Your Book Your Story with Dr Barker
Your Book Your Story with Dr Barker
S1 E1: To Sing Again: Journey to Become - Dr Dwayne Dyce (His Story - His Book)
Today we meet Dr Dyce.
Dr Dwayne Dyce shares his personal story as an educator and his journey to become a published author. His book: To Sing Again: Journey to Become, tells the story of a boy coming of age. Our talk today explores the development process, the challenges and his choice of genre to tell his story, and explores how he overcame a negative conversation to write his semi-autobiography on his 4th attempt to write a book.
Follow me on Twitter @mathter.
Megel R Barker 00:29
Today's guest is Dr. Dwayne Dyce. Dr. Dyce. How are you doing?
Dr Dyce 00:37
Alright, Dr Barker. Thank you so much for having me on your program. I am doing wonderful. I'm very excited to be here with you.
Megel R Barker 00:44
And myself. And my listeners are really excited to have you on the program. Dr. Dyce is someone who, who has been an educator for a number of years, he has dedicated his life to providing service through his diaspora works working in the Jamaican diaspora and also as a teacher back in New York state. So Dr. Dyce a while back ago, decided to publish his book. And the reason why he's on our show today is to talk a little bit about himself to tell us a little bit about his background as an educator. And later on we'll talk about his book, and their story.
Dr Dyce 01:35
Yes, yes. Thank you so much. Well, my story will be born in Jamaica, I grew up on a farm near with my my grandparents. And so I was educated totally in Jamaica into from from K 12 to college, tertiary institution, and undergrad and graduate program before moving to the US. And I also work in Jamaica for four years before coming to the US. My background is actually in science and math as a teacher. And then I got some educational leadership training as well, and experience through organizing programs in school leading different programs, and so on and so forth. And then I came to the US spent seven years teaching in Florida, another two in DC I know, doing to the three to my second year in in New York. I've worked in different schools, I've worked in quite almost all the school systems that they have in the world, from Montessori, to magnet schools, to public schools, to charter schools, independent schools and international schools. So that's that's where I, I lived in terms of my educational background, I'm training.
Megel R Barker 03:00
Yeah, no, no, thanks for sharing that. That sounds like a wide educational experience that you bring. And so while you were teaching in the classroom, and educating yourself in formal education systems, you know, to get to your level of education at some point in that you went, I need to write a book. Tell us a little bit. Oh, how, you get to that point.
Dr Dyce 03:23
Yeah, the book, the book came as it's called to sing again, the journey to become, and he published it in 2017. But that was probably the fourth attempt to finishing up a book conducted the journey because I started writing in 2009. And I was saying that I was going to write an autobiography. And one person discouraged me really, really badly. In the Lisa is a lady that I came across on my other side, my ex wife's family. And I just said, you don't have any story to tell. You don't have any, any, any words or something to put on paper? And I thought, Yes, I do. I do have words, I grew up, you know, where I grew up, and so on. And then I stopped the minute she said that I stopped and I stopped out in chapter two. I still have that book saved on my computer. Yeah. And then I started another one. And I'm gonna finish it, too. So I stopped in chapter one again. Yeah. And I thought about writing a children's book. Started the children's will never stop again. And then so this is yeah, this is a fourth fourth time I started writing and I said, I was in the middle of my doctoral program. And I said that I'm going to finish this one. So right in the middle. Starting around the January February I start chart to chart out the book, the beginning, middle and end. And I said I need to finish this So now was on this moment, you know the drive because you're you're adopted to off education. And this drive when you're in the moment and you're studying, then you're, you're saying, you know, I have these hours in the night because the doctoral program really keep you up at night. And I started writing because I finished up my papers. And so when I was looking in the dissertation to work on the dissertation, and I took about three months to write that book from beginning to end. Yeah, night and day took night and day. So I thought of writing the book and publishing it before I actually finished with the doctoral program. So I was in the second year doctoral program we are doing. So is the drive
Megel R Barker 05:44
To get your story. Other people would say, you know, you're in that doctorate program. You have made for three attempts prior to right. How did you find the time? Yeah, in a drive to divert time from your program to produce a book?
Dr Dyce 06:04
Yes, yes. That's a good question. Very good question. Dr Barker. You know, a lot of times even though I, I heard, I will hear people say that I don't have time, I don't have time to do anything. But yet still, those same people will go home and spend three hours on Netflix, watching a series of something. And that's before I knew this. But then I was doing, I was playing soccer I was studying, played a part of an adult team, I was teaching in the school system in Florida. And I was taking care of my daughter as well. And I measure all the time. The one thing I didn't do, though, is to go to hang out on a Friday night, or a Saturday night, I saw and I didn't believe in hanging out too much. I went to have dinner with some people. And then I would go straight to home. And I would measure my time is two hours for this. And then I'll go home, and then I start writing, I have what to see already in the back of my mind churning. So I will just sit at a computer, and then it will just pop out of me. But I manage my time very wisely. And the funny thing about your question is that when you start managing your time, you realize that you have a lot of time. On your hand. Yeah. So in a nutshell, that's where it boils down to managing time,
Megel R Barker 07:25
per minute call, mentioned that in your first attempt. And the reason why I'm going to this is because there's I believe that all of us have a book in us, you know, and why one of my favorite writers Brene Brown have this thing to say that everyone should write their story. Because why do you might think your story is insignificant, your story might be someone else's Survival Guide. Right? That sort of statement. And sometimes people read thank God, thank you, God that someone is going through this with me. But why I wanted to come back to that first moment where you started to write your first book, and someone said something to you. You're a very strong person, a very strong willed person. But why did that affect your your progress? Yes.
Dr Dyce 08:13
It's because you will, strong will is I took time to develop that over time, because I was stubborn, a little bit as a child, and I used to help old people a whole lot. But when the strong wheel actually came over time you build on it. Because if you try something I didn't work, for example, I tried going through high school and I said, I'm going to outperform these students want to outperform that guy in math. And I did outperform them in ninth grade. And I didn't look back. And I said to myself, if I keep on saying this to myself, that I'm going to do this, I'm going to put effort into this. After making the goal, what I'm going to achieve it actually work actually work. I said to myself, I am going to finish this book. And it actually were but at the time that was after, at the time when she said that, I started looking back at my whole development and you know, low income, family power, poverty growing up in poverty. And when she said that, I internalized it and I said, you know, maybe I don't have any, any words right now. Maybe it's true. Maybe I don't really have a lot of words, to actually finish up a book. But then again, I did not know that you could actually create something from the themes of your story. Yeah. And yeah, and fill them fill in the gaps. I didn't know that using just the themes. Yeah. And that really got to me. That's why I stopped Yeah, at that time, because I let the negative energy internal
Megel R Barker 09:48
and that's a poor for reflection, because a lot of people who are trying to write their book, those of us they do have a story behind the book and sometimes, why the first time the second and the third attempt that they Look wasn't published. And you'll find we'll find over time that many of these tours connect to people that we actually sometimes don't even have a strong relationship with. But they make an offhand comment. And it is enough to just stop you in the middle of what you're doing. And to second guess yourself. So you went on, I wrote your book. And you wrote your book, your book, tell us a little bit your title. And, you know, the journey to become tell us what, what is the what is your book about name of the book and a little bit about your book?
Dr Dyce 10:35
Yeah. So then the name of it is To Sing Again, The Journey to Become to sing again. I got the from so long story, but I got that title in the back of my head from probably the year before. And when I started writing a children's book, I had a type of title like that, like it has to do with something again, like you're going to say that type of resuscitation of the human spirit. Yeah, no. So you try something, you'll fail. And you're done in the gutters. And then you, you emerge, like the Phoenix. Yeah, emerge. And I thought about it. And I said, you know, I really need to center this around education. And you know, what influence it really is the, I read some some of their novels, because I don't really like to read novels so much unless they center around a theme with science, or philosophy, love, philosophy, or politics. And so when I was in the doctoral program, I read a book called, it's called race, class and gender in the US in the United States. And it's written by, by Paula Rottenberg. And she took articles from different people with black people, white people, and so on back from 1800s. And she wrote about the race and the class and so on, that developed in the US, and the marginalizing of, of black people, when they, they were coming out of slavery, and they didn't want to give them the land, you know, 40 acres and a mule, and some people are still waiting for that. And they say they get it. And then you look at Mahalo, they discourage the relationship between white women and black men. And they actually punish white women, for getting into relationships with with men, yeah, up to this day that they have this this tendency of, you know, and they actually damaged them damaged the psyche of these people, so that they don't have any inter interracial marriages or relationships. But some people are still
Megel R Barker 12:41
the defy the Church of God, they went with their heart. Yeah, they went through
Dr Dyce 12:47
their heart. So I read all of that. And I said, I really need something that will appeal to people using the themes of my life. Because this story is not my my life story. But it has the themes in there. And it's called to sing again, the journey to become, it's about a little boy called Damian. And Annie lost the in general, I won't give away a whole lot because I want people to buy the book is a good thing. They, there is a boy actually lost his mom. You know, after the mother told him stories, and so on about the past, and the relationship she had with her family, or father, mother in particular. And undefined, the little boy actually lost that mother, after jailing, and having a good relationship with the mother. She lost her mother in a car accident. And he ended up in foster home, he escaped from the foster home because he was being ill treated. And then he ended up on the streets for six months. And that's where he found his way back trying to figure out who his grandmother was. And they found his way back to his grandmother in a very unique way through newspapers, clipping and so on. And then his grandma showed him a picture of his grandfather who did not know at all, he was just like his grandfather, and he played music, just
Megel R Barker 14:04
like it's the journey to belong part of it. Yeah,
Dr Dyce 14:07
did turn it to become Yeah, to be part of it. And he became an this I'm looking into writing the second part of the book, because this is just a teacher telling me the story of how we became, you know, but it didn't finish because it ended with him. Re rejoined the school, I ended up in a school program, and started playing music for the choir. So on but how the title came to sing again, it was the boy in the story. Telling a story ended up at the library, reading a book of the little bird who lost his voice and couldn't sing in the Bird Kingdom. And his godfather bird taught the little bird to find his voice again. Yeah, so yeah, the title is actually in the title of that book in the history of the world to seen again and Bergen up interesting. And David answered. That's my story. Yeah, bird stories. My story. Yeah,
Megel R Barker 15:06
it comes it comes about to, in this case a bird story representing a survival guide. character that you have in the book. So when when when you mentioned that the book is available for people to get, but who you are, who is the person who should read this book? Who should read the
Dr Dyce 15:24
book? Alright. Yeah. So anybody can read it from I think third or fourth grade? Yeah, it's on a fourth grade level all the way up to two adults. Yeah. And the funny thing about it, quite a lot of adults read it students. And it's really sad, though. But they cried at some point in the book, and they would call me or email me. And they asked me, whoa, is, this really happened to you? Oh, my God. And I said, not really didn't happen that way. What is the theme? The theme exists? The theme is this year. So it really touched a lot of people. It actually put a few students lives that they started writing their own story, too. And I had more than one and 10 adults call me or emailing me saying that I'm writing my own story in Turkey.
Megel R Barker 16:17
Wow. So you think I've inspired a few? Right? Yes. So let me ask another question, then. So your story to sing again? Yeah. You mentioned that it's almost like a semi auto biography. In one sense, am I correct in saying that, like some of it is based on themes in your life, but it's not a direct. It's not a nonfiction story of your life. It's not an autobiography. But it is, in some ways reflective on in many ways, mirroring the life that you would have had. So my question then is why did you choose that approach to write that story? Yes, yes.
Dr Dyce 16:53
And that's a very good question again. Because I really want to in general, I really wanted to reach a wide cross section of people, from kids who are just becoming to know themselves, like fourth graders, fifth graders, sixth graders, and then adults who can relate to it because there are certain parts in it, where a student in in fourth grade or fifth grade, they might read it. And they might say, I have some questions here. Why is this? Why is the character doing this? Or why did he end up this way? Why happened to this one, and so on, and they will have questions for adults. And then adults will have the, the conversation with them. But there's also in the book, the format that I used, I created a format, where I have some quotes, some philosophical quotes in there that people can relate to. We grew up as Africans, even though we're mixed, we're very mixed in Jamaica, with Africans and Asians and European people mixed up in there. We have some Wise's sane or philosophical quotes, or jargons that we use to mean something or proverbs proverbs that we use. So I put, I created some of those from my philosophical background. And I put them in there per chapter, or for people to see too. So the format is very different from other book books, and they really tell a lot in our short is just 112 pages. Yeah, but it tells a lot about one child. Experiment quickly.
Megel R Barker 18:40
Yeah, experience. So you're saying it's an easy read? Yeah. From third from avoid third farm, you said our third grid,
Dr Dyce 18:50
about third third grade 9/4, grade nine, age nine.
Megel R Barker 18:55
Okay. So anyone could get this book as a reader analyst for kids to read and get a feel for what that life is like. I know you're from you're from Jamaica, is this book set in Jamaica?
Dr Dyce 19:08
Well, good, good question. The Yes, the sudden is a kind of mix kinda like a New York to Jamaica because they they the city is actually Kingston okay, this setting and and then it has tall buildings and so on, but I load the streets to be like this grid in my hand. I was a grid but but the the name of
Megel R Barker 19:38
the city is kings took a lotta creative lights licenses as as as you did, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that is something that has people who are writing can record can under can begin to accept that was a writer you can decide how that book is presented, you know, for understanding and the stories and the themes can remain. To see what the settings don't necessarily have to be exactly the way that we want it to be. And so that's a good example that you have shared. And I think anyone who's listening on this podcast who's thinking about writing a book, could begin to see that, you know, through your experience that they can write a book, and I think the lessons that they're learning is, someone might say something negative to you. That doesn't mean that you should follow that. And you should be thinking about how do you overcome that, you know, and then this might not be your you might have five different versions on your laptop that you're started. That doesn't mean your six attempts cannot become a book, you know? And so there's a lot here, I would think, you know, through your book and your story that people can, can learn from and, and take forward. So Dr. Dice, your book to sing again. Yeah, the journey to become is available, where
Dr Dyce 20:57
it's available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble had to sold out sign in when I when I wrote the book. It's on books, a million. And the most common place is though, is Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Megel R Barker 21:13
On what format can they get this book in?
Dr Dyce 21:15
Oh, they can get it in in the three different formats. I can get the cheapest one. Really? I'm more like readily available. Accessible, right? No, is the Kindle version? Yeah, yeah. Kindle is very quickly. You can just don't really like that really quickly. The hardback the hardback is the most expensive one is $23.99. Us. Yeah. And then the paperback? You actually I was looking on Amazon recently. And it's, it's decreased. There's a SEMA and there's a sale going on on Amazon.
Megel R Barker 21:47
So it's a good time. It's a
Dr Dyce 21:49
good time to buy it. Now.
Megel R Barker 21:52
Okay, no, no, that sounds quite quite exciting. And I'm hoping that anyone who's listening to this will go and have a look at it. And I think the best thing we can tell them when they do buy the book and read the book, they should leave a review. Right? Please? Yes. We
Dr Dyce 22:09
always always society is built on instant feedback or feedback into Yes, yes.
Megel R Barker 22:15
And no, as you're looking at producing a second version to update the APNs life a little bit further. Yeah,
Dr Dyce 22:22
yes. I'm working on another book to other ones. Really? Since that one. I really need to finish them. I don't want to give away
Megel R Barker 22:29
yeah. Or anything. A sneak preview? Yeah.
Dr Dyce 22:34
Failure guarantee. Yeah. Failure is one of them. Parenting is another one for me.
Megel R Barker 22:40
Yes, yes, yes. So now. So thank you very much for coming on to your book, your voice and sharing your book and sharing your story. We're hoping that as you share your story, it really represents an inspiration to young authors, and even listeners or not authors out there. But hopefully, by hearing your story, people may be inspired to write their book or continue to write their book, are we visiting a book that they have on their laptop? So Dr. Dice, thank you very much for coming on our program. It was great fun hearing your story. So wish you all the best with all said and as he said the book is available on amazon.com in many different formats. If you want it electronic, you can get it. But when you buy the book, please make sure that after you read the book, leave us short review. authors do value, getting a review, it helps other authors to buy the book as well. So anything that inspires you makes you feel like this book was worth your purchase. Just jot that down in the review. And that might help Dr. Davis's book to reach many more people and be inspired. So I hope the story inspired you today. Thank you very much for joining us and bye bye.
Dr Dyce 23:55
Wow. Thank you so much, Dr. Burton.
Megel R Barker 23:57
Thank you very much for coming on.