This week, we’re bringing you a crossover episode from Beyond 6 Seconds podcast, which features conversations with neurodivergent people from around the world.

Award-winning host Carolyn Kiel speaks with neurodivergent entrepreneurs, creators, and advocates about their lives, identities, and issues that are important to them.

In this episode, Carolyn's guest is Tiffany Hammond, author of the New York Times bestselling children’s book, A Day with No Words. The book tells the story of a Black mother and her nonspeaking autistic son who use a tablet to communicate with each other and the world around them.

We’ll be back with a new episode of Made For Us next week. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy discovering Beyond 6 Seconds and be sure to give them a follow wherever you get your podcasts.

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Learn more about Beyond 6 Seconds

Podlink: https://pod.link/1336740192

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/35483102/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyond6seconds/

Learn more about Tiffany and her work: ADayWithNoWords.com

Learn more about World Autism Awareness Day: https://www.un.org/en/observances/autism-day

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Connect with Made for Us

1. Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/
2. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/madeforuspodcast
3. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeforuspodcast/
4. Newsletter: https://madeforuspodcast.beehiiv.com/

Hi everyone, it's Tosin here. Welcome back to Made For Us. Today we have something a bit different, a crossover episode with another podcast that I think you'll enjoy. Though we will of course be back with a brand new episode of Made For Us next week. Today's crossover is with Beyond Six Seconds, hosted by Carolyn Keel, which features neurodivergent people from around the world. Each week, Carolyn speaks with neurodivergent entrepreneurs, creators and advocates about their lives, identities and issues that are important to them.

Carolyn's guest in this episode is Tiffany Hammond, a New York Times bestselling author, speaker and disability advocate. Her children's book, Day With No Words, is about a Black mother and her non-speaking autistic son who use a tablet to communicate with each other and the world around them. A Day With No Words is based on Tiffany's personal experience as a Black autistic mother of two autistic sons. Through her book and her advocacy, Tiffany is shifting narratives around autism and communication.

If you'd like to hear more conversations like this, you can search for Beyond Six Seconds wherever you get your podcasts. I've also included links in the show notes. I'll see you next week for a new episode of Made For Us. In the meantime, enjoy this conversation between Carolyn Kiel and Tiffany Hammond.

Welcome to Beyond Six Seconds, the podcast that goes beyond the six second first impression to share the extraordinary stories of neurodivergent people. I'm your host, Carolyn Kiel. On today's episode, I'm speaking with Tiffany Hammond, a New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and disability advocate. She is the author of A Day with No Words and the upcoming picture book, How Do You Spell Belong? coming in 2027.

Through Tiffany's platform, Fidgets and Fries, she shares stories about autism, identity, and the fullness of Black and disabled family life. She's the proud mother of two autistic sons and uses her lived experiences to shift narratives around autism and communication. Tiffany, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me. I'm excited.

I'm really excited to talk with you today and to learn more about A Day With No Words. How did you get the inspiration to write it?

I wrote it as a post one day. These were days we did at home and we called them No Talk Days. And one day I was just like, I'll just write it into a post. Like I didn't have any idea of what I wanted to share, like online. was like, I'll just share this. And so like I wrote about our No Talk Days and then I put how they worked. And then I shared what we learned.

Like, well, what I learned on these days and these outings. And then I just hit post and it kind of just took off. I think it was like my first viral post. And I wasn't even expecting that because I felt like what that was wasn't really new. But a lot of the comments was like, I don't know why I didn't think of this or what is this? I was like, well, I just felt like it was normal for families that had loved ones that used AAC or whatever. But I was just trying to like take it like a little bit further. You know, I got the idea from my youngest son. He just one day was like, Hey, we should talk like Aidan talks. And then it just kind of like took off from there. I started like real small, like 30 minutes a day. And then I grew the time to like an hour.

And then I did it outside in the neighborhood. And then I did it using pictures on me. So like when I first started, I was using the pictures with Aidan. And then when I would go out in the community, I would like type text on the app to people. So it was quicker than I said, no, then I'll try and do it like how Aidan's doing it with all the pictures. So it was like a step by step thing. And I shared about it. It took off.

And then I didn't think about it for a few weeks and stuff. An editor from Simon and Schuster reached out to me and was like, Hey, you look like you would be a good person to write a children's book. And I was like, you definitely don't follow me then. Cause like, I don't even talk about that kind of stuff. She was saying like, you know, Hey, I love your Instagram and all of this. I was like, well, then you must know that I talk about like super heavy, hard, this is not kid friendly stuff.

And so like I wasn't seeing myself as a children's book writer. I just saw myself as someone who had children, but not someone who could write a children's book. And I was writing novels online on Instagram and I'm like, yeah, I want me to make a short book. So I was like, I can't do this. But she sent me a follow-up email and she was like, write a book about this. And she had the link on it. It was an Instagram link. I didn't know what it was to yet until I clicked it. And when I clicked it, it me to the post that I wrote about No Talk This. And it stuck in my head after that.

So going back and forth with her about it, I think I wrote like a sample and I don't think she liked it, but she didn't have the heart to tell me she didn't like it. She just kind of ghosted me. So it was just like, okay, well maybe that was not good, but the idea was still in my head about it. And so I was like, if I ever get the opportunity to publish a book or write a book, that was gonna be my first one, because it was in my head. I couldn't get it out. So when I made the post looking for illustrators, I didn't even have the book written. I said, I need an illustrator. What are your rates? I made a post like...

That one got a lot of responses. And then I got a message from the publisher who published it the first time. And they were like, you know, Hey, let's talk. So we talked. I didn't even have the book written out. I just gave the idea of the So they liked it. And they were like, okay, well we want to publish it. like, then I had to write the manuscript. So I was like, that had a lot of faith in me to like not have the book even shown because.

I was given six months to write it. It took me four and a half months to write it. And I didn't start writing it until like month four. So I was sitting on it for a while, like banging my head into the wall. Cause I didn't really know how to write it. The editor that I had said, don't think about the 600 word count limit. You can override it and then we can edit it. And once she told me that, I was like better than I knocked it out. Cause I was stuck on that 600 word. I was like, this is not fitting. This is not fitting. This is not fitting.

I overrode it and they cut out pieces and that's how I reached the word down and that's how the book came to be in the world.

That's really cool. It is so different from what you typically write because you write long form about very serious topics. Having to write something between 600 or 1200 words, that's difficult. People tend to think that writing longer things is hard, but I personally think writing very short things is hard. But I guess knowing that you can overwrite and then edit things down helps a lot.

It does. And I think the hardest thing that I've ever written is a children's book. Like that's hard. you know, the kids are tough. They're like the roughest critics. You know? And then with picture books, you have to not only make it engaging, but like entertaining. has to have a lesson. It didn't have to be, you know, within the word cowl. Then it has to make sense. They have to walk away from the book with something new that they didn't have before they read it.

So it's a lot. It's very involved. And so that's like the hardest thing you've ever written, was picture books. Yeah. Cause you don't know what part of the book you want to try and lead to the illustrator to try and tell or what you want to have it with the words and the mistake. Is this going to be an off in there? It's a lot. It's involved. But once I got it out of me and I'm like, Hey, I kind of like this. No. So like, we'll write another one. Like, yeah, I like it now. At first I was like, no, I don't like this. And now I love it.

That's so awesome. And one of many unique things about the book is that it's told from the perspective of a non-speaking autistic boy. The main character is Aidan, which is also the name of your oldest son who is also a non-speaking autistic boy and his interactions mainly with his mama for the day. How did you decide to tell the story from Aidan's perspective?

That was like the hardest thing to do. Cause it was like, I don't want to speak for him. And then at the same time, I was looking at the relationship that I have with him and no one knows him. Like I know him and like his dad knows him and his brother knows him. And I said, like, if I write it from this angle and not mine, if I write it from his.

I wanted it to be real experiences that we've been through. And I want to include real reactions that he's had, real things that he's done and real feelings that I've seen him exhibit, share, know, express and put out. Like, so it's not me coming in there. I just made this up about him. You know, it's like, I want it to be real. And I'm just telling you about it. I'm just narrating what he has done and what our experiences are together. And cause it's like the biggest thing is there's nothing that my son has gone through in his short 18 years of living on this earth that has not impacted me in some way in that I have not experienced on some level.

And I was like, I want to tap into that. So I know how he feels. I know what it means when he looks like this, when he gives you a certain look, when he taps this button, when he holds my hand this way, when he makes a sound, I know what that sound means. And I know what he's feeling right now. So I was like, if I write it from this side, you're not going to add nothing else to it. Like, don't add nothing that you haven't seen, felt, experienced, done, did, whatever. Don't add nothing. Because then that's when it gets like, for me, I felt like it gets a little muddy. Right? I was like, I don't want to go there. So I was like, I want to just focus on the things that we know he's done. We know he's experienced and stuff. And that's why it's always so interesting to see how they categorize my book sometimes.

Some places they listed it like under fiction and stuff and I'm just like, y'all list all picture books under fiction. like this real boy, this real Aidan, I'm a real mom, that's us. We went through these days, we went to the park, we had that experience at the park. It was more involved and more depth than what it was, but know, 600 birds can't put everything in there.

We had those experiences. He loves his chicken nuggets. He loves his fries. He loves his orange soda. He pushes buttons to talk. He can occasionally inform people that he is autistic or has autism. He loves to spin in grass barefoot after rain. So it was like, I need to just make sure I'm including him. What I know of him, what I see of him, I experience of him, and then the both of our experiences together. So it's not me coming in there like, this is a random child. don't know. I'm just going to like something and it's that. So yeah, it was a delicate balance. And then I had to carry that balance into the second book of his dad and him.

Yeah, I was wondering how much of the story is based directly on your family's real life experiences. I assumed a lot of it, if not all of it was considering Aidan has the same name as the main character in the book. I think it's really powerful to be able to base it on real life lived experiences and tell it through his eyes.

And he knows things. And that's the biggest thing. Like I wanted to write a book that if I read it to him, he'd be proud of that and he'd be okay with that. he'd be like, mama did good. Yeah. You know, like, you know, they want to like write something about him and then he was not going to be okay with that. And when I was writing it, I would switch us, switch the mom, me with Aidan. And I'm like saying, okay, would I be okay if that was my stuff?

And that's kind like what I do online when I share it to like, it always takes me like three days or four days, sometimes a week to share a post that has to do with anybody in my family. always switch the names because I'm like, if I'm not comfortable with people knowing that about me, I'm going to share that with my kid or my husband. I'm always switching our names and making sure it sounds good. Like I would be okay with that. And then I go to the family and then I read that to them and I'm like, how y'all feel about it? Because everything with family, you gotta be okay. The internet's forever even if you delete, archive or whatever.

Yeah, it's there. So you want to, you want to make sure you, do okay. The best you can with sharing, not only yourself, but you're like your family, if you go that route. So that was me trying to honor them and respect them at the same time.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you have to be really thoughtful about sharing those stories. It can be so difficult, especially when sharing experiences with children, you know, just making sure, as you said, that you're respectful and tell it from a perspective that they're comfortable with and sharing it with them. What does Aidan think of the book? Has he given his review of it yet?

Yeah, like in the beginning, you loved it. He would like tap like, like, and he smiled a lot. He had favorite pages. Two years later though, he's like, don't care. It's done, moved on. It's like, it has been two years of traveling the country, repeating it over and over again, sharing the picture, the story behind it, reading over and over and he came to almost all of those presentations and school visits and it is all this because I'll tell the schools and stuff and the students are like, yeah, Aidan’s here. He's in the back and they're all excited, like waving at him and he's just sitting there like he's like smiling and then then he falls asleep. That was like two years of that and he's a teenager. Oh, he's 18 now.

So he's just like, I liked it for as long as I could like it. And now it's just, I could hear it or I could not hear it. And I'd be okay either way. So that's kind of like where he's at right now. So every once in a while, bring it up and out to him and stuff, but not as much. Cause he's he's still a teenager. He's 18, like Rihanna and stuff. He's not trying to read picture books and stuff. But yeah, he did enjoy it, especially at the beginning and his brother did too and they're both teenagers and now they're like, whatever. I'll come to your library visit and I'll fall asleep while you present during your library visit.

He's been a long time with the book and the story. He's a teenager now, not as excited about picture books, but it's still cool to be a main character in the book, so that's really awesome.

Yeah, it's cool. I think he likes that part of it. I think sometimes he gets overwhelmed. Sometimes it like, it is always interesting because I don't mention his name in the book. Nobody knows his name until like the, if you flipped it over, that's when it mentioned his name, like join Aidan. So when you go to the school visits and stuff, they weren't connecting it yet until, you know, they would ask the question like, Hey, is Aidan real?

And then I'm like, yeah, and he's back there, you know? So they always want to ask him more questions. What’s your favorite fries? Do you like to do anything else? What's your favorite music? So I think he can do one or two visits. So after that, he's like overwhelmed, but he likes it. They like it. They're just tired of it.

Wow, that's really cool. So what kind of experiences of a non-speaking autistic child do you portray in the book?

I wanted to highlight the fact that he can hear all the voices, everybody talking, everybody around him, but the people around him don't hear him. They don't see him. I wanted to highlight how isolating that could be sometimes. And I think that Kate did a super amazing job of articulating that in the art to where I didn't have to use more words to explain that.

So when she had like the part where he's just standing and you can always see his back and he's like holding the iPad and you have all these tall people, like legs, and you'd see all the talk bubbles. And that's how it could feel like to him. And he's hearing all these different voices, loud, soft, fast, slow. I wanted to showcase that. I wanted to show a lot of the sensory things that he has, like the spinning barefoot, the flapping, he hugs trees and he still does that to this day. I wanted to show the things that he loves. I love that he goes to the park. I love that he can still have fun. That he can go outside. That was one of the biggest things I wanted to show without actually saying it in that many words.

And I don't know if the families that I wanted to see that picked up on it, but the biggest thing is I wanted him at home as short as possible, so it’s like boom, the first page, you see he's waking up and then boom, he’s out the door. Like there's nothing in between there. He's gone. I wanted to show that we can go outside and we're supposed to go outside. We're part of this world. This world belongs to us as well. We need to go outside. I wanted to show us outside doing things, going to parks.

Going to restaurants, playing, having fun and showing that just because he doesn't speak that he can still have a very meaningful life. And I wanted to show a few of the ways that he exists in this body of his that doesn't speak. So playing sensory things and his favorite foods, being able to share that glimpse into our world was very amazing. And because this book did so well, I was honored with the privilege of being able to do a second book and then expanding on that. So I got to use more words. I get to have more of what his experiences are.

And since the book is told from his perspective, a lot of his sensory joy really comes through and you get, as the reader, get to understand it better. Like when he's spinning on the wet grass after the rain, someone looking from the outside might not understand that. But since you're hearing his perspective, you hear like how great it feels and how wonderful and how he just loves it. And it just helps really extend to that type of understanding of sensory joy of autistic people, I think is cool.

Yeah, you nailed it.

Yeah.

Exactly right.

Fabulous. How is the story in A Day with No Words different from what's typically included in children's literature about autism?

I wanted something that didn't make autism feel scary or different. So different. I wanted it to reflect what I do with Fidgets and Fries. Like I don't like to teach people academically about autism. I feel like by the time you come to me, you kind of know what autism is. And I don't want to tell you what it is. And I don't want to teach it to you.

I don't want to tell you red flags. I don’t want to tell you symptoms. I don't want to tell you what language you use and what you shouldn't use, first person or, you know, identity first. I don't want to do that. There's so many other beautiful accounts that do that. And I'm like, that's not a lane I want to ride it. What I want to do is I want to tell stories that bring you closer to our experiences. And maybe you can find a little bit of yourself in one of the stories that I share, just a sliver. I just need a little tiny bit. And I got you.

All you need is a little. So I wanted to do that with this book and any other book that I write. I don't want to teach you what autism is. I want to show autistic people living as autistic people. Like this is what we do. We just happen to be autistic. Here we are outside doing outside things. We just happen to be autistic.

I wanted to write a story that was, that was like that. I didn't want it to be like, this is Aidan. He is autistic. He does not speak. He does these things. You know what I wanted it to just kind of show a little bit like the human side of autism and Aidan. And I wanted people to see that part of him, the children and the adults that read to them. Like I wanted them to see that. I wanted them to even know all the ways that they themselves communicate without speech. Like we do it all the time. We text, we write, we wave and we smile, frown. You know, and I wanted to remind people of that as well and use that to extend grace to those like my son. As I just wanted to do something different and show something different.

I wanted it to be us for sure. Like there was a publisher in the past that I talked to and they were, they first, first one, a publisher told me there wasn't a marketing for my book. That was kind of like, Whoa. It felt weird. Cause I'm like, why wouldn't there be a market for that book? Like disability is like, disabled people that the largest marginalized group in the world. Why wouldn’t there be a market?

And then another person was like, Oh, we kind of like the idea, but can we make it animals that are on the animals? I don't want my son to be a bear, you know, I don't want to be an alligator. Like I really want those. just, I didn't want that. Like if I'm telling you a true story about our true life, I want to be in the book. I want my son to be in the book and I don't want us to be represented by an animal. So that wasn't that, no. So and I wanted his tablet to look like his tablet. I didn't want it to look like something else.

So I'm sending Kate the pictures and Kate's the illustrator and I'm sending Kate the pictures of like what our tablets look like. Mine is green. Aidan's was red. You know, what it looked like with the straps. What it looked like, you know, she, she, she nailed it. So she had it looking like how it looks in the cases that we had. I just wanted it to be something that was real and authentic that people could connect with and it didn't feel scary.

And for a lot of children, that book was going to be their first introduction to not only autism, but to disability itself. And I'm like, I want to make a great impression. I want them to be able to ask like tough questions and for teachers to be able to have discussions with them and parents. That was my goal. You know, I didn't really read too many autism books to try and compare it to, I read a couple I didn't want to read too many. I didn't want to get stuck in like this comparison loop. So I just wanted to share the way that I share something that was familiar to me. And so just wanted to stay true to myself and write what I know and how I know and in the style that I do and hope people could connect with it.

Yeah, it's such a real story and the way you've written it is just, you know, so real. Because I think a lot of media and books about autism, it's either like, this character is autistic and it's very sad. Or it's like this character is disabled, but they have superpowers and it's just like, we want to like a real story. I mean, this is not what this book's about.

Or I was like, it's okay to be different. And I love all my friends even when they're different. And I'm like, I didn't want to write like that. I didn't want to write a story that made my son into another lesson. And I talked about that a lot on my page too. It like, we know every single time we leave the house that our presence itself is a message for others. So we're always wearing that on our shoulders and our heads and stuff. Like the way we behave, the way we look and what we do, they're going to take that, they're going to internalize that. And they might apply that to other people who look like us, who act like us. And like we get it.

So, but the thing is I wanted to try to control as much of that message as possible. So in this book, I didn't want to make him a lesson like, he's different. Let's be friends with the different person. No, I wanted to show the kid just existing and not caring what anybody else around him was doing or what was going on. And I wanted this to show that this is what we do on these days. We communicate in this way. We go to parks, he plays, he spins and grass bear, but he has fun. We go eat and then we will assume after that we go home.

But, you know, and then that's it. That was it. That's that. Like I didn't want him to be this lesson for others to be like, oh let's make a friend because he was different. And that's how a lot of the stories are too as well. And I like, I just wanted to write a story about a autistic non-speaker who is black, who is just existing and in all of his human-ness, he's just existing. And I want that to be enough for you. Like later on, we can talk about how y'all can, and you can do a lot of like activities and stuff that tie around, you know, understanding and engaging and friendship and you tie that at the end and stuff.

But this right now is just like a story of this child just existing how he is. And then like let that story just be that. And then you can like, you know, add the stuff on later. But that's what I was doing with that. I was just showing he's existing. That's how he is. And I wanted to show, cause that's what he does every day. He doesn't know he's a lesson for others. doesn't know like, you know, he's just living, existing, not changing, not bending to any, he's just brave and bold and bright and well, ball of love, loud, but a ball of love, a ball of loud love. That's Aidan. Yeah. And I just wanted, I wanted to show that as best as I could in that book. Yeah. We show a lot more of him in the second book.

This one is like, my intro into the book world and it's always going to be my book baby that I love and cherish. And I hope that with the re-release of it, that it reaches not only the same people who bought it the first time around, but a newer, wider audience that can love it just as much as everyone else who bought it loves it and just how much we love it. And yeah.

That's awesome. It's a perfect point to the book. It's a great introduction for children. As you said, it might be the first time that they're learning about or reading about people who have disabilities and it's just people out existing in the world. And yeah, it's not Aidan's job to be teaching people about disability and caring and friendship unless he decides one day he wants to take that job on and, you know, get paid for it. at this point, he's just out there living his life.

He’s living his life. Going outside and traveling and eating all the fries he can. That’s Aidan. He's just living. And I want that to be the message of this book and the message of maybe most of the books already. There might be a few where I don't want to say never, but I have a lot of books. I just wanted to just share that we're just living over here. We're just existing. And it's cool that we're here. You know, and I just wanted to show that, share that.

Absolutely. Having the story be told from his perspective, it really helps people understand more about what the internal experience of being a non-speaking autistic person really is. And I think it helps take away a lot of misconceptions that people have about non-speaking autistic kids. So I guess from your perspective, what are some of the most common misconceptions that people have about your sons or even about black autistic children in general?

I want to say that for non-speakers in general is that they assume he doesn't understand what is going on around him. Like he's not aware of what's around him. And he's most definitely aware of what goes on around him. He's even aware of the things that people say and the tones that they use, the words that they use. You can visibly see him and his body language change when someone is talking negatively about him.

So he's very aware of what is going on. He just cannot tell you the speaking words, how he feels. That's the biggest thing is because for some reason people think that just because you don't speak that that automatically means you cannot hear and then that you cannot comprehend what is being said as well. And so we deal with a lot of that, a lot of assumptions on his intelligence and his comprehension.

That is the biggest thing that we get from him just being a non-speaker. Now you combine that with him being black, which is something that they see first, like that’s a first thing they see. They don't know he doesn't speak. They don't know any of the other things. They magnify the behaviors that he has. They always look more dangerous, more out of control, more abnormal. They look more in need of control. And so his behavior and how he interacts with the world and how he moves and how his body moves has often been seen as a threat, even when it doesn't look threatening.

And so we have to deal with a lot of that, the sounds that he makes. On more than one occasion, there have been people that have actually joked that they thought the sounds that he was making was a dangerous animal and that they were going to call the police. This was just mouth sounds. And they didn't actually like see him. And those occasions would happen like at stores and like we're in an aisle, they're in a different aisle and you know, they can't see him. And then when they noticed that and they come around and they see that it's a human, it's a person for some reason they have to tell us and they make a joke about it because apparently calling the police is funny.

And so we've dealt with that a lot of times. We've dealt with a lot of law enforcement. We've dealt with law enforcement that has drawn their firearms. And that was because Aidan was trying to get his iPad. Cause apparently, an iPad is like a weapon. And that was back when his case was black. And now he never has a black case anymore. They're always big and bright and bold and stand out and do whatever I can to make it not look like whatever they thought it looked like. You know, like so you're, you're, you're having to deal with that on top of the assumptions that he doesn't understand. And so yeah, it's a lot. It's a good double whammy. But then the whammy is hard.

You've got to navigate doing everything you can to keep him safe. And that's a large part of what I do with Fidgets and Fries. And that's a large part of why as a family, we sat down and discussed the decision to have our children's faces online. Cause at first I was like, nah, I won't, I won't do it. If I do do it, you know, I'll put the little emoji on their face. You can't see, you their do-ons. But I'm like, that's not protecting him when he goes outside and he's about to be shot, like you know, or police are being called.

And that just brings me back to me wanting to control as much as the message that I could. So I'm like, I'm gonna tell stories about my family. Let me tell stories about my children and let me give a face to the stories that I'm telling so that you can see that they're and that they like a lot of the same things that you like, that they joke about the same things that you joke about, that they like the same types of music, that they like the same types of food. Show their humanity and remind people of their humanity. I don't want to be like, I'm trying to humanize. No, they're already human. You should know that. Like, I'm just trying to remind you that they are. That's what I wanted to do. And that's what I want to do. The story is interesting so that you could see.

That's why my kids couldn’t be a bear in the book. I don't care if they were a brown bear. They couldn’t be a bear. While A Day With No Words is not a colorful black book, black representation within the book is incredibly important. Incidental representation, but you see it. And I wanted that. So it’s a lot.

The impact of racism and ableism in society on just your family's existence and just living your life is something that you write a lot about in Fidgets and Fries and of course your book A Day with No Words. As you said, that representation of a black child and a black family is really important for people to see examples of. I'm trying to avoid saying like, well, it's teaching people lessons, but it is, you know, reading about people's real life experiences is education for a lot of people who really have never had exposure to that.

You're still gonna learn something. You're gonna learn, you're gonna walk away learning something. Like I want you to walk away learning something. I just wanted to share that we're existing. And we're here and it's okay that we are the way that we are and nothing is inherently bad about that. And I wanted to share that and show you that. And I want you to take that and carry that with you.

So like, yeah, you're always gonna learn something. I hope you're learning something. You know, it's that you're taking, you know, something from this and you're carrying it with you and that it helps you in your future interactions with all, or even in your life with what you have going on.

I just want to show us just being us and existing and want to attempt to control as much of the message as possible, I think that I can. And so that's what I was doing within the story. I was trying to control that message. And that message wasn't that he's supposed to be this forever lesson for you. I just wanted to show that he's just enjoying his day and that it was okay that he was enjoying his day. And that that should be enough is that here's this person enjoying being outside with his mom. He hugs trees. Okay. You know, okay. He's not going to treat. He's spinning in the grass, I mean, okay. You know, and has no shoes on. It's fine. I just want to show like, this is just Aidan. That's who he is.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Tiffany, I'm really excited for the book to come out. And by the time this episode comes out, the book will probably be right about to launch or will have just launched. So where can people buy A Day with No Words? And where can they help support your other writing and other work through Fidgets and Fries?

I'm on Facebook, Fidgets and Fries. I'm on Instagram, Fidgets and Fries. There's a period in between the Fidgets period and period fries. I am on Substack as Fidgets and Fries as well. I share more long form posts there. It's more writer friendly. So I'm there. I have a website, Tiffanyhammond.com and that can show you any of the other offerings that I have going on with speaking engagements, consulting, things like that.

You can find the book at adaywithnowords.com and that can give you like a link to a bunch of different major retailers. I think there's a link on there for a retailer in the UK if you're in the UK. There's one for Canada. There's also going to be an audio book this time. There's audio book last time, but it came out almost a year after the book. This time it's going to come out the same day. So you can pre-order that. That's also going to be on adaywithnowords.com.

And you can buy it at whatever retailer you love or independent bookstore. It's also on Bookshop and they love to give back to different bookstores to help keep their doors open. If you don't have a local bookstore near you that's carrying the book, you can either request they carry it or buy through Bookshop and designate that bookseller as someone that can get some of the proceeds back to help them keep their doors open and stuff. This independent bookstores are amazing. And keep them around are like the heart of communities and stuff. And the money stays in your local community. So if you can shop Indy, go Indy.

Fabulous. And I'm also really excited to say that as part of this episode, Beyond Six Seconds is giving away three copies of A Day With No Words. I'm going to share more details about that giveaway at the end of this episode and in the show notes of the episode too. So yeah, thank you so much, Tiffany.

Yes, it's cool. I'm excited.

As we close out, is there anything else you'd like our listeners to know or anything else they can help or support you with?

Not really. I mean, if you already have a copy, you know, they make good gifts. The newer copy is slightly different, but the slight changes made a world of difference. It's more glossy and it's more shiny and it's fingerprint resistant. The first copies, you know, fingerprints everywhere. Every time I was seeing someone, they took the jacket off. Like they have fingerprints everywhere.

The inside pages are glossy now and they feel a little bit more durable to me, you know, and there's been some language changes on the inside jacket and the back cover, but they also make really good gifts to schools and to libraries. And one thing I'm trying to push right now is getting them donated to children's hospitals because they have libraries. My son spends a lot of time in children's hospitals. They have libraries and they're always looking for books. So you can get a copy and donate it to the library at children's hospitals

Awesome. Thanks Tiffany. It was so great to talk with you and congratulations on the re-release of the book. And yeah, it's really exciting. Thank you for all of the great work that you do.

Thank you so much.

Hey everyone, thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Tiffany today. And now as promised, here are the details for the giveaway that I mentioned earlier, where up to three lucky listeners in the United States can win a hardcover copy of A Day with No Words. To enter, check out my Instagram post on November 11th, 2025. I'm at beyond six seconds on Instagram, and I'll put a link in the show notes so you can go right to my Instagram page. The giveaway ends at 11.59 PM Eastern time on November 21st, 2025. Up to three winners will be selected at random. This giveaway is valid for listeners at US addresses only.

Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help me spread the word about this podcast. Share it with a friend, give it a shout out on your social media, or write a review on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of my episodes and sign up for my free newsletter at Beyondsixseconds.net. Until next time.