D.L. Hannah shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi D.L. , thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
Definitely writing. There was a time when a college professor at Youngstown State University took an interest in my work. She asked me to write an essay for a project. I acquiesced to her request, yet stopped writing shortly after. Mentally, I wasn’t prepared to go where she wanted to take me.
It’s odd. I don’t remember her name, but I remember the look on her face once she realized that I was a good writer. I was very young…and scared. At the time, I was complacent with normalcy and staying under the radar. At that time, I didn’t have anyone to look out for–to fight for.
It probably disappointed her that I gave up on myself. However, I didn’t have the level of self-love and self-awareness that I have now. I’m not sure why the experience has stayed with me all of this time.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am D.L. Hannah, an author of dark science fiction. I have written and published eight novellas. What makes my stories unique? I write what I have never read–science fiction. Therefore, I have the freedom to express my creativity without the burden of wondering if I’m plagiarizing from another writer.
The stories I write are thought-provoking and poignant. The storytelling covers misogyny, discrimination, child abuse, sexual assault, and generational trauma. There are no little green men or creepy characters that eat humans. My characters are physically appealing and brilliant.
Some are honorable. Others are abominable. Yet, some of the dynamics blur the lines between fiction and reality.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
The birth of my daughter changed my life. For the first time, someone depended on me for survival. After she was born, I wanted to be someone she could be proud of. I still do. I became cognizant that I had to start working on my insecurities while changing the skewed perception I had of the world.
I wanted her external environment to be better and safer than the one I was exposed to. Over the years, I’ve worked extremely hard to give her what I didn’t have–physically, emotionally, and psychologically. I hope that one day she’ll reflect on the time we spent together and understand I did everything I could to provide her with a wonderful life.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
At 18 months, my daughter had a seizure. She lost the ability to speak and was later diagnosed with autism. I was completely floored. Despite what some may believe, there were no signs. No developmental delays. She never walked on her toes. I was a very observant mother. Nothing out of the ordinary would have gotten past me.
Then one day, everything changed. I believe I mourned her no longer being able to verbally communicate with me more than anything. I missed her calling me Mommy or even by my first name. After a year of depression, I got my priorities in gear.
I signed up for multiple seminars on autism and read every book I could get my hands on. I didn’t realize that by educating myself to assist her, I was shaping myself to become an advocate for other children who had been diagnosed with autism.
Years later, I sat in IEP meetings where school districts didn’t want to abide by their own policies and advocated for the rights of children with disabilities. I remember one case where the district didn’t want to provide a translator for the mother. Her native language wasn’t English.
I informed her it was her right to request and receive one and instructed her to ask the district for a parent handbook. The district counted on her not being aware that it was their responsibility to provide parents with a written policy. Once she received it, we began working on getting services for her child.
Advocacy IS power. Although my daughter no longer utilized words to communicate, I realized that I could be her voice. A powerful one. In Ohio, a teacher removed lunches (that I packed) for the pettiest reasons. She told me she initially removed my daughter’s lunch for taking a single potato chip from a classmate. At the time, my daughter was five.
She was on a gluten and casein-free diet. She didn’t take the potato chip out of malice. However, due to her being the only Black student in the class, I feel the teacher did it out of a narrow-minded sense of entitlement and bigotry. Since my daughter couldn’t speak, she became the perfect victim. During an IEP meeting, the teacher proudly informed me that she and her aides had not allowed my daughter to eat lunch for a year. They tossed her food into a trash bin. Soon, my daughter developed PICA (eating non-food items). After school, she’d hoard food on her plate and wouldn’t allow her father and I to dispose of it long after she’d finished with it.
I attended parent-teacher conferences regularly and shared my concerns about her behavior toward food at home. At no time did any of them disclose they’d been neglecting to feed her. When I heard what the teacher had done, I was livid. I asked who had informed her that she could steal lunches that came from my home. After she realized how angry I was, she tried to apologize, but it was too late. The cruelty and arrogance she initially displayed kicked in my ‘mama bear’ instincts.
I wanted her to be held accountable. I researched who represented our district and found our state senator. I spoke to him on the phone and asked for intervention. I’ll never forget his words. He said, “Ms. Hannah, I don’t know what I can do. But I’ll go to that school for your daughter. After he visited the school, the Superintendent stepped down. It was significant due to her previously signing a contract to remain at the school for a couple more years after she retired.
We moved to North Carolina after I graduated from college. When I was notified that she was physically assaulted by a teacher’s aide, I wrote to our former Congressman and asked him to intervene. Once his investigation into the matter was completed, I won a complaint against the school district. Before the assault, teachers and aides weren’t being trained in de-escalation techniques. Afterwards, the school district was required to comply and treat students with disabilities humanely and demonstrate respect.
Power isn’t in the volume of your voice. It lies within the confines of your mind. Knowledge is definitely power. Education is a sword. An ax. A hammer. The blows you make with what you know and who you know makes a lasting impact in the lives of those you advocate for.
We don’t exist to better our lives. Be it on a macro or a micro level, we’re here to ensure everyone has access to what they need to survive. That requires commitment, humility, and drive.
There’s no room for personal pain when you’ve been called to fight for others.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
The biggest lie the book industry tells itself is that indie authors don’t work as hard as traditionally published authors. That’s NOT true.
Many exceptional indie authors craft incredible stories that are just as good as or better than those written by more established authors. Also, they work extremely hard and are compensated with minimal financial reward.
A good example is the roller coaster I had while making the final edits on JanIus Book II. Although I had the proper things checked in Word, my draft was riddled with straight quotation marks and curvy ones. My “replace all” function recognized the quotation marks as the same. My heart sank once I saw it wouldn’t make the required changes.
I had to comb through the draft with razor sharp precision and manually change all the straight quotation marks to curvy. There were over 300 changes. The day prior, I entered all of the edits my editor had sent over. I thought I saved them, but when I sat down to re-read the draft, I realized none of the changes had been saved.
It had taken two hours to enter the changes. Therefore, I had to spend another two hours re-entering his suggestions. I almost cried, but I told myself I wouldn’t give up.
That’s something I don’t know how to do–give up. I never give up on the ones I love. When I began writing my first series, Platirius, I asked my family and friends (who also model for my cosmetics business) if they wanted to be a part of it.
My sister Sheila, my cousin Tami, and my friends, Kourtney, Alicia, Thea, and Angela. All of them are characters in my science fiction series, Platirius, Coldarius, and JanIus.
They are Colonel Sheila, Captain TamRi, Colonel Kourtney, Sgt. Alicia, Colonel Angela, and Thea plays a dual role–Major Sonee and Sgt. Thea (twins). It was important to me to include them.
It became difficult for me to juggle writing and running the business full time, so I had to temporarily fall back on one project. However, I view writing as an extension of my business, along with my podcast, Amerisogyny.
All of these ladies have been there for my daughter many times over. I love them with all of my heart. I wanted to make sure their characters were just as beautiful and special as they are in real life. It was my honor to have them be a part of this interview. They are my family. Above all, families stick together.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I only want one story told about me when I’m gone. I want my loved ones to tell my daughter that I never gave up on her. Not for one second. I want them to let her know that I fought for her every day I was blessed to wake up and be her mother.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dlhannah.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authordlhannah/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565834023386
- Other: Threads: https://www.threads.com/@authordlhannah
Image Credits
D.L. Hannah has full rights to all photos provided.
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
