About
Danny

An Interview With Danny Haag.

A “hometown kid” from Huron County has written and published two books, and in both he shares his faith in Christianity with others. Both books were published in summer 2024, yet one took four decades to write and the other only two months.  

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“I went to type up my testimony for my grandkids, and God tapped me on the shoulder to say, ‘I want you to write a book because it was so long,'” said Danny Haag. “So I did. One of the books is my testimony and the other one is the full Christmas story. My wife, Shirley, got to read the manuscript and helped pick out the illustrations for both books. Then she passed away six weeks later, only making both books that much more special to me.” 

Haag, a current resident of Cass City, grew up in the Kilmanagh area and attended Owendale-Gagetown public schools. He jokingly stated that he’s been terrorizing the Sebewaing-Pigeon-Bad Axe area for years.

Haag is the author of two books, "The Full Christmas Story" and "God Can Use Others to Save You." "God Can Use Others to Save You" is a personal testimony of Haag’s. In it he tells of the event that finally made him give his life to God.  “I had abused alcohol from the age of 13 to 19,” Haag said. “The last straw occurred when I was in Monterey, California for basic training when I was 19. Like many times before it, I was getting drunk again with a buddy, and we got so drunk we couldn't find our way back to the barracks. The temperature was freezing outside, and we were too drunk to make any good decisions. Thankfully God provided us with a building with some broken down boxes that I was able to pull my buddy into. We crawled underneath it and somehow made it through the night without suffering hypothermia. When we arrived back at the barracks, I immediately got on my knees and prayed to God. I told him I was done living like that and that I wanted better for myself and my future. From that moment I decided to quit alcohol and give my life to Him.”   

It was ultimately Haag’s strong desire that changed his life around for his own betterment; however, someone else had planted the seeds that blossomed to save him.  “I went to church all the time growing up because my parents took us, so I knew God,” Haag said. “We read the Bible, had to memorized verses, and I believed in God. I just hadn't committed to God my life and let things get away on me. Shirley was a major part of my story, because she was my girlfriend at the time. God used her faith to get me to change my life around. She was the reason I got turned around and got influenced by God.” 

Thirty-eight years ago, Haag a now saved man on the right path in life, wanted to collect verses from the Bible that told the full Christmas story. At first when he sat down for this project, it was purely personal as he wanted to educate his grandchildren.  

After many years went by of him picking up and putting aside the project, he finally came back to it.

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"The writing process for both was very different because the testimony one I sat down typed about as fast as I could,” Haag said. “The words, stories, and my life experience were flowing to my head. It was just a matter of typing it up, putting it in some sort of order, and filling in the details. The Christmas book took longer because I had to research. I did a lot of reading on each verse and different parts of the biblical times, so I could provide descriptions and further explanations of certain verses.”   

Haag, now retired from his former profession, is a full time accountant, mainly to take up his free time.

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“I'm retired but I started my own tax and accounting practice and I've been doing that now full time,” Haag said. “I have no plans to retire from it too, mainly because it keeps me busy. These books were a fluke. I didn't plan on writing either one of them, but it was kind of unique just being from the area and being how they came about. My family has been around this area all of our lives. I’m the hometown boy who wrote a couple of books to see where it would go.”

When asked if he had plans to write a third book, Haag stated it wasn’t impossible, but it was more likely he would get struck by lightning.  “The personal testimony book has led me to a much deeper faith, and I’m glad I’ve been able to share that,” Haag said. “I’ve gone to many churches before to give my personal testimony and that has gone very well. I've been able to share my testimony at some recovery and alcohol meetings, so that has been very rewarding to me and fulfilling to be able to do something like that just from sharing my story. It's been exciting to see families buy the Christmas book. They’re able to share the actual Bible verse rather than somebody's paraphrase of that verse. It was important to me that there were actual verses instead of summaries.” He stated the hardest part of the writing process was getting the books in the format the publishers required. However, once he had finally finished both he was very satisfied with the product, saying he’s received great feedback so far. 

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