For as long as he could remember, Daniel Rg Crandall felt a deep connection to stories.
As a boy, he often spent summer days with his grandfather, listening to tales about life, loss and lessons learned. The stories were not just entertaining. They became Daniel’s first classroom by shaping how he processed the world and came to understand people.
“I remember sharing one of my grandfather’s stories with my mom, and she said, ‘I’ve never heard that before,’” Daniel recalled. “It hit me that my grandfather was sharing things with me that he never shared with his own children. After he passed, I realized I was the only one who knew those stories.”
That realization stayed with Daniel for decades. Eventually, it inspired him to create Allisona Books, a boutique publishing company he launched with his teenage daughter to help people document and preserve their stories for future generations.
At age 52, Daniel has discovered that storytelling is more than a creative pursuit. For him, it has become a powerful way to create meaning, foster connection and heal emotional wounds for himself and the people he serves.
A life shaped by story
Daniel’s roots in storytelling run deep. He grew up with four living grandparents, each of whom had their own story to tell. While many children might tune out tales from older relatives, Daniel leaned in. He listened closely, soaking up the details and noticing how those stories shaped the people around him.
His grandmother’s story was especially formative. As an orphan left in a basket on the steps of an institution, she grew up with a painful lack of identity. Yet she carried herself with a kind of fierce determination, which Daniel came to admire.
Later in life, when he traveled to Ireland and met an elderly woman who looked strikingly like his grandmother, Daniel felt an emotional jolt.
“She told me all about the area, and everyone there looked like her,” Daniel said. “I realized I had found a piece of my grandmother’s story that she never got to know for herself.”
Experiences like that deepened his appreciation for legacy and the importance of sharing stories before they are lost. They also planted the seeds for a business idea that would one day blossom into a purpose-driven enterprise.
The birth of Allisona
Allisona Books was born from a father-daughter project rooted in home education and entrepreneurial spirit. Daniel and his wife homeschooled their children, and as their daughter approached her senior year, they wanted to give her a meaningful, real-world challenge.
“She told me she wanted to start a publishing company,” Daniel said. “So, I told her, ‘Great, let’s do that for your senior project.’”
Daniel challenged his daughter to publish one book per week for an entire year. She accepted and ultimately produced 50 books by combining public domain works with new projects she designed and formatted herself.
The experience sharpened her design and editorial skills while deepening their bond as co-creators. It also laid the foundation for Allisona Books’ publishing model, which emphasizes high-quality, handcrafted books and a deeply personal approach to storytelling.
“We do not send out generic questionnaires and wait for people to email their answers back to us,” Daniel explained. “We meet with people face-to-face or on Zoom. We ask thoughtful questions, listen intently, and dig into the deeper meaning behind their experiences.”
A different kind of storytelling
What sets Allisona Books apart is its relational approach. Daniel and his daughter work closely with each client to uncover not just the facts of their life, but the heart behind the story.
“Storytelling is therapeutic,” Daniel said. “People begin to make sense of their lives in new ways. They reframe pain, find purpose in adversity and often gain peace just by being heard.”
He described how one client, who was a well-known public figure, originally wanted to write a book to defend herself against critics. But, through the process of telling her story, she began to understand her life more clearly and healed in unexpected ways.
“She was carrying years of trauma,” Daniel said. “But as we walked through her story, she gained a new perspective. The act of telling it helped her release some of the pain.”
Daniel’s background in publishing and training allows him to spot the golden threads in people’s stories. He often rereads drafts of the manuscripts and asks clients to explore certain events more deeply. In doing so, he helps them discover the significance of moments they once considered mundane or unimportant.
“It’s amazing how often people say, ‘I never realized that was a big deal until you pointed it out,’” he said. “But every life is rich with stories that matter.”
Healing through human connection
Although Allisona Books occasionally works with clients who want to sell books publicly, most people simply want to leave a legacy for their children and grandchildren. Some projects involve just 25 printed copies. Others take the form of short stories gathered into collaborative collections.
Regardless of the format, the goal is to preserve memories, honor experiences and pass hard-earned wisdom to future generations.
Daniel said the process is often healing for entire families. In some cases, stories that were never shared begin to fill gaps and answer questions children had long wondered about.
“One woman told me that after reading her father’s story, she finally understood why he was the way he was,” Daniel explained. “It improved her relationship with him, even after he had passed.”
Those moments remind Daniel why the work matters. He believes stories can end cycles of pain, offer clarity to the next generation, and validate the experiences of people who may have gone through life without ever feeling seen or heard.
A mission rooted in values
Although Daniel has published many books and worked with clients from all walks of life, his deeper mission is to affirm the value of every person he encounters.
“I am not a therapist or psychologist,” he said. “I am a loving human being. And loving human beings are more needed today than ever before.”
For Daniel, every story told is a sacred exchange. It is a chance to honor someone’s life, recognize their resilience, and reflect on what it means to live with purpose.
He often tells people that their stories do not need to be perfect or even extraordinary. What matters is that they are real. In fact, Daniel is working on a new initiative to help people share even short stories, one chapter at a time.
“If you only have one story to tell, that’s okay,” he said. “We can compile those into a book of stories from different people. Every story matters.”
Lessons learned after 50
Reflecting on his own life, Daniel said the thing he would change most is how often he stopped to listen.
“I wish I had listened more and valued people more along the way,” he said. “I never regret the times I did. I only regret the times I didn’t.”
Now in his fifties, Daniel wants to spend the next phase of his life helping others do the same. Whether working with his daughter to capture someone’s memoir or teaching others how to recognize their purpose, Daniel is driven by the belief that life is too precious to let the best parts go untold.
“There is always purpose in your life,” he said. “The things you love and the skills you have converge. And in that convergence, people need what you have to offer.”
That is the message Daniel wants to leave behind. Not just in the pages of the books he helps publish, but in the lives of the people he helps empower.
“Stories connect us,” he said. “They give us a sense of where we come from, why we are the way we are, and what really matters. That is the legacy I want to leave.”
For more information
People can connect with Daniel through a variety of platforms, including:
- Website = www.allisona.com
- Website = www.pixelglyphpress.com
- Facebook = www.facebook.com/PixelGlyphPress
- Instagram = www.instagram.com/pixelglyphpress
- LinkedIn = www.linkedin.com/in/danielrgcrandall
