{"id":8249,"date":"2022-06-22T19:36:49","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T19:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genzpublishing.org\/?p=8249"},"modified":"2022-06-23T13:31:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T13:31:35","slug":"the-color-of-the-elephant-by-christine-herbert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genzpublishing.org\/the-color-of-the-elephant-by-christine-herbert\/","title":{"rendered":"The Color of the Elephant by Christine Herbert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Peace Corps lists three goals (\u201cThe Peace Corps Mission\u201d) on their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacecorps.gov\/about\/\">website<\/a>. One: help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women. Two: help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served. And three: help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.<\/p>\n<p>When volunteer Christine Herbert packed her bags and traveled to Africa for her Peace Corps assignment, she never imagined that, 18 years later, she would be publishing her first book\u2014her way of contributing to the third goal she\u2019d promised to fulfill.<\/p>\n<p>Herbert is a debut author with GenZ Publishing. Her memoir, <em>The Color of the Elephant<\/em>, follows her journey of familiarizing herself with the people, land, and culture in Africa, along with detailing her own struggles and successes that happened along the way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were certain moments that begged to be written. There were certain things that wouldn\u2019t let me sleep,\u201d Herbert said, describing her writing process.<\/p>\n<p>Inspired by watching Peace Corps advertisements on TV and safari-type National Geographic shows when she was younger, taking an assignment in Africa was Herbert\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n<p>After returning from Africa, Herbert committed to learning story-craft by taking the time to write daily, encouraged by the numerous people throughout her trip who told her she would go home and write a book about her experiences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy friends and family would transcribe them [letters written home]\u2014write them down, type them up, and send them out to everybody,\u201d Herbert explained, creating \u201ca little following of my life and my adventure.\u201d This is when she started becoming a writer, but she didn\u2019t know it at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought, \u2018No, there\u2019s no way I will do that because writing is so hard for me,\u2019\u201d Herbert said. Yet so many encouraged her, she began to think, \u201cmaybe there\u2019s something about this, about me, and my abilities, and my life, that I\u2019m not seeing.\u201d Then she started asking, \u201cwhat does it take to be a writer?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once she had a completed manuscript, Herbert went to conferences to pitch her work, however, the rise of COVID-19 led her to explore other routes of pitching. She connected with GenZ Publishing through #<a href=\"https:\/\/pitchwars.org\/pitmad\/\">PitMad<\/a>, a quarterly Twitter event where authors pitch their unpublished manuscripts. Once interested\u2014hooked by a 280-character pitch\u2014an agent or publisher likes the tweet to request more information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTraditional publishing is almost impossible to break into,\u201d Herbert said. However, recently, the industry has been changing. There are many more available options for self-publishing and publishing with small, indie presses, like GenZ.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really liked that GenZ has the mission of supporting new and emerging authors, helping them get a foothold in an industry that it\u2019s hard to get credentials in,\u201d Herbert said.<\/p>\n<p>As <em>The Color of the Elephant<\/em> is her first book to be published, Herbert feels she has come full circle in her writing journey. She\u2019s now able to share her work with a larger audience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt feels wonderful. It feels surprising. There were times that I wasn\u2019t sure it would ever happen for me because it has been a long road to publication,\u201d Herbert said.<\/p>\n<p>Of the many lessons Herbert learned from her Peace Corps assignment, one was to take chances. Her upcoming book is one way she\u2019s putting that practice into action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI became unafraid of new opportunities and unafraid of failing, as strange as that sounds,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cI learned that you\u2019re going to fail many more times than you want to fail, and you\u2019re going to move forward\u2026I learned to take chances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on her trip led Herbert to recognize successfully persevering through her challenges. \u201cDon\u2019t let perfect be the enemy of good,\u201d Herbert said, alluding to Voltaire.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven when I get to my last draft, I have to realize, that doesn\u2019t have to be perfect either, you know? It can be just as good as I can make it,\u201d Herbert said, refusing to let her perfectionism be disabling.<\/p>\n<p>With her first book published, accomplishing \u201cThe Peace Corps Mission\u201d, there\u2019s no saying what\u2019s next for Herbert in this world of opportunity. No matter how she continues to share her story, her biggest piece of advice for aspiring writers is to read anything and everything\u2014to discover what they like and why, along with finding out what makes them <em>feel<\/em>. She also encourages them to always keep writing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t wait for that perfect idea to come,\u201d Herbert recommended. \u201cJust set yourself a time every day\u2026and stick to it. Just take that time to write. The more of a habit that becomes, the more the inspiration will come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Color of the Elephant<\/em> is available for preorder now on Herbert\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/christineherbertauthor.com\/index.html\">website<\/a>. The book will be officially released January 4, 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Peace Corps lists three goals (\u201cThe Peace Corps Mission\u201d) on their website. One: help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17491,"featured_media":8250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Color of the Elephant by Christine Herbert - GenZ Publishing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.genzpublishing.org\/the-color-of-the-elephant-by-christine-herbert\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Color of the Elephant by Christine Herbert - GenZ Publishing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Peace Corps lists three goals (\u201cThe Peace Corps Mission\u201d) on their website. 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