I’m very excited to bring you all this interview with debut author DeAndra Davis who is joining us today to discuss her debut novel All The Noise At Once, and neurodivergent representation. I was super excited to hear about DeAndra’s book and I can’t wait to read it. If you’ve not heard about it yet check out the official deal announcement in her tweet below!

This interview was part of the GeekDis event which you can follow on social media using the #GeekDis. You can also view all this year’s content at GeekDis 2023 content hub!

https://twitter.com/deandraswriting/status/1664616948485718016

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Hi DeAndra, thank you for joining me today for GeekDis 2023! Could you tell us a little about yourself? 

Hi! I’m a neurodiverse, Jamaican-American, YA author! I have way too many kids, two dogs, and a bearded dragon. I love video games, anime, reading, and writing. That’s a short blip but I feel like those are all the important bits.

Your debut book All The Noise at Once has just been announced, can you tell us about it? 

Yes! All the Noise at Once follows Aiden, a 16-year-old autistic teen who has an overstimulation meltdown at a celebration party following a football game. The cops get called and during the altercation, Aiden’s older brother, Brandon, is arrested in the process. In the aftermath, Brandon is accused of assault and Aiden has to clear his brother’s name before he loses everything. 

The book means a lot to me because I have neurodiverse children, and my second son—who is autistic—really inspired so much of Aiden.

There is a huge gap in intersectional representation, especially in publishing. What has the response been like to All The Noise at Once?

 Oh my goodness, so far the support has been amazing! My announcement got so much more attention than I could have ever fathomed. So many people were excited to see black autistic rep and I’m so excited to provide it. I think the experience of being both neurodiverse and black is such an important experience and it’s different and worth exploring. I felt so supported by the community to see how excited people were about the book and how excited they continue to be when I post about it. It has truly been amazing.

I’m one of those who can’t wait to read All The Noise at Once. I love that you’ve put an overstimulation meltdown front and centre as this is often portrayed negatively. What were your thoughts when writing that scene?

Writing that scene was actually incredibly overwhelming because I really had to tap into finding the words for how I feel when I’m in that space. I found it difficult and freeing at the same time to be able to identify it. I really want for people to be put in someone’s shoes as they’re going through that experience because I think if neurotypical people understand what that’s like and how overpowering a sensation it is, they would then have more empathy for someone going through it. I really hope that the scene achieves that for people as they read. 

You mention that your second son inspired Aiden. How has your personal experience shaped All The Noise at Once?

There’s a lot of myself in Aiden, but I think there are bits of me in every character I write. Aiden is very sarcastic, which is funny because he makes a note about how sarcasm is supposed to be lost on people who are autistic but that it isn’t. He has a very dry humor, and I love that about him because I think that’s how I can be sometimes. He’s also the things I wish I could be. He’s very straightforward in a way that’s fearless at times while also being very compassionate. It’s hard to balance all of those things at once, so I’m constantly impressed by him as a character. 

In terms of my own experience impacting other aspects of the book, I wrote a high school that was very similar to the one I attended and I wrote experiences that I truly had. Aiden’s meltdown happens at a post-game celebration at a diner, and that’s inspired by all the nights the whole school went to Denny’s after games in high school. Little things like that definitely leaked their way into the book.

As a neurodiverse parent of neurodiverse children, how much representation have you found in fiction or other media?

I think it’s so tough to say because I can’t say that rep isn’t there, but I can say that it’s sparse in comparison to other books, and sometimes it isn’t the kind of rep that I’m looking for personally. I’m not a fan of the superhero trope, or this idea that your disability or neurodiversity makes you some hero in the story because I feel that it just promotes othering. I’ve also never been a fan of stories that make it seem that you are exceptional simply for being different because I think it promotes this idea of consolation prizes for disability and neurodiversity and it, once again, leads to a type of othering. 

I really try to look for rep where it’s just neurodiverse people living and dealing with obstacles and being people and that nobody around them treats them like they’re some hero for “overcoming” their neurodiversity or disability everyday. That’s a personal taste thing for me because I don’t want people to award me just for living life, you know? It feels patronizing. That’s what I didn’t want to do in my book. I didn’t want to be patronizing. I think though that there are more stories everyday which is exciting! I see neurodiverse stories and stories about disability getting picked up all the time and I can’t wait to read them. 

What are some of your favourite books with disabled and neurodivergent representation?

Ahh! The hard questions. I suck at ever answering what my favorite books are in any context to be honest but I’ll try to narrow it to three maybe? Same But Different, Anything but Typical, and A Kind of Spark. 

Are there any sneak peeks you can give us about All The Noise at Once?

 Ooohhh this is a toughy. I’ll give you the first line because I happen to think Aiden is pretty funny!“Every summer, Brandon says it is hotter than the devil’s ass crack and I never quite understood what he meant by that.”

Thank you DeAndra for taking the time to talk to us!

Thank you for reading my interview with DeAndra Davis! It’s extremely important to support debut authors so if All The Noise At Once sounds as amazing to you as it does to me please take a moment to add All The Noise At Once to GoodReads. You can also follow learn more about DeAndra’s work on her website and follow her on Twitter!

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