Meet Genny

To cut a long story short …

I write books, love my family, idolize authors, hike a lot, sing off key, water ski, and text with one finger. 

As a kid, I was not a particularly good reader, so I didn’t read that much. But I loved imaginative play. Growing up in rural southeastern Wisconsin on Duck Creek Road, which is as quaint and scenic as it sounds, I built forts in the fence lines and entire worlds in the cornfields. 

As a teen, I was as an exchange student in Caracas, Venezuela for a year. Turns out, there’s a lot to explore beyond the cornfields.

As a young adult, I graduated from Marquette University with a social work degree, and then lived in El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico working with undocumented refugees and political asylum seekers.

At twenty-five, I hiked the 2000-mile-long Appalachian Trail, which taught me a lot about perseverance. 

The best of my thirties and forties revolved around being a mom. (I won’t embarrass my sons by gushing about them.) I also loved teaching. All that time I was a closet writer.

Not anymore!

Genny O'Herron

In the five decades it took me to claim a life as a full-time writer, I held an interesting assortment of jobs. Which one do you think I’m fibbing about?

  • Babysitter / $1 an hour
  • Corn Detasseler (It’s a real thing. You walk up and down rows of corn fields for 7-8 hours a day in the scorching heat yanking out spikey corn tassels to stop the plants from pollinating themselves).
  • Cook at Armstrong’s 8×8 ft burger shack. Now Wedl’s Hamburger Stand. Don’t miss it if you drive through Jefferson, Wisconsin.
  • Camp Counselor
  • Nurse’s Aid
  • Data Entry Clerk
  • Youth Home Counselor
  • Live-in Housekeeper
  • Massage Therapist
  • Kindergarten Teacher (1st and 3rd grade teacher, too)
  • Declutter Coach (Yes. This is a job. You help people get rid of crap they don’t need, so they can organize their homes and simplify their lives).
  • Central New Mexico Community College Instructor
  • Beach Resort Attendant
  • Transcriptionist
  • Mortician’s Assistant
  • Swatch Department Seamstress (This has nothing to do with the Swatch watches that were all the rave in the 1980s. This is where you cut sections of upholstery fabric from gigantic fabric rolls and sew them into small sample sizes.)
  • Newspaper Columnist
  • Retreat Center Manager
  • Candy Store Clerk
Correct Answer:

I applied for a part-time position as a mortician’s assistant when I lived in Missoula, MT in my early twenties, but I never got an interview. In hindsight, I’m really glad.