Writing About Difference panel 2017, from left: Dan Jefferies, Debbie Young, Thomas Shepherd, Dan Holloway, Joy Thomas, Jo Allmond and Jess Hiles. Photograph by Joanna Penn.

This is a discussion that, just as at last year’s festival, was something very special, and for my own small part on it is something that I am very proud of being part of. One of the proudest achievments over the last year is meeting Joy Thomas, and Jo Allmond and Jess Hiles. It was because of last year’s festival and the panel discussion that we were all on together that Jo and Joy put together Silent Voices, an anthology of poems written by those who are not always heard.

This is a collection of poems written by authors, some of whom have preferred to remain anonymous who are directly affected by seen or unseen difference, or who are the carers of people with mental or physical disibilities. My only part in this project was to typeset the book for print and ebook, but I gladly gave this time in order that Joy and Jo could have the book ready to launch at this year’s festival – back where it all began a year ago.

The paperback edition is released on 1 May 2007, but you can download Silent Voices to your Kindle now.

It took until I was 30 and put through workplace bullying before I discovered I probably had aspergers and it was another couple of years before I had a semi-official diagnosis and 1-2-1 coaching to overcome some of my biggest challenges. Since then, I have had progressed in my career and found my one-true love (and accompanying menagerie of furry, feathered, and fishy beasts), and I am so much better than I was at understanding the world and those unspoken cues. Sometimes I think I understand too well, and that it makes it all too easy for other’s to forget that sometimes Thomas, through no fault of his own, just doesn’t get as quickly as you might expect him too, what others understand straight away.

In my writing life, the thing that I struggle most with is showing not telling. Considering that probably the single-most lofted criticism at a writer is that they tell not show, this is unfortunate thing to be lacking in. The fact that I pull off the very personal story of Mr Tumnal is something that I feel very proud of, and if I can do the same with it’s forthcoming sequel, then I will be extremely lucky in deed.

Mr Tumnal is outwardly a story of a man who married his imaginary friend. How much that imaginary friend has to with fairy magic is something the reader must discover. At a more personal level it is a story of a man who is not friendless but without that one close friend; who is not alone but is lonely. It is a story of a man illequipped to deal with the complexities of ordinary social situations that most people take for granted. He finds comfort in his own company because that is where he is understood. Some might brandish him a weirdo. I would argue he’s just different. And like everyone who is ‘different’ from the norm he has his own gift to bring to the world.

In supporting World Autism Awareness Week and the work of the National Autistic Society, I would like everyone to find out a bit more about what makes some of us different, and the challenges we face, and to give us a bit of space of understanding in the world.

TE Shepherd is the author of Mr Tumnal and The End Of All Worlds. In support of World Autism Awareness week, from 27 March to 2 April 2017, he will be donating 50% all profits raised from the sales of his book to go to help support the work of the National Autistic Society.

For anyone who has read the first book in the Project Trilogy, The Spider in the Corner of the Room (now Subject 375), it is not a surprise if this is the very next book that you read. For me, the finishing of one, dove-tailed with the publishing of this and like this, the story follows straight on from where the first installment leaves us.

This is a fast-paced, explosive, thriller never lets up as it flits between a recent past and an uncertain future. Dr Maria Martinez might have thought that she had escaped from the twin threats of MI5 and the mysterious Project, but as she continues to piece together the mysteries of her life to discover that she has not been more in danger.

Maria has been lied to – all her life. She also is a high-functioning adult with aspergers and she really can’t deal with lies. Hers is a world where truth is everything, and when she is robbed of that it only serves to confuse her.

Nikki Owen succeeds in bringing a main character with aspergers into our lives, and as both a writer and reader with aspergers I know how hard a thing this is to do successfully. Whilst at times I find Maria’s own dialogue around a condition a little too self-aware, the theme works best in the narrative description of Maria’s journey as you find yourself plunged into a world which seems only out to confuse and baffle you as the lies keep mounting up right to the very end.

This is a stunningly written memoir from one of the finest wildlife presenters and naturalists working today. This is a book that flits forwards and back through memory, mixing encounters with wildlife, music, and childhood angst in a story that reads at times like a novel. The words are at times poetic, lyrical, and at all times honest. Anyone familiar with Chris’ presenting style can hear his distinctive voice in the words.

The shorter memories are grouped together into a eight sections that each conclude with reports from later visits to the counsellor. Even the concluding Acknowledgments to the book are part of the story of this fascinating, emotive, heart-rending tale of growing up on the outside of ‘the norm’. For anyone interested in the ‘difference’ in all of us this is a must-read.

From the very beginning to the very last page this book is the making of a modern classic – a My Family and Other Animals for the new generation.

I was recently fortunate enough to share a platform with Nikki Owen at the Hawkesbury Upton Literary Festival. As well reading from our books, we both appeared on a panel discussion concerning writing about or with ‘difference’. I am a writer with aspergers, who’s characters are often similarly affected. Nikki’s Subject 375 is a woman – a doctor – with Aspergers convicted of killing a Catholic priest.

She’s also a former member of the sinister Project, and much of the book is made up of layers or dream, reality, and alternate-reality which leaves you grappling, just as Maria does, with the truth about who she really is and why she is in prison and in fear of her life from different government and non-governmental organisations.

The Spider in the Corner of the Room is the original title for what is now published as Subject 375. For me, the story really came alive when you discover the identity (and existence of) Subject 375. Things start to get clearer, and fast-paced. Not that the preceding novel doesn’t clevery illustrate what its like for someone with Aspergers to face being in prison (and life in general. In a world of Too Much Information (#AustismTMI) this really does work to show how different people see the world, and maybe realise the difference in all of us.

When I was little I think I (wrongly) assumed that every everyone got Valentines but me, but in all honesty I don’t think I would have known what to do if one had been sent to me. You see, not that I knew it then, but I have Aspergers, and for people on the autism spectrum the world of dating can be a minefield.

• How do you even meet someone on your wavelength in a world that can be socially confusing?
• How do you flirt if you are uncomfortable making eye contact?
• How do you prevent yourself from only talking about stuff you’re interested in?

I never set out to conciously write romance and love into my books, just as I never conciously set about writing characters with Aspergers. Completely unimportant to the story, but Ben in The End Of All Worlds is almost certainly on the spectrum. In my second novel, Mr Tumnal, Louis Tumnal definitely is. In his character you see both a character at odds with the world (not just because of any bewitchment by the Fairy Queen), and saved in more ways than one by the love of a girl he meets and with whom he somehow forms a relationship.

Today I wrote a love poem for Kathryn Summers from Louis Tumnal. Louis Tumnal couldn’t have said this directly, of if he did, his voice would have been a gibbering, inarticulate mess. But from his pen, in the first year after meeting, he could articulate exactly his feelings.

It could also be a love poem from a few years ago from Me to my wife, Emma. Love you Emma. xxx

I am lucky. Not everyone can say those three little words. Like most people I might not have the most money – like most I have to budget and think carefully before splashing the cash, but I do own my own home, I have a gorgeous garden, a small menagerie of pets (okay, I would have more disposable money without the latter but would I be as happy?), and I have a wonderful wife to share all of the above.

It has not been easy for me to get to this position though. I struggled to make friends – do anything, share anything, anytime friends – at school. I went to university twice because I failed to read the questions at job interviews correctly and struggled to land myself a “proper” job. I lived alone for years, not unhappily fortunately because I like my own company, but always wanting something more, like other people have.

That’s why I want to help people who aren’t and haven’t been as fortunate as me. As Spock says in Star Trek, “the good of the many outweighs the good of the one”. But what can I do? I’m of a quiet personality. That’s probably another effect of the Aspergers that is part of me. I’m not sure if I’m made for the big fundraising campaign. But even so I want to help people get the help I need.

I got help, thanks to a cousin who recognised how I might be different, and after a stray word to a manager at work I got a course of intensive coaching into living with and understanding myself better. This lead to a better job and the confidence to find the girl who would become my wife.

The National Autistic Society is “the leading charity” in the UK for people with autism (including Aspergers syndrome) and their families. They provide information, support and pioneering services and campaign for a better world for people with autism.

My novel Mr Tumnal is about a man who undeniably has Aspergers. Not that it’s a story about Aspergers. It’s also not an autobiography, but there is an awful lot of Me in the book. It seems somehow fitting to me to use my book to help raise money to help people like me who haven’t had the help that I have benefitted from, people who have not been as lucky as me.

That is why from now until the end of September I am pledging to give 50% of the profits (and at least £1) from the sale of my book (eBook or paperback – whichever takes your fancy) anywhere in the world to help the National Autistic Society.

97p in every £1 goes directly to helping people affected by autism.

By the end of September I like to have raised £60 because:

• £5 a month pays for 5 anxious parents to get advice from our Autism Helpline.
• £10 a month helps pay for a befriender to meet regularly with someone with autism.
• £20 a month helps us to give practical support to someone with autism who is looking for work.

Help me to help them, and get to read a book too that has been a very special part of Me for the best part of a decade.

BUY MR TUMNAL AND SUPPORT AUTISM

BUY MR TUMNAL AND SUPPORT AUTISM

^†50% Profit share to National Autistic Soiety is for all copies sold between 15 August to 31 September 2015 in either paperback or ebook formats anywhere in the world.
^‡Neither book, Mr Tumnal, nor T E Shepherd are affiliated in any way or endorsed by National Autistic Society.

Aspergers syndrome is a condition on the autistic spectrum. People with Aspergers (or aspies) can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take for granted. This means they find it more difficult to communicate and interact with others which can lead to high levels of anxiety and confusion.

Mr Tumnal is a story about people, and acceptance, and of how different people can be. Louis Tumnal is ‘different’. Much like myself, he doesn’t always ‘get’ social situations and he can’t always read those cues that NTs (Neuro-typicals) take for granted. It’s never an issue that’s raised in the story, but Louis does almost certainly have, like many adults, never formally diagnosed Aspergers. But he lives with it nonetheless and it makes him who he is.

Some people with Aspergers go to university, hold down jobs, and live perfectly normal lives, but for others they need a lot more help and support. That’s what makes it so difficult to recognise if someone has the condition or not. As a writer there’s actually probably more of Me in Kathryn but the aspie in Louis is Me.

It’s because of who I am, and of who the hero of my novel is, that I want to help. Also, I’m one of the lucky ones. I have a job, a house, a whole menagerie of furry and feathered friends, and a wife.

The story of Mr Tumnal – the man who married his imaginary friend celebrated it’s ninth anniversary last Sunday, and so from today, Saturday 15 August until the end of September I am pledging to donate 50% of all the profits from print and ebook sales of the book to the National Autistic Society. I would like to raise at least £50, are you up for helping me? And helping all those other people who you know, or don’t know, who find dealing with the ordinary difficult?

And you get a cracking good read out of the deal too!

BUY BOOK

BUY BOOK

^†50% Profit share to National Autistic Soiety is for all copies sold between 15 August to 31 September 2015 in either paperback or ebook formats anywhere in the world.
^‡Neither book, Mr Tumnal, nor T E Shepherd are affiliated in any way or endorsed by National Autistic Society.

Alexandra Fry, Private Eye: The Curse of the Lion’s Heart by Angella Graff

It’s very fitting that half the proceeds of this book are going to the Tucson Alliance for Autism as people with Aspergers or Autism often find it hard to fit in, and are picked out as odd-balls and ‘different’ by their contempories at school.

Alexandra Fry is just such an ‘oddball’ (if you want to use that word, and I don’t, because being something of an oddball myself, its also what makes you special). Alexandra is friendless and alone when she starts at new school but soon befriends Penelope, the child of the most popular teacher in school, and Jack, the out-cast English boy with no parents. Alexandra can also see ghosts and its these ghosts that get her in mischief and help her solve crimes and mysteries.

I read this book in one day, as it was quite simply, unputdownable. I loved reading it, and no amount of words in a review are going to be able to make me put that across, so just down well make this the next book you read.

Myself, I’m going to look forward to the next in the series. There better be a next in the series!

Alexandra Fry, Private Eye: The Curse of the Lion’s Heart by Angella Graff

It’s very fitting that half the proceeds of this book are going to the Tucson Alliance for Autism as people with Aspergers or Autism often find it hard to fit in, and are picked out as odd-balls and ‘different’ by their contempories at school.

Alexandra Fry is just such an ‘oddball’ (if you want to use that word, and I don’t, because being something of an oddball myself, its also what makes you special). Alexandra is friendless and alone when she starts at new school but soon befriends Penelope, the child of the most popular teacher in school, and Jack, the out-cast English boy with no parents. Alexandra can also see ghosts and its these ghosts that get her in mischief and help her solve crimes and mysteries.

I read this book in one day, as it was quite simply, unputdownable. I loved reading it, and no amount of words in a review are going to be able to make me put that across, so just down well make this the next book you read.

Myself, I’m going to look forward to the next in the series. There better be a next in the series!

Originally published at shepline: the journal“>shepline: the journal. You can comment here or http://journal.shepline.com/?p=2575