The Good Human: 9 Radical Practices to Smash Your Ego, Unleash Your Authentic Self, and Foster Connection in a Divided World received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Dawn Hammer.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The name of my book is The Good Human: 9 Radical Practices to Smash Your Ego, Unleash Your Authentic Self, and Foster Connection in a Divided World. (I know. It’s a mouthful). I self-published my book on my birthday, January 9 of this year.
What’s the book’s first line?
The first line of the first chapter reads, “At the age of 16, you never could have convinced me my thoughts were anything but perfectly correct.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Ultimately, this book is a guide to stepping away from our ingrained responses, thoughts, beliefs, and reactions to become more conscious and intentional with our outward actions. It’s a challenge – albeit a gentle one – to truly question what we think and why, and to interrogate whether those beliefs are helpful or harmful to ourselves and our fellow humans. It’s a call-to-arms for each of us to turn and bravely face our fears so we can choose instead to act, always, from love.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
This book is a direct response to the hatred, fear, and divisions (social and political) currently sweeping our nation and the world. I wanted to offer something to challenge those ideologies and belief systems that create harm for both our individual selves and our larger communities.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Because it’s filled with simple-yet-profound practices that are tried-and-true for attaining a higher-level consciousness, one that pauses and investigates the truth of what is otherwise mindless, uncontested brain chatter. When we fail to allow ourselves that pause and investigation, we find ourselves running on autopilot, believing every single thought that comes into our head. We often react to those thoughts in a reckless way rather than taking deliberate and heart-centered action that is in alignment with our professed values. On an individual level, this may only harm us, if we’re choosing to believe in and react to self-limiting or -destructive thoughts. But on a societal level, such unfeeling reactions can cause grave harm, such as when laws are created that remove a human being’s self-autonomy. Changing our individual thoughts and patterns must occur before we can create a better, more just, and humane society.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I was 7 years old. I wrote a book about a little girl who was struggling with her family’s decision to move away from their small town to a large city in California (I’d recently returned from a trip to Disneyland and was obsessed with Orange County’s beaches and sunshine). The story won a regional Young Author’s Award, and I was immediately smitten. I knew then that someday I wanted to write for a living.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
This is my very first published book. It won’t be the last. Writing and publishing is so much fun! It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
For the past 5 years, I’ve been a full-time college and then university student. I was privileged in the fact my husband was able to be the sole provider of income during that time, allowing me to focus fully on my studies. I graduated in December of 2021 with dual degrees in Communication and Law and Policy and published my book shortly thereafter. Since then, I’ve been doing the work to start a new business where I can offer guided coaching and workshops incorporating the practices of Radical Inquiry, which is an even deeper dive into the principles I introduce in my book.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
Not enough! Starting a business takes up a ton of time and energy. Add in being a mom of both humans and one very needy canine; a wife; and a relatively new homeowner, and my days get full much too quickly. That said, I blog weekly, which keeps me in the flow of writing, and every so often a writing contest or submission prompt from a literary journal will catch my eye, and I’ll furiously scribble out an essay or re-work past ones for consideration. It’s very fluid.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best part is how relatively easy it is for each of us who has a story to tell to get to tell it, on our terms; there’s less gatekeeping when you don’t have to wait for an agency to “approve” of you. The hardest part (for me) is acting on marketing and selling my book, and knowing that burden lies solely on my shoulders. It’s more difficult, I think, for those of us with small social platforms or who are more comfortable remaining behind the scenes (ahem).
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
YOU CAN TOTALLY DO THIS. Don’t let that little voice in your head tell you your story is stupid, or pointless, or that it’s been told a thousand times already by more important or skilled voices. If the desire is in you to write a book, that isn’t a call to be ignored. One of the most helpful exercises I did when I began drafting my book was to answer the question, “Why?” Why was it important for me to write this book, right now? I scribbled my answer on a hot pink Post-It and tacked it to the wall in front of my computer. When things got difficult (and they will get difficult), I looked at my answer to that “why” and allowed it to fuel me further. Also: find your tribe. Get a support system in place from the start, a group of fellow authors or (if you can afford it) by joining a program dedicated to specifically helping writers self-publish. Working alongside others who believe in your vision and who are also going through the same thing will help nudge you along the often-long process of publication.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
That would depend on who the publisher was and what they were offering me. I admit my ego would be overjoyed because there is still a part of me that believes I won’t be a “real author” until I’m traditionally published. There’s some of my own stuck thinking to explore!
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
My motivation is freedom. Freedom for myself, and for everybody else. For me, freedom means everything from financial abundance to location-independence to intentionally living free from ego’s grasp. Writing and, hopefully, coaching and leading workshops will help provide all of those experiences for me and my family while also benefiting the humans who feel called to join the journey, where they’ll inevitably experience their own version of freedom.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
I’m re-reading Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, and I’m struck again at the worlds he created, and the vivid characters and vast history encompassing his stories. That kind of seemingly unlimited imagination and creativity is humbling to witness and awe-inspiring to dive into.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams. I love, love, LOVE this book. She is a creative non-fiction writer who plumbs the depths of human emotions without fear. She explores all the nuances of humanity with grit and grace, her prose is lyrical, and she can punch you in the gut with her sentences. Her writing is powerful and evocative and prompts reaction, which is exactly what great writing should do.
Thank you for sharing my words!