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Autistic Author

T

T. Alan Horne

New Member
Hello, I'm T. Alan Horne.

I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome at age 14. Around that same time, I started dreaming about becoming a fiction author.

I wrote several books before it occurred to me I should try one with an autistic main character. I'd seen autism portrayed in various media, some better than others, but I was sure I could write something compelling. I did, and now I'm trying to give it to the world.

The Kickstarter is currently active [link]. Of course, I have lots of perspectives on other aspects of autistic life, and am happy to talk about them with anyone.

Thank you for welcoming me.
 
Hi and welcome,

What are the other books you have written?
 
Tom said:
Hi and welcome,

What are the other books you have written?
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A few that never made it to publication.

I am writing a new book now, set on a distant planet during the universe's early eons, when everything in the cosmos was still close together, intergalactic travel was much easier, and the sky was so thick with lights you couldn't see the darkness behind them.
 
welcome to af.png
 
Hi and welcome, I hope that you enjoy it here and find it useful and supportive. Well done on writing a novel. I followed the link, unusual site. How does it work, is it a self publishing venture? Nice artwork there.
 
Thinx said:
Hi and welcome, I hope that you enjoy it here and find it useful and supportive. Well done on writing a novel. I followed the link, unusual site. How does it work, is it a self publishing venture? Nice artwork there.
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It's a Kickstarter page. It's an all-or-nothing crowdfunding pledge effort to gauge public interest in a project.

The artwork was done by Carly Milligan and Paul Pederson. They have been very good partners.

This is a self-publishing effort. When I tried to publish Advent 9 traditionally, I was told by editors that they didn't know what to do with an autistic protagonist.
 
Did they enlarge on that at all? There's a number of books with autistic protagonists, like the Rosie project series by Graeme Simsian, the Curious case of the dog in the night time, which is YA too, and so on. Wonder what they meant? Did they like it?
 
Thinx said:
Did they enlarge on that at all? There's a number of books with autistic protagonists, like the Rosie project series by Graeme Simsian, the Curious case of the dog in the night time, which is YA too, and so on. Wonder what they meant? Did they like it?
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One editor told me that autistic people are in need of being rescued, and it’s unrealistic to have an autistic character who rescues non-autistic people.

I’ve wondered about that, since I am familiar with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

But as I thought about it, I realized that book’s autistic protagonist was basically portrayed as helpless. The first time he finds himself in a situation without his parents or teachers, he almost gets himself killed.

That’s a very “safe” portrayal of autism. And I LIKE the Curious Incident, but I have to admit it mostly portrayed autistic people as helpless children who need handlers.

My protagonist needs no handler. That’s why, I think, publishers didn’t know what to do with it.
 
This is why we need more and varied portrayals of autism! Wow, Im a relationship therapist and I do believe have helped many NT people according to their feedback. Plenty here have tough jobs they do well. That editor is nuts. And not very aware of what's being written either. Janet Evanovitch is a best selling crime writer, she has a very clearly autistic character as a protagonist in one of her series. He's uneven is all. So are we all. Many upsides, some glitches. But not in need of rescue!
 
Thinx said:
This is why we need more and varied portrayals of autism! Wow, Im a relationship therapist and I do believe have helped many NT people according to their feedback. Plenty here have tough jobs they do well. That editor is nuts. And not very aware of what's being written either. Janet Evanovitch is a best selling crime writer, she has a very clearly autistic character as a protagonist in one of her series. He's uneven is all. So are we all. Many upsides, some glitches. But not in need of rescue!
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I feel like detective/investigation stories tend to be exempt from the "only helpless autistic characters" rule. I suspect there are several reasons for that.
1. Detectives are supposed to be good at noticing stuff and figuring things out. To someone with a layman's understanding of autism, it is a special ability innate in autists, and if figuring out mysteries is a special interest of the protagonist, it's practically a slam dunk. This is more common in novels where the protagonist spends more time interacting with evidence and crime scenes than social deduction.
2. Flawed protagonists tend to be way more common in detective and crime stories than in other types of fiction since there is often less action or broad conflicts as in other genres. They also keep the main character between books even though the mystery changes so they tend to be complex to give the author more to work with. Autism lets the character make mistakes, struggle with communicating with those close to them and it gives the author a new "angle", differentiating them from the competition.
3. Legacy. Authors tend to be less original than we give them credit for, so some want to do Sherlock Holmes, but give it a name.​
I really wish you luck in your writing, and hope you stick around for a bit. You aren't the only one here wanting to write a book about an autistic character. Sadly, the attitude you encountered with the publishers is all to common, and shows why stories like the one you are writing are important. One thing I feel plays to the strength of an autistic character is that we tend to have strong convictions and a belief in doing things the right way/not giving up. It's a shame you don't tend to see that reflected more in fiction, which prefers to focus on appearances and unusual skills.
 
Stuttermabolur said:
I feel like detective/investigation stories tend to be exempt from the "only helpless autistic characters" rule. I suspect there are several reasons for that.
1. Detectives are supposed to be good at noticing stuff and figuring things out. To someone with a layman's understanding of autism, it is a special ability innate in autists, and if figuring out mysteries is a special interest of the protagonist, it's practically a slam dunk. This is more common in novels where the protagonist spends more time interacting with evidence and crime scenes than social deduction.
2. Flawed protagonists tend to be way more common in detective and crime stories than in other types of fiction since there is often less action or broad conflicts as in other genres. They also keep the main character between books even though the mystery changes so they tend to be complex to give the author more to work with. Autism lets the character make mistakes, struggle with communicating with those close to them and it gives the author a new "angle", differentiating them from the competition.
3. Legacy. Authors tend to be less original than we give them credit for, so some want to do Sherlock Holmes, but give it a name.​
I really wish you luck in your writing, and hope you stick around for a bit. You aren't the only one here wanting to write a book about an autistic character. Sadly, the attitude you encountered with the publishers is all to common, and shows why stories like the one you are writing are important. One thing I feel plays to the strength of an autistic character is that we tend to have strong convictions and a belief in doing things the right way/not giving up. It's a shame you don't tend to see that reflected more in fiction, which prefers to focus on appearances and unusual skills.
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One thing to keep in mind about detective stories is that a lot of characters are autism "coded" without actually being declared as autistic. This gives publishers enough plausible deniability that they can write off the fact that these characters are competent and heroic.

I feel like Advent 9 could open the floodgates if it's successful. (And, confidentially, even if the Kickstarter fails, it will succeed; I've got reviews and other promotions lined up when the book actually launches).

I owe a lot of thanks to my late mentor, David Farland, for getting me to this point. If you read the Kickstarter, you'll learn a bit more about the challenges that I faced before arriving here.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter, too: @TAlanHorne
 
Hello & welcome.
T. Alan Horne said:
I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome at age 14. Around that same time, I started dreaming about becoming a fiction author.
Click to expand...
As a teen, I was an amateur writer for some superhero comics that a friend & I were working on.
I was good at origin stories and the technical aspects of a narrative, but I could not flesh out character relationships like Marvel is famous for.

Have you been able to make progress on that front?

My friend got me started on figure drawing. (Between us, I was the first to get the female skeleton as being distinct from the male. If her skeleton does not look right, it throws off the rest of the drawing.)
 
Crossbreed said:
Hello & welcome.

As a teen, I was an amateur writer for some superhero comics that a friend & I were working on.
I was good at origin stories and the technical aspects of a narrative, but I could not flesh out character relationships like Marvel is famous for.

Have you been able to make progress on that front?

My friend got me started on figure drawing. (Between us, I was the first to get the female skeleton as being distinct from the male. If her skeleton does not look right, it throws off the rest of the drawing.)
Click to expand...
I can't tell you much without spoiling the entire book, but one of the things that has surprised me is how my early readers responded so positively to the way the characters were fleshed out in this book.

My editor and mentor, David Farland, said that this was the first time a novel had managed to do a superhero story correctly (and he would know, as one of the most prestigious editors in the country).

My audiobook narrator, Michael Kramer, who has voiced hundreds of novels, said he loved the characters and loved voicing them.

The first three chapters are already available to read for free in the Kickstarter. And while they don't come close to revealing all the best character interactions, I encourage you to read them, or listen to them being read by Michael Kramer.
 
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