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Joaquín Ramon Herrera

Goodreads Author

Born

in Los Angeles, The United States

Website

http://joaquinramonherrera.com

Genre

Fiction, Horror, Fantasy

Influences

Zap Comics, Poe, Ray Bradbury, Dostoevsky, Fabulous Furry Freak Brothe ...more

Member Since

August 2014

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/joaqunramonherrera

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Joaquín Ramon Herrera grew up moving across the USA, spending time in places like Los Angeles, Miami, and New York. He left high school at 16 and by 29 had earned two college degrees. The first, from a community college where he studied photography and counseling, and the second, from NYU's film school.

Joaquín Herrera is an artist in multiple mediums. He illustrates his own books, and sometimes others'.

Joaquín's illustrations appear in various publications, including the Mexican history book Gods, Gachupines, and Gringos.

Joaquín has recently finished a Fantasy/Horror novel featuring Horris, and it is in the editing process. Hang tight! ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

what inspired you to do literature/art for los niños

Joaquín Ramon Herrera I'm sorry I left this unanswered! It's a good question.

I think there is a magic to childhood. Our minds and hearts are so fertile. If I write books t…moreI'm sorry I left this unanswered! It's a good question.

I think there is a magic to childhood. Our minds and hearts are so fertile. If I write books that feature children it's more of a re-inhabiting of that magical realm of unlimited possibility. I'm deep into a new Horror/Fantasy novel now; the protagonists are children. I like writing characters like that to transpose their consciousness against adults or older kids. I like to showcase the way our perceptions and beliefs change throughout, and thus change the world we see ourselves a part of.

With SCARY: A Book of Horrible Things for Kids, I just happened into that. I was a designer and illustrator for the publishing company. I did a cover for a book idea they had--a collection of scary and dark factoids that would titillate children. They didn't have an author yet, just an idea for the book. They asked me to do a mockup of the cover. I did two. They were so impressed by the character and art in one of them, that they asked me if I wanted to write and illustrate the whole thing. So I did. (less)

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What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Joaquín Ramon Herrera Practice! Don't think about writing so much, just read a lot, and write a lot. You'll need to push through a few years just feeling it all out, making…morePractice! Don't think about writing so much, just read a lot, and write a lot. You'll need to push through a few years just feeling it all out, making the mistakes we all need to make to get beyond them. Strive to be honest with yourself about where you are, and about what you achieved in a story vs. what you hoped to. The gap may be wide at first. But with honest appraisal, you can narrow it.

Don't be afraid to choose a mentor or two to give you feedback. Choose people who know how to analyze and write a story, not just friends or wordy people. If you trust them, and their words ring true, don't fear them, even when they hurt. They can serve to make you better at what you are trying to do.

Watch all manner of films. Read different genres. Don't just travel in your comfort zone or your work may get dull and predictable. You can integrate inspiration from anywhere, into any type of story.

Take risks. With your characters. Challenge them. Complicate them. Find out who they are by testing them. They may not be who you think or whom you originally intend them to be. When they begin surprising you, they are coming into their own life.

Never skip back story. Always write pages of back story for each character you feature. Don't include it all in the story! Just write it to know who they are. I write a character's backstory, usually their parents, sometimes even their grandparents; even if these other generations never feature into the book. Really understanding your characters' origins, fears, choices, regrets, hopes etc, will breathe life into them when they speak and act within the boundaries of your told story; it will organically inform all their choices and make them consistent to their character.

Get the clumsy stuff out of the way by writing a lot and letting each piece go. I have revisited earlier work and rewritten it, but that's not usually the case. And in the years that it sits, waiting for me to grow and see it a new way, I am still writing new stuff.

Get your life story out of the way. For a long time, I was trying to insert my own experiences into every main character. I was essentially trying to write my own story over and over. Maybe that's not everyone's challenge; maybe I just was enamored of my own story. But you have to get over that. Else, you'll end up preferencing passages or scenes because they matter to you, even when they aren't what's best for the story. So write it and get it out. Or tell yourself its for later, in your memoirs. It's fine to let your past influence your writing; you won't be able to help it. It's part of being a writer. But let go of telling your particular story as-is through another face. It's better to splinter it all up anyway. You really can find the interesting parts of characters when you let them be who they are.

Always work in service of the story, don't make anything your favorite in that story. Love every element as your own creation, but be ready and able to cut it loose if if threatens the overall integrity or clarity of the story.

Limit your time online! It's easy to bleed out all your need to write for the fast payback of feedback to your tweets or blog posts. But you can waste months, even years, and never give yourself fully to your work. With what to show at the end? That's not to say that all online writing is useless by any means. But if you pay attention to yourself, you will know when you are just goofing off. That's fine, but make sure you give real space and time to your written work that gets no instant feedback.

There's probably a lot more 'advice' I could give. But it tends to get context specific. This is what I thought of easily. (less)

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Joaquín Ramon Herrera’s books

Average rating: 4.5 · 32 ratings · 8 reviews · 3 distinct works • Similar authors

	Scary: A Book Of Horrible Things For Kids 4.57 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 2005 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Espeluznante/ Scary: Un Libro De Cosas Horribles Para Ninos/ a Book of Horrible Things for Kids 4.33 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2006	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Horris, Little Eli and the Secret Vision: Book One of the Dreamfever Chronicles 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

5 posts
Joaquín Ramon Herrera's Blog: Fireflies in an Ocean of Night

Secret Collision

Hi! I don't know if I've told you, but I finished the rewrite of 'Secret Visions in the Valley of Night' [working title], and submitted it to a Lee & Low contest for the New Vision award.

Also, I write more regularly about my work here. Honestly, this site is so poorly designed that I spend way too much time just looking for simple functions like "Write Blog," and "Add Currently Reading." There is Read more of this blog post »

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Published on November 02, 2015 10:44 • Tags: goodreads-staff, website

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