#autisticrepresentation

I wrote a book!

Emily's back! In book form!

"The twin pillars of Fara seek to end the monstrous peril that hunts their people. At twelve years old, the time has come for Emily to choose between the mighty Red Hat Expedition, or the brilliant Blue Hat University. Or, the option that isn’t an option: the mysterious Black Hats. What the Wind Brings is a story about outcasts. Emily herself is neurodivergent and struggles to abide by “unfair” rules. This difficulty might make Emily the only person in Fara who can save her world from violence and war. She also knows a lot about tortoises, and this turns out to be weirdly relevant."

The book contains twenty exciting chapters and eleven black ink interior illustrations!

Available to buy here - https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000509766405

»Saga Norén is the best reflection of myself I’ve ever seen in fiction, but she is me as I know myself to be inside, and not remotely like me as I present to people in my life. I only realised as an adult that not everyone goes about with a mental monologue of 'Make eye contact…OK, that’s enough, look away…listen to what they’re saying and mentally write your response at the same time so there isn’t a gap in the conversation…now run it over it to try to make sure it’s not rude or weird…'

It’s a heavy price to pay for being able to have slightly easier trips to the supermarket as an adult, especially when being able to semi-pass as #neurotypical doesn’t exactly help me make friends because the effort it takes can make me seem cold and fake.

Saga doesn’t do that. It’s not clear whether her #autism manifests in a different form or if she’s just not someone who feels the need to conform, but in her I saw all the parts of myself I’ve suppressed for years acted out. [...]

A white, non-disabled cishet man can walk into any multiplex, any week of the year, and see someone who looks like him with a more muscular jawline righteously gun down the bad guys. No other groups can, and while I can admire some female characters in books and TV shows, they still seem to me like a similar but distinct species.

If I want to see an autistic woman who’s tough and fearless, who can suddenly reveal a knowledge of the Sumerian alphabet or sign language to crack the next step in a case, who drives a vintage Porsche, who’s sometimes discouraged but never gives up in her quest to stop the dangerous people — if I want an autistic heroine — my only option is Saga Norén. [...]

She’s not and shouldn’t be the sole fictional representative for autistic women, not least because Sofia Helin, despite the production team’s efforts to de-glamourise her by dressing her in the same pair of leather trousers and olive T-shirt all the time, is a very conventionally attractive thin cisgender white blonde woman. Those aren’t negative qualities, of course, but they shouldn’t be used to make Saga’s differences more palatable.

We desperately need a fictional portrayal of the diversity of autistic people in the real world, including [Black and Indigenious autistic people and] autistic people of colour, autistic LGBQT[IA+] people, and autistic people with other disabilities. [...]

Until society, including the people who produce the works of culture we enjoy, stop being afraid of autism and start accepting it as a fact of life, Saga Norén is the only fictional portrayal I have that gives me hope I can celebrate the strengths the condition gives me, cope with the struggles it causes, and live the life I want on my own terms.«