Q: First tell us something about yourself.
My name is Blake Denson and I am a father of three beautiful baby girls: Yara, Iyla, and Olyver. I am married to my wife Alexis Denson and I am an international Opera Singer. Also growing up I never knew I had dyslexia.
Q: How and when did your journey start as a writer?
My journey with writing is fairly new. I only started about half of a year ago but the idea of writing I have had since I was young. My older brother used to write and illustrate children’s books and novels much like the Harry Potter stories. He would have multiple journals full of stories and would sit and read them to me.
Q: When did you write your first story? Is it published or not?
Yara Moon and The Unexpected Gift is my first book. It will be available on May 15, 2024.
Q: Tell us something more about your book.
This book is actually based on my real-life experiences with my first daughter. My first daughter was born with the unexpected gift of Down syndrome. I wanted to write this book because I saw there was a void in the children’s book space when it came to children with special needs. I wanted to create a character that children with special needs could relate to as well as children without special needs. The special-needs community is such a small and unique community I wanted to create a fun tool to introduce what special needs could look like.
Q: How did these stories and characters come to your mind?
Yara Moon, the character came to mind by seeing the ups and downs that she went through in her own life. The character is actually my own daughter. The pictures are based on real-life pictures we took over those two years of our lives. The booking itself was actually easy to write because I was able to go back and look at pictures and have all of these memories. Come flooding back to me from these real lifetimes that we went through.
Q: Do you want to leave any message for your readers?
I would love to leave a message to the readers and tell them that I love them and thank you so much for your support. My family really just wanted to create this book out of our vulnerability. We wanted it to be read by children, plant a seed of understanding, and also have real life experiences that parents can relate to. Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy it!
