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About the Author

About CJ Gryffin

CJ Gryffin

Hi, I'm CJ Gryffin—author, dragon enthusiast, and someone who believes the most powerful voices are often the quietest ones.

As a special education teacher, I work with young people who experience the world differently. Students who are nonverbal, who process sensory information uniquely, who notice connections and patterns others miss. They are complex, vivid, and deeply misunderstood by a world that does not always make space for them.

The Color of Silence was born from that truth. I wanted to write a story where the nonverbal boy was not a tragedy or a plot device, but the hero. A story where his way of experiencing the world was honored, not fixed. Where a dragon appeared not to change him, but to guide him toward his own voice.

Pre-Order Return to the Story
Why I Wrote This

Fiction, Rooted In Real Life

Darius Turner is fictional, but his journey is built on real experiences, real struggles, and real triumphs I have witnessed over more than a decade of working with extraordinary kids. I write under a pen name because this work feels personal, almost sacred. The real children and families who helped shape these stories deserve their privacy. But every word on these pages is honest.

Beyond This Book
The Dreamers' Dragons Series The series begins with Darius in 1930s Atlanta, then expands across centuries as six children are drawn into the struggle to save both the dream realm and the waking world.
Representation And Wonder Historical fiction meets fantasy. Autism representation meets dragon magic. Intimate character journeys meet epic quests.
A Little More About Me When I'm not writing, I'm teaching, drinking diet coke that's gone flat, or disappearing down research rabbit holes about everything from 1930s rail yards to medieval Scotland.
A Note From CJ

Thank You For Being Here

Thank you for giving Darius a chance to tell his story. Thank you for making room for a kind of hero who is so often misunderstood, overlooked, or asked to become someone else before he is allowed to matter. If this book does what I hope it will, it will leave readers feeling not only enchanted, but gentler with the quiet kinds of strength the world too often misses.