might come as a shock to you. How could this be true? I know, I really have no idea.
Two and a half years ago, I left that job to become a full-time writer. It was a huge leap of faith, but it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Obviously, while I was working 911, I couldn’t write about a dispatcher. Even though I write fiction, and I make everything up, it wouldn’t have reflected well on t -
Blog postScroll down to see how to get a pair of socks, knitted for you by me.
On Saturday, I went out to register voters. I was stumping for a congressional candidate on Saturday (Josh Harder, who is absolutely blowing his shot to have his campaign slogan be VOTE HARDER but seems like a great candidate). I never thought I’d be the person to stand on a corner, asking strangers to talk about politics. But 2018 isn’t like other years, is it?
Two of my best friends and I w -
Blog postFirst Facebook Live ever!
There’s a live puppy at 7:10.
The post First Facebook Live! appeared first on R. H. HERRON.
-
Blog postEarly this morning I got a text from Bethany: I think someone might be having puppies.
I knew she was wrong – I’d palpated Little Molly’s (the weekend rescue) belly just the day before, wondering if she was preggers and hadn’t felt a thing. She didn’t bulge anywhere. I called her back. “We should go to the vet right now. She’s not pregnant, so if she’s in pain like that, there much be something really wrong.”
Bethany said, “No. It’s labor.” Still not believing her, I said -
Blog postI’ve written many times about the way my car seems to attract animals. At all times, I keep in my glovebox a leash and a small can of wet cat food (this smells good to all kinds of animals).
Driving home on Saturday, I turned onto our street and saw a woman letting two small dogs run around in the middle of the street. I rolled down my window so I could tell her they were cute with a “get your dogs out of the street” passive-aggressive tone of voice when she cried “They aren’t mi -
Blog postFrom my weekly writer’s email – are you a writer who should be on the list?
You hear me say all the time that I love revision, that revision is where the magic happens. (Many of you also tell me that I’m out of my mind.)
But I’m here to tell you that once you’ve revised three or four books, you’ll love revision more than first drafting (and if you don’t, then at least you’ll be way less scared of it than you were on your first few buckin’ bronco rides).
Liste -
Blog postI have never liked zucchini.
I understand that this is a controversial position to take, but in general, I find cooked zucchini to be slimy and tasteless. It reminds me of tofu. Like tofu, it can be made into lots of good things, but I don’t need to be around its virginal state.
But we are a member of a CSA, Phat Beets. We’ve done CSA memberships before, but this one feels a little different. We get a box every two weeks, and it’s stuff that we actually use. I often go into th -
Blog postI sure do. I love seeing your kids online. And before you call any government agency on me, I want to make this clear. I consider myself your kids’ honorary fairy godmother. (Some of you have been so nice that you’ve actually told me that I am.)
If we’re friends at a place like Instagram or Facebook, you can’t post too many pictures of your kids doing cute things. I don’t have kids. There was a moment ten years ago when, for about two months, I thought that I might like to h -
Blog postI finally set up the front porch as a place where actual humans can hang out.
We’ve lived in this house for more than twelve years now, and the porch has NEVER, not once in that time, been a place to hang out in. There have been a few times when it hasn’t been a total hellhole, when I’ve had plants and a little chair and a bistro table in there, but honestly – who sits at a bistro table and writes? Someone at a bistro, that’s who. That’s the only person who does that.
But the
Books By Rachael Herron
$1.99
includes VAT*
includes VAT*
$4.99
includes VAT*
$4.99
includes VAT*
$0.00
includes VAT*
includes VAT*
includes VAT*
includes VAT*
includes VAT*
includes VAT*
includes VAT*
$6.49
includes VAT*
More Information
Anything else? Provide feedback about this page
