Fascinating Authors

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What excites you most about your book’s topic? Why did you choose it?

Author: The message “It’s All About Attitude”! I am extremely passionate about it and very much feel it has been an important theme in my life. I believe it steered my life in a different direction  from what it could have been having a child severely affected by autism.

Autism is front page news these days and there are a sea of books on the topic. We wanted to create a “different” conversation about it- trying to help people love and live well no matter what the circumstances they are presented with. We chose it because we wanted to offer an alternative to the “autism as tragedy mentality”.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: How long did the book take you from start to finish?

Author: Five years. We were not able to write steadily as both my coauthor, Kathy Almeida, and I have sons with autism who require a lot of care and attention.  So it was an on again, off again process. And also writing a book together required a lot of coordination with each other. This was done almost exclusively online since we live on opposite sides of the country. There were a lot of obstacles put before us, often by our sons, so our pace was had to be very slow.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What aspect of writing the book did you find particularly challenging?

Author: Carving out the time to write (given we were both balancing this with caring for our sons) and often, just getting started.  Though I absolutely love the writing process, procrastination and avoidance would creep in so there was effort to overcome these impulses.  However, once I got going, sometimes it was hard to stop (another challenge).

Also, there was the challenge of writing with another person when we saw things differently in what we wanted for the book. Lots of compromising took place every step of the way, but I feel we did a great job with this. We are still close friends and still working together.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What surprised you the most about the book writing process?

Author: How much time, effort, and energy go into writing and producing a book. How many decisions there are to be made.  How the more I wrote, the more easily the words seem to flow. Also, how I began to hear and see stories all the time within my daily experiences with my son. How personally healing the writing process was during some challenging times of transition.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Did you have any favorite experiences when writing your book?

Author: After four years or so, my coauthor, Kathy Almeida and I had collected a lot of essays for the book and we needed to decide which ones would actually be included. I flew to Florida and we sat on the beach reading them out loud to each other to get a feel for the flavor and tone of the book. It was a moving experience, after all the work we had put into it separately, to finally come together to blend our work and figure out the next step in creating our book.

Also, I shared some of my first drafts with a parent whose son was just diagnosed. I bumped into her randomly in a bookstore when I had just started writing the book. She told me how helpful my writing was and how she hung one of the essays up to inspire her. It was very exciting to know my writing was already making a difference even before it was published. I saw it as a sign that I was on the right track and parents would benefit from me sharing my stories and insights.

And of course, there was the day , I first held a copy in my hand. My son was going through a very difficult period at that time, a seeing and holding our book for the first time was a definite high!

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What do you hope your readers will gain from reading your book?

Author: Inspiration, wisdom, support, camaraderie, understanding of  living with autism. Fighting and anger eat you up from the inside out. We hope to be an antidote to that mentality- some soothing emotional soul food, hopefully a different way to see the special child they have been given.

A different perspective- the awareness that it is our attitude that makes THE difference and we don’t have to be a victim to our circumstances. Life can be grim if we make it that… we have some control over how we decide to see it and live it.

We believe by shifting our perspective, appreciating our children for the gifts they bring us and the life lessons they teach just by being who they are, we can love and live well with whatever comes our way- autism or any other challenge we are faced with in life. We  don’t deny that the challenges are intense and our readers know and appreciate that we are walking the same walk they are.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What projects are you currently working on?

Author: I am currently completing a second inspirational book for the autism community, particularly parents. However, once again, the messages will apply to anyone’s life. This book will have a different, very “hands-on” twist to it.

I am blogging regularly with my coauthor and we are working on putting together an online e letter- Living with Attitude

I am working to get “It’s All About Attitude” used as a supplement alongside traditional texts at the college level across the country.  It is currently being used on some campuses for future occupational therapists and special ed. teachers.

FASCAINTING AUTHORS: Is writing your sole career? If not, what else do you do?

Author: Besides actively marketing and promoting my  book and message, I take care of my son who is now 25 and very severely affected by autism and other co-occurring conditions.  I still do at home therapy with him  evenings and weekends and am an advocate for him at his day treatment program and in every aspect of his life. He is not verbal and so I am his voice.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Did you do any research for your books, or did you write from experience?

Author: The book was completely written from personal experience. In fact, we share many very, very personal experiences/emotions/issues in this book. The research took place on a daily basis just living with our sons who have autism.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: How did you come up with your title?

Author: We really believe “It’s All About Attitude”-  in every situation in life, comes back to this message- it’s very universal and everyone relates to it on so many levels.  It’s a catchy mantra, and has been our mantra almost since the beginning of our journey with autism.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What books have influenced you the most?

Author:
Write It Down, Make It Happen
Put Your Heart on Paper
Happiness is a Serious Problem (he means unhappiness)
Making Your Creative Dreams Real
The Artist’s Way
Happiness is a Choice
Whereever You Go, There You Are
Don’t Mourn For Us (an article by a man with autism)
Changed by a Child
Who Moved My Cheese?

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Who was your publisher and why did you choose them?

Author: Desert Beach Publications

We are self published , by choice. We decided to take this route from the beginning as we knew we would most likely end up doing the majority of the marketing anyway. We had worked so hard to write the book, we wanted to have our hand in the rest of its production.  Our editor, graphic designer, and typesetter were all top notch, very professional.  Also, I was inspired by my sister-in-law, Sylvia Nobel, a very successful self-published author of six Arizona mystery novels.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview!

To learn more about the Author and book please visit: Autism with Attitude