NOVEL ROCKET INTERVIEW by Kelly Klepfer

John Herrick received his B.A. in mass communication from the University of Missouri and began his career in the information technology field, where he developed a practical framework for his creative impulses. Eight years later, Herrick shifted his focus to fund development, procuring an opportunity to combine his technical, creative, and marketing instincts. Armed with a vision to impact and uplift his generation, he has written for radio and provided ghostwriting, songs, and voice-over work to local and national nonprofit organizations.

Herrick lives in St. Louis.

Q: Tell us a bit about your current project.

From The Dead is a story about second chances. It takes an honest look at a guy whose life hits rock bottom due to years of selfish choices, then follows his journey out of the pit. It presents an honest look at the tragedies of failure and the joys of emergence from it.

I wanted the main character, Jesse, to become a friend and felt I owed it to my readers to take a realistic, no-holds-barred look at his life. While Jesse’s circumstances are different from our own, I sought to write about some of the fundamental emotions and fears that make us vulnerable and communicate hope.

Q: Do you still experience self-doubts regarding your work, or struggle in a particular area such as writers block or angst driven head-banging against walls? Please share some helpful overcoming hints that you’ve discovered.

Regardless of how much I’ve planned, I face a recurring fear that I’ll sit down to write and nothing will come. I’ve faced that fear since childhood, and it’s ridiculous because it proves irrelevant every time. I think many writers struggle with that, because if we try to write and nothing happens, we feel like we’ve failed. I’ve found the best way to fight that fear is to just sit down and write anyway.

It goes to show how dangerous fear can be: If we succumb to it and quit before we try, failure is guaranteed.