Writing My Life

Why Write a Book about My Life?

When I was growing up, I always asked my parents, "Where are the deaf people's books, and where are the books written by deaf people?" They always told me, "Well, there aren't any." So when Charles Ronsac proposed that I write a book about myself as a deaf person, I thought, you know, it hasn't been done. It was a pretty shocking idea. But as I thought more about it, I thought, Yes! Why not? There are hearing parents who have deaf children and who don't know what to do with them. They have never read anything by a deaf person in terms of information. What do you do with a deaf child growing up? This is why I decided to make those hearing parents my target audience.

There are also other deaf people (and hearing people who have never met deaf people) who know nothing about Deaf culture. They would also be part of my target audience. In addition, deaf people themselves have always asked about books written by deaf people. They would constitute a third target audience. So I decided to write the book.

Many people told me that deaf people cannot write books because they have trouble writing in French. As it happens, anytime people tell me that something cannot be done, I automatically rebel. I inevitably say, "Well, why not?" I have a language—LSF (French Sign Language). Now, how am I going to get something down on paper in French, which is not my first language? In thinking about it, I realized that I could sign the material in my first language and have an interpreter translate it into French. The interpreter should be someone who writes French very well and can help me compose a book that way. It would not be me actually writing the text and putting my life on paper, but it would be my words.

I also thought about how I could put my life on paper myself. I could simply sit down and write. I knew there would be a lot of grammatical difficulties and that I would make some mistakes. So which was the best way to go? I was not sure. However, since this was my book, I decided to write it myself, not through a ghost writer else or an interpreter. It took me a year to start in earnest. But it was my story, and this was the way I wrote it.

I showed the finished manuscript to Charles Ronsac at the publishing house. After reading it, he said, "There is so much there." But he maintained that I needed to work with a hearing person. I left Ronsac and started reworking and organizing what I had already composed.

Collaborative Writing and Interpreting

The publishing house proposed that I work with a professional writer they had in mind. We met and discussed the project, but I did not feel that she was somebody I could work with. For some reason, she was not complementary in terms of what I wanted to do. I felt she was not really direct. She could not even look at me, and I needed eye contact. I always need that kind of direct contact with someone. So I said no. The publishing company then suggested that I meet another writer named Marie Thérèse Cuny. Since looked me directly in the eye, I gave her a namesign—a big open eye. We had great rapport right away.

We then brought in an interpreter. Now, you cannot pick just any interpreter because this person is going to work very closely with you on an important project. So I chose Laure Broussard, whom I had worked with for a long time. Next the three of us looked at the book that I had spent a year working on in my own French and personal style. It was exactly what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it—directly from the heart.

For three months we worked together—full time, every day. First we went through the material I...