Born and raised in Chicago, D. J. Herda attended St. Rita High School, Columbia College, and DePaul University on the city's near North Side. He developed and taught Creative Writing Workshop at several Windy City colleges. He worked for years at The Chicago Tribune, as well as at numerous other Chicago-area newspapers and magazines, before becoming an internationally syndicated columnist.

Herda has worked with numerous high-profile corporate CEOs, media celebrities, politicos, and sports personalities, from Jim Liautaud (Jimmy John's), Jack Link (Jack Link's Jerky), and Marc Emory (Heritage Auctions' part owner and European Operations Director) to George H. Bush, Art Linkletter, Lawrence Welk, and Sammy Davis Junior. Besides having published more than ninety books and several thousand short pieces of his own (from award-winning Young Adult titles to adult fiction/nonfiction works, articles, short stories, and scripts), he donates his time to the writing community through his professional mentoring and occasional workshop appearances. He also provides editing, ghostwriting, and book doctoring for a select number of writers and has helped several dozen fledgling authors get their first books published by mainstream publishing houses.

Writing in virtually all fiction and many nonfiction genres, D. J. Herda is one of the most versatile as well as talented full-time freelance writers working today. He presently lives and works in the Rocky Mountains of the southwestern United States. He is represented by The Swetky Literary Agency.