Welcome to a unique newsletter. How so? Well, it’s the only one I’ve found that examines successful authors throughout history via the optics of their unique set of ethics. So we can learn from them. And benefit. And emulate them. And grow.
My name is D. J. Herda, and I, like all writers, bring a unique, wide-ranging set of experiences to the literary table. I was born and raised in Chicago and wrote my first book at the age of fourteen (I should have known better). Fortunately, I slowly lost the ignorance of youth as I worked my way up the literary ladder, first as a stringer for a suburban chain of newspapers and then as a book, magazine, and newspaper editor for several different publishers. I developed a unique method for teaching effective writing called Creative Writing Workshop and, in time, taught everything from analytic grammar to journalism, fiction writing, and photojournalism at several Windy City colleges and privately. I wrote for years for The Chicago Tribune, as well as for numerous other Chicago-area newspapers and magazines. I was also fortunate enough to become an internationally syndicated newspaper columnist with a weekly byline before more than 20 million readers in nearly all major North American dailies and, of course, the Yellowknife, Saskatchewan Canada, Gazette. Really.
I served time as a ghostwriter and book doctor for others who have become successful authors as well as for luminaries such as Art Linkletter, Lawrence Welk, Sammy Davis Jr., and some of the largest names in corporate America. I think of them all--from Jim Liautaud (Jimmy John’s) and Marc Emory (Heritage Auctions) to George H. W. Bush and Phillip Adcock (Adcock Enterprises)—as personal friends. Besides having published more than ninety books and several thousand short pieces of my own, from Young Adult titles to adult fiction/nonfiction works, articles, short stories, and scripts, I enjoy donating time to the writing community through my professional mentoring and five decades of accumulated knowledge. (Hey, I ain’t no spring chicken!) I also occasionally provide editing, ghostwriting, and book doctoring for a select number of promising writers. I take pride in having helped several dozen fledgling authors get their first books published by mainstream, conventional publishing houses.
Writing in virtually all fiction and many nonfiction genres, I’ve been called one of the most versatile, talented, and prolific full-time freelance writers working today. As for me? I just think of myself as a writer. A long-time resident of Colorado, I currently hang my hat in southwestern Oklahoma, where I moved to complete work on a biography of Wilma Mankiller, the first female main chief of a major Indian tribe in modern history.
My invitation to you: Sign up now, so you don’t miss a single issue. I think we’re going to like writing, reading, learning—and growing!—together. In fact, I guarantee it.
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