Danyelle Briggs is Close to Publishing Her First Book, “A Darker Hue Of You."

Kirsten Carroll, Staff Writer

At only 21 years old, Danyelle Briggs is on her way to becoming a self-

published author- something that not a lot of people her age can call

themselves. Danyelle grew up right here in Atlanta where she is currently a

senior at Oglethorpe University, and she is majoring in Public Relations

with a minor in Politics.

Her book, “A Darker Hue of You,” will be available in Jan. 2022, and

pre-order dates start on Oct. 31, 2021, on her website

https://danyellebwrites.square.site and on Amazon.

“Every three seconds that passes, a person goes missing in the United

States. Six seconds ago, it was Bailey Ramirez. To find out the truth and

keep her friends out of jail, Aleigha Emerson is forced to play a game with

deadly consequences,” she said of her young adult/teen fiction and

mystery/thriller novel.

She went on to say, “Told from three perspectives three years apart, ‘A

Darker Hue of You’ is the race against past and present as three stories

collide, and lives are forever changed. Time is running out, and when the

clock strikes zero, Aleigha Emerson plans to remain unscathed from it all.

If, she can make it through her sister’s funeral first.”

“I chose this plotline because after reading so many books and watching so

many TV shows, this was the way the story called to me. I knew it had to

be centered around women and their interactions with the people around

them. I knew there had to be a heavy family aspect. This story had to be

written because it’s a glimpse into the darker things that young adults have

going on in their lives that we don’t share with the rest of the world,”

Danyelle said.

“I think I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I’ve been writing since I was

old enough to know how. My mom always says I picked up a pen and I

never put it down.”

Her book is about 300 pages long, and she began the process of writing it

three years ago when she was still in high school.

“It’s loosely based on my friends and I and the things we experienced.

Some of the messages and stuff in the book are real and I think that’s what

makes this so cool. My friends played such an active role in this process

that I couldn’t have done it without them.”

She shared that her friends were a big inspiration for her, and they have

always been very supportive of her and her art.

“I decided to write a book because I grew up on authors like Cassandra

Clare and Suzanne Collins and Veronica Roth who wrote these amazing

strong female leads, and it gave me so much confidence.”

However, Danyelle saw that these books were missing characters who

looked like her, and she noticed that these characters didn’t understand the

same struggles that she faces on a day-to-day basis. Growing up, she

needed but didn’t have a story with characters of color and a strong female

lead in it, so she began to write one of her own that included these kinds of

characters.

“I hope to give girls younger than me a sense of belonging when they read

about strong women who look like them,” she said.

“My biggest obstacle with this novel was editing. I didn’t touch this book for

a year after I finished writing and now I can tell how old I was when I wrote

a specific section. I’ve been overcoming it by realizing that I laid a good

foundation but now I have to cement it.”

“It’s like the saying I have tattooed on me; to create your own reality, where

there’s a will, there’s a way. Don’t ever be afraid to be yourself and step

outside the box. It’s in those out of the box times that the best opportunities

present themselves.”