DeAndra Davis: Focus on You

DeAndra Davis is New York–born and Florida-bred. She’s a hopeless musical theater nerd (Wicked is definitely her favorite), a perpetual student and teacher, and always trailed by a kid or a dog because she has way too many of both. She has an opinion for everything, an argument ready, and a hug for everyone, and she thinks you should, too. DeAndra can be found on Instagram.

In this interview, DeAndra discusses how her son was the inspiration behind her debut young adult novel, All The Noise At Once, her hope for readers, and more.

Name: DeAndra Davis
Literary agent: Jenissa Graham
Book title: All The Noise At Once
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Release date: April 15, 2025
Genre/category: Young Adult
Elevator pitch: In this compelling, moving story about brotherhood, identity, and social justice, a Black, autistic teen tries to figure out what happened the night his older brother was unjustly arrested. The Hate U Give meets All American Boys from the POV of a teen with Autism.

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The short answer is my son. The longer answer is my own and his interactions with the world around us in terms of treatment as autistic people. It’s two-fold in that it was influenced in that way with the football storyline, the social justice storyline was inspired by the world around me and my fears, again, for my son. My fears that exist for how he will exist in the world as an autistic black boy, and later a man, in a society where black children are perceived as older and more threatening and people with disabilities, especially invisible disabilities, and mental health issues get the police called on them instead of help.

Lots of fear, but I think something beautiful grew from that fear anyway.

From idea to publication? Whew that’s a long time. I would say I first got an idea of wanting to write this in maybe 2016? I didn’t actually start writing, just had inspiration and knew I wanted to write something. It started as a short story which was tragic! Saddest thing I’ve ever written. It followed my current main character as he walks home from school and is accosted, and unfortunately, attacked by officers.

It clearly isn’t a short story now, but it has changed a ton! When it first became a book idea, Brandon was my main character. I think you can still sort of feel that presence in the book now. He isn’t the main character anymore, but he is so very integral to the story. In that original version, Brandon is the main character and Aiden dies. Awful. The worst. That changed soon after and kept changing because it wasn’t working until I realized that Brandon didn’t need to be my main character.

Once Aiden was my main character, the football element was added. It came so clearly to me once I chose him. Then Brandon originally got severely injured from a gunshot wound which was scrapped. There have definitely been many iterations of this story for it to get where it is now.

I think every moment was a learning moment or a surprise in publishing, haha. No, but truly I learned a ton and I’m still learning the further that I get into the process. I never knew how much went into titles for example! I learned just how many people’s titles change once they get a contract (spoiler alert: mine was one of them). I was shocked at how much happens behind the scenes that you have no idea is happening! So much marketing and publicity that you don’t know about. So many teams involved in your book’s success.

I was also surprised by just how truly collaborative the process is. I feel like you hear from some people that publishing involves a loss of control over your work, but I never felt that. I really felt like I was able to collaborate the entire time, and I felt empowered by that. I only learned from my team, and I feel it’s made me so much stronger as an author.

I think I was surprised by how much all the side characters came to mean so much to me. Even the characters that are “villains” (I say that with caveats because the villain label is a bit hard to place here), are so special to me. I have soft spots for them all and they all live so much in my brain.

The other surprise is that I didn’t expect to lose and gain so many words in revision! I queried at around 87,000 words. Revised and went on submission at about 66,000 words, and we are publishing back around my original word count. So much change and nothing was lost. It was all gain.

I hope that readers will be open to a voice that is unique and different, maybe, than their own. I hope that they will understand the mistakes that people make in defense of the people they love, even if sometimes it’s at the cost of others (they don’t have to accept it, just understand). I hope they will come to understand that people can be wrong and right to so many people. I hope they will embrace those that are not like them. I hope they will embrace that which is different in themselves.

Eyes on your own paper. Comparison is the thief of joy.

You can only control what you can, and the one thing you can control is what you focus on. Focus on you. Focus on your wins, no matter how small, and nothing else. You’ve got this!