
Alexithymia and Finding Refuge in Romance
I mostly operate in this very even, neutral space of mind. But under the surface I know that there’s lots going on. That perhaps things are building up until they reach a tipping point and come spilling over. I’m in that place today. The tipping over place. Where emotions come crashing over me like a broken dam. But it’s not just one predominate emotion, it’s a confluence of many disconnected from a specific context or moment. There’s no making sense of it or finding meaning in this flood emotion, it just demands to be felt all at once.

Why Romance?
For as long as I can remember, reading has been part of that process of recovery. On really tough days, when I’m just fully burnt out, recovery looks like closing the window shades, laying under my weighted blanket and reading for 12-13 hours straight often only moving to use the bathroom or eat a snack. My genre of choice has always been romance. It stimulates my neurodivergent brain in the best possible way.

Writing the Happily Ever After Autistic Women Deserve
The storylines written about autistic people in TV and film turn us into flat one-dimensional stereotypes. If those characters have a central role in the story, they are almost always white men. Women and particularly women of color are left out of the storyline or reduced to a minor supporting role.
But then there are novels.