People sometimes ask me why my books go to dark places, and it’s a question I’ve learned to answer honestly.
Why does a cozy mystery series sit alongside a psychological thriller on the same author page? Why does a poetry collection live next to a coming-of-age story that doesn’t look away from pain? The answer is the same every time. I write what I know, what I’ve witnessed, and what I believe deserves a light shone on it.
Books like Words Never Spoken and Black Child to Black Woman didn’t come easily, and they weren’t born from imagination alone. They came from real conversations, real silences, and real people who carried things they never had the strength to lay down, things like abuse, depression, and the kind of loneliness that sits right next to you in a room full of people.
I didn’t write those stories to make anyone uncomfortable, and I didn’t write them to be controversial. I wrote them because somewhere out there is a reader who picks up that book, finds their experience on the page, and finally feels less alone, and that moment is the beginning of everything.
Mental health is still one of the most under-discussed topics in our communities, and the surrounding stigma is costing lives. People suffer quietly because they’re afraid of being judged or misunderstood. But I believe we have been blessed with medical professionals like therapists, counselors, psychologists, and even doctors for a reason, because healing is rarely meant to happen in isolation.
If you’re struggling right now, I want to say this as directly as I know how: please tell someone.
Tell a professional, if you can access one, and tell your doctor if that’s the first step you can take. Tell a trusted friend, a family member, your pastor, your small group leader, or anyone in your life who has ever made you feel safe. If someone reaches out to check on you, please let them in, because that text, that phone call, that knock on the door is not a coincidence. It’s an opening, and it’s worth walking through.
You don’t have to have the right words, and you don’t have to have it figured out. You just have to be willing to say, “I’m not okay right now, and I need help.”
Depression lies, and it’s very good at it. It tells you that nobody cares, that reaching out is a burden, and that things won’t get better, and none of that is true. Early intervention, community connection, and professional support make a measurable difference in outcomes for people living with depression, anxiety, trauma, and other mental health challenges, and asking for help is one of the bravest decisions a person can make.
If you’re a parent, check on your children, and not just the loud ones. The quiet ones need you too. If you’re a friend, go ahead and send that text you’ve been thinking about for three days.
The books I write don’t always have easy endings, and that’s intentional, because life doesn’t always either. But every story I tell has truth in it, and the truth I most want every reader to walk away with is this: you are not too much, your pain is not too heavy, and you don’t have to carry it alone.
If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to a mental health professional, a trusted person in your life, or a crisis support service in your area. Help is available, and you deserve to receive it.
To explore more of the stories behind Bannerman Books, visit bannermanbooks.com.
About the Author
Cheryl Bannerman is a prolific and versatile author with a portfolio of ten published works across various genres including mystery novels and a children’s book. In 2018, she received the prestigious 2018 Book Excellence Award for her poetry collection, Words Never Spoken. In 2020, Bannerman’s book, Black Child to Black Woman: An African-American Woman Coming-of-Age Story, garnered acclaim, winning the Best Books Award in African American fiction and the Reader’s Favorite International Book Award Contest in Urban Fiction in 2021.
Readers can connect with Bannerman, purchase signed copies of her books, and subscribe to her newsletter through her website, www.bannermanbooks.com. When she is not writing for her next book, Bannerman is running her 29-year-old virtual B2B Training and Development company based out of her Orlando, Florida home.