{"id":4453,"date":"2020-01-27T15:26:56","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T20:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/?page_id=4453"},"modified":"2020-01-27T15:26:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T20:26:58","slug":"laraine-herring","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/laraine-herring\/","title":{"rendered":"Laraine Herring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Laraine<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoment I realized graphite marks on paper magically became words, I knew I had\nto figure out how to tell my own stories. I wrote my first autobiography in 1974\nwhen I was six, titled aptly: My Name is Laraine<\/em>. It was twenty-one pages,\nwritten in pencil with illustrations. I hand-made several copies, bound it with\nglue, and put a $2.00 price tag on it. I\u2019ve spent the intervening years trying\nto find the courage to claim my own story as succinctly as I was able to do in 1st<\/sup>\ngrade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\ncareer day in the 6th<\/sup> grade, I said I wanted to be a writer and a\nwitch. I intuitively knew how storytelling cast spells over people and I wanted\nin on that gig. Grown-ups kindly suggested I turn to English or the Humanities\n(or please please a STEM field?) and as I grew up, I continued to deflect\nstatements such as, \u201cHow are you going to make a living?\u201d and \u201cGirls can\u2019t be\nwriters. Girls are muses.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nam no one\u2019s muse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nthen we moved from North Carolina to Arizona and my dad died and I ran away to\ncollege and majored in English like I was supposed to, and became a teacher\nlike I was supposed to, but all along the way, the words never stopped\nwhispering. I learned how to manage my energy with a full-time job so I could\nwrite in the mornings before work. I tried on different kinds of stories trying\nto find the voice that I had when I was six. I tried to write for the\nmarketplace. I tried to write like the writers I admired. I had some success,\nbut I kept a part of myself back, hiding, pretending I was safe. The pretending\nthat I thought kept me safe kept me trapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nI was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2017, there was no longer any more time to\nhide, and the words that I\u2019d been swallowing for nearly five decades demanded\nto have a voice. I still work full-time. I\u2019m a professor now of Creative\nWriting and Psychology, and I do love teaching. I love my students. I still\nwrite in the early mornings. But suddenly, when faced with the idea that the\nnext thing I write could be the last thing, I had to write like me, even if no\none connected with it. It was time to put it all on the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\nspeculative memoir, A Constellation of Ghosts: A Speculative Memoir with\nRavens,<\/em> which Regal House will be publishing, is what emerged from stepping\nout of hiding. My first draft of the book was a 32-page visual book\nillustrating the arc of the story, not unlike my first attempt at autobiography\nduring the disco age. Many times, I thought I should turn back and find a more\ntraditional structure or cut out the magical elements so I would have a better\nchance at selling it, but every time (with the help of great writing friends) I\nturned back to the voice of the book and listened to it and followed it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\nhealth prognosis is good, but I have taken in the lesson that none of us knows\nhow long we have. To honor that wisdom, everything I write now is with the\nurgency of understanding that what is left unsaid may remain unsaid. The time\nis now to tell the stories we have to tell in the ways we must tell them. When\nthe old narratives fail us, we must write new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although\nto my family\u2019s chagrin, I did not become a medical doctor, I have become a\nwriter and a witch, and that\u2019s all I ever dreamed possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Things I\u2019ve done:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m\nthe author of three books from Shambhala Publications: Writing Begins with\nthe Breath: Embodying Your Authentic Voice <\/em>(2007); The Writing Warrior:\nDiscovering the Courage to Free Your True Voice<\/em> (2010); and On Being\nStuck: Tapping into the Creative Power of Writer\u2019s Block<\/em> (2016). Both The Writing Warrior <\/em>and On Being Stuck <\/em>have been recognized by Poets & Writers Magazine <\/em>as a Top 10 Book for Writers. My book Lost\nFathers: How Women Can Heal From Adolescent Father Loss<\/em> was released from\nHazelden in 2005. My work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and my\nfiction has won the Barbara Deming Award for Women. I\u2019ve worked as a grief\ncounselor, a poet-in-the-schools, a counselor for women in transitional\nhousing, and at my favorite job\u2014a projectionist in a movie theater. I\u2019ve taught\nnationally at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, the Omega Institute, the\nAntioch Writers Workshop, the Tucson Festival of Books, Desert Nights Rising\nStars Conference at Arizona State University, and many others. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The moment I realized graphite marks on paper magically became words, I knew I had to figure out how to tell my own stories. I wrote my first autobiography in 1974 when I was six, titled aptly: My Name is Laraine. It was twenty-one pages, written in pencil with illustrations. I hand-made several copies, bound […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4455,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-4453","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"entry"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9DpGh-19P","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5163,"url":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/a-conspiracy-of-lemurs\/","url_meta":{"origin":4453,"position":0},"title":"A Conspiracy of Lemurs Podcast","author":"Jaynie","date":"May 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"We are delighted to share with you our Regal House Publishing podcast platform, A Conspiracy of Lemurs, that celebrates books, readers, writers, publishers, and the writing craft. 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