Danielle M. Bryan
By day, Danielle is a non-profit executive leader and a mentor. Her pronouns are she/her/hers, she is a proud Jamaican-American, a wife, a mother, a daughter and an avid lover of international travel. So far, Danielle’s international travel destinations have included the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, France, Greece, Indonesia , Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, Turkey, Italy, Belize, Canada, England, Belgium, Germany and Austria! Similar to her passion for traveling, Danielle developed a love for expressing herself through written words and through story-telling. She describes her debut memoir as the story that found her after life threw her a few curve balls and she decided to use her journey and the lessons she learned along the way to inspire others.
Marina Raydun: You hold an executive position in a non-profit. Do you think your day job lends a hand to your writing?
Danielle M. Bryan: Perhaps it does. My role as a Chief Human Resources Officer requires an exceptional amount of reading, interpreting and writing. It requires organizational skills and the keen attention to details. All of these are characteristics that, when I consider it, proved helpful in structuring my written work. I think the creative aspect of writing is more a function of my personality and my non-work life experiences, however. For example, I am an avid traveler and I am inspired to relive my experiences with new environments, cultures and people by telling my story through writing.
MR: How about being from an immigrant family? In what way do you think this shaped not only your lifepath but your writing style?
DMB: I enjoy invoking my family's cultural nuances and experiences in many aspects of my life. Sometimes this has caused me to incorporate examples from the native dialect (i.e. Jamaican patois) I grew hearing, and even speaking, in my writing. In other instances, humor and proverbs that remind me of lessons from my family members or others who share my cultural and ethnic identity have found their way into my conversations and my story-telling. When I write, "Chicken merry hawk deh near" which translates from Jamaican patois to, "If a chicken is merry (happy), a hawk is nearby," the meaning is: even in the happiest of times, one must be watchful. I like to think that growing and learning in the context of a family that is from a different country has expanded my perspective and has helped me to genuinely value the beauty of differences.
MR: Was there a particular point in your life that truly set your memoir into motion?
DMB: Yes. When I was 36 years old I was diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis which was a devastating part of my reality for reasons including the uncertainty I had about what would lie ahead. Less than a year after that my divorce from my first husband was finalized, leaving me a new single parent and I was sure my life was spiraling out of control. I forced myself to regain control. And I did. My memoir is the story of how I did just that. My hope is it is the book someone needs in order to be inspired to get to the other side of their own challenges.
MR: What was the hardest part about writing Unparalyzed?
DMB: Ironically while I studied Psychology and Mental Health in college and graduate school, working through my own emotions is not always one of my greatest strengths. The process of writing this book was also a process of reliving. It was a process of facing and unpacking difficult experiences and emotions. It was an exercise in dealing with being deeply uncomfortable at times.
MR: What is your writing routine like? Do you have a set schedule? Do you outline?
DMB: No. I do not have a set schedule or even an outline when I work on personal narratives. I write as I process mentally and emotionally. I schedule dedicated writing sessions but give myself grae by not holding myself to a fixed timeline for "finishing." I work on the structure and organization of the story afterwards and with help from great editors! The story tells me when it is finished. I may, perhaps, use a diffrent process with a different genre.
MR: Do you plan to continue writing your story?
DMB: I do.I published this book using a pseudonym which was an incredibly difficult thing to do. It is challenging to be proud to share your personal story for the purpose of inspiring others but not have that story be associated with your real name, the real you. This is something I have been thinking about a lot of late and I have been taking decisive, small steps to erase the lines between the "author" and "real" me in my story-telling. I think a big reveal and/or a next book featuring the real me as the author is in my future!
MR: What does writing success mean to you?
DMB: For me success in writing is getting words on a page even if they initially suck! Editing can always help to clean up what is written but the words have to be there first! It can be hard to get started. Starting and continuing even when it is hard is success!
MR: Would you ever dabble in fiction?
DMB: I have no plans as of now to dabble in fiction but it is not completely off the table. I will avoid saying, "never."
MR: Any fun travel stories?
DMB: I got lost in the Greek city of Athens one night. I had just left the taverna where I enjoyed my first traditional Greek folklore show. The experience involved lots of unlabeled wine, singing yours truly, the introvert, joining in on the dancing - up to and on the stage and around the perimeter of the restaurant! Thankfully, I was a solo traveler on an entirely different continent so there was little risk of bumping into anyone I knew or who would recognize me. Once the fun was over, I stepped into the darkness of the night. To my surprise, nothing about the street, the neighborhood or even the now moonlit sky resembled the surroundings I remembered from hours earlier -- before the sun had set and before the wine had taken effect. I walked left. I walked right. I walked in circles, past unsavory sights and questionable beings in a city where I did not even have a basic command of the local language until I decided to get help from the concierge at a random hotel. I had not used or had to decipher a paper map since I was in gradeschool but a paper map with handrawn arrows and circles courtesy of the concierge is how I found my way back to where I belonged.
MR: What are you currently reading?
DMB: Radical Respect by Kim Scott! Next up is Year One!
For more information about Danielle, please follow these links:
Unparalyzed on Barnes and Noble.com
IG: @authordbry