Wednesday 1 April 2015

World Austism Awareness Day


Autism Awareness Day Blog

Thanks to RJ Scott for organising this autism awareness blog. I’m glad to be able to do my little bit to support this important cause. Over my thirty years in teaching, I taught many children with autism. No two people with the condition present in the same way.    It is important to understand this, especially in the field of education.
FACT: One of the best known forms of autism is Asperger syndrome. People with the condition are often of average or above-average intelligence. They have fewer speech problems than people with other types of autism, but may find it difficult to understand and process language. Other people with autism have an accompanying learning disability, learning difficulty or mental health problem. 
 
Link to RJ Scott's post

 
From unlikely places

On this blog, I thought I’d write a little about the source of my idea for my short story, Stay, which is due out in August with Totally Bound Publishers.

Some of you may know I’m a big fan of the programme Supernatural and especially one of the stars. Misha Collins. Misha is involved in two particular charities, GISHWHES and Random Acts of Kindness. Reading about last year’s examples of kindness, I remembered something from many years ago when a friend and I were visiting her grandmother in hospital every day for a couple of weeks while her mother got some rest. There were quite a few senior citizens in there for various reasons, one of whom was a game old girl, with a huge sense of fun called Ivy. One day, she said she’d love an orange, so we took some to her the next day. Her face was a picture and her happiness at the simple pleasure of being able to eat that orange has stayed with me over the years.

In my story, Stay, Ben brings an old lady oranges while visiting his grandmother and that simple act of kindness changes his life. Below is the cover for the story being shown for the first time.



Thanks for reading and if you leave a comment below, I have either a PDF or EPub version of my story Sporting Chance to give away.