Authism and this spiky profile!

From the unhipdom of the last blog, for this blog I want to talk about something much more hip: spiky profiles! See below.

You may have heard about the spiky profile among autistics and a quick glance on the Google home page will tell you that a spiky profile is "a phenomenon whereby the disparity between strengths and weaknesses is more pronounced than for the average person - it's characteristic among neuromenorities those who have neurodevelopmental mental conditions including autism and ADHD" or "high aptitudes in a few areas and noticeable limitations in others."

But the only spiky profile I want to talk about here is the spiky-haired punk in the book which shot me to my 15 minutes of fame in 1988 and 1990! I've at last brought it back out in paperback after all this time. I did actually use apicture of me from back in the day as I used to have hair like that. I loved it!  This is my most successful book to date. The main character is Lauren and she probably does have some ADHD characteristics. She likes new experiences and is quite rebellious and embraces the punk scene in 1977.

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The latest cover for Fall Of The Flamingo Circus

I knew this character inside out — I mentioned in my maladaptive daydreaming blog about my sister and I inventing characters — and although she's called Lauren in the book she was more or less based on a character I created in 1977 called Donna. I write about this in the introduction to the latest paperback which isn't in the original book.

The whole book is written in diary form beginning in the late 60s when Lauren is a child and ending early 80s when she's twenty-two. It charts the development of her self, her language, her hopes, fears and passions. It is a very hard-hitting book. But some characters take a hold of you completely and Donna was one of those. I felt she was so real to me it was like writing about a real person, hence the change of name at the time for the book. In the Times review they mention that I didn't just inhabit the character but that I was the character and I thought 'yes, well spotted!' I was very complimented by that.

The book was first picked up by the Malvern Publishing Company, a small press based in Malvern (funnily enough!) and I went up to Upton-upon-Severn to meet them. They brought it out in hardback in the UK in 1988 and then sold paperback rights to Allison & Busby who published it in paperback in 1990. This is the one that most people will have seen and it sold about 2,000 copies which wasn't bad for 1990. But then it was remaindered which is what they used to do in those days after it had been out for a while. There was also a US hardback edition published by Villard Press (part of Random House),1990. See various editions below

Malvern Publishing Conpany first hardback edition of

Fall Of The Flamingo Circus (1988)

Allison & Busby paperback edition, 1990

US hardback edition (Villard Press 1990)

I was totally thrilled to get the book reviewed in The Times (1988) and in the music magazine The Face (1990) and in various other circulations too, including in the States. I have the originals or photocopies in a folder.

 Original review in The Times (1988)

Copy of the review in The Face (1990)

Since the early 90s, it's been out of print although I did try and interest a few publishers eg in 2000 to mark 25 years of punk, but without success. I bought it back out as an ebook in 2011-ish. All my other early books I'd typed or retyped onto a word processor back in the late 1990s and from there it was easy to move them across to the computer when I eventually got one. But I'd left Flamingo Circus to last because it was in print and I had no digital version. I didn't want to type it all out again but I found this thing called OCR circa 2011 (optimal character recognition) and it was great that it recognized most of the characters on the page so I just had to check for any mistakes.

One thing I will mention which is probably autism-related is the overlwhelming anxiety I felt about the publication(s). Don't he me wrong, It's really exciting to get your book published especially the first one. It wasn't the first book I'd written, but it was the first one to get published. Yet I was terrified having to do interviews with the local press and going around bookshops with the publisher - I had to take a couple of tranquilizers to cope with it. I probably sabotaged any follow-up, although maybe my follow-up wouldn't have got anywhere anyway but I remember thinking I couldn't cope with this so instead of trying to capitalize on it I just carried on doing my own thing which is probably why I went into the wilderness for ages. Or maybe this was a one-hit-wonder and not that much of a hit either! I have had books published since then but not anything like this.

Anyway, it's back out in print and it's also available as an eBook and on Amazon with a new introduction. I designed the cover, it's had a few but I quite like this one at the moment. No doubt I will grow tired of it at some point.

The latest paperback version can be bought from Amazon from the following link:

https://amzn.eu/d/0wZlcjy

YouTube version available below:

Many thanks - your comments welcome as always!

Authism and Un/hipdom!

I have been thinking whether as autistic people we're not always aware of coolness or hipness and I had written this book in the noughties called Little guide to Unhip. It was published around 2011 first time, then I went Indie and self-published. But I had been thinking of doing a blog about this for some time and was reminded me to do it now when I heard Gilbert O'Sullivan on my ipod recently.  It was Gilbert O Sullivan who actually inspired me to do the book as I thought him very unhip. No Matter How I Try.came on my iPod the other day and I thought I might as well do my vlog now. Now, he's undoubtedly a very good songwriter so I'm not confusing unhip with naff although tsometimes the two can go together but I just don't think he's that hip. You are free to disagree with me but in 2010 I uploaded samples of my 'little guide's onto a site hosted by Harper Collins called Authonomy, a site for authors to showcase their work and receive critiques. I met another author on there called Tony Shelley who's uploaded some of his book which has since become Rock Paper Slippers - an excellent book I might add - but we'd both independently written about Gilbert's uncoolness and were along the same lines there! 

In the book I list my top 50 Unhip things (eg people, clothing, colours, traits, all sorts of things). Gilbert kicks off the guide. Here's an excerpt:

'Gilbert might well ask why oh why oh why he hasn't enjoyed a resurgance when so many of his contemporaries have gained credibility with time. But poor old Gilbert remains as unhip as ever, possibly even more than ever. Gilbert O'Sullivan was first and foremost a songwriter, which would normally grant an artist immunity from the vagaries of fashion. But when Gilbert O'Sullivan went out he never came back. He remains stuck in the seventies for all eternity..." and on. 

There are lots of different sections. It's not just about people although I've included some like Leo Sayer who I saw twice!! But I've included certain traits, like always being early! When we used to get trains, my sister and I would arrive so early as to be in time for the earlier train! I think this is too with anxiety and worry; thinking about all the things I needed to do and covering for every eventuality which might befall us between home and the train station (taxi being late, queue for tickets, needing the toilet etc). Or when invited to someone's house or party, I felt I needed to be on time and I was and am invariably early for everything, never fashionably late. Although I'm diagnosed with ADHD as well as autism, and although people with ADHD feel anxious and things can be chaotic, I still think that they can come across as perhaps more cool because they might be fashionably late or spontaneous or seeming to throw caution to the wind; not worrying about every last penny, wanting new experiences like festivals and clubbing etc. Such examples are in the Guide. Making lists I 'list' as an uncool thing but maybe that's an ADHD thing to help with executive dysfunction. I might have changed my mind on a few since. 

I had a lot of engagement in 2010 when I first uploaded the book, but 2010 is a long time ago now and I was thinking many of the things I mentioned are to do with specific sensory needs.  I think umbrellas aren't very cool but I use them because I don't like being wet; socks under sandals or carpets on the floor are all because I like to have warm feet. Wooden floors look nice but they are noisy and colder. Then there are colours like beige and navy. I don't wear these colours much although I do have a navy cardigan but maybe this is sensory as well eg too bright colours perhaps might cause sensory overload. 

Anyway I'd be very interested in your comments as to whether you feel uncool and you do unfunky things and whether this comes into conflict sometimes with ADHD. I think the autism side of me is uncool and the ADHD is more cool but that's just me. My radar may be completely wrong but it's about what is subjective anyway. You don't have to be neurodiverse either, to join in the fun! I didn't know I was when I penned it.

Of course, if you'd like to read more you'll just have to get Little Guide To Unhip which available in paperback and also as an ebook—just reduced to 0.99 for a short while—then you can 'come out' as Unhip too!

Cover was a free redesign by Tugboat Design.

Available at Amazon.uk: Little Guide To Unhip