EJ Raymond: The release of my new book, ‘Dusk or Dawn’

My name is EJ Raymond and I was born in Girvan, Scotland. I grew up in a hearing family with no prior history of deafness before myself and my two brothers were all born profoundly deaf.

My mum learnt BSL for the three of us so our first language is home sign (mother’s tongue!) When I grew up and started visiting the deaf community and learning BSL the signs I used were so fast that my mum couldn’t keep up with me!

I have released a new book – my third book publication – which came out last month in October. It is called ‘Dusk or Dawn.’ This book is about a character called Sinead facing a group of vampires.

In the book we see Sinead make a shocking discovery when she sees shocked to sees Cara, a deaf lady she believed had died many years ago so throughout the book she has to find out what was Cara’s story.

Dusk or Dawn is aimed at readers who are over 18 years of age because of the amount of violence, LGBT content (lesbians) and warning triggers throughout.

I was inspired to write this book initially because I have watched a lot of vampires films! I never thought I could write a story about vampires until one day a very emotional story suddenly popped in my head. I was just itching to write it down. And I did!

Writer’s block is a nightmare but I’m glad I managed to get through it! I actually wrote the story firstly as a script in June 2001, it took two weeks to finish. However, I pushed it aside and left it. I gave up hopes of it being turned into a film due to barriers with film companies – as I wrote the whole thing in BSL as English is my second language.

The script gathered dust until the pandemic hit and sent everyone home throughout lockdown. So I blew off the dust and re-wrote it all into a novel instead in the hope that people can enjoy reading this book. Imagine that – 20 years later after first writing it and it’s now a novel!

The script and the novel are totally different because in the script I’d state people’s conversations/spoken lines and also actions. But in the novel, I have to add characters’ movements, their emotions/feeling, thoughts and so much more.

I wrote straight onto paper by hand first of all, then went on the laptop to re-write it. Then I finally printed it, cut the paper and changed everything around, putting papers up on the wall so I can follow page to page to see if I’m happy with the process. It was a lot of hard work!

When I was happy with how the story finished, I asked someone to help me with the grammar and ensuring its plain english so that it’s more accessible for both deaf and hearing readers.

I won’t say that writing is an easy as pie process – it’s definitely not! I already bit all my nails, sighed a lot, stared at blank paper and had too many ice lollies – eating them while thinking about what I should write in the next part!

I was aware that the whole writing process would be slow. When I first started writing it took me so long time to find the right publishing companies. Fortunately, someone pointed out to me about the KDP (Kindle Digital Publishing) from Amazon online which allowed any authors to post their books on Amazon to sell on Kindle or as a paperback/hardback book. All I had to do was click a button and it published quicker than I thought.

I am much slower than a professional writer! I can only manage to complete one book in a year or so. I need to work with an editor, to explain what the sentences mean so they can correct my grammar. The book went back and forth between myself and the editors for a few months.

I had three women working to correct my grammar, polish my story and double-check everything in the book. So when it was finally finished I got so emotional. There are also a couple of triggers in the story that were personal to me which I felt ready to share.

I got so emotional and overexcited as well when the illustrator who created the cover of the book sent me her work. I thought, ‘wow 20 years of dreaming of it and finally it’s here!’ It felt like I had closed a chapter and opened a new chapter for my next new story. It also feels like having a baby grow up and leave me!

For “Dusk or Dawn” I have received really positive feedback. A few have said it should be turned into a film – I laughed out loud at this and thought, “I did write it as a script in the first place!” But I’m really happy to hear that thought!

One reader left feedback to say that they were disappointed because the book was in plain english, and not ‘literature’ English language. I appreciate the feedback but I personally prefer plain english so it can be equal for both deaf and hearing readers.

I’m now working on a fourth book at the moment. It’s the hardest one I’ve worked on because I have such an emotional connection to the story. It’s about a deaf woman who spent over 20 years in isolation, with no friends and no one to talk to apart from her five aunties. There is a reason why she spent all those years alone. I’ll say no more….!

I’ve already got a fifth book planned in my head and I have two boxes full of my ideas and old work that I need to re-write in the future! My brain is full of imagination!

If you are a deaf person who dreams of writing their own book I would like to say this to you:

Don’t be afraid of what you’re writing, forget needing to have perfect English. Forget the rules. Just throw all your imagination down on the paper or on the computer. Give it a few weeks or months then go back to it again, see what you want to add or change. Keep it up until one day you feel so satisfied with your story.

Then find someone who you completely trust in, to work with on the grammar and communicate with them back and forth until you’re happy. And there you go, you created a story! It’s like magic. Don’t let people pull you down – you can do it.

You can buy “Dusk or Dawn” from Amazon.co.uk at:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09K1RXDCT/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_FFPGF7AFWBJB8D6BP6VJ

EJ Raymond graduated from Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2018 where they studied BA Performance in BSL/English 3-years course. EJ is a profoundly deaf and non-binary gay single parent of two grown children.

EJ currently freelances as an artist and actor, writing for theatres/short films and is a published author as well as a BSL video promoter.

www.ej-raymond.squarespace.com
Twitter: @EJOfficial