About John Herrick
When he decided to become a novelist, John Herrick did not expect to invest the next twenty years in what would seem a grueling, disconnected process.
A native of St. Louis, Herrick fell in love with writing fiction at eight years old, and by age eleven, his goal shifted from short stories to novels—and turning a hobby into a career. Challenged with a constant flow of fresh ideas and lack of patience to complete such long-term projects, he merged the written word with another love: music. Herrick spent fifteen years developing his songwriting and lent several songs to benefit recordings by nonprofit entities.
A self-described "broken Christian," Herrick battled depression since childhood. In that context, however, he developed intuition for themes of spiritual journey and the human heart.
Herrick attended his first year of college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He completed his studies at University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, where he graduated cum laude with a B.A. in mass communication.
Herrick gained ghostwriting and voice-over experience for print, radio and the Internet, including WCBW-FM in St. Louis, the unofficial predecessor to current station JOY FM (KLJY).
Herrick spent nearly a decade in the information technology arena. To his surprise, through technical work, he acquired analytical and project-management skills that would help shape his personal writing process. His project work included software development and support for the media and fund-development arenas.
Eventually fund-development executives approached Herrick and asked him to manage donor marketing and analytics for the national nonprofit media syndicate for which he worked. Intrigued by the prospect of combining his creative and technical skills, Herrick accepted the challenge. By the end of his first year at the helm, the program experienced its strongest revenue performance in four years. His sense of calling, however, remained alive. When offered a promotion to directorship, Herrick respectfully declined, sensing a need to preserve his evenings for his true passion as a writer.
While he worked behind a desk at a nonprofit organization, Herrick struggled with the need to write. Armed with a concept that had burned within him for three years, he chipped away for an hour or two each evening until he completed the manuscript for his first novel, The Landing. The novel became a semifinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.
For his second novel—his first novel to hit the shelves-Herrick crafted From The Dead, where he weaves together themes of life, romance, and spiritual journey. In From The Dead, Herrick examines a character who rediscovers his true destiny, acquires a fatherhood role—and discovers how far a father would go to spare the life of his son.
From The Dead became an Amazon Kindle bestseller in the United States and United Kingdom.
The Landing was published in 2012.
His first nonfiction book, 8 Reasons Your Life Matters, published in 2013 and intended as a free e-book exclusive, reached the #1 spots on Amazon's free Christian Inspiration and Motivational Self-Help bestseller lists. The book also reached Amazon #1 spots in the U.K., Australia, Germany and India. More than 100,000 copies of the book have reached readers.
Looking back on the life events that culminated with From The Dead, Herrick admits that, on many occasions, his circumstances appeared unrelated and without focus. Yet, with regard to the journey, Herrick acknowledges, "It was a challenge but also a growth process. At the time I wondered what God's plan could be. But in retrospect, I can see His fingerprints all over it."
His third novel, Between These Walls, hit shelves February 2015.
When he is not writing, he loves reading and long drives on the interstate. He is a sucker for 1990s music.
Herrick is at work on his fourth novel, tentatively scheduled for 2017.
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