The SpecialMoms Parenting Magazine 2nd Issue | Page 22

Gary Dietz of Dads of Disability
What advice can you give to other
fathers of special needs children?
Read my book. It isn’t my story. It is the story of
over 30 other dads and moms and you’ll learn a
lot. Whether your child is young or your child is
an adult.

Tell us about the book “Dads Of A
Disability” and why you published it?
When my son needed to enter a residential
placement, a large hole was torn in our lives
in many ways. And, rather than allowing a
depression to set in, I decided to reach out to
what turned out to be hundreds of people over
the next 18 months to listen, learn, edit, and
share their stories. The genesis of the book was
my marketing background. There were a lot of
“single-family, single-diagnosis, novel-length”
books by fathers. Yet, there were essentially no
collections of essays on the topic written and
edited by a father. Why was this? Was there
because there was no demand? Or was it simply
because nobody had undertaken this effort?
Fast forward past research with genetic
counselors, working with a high-school student

on a project animation, a failed Kickstarter and a
successful Indiegogo campaign, and over a year
of “opportunity cost” and under-employment to
focus on the project, and on April 15, 2014, the
project was born!
I take pride in early reviews and in the fact that
this book is meeting the goal I set for it: Starting
discussions between men and women, helping
caregivers understand father’s perspectives,
and showing men their thoughts and emotions
on these topics – no matter how hard – are not
uncommon.

Are there any more books on the horizon
to be published?
Yes. But first, I need to re-charge my bank account
by getting some focus back to my “day” job, that
is unless Ellen or Oprah features my book. But
even then, in case you didn’t know, people who
write books to get rich are only a few steps shy of
a lottery dream. This book was born of passion,
and the next one will be, too. (But you should
still buy it! I want to at least break even!)
Continued on page 48....

“ diagnosis
A
can only
inform a
prognosis, not
dictate what
someone’s
future will be .”
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